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Papers on the role of the Sun in recent global warming
Posted by Ari Jokimäki on January 7, 2013
This list contains papers that on Sun's role in the recent climate change. The list is not complete, and will most likely be updated in the future in order to make it more thorough and more representative. Generally no papers simply reporting solar activity measurements are included (those papers will get their own list in future) or other solar activity related papers that do not discuss recent climate change. Also indirect solar effects are mainly left to their own lists (for example through geomagnetism). There already are separate lists for solar cycle length and cosmic rays.
UPDATE (March 19, 2020): Seip & Grøn (2015) added, thanks to Barry for pointing it out.
UPDATE (September 3, 2013): Wang & Dickinson (2013) added. Thanks to JesusR for pointing it out.
A New method for identifying possible causal relationships between CO2, total solar irradiance and global temperature change – Seip & Grøn (2015) [Full text]
Abstract: We apply a novel method based upon "before" and "after" relationships to investigate and quantify interconnections between global temperature anomaly (GTA), as response variable, and greenhouse gases (CO2) and total solar irradiance (TSI) as candidate causal variables for the period 1880 to 2010. The most likely interpretations of our results for the 6 to 8 years cyclic components of the variables are that during the period 1929 to 1936, CO2 significantly leads GTA. However, during the period 1960–2003, GTA apparently leads CO2, that is, the peaks (and troughs) in GTA are in front of, and close to, the peaks (and troughs) in CO2. For time windows outside these periods, we did not find significant before or after-relations. An alternative interpretation is that there is a shift between short (≈1.5 year) and long (≈5 years) durations between cause and effect. Relationships between GTA and TSI suggest that "inertia" of the global sea, land, and atmosphere system leads to delays longer than half their common cycle length of about 10 years. Based on the interaction patterns between the variables GTA, CO2, and TSI, we suggest the possibility that a new regime for how the variables interact started around 1960. From trend forms, and not considering physical mechanisms, we found that the trend in CO2 contributes ≈ 90 %, and the trend in TSI ≈ 10 %, to the trend in GTA during the last 130 years.
Citation: Seip, K.L., Grøn, Ø. A New method for identifying possible causal relationships between CO2, total solar irradiance and global temperature change. Theor Appl Climatol 127, 923–938 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1675-8.
Contribution of solar radiation to decadal temperature variability over land – Wang & Dickinson (2013) "Global air temperature has become the primary metric for judging global climate change. The variability of global temperature on a decadal timescale is still poorly understood. This paper examines further one suggested hypothesis, that variations in solar radiation reaching the surface (Rs) have caused much of the observed decadal temperature variability. Because Rs only heats air during the day, its variability is plausibly related to the variability of diurnal temperature range (daily maximum temperature minus its minimum). We show that the variability of diurnal temperature range is consistent with the variability of Rs at timescales from monthly to decadal. This paper uses long comprehensive datasets for diurnal temperature range to establish what has been the contribution of Rs to decadal temperature variability. It shows that Rs over land globally peaked in the 1930s, substantially decreased from the 1940s to the 1970s, and changed little after that. Reduction of Rs caused a reduction of more than 0.2 °C in mean temperature during May to October from the 1940s through the 1970s, and a reduction of nearly 0.2 °C in mean air temperature during November to April from the 1960s through the 1970s. This cooling accounts in part for the near-constant temperature from the 1930s into the 1970s. Since then, neither the rapid increase in temperature from the 1970s through the 1990s nor the slowdown of warming in the early twenty-first century appear to be significantly related to changes of Rs." Kaicun Wang and Robert E. Dickinson, PNAS, 2013, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1311433110. [Full text]
Evidence of recent causal decoupling between solar radiation and global temperature – Pasini et al. (2012) "The Sun has surely been a major external forcing to the climate system throughout the Holocene. Nevertheless, opposite trends in solar radiation and temperatures have been empirically identified in the last few decades. Here, by means of an inferential method—the Granger causality analysis—we analyze this situation and, for the first time, show that an evident causal decoupling between total solar irradiance and global temperature has appeared since the 1960s." Antonello Pasini et al 2012 Environ. Res. Lett. 7 034020 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/7/3/034020. [Full text]
Solar Influence on Global and Regional Climates – Lockwood (2012) "The literature relevant to how solar variability influences climate is vast—but much has been based on inadequate statistics and non-robust procedures. The common pitfalls are outlined in this review. The best estimates of the solar influence on the global mean air surface temperature show relatively small effects, compared with the response to anthropogenic changes (and broadly in line with their respective radiative forcings). However, the situation is more interesting when one looks at regional and season variations around the global means. In particular, recent research indicates that winters in Eurasia may have some dependence on the Sun, with more cold winters occurring when the solar activity is low. Advances in modelling "top-down" mechanisms, whereby stratospheric changes influence the underlying troposphere, offer promising explanations of the observed phenomena. In contrast, the suggested modulation of low-altitude clouds by galactic cosmic rays provides an increasingly inadequate explanation of observations." Mike Lockwood, Surveys in Geophysics, July 2012, Volume 33, Issue 3-4, pp 503-534. [Full text]
Solar Forcing of Climate – de Jager (2012) "Solar activity is evident both in the equatorial activity centres and in the polar magnetic field variations. The total solar irradiance variation is due to the former component. During the extraordinarily long minimum of activity between sunspot cycles 23 and 24, the variations related to the equatorial field components reached their minimum values in the first half of 2008, while those related to the polar field variations had their extreme values rather at the end of 2009 and the first half of 2010. The explanation of this delay is another challenge for dynamo theories. The role of the open solar flux has so far been grossly underestimated in discussions of Sun-climate relations. The gradual increase in the average terrestrial ground temperature since 1610 is related both to the equatorial and polar field variations. The main component (0.077 K/century) is due to the variation of the total solar irradiance. The second component (0.040 K/century) waits for an explanation. The smoothed residual increase, presumably antropogenic, obtained after subtraction of the known components from the total increase was 0.31 K in 1999." C. de Jager, Surveys in Geophysics, July 2012, Volume 33, Issue 3-4, pp 445-451. [Full text]
Solar activity–climate relations: A different approach – Stauning (2011) "The presentation of solar activity–climate relations is extended with the most recent sunspot and global temperature data series. The extension of data series shows clearly that the changes in terrestrial temperatures are related to sources different from solar activity after ∼1985. Based on analyses of data series for the years 1850–1985 it is demonstrated that, apart from an interval of positive deviation followed by a similar negative excursion in Earth's temperatures between ∼1923 and 1965, there is a strong correlation between solar activity and terrestrial temperatures delayed by 3 years, which complies with basic causality principles. A regression analysis between solar activity represented by the cycle-average sunspot number, SSNA, and global temperature anomalies, ΔTA, averaged over the same interval lengths, but delayed by 3 years, provides the relation ΔTA∼0.009 (±0.002) SSNA. Since the largest ever observed SSNA is ∼90 (in 1954–1965), the solar activity-related changes in global temperatures could amount to no more than ±0.4 °C over the past ∼400 years where the sunspots have been recorded. It is demonstrated that the small amplitudes of cyclic variations in the average global temperatures over the ∼11 year solar cycle excludes many of the various driver processes suggested in published and frequently quoted solar activity–climate relations. It is suggested that the in-cycle variations and also the longer term variations in global temperatures over the examined 135 years are mainly caused by corresponding changes in the total solar irradiance level representing the energy output from the core, but further modulated by varying energy transmission properties in the active outer regions of the Sun." P. Stauning, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Volume 73, Issue 13, August 2011, Pages 1999–2012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2011.06.011.
