Oklahoman Vince Gill is a low-key, gentlemanly fellow, and kinda shy offstage, but his guitar playing is pretty darned eloquent: here's a live version of his own composition Liza Jane.

The comments are open for your tips.

Update: Another link for those having trouble with the video.

Flat Calm Across the UK

On 4th October, in the early hours of the morning, 9136 MW of wind turbines were producing 66 MW of electricity. The load factor dropped to 0.7%. I find this astonishing from a meteorological perspective since about half the metered turbines are offshore and many of the rest are on Scottish hillsides. The wind momentarily dropped effectively to zero across the whole of the UK.

Meanwhile...

Notable this entire CBC story about the R-word omits the R-word. Not injudicious; just notable we now have an R-word https://t.co/VVom3ELGAq

— Kevin Libin (@kevinlibin) October 28, 2015

Associated Press: An American educator who marched for civil rights in the 1960s and advocated coexistence between Muslims and Jews when he moved to Israel died Tuesday after succumbing to wounds sustained in a Palestinian attack on a bus in Jerusalem two weeks ago.

Hear my prayer.

Toronto Star;

Though O'Sullivan has vowed to spend donors' hard-earned money to save animals and nature, he has at times used charity coffers as a personal piggy bank, a Star investigation has found.

His organization -- comprising four charities under O'Sullivan's control that collected $9 million in donations in 15 years -- continues to operate under the nose of the federal regulator that has been trying to shut it down.

O'Sullivan, executive director and CEO of the Humane Society of Canada for the Protection of Animals and the Environment has successfully stopped Canada's tax watchdog from closing the charity he's run for 23 years, despite a federal audit that revealed "serious and intentional" spending breaches. The other charities are the Ark Angel Fund, the Ark Angel Foundation and the Humane Society Foundation.

[...]

Items O'Sullivan claimed in 2006 as legitimate charity expenses included: $27,000 in superhero-themed comic books and related paraphernalia; $22,000 in meals eaten mainly in Toronto, $4,000 from Costco; $1,800 in LCBO items; movie tickets for the Beaches Cinemas in Toronto; theatre tickets in London, England; a $67 purchase at La Senza Girl lingerie store and O'Sullivan family expenses of about $4,000 for a California trip.

Getting the government they voted for;

Alberta will try to spend its way out of an economic downturn with a provincial budget that projects a $6.1-billion deficit, hikes sin taxes and calls for billions in new debt.

Good and hard.

Related: Shell is among the first companies to publicly cancel a project as a result of pipeline constraints.

Or Wynnescam?

Wynne was reduced to insisting "I'm not tone deaf" Monday as more revelations about self-serving relations between her government and the unions continued to spill out. "We have to remember that for years and years there were 72 school boards making these decisions," in place of the centralized process put in place by her Liberals, she said. The fact the new process has proven slower, clunkier and far more expensive than anyone expected is just something voters are supposed to swallow. Unfortunately for Wynne, the size of the meal keeps growing: from $2.5 million paid to three unions when the news broke a week ago, the figure quickly grew to $3.7 million, and on Tuesday was reported to be as high as $7.1 million.

[...] According to one calculation, teachers and affiliated unions have spent $6.5 million supporting the Liberals in the past three elections, on top of direct donations to the party approaching $1 million. In return the Liberal governments of Wynne and predecessor Dalton McGuinty have rewarded union members with rich increases in benefits and salaries. Though McGuinty eventually came into conflict with union bosses as he tried to reduce Ontario's swollen deficit, Wynne quickly mended relations by granting public school teachers $468 million in concessions in advance of the 2014 election. The unions repaid the favour with a fierce advertising campaign against Tory leader Tim Hudak.

Underneath your makeup you've a heart that beats true / Hats off to you, Sunshine Charlie...... ♫

The comments are open for your Reader Tips

"The New York Times' Nail Salons Series Was Filled with Misquotes and Factual Errors. Here's Why That Matters":

The "great lesson" here is actually something different. I've spent the last several weeks re-reporting aspects of Nir's story and interviewing her sources. Not only did Nir's coverage broadly mischaracterize the nail salon industry, several of the men and women she spoke with say she misquoted or misrepresented them. In some cases, she interviewed sources without translators despite their poor English skills. When her sources' testimonies ran counter to her narrative, she omitted them altogether.

The second article lent the Times' imprimatur to unproven theories, while committing science journalism's cardinal sin of highlighting alarmist anecdotes that aren't representative of systematic research.

