Dash of Calabash

Washington, D.C. - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is inflating the count of tropical storms and aiding a political campaign to regulate energy use in the process, according to The National Center for Public Policy Research. Today marks the official end of the 2007 hurricane season, and for the second year in a row the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s forecast for the season was wrong. NOAA had predicted there would be seven to nine hurricanes, three to five major hurricanes and 13-17 “named storms.” The season ended with just five hurricanes, two of which were major (category three or above) and 14 named storms.

“NOAA correctly predicted the number of named storms, but it’s not clear this statistic has any meaning, as the agency is inflating today’s storm numbers relative to storms in the past,” said David A. Ridenour, vice president of The National Center for Public Policy Research and author of a forthcoming new report on this year’s hurricane season. “NOAA is doing so both by changing the criteria for naming storms and by failing to account for changes in technology that make detection of storms much easier.”

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It’s probably not a “date movie,” but it’s interesting nonetheless. Check out “The Great Global Warming Swindle,” a 75-minute documentary which debunks the concept of man-made global warming, originally airing on Channel 4 in Great Britain in March. Numerous meteorologists, climatologists, and other scientists in the video explain that the sun — not humans — is the reason for climate change.

Click here to watch this important documentary.

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Legal Pad - FORTUNE Magazine 3 human rights lawyers fined in Chevron case «

From a personal injury suit alleging cancer and related injuries from Texaco’s drilling in the Amazon region of Ecuador, a federal district court judge fined counsel $45,000 when it was revealed the plaintiffs neither had cancer, nor had ever met their attorneys.

Comments to the post refer to plaintiffs in another more legitimate suit, injured now by this case.

Fortune Magazine’s Legal Pad contains interesting posts about other law suits.

A classic bit from Orwell’s 1984… a Goering quote (”If the Führer wants it, two and two make five!”)… a slogan from Stalin’s USSR… a Hawaii child’s answer to “what is 2+2?”…

OK, that last item may be a bit of an exaggeration, but according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, our Island keiki are still not doing too well in math, or even English for that matter. Why is this, and what can be done about it? In a recent GRIH Fresh Perspective, Kenli Schoolland tries to shed some light on the problem and offer a solution:

“Isn’t it rather pathetic that a majority (56 percent) of 8th grade Hawaii students have ‘below basic’ knowledge of Science? Mathematics and Reading are only slightly better, with more than 40 percent of Hawaii students in the ‘below basic’ knowledge category in those subjects. Hawaii consistently ranks in the lowest five states in the nation for the quality of education. How can this be when the government in 2002-2003 was spending $1,489,092,000 on education?… The government spent an average of $8,100 per student in 2002-2003 (most likely that amount has grown in recent years). That is sufficient for tuition in quite a few private schools in Hawaii. For example, according to a recent article on private school tuition costs in the Star Bulletin, $8,100 could cover the tuition for Sacred Hearts and Damien. Undoubtedly the quality of education in those schools are much higher than in government institutions.Wouldn’t it be best for people to keep that money that the government spends for them and choose their own schools? If the government still wanted to make sure that education was compulsory for all minors then they could return the money to the rightful owners in the form of vouchers. These vouchers would go towards tuition for private schools, and then the government would no longer need to waste money on its failing school system.”

Read the whole article here.

In China, a Man’s Home is his Castle Too - The following blog entry was posted by Dr. John Rutledge, Chairman, Rutledge Capital LLC and Honorary Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences on Dr. John Rutledge Blog, March 24, 2007.

Americans need to lose the Cold War image of China as people in Mao jackets riding bicycles holding little red books. People in China struggle with the same issues we do in America, including local government officials and developers trying to take your house so they can build a shopping center. Sound familiar? This issue is especially important in light of the new private property law passed by China’s legislators last week.

Local residents look at a two-storey home, which is now the only building left standing atop a mound in a 10-meter-deep construction pit in Chongqing March 22, 2007. [newsphoto]

There is a great story in today’s China Daily, Defiant couple stave off wrecking ball, about a family in Chongqing that is refusing to give up their 2000 square foot house even after the local authorities cut off their water and electricity. Worth noting: 1) the story is being reported by reporters from all over China, 2) the couple has a banner on the house reading “Rights to legitimate private property shall not be infringed upon,” 3) the issue is the price–they want to be paid the fair market value in the hot property market so they can relocate, and 4) my friends at Sina.com took a poll yesterday showing that 86% of the 83,175 people interviewed supported the couple’s decision. Every one of these points flies in the face of the stereotype shown in the U.S. media.

I’m not saying it’s Kansas in Chongqing. Chinese institutions are not just like ours; they are evolving in a healthy direction. There is not yet rule of law, although they are working on it. But people are people everywhere.

Suggestion: set up an automatic search on Google for all stories with the words “National People’s Congress” to be delivered to your email every day. You will see a dozen or so stories each day so you can track the changing legal and regulatory climate in China yourself.