Are secular correlations between sunspots, geomagnetic activity, and global temperature significant? – Love et al. (2011) "Recent studies have led to speculation that solar-terrestrial interaction, measured by sunspot number and geomagnetic activity, has played an important role in global temperature change over the past century or so. We treat this possibility as an hypothesis for testing. We examine the statistical significance of cross-correlations between sunspot number, geomagnetic activity, and global surface temperature for the years 1868–2008, solar cycles 11–23. The data contain substantial autocorrelation and nonstationarity, properties that are incompatible with standard measures of cross-correlational significance, but which can be largely removed by averaging over solar cycles and first-difference detrending. Treated data show an expected statistically-significant correlation between sunspot number and geomagnetic activity, Pearson p < 10−4, but correlations between global temperature and sunspot number (geomagnetic activity) are not significant, p = 0.9954, (p = 0.8171). In other words, straightforward analysis does not support widely-cited suggestions that these data record a prominent role for solar-terrestrial interaction in global climate change. With respect to the sunspot-number, geomagnetic-activity, and global-temperature data, three alternative hypotheses remain difficult to reject: (1) the role of solar-terrestrial interaction in recent climate change is contained wholly in long-term trends and not in any shorter-term secular variation, or, (2) an anthropogenic signal is hiding correlation between solar-terrestrial variables and global temperature, or, (3) the null hypothesis, recent climate change has not been influenced by solar-terrestrial interaction." Love, J. J., K. Mursula, V. C. Tsai, and D. M. Perkins (2011), Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L21703, doi:10.1029/2011GL049380. [Full text]
Solar influences on climate – Gray et al. (2010) "Understanding the influence of solar variability on the Earth's climate requires knowledge of solar variability, solar-terrestrial interactions, and the mechanisms determining the response of the Earth's climate system. We provide a summary of our current understanding in each of these three areas. Observations and mechanisms for the Sun's variability are described, including solar irradiance variations on both decadal and centennial time scales and their relation to galactic cosmic rays. Corresponding observations of variations of the Earth's climate on associated time scales are described, including variations in ozone, temperatures, winds, clouds, precipitation, and regional modes of variability such as the monsoons and the North Atlantic Oscillation. A discussion of the available solar and climate proxies is provided. Mechanisms proposed to explain these climate observations are described, including the effects of variations in solar irradiance and of charged particles. Finally, the contributions of solar variations to recent observations of global climate change are discussed." Gray, L. J., et al. (2010), SOLAR INFLUENCES ON CLIMATE, Rev. Geophys., 48, RG4001, doi:10.1029/2009RG000282. [Full text]
An influence of solar spectral variations on radiative forcing of climate – Haigh et al. (2010) "The thermal structure and composition of the atmosphere is determined fundamentally by the incoming solar irradiance. Radiation at ultraviolet wavelengths dissociates atmospheric molecules, initiating chains of chemical reactions—specifically those producing stratospheric ozone—and providing the major source of heating for the middle atmosphere, while radiation at visible and near-infrared wavelengths mainly reaches and warms the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. Thus the spectral composition of solar radiation is crucial in determining atmospheric structure, as well as surface temperature, and it follows that the response of the atmosphere to variations in solar irradiance depends on the spectrum. Daily measurements of the solar spectrum between 0.2 µm and 2.4 µm, made by the Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM) instrument on the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) satellite since April 2004, have revealed that over this declining phase of the solar cycle there was a four to six times larger decline in ultraviolet than would have been predicted on the basis of our previous understanding. This reduction was partially compensated in the total solar output by an increase in radiation at visible wavelengths. Here we show that these spectral changes appear to have led to a significant decline from 2004 to 2007 in stratospheric ozone below an altitude of 45 km, with an increase above this altitude. Our results, simulated with a radiative-photochemical model, are consistent with contemporaneous measurements of ozone from the Aura-MLS satellite, although the short time period makes precise attribution to solar effects difficult. We also show, using the SIM data, that solar radiative forcing of surface climate is out of phase with solar activity. Currently there is insufficient observational evidence to validate the spectral variations observed by SIM, or to fully characterize other solar cycles, but our findings raise the possibility that the effects of solar variability on temperature throughout the atmosphere may be contrary to current expectations." Joanna D. Haigh, Ann R. Winning, Ralf Toumi & Jerald W. Harder, Nature, Volume: 467, Pages: 696–699, Date published: 07 October 2010, doi:10.1038/nature09426. [Full text]
Solar change and climate: an update in the light of the current exceptional solar minimum – Lockwood (2010) "Solar outputs during the current solar minimum are setting record low values for the space age. Evidence is here reviewed that this is part of a decline in solar activity from a grand solar maximum and that the Sun has returned to a state that last prevailed in 1924. Recent research into what this means, and does not mean, for climate change is reviewed." Mike Lockwood, Proc. R. Soc. A 8 February 2010 vol. 466 no. 2114 303-329, doi: 10.1098/rspa.2009.0519. [Full text]
Cycles and trends in solar irradiance and climate – Lean (2010) "How—indeed whether—the Sun's variable energy outputs influence Earth's climate has engaged scientific curiosity for more than a century. Early evidence accrued from correlations of assorted solar and climate indices, and from recognition that cycles near 11, 88 and 205 years are common in both the Sun and climate. But until recently, an influence of solar variability on climate, whether through cycles or trends, was usually dismissed because climate simulations with (primarily) simple energy balance models indicated that responses to the decadal solar cycle would be so small as to be undetectable in observations. However, in the past decade modeling studies have found both resonant responses and positive feedbacks in the ocean‐atmosphere system that may amplify the response to solar irradiance variations. Today, solar cycles and trends are recognized as important components of natural climate variability on decadal to centennial time scales. Understanding solar‐terrestrial linkages is requisite for the comprehensive understanding of Earth's evolving environment. The attribution of present‐day climate change, interpretation of changes prior to the industrial epoch, and forecast of future decadal climate change necessitate quantitative understanding of how, when, where, and why natural variability, including by the Sun, may exceed, obscure or mitigate anthropogenic changes." Judith L. Lean, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 1, 1, 111-122, DOI: 10.1002/wcc.18. [Full text]
Solar trends and global warming – Benestad & Schmidt (2009) "We use a suite of global climate model simulations for the 20th century to assess the contribution of solar forcing to the past trends in the global mean temperature. In particular, we examine how robust different published methodologies are at detecting and attributing solar-related climate change in the presence of intrinsic climate variability and multiple forcings. We demonstrate that naive application of linear analytical methods such as regression gives nonrobust results. We also demonstrate that the methodologies used by Scafetta and West (2005, 2006a, 2006b, 2007, 2008) are not robust to these same factors and that their error bars are significantly larger than reported. Our analysis shows that the most likely contribution from solar forcing a global warming is 7 ± 1% for the 20th century and is negligible for warming since 1980." Benestad, R. E. and G. A. Schmidt (2009), Solar trends and global warming, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D14101, doi:10.1029/2008JD011639. [Full text]
