text:
Tag: zipcar
Business Development Opinion Transportation
EDITORIAL: Parking Requirement Removal Should Be First Step In Broader Reform
No Comments on EDITORIAL: Parking Requirement Removal Should Be First Step In Broader Reform
Unused Parking at The Banks [Randy Simes]
Recently, the Cincinnati City Planning Department sent out a notice to property owners in downtown and Over-the-Rhine regarding the implementation of an Urban Parking Overlay District. The city will hold several meetings with the next one being at the City Planning Commission meeting this Friday, July 27th at 9 a.m. If approved, the district would remove the requirement for uses in downtown to provide off-street dedicated parking.
Since 2012 when I first wrote about parking in downtown and Over-the-Rhine the number of off-street parking supplied has increased well over 3,000 parking spaces (38,760 in downtown alone according to DCI). The Banks parking garage alone with over 6,000 spaces is the third largest parking garage in the United States.
We have an abundance of parking in the urban core.
At its core function, the removal of required parking minimums has proven to allow for more creative parking solutions to blossom. As Donald Shoup, parking guru and professor at UCLA found in his book The High Cost of Free Parking, most parking minimums were established as arbitrary standards by planners in the middle of the last century. Many of these requirements are intended to account for the busiest times of the day or year. UrbanCincy interviewed Dr. Shoup in 2014 regarding a variety of local parking issues.
In Nashville for example, the removal of parking minimums helped remove barriers for small-scale developers who could not afford to acquire additional land for a few parking spaces. Instead, agreements with nearby garages helped facilitate automobile storage demands.
Back in 2012 Nashville Planner, Joni Priest told UrbanCincy, "Removing the parking requirements from downtown zoning allows flexibility for site-specific and program-specific solutions. Flexibility is key in urban environments," said Priest. "As downtown becomes more comfortable for pedestrians, cyclists and transit users, new development will have the flexibility to build less parking."
Meanwhile, in Cincinnati, the city continues to struggle with developers looking to build new infill or rehabilitate and reactivate the many historic buildings in the urban core.
The Banks Garage is one of the largest parking structures in the United States [Photo by Travis Estell]
A plethora of parking dots the northwest quadrant of downtown. [Photo by Travis Estell]
Cincinnati Public Radio's Current Building [Photo by Travis Estell]
Encore Apartments across from massive Joseph Auto Parking Lot in downtown [Photo by Eric Anspach]
Even when parking requirements are reduced or eliminated most banks and investors still require parking to be provided or identified for developments to move forward. Removing zoning requirements for parking often allows the developer to build the parking that is really needed and not what is arbitrarily demanded by local zoning controls. This reduces the cost of development and in turn, allows more affordable housing to be provided.
Removing parking minimums also preserves historic structures from being demolished for parking lots and garages. Over-the-Rhine is the largest collection of German Italianate buildings in the country yet it currently has lost over half of its historic structures. If parking minimums are retained, the demolition of our communities historic assets will continue to be encouraged to meet the city's parking requirements.
There is an abundance of alternative options to traverse to, from and around the urban core. These modes include walking, biking, CincyRedBike, buses, streetcar, uber, lyft, Gest, and Zipcar. In the near future, we'll likely see Bird scooters and Lime bikes introduced. In the long-term, improved transit and autonomous vehicles will reduce the need to own and store a vehicle. Every one of these trips is one less parking space needed per resident, worker or visitor.
It would be wise for the City to anticipate criticisms from residents of the urban core. Some of whom recently voiced concerns regarding the increasing struggle to find on-street parking spaces. This is a struggle that is common in many dense, historic urban neighborhoods across the country where the expectation is that it is very rare to snag a parking space directly in front of a persons residence or business. However, it is important to consider this in light of a broader parking strategy, one that would balance resident, business and development demands.
There are a few additional strategies for city policymakers can consider in conjunction with approving the Parking Overlay District to remove parking requirements. Most of these are adapted from Dr. Shoup's recommendations:
1.) Continue to pursue the implementation of the on-street residential parking permit program.
2.) Add on-street 10-30 minute convenience parking at some spaces around Findlay Market.
3.) Consider opportunities for future public underground parking facilities to serve Findlay Market and the rest of Over-the-Rhine north of Liberty Street.
4.) Enable the demand-responsive capabilities for on-street parking meters. This strategy will encourage more meter usage and could be a potential revenue add for the city's parking meter program.
As part of a broader plan, it makes sense to remove the parking space requirements in the urban core. To quote Shoup, "If Cincinnati uses fair market prices to manage on-street parking – the lowest prices that will leave one or two open spaces on every block at every time of the day – it won't have to require off-street parking spaces for every land use. If the government regulated any other aspect of our lives as precisely as it regulates the number of off-street parking spaces everywhere, everyone would join the Tea Party."