If it hadn't had real-world consequences, the series--and subsequent attempt by Nir and her editors to parry criticism--wouldn't be worth such intense scrutiny. But the day after the first article appeared in the print edition of the Times, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) announced a new multi-agency task force to inspect nail salons. In August, Cuomo issued an emergency order mandating that salons purchase a new form of insurance called a "wage bond" so that if owners are discovered paying their employees less than the legally required wage, the workers have recourse to collect.

The rush to legislate based solely on the Times' shoddy reporting has hurt the industry

You don't say.

German Town Of Gescher Installs 9 Solar Street Lamps That Don't Work At Night - For 28,000 Euros!

Junk Science: Not a single epidemiological study credibly links meat-eating with cancer

Consider the data presented for processed meat, which the AICR report claims to be too dangerous to eat.

Of the 17 study results concerning processed meat and colon cancer comparing high consumption to low consumption 15 are way below, and one is at the 100 percent-risk threshold. Thirteen studies aren't statistically significant. Not only is the lone study claiming a risk above 100 percent (a reported 250 percent increase in risk) barely statistically significant, it has a margin of error four times the size of the reported risk.

Of the seven studies reporting a cancer risk per serving of processed meat, all reported risks are substantially below the 100 percent threshold. Four results are clearly not statistically significant and two are borderline insignificant.

On the basis of these dubious statistical results, the AICR report concludes that "processed meat is a convincing cause of colorectal cancer." This is an appalling and unsupported conclusion.

That a lazy intellect and pathetic math skills are a direct cause of lousy journalism, however, is beyond dispute. (h/t nold)

Serious question: Can anyone paint a picture how universities can ever get out of this politically correct, dumbed down quagmire they're in?

Thomas Sowell on tax and false promises:

A recent article in the New York Times says that raising the tax rate on the top one percent of income earners to 40 percent would generate "about $157 billion" a year in additional tax revenue for the government. This ignores mountains of evidence, going back for generations, showing that raising tax rates does not automatically mean raising tax revenues -- and has often actually led to falling tax revenues. When the state of Maryland raised its tax rate on people with incomes of a million dollars a year or more, the number of such people living in Maryland fell from nearly 8,000 to fewer than 6,000. Although it had been projected that the tax revenue collected from such people in Maryland would rise by $106 million, instead these revenues fell by $257 million.

There was a similar reaction in Oregon and in Britain. Rich people do not simply stand still to be sheared like sheep. They can either send their money somewhere else or they can leave themselves. Currently, there are trillions of dollars of American money creating jobs overseas, in places where tax rates are lower. It is easy to transfer money electronically from country to country. But it is not nearly so easy for unemployed American workers to transfer themselves to where the jobs have been driven by high tax rates.

One of these.

Just not ready.

"The longer we go without Parliament sitting, the more acute accountability issues arise," he said.

"There's a whole legislative agenda that emanates from the Liberal platform. ... What's the hold-up?"

Har.

In tonight's amusement en route to the tips we listen to the surf and smell the ma`o-hau-hele, as Bernie Kaii & The Polynesians take us for a relaxing musical stroll In The Evening By The Sea.

The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.

University!

According to FEC third quarter reports released October 16, 47 professors at the top 50 liberal arts colleges in the country, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, have given to presidential campaigns. Of those 47 professors, Hamilton College History Professor Robert Paquette was the sole donor to a Republican candidate, giving $150 to Carly Fiorina's campaign.

From last week;

China bond defaults are forecast to climb after a state-owned steelmaker missed an interest payment, raising questions about the government's commitment to stand behind such firms.

Sinosteel Co. failed to pay interest due Tuesday on 2 billion yuan ($315 million) of 5.3 percent notes maturing in 2017 after saying it will extend the deadline as it plans to add a unit's stock as collateral. That came after the National Development and Reform Commission planned to meet noteholders and ask them not to exercise a redemption option on Tuesday to force full repayment, people familiar with the matter said last week.

h/t Melinda.

UNWatch;

The spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon quietly announced on the UN website that UNRWA employees have, "in a number of cases," beeen subject to disciplinary action, including suspension and loss of pay, following an investigation that verified evidence published by UN Watch -- in one report last week, and another in September -- of incitement to anti-Semitic violence committed by at least 22 UNRWA employees.

Oh wait. We're now owned by it. Nevermind.

But I believe this problem could be solved with a one-way bus ticket to BC.

h/t Larry

(Sorry - link fixed!)