Recent changes in solar outputs and the global mean surface temperature. III. Analysis of contributions to global mean air surface temperature rise – Lockwood (2008) "A multivariate fit to the variation in global mean surface air temperature anomaly over the past half century is presented. The fit procedure allows for the effect of response time on the waveform, amplitude and lag of each radiative forcing input, and each is allowed to have its own time constant. It is shown that the contribution of solar variability to the temperature trend since 1987 is small and downward; the best estimate is −1.3% and the 2σ confidence level sets the uncertainty range of −0.7 to −1.9%. The result is the same if one quantifies the solar variation using galactic cosmic ray fluxes (for which the analysis can be extended back to 1953) or the most accurate total solar irradiance data composite. The rise in the global mean air surface temperatures is predominantly associated with a linear increase that represents the combined effects of changes in anthropogenic well-mixed greenhouse gases and aerosols, although, in recent decades, there is also a considerable contribution by a relative lack of major volcanic eruptions. The best estimate is that the anthropogenic factors contribute 75% of the rise since 1987, with an uncertainty range (set by the 2σ confidence level using an AR(1) noise model) of 49–160%; thus, the uncertainty is large, but we can state that at least half of the temperature trend comes from the linear term and that this term could explain the entire rise. The results are consistent with the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) estimates of the changes in radiative forcing (given for 1961–1995) and are here combined with those estimates to find the response times, equilibrium climate sensitivities and pertinent heat capacities (i.e. the depth into the oceans to which a given radiative forcing variation penetrates) of the quasi-periodic (decadal-scale) input forcing variations. As shown by previous studies, the decadal-scale variations do not penetrate as deeply into the oceans as the longer term drifts and have shorter response times. Hence, conclusions about the response to century-scale forcing changes (and hence the associated equilibrium climate sensitivity and the temperature rise commitment) cannot be made from studies of the response to shorter period forcing changes." Mike Lockwood, Proc. R. Soc. A 8 June 2008 vol. 464 no. 2094 1387-1404, doi: 10.1098/rspa.2007.0348. [Full text]
Recent oppositely directed trends in solar climate forcings and the global mean surface air temperature. II. Different reconstructions of the total solar irradiance variation and dependence on response time scale – Lockwood & Fröhlich (2008) "We have previously placed the solar contribution to recent global warming in context using observations and without recourse to climate models. It was shown that all solar forcings of climate have declined since 1987. The present paper extends that analysis to include the effects of the various time constants with which the Earth's climate system might react to solar forcing. The solar input waveform over the past 100 years is defined using observed and inferred galactic cosmic ray fluxes, valid for either a direct effect of cosmic rays on climate or an effect via their known correlation with total solar irradiance (TSI), or for a combination of the two. The implications, and the relative merits, of the various TSI composite data series are discussed and independent tests reveal that the PMOD composite used in our previous paper is the most realistic. Use of the ACRIM composite, which shows a rise in TSI over recent decades, is shown to be inconsistent with most published evidence for solar influences on pre-industrial climate. The conclusions of our previous paper, that solar forcing has declined over the past 20 years while surface air temperatures have continued to rise, are shown to apply for the full range of potential time constants for the climate response to the variations in the solar forcings." Mike Lockwood and Claus Fröhlich, Proc. R. Soc. A 8 June 2008 vol. 464 no. 2094 1367-1385, doi: 10.1098/rspa.2007.0347. [Full text]
Recent oppositely directed trends in solar climate forcings and the global mean surface air temperature – Lockwood & Fröhlich (2007) "There is considerable evidence for solar influence on the Earth's pre-industrial climate and the Sun may well have been a factor in post-industrial climate change in the first half of the last century. Here we show that over the past 20 years, all the trends in the Sun that could have had an influence on the Earth's climate have been in the opposite direction to that required to explain the observed rise in global mean temperatures." Mike Lockwood and Claus Fröhlich, Proc. R. Soc. A 8 October 2007 vol. 463 no. 2086 2447-2460, doi: 10.1098/rspa.2007.1880. [Full text]
Variations in solar luminosity and their effect on the Earth's climate – Foukal et al. (2006) "Variations in the Sun's total energy output (luminosity) are caused by changing dark (sunspot) and bright structures on the solar disk during the 11-year sunspot cycle. The variations measured from spacecraft since 1978 are too small to have contributed appreciably to accelerated global warming over the past 30 years. In this Review, we show that detailed analysis of these small output variations has greatly advanced our understanding of solar luminosity change, and this new understanding indicates that brightening of the Sun is unlikely to have had a significant influence on global warming since the seventeenth century. Additional climate forcing by changes in the Sun's output of ultraviolet light, and of magnetized plasmas, cannot be ruled out. The suggested mechanisms are, however, too complex to evaluate meaningfully at present." P. Foukal, C. Fröhlich, H. Spruit and T. M. L. Wigley, Nature 443, 161-166 (14 September 2006) | doi:10.1038/nature05072. [Full text]
Phenomenological solar contribution to the 1900–2000 global surface warming – Scafetta & West (2006) "We study the role of solar forcing on global surface temperature during four periods of the industrial era (1900–2000, 1900–1950, 1950–2000 and 1980–2000) by using a sun-climate coupling model based on four scale-dependent empirical climate sensitive parameters to solar variations. We use two alternative total solar irradiance satellite composites, ACRIM and PMOD, and a total solar irradiance proxy reconstruction. We estimate that the sun contributed as much as 45–50% of the 1900–2000 global warming, and 25–35% of the 1980–2000 global warming. These results, while confirming that anthropogenic-added climate forcing might have progressively played a dominant role in climate change during the last century, also suggest that the solar impact on climate change during the same period is significantly stronger than what some theoretical models have predicted." Scafetta, N. and B. J. West (2006), Phenomenological solar contribution to the 1900–2000 global surface warming, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L05708, doi:10.1029/2005GL025539. [Full text]
Measurement and Uncertainty of the Long-Term Total Solar Irradiance Trend – Dewitte et al. (2005) "A possible long-term trend of the total solar irradiance could be a natural cause for climate variations on Earth. Measurement of the total solar irradiance with space radiometers started in 1978. We present a new total solar irradiance composite, with an uncertainty of ± 0.35 W m−2. From the minimum in 1995 to the maximum in 2002 the total solar irradiance increased by 1.6 W m−2. In between the minima of 1987 and 1995 the total solar irradiance increased by 0.15 W m−2." Steven Dewitte, Dominique Crommelynck, Sabri Mekaoui, Alexandre Joukoff, Solar Physics, October 2004, Volume 224, Issue 1-2, pp 209-216, DOI: 10.1007/s11207-005-5698-7. [Full text]
Total solar irradiance and climate – Mendoza (2005) "The solar radiation is the fundamental source of energy that drives the Earth's climate and sustains life. The variability of this output certainly affects our planet. In the last two decades an enormous advance in the understanding of the variability of the solar irradiance has been achieved. Space-based measurements indicate that the total solar irradiance changes at various time scales, from minutes to the solar cycle. Climate models show that total solar irradiance variations can account for a considerable part of the temperature variation of the Earth's atmosphere in the pre-industrial era. During the 20th century its relative influence on the temperature changes has descended considerably. This means that other sources of solar activity as well as internal and man-made causes are contributing to the Earth's temperature variability, particularly the former in the 20th century. Some very challenging questions concerning total solar irradiance variations and climate have been raised: are total solar irradiance variations from cycle to cycle well represented by sunspot and facular changes? Does total solar irradiance variations always parallel the solar activity cycle? Is there a long-term variation of the total solar irradiance, and closely related to this, is the total solar irradiance output of the quiet sun constant? If there is not a long-term trend of total solar irradiance variations, then we need amplifying mechanisms of total solar irradiance to account for the good correlations found between total solar irradiance and climate. The latter because the observed total solar irradiance changes are inconsequential when introduced in present climate models." Blanca Mendoza, Advances in Space Research, Volume 35, Issue 5, 2005, Pages 882–890, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2004.10.011. [Full text]
How unusual is today's solar activity? (reply) – Solanki et al. (2005) "Muscheler et al. claim that the solar activity affecting cosmic rays was much higher in the past than we deduced from 14C measurements. However, this claim is based on a problematic normalization and is in conflict with independent results, such as the 44Ti activity in meteorites and the 10Be concentration in ice cores." S. K. Solanki, I. G. Usoskin, B. Kromer, M. Schüssler & J. Beer, Nature 436, E4-E5 (28 July 2005) | doi:10.1038/nature04046.
How unusual is today's solar activity? – Muscheler et al. (2005) "To put global warming into context requires knowledge about past changes in solar activity and the role of the Sun in climate change. Solanki et al. propose that solar activity during recent decades was exceptionally high compared with that over the preceding 8,000 years. However, our extended analysis of the radiocarbon record reveals several periods during past centuries in which the strength of the magnetic field in the solar wind was similar to, or even higher than, that of today." Raimund Muscheler, Fortunat Joos, Simon A. Müller & Ian Snowball, Nature 436, E3-E4 (28 July 2005) | doi:10.1038/nature04045.