Removing parking minimums is a productive first step in the city's comprehensive strategy to balance the demands of residents, workers, visitors who help make our urban core a vibrant and attractive place. Supporting this policy is a step in support of enhancing housing affordability, historic preservation, environmental sustainability and livability in our urban core.
Tags bicycles, Bird Scooter, bus, buses, Cincinnati, Cincinnati streetcar, Cincy RedBike, developments, Donald Shoup, downtown, economic, findlay market, gest, historic preservation, Lime Bike, Lyft, Metro, opinion, over-the-rhine, planning, public policy, retail, ride share, Transportation, Uber, urban design, zipcar
Car-Sharing Could Reduce Costs, Improve Efficiency of Cincinnati's Vehicle Fleet
No Comments on Car-Sharing Could Reduce Costs, Improve Efficiency of Cincinnati's Vehicle Fleet
Zipcar in Over-the-Rhine [Randy Simes]
When a brother and sister are fighting over the same toy, a parent quickly steps in and teaches the children to take turns and share.
Now that Over-the-Rhine parking is at a premium, and the residential permit plan has been vetoed, the residents of OTR are going to have to find a way to share parking, or risk losing more of the historic neighborhood to parking lots and garages. Sharing also presents an opportunity when it comes to modernizing the City of Cincinnati's fleet of 2,149 vehicles.
Mayor John Cranley (D) received unanimous support for this year's budget, which includes $110 million to make much-needed upgrades to the City's fleet and roadways over the next six years. While some vehicles, like those for police and fire, cannot be shared, others certainly can; and by implementing a program like Zipcar's FastFleet program, Cincinnati would benefit from significant savings and operating efficiencies.
In 2012, an internal audit of the Fleet Services Division found that fleet management has been "unwieldy" and mentioned that a knowledgeable and empowered staff is needed to properly manage the system. This has proven difficult over the past decade due to a severe cut in funding for the department in 2003.
"Almost the entire management team left the department near the end of 2007 and was not replaced," the internal audit noted. "While the staff operates to the best of their abilities, they are undermanned without the resources to correct the inertia of the department."
The Fleet Services Division operates under the Public Services Department, and controls and maintains 2,149 motorized vehicles for various departments at City Hall. These departments pay $63 an hour for maintenance and repair of the vehicles and are allocated a portion of the capital budget based on their proportion of need with regards to their percentage of obsolete fleet.
In 2011 Fleet Services was allocated $4,301,900 in capital dollars and $5,240,600 was allocated for 2012. These numbers are expected to rise as soon as the approved budget is published on July 1, but more money for new vehicles is only part of the solution. The 2012 audit also recommended reducing the size of the fleet, evaluating underutilized equipment, and examining the cost of leasing sedans and light trucks.
With services like FastFleet, City Hall could optimize its fleet without degrading operations, thus lowering maintenance and administrative costs.
FastFleet works by tracking vehicle usage by employees through GPS monitoring systems. This enables the service to produce real-time data, with recommendations on synergy and optimization. Once this data is analyzed, car assignments can be reorganized to allow for sharing of each vehicle by city employees, ultimately allowing for more efficient usage of vehicles.
In Washington D.C., city officials there were able to benefit from $6 million in savings over a five-year period by eliminating more than 200 administrative vehicles from their fleet. While Cincinnati's fleet is smaller than the nation's capital, proportional savings are safe to be assumed.
With City Hall poised to invest millions into its fleet operations, now is the perfect time to look into a solution such as this that could potentially reduce the City's fleet, while also improving its performance.
A program could even be put in place to allow for public use of the vehicles, akin to the city's existing Zipcar system, when city employees are not in need of the fleet. The revenue collected from these services could then be used to offset the public's cost of maintaining the city's fleet, while also expanding car-sharing services to other neighborhoods outside of the city center.
As it stands now, the City of Cincinnati does not even know what the optimal size is for its vehicle fleet. Tracking the performance of the fleet and analyzing the data will help bring clarity to the matter, and allow for the fleet to perform more efficiently.
Implementing a vehicle sharing program for Cincinnati's municipal fleet would help save additional taxpayer dollars, improve operations and bolster car-sharing throughout the city.
EDITORIAL NOTE: Chad Schaser contributed to this article.
