Army Sgt. Jacob S. Schmuecker

Army Sgt. Jacob S. Schmuecker

27, of Atkinson, Neb.; assigned to the 755th Recon/Decon Company, Nebraska Army National Guard, O’Neill, Neb.; died July 21 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device.

Norfolk soldier killed in Iraq

By Oskar Garcia
The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. — A 27-year-old Nebraska Army National Guard member died this weekend in Iraq, family and Army officials said July 23.

Sgt. Jacob Schmuecker of Norfolk died July 21 in a roadside bomb explosion in Balad, Iraq, the Nebraska Army National Guard confirmed.

“He liked to be the ramrod of the crew,” his mother Patty Schmuecker said, referring to her son’s relationship with his six younger siblings. Schmuecker also had an older sister.

She said her son would always tell one of his brothers, a fellow National Guardsman, to iron his uniform and polish his boots.

Schmuecker was 10 months into in his first tour of duty with the Guard’s 755th Chemical Company, based in O’Neill. He was scheduled to return to the U.S. in December, Patty Schmuecker said from her home in Atkinson.

Schmuecker and his wife, Lisa, have three children ranging in age from 4 years to 19 months.

Schmuecker served in the same company as William Bailey III of Bellevue, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in May.

“He was very concerned that something would happen to one of his soldiers,” his mother said, adding that her son prayed that if one of his company had to die, for it to be him instead of a comrade.

“I guess I feel like God honored that prayer,” she said.

Details of a funeral service were still pending, but Patty Schmuecker said it would likely be in Norfolk.

Schmuecker graduated from West Holt High School in Atkinson in 1999. He joined the National Guard in 2001.

Schmuecker is the 53rd U.S. service member with Nebraska connections to die in Afghanistan or Iraq since the start of military operations following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., according to the Department of Defense and family members.

What can I say about a man who gave his life for his country? No words can be enough.
His actions spoke louder than any words. His sacrifice was not in vain. He died for his fellow soldiers and the citizens of the USA. He also died for the Iraq people who want and seek freedom. Like so many others in this war he is easily overlooked as a statistic. We should note who these people are and how they died for our freedom. We can honor our fallen by going to http://www.militarycity.com/valor/2919061.html
and reading about our fallen military. We need to consider the cost and support our military. We need to speak out against those who disgrace our fallen heroes, especially those in congress. My thoughts, what do you think?

1998 no longer the hottest year on record in USA

Whats' wrong with this picture? This is an example of how NASA get its data for temperatures.

Steve McIntyre, of Toronto operates www.climateaudit.org and began to investigate the data and the methods used to arrive at the results that were graphed by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).

What he discovered was truly amazing. Since NASA does not fully publish the computer source code and formulae used to calculate the trends in the graph, nor the correction used to arrive at the "corrected" data. He had to reverse engineer the process by comparing the raw data and the processed data..

He further refines his argument showing the distribution of the error, and the problems with the USHCN temperature data. He also sends an email to NASA GISS advising of the problem.

He finally publishes it here, stating that NASA made a correction not only on their own web page, attributing the discovery to McIntyre, but NASA also issued a corrected set of temperature anomaly data which you can see here:

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.D.txt

Steve McIntyre posted this data from NASA's newly published data set from Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) These numbers represent deviation from the mean temperature calculated from temperature measurement stations throughout the USA.

According to the new data published by NASA, 1998 is no longer the hottest year ever. 1934 is.

Four of the top 10 years of US CONUS high temperature deviations are now from the 1930s: 1934, 1931, 1938 and 1939, while only 3 of the top 10 are from the last 10 years (1998, 2006, 1999). Several years (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004) fell well down the leaderboard, behind even 1900. (World rankings of temperature are calculated separately.)

Top 10 GISS U.S. Temperature deviation (deg C) in New Order 8/7/2007
Year Old New
1934 1.23 1.25
1998 1.24 1.23
1921 1.12 1.15
2006 1.23 1.13
1931 1.08 1.08
1999 0.94 0.93
1953 0.91 0.90
1990 0.88 0.87
1938 0.85 0.86
1939 0.84 0.85

Here’s the old order of top 10 yearly temperatures.
Year Old New
1998 1.24 1.23
1934 1.23 1.25
2006 1.23 1.13
1921 1.12 1.15
1931 1.08 1.08
1999 0.94 0.93
1953 0.91 0.90
2001 0.90 0.76
1990 0.88 0.87
1938 0.85 0.86

I salute the work of Steven McIntyre, he has now made two major contributions to climate science.
1) Proving how the Mann "hockey stick" used in all Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, was based on unsupportable data and methods.
2) Proving how yearly temperature anomalies for the USA are based on data that had been processed incorrectly.

Dr. Roger Pielke of the University of Colorado also deserves credit becuase he was the one who encouraged me to pursue the www.surfacestations.org project due to his broad work on land use change and it's affect on regional and local climate.

Now I ask you do you still believe in global warming?

Bonds Wallops No. 756

From the book The Science of Hitting by former Red Sox great Ted Williams:
“A good hitter must identify a pitch to hit, know enough about the pitcher and the game situation to give himself the best chance to succeed, and put hands and hips into motion to drive the pitch. Nowhere does Williams mention that muscle mass aides in any of those critical elements. Williams, himself, of course, was rail-thin, and yet, he managed to crank out 521 career homers.”

“Sure, added muscle mass may increase the distance a player is able to hit a baseball, but what negative effect does that added mass have in altering the fluidity of the player's swing and, thus, his ability to hit the ball in the first place? A popular baseball refrain cautions fast players who have deficiencies in the batter's box that one cannot steal first base. Similarly, a power hitter cannot hit a home run if he cannot hit the ball. And hitting a baseball is a unique skill in the world of sports. It is a powerful act that does not require extraordinary muscle strength. Instead, it is primarily dependent on technique, reflexes, and hand-eye coordination, not brute strength. It is a correlation that so many people are failing to make these days.”

The ballparks (today) are smaller and the ball is harder. I know those are two reasons for more home runs. Maybe steroids were the third reason.

Recently, it was released that suspected steroid-user Barry Bonds had failed a drug test for ampethamines during the 2006 season. For a first-time offender, there is no suspension; however, the player must take six drug tests the following season. In addition, the name of the player is supposed to remain confidential, which obviously did not work.

Why would Bonds leak his own name? Two reasons: 1.) Most people won't care much about his failed test if it is not a test for steroids; therefore, it should not hurt his legacy, 2.) He wants the world to know he will be given "extra attention" in 2007. If fans know he is getting tested frequently all season, Bonds has hard evidence that he could not have been juicing during the season.

What do you think? Has Bonds jucied in the past? I say Yes.