Quotes That Keep On Giving

“I hate this,” Fox protested. “There is no skill in making these predictions.”

Blogger’s note: As I re-read all of this, Abe Katz did take my words in their proper context. The blogger noted below is the one who twisted them to his purpose. Life goes on.

Abe Katz of the New Haven Register (and others including the Bristol Press) interviewed me a few days ago about the oncoming winter. The Climate Prediction Center has issued their somewhat broad projections.

“I hate this,” Fox protested. “There is no skill in making these predictions.”

OK–maybe that’s a little over-the-top, but there’s little benefit to the average person who lives day-to-day and not on a seasonal basis. Later in the article I talked about sunspots and the suspicion of a casual relationship between them and the Earth’s temperature.

Fox said he is intrigued by a possible link between solar activity and weather. Sunspot activity, believed to be caused by incredibly strong magnetic fields, peaked in about 2000, and has been in decline since then, into what is called a Maunder minimum.

Activity should be rising again. Space weather gurus at NASA expect another sunspot peak between 2010 and 2015.

Unfortunately, the relationship between solar activity and weather remains obscure.

“No one knows what one has to do with the other,” Fox said.

I later wrote Abe asking, “Am I that negative?” I thought I came off a little surly… and with all due respect, Abe has written this article before in years past. My answers are always fairly similar. I’m not a big long term guy.

This afternoon I got word my quote had been picked up in a blog.

Case in point: Geoff Fox, a meteorologist with WTNH-TV in Connecticut, stated in an interview with The Bristol Press, that “he is intrigued by a possible link between solar activity and weather.” Then, Fox went on to say, “No one knows what one has to do with the other.”

So, I wonder how Mr. Fox would answer the question, “What if the Sun went out tomorrow? Would that affect the weather?” or “What if the Sun started burning hotter by millions of degrees? Would that affect weather?” Most kids in kindergarten would probably say yes to both questions!

Save your breath. I have already called him an ass.

Thanks for taking an out-of-context quote and bringing it further out-of-context. The fact that I do not support Al Gore’s theories (I had the honor of being invited to see him present it at the White House and left unconvinced) doesn’t make you less of an ass for not finding the source of the quote and asking it be put in perspective.

Within context, I brought up sunspots because I do believe there is a possible cause/effect relationship between them and the Earth’s temperature. As far as I know there is nothing other than anecdotal evidence connecting them and no quantification of the relative importance of sunspots in global climatology.

I believe I’m relatively easy to find. You probably owed it to those who read this to seek me out before typing.

Geoff Fox

Whether my comment is published is up to the blog’s owner.

4 thoughts on “Quotes That Keep On Giving”

  1. I am REALLY confused.

    I read your post and this bloggers post and they are not the same. The guy says he heard from you and then changed his post.

    He says on his site that he even ask if you wanted to post something more about your opinion on sunspots.

    he did post the comment from you and says you made the comment before he corrected his story.

    it looks to me like this guy is doing the right thing, so why are we calling this guy an ass?

  2. A friend from work sent me the link to this. I am amazed, although I probably shouldn’t be. You are majorly over-reacting to a post on a site that is not even a blip on the internet. This guy is so small, he doesnt either care about securing his sitemeter or doesnt know how too. In either case, I looked at the traffic on this guys site. He had just under 40 readers today when I checked and practically none from the whole month of August. And yet you, a “professional” member of the media, trounce all over him and call him an ass. He posted your comment, and changed his post, but that wasn’t good enough for you. You have to call the guy an ass here too! This looks to me like Goliath pummelling David!

    This guy at http://www.cardenchronicles.com looks like he has gone out of his way to be nice to you, accomidate you and be respectful. So maybe he got the first draft of his story wrong, but he corrected it and tried to make you look good in the process, or at the least he is respectful and nice after you insult him.

    This guy looks to me like he has integrity. He corrects things when he is wrong, he posts comments from people who disagree with him, and he appears to be respectful in the process. I may not agree with all his politics, but I will certainly read him now. I would rather read something from someone who has integrity than read from the main stream media any day.

  3. Before he thought anyone was looking, he felt it was OK to trash me. He went out of his way to try and make me look like a fool. Unfortunately, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

    Glad for both of you to comment… both from IP addresses assigned to Dell Computers. My best to Michael.

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