Unusual activity of the Sun during recent decades compared to the previous 11,000 years – Solanki et al. (2004) "Direct observations of sunspot numbers are available for the past four centuries, but longer time series are required, for example, for the identification of a possible solar influence on climate and for testing models of the solar dynamo. Here we report a reconstruction of the sunspot number covering the past 11,400 years, based on dendrochronologically dated radiocarbon concentrations. We combine physics-based models for each of the processes connecting the radiocarbon concentration with sunspot number. According to our reconstruction, the level of solar activity during the past 70 years is exceptional, and the previous period of equally high activity occurred more than 8,000 years ago. We find that during the past 11,400 years the Sun spent only of the order of 10% of the time at a similarly high level of magnetic activity and almost all of the earlier high-activity periods were shorter than the present episode. Although the rarity of the current episode of high average sunspot numbers may indicate that the Sun has contributed to the unusual climate change during the twentieth century, we point out that solar variability is unlikely to have been the dominant cause of the strong warming during the past three decades." S. K. Solanki, I. G. Usoskin, B. Kromer, M. Schüssler & J. Beer, Nature 431, 1084-1087 (28 October 2004) | doi:10.1038/nature02995.
Can solar variability explain global warming since 1970? – Solanki & Krivova (2003) "The magnitude of the Sun's influence on climate has been a subject of intense debate. Estimates of this magnitude are generally based on assumptions regarding the forcing due to solar irradiance variations and climate modeling. This approach suffers from uncertainties that are difficult to estimate. Such uncertainties are introduced because the employed models may not include important but complex processes or mechanisms or may treat these in too simplified a manner. Here we take a more empirical approach. We employ time series of the most relevant solar quantities, the total and UV irradiance between 1856 and 1999 and the cosmic rays flux between 1868 and 1999. The time series are constructed using direct measurements wherever possible and reconstructions based on models and proxies at earlier times. These time series are compared with the climate record for the period 1856 to 1970. The solar records are scaled such that statistically the solar contribution to climate is as large as possible in this period. Under this assumption we repeat the comparison but now including the period 1970–1999. This comparison shows without requiring any recourse to modeling that since roughly 1970 the solar influence on climate (through the channels considered here) cannot have been dominant. In particular, the Sun cannot have contributed more than 30% to the steep temperature increase that has taken place since then, irrespective of which of the three considered channels is the dominant one determining Sun-climate interactions: tropospheric heating caused by changes in total solar irradiance, stratospheric chemistry influenced by changes in the solar UV spectrum, or cloud coverage affected by the cosmic ray flux." Solanki, S. K. and N. A. Krivova (2003), Can solar variability explain global warming since 1970?, J. Geophys. Res., 108(A5), 1200, doi:10.1029/2002JA009753. [Full text]
Do Models Underestimate the Solar Contribution to Recent Climate Change? – Stott et al. (2003) "Current attribution analyses that seek to determine the relative contributions of different forcing agents to observed near-surface temperature changes underestimate the importance of weak signals, such as that due to changes in solar irradiance. Here a new attribution method is applied that does not have a systematic bias against weak signals. It is found that current climate models underestimate the observed climate response to solar forcing over the twentieth century as a whole, indicating that the climate system has a greater sensitivity to solar forcing than do models. The results from this research show that increases in solar irradiance are likely to have had a greater influence on global-mean temperatures in the first half of the twentieth century than the combined effects of changes in anthropogenic forcings. Nevertheless the results confirm previous analyses showing that greenhouse gas increases explain most of the global warming observed in the second half of the twentieth century." Stott, Peter A., Gareth S. Jones, John F. B. Mitchell, 2003: Do Models Underestimate the Solar Contribution to Recent Climate Change?. J. Climate, 16, 4079–4093. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2003)0162.0.CO;2. [Full text]
The Sun's Role in Climate Variations – Rind (2002) A review paper. "Is the Sun the controller of climate changes, only the instigator of changes that are mostly forced by the system feedbacks, or simply a convenient scapegoat for climate variations lacking any other obvious cause? This question is addressed for suggested solar forcing mechanisms operating on time scales from billions of years to decades. Each mechanism fails to generate the expected climate response in important respects, although some relations are found. The magnitude of the system feedbacks or variability appears as large or larger than that of the solar forcing, making the Sun's true role ambiguous. As the Sun provides an explicit external forcing, a better understanding of its cause and effect in climate change could help us evaluate the importance of other climate forcings (such as past and future greenhouse gas changes)." D. Rind, Science 26 April 2002: Vol. 296 no. 5568 pp. 673-677, DOI: 10.1126/science.1069562. [Full text]
The effects of solar variability on the Earth's climate – Haigh (2002) A review paper. "The absolute value of total solar irradiance is not known to better than ca. 0.3% but measurements from satellite instruments over the past two solar cycles have shown that it varies by ca. 0.1% on this time-scale. Over longer periods its value has been reconstructed using proxy measures of solar activity, and these suggest that during the Maunder minimum in solar activity of the late 17th century it was 3-4 W m-2 lower than at present. Observational data suggest that the Sun has influenced temperatures on decadal, centennial and millennial time-scales, but radiative forcing considerations and the results of energy-balance models and general circulation models suggest that the warming during the latter part of the 20th century cannot be ascribed entirely to solar effects. However, chemical and dynamical processes in the middle atmosphere may act to amplify the solar impact. An analysis of zonal mean temperature data shows that solar effects may be differentiated from those associated with other factors such as volcanic eruptions and the El Niño Southern Oscillation." Joanna D. Haigh, Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 361, No. 1802, Science and Applications of the Space Environment: New Results and Interdisciplinary Connections (Jan. 15, 2003), pp. 95-111. [Full text]
Solar Variability and the Earth's Climate: Introduction and Overview – Reid (2000) "Numerous attempts have been made over the years to link various aspects of solar variability to changes in the Earth's climate. There has been growing interest in this possible connection in recent years, spurred largely by the need to understand the natural causes of climate change, against which the expected global warming due to man's activities will have to be detected. The time scale of concern here is that of decades to centuries, and excludes the longer millennial scale in which orbital variations play a dominant role. The field has long been plagued by the lack of an acceptable physical mechanism by which solar variability can affect climate, but the discovery of variability in the Sun's total irradiance (the solar "constant" of meteorology) by spacecraft instruments has pointed to a direct mechanism. Other less direct mechanisms that have been suggested involve variations in the Sun's ultraviolet flux and in the plasma outflow of the solar wind. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current state of the field, emphasizing the proposed mechanisms as an introduction to the more detailed papers that follow. The particular case of sea-surface temperature data will be used as an illustration." George C. Reid, Space Science Reviews, November 2000, Volume 94, Issue 1-2, pp 1-11, DOI: 10.1023/A:1026797127105.
