Grumpy Editor

NASA/NOAA news release, media ‘raise’ temperature

 

One reason why global warming/climate change may be alarming many folks, including those in the White House, is that some in the media, including copy editors, do not know exactly how to report weather readings, notes Grumpy Editor.

This causes a great exaggeration.

As a most recent example, Grumpy Editor offers exhibit A:

The Washington Post --- a prime news source for those in the nation’s capital, where decisions are made --- on Thursday in a report on “record” temperatures last year, staffer Chris Mooney writes 2015 “was 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit (0.13 degrees Celsius) hotter than 2014.”

Now, wait a minute.

Use of the word, degrees (plural), is highly misleading and wrong, and tossing in “hotter” only throws more heat on the controversial topic.

But the Post’s Mooney isn’t fully to blame.

A Jan. 20 NASA/NOAA news release, bearing four names as originators, also added an "s" onto degree with the line: "Globally-averaged temperatures in 2015 shattered the previous mark set in 2014 by 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit (0.13 Celsius)." 

The data, announced by Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, jointly with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NASA), show a minute gain of less than one quarter of one degree Fahrenheit. That’s all.

Thus, the fractional gain should be reported as 23/100^ths of a degree increase.

That’s not exactly “hotter.”

And not a torrid boost in temperature.

But politicians --- and news media --- continue to get excited.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

So guess what password still ranks high on last year’s list? It’s 1234567890, top line on a keyboard, that gets the most action, according to SplashData, a company that makes password-management applications…Boeing Co. says weaker demand in the air cargo market is triggering a cut in the 747-8 aircraft program starting in September when production on the wide-body planes will drop from one aircraft a month to one every two months…Remember when a nuclear-armed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile was damaged in its Colorado silo in May 2014? Probably not. But after 20 months, investigators say three airmen troubleshooting a problem triggered the accident…A double-page ad promoting Rimowa stores in North America takes on a 1920s flavor marking “the beginning of modern air travel and the golden age of Hollywood,” with a photo showing two passengers departing a small propeller aircraft close to the world-famous HOLLYWWOD sign. Trouble is, there never has been an airstrip at the base of that world-famous sign. However, there’s one on the other side of that noted Hollywood hill --- in Burbank...Forty media organizations, continuing to seek government openness and accountability, dispatch a letter to the House of Representatives leadership. The letter expresses support for a new bill with reforms to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). 

 

No kidding!

Headline on the front page in Las Vegas on Friday in connection with a former president’s visit to Sin City:

Bill Clinton

backs wife’s

presidential

candidacy

MGM Resorts readies parking fees at Vegas Strip hotels

 

In a Las Vegas Strip first, MGM Resorts International will become the first major casino company in Sin City to start charging visitors for self parking, finds Grumpy Editor.

Locals and frequent tourists consider the move a bad turn in PR since such parking has been a key “freebie” since the Strip was born 75 years ago.

Management sees it another way. The headline on a company news release crows: MGM Resorts International to enhance guest parking experience.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed Las Vegas casino company’s properties --- MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Delano, Luxor, Excalibur, Monte Carlo, New York-New York, Vdara, Aria, Bellagio and The Mirage --- will charge $10 for overnight parking, less for shorter periods during the day starting sometime in the second quarter.

MGM hotels on the Las Vegas Strip already are nicking visitors on the high end (up to $33.60 per room, per night) for so-called “resort fees,” padding added to room rates that covers the Internet, local and 800 phone calls, newspaper (at news stand), basic services at hotel business center and access to exercise room at MGM Grand Spa.

Resort fees, in efforts to boost bottom lines, have caught on in other parts of the country over the past few years.

As with past added money-making developments in Las Vegas, other major hotel/casino properties are likely to follow instituting parking fees.

With 45 million visitors a year to Las Vegas, the move by MGM is seen bringing in additional millions of dollars in revenue annually --- without adding a single slot machine or a craps table.

 

Iran capture of 10 U.S. sailors raises questions

News reports on the Iranian capture of two small U.S. Navy boats with a combined crew of 10, including one woman --- later forced to wear a headscarf --- were blamed on assorted factors. Most prevelant: engine problems as the boats drifted toward shore near Farsi island in the Arabian Gulf. Then it became a navigational error with the onboard GPS. (One report had the Iranians confiscating that gear.)

While released the next day, the U.S. sailors nevertheless were subject to facing weapons while kneeling with hands clasped behind heads on their own craft as the Iranians were busy recording propaganda video on board and later on land for worldwide consumption.

Few in U.S. media mentioned the Geneva Conventions ban the practice of parading prisoners for propaganda purposes.

In a new development today --- and adding to strange goings-on --- the Pentagon revealed Iranian soldiers removed SIM cards from two handheld satellite phones in possession of the U.S. sailors.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Despite bright economic outlooks last week from the White House, U.S. industrial production fell for the third straight month in December…Performing elephants, a decades-long attraction with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, will only be seen in vintage movies after May. All 11 touring circus elephants will be retired…While U.S. military forces continue to dwindle, Russia will create three military divisions on its Western flank this year…Media, especially TV, were highly excited late last week over a possible out-of season hurricane in the far eastern Atlantic. Named Alex, it quickly fizzled and departed the Azores Islands Friday as a tropical storm…California politicians concerned with housing the swelling prison population at San Quentin should read a Reuters story out Friday that noted more than 700 death row inmates in the Golden State still await execution. Despite an $850,000 remodeling with taxpayers’ funds, San Quentin’s death chamber remains unused, as the state has not carried out an execution in a decade…Forget bank robberies, that’s old stuff.   New York police are looking for a suspect who cleaned out an entire 190-bottle display of upscale nail polish at a Manhattan store. Caught on video and facing a grand larceny charge: a man, undoubtedly highly polished.

