Utopia, you are standing in it!

Average temperatures in Australia peaked in 1878, with 1889 also being a very hot year.

Maximum temperatures in Australia peaked in the 1870’s, with 1878 being the hottest. Temperatures declined sharply until the 1930’s and have warmed a little since then.

Absolute maximum temperatures show a strong warming until about 1900, which is an artifact of adding hotter stations.

Minimum temperatures in Australia also peaked in 1878, but generally the trend has been upwards since the start of records. This is likely due to UHI.

Like maximum temperatures, absolute minimum temperatures increased until about 1900, due to the addition of warmer stations.

A few days ago I noted that the GHCN database for Australia has very little data prior to 1957, and wondered if the jump was due to Sputnik.

Well it turns out that lack of data prior to 1957 is due to GHCN simply not including it. Berkeley Earth has Nobbys data going back to the 1860’s, but the GHCN data is missing prior to 1957

But it is worse than it seems. Note that the GHCN data is not the same, and averages about half a degree higher than the Berkeley Earth data.

But even that is worse than it seems. Yesterday I noted that the upwards slope at Nobbys was the same as the slope at Sydney since 1957.  But according to Berkeley Earth, there has been no net warming at Nobby’s since 1970. Which means that Sydney is seeing major UHI effects.

Once again, this looks like major monkey business…

We previously discussed the threat of retired Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz to sue Utah Law Professor and former federal judge Paul Cassell (and his co-counsel Bradley Edwards) for defamation for papers mentioning him in revelation to the sex trafficking scandal of Florida financier Jeffrey Epstein. The lawyers sought unsuccessfully to depose Dershowitz who has been accused of being one of the men who were given underaged girls to sleep with by Epstein. At the time, I wrote that Dershowitz’s statements themselves could be viewed as defamatory and actionable. It appears that Cassell and Edwards were thinking the same thing. They have now sued Dershowitz for defamation.

“I am not afraid of retaliation. I have no kids, no wife, no car, no credit. It perhaps sounds a bit pompous, but I prefer to die standing than living on my knees,” – Stephane Charbonnier, the publishing director of Charlie Hebdo, killed this morning alongside 11 others.

(Photo: Candles, a rose and a sign that reads in French “I am Charlie” are placed on the ground as people hold a candle lit vigil at the Old Harbour in Marseille, on January 7, 2015, following an attack by unknown gunmen on the offices of the satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo. France’s Muslim leadership sharply condemned the shooting that left at least 12 people dead as a “barbaric” attack and an assault on press freedom and democracy. By Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images)

The New Jersey governor may jump into the 2016 race sooner rather than later:

Bush’s aggressive entrance in the race has sped up the timing of [Christie], who is preparing to make a public move toward running at the end of this month rather than waiting until February or March, according to a person familiar with discussions.

But Nate Silver doubts that Christie has a shot at the nomination, largely because “Christie takes moderate positions on the very issues where Bush notoriously deviates from the party base – such as immigration and education – along with others where Bush lands in the GOP mainstream, like on gun control”:

In late 2012, his favorability rating was 45 percent nationally against just a 20 percent unfavorable rating, according to Huffington Post Pollster. But Christie’s popularity has waned considerably in the wake of“Bridgegate” and other controversies. Now his ratings have turned negative…

A cartoon lies on the ground while people gather at a vigil in front of the French Embassy in Berlin, Germany following the terrorist attack at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris on January 7, 2015. By Carsten Koall/Getty Images. A voxplanation of the edition seen above:

In 2011, the magazine published an article “guest edited by Mohammed,” calling him “Charia Hebdo.” On the cover, a grinning, bearded figure promised “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter.”

After that issue was published, the magazine’s office was firebombed and its website was hacked. The attackers posted a notice on the hacked site that read, “You keep abusing Islam’s almighty Prophet with disgusting and disgraceful cartoons using excuses of freedom of speech. Be God’s curse upon you!”

Rather than capitulating to the violence, the magazine lampooned it.