Tags Chad Schaser, Cincinnati, clifton, clifton heights, corryville, downtown, fairview, FastFleet, Harry Black, John Cranley, over-the-rhine, university heights, uptown, washington d.c., zipcar
The UrbanCincy Podcast
Episode #46: 2014 in Review
34 Comments on Episode #46: 2014 in Review
On the 46th episode of The UrbanCincy Podcast, Randy, John, and Travis take a look back at 2014. We discuss our top posts of the year, including the renaissance beginning to take place in the Northern Liberties and new transportation options including Uber, Lyft, and Red Bike. We also make some predictions about what's the come in 2015, including the expansion of Red Bike into other Cincinnati neighborhoods and Northern Kentucky, new residential developments opening in 2015, and new potential uses for the Riverfront Transit Center. Finally, we discuss the new parking meters and expanded enforcement hours that went into effect on January 1st for the Central Business District and Over-the-Rhine.
Tags Lyft, over-the-rhine, parking, ridesharing, Riverfront Transit Center, streetcars, Uber, urban parking policy, year in review, zipcar
News Transportation
Zipcar Holding Tight in Cincinnati While Making Changes Elsewhere
6 Comments on Zipcar Holding Tight in Cincinnati While Making Changes Elsewhere
The car sharing economy came to Cincinnati in October 2011 when Zipcar launched their services at the University of Cincinnati, and expanded to Downtown and Over-the-Rhine in December 2012.
Since that time, however, peer-to-peer driving services, like Uber and Lyft, have emerged and begun challenging the more established business model of companies like Zipcar, which was acquired by Avis in January 2013 and boasts a global membership of more than 900,000.
In the case of Zipcar, the user is the driver, and must return the car to its starting point – a requirement limiting potential growth of Zipcar and other car sharing services. In order to stay competitive, Zipcar has recently launched new one-way services in its hometown of Boston.
"We are currently beta testing the service in Boston with our Boston members," Jennifer Mathews, Public Relations Manager at Zipcar, told UrbanCincy. "Our plan is to roll out the service to additional markets once it's ready."
While one-way car sharing travel may soon be a reality in Boston, it appears to be further off for smaller markets like Cincinnati, as does the availability of cargo vans, which are presently available in a limited number of markets, but not Cincinnati. The desire for such vans, industry experts say, is so that they can be used for more utilitarian purposes like moving. For now, those participating in Cincinnati's car sharing economy will continue to need to either use a traditional rental company, or borrow a friend's truck for such purposes.
Since its debut in 2011, however, Zipcar officials say that they have made changes to their operations and 11-car fleet in Cincinnati in order to stay relevant.
"While the number of cars has remained somewhat consistent over the years, we have moved locations and updated our vehicles throughout the program," Mathews explained. "Zipcar strives to place cars where our members want them. As we see pockets of members pop up in certain areas or neighborhoods we will move cars around to make sure that they are convenient as possible."
Of course, Cincinnati's Zipcar network is substantially smaller than other cities, thus reducing its usefulness to more than a small collection of users.
While there are no immediate plans for expansion, Mathews does say that the company will continue to monitor their two programs – University of Cincinnati and City of Cincinnati – over the course of 2015 to determine whether additional changes or expanded offerings are needed.
Those with memberships are able to use those in any of the hundreds of markets where Zipcar operates worldwide. Cincinnati's 11 vehicles can be found at the northwest corner of Race Street and Garfield Place, Court Street in between Vine and Walnut, the southeast corner of Twelfth and Vine Streets; and on the University of Cincinnati's main campus on McMicken Circle and just north of Daniels Residence Tower.
Tags Avis, boston, Cincinnati, corryville, downtown, Gateway Quarter, Jennifer Mathews, Lyft, over-the-rhine, Uber, university heights, university of cincinnati, uptown, zipcar
The days of the two-car household may soon be behind us
No Comments on The days of the two-car household may soon be behind us
The days of the two-car household may soon be behind us.
As VMT continues to flat line and even decline, it also appears that car ownership is on its way out of style. We all know that young people aren't getting their license as early as they once had, and are even forgoing it altogether in increasing fashion. But now, according to new economic predictions, the days of the two-car household may soon be behind us. More from Streetsblog USA:
In the U.S., says KPMG, car sharing companies like Zipcar, on-demand car services like Uber, and even bike-share will eat away at the percentage of households owning multiple vehicles, especially in major cities. Today, 57 percent of American households have two or more vehicles. KPMG's Gary Silberg told CNBC that the share of two-car households could decrease to 43 percent by 2040.
In this scenario, KPMG predicts that the rise of "mobility services" will displace car ownership by providing similar mobility but without the fixed costs. The typical new car now costs $31,000 but sits idle 95 percent of the time. Given other options, Silberg told CNBC, many Americans will be happy to avoid that burden.
Tags Angie Schmitt, CNBC, Gary Silberg, KPMG, Streetsblog USA, Uber, zipcar


Oh goodness, how to describe this book without giving anything away? Damage Done was the type of book it is best not knowing much about. The experience of reading this story and watching it unfold was so enjoyable and thought provoking I wouldn't want to take that from a future reader.