The Sun's total irradiance: Cycles, trends and related climate change uncertainties since 1976 – Fröhlich & Lean (1998) "A composite record of the Sun's total irradiance compiled from measurements made by five independent space‐based radiometers since 1978 exhibits a prominent 11‐year cycle with similar levels during 1986 and 1996, the two most recent minimum epochs of solar activity. This finding contradicts recent assertions of a 0.04% irradiance increase from the 1986 to 1996 solar minima and suggests that solar radiative output trends contributed little of the 0.2°C increase in the global mean surface temperature in the past decade. Nor does our 18‐year composite irradiance record support a recent upward irradiance trend inferred from solar cycle length, a parameter used to imply a close linkage in the present century between solar variability and climate change." Fröhlich, C. and J. Lean (1998), The Sun's total irradiance: Cycles, trends and related climate change uncertainties since 1976, Geophys. Res. Lett., 25(23), 4377–4380, doi:10.1029/1998GL900157. [Full text]
Dependence of global temperatures on atmospheric CO2 and solar irradiance – Thomson (1997) "Changes in global average temperatures and of the seasonal cycle are strongly coupled to the concentration of atmospheric CO2. I estimate transfer functions from changes in atmospheric CO2 and from changes in solar irradiance to hemispheric temperatures that have been corrected for the effects of precession. They show that changes from CO2 over the last century are about three times larger than those from changes in solar irradiance. The increase in global average temperature during the last century is at least 20 times the SD of the residual temperature series left when the effects of CO2 and changes in solar irradiance are subtracted." David J. Thomson, PNAS August 5, 1997 vol. 94 no. 16 8370-8377. [Full text]
The Seasons, Global Temperature, and Precession – Thomson (1995) "Analysis of instrumental temperature records beginning in 1659 shows that in much of the world the dominant frequency of the seasons is one cycle per anomalistic year (the time from perihelion to perihelion, 365.25964 days), not one cycle per tropical year (the time from equinox to equinox, 365.24220 days), and that the timing of the annual temperature cycle is controlled by perihelion. The assumption that the seasons were timed by the equinoxes has caused many statistical analyses of climate data to be badly biased. Coherence between changes in the amplitude of the annual cycle and those in the average temperature show that between 1854 and 1922 there were small temperature variations, probably of solar origin. Since 1922, the phase of the Northern Hemisphere coherence between these quantities switched from 0° to 180° and implies that solar variability cannot be the sole cause of the increasing temperature over the last century. About 1940, the phase patterns of the previous 300 years began to change and now appear to be changing at an unprecedented rate. The average change in phase is now coherent with the logarithm of atmospheric CO2 concentration." David J. Thomson, Science 7 April 1995: Vol. 268 no. 5207 pp. 59-68, DOI: 10.1126/science.268.5207.59.
7 Responses to "Papers on the role of the Sun in recent global warming"
January 8, 2013 at 8:00 am
Odd, somehow i believed this article would have been empty. but, There are so many articles in there it must be true the sun has a role in recent global warming? :-P. Sorry I do not have a better header for this, but this would require people actually read some of the papers to find out what the role is. OTOH, the sun has a role in tropical continents, but not much elsewhere. Or maybe in the spring time ozone layer? Anyway, I have to go now without reading any of the articles.
January 14, 2013 at 9:53 pm
[…] 2013/01/07: AGWObserver: Papers on the role of the Sun in recent global warming […]
September 2, 2013 at 8:52 pm
Contribution of solar radiation to decadal temperature variability over land – Wang & Dickinson 2013
Global air temperature has become the primary metric for judging global climate change. The variability of global temperature on a decadal timescale is still poorly understood. This paper examines further one suggested hypothesis, that variations in solar radiation reaching the surface (Rs) have caused much of the observed decadal temperature variability. Because Rs only heats air during the day, its variability is plausibly related to the variability of diurnal temperature range (daily maximum temperature minus its minimum). We show that the variability of diurnal temperature range is consistent with the variability of Rs at timescales from monthly to decadal. This paper uses long comprehensive datasets for diurnal temperature range to establish what has been the contribution of Rs to decadal temperature variability. It shows that Rs over land globally peaked in the 1930s, substantially decreased from the 1940s to the 1970s, and changed little after that. Reduction of Rs caused a reduction of more than 0.2 °C in mean temperature during May to October from the 1940s through the 1970s, and a reduction of nearly 0.2 °C in mean air temperature during November to April from the 1960s through the 1970s. This cooling accounts in part for the near-constant temperature from the 1930s into the 1970s. Since then, neither the rapid increase in temperature from the 1970s through the 1990s nor the slowdown of warming in the early twenty-first century appear to be significantly related to changes of Rs.
March 19, 2020 at 4:00 am
This paper might work in this list, Ari.
A New method for identifying possible causal relationships between CO2, total solar irradiance and global temperature change
We apply a novel method based upon "before" and "after" relationships to investigate and quantify interconnections between global temperature anomaly (GTA), as response variable, and greenhouse gases (CO2) and total solar irradiance (TSI) as candidate causal variables for the period 1880 to 2010…. From trend forms, and not considering physical mechanisms, we found that the trend in CO2 contributes ≈ 90 %, and the trend in TSI ≈ 10 %, to the trend in GTA during the last 130 years.
Full version at sci-hub. Couldn't find another full version anywhere else.


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Welcome to the March 12, 2018 edition of BCHL Today, a (near) daily look at what's going on around the league and the junior A world.
The first round of the BCHL playoffs is done.
Series that went the distance finished up Sunday night, and in the end there were no surprises. A few series went longer than I expected, and the coin flip between Nanaimo and Powell River landed the wrong way, but in the end teams that were supposed to win came out on top.
We start this morning in Victoria where the Grizzlies completed an epic comeback with a 3-1 win win Sunday at the Q Centre.
|Bulldogs forward Isaac Tonkin-Palmer takes a check from Grizzlies defenceman Cole Noble during Game 6 on Saturday. ELENA RARDON PHOTO
Kurtis Chapman stopped 31 pucks as Victoria erased an 0-3 series deficit against Alberni Valley, taking the series in seven. Over five starts in the series, Chapman posted save percentages of .921, .971, .971, .939 and last night, .969. At a time of year when goaltending is so huge, the Grizzlies have to feel great about their number one guy being on such a roll.
Cameron Thompson, Finn Withey (great name!) and Cole Noble scored the Victoria goals in game seven.
In another example of referees keeping their whistles in their pockets in the playoffs, there were only eight penalties called and two power plays, total, in the game. Alberni Valley had both. Victoria never saw a man advantage.
What to say about AV? They'll be remembered as the team that had a top seed on the ropes and blew a huge lead, which maybe isn't fair. Once Victoria got Chapman back and flipped the switch, they overwhelmed the underdog Dawgs, but Alberni Valley deserves credit for taking this series to the limit when no one thought they'd win a game.
It's something for the franchise to build on.
Powell River will meet Victoria in the second round of the playoffs after taking out Nanaimo in six games.
The series concluded Saturday night with a 6-4 Kings win at the Hap Parker Arena. Mitchell Williams and Carter Turnbull had two goals apiece for Powell River with Neal Samanski and Gavin Rauser adding singles. The game was 5-4 into the final minute. Williams scored his second of the game with 35 seconds left to seal the deal.
The goaltending was interesting in this series.
We've talked lots about the Powell River netminders. Matteo Paler-Chow stopped 30 of 34 shots Saturday, his first clunky performance of the first round. Checking into this series in game three, the Vancouverite posted save percentages of .933, .943, .938 and .882, out-dueling Nanaimo's Taz Burman. The Tazmanian Devil struggled to find his footing and ended the playoffs with a thud, allowing six goals on 36 shots for a .833 SP in game six.
You wonder how much the absence of Jake Harris hurt Nanaimo. The Toronto native was Nanaimo's second leading scorer during the regular season, despite missing a big chunk of games. In the 41 games he played in, the 19 year old collected 20 goals and 47 points, posting a better points-per-game (1.15) than Tristan Crozier (1.08). Harris was knocked out of the lineup in mid-February, taking a big weapon out of the Nanaimo arsenal.
Crozier did his thing against Powell River, leading Nanaimo with two goals and six points. Cal Babych, Parker Colley and David Melaragni had four points apiece, but in a series where the Clippers twice lost by a single goal, Harris might have been the difference.
Nanaimo came into the playoffs on such a role, carrying that 10 game win streak into the post-season.
Now they're out, showing you just how fast things can change.
Sticking with Powell River, the team is being sued by former head coach/general manager Kent Lewis.
The Powell River Peak reported last week that the suit was filed in the Supreme Court of the Powell River law courts March. 2.
Lewis was fired by the team Jan. 29, on the day his club clinched a playoff spot.
He was in his 18th season guiding the team. The Kings experienced great success under his leadership, highlighted by four straight league finals appearances from 2009 to 2012.
