Global warming mystery: Are North and South really polar opposites? - CSMonitor.com

Meanwhile, at the globe's southernmost continent, scientist have been trying to explain why, in the face of global warming, the extent of Antarctica's winter sea ice has been expanding and sea-surface temperatures have been cooling. Some skeptics have seized on this as evidence that the planet as a whole really isn't warming.  [Again, we can't stress this enough:  Skeptics *always* "seize" on things, like common rat-faced (and possibly slave-owning) thieves;  warmists *always* "tackle" things, like heroic athletes.]
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Ironically, the expanded ice also may contribute to the loss of ice from the continent, the team suggests. Aside from cooling the springs and falls by reflecting sunlight back into space, the extended sea ice also prevents sea water from evaporating. And the ice keeps air temperatures colder than they might otherwise be, reducing the amount of moisture the overlying atmosphere can hold.

These may be combining to reduce the amount of moisture in the atmosphere available for snow over the continent – snow that would help replenishes the continent's ice caps.

The Least Thing: So Does Nate Silver Have NCAA Skill?

At the start of the NCAA tournament I noted that Nate Silver's past few NCAA brackets failed to show skill. What that means is that Silver's predictions failed to result in more winning picks at the start of the tournament than one would achieve simply by picking the higher seeded team to win each game.
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All the fancy methodology and analysis performed no better than a naive bracket. Sorry Nate, still no skill! ;-)

Countdown To Climate Change: It's Only 297 Years Away! - Forbes

[Pat Michaels] You would think $3.5 billion per year of global change science spending would get you some honest background analysis…or maybe you wouldn’t, because, given that detectable statewide rainfall changes are about three centuries away, why would we continue to spend this kind of money on such an overblown bunch of sausage?