I knew little going in other than this book was a thriller. I loved the idea that this story dealt with a main character that had experienced something traumatic and had to come to terms with the fall out. I think many times books focus on the build up to an event which tends to be the climax and then the reader is left wondering what became of the characters. In Damage Done we start the story well after the traumatic event has occurred and work our way back from Lucy/Julia's memories and experiences.
The story was told in first person from Julia's point of view. Interspersed between the chapters are journal entries from a philologist which gave little tid-bits into the story the reader wouldn't otherwise know. Prepare yourself for a page turner that keeps you guessing the outcome.
Though Damage Done had some action sequences the story focused most on the characters and the physiological impact of the events that led to them picking up their lives and completely moving on- even taking new names. This was immediately mesmerizing to me and I loved watching how the characters cracked at the edges. I loved peeking into their memories and thoughts trying to understand Julia/Lucy and what exactly had occurred.
I thought that Panitch did an incredible job creating her characters. I found them, especially Julia, to be interesting. The side characters are less detailed and more one dimensional but in this book this actually adds to the story rather than detracting.
Damage Done was a well executed physiological thriller that was thought provoking, tense and fast paced. I really enjoyed guessing what happened within those 22 minutes that changed Julia's life forever.
Thank you to Random House for providing a copy for giveaway! Because the publisher will be providing the giveaway copy this is US only.
This one was pretty good, wasn't it? I didn't really see that ending coming at all.
I want to read Damage done because it looks like such an interesting read! Plus I have heard many positive things about it!
Sounds like something I might like. Just not for bed-time reading!
I love the cover, and the synopsis sounds so interesting! Also, I love the kind of books that make you guess. Guessing is fun! It's even better when something you don't expect happens.
This one sounds a bit different and kind of cool. I would definitely like to give it a try.
My favorite read is a psychological mystery.
I love a good thriller!
This book looks amazing! I'm excited to read it. Thank you for the giveaway!!!
Murder mystery a always catches my attention.
Damage Done is one of the books on my TBR! I really want to read it and I don't think I have seen a negative review of this book anywhere yet. The cover is interesting and I love a good thriller from time to time. So glad to hear you loved it!
For some reason this sounds like it could be an unreliable narrator and I love those because they keep you guessing all the time! Another book to add to the wish list for sure!
It's one of my favorite genre and I think this book is really intriguing!
I want to read Damage Done because that cover kills me. I know, don't judge a book by its cover. But who doesn't? This cover looks like it gives you a glimpse into the story but shrouds the rest, which is exactly what the summary does. I love it! Plus, your review makes me even more curious.
I took a chance and agreed to join the blog tour, always a risky business with a review post. In this case, my curiosity didn t kill the cat, though Ryan killed a bunch of them in this book.


DESCRIPTION: ULTRA-DELAY is an oral supplement containing vitamins and minerals in a palatable base.
FEEDING RATE: Feed half a tube or packet the day before the event and the other half the day of.
PRESENTATION: ULTRA-DELAY is available in a powder or paste.


text:
What Are Climate Change Skeptics Still Skeptical About?
By Natalie Wolchover 2011-11-22T15:10:05Z
Richard Muller used to be a global warming skeptic. A prominent physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, Muller didn't trust the level of rigor — or the results — of past climate studies. As he explained in editorials that were often cited by other skeptics, he thought the dramatic global temperature rise reported by NASA and many other groups may have stemmed from systematic measurement errors rather than an environmental catastrophe.
Instead of leaving it at that, Muller founded the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) study in 2010 to do the job right. His team of statisticians, physicists and climate experts conducted an exhaustive analysis of 200 years of global temperature data, running 1.6 billion temperature reports from 39,000 recording stations through a complex process that filtered out questionable data and averaged the rest.
Today, Muller no longer doubts the reality of global warming.
The BEST team's rigorous analysis showed that the average global land temperature has risen by 1 degree Celsius since the 1950s. The finding exactly matches those of past studies by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA and others. But this time, Muller says that because his team cleaned up the data in ways no other study has, their result is rock-solid.
Earth's climate is extremely sensitive to temperature fluctuations: That one degree of rapid warming is believed to be driving major changes to weather patterns — causing, for example, drought and rapid desertification in arid regions of the globe. The effects have been felt in the United States, with the Southwestern part of the country experiencing its worst drought in centuries. Global warming is also melting the polar ice caps, which, consequently, is raising sea levels worldwide and threatening to drown hundreds of coastal cities.