Powell River Kings Hockey Club Society president Rob Villani explained at the time that the team was looking for a full-time hockey boss, where Lewis had been operating as a part-timer. Lawrence Robinson, a Vancouver lawyer working on Lewis' behalf, said his client's reputation reputation was damaged when the Kings fired him. Robinson said Lewis reached out to the Powell River board, looking to get an explanation for his firing and maybe 'clear the air,' but his request for a meeting was ignored.
"He led this team for a long time, successfully, clinched a playoff spot this year, and then in circumstances where a playoff spot has been clinched and they're on the cusp of the playoffs, he is unceremoniously and summarily terminated from his employment," Robinson told the Powell River Peak. "That inevitably leads to speculation running wild and people are questioning what happened and, in fact, to this day Kent Lewis is not sure what precipitated him being dismissed from his job."
As of March 7 the team had 21 days to respond to the civil suit.
Back to playoff results and the other series that was decided on Sunday.
Chilliwack fell 3-1 in Prince George and the Spruce Kings prevailed in seven games, setting up a second round series with Surrey.
I'll take a deeper dive into the Chiefs later this week, trying to determine where their season stacks up against other Royal Bank Cup hosts from the past decade or so. The answer, I'm sure, is not too well, but I will give Chilliwack credit for taking this series the distance.
There was nothing in the regular season numbers to suggest this would go seven games, keeping in mind that the Chiefs didn't beat PG even once during the campaign. I picked Chilliwack to lose in five games, and I know head coach Jason Tatarnic used predictions from myself (and others?) to fire up his team. He indicated as much in a pre-game radio interview with Chilliwack radio play-by-play man Vanni DeBartolo last night, so I am taking full credit for helping motivate his crew.
The one element I couldn't factor into my round one prediction was goaltending.
|Chilliwack Chiefs goalie Daniel Chenard stretches to make a save against the Surrey Eagles during a regular season matchup. Chenard's playoff performance gives the Chiefs hope as they take nearly two months to prepare for the 2018 Royal Bank Cup. GARRETT JAMES PHOTO
Chiefs netminder Daniel Chenard posted a 3.07 goals-against average and .893 save percentage in 31 regular season appearances. There was no reason to suspect he would suddenly find his game in the playoffs, but that's what the 17 year old did, cutting his GAA by more than one and a half goals per game, down to 1.51. His save percentage rocketed up to .927
Chenard went toe-to-toe with a guy, Evan DeBrouwer, who was a finalist for BCHL Goaltender of the Year. DeBrouwer's first round numbers were 1.92 and .927.
Chenard's performance gives Chilliwack some hope going into the RBC Cup in May, but their fatal flaw remains. In Sunday's finale the Chiefs led 1-0 into the third period but couldn't bury the Spruce Kings, and that was a common thread throughout the regular season and playoffs. The team has hard workers up and down the roster, guys who try real hard and score at a reasonable rate. But they lack the high-end talent that can produce back-breaking goals when they're needed the most.
There's some more bulletin board material for you Coach T.
Side note: Game six ends just before 9:30 p.m. Saturday night. After a long bus ride to PG the teams are back at it in a 7 p.m. start Sunday. Brutal. Out of safety concerns for the players, couldn't (shouldn't) the league have pushed game seven to Monday?
I'll get into each of the second round series later this week, but here are the matchups.
The Mainland division final will have Prince George versus Surrey while the Island division final features Victoria versus Powell River.
The Interior division has the top-seed Penticton Vees versus the number-four seed Trail Smoke Eaters while the number-two seed Vernon Vipers face the number-three seed Wenatchee Wild.
I am so glad the second round is here and the playoff pool has been thinned. I am looking forward to following three of those series.
If you've been reading BCHL Today lately, you can guess which one I'm not fired up about.
Eric Welsh is the sports editor at the Chilliwack Progress and has been covering junior A hockey in B.C. and Alberta since 2003.
Email firstname.lastname@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


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Posts Tagged 'trout'
Let's start the xmas spirit!
Ahahahaha! I just got this in my Tubmail and it's too good not to share!
Doctor Robert wrote a song about me.
Here is the best (and first) song anyone has ever written about me.
P.S. We're doing some xmas content, so be sure to log in over the holidays!


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Dark Side (Open Edition)
Regular price £25.00
Limited edition prints by British artist and screen-printer, Barry Bulsara. Inspiration for his prints mainly comes from contemporary culture and almost anything sci-fi. Barry works in a variety of styles and mediums, depending on what would suit the subject, and whether he fancies having a go at something new.
Frame not included


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Today's News: Our Take - "Rescue Me" Singer Fontella Bass Dies
Fontella Bass, the soul singer who topped the R&B charts with the 1965 hit "Rescue Me," has died, The Associated Press reports. She was 72.
Bass died Wednesday night at a St. Louis hospice from complications from a heart attack she suffered three weeks earlier, according to her daughter. Bass had also suffered a series of strokes over the past seven years.
See celebrities we've lost this year
"She was an outgoing person," her daughter, Neuka Mitchell, said of her mother. "She had a very big personality. Any room she entered she just lit the room up, whether she was on stage or just going out to eat."
Bass was the daughter of gospel singer Martha Bass, one of the Clara Ward singers, and her younger brother David Peaston had several R&B hits in the 1980s and 1990s. Bass began performing in her church choir at age 6. She eventually auditioned for Chess Records and landed a recording contract, at first singing duets. "Don't Mess Up A Good Thing", which she sang with Bobby McClure, reached No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100. She co-wrote and recorded "Rescue Me" later that year and it reached No. 4 on the singles chart.
Remember when Justin Timberlake had curls? Check out the most dramatic celebrity makeovers
"Rescue Me" was later covered by Linda Ronstadt, Cher and Pat Benatar, among others. Bass eventually married Lester Bowie and had four children.
She later recorded a gospel album, No Ways Tired, in 1995 - an effort that earned her a Grammy nomination.
She is survived by four children.
View original "Rescue Me" Singer Fontella Bass Dies at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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News Bulletin Number 2
News Bulletin
English Version
Thursday, 23 June, 2016
Number 2.
Orthodox Academy of Crete 18-27 June 2016
He divided the nations.
When He distributed the tongues of fire, He called all to UNITY.
And with one voice we glorify the All-Holy Spirit.
(Kontakion of Pentecost)
This Bulletin is designed as a work-tool for the information of the Observers and the accredited members of the Mass Media. The translations into other languages do not have an official character.
This Bulletin is published on the web-site of the Holy and Great Council: https://www.holycouncil.org/home
Plenary Session Tuesday, the 21st June
During the first morning session on Tuesday, 21 June, His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch condemned the demonstrations organised to exploit groups of naïve or zealous believers every ready to oppose the Holy and Great Council. He prayed that the great fire in Cyprus would be swiftly extinguished. He announced that a telegram had been sent by the Catholics in Greece and that a message of greeting had been received from the Synod of Roman Catholic Bishops in America. He also announced the amendment proposals relating to the text about the Mission of the Church in today's world submitted to the Secretariat of the Council by the Church of Serbia and requested that they be accepted by the Council with certain editorial changes.
Topic: The Orthodox Diaspora
Following the acceptance of the amendments, the text on the Orthodox Diaspora and the associated Regulation for the organization and functioning of the established Regional Episcopal Assemblies was read out. His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch noted that even though the desirable canonical organization of the Episcopal Assemblies had not proved possible, nevertheless significant steps had been taken and the efforts had brought important fruits for their harmonic functioning, in spite of the negative stance of one or two Churches. These positive steps were underlined by the Presidents of the Episcopal Assemblies of America and Germany, as well as by many other members of the Council, while the causes for the present dysfunctionalities were noted by their Beatitudes the Primates of Cyprus, Albania, Romania, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Poland and many Hierarchs, including Alexandros of Nigeria, Seraphim of Zimbabwe, Basil of Constantia, Irenaeos of Batska, Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Theophanis of Moldavia, and others.
