2011 was the...

9th warmest year of the recorded period, from 1880 till now. This is according to NASA who have apparently finished calculating their data. It is also the 9th warmest year in the past 10 which has now seen 9 of the top 10 warmest years on record. This is what we should expect to see if the climate was in fact warming, every year won't be the warmest but decades on a whole should be getting warmer. In fact this is true, the 00s were warmer than the 90s the 90s warmer than the 80s, something is clearly happening you have to be openly trying to ignore the data not to see that. The image below is from NASA and shows the yearly temperature average since 1880, I have also included a little blurb from the same article below but I recommend you read the whole thing.

From NASA:

The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.

NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis, released an updated analysis that shows temperatures around the globe in 2011 compared to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures than several decades ago. The average temperature around the globe in 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline.

We know the planet is absorbing more energy than it is emitting," said GISS Director James E. Hansen. "So we are continuing to see a trend toward higher temperatures. Even with the cooling effects of a strong La Niña influence and low solar activity for the past several years, 2011 was one of the 10 warmest years on record."

The difference between 2011 and the warmest year in the GISS record (2010) is 0.22 degrees F (0.12 C). This underscores the emphasis scientists put on the long-term trend of global temperature rise. Because of the large natural variability of climate, scientists do not expect temperatures to rise consistently year after year. However, they do expect a continuing temperature rise over decades.

The first 11 years of the 21st century experienced notably higher temperatures compared to the middle and late 20th century, Hansen said. The only year from the 20th century in the top 10 warmest years on record is 1998.

Golden Crocoduck Nominee #1

So Potholer54 has moved the Golden Crocoduck award from his other channel to his main one and here is the first nominee for the 2011 award. Let me say that the group that is the first nominee put together a pretty trippy movie for both children and especially for a creationist group.

Start of Fall Practice and Arkansas State

Can you feel it only 38 more days till kickoff of the 2009 Virginia Tech football season. I for one am excited. Now we all know that before you have your first game you have to have your fall practices, one of the most hated things you go through as a player trust me 2 a days suck, and at this time next week the players for Virginia Tech will be reporting for camp with the first practice the next day. I can tell it is getting closer.

Virginia Tech also confirmed today that they have added Arkansas State to the schedule for 2011 to replace the vacancy left by Syracuse when they backed out of the commitment they had with VT for a home and home in 2010 and 2011. Now the replacement that VT made for 2010 of Boise State at FedEx field is somewhat respectable. Afterall Boise State is a giant killer at times, now I have a feeling it will be hard for them to come all the way across the country to play in a very pro VT FedEx Field. Arkansas State on the other hand went 6-6 last year in the Sun Belt Conference, if we want to be competitive we need to play the best and this is not the way to do it.