This figure shows the variations in concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere during the last 400 thousand years. Throughout most of the record, the largest changes can be related to glacial/interglacial cycles. Although the glacial cycles are most directly caused by changes in the Earth's orbit (i.e. Milankovitch cycles), these changes also influence the carbon cycle, which in turn feeds back into the glacial system. Since the Industrial Revolution, circa 1900, the burning of fossil fuels has caused a dramatic increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, reaching levels unprecedented in the last 400 thousand years. This increase has been implicated as a primary cause of global warming. (Image credit: Creative Commons Robert A. Rohde)
Furthermore, the vast majority of climate scientists attribute global warming to deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas. These activities have poured millions of tons of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), into Earth's atmosphere over the past few decades. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen from about 280 parts per million (ppm) in preindustrial times to 392 ppm today, its highest level in at least 800,000 years (as far back as the ice core record goes), and probably higher than in the past 20 million years. Like the roof of a greenhouse, the thickening layer of CO2 traps heat at the Earth's surface, and if the rate of human carbon emissions continues to increase, global warming is expected to accelerate in the near future, so that by 2100, Earth will be at its warmest in millions of years. [5 Ways the World Will Change Radically This Century]
This is the consensus view among scientists. However, a small but vocal handful of academics — some of them climatologists, others in outside fields — believe the whole thing is a case of alarmism. Some argue that global warming isn't actually happening. Others concede that Earth is warming, but believe the process is natural (and has nothing to do with us humans). If they're right, then there's no need for the fossil fuel industry to cap carbon emissions, lesser developed countries should feel free to industrialize in the cheapest way possible (i.e. with carbon-spewing coal), and the rest of us can stop worrying about the fate of future generations.
But the Berkeley study shows with a high level of confidence that global warming is real, and the overwhelming scientific consensus is that we're causing it. So what, exactly, are the skeptics' remaining arguments?
It's urban warming
Pat Michaels, a climatologist and senior research fellow for policy and economic development at the Cato Institute, has written several books arguing that the danger of global warming is overblown. Michaels believes CO2 emissions are having a warming effect on the Earth, but it's so small as to be negligible. Based on his calculations, "it amounts to about four-hundredths of a degree [Celsius] of spurious warming in a global temperature record since 1979," Michaels told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience. That's orders of magnitude less than the total warming observed by BEST, NASA and NOAA and others.
He attributes the rest of the warming detected by those groups to inaccurate temperature measurements made in "urban heat islands": cities where the temperature reads higher than in surrounding areas because of the way concrete, stone and brick building materials retain heat.
However, several past climate studies have debunked the claim that urban heat islands are so hot that they're being mistaken for global warming; the BEST study thoroughly debunked that notion again. Muller and his colleagues compared temperature data recorded at thousands of rural and urban stations around the world and found a negligible difference in the upward temperature trend exhibited by both. If anything, cities have recently heated up at an ever-so-slightly slower rate than rural areas (though the difference is not statistically significant). "The key conclusion," the researchers wrote, is that "urban warming does not unduly bias estimates of recent global temperature change."
Michaels, who has been criticized for accepting research funding from the fossil fuel industry, rebuts this by arguing that BEST's negative urban effect couldn't possibly be correct, and so the whole study should be disregarded. "Muller's study says that the effect of cities on temperatures is to cool the temperature. Well, I don't think there's a climate scientist around who believes that that could happen — unless the cities are so polluted that the haze around them keeps the sunlight from hitting the ground," he said. "In China, there is some evidence that cities are cooler because of pollution." (In short, Michaels agrees that urban cooling can and does happen, but disagrees about the degree to which it does.)
It's actually getting cooler
Still, Michaels attributes almost all of the apparent 0.16 degrees Celsius warming per decade observed by climatologists to the bias of urban heating, rather than carbon emissions from fossil fuel use. However, he also says that even that warming seems to have stopped in the past decade. Similarly, Dennis Avery, a food policy analyst at the conservative think tank the Hudson Institute, and an outspoken advocate of pesticides and industrial-scale agriculture, argues that there is scientific evidence that the Earth has now entered a period of cooling, rather than warming.
"The U.S. Solar Observatory is now projecting decades of cooling as the current sunspot minimum continues — and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation has shifted into its 30-year cool phase," Avery wrote in an email. "The outlook for Dr. Muller's position is shaky indeed, following the cool winters since 2007." [If Global Warming Is Real, Why Is It Still Snowing?]
It is true that the U.S. Solar Observatory recently detected a decrease in sunspots, pointing to a decline in magnetic activity on the sun's surface. A drop in solar activity also occurred in the 17th century, and it partly overlapped with a period of unusually cold weather now known as the "little ice age."