This five-word headline spotted on a financial site sums up stock market action last week: Global selloff on China worries.

And it’s not even our 51^st state.

Transported Hellfire U.S. missile winds up in Cuba

Not getting wide print coverage is the blushing case of a U.S. Hellfire missile that disappeared two years ago after departing Orlando International Airport for Spain, then moving on a truck through a chunk of Europe, eventually winding up a zig-zag trip in Cuba, observes Grumpy Editor.

What concerns many Americans is that technicians from not-so-friendly nations may perform reverse engineering on key parts of the Hellfire, an air-to-ground missile usually fired from helicopters.

Interesting is that much of the route taken by the wayward missile was not aboard U.S. Air Force transports.

The Wall Street Journal, aware of the newsworthiness of the stray missile, placed the revelation on Friday’s front page.

Citing thawing relations between the U.S. and Cuba, the Journal’s Devlin Barrett and Gordon Lubold wrote, “For more than a year…American authorities have tried to get the Cuban government to return the missile.

From Orlando, the Lockheed-Martin inert missile was shipped in a crate to Spain for a North Atlantic Treaty Organization military exercise in Europe.

Then via truck it went through Europe, reaching Germany, then on to Paris where, via Air France, it was transported to Cuba.

One wonders what else Washington has misplaced.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

While Washington insists there is no U.S. inflation, the average nationwide apartment rent last year jumped 4.6 percent, up from 3.9 percent a year prior…Alcoa is shedding 1,200 U.S. jobs, including shuttering its large aluminum smelter in Indiana, hit by cheap Chinese exports…Magazine circulation folks continue to lie awake nights dreaming up lures to obtain subscriptions. Latest example: O, The Oprah Magazine mails a pitch labeled “credit adjustment” to a non-subscriber, indicating the recipient has “a credit of $48 toward the purchase” of the publication. Subtracting the $46 from the inflated $54 annual cover price, the “adjusted rate’’ is $8…On Pentagon orders, two more Guantanamo Bay detainees were released last week and delivered to Ghana…The Marine Corps has been instructed to end gender-segregated initial training by April to comply with Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s decision to open all military jobs to women. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is examining plans proposed by each military branch to open about 225,000 previously male-only jobs to females.

Bergdahl, 29, wears 30 years worth of Army 'hash marks'

Editors missed an interesting photo of Bowe Bergdahl, the Army private first class who walked off his post in Afghanistan in June, 2009, and was released by the Taliban in May, 2014, and by then elevated in rank to sergeant, in exchange for five Taliban leaders from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, observed Grumpy Editor.

In a Dec. 22 appearance before a military judge at Fort Bragg, N.C., on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, Bergdahl wore a military dress uniform with 10 “hash marks” on his right sleeve.

What’s unusual about that?

Each service stripe (or hash mark) represents three years of honorable service and is usually worn on the left sleeve.  So 10 hash marks indicate 30 years of military service for Bergdahl --- who is 29.

This was clearly shown in photos by Andrew Craft of The Fayetteville Observer and distributed by The Associated Press and Jonathan Drake, Reuters photographer, when Bergdahl was arraigned in an 11-minute proceeding that included about two dozen journalists in attendance.

See several Drake photos of Bergdahl with 10 hash marks on his right sleeve here. 

Bergdahl faces another pretrial hearing Jan. 12 before Army Judge Col. Jeffery R. Nance, who will preside over future hearings in the case.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE... 

White House reporters keep trying. Representatives of more than 50 journalism and open government organizations met with Josh Earnest, President Obama’s press secretary, in December, again urging greater openness and transparency from the federal government. Four months earlier, the national organizations sent a follow-up letter (to one sent a month prior) to President Obama urging changes to policies that constrict information flow to the public, including prohibiting journalists from communicating with staff without going through public information offices, requiring government public information officers to vet interview questions, and monitoring interviews between journalists and sources.

The next war involving U.S. troops will be unlike prior battles.  As reported in Stars and Stripes, female Marines will be the first members of the U.S. military permitted to wear locks and twists in their hair while in uniform. Meanwhile, the Army announced breast-feeding soldiers will no longer have to use restrooms as milk expressing stations under an updated policy that also ensures their commanders provide mothers adequate lactation breaks.

And in other developments --- While the big news was California Gov. Jerry Brown’s pardoning of 91 “former criminals,” media focused solely on actor Robert Downey Jr., one of those in the group, with substance abuse in his background. Meanwhile, as talk, and stories, on low reservoirs in California due to climate change continued into the new year, the state’s snowpack reached 136 percent --- with more storms on the way --- meaning come water runoff in the spring, those reservoirs will be filled, thus curbing drought talk…Little was mentioned near year end that U.S. taxpayers will be footing 22 percent of the United Nations’ $2.7 billion budget this year…Only media position among the “10 Best Jobs in 2016,” tallied by GoBankingRates.com: public relations specialist.

Publisher makes news on the road…

Rutland, Vt. police said the newly-named publisher of the Rutland Herald and Times Argus was spotted driving drunk and leaving the scene of a crash, adding when arrested, Catherine Nelson had a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal limit to drive.