The Mohammed retirement plan;

Critics pointed out in the past that a multicultural America can't afford the welfare states that European countries have. Now that those same countries are turning multicultural, they can't afford them either.

While right-of-centre North Americans have legitimate reasons to be concerned with the policies of Trudeau and Obama, one must remember that there are different degrees of Leftism, ranging from centre-left to far-left to ... something verging on insanity. The latter seems to be in play amongst Britain's Labour Party these days.

Janet Daley reports on the recent hiring of Seumas Milne, a militantly left rich boy with apparent daddy issues:

Mr Milne's views are way, way beyond what is regarded as Left-wing in the North London circles where endless hours are spent talking half-baked anti-capitalist rubbish. He is a supporter of terrorist organisations, an undaunted apologist for the defunct Soviet system and a declared enemy of governments that support free markets.

In tonight's amusement en route to the tips the plucky Barrow Poets walk a phonetic tightrope during their live on-air performance of the Pheasant Pluckers Song.

The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.

What story? We don't see any story.

The beginning of the public audits.

If there are folks out there saying there must be a decisive move to occupy some other space on the political spectrum, that's just crazy. We've seen that fail in Canada, we've seen that fail elsewhere. That doesn't work.

And because it's never too early for leadership speculation:

There are two 'litmus tests', if you will, for my next Conservative leader. Fiscal prudence and a decided preference for decentralization. My current favourite is Maxime Bernier, but for only two reasons. I know he tends towards liberty and he isn't afraid to voice his views, I don't know his views on spending.

One of the downsides of the Harper years is that I don't actually know what other contenders think.

New England Journal of Medicine;

Since it was first reported 3 years ago, when South Korean researcher Hyung-in Moon admitted to having invented e-mail addresses so that he could provide "peer reviews" of his own manuscripts, more than 250 articles have been retracted because of fake reviews -- about 15% of the total number of retractions.

How is it possible to fake peer review? Moon, who studies medicinal plants, had set up a simple procedure. He gave journals recommendations for peer reviewers for his manuscripts, providing them with names and e-mail addresses. But these addresses were ones he created, so the requests to review went directly to him or his colleagues. Not surprisingly, the editor would be sent favorable reviews -- sometimes within hours after the reviewing requests had been sent out. The fallout from Moon's confession: 28 articles in various journals published by Informa were retracted, and one editor resigned.

Apologies to all SDA readers for this posting being prematurely published. Personal events got in the way of it being properly completed. Those issues are now resolved and here is the full posting, as intended.

2011: Stephen Harper's Tories win majority government with 39.62% of popular vote -
The reaction to this victory was a resounding refrain that 60% of Canadians don't support Harper and what an unfair & undemocratic process the current Canadian voting system is:

• Voting system skews results, delivers phony majority


• A Conservative majority? Not so fast.

• Justin Trudeau and Liberal Party Prevail With Stunning Rout in Canada
• Justin Trudeau's emphasis on evidence-based policies paved the way to Liberal victory
• Canada to return to its honest broker role under Trudeau

It is quite astounding how the so-called principles and convictions of some people change depending on which team loses.

Now that the bogeyman of Stephen Harper is gone, Rex Murphy asks some important questions about who the Left in Canada will now focus their barbs of hate on. While Leftists across the nation insist that they don't want "American style" politics in Canada, the rampant HDS evidence of the past 9 years strongly suggests that they LOVE, and even NEED, a figurehead to hate upon. Here's what Murphy had to say:

Speaking of Mr. Harper -- now that he is, effectively, no longer prime minister, who or what shall fill the void? He was the lightning rod of our every discontent. He was a monster bent on destroying our democracy, a fascist who worked on a secret agenda for a full nine years in office and of which even now, with his leaving office, we remain still in darkness, innocent of its terrors. For you see it was far more important to keep it secret than to execute it.

He was, variously Machiavelli, Mussolini, Mao and Hitler. Harper Canada's image in the forums of the world, and purged all our "Canadian values" here at home. He was the Sauron of Mount Doom-on-the-Rideau waving his terrible arms from the towers of fear and hate. He was tepid on global warming and down on selfies. He liked hockey.

Well, who can fill that vital role? Who can be the magnet of our great discontent now that he is going and soon to be gone? Can we abide a country that is now all sunshine and butterflies, all summer holidays and hootenanys? I predict a Canada invective-deprived, all honey and harmony. Post-Harper, all is calm, all is bright. Can we live with that? Can Twitter survive? Will Raffi hang up the mandolin?