However, mainstream climatologists do not believe that variations in sunspot activity actually cause ice ages, little or otherwise. The 17th century cold spell is thought to have resulted from an upsurge in volcanic activity at that time that cloaked Earth in sunlight-blocking soot. Climate models show that reduced solar activity can produce no more than 0.3 degrees Celsius of cooling, and a 2010 study in Geophysical Research Letters showed that, even if we are entering another solar minimum period like the one that occurred in the 17th century, its cooling effect will be (and is being) completely dwarfed by the warming effect of greenhouse gas emissions.
In short, Avery's global cooling hypothesis is not supported by scientific research. But he makes another, more compelling argument — typically viewed as the most viable alternative to the mainstream view on climate change.
It's natural
Before he'll be convinced that humans are impacting the climate, "I would like some evidence that this modern warming is not part of the 1,500-year Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle, coming as it does at the appropriate time," Avery wrote in an email.
Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events are natural climate fluctuations that occurred 25 times during the last ice age, approximately every 1,500 years. The events are relatively brief, but can have dramatic, lasting effects on Earth's temperature. Ice core samples taken in Greenland reveal that, when these events happened, they were marked by rapid warming of up to 8 degrees Celsius in the Northern Hemisphere in just 40 years, followed by gradual cooling.
Avery says such an event is happening now. His argument that global warming is part of this natural climate cycle was the subject of his book, "Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), co-authored with atmospheric physicist Fred Singer (who has also been criticized for receiving funding from the fossil fuel industry). Theirs may be the most common argument espoused by climate change skeptics.
However, most climatologists say this scientific-sounding argument is greatly flawed. First, D-O events did not cause the same global warming patterns observed today, but rather acted to redistribute Earth's warmth. Ice cores drilled in Antarctica show that equal-and-opposite cooling in the Southern Hemisphere balanced out the warming that occurred to the Northern Hemisphere during D-O events.
Secondly, D-O events happened during the last ice age, not afterward. There is some evidence that the current interglacial period may also be experiencing 1,500-year climate cycles, called "Bond events," and that these may be related to D-O events. But Bond events have a much smaller impact on temperature than did D-O events — so small that not all scientists believe Bond events actually exist. If they do, then rather than being marked by dramatic rises in global temperature, they too cause a weak redistribution of heat around the globe.
Climate model simulations of the Earth's temperature variations compared with observed changes. The figure shows Global Average Temperature, relative to the 1890-1919 mean, over the time period 1890-1999. The black line shows observed temperature; the blue line shows ensemble mean temperature based on simulations using natural factors only; and the red line shows ensemble mean temperature based on simulations using both natural and anthropogenic factors. The shadings denote the ensemble ranges. (Image credit: USGCRP.gov G Meehl, G.A., et al., 2004: J. Climate. Observed temperature data from Folland, C.K., et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. 28, 2621-2624)
Today, by contrast, all indicators point in only one direction: warming of the entire planet, and at a rate not seen during any past Bond event. The climatologist Gerard Bond, for whom Bond events are named, strongly disagrees with efforts by climate skeptics to use his research as proof that global warming is a natural phenomenon. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in a recent report, "The rapid warming is consistent with the scientific understanding of how the climate should respond to a rapid increase in greenhouse gases like that which has occurred over the past century, and the warming is inconsistent with the scientific understanding of how the climate should respond to natural external factors." [See graph]
It's an error
Some skeptics just don't trust the quality of global temperature data enough to believe that it can reliably show a warming trend.
All climate models rely heavily on temperature records from thousands of recording stations around the world; if the stations are inaccurate, they can skew the results. In fact, it was Muller's concern that past climate studies might rely on too much erroneous temperature data that led him to found BEST. Statisticians on his team employed complex error analysis, averaging methods, and clever data filtering to minimize uncertainty in their set of 1.6 billion temperature reports; the team also separately analyzed a subset of the data coming from only the highest quality stations.
Though they ended up finding the same 1 degree C of warming since the 1950s that past climate studies found, they reduced the statistical uncertainty in that result nearly to zero.
But Michaels has written several editorials since late October arguing that it isn't surprising that the BEST team detected the same degree of warming as other studies, because they used the same set of temperature data.
This is not the case. In their analysis, the BEST researchers used more than five times more data than prior studies; they also looked at subsets of data that excluded all data analyzed previously. "Using only these previously unused data, we find no statistically significant difference [in warming trends]," Muller wrote in an email. When Michaels' error was pointed out to him, he responded that he meant a different part of the study corresponding to temperature reports from 1800 to 1850.
Muller said that data was also new. "Our analysis from 1800 to 1855 obviously uses new data sets, since no other group has ever published results prior to 1855. From 1855 onwards, we have now done the work that I described above using the 77 percent of the stations unused by the other groups."
