Pope complains - world laughs at him.

The pope on Sunday called the raids carried out by Belgian police investigating priestly sex abuse "deplorable" and asserted the right of the Catholic Church to investigate abuse alongside civil law enforcement authorities.

Right, because the Church has done such a bang-up job of ridding itself of these abusers. This same issue has been going on for, what - 10 years now? I think its time for the Church to shut the hell up and clean house.

So I finished The Catcher & The Rye this week and I'm stumped as to why this book has garnered so much attention over the years. It just wasn't that interesting.

I did enjoy the way the book was written, and the language in it had to be cutting-edge at the time it was released. But as for the story and the characters - they both left alot to be desired.

Finished the audio book of JG Ballard's The Drowned World. Like so many of the older books I've been reading lately, they are based on a great concept with lots of interesting possibilities - but the actual story doesn't live up to the promise of the premise.

So I finally broke down and ordered a hybrid to replace my 3 iron. I'm not sure its something I'll put in the bag right away, but I figured I'd give it a try.

I still hit my 3 iron fine and plenty high, but it goes about 10 yards less than a few years ago. I'm guessing I'll hit the hybrid extremely high, so it might only make it into the bag on calm days.

I also ordered a 2009 Taylor Made Burner TP. Never been a big fan of my Callaway X460, so it had to go.

No surprise, but the Brits have determined that climate scientists broke the law when they hid and/or destroyed data that was requested under a Freedom of Information request.

Its unfortunate that they can't be prosecuted because it seems that the statute of limitations has already passed. (What a great law. You can request data of a certain type but of an unknown quantity, they refuse - or even give you some but not all data, and when it takes you too long to figure out what they've not complied with the request - they get off with no punishment)

More errors in the UN climate change document? Surely not. The science is settled. There is a consensus. How could the report have so many errors in it when its been so thoroughly peer-reviewed.

The Indian head of the UN climate change panel defended his position today even as further errors were identified in the panel's assessment of Himalayan glaciers.

Its almost like they just changed the data to fit the desired results.

And as a reminder, this report won the Nobel Prize in 2007.

UPDATE
The author responsible for this section of the report is now admitting this wasn't a 'mistake', the figures were included to put political pressure on leaders.

"In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Dr Lal, the co-ordinating lead author of the report's chapter on Asia, said: 'It related to several countries in this region and their water sources. We thought that if we can highlight it, it will impact policy-makers and politicians and encourage them to take some concrete action."

Do we need any bigger smoking gun? This is no longer about science, its about scientists trying to bully the world into doing what they want, regardless of what the data might say. And they've gone out on such a long limb, that there is no climbing down now - they will fight tooth and nail to maintain their current power/influence.

The IPCC had to climb down and admit that some of their vaunted value-added data was actually based on an apparently incorrect quotation from a news article, and not on any peer-reviewed science. How's that consensus holding up?

So when the CRU says they only have the "value-added (quality controlled and homogenised) data" on climate change, its important to have a picture of what their adjustments looked like.

I'm sure its just an amazing coincidence that the adjustments to the temperature data got bigger and bigger over the last few decades of the 20th century, perfectly mirroring the ultimate results of their climate study.

So, in total, they've found that temps in the continental US have risen .6 degrees from 1940 to now. Of that, .1 degree is based on actual measured rises in temperatures and .5 degrees is due to these "value-added (quality controlled and homogenised) data" adjustments.

Taken directly from the United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN).

The cumulative effect of all adjustments is approximately a one-half degree Fahrenheit warming in the annual time series over a 50-year period from the 1940's until the last decade of the century.

But move along, the science is settled.

Charles is going a bit over-the-top with his global warming posts lately.

The Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia is one of the most reputable and respected centers of climate science in the world...

Perhaps it was up until a couple of weeks ago. Right now, a good chunk of those paying attention should at least have some doubts about them. Give it 3-6 months and we'll see how reputable and respected they are as additional information continues to be revealed.

No data was manipulated, and nothing was "hidden."

From their own mouths:

In a statement on its website, the CRU said: "We do not hold the original raw data but only the value-added (quality controlled and homogenised) data."

Value added. Quality controlled. Homogenised. Those all mean the same thing as manipulated. We can argue that those were useful, accurate and necessary manipulations - but they are still manipulations.

When I got the audio book of Andrew Meier's The Lost Spy: An American in Stalin's Secret Service, I expected to be about a stereotypical spy - or at least something close.

Instead, the book is about a guy that believed in the Soviet ideals, offered his help, and ended up somewhat stuck inside a spy system doing menial work (on the spy scale) and becoming ever more fearful of what his minders would do to him.

Its an interesting tale of what the realities of the Soviet system were from its inception thru WW2. How people could have been so blind to the realities of Soviet governance still baffles me.

I just finished up reading The Human Disguise by James O'Neal.

I'm really stuck on reading dystopian future books, and this one was supposed to be a bit of a change for me. But it was more of the same - just with the addition of a new race of beings into the mix.

Its actually a pretty good book. It'd probably make a good action film.

I didn't realize that Chuck Pahlaniuk had a new book out.

already been described as "The Manchurian Candidate meets South Park" - an appropriate mash-up comparison of high and low culture. The book is paranoid, political and ruthlessly subversive, while simultaneously super gross.

Sounds right up my alley. Buy Pygmy from Amazon.

The fitting process alone makes me want to buy some Ping clubs.

Cool-looking upcoming sci-fi movie: Hunter Prey.

I just wonder whether all the characters look like Boba Fett?