Discussions on the Topic
The proposals discussed focused, on the one hand, on preserving the existing text in the form it had been unanimously passed to the Holy and Great Synod by the Synaxis of the Primates of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches (Chambesy, Jan. 2016), since it is complete and covers the needs of the Episcopal Assemblies, and on the other hand, on exploiting the authority of the Council to remove certain non-canonical practices and established dysfunctions for the more effective fulfillment of the important work of the Episcopal Assemblies.
In their responses their Beatitudes the Primates, reviewed constructively the different proposals of the two tendencies, making reference especially to the absence of the four Holy Orthodox Churches not participating in the Holy and Great Council so as to anticipate or avert undesirable misunderstandings or confusions. Accordingly, His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch, as President of the Holy and Great Council, defended both the canonical right and the authority of the Council to protect the canonical order of the Orthodox Church and to guarantee the harmonic functioning of inter-Orthodox and inter-church relations, and so he considered it necessary to accept at least certain amendments on primarily practical matters of canonical order.


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The European Union's antitrust investigation team has released preliminary statements on how it will rule on the question of whether Microsoft abused its dominant market position to push the adoption of Internet Explorer; the remarks are not encouraging. The investigation is not over—Microsoft still has time to issue its own formal response to further concerns the EU raised in January—but the company may need a Hail Mary pass to escape the penalty the EU is prepared to level.
Jonathan Todd, spokesperson for the EU Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes, gave the website EurActiv a peek into what the commission is planning in the event that Microsoft cannot successfully answer the EU's questions. "If the Commission's preliminary conclusions as outlined in the recent statement of objections were confirmed," Todd said, "the Commission would intend to impose remedies that enabled users and manufacturers to make an unbiased choice between Internet Explorer and competing third party web browsers." There's also a hefty fine attached to the remedy, but it's the browser issue we'll focus on.
"Unbiased," in this case, means "bundled." Under the proposed penalty, Windows would prompt the user to choose one or more browsers to install and query which browser should be set as default. This query could occur at first boot (as described), or could possibly be set by an OEM like Dell or HP; users could theoretically customize their browser selections during the process of ordering a system.
Technically, there's no reason why this plan wouldn't work. Browser install packages aren't particularly large, the installations tend to be quick (particularly on a brand-new OS installation where there's nothing to import), and it shouldn't be too hard for Microsoft to build an installer that would run once, set browser choices, download updates (or redirect to appropriate update websites) and then exit. Asking users to install a browser of their choice is less complex and more attractive than, say, forcing Microsoft to sell a version of Vista or Windows 7 without a media player. Interestingly EuroActiv quotes an unnamed commission official as stating that the remedy that forced the creation of Windows XP N "was rubbish."
The problem with the "ship your competitor's browser" approach is that it requires the EU to define which browers are and aren't considered competitive with Internet Explorer. Firefox makes the cut without question, as does Safari, but those three browsers account for 97.37 percent of the browser market according to NetApplications. If we assume that Marketshare's numbers are at least ballpark-accurate, that other 2.63 percent are split between a number of other options, including Chrome (1.12 percent), Opera (0.57 percent) and Netscape (0.57 percent). Below that, we have "other" at 0.22 percent; this presumably includes all the various OSS Web browsers.
The EU's proposed remedy could create enormous customer confusion if it isn't deployed carefully, and it runs the risk of harming future browser development. Microsoft may have initially gained market share by taking advantage of its near-monopoly in the OS market, but the current browser market is scarcely monopolistic. The browsers that satisfy the EU's "competitive with Internet Explorer" bar, meanwhile, achieve tremendous exposure on their own. This may equalize the situation for Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera, but future entrants could be caught in a catch-22.


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James Bond is the kind of man who gets shot at an awful lot. In fact, he's lucky to even be alive because, during his 22-film Hollywood career, the secret agent has managed to dodge a total of 4,662 bullets.
In New Scientist, some context is added to that number by working out the probability of all those shots missing him:
"A static well-aimed shot would almost certainly have proved lethal, but assuming all 4662 were "on the run", the probability of a single fatal shot is about 5 per cent. That is, the chance of a single shot missing is 0.95, and hence the probability of all shots missing is 0.954662 or 1.4 × 10-104, which is as close to zero as makes no difference."
Along the way, Bond's also managed to dispatch 198 villains. This is just data from the Hollywood films of course; include the books, and those figures look even more ridiculous.
There is, of course, some ambiguity over exactly how many shots have been aimed at Bond—these numbers were provided by Gordon Stanger for New Scientist. [New Scientist]
Image by Gl0ck/Shutterstock


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The Audi A6 at Audi Wynnewood.
The road is now an intelligent place.
With a host of available technologies, the Audi A6 easily outsmarts today's driving environment. Its integration of Google Earth connects the vehicle to destinations in ways not previously possible and its ability to transform into a Wi-Fi hotspot means your passengers stay connected no matter where they are. Finally, an intelligent build makes the new A6 the lightest, most powerful, most fuel-efficient A6 yet, proving once and for all that brawn and brains are anything but mutually exclusive.
Available Technologies
The A6 offers intuitive technologies that anticipate human error on the road. Audi side assist keeps an eye on your blind spots while you keep your eyes on the road, using LED lights in your side mirrors to alert you of fast-approaching vehicles. Night-vision assistant uses thermal-imaging technology to detect unseen objects up to 1,000 feet in the distance while Audi pre sense offers four distinct stages of automated response for the times when even your fastest reactions aren't fast enough.
Performance, Personalized
Intelligence means understanding that there is more than one correct answer in any situation. As the road changes, so too should your drive. With Audi drive select, four distinct settings configure your A's engine, suspension, transmission and steering wheel, allowing you to match the vehicle's performance to your mood, your needs or the road itself.
Intelligent by Design
A car capable of making 2,000 decisions a second has to be built in smart way. Its steel-aluminum construction makes the this the lightest A6 yet, enhancing nearly every aspect of the vehicle's performance. This composite build lightens the static weight of the car, allowing it to harness more power, stop more quickly and decreases its fuel consumption by up to 19% compared to previous models.


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President Obama's 2014 Budget Proposal and Proposed Food Aid Reform
This week President Obama released his 2014 Budget Proposal, which introduced major reform in the delivery of food assistance. The Washington Post reports the White House has proposed "the first major change in three decades to the way the United States supplies food aid to impoverished nations, significantly scaling back the program that buys commodities from US farmers and ships them to the needy overseas." Under a budget proposal released Wednesday, "nearly half of $1.4 billion in requested funds for the aid could instead be spent to purchase local bulk food in countries in need or to distribute individual vouchers for local purchases." USAID administrator Rajiv Shah said in an interview, "We've made a strong commitment to provide more flexibility," noting that "local purchase of food allows for a response time nearly 14 weeks faster" than shipping from the US, and also is "30 percent cheaper for certain types of commodities." Shah added, "We recognize that any transition has to be done in a careful, thoughtful manner," but argued that over the long term "spending money to build and modernize agricultural systems in current food-recipient countries 'is ultimately what creates tens of thousands more jobs here in our country.'"
Oxfam's Paul O'Brien welcomed the proposals, telling the Wall Street Journal: "The Obama administration has taken an important step towards long overdue reforms to bring food aid into the 21st century…This president's proposal will get food to more hungry people faster, cheaper and more efficiently. Congress should pass them expeditiously."
Read more about the Proposal in these publications: The Hill, NPR, Washington Post and Huffington Post.