Muller added that the BEST study has been met with a flurry of similar false criticisms in the past several weeks. "Be aware that many people are giving their knee-jerk reactions … without careful reading of our papers. That is unfortunate, but an inevitable consequence of the great interest our work has engendered. Our goal is not to convince people in the week or two following our release, but to convince them in the months that follow as they begin to appreciate the care that we took, and the validity of our analysis methods," Muller said.
It's unknowable
Some scientists believe that climate change and global warming are real, but think that their causes are unknown. In this small camp is Freeman Dyson, a prominent physicist at Princeton University.
"Of course climate change and global warming are real," Dyson wrote in an email to Life's Little Mysteries. "I am skeptical not about the facts, but about the claims of climate experts to understand the facts. To the question whether either the causes or the consequences of climate change are understood, I answer no."
Dyson believes carbon dioxide does have a warming effect on the Earth, but questions the extent of its influence. He believes climate models that strongly link global warming to the rapid rise in atmospheric CO2 are based on false assumptions about the effects of atmospheric carbon. However, in the past, Dyson has admitted that he does not know much about the technical facts involved in climate modeling.
These are the primary arguments made against global warming. The large platform given to those who voice them — prominently by some media outlets — has had an astounding impact on public opinion in the United States. A May 2011 survey found that only 47 percent of Americans attribute global warming to human activities, while 36 percent blame it on natural causes. A staggering 95 percent of people who reported being "disengaged," "doubtful" or "dismissive" of global warming had no idea that 97 percent of publishing climate scientists believe global warming is happening and that it is caused by humans.
It seems the media has inaccurately portrayed the climate debate by paying disproportionate attention to many of the unscientific claims laid out here. Is the damage irreparable?
This story was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries, then join us on Facebook.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Do you know what, it is okay to be gay
Many London escorts are bisexual and you even get gay London escorts, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. London escorts come in all shapes and sizes, and they have many different styles of sexual needs. So, does the rest of us as well.
It is a bit like saying: Do you like sex in the morning or in the evening? Should we make a big deal about that as well. London escorts are always very careful about expressing their sexuality in front of children, but should we be so worried. Unlike my fellow London escorts, this obsession with homosexuality does not worry me. When I worked for a cheap London escorts agency, I did however come across a lot of people who worried about.
Personally, I have never worried about homosexuality, and I have understood that different types of sex has, and always be, part of our global consciousness. Being the daughter of an anthropologist, I had explained to me at an early that homosexuality was an important part of many cultures. I was also lucky to grow up in a very "artistic" family, and I have a lovely gay uncle who lives in London. He and his florist partner, are great fun to be with and my daughter understands what they are all about.
Interestingly, enough I have noticed that my daughter does not think that being gay is a big deal, and just flicks her shoulders. When did I tell her? Well, she must have been about seven and she never thought twice about it.
When to tell your kids?
London escorts say This is a problem for many parents, but I would say tell them when the opportunity arises. You may not have a gay family member but you may come across homosexuality on TV.
It is really important not to be judgmental when you tell your kids. Depending on the child's age, just say something like " they live together like mummy and daddy do", or "they love each other like mom and dad". It is up to you, just don't make a big deal about it.
If the child asks how gay people have sex, just tell them that there are many different ways of making love and enjoying sex. Explain that they will learn more as they get older, and they should not worry about it now. I said to my daughter that sex comes natural to you whether you love someone from a different sex or same sex.
My cousin made a big drama about her son being gay. She called me, started to cry and said she was ashamed. I said why? He is lovely, and my daughter said in the back ground. " I love him, I don't care who he fancies as long as he doesn't leave the planet." The biggest mistake we make is making a big deal out of any type of sexuality or colour. I honestly believe that we cannot help what sexuality we are, and we should just be allowed to get on with our lives.…
Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn`t wear pants.


text:
Mandoki Soulmates announce Utopia For Realists: Hungarian Pictures
InsideOutMusic recently announced the signing of Mandoki Soulmates, featuring renowned musician, songwriter and producer Leslie Mándoki. On the 24th September, a brand-new expanded version of his 'Hungarian Pictures' suite, will be released under the title: 'Utopia For Realists: Hungarian Pictures'.
Alongside the original remixed and remastered music, a brand new Blu-ray audio-visual album will be released, combining the recording of the concert film of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with an impressive cinematic realization of the individual musical episodes. It also provides exclusive insights behind the scenes of the Soulmates production live and in the studio, a "making of". The album will also be released as a standalone Gatefold 2LP+CD+LP-Booklet, and a standard CD jewelcase.
On 'Utopia For Realists: Hungarian Pictures', Leslie Mandoki plays together with Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Jack Bruce (Cream), Nick van Eede (Cutting Crew), Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann's Earth Band), Bobby Kimball (Toto), David Clayton-Thomas (Blood, Sweat and Tears), John Helliwell (Supertramp), Al di Meola, Mike Stern, Randy Brecker, Till Brönner, Bill Evans, Cory Henry, Richard Bona, Tony Carey (Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow), Jesse Siebenberg (Supertramp), Steve Bailey, and Julia Mandoki
Mandoki Soulmates staged a global live stream event earlier this year which has achieved over half a million plays on Youtube and over 700.000 on Germany's leading TV channel ARD since its release. Watch it in full here:
1 Sessions In The Village 00:06:50
2 Utopia For Realists 00:02:08
3 Transylvanian Dances 00:26:38
4 You'll Find Me In Your Mirror 00:02:34
5 Return To Budapest 00:15:27
6 Barbaro 00:04:31
7 The Torch 00:05:50
1 Session In The Village Live In Berlin 00:07:12
2 Utopia For Realists Live In Berlin 00:02:19
3 Transylvanian Dances Live In Berlin 00:21:42
4 You'll Find Me In Your Mirror Live In Berlin 00:02:54
5 Return To Budapest Live In Berlin 00:09:22
6 Pre-Barbaro Live In Berlin 00:04:43
7 The Torch Live In Berlin 00:09:37
8 Intro The Movies 00:03:04
9 Session In The Village The Movies 00:03:20
10 Transylvanian Dances The Movies 00:02:13
11 The Truth Behind The Dance The Movies 00:02:05
12 Cedar Of Life The Movies 00:01:42
13 Session In The Academy The Movies 00:03:34
14 Utopia For Realists The Movies 00:02:13
15 Children's Dance The Movies 00:03:26
16 You'll Find Me In Your Mirror The Movies 00:02:38
17 New York The Movies 00:02:25
18 Furioso The Movies 00:05:51
19 The Torch The Movies 00:05:51
20 Behind The Scenes 00:47:45
The Prog Rock Suite 'Hungarian Pictures' as a live concert film, supplemented by studio recordings, films and a comprehensive making-of documentary combined into a holistic audiovisual work of art, is further proof of the indomitable creativity of Leslie Mandoki
and his soulmates.
Background on 'Hungarian Pictures':
'Hungarian Pictures' is constructed as a suite, based on compositions and themes by
Bartók, supplemented with the bands original songs. Together with Greg Lake of Emerson Lake & Palmer, and Jon Lord of Deep Purple, Leslie had worked on the seed of this idea years ago.
Leslie explains:
"For Bartók, diversity in culture creates enrichment. He believed that it is precisely from these differences that art draws the strength that enables further development. He
mixed sounds and traditional melodies from different regions of the Carpathian Plain in order to set an example against the burgeoning threat of National Socialism (Nazism) through the unifying aspects of music. That unifying impulse inspired Jon Lord, Greg Lake, and me.
After completing our Mandoki Soulmates "Wings Of Freedom" tour through Europe, we gave a concert in New York's Beacon Theater. The Soulmates show was a great success with an enthusiastic New York audience, standing ovations, and positive press reviews.
For me, a former asylum seeker who over four decades ago fled from a communist dictatorship to freedom, this success in the "Land of the Free" is a very special moment.
After the concert, I spent a few days with my children in Van Morrison's former house in
Topanga Canyon, one of the old "hippie" neighborhoods of Los Angeles. I used this free time to reflect on social developments over the past few years.
It became clear to me that we as artists are being challenged to become louder, to be a thorn in the side of society, and to bring progressive jazz rock back to real socio-political relevance. This is how the first ideas for a new album came about. It is the most ambitious and best project we ever worked on."
ian anderson jethro tull mandoki soulmates
Katatonia announce 27-track rarities collection Mnemosynean
Big Big Train release new single "The Strangest Times"
Leslie Mandoki: Bridging the Brit Prog-American Jazz Divide and a Whole Lot More
Jethro Tull launch video for 'Sad City Sisters'; second track taken from 'The Zealot Gene'


The operator of Tubarao Azul field contracted InterMoor do Brasil to plan and execute part of the field decommissioning work.
The topic of oil and gas field decommissioning has been on the table in Brazil for a while. However, it gained more attention after the oil price started to fall, challenging operators to re-evaluate the financial return of the producing oilfields.
The Tubarao Azul field is located in the Campos Basin, at a water depth of approximately 120m, 45 nautical miles from Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Oil production began in 2012 followed by the connection the 3rd and last well on the FPSO in 2013.
• providing offshore personnel, including tow masters, marine superintendent, installation engineer, vessel coordinator, winch operators and offshore surveyors to execute the offshore campaign.