USAID Announces Initiative to Promote LGBT Rights Abroad
The four-year public-private partnership between USAID and Olivia Cruises, UCLA's Williams Institute, the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, the Gay & Lesbian Victory Institute and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency "will work with local LGBT groups to provide leadership training, research and other help, lending the imprimatur of the U.S. government to people who in many countries are outcast and vulnerable, " The San Francisco Chronicle reports. "This partnership leverages the financial resources and skills of each partner to further inclusive development and increase respect for the human rights of LGBT people around the world," noted Claire Lucas, senior advisor of the USAID Office of Innovation and Development Alliances. "It can be a real game-changer in the advancement of LGBT human rights."


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Erica Green Beaded Sunglass & Mask Chain With AirPod Attachment
- Measures approximately 26"
- Lobster claw closure
- Green translucent beads with Airpod attachment
- Mask is not included
- WARNING! Small Parts. Not for children under 3 years. Strangulation hazard for children and adults.
- No returns or exchanges
- Orders typically ship within 2-4 business days
- Expedited shipping available
California Residents: Prop 65 Warning
Free ground shipping on orders over $50 to anywhere in the contiguous United States (excluding AK & HI). All product ships via FedEx,UPS or USPS. Expedited shipping options are available to choose from. Orders ship within 2-4 business days. Orders placed on Friday after 12:00 PM EST will begin processing the following Monday. Transit times do NOT include Saturday, Sunday, or Holidays.
Your tracking number will be emailed to you when your order is shipped. Please make sure that your order is shipping to a secure location, as once a package has been delivered to the correct location, we cannot be responsible for lost or stolen packages. Jill and Ally is not liable for any lost shipments. Customers are responsible for claiming all misplaced, lost, undelivered OR "abandoned" shipments directly with Fedex, UPS or USPS. All customers are encouraged to contact Fedex, UPS or USPS about a missing or undelivered package. In the event that your package is lost or misplaced, we will do our best to assist you.
Rugs, clocks and Nosh Boxes ship free in the contiguous U.S.
Please note, we cannot shop Nosh Boxes or Clocks internationally.
*We are currently unable to ship to Venezuela, China, Hong Kong or Russia


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(WOMENSENEWS)–Never underestimate the power of friends and family to influence your life's work; nor for you to do the same.
Taking tea in my grandmother's parlor, when I was around 8 or 9 years old, I gazed at a tea set with the historic words that made a strong imprint on my young mind: Votes for Women.
My grandfather served on the faculty at Yale University, where the women's suffrage movement gained strong support in that progressive setting.
My mother, now 93, was and is another powerful role model: a graduate of Vassar with two master's degrees and a career in education that started with teaching in elementary school eventually led her to establish model libraries in elementary schools across Connecticut. Like my grandmother's, her marriage was strikingly egalitarian for its time.
Fathers are also very important for girls. My own wonderful father encouraged me to be active and involved in the world. He was a fine sailor who taught me to sail and encouraged me to race, which I did for a number of years.
I had the privilege of attending a high school for girls in Richmond, Va., where each day we were reminded by our formidable dean (in her tie-up heels and crepe dresses) that "women rule the world."
Carrying the Message Forward
How could I not carry that message forward in my own, unique way?
On Aug. 26 the United States celebrates the 87th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which ensures women with the right to vote. That struggle took decades and spanned two centuries, much longer than it might have taken had the suffrage movement been sufficiently capitalized.
What other progress is now held back by insufficient funds?
I am particularly happy that my husband caught my enthusiasm for the Atlanta Women's Foundation. Over and over, you see the reverse in philanthropy: a woman supporting her husband's favorite cause. In this case, my husband decided to join me and it has been an honor and inspiration to see others join us in making their own bold financial commitments to this terrific organization.
The Atlanta Women's Foundation makes grants to community organizations in four areas: advancing economic justice for women, challenging violence against women, promoting women's health and addressing homelessness among women.
Our community has struggled for a while with the problem of homeless women with children.
Helping Women Get on Their Feet
Whereas some organizations have established shelters and other services addressing the problem, the Atlanta Women's Foundation decided to invest in programs–education, job training, child care–that have helped numerous women get on their feet and into homes of their own.
One example is a partnership between a transitional housing program and a senior center that trained women to become in-home caregivers–at a living wage. As a result of that project formerly homeless women are employed, have their own places to live and are supporting themselves and their children.
Winding back the clock a number of decades, after I graduated from college I worked for a while in the Northeast, where I met and married John at the mid-point of his two years at Harvard Business School.
For our honeymoon we went to Europe, bought a red convertible Volkswagen and drove 8,000 miles in nine weeks, guided by Frommer's "Europe on $5 A Day."
In time John and I moved to Georgia, where John and a friend from business school started a building materials business. Eventually John migrated to a somewhat different business: using those materials to build houses himself. That was 34 years and about 34,000 houses ago.
Meanwhile, I stayed home with our son and daughter and also began volunteering for nonprofits and serving on boards with groups that concentrated on issues relating to women and children.
My husband took an interest in philanthropy as well and our evolution followed the success of the family business over the years. In addition to giving to our church and alma maters, we have concentrated our giving in Atlanta and four other Southern cities where we have been building homes. It seems only natural that we would give back in those cities where our work has allowed us to prosper.
Seeding a Women's Fund
Among the nonprofits with which I worked in Atlanta was the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. Within the foundation was a women's fund that was seeded in 1989 by a group of female business owners who pooled their money. That $10,000 investment has grown dramatically.
In 1998, we left our incubator at the Community Foundation and became the Atlanta Women's Foundation. Less than 20 years later, the Atlanta Women's Foundation has invested more than $8 million in the community funding programs in more than 250 women and girl serving organizations. In 2006 alone, the foundation's grant-making and leadership programs touched the lives of more than 30,000 women and girls. When one thinks of the multiplier effect when women are supported, it improves the lives of their families and enhances the entire community, and the impact is much, much greater.
Soon after she became CEO of the Atlanta Women's Foundation, Deborah Richardson and I had an informal visit and talked about the limitless possibilities for women and girls. That is part of the reason my husband John and I, in 2006, pledged $1 million, payable over two years, to the Atlanta Women's Foundation.
We came up with a bold fundraising goal to inspire the power of women's philanthropy in our community: a $1 million gift from the family business, along with a challenge to the community to join in. The foundation raised $3 million this year.
A hallmark of the work of women's funds is a cross-class partnership that has women of financial wealth at the table, right alongside community organizers whose bank accounts may be lean but whose hearts and minds are full of resources that are a perfect match to the dollars.
Our grants committee is composed of women from all across the economic spectrum. Donors are transformed by seeing their giving translated to changed lives all around them, and the activist leaders who are our partners are emboldened to greater work when their ideas and abilities are validated.
My own hope is that women of wealth all across this nation, and all around the world–women who have prospered because of those who struggled for our well-being–will open our hearts and our checkbooks and give generously to change the world by empowering women and girls.
And if some of us wind up inspiring our husbands to join us in this great adventure, what a wonderful world can be born as a result.
Sue Wieland is involved in community outreach and special projects of John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods. She and her husband live in Atlanta and have two grown children, Jack Wieland and Lindsey Parker, and two grandchildren, Alden and Lila Parker.
Women's eNews welcomes your comments. E-mail us at [email protected].
For more information:
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Investment Updates
7 Financial Steps Forward In A Second Marriage
Published Tuesday, November 22, 2016 at: 7:00 AM EST
Marrying again after divorce or the death of a spouse may offer great personal benefits. But it also can lead to financial complications, especially if you have children from your first time around.
However, the blessed event doesn't have to be ruined by family squabbles. Discussing matters openly and deploying a range of estate planning strategies can help you develop a plan that meets your needs. Here are seven steps to help move you along:
1. Open the lines of communication. Before you tie the knot, be up-front about your concerns and preferences. Talk to each other about your intentions and how you expect to pass along assets to other family members, including any children and grandchildren. You might find it helpful to include an impartial person, such as your financial advisor, to "broker" the talks.
Consider this checklist of points to discuss:
- Existing financial obligations (for example, a promise to pay for a grandchild's education);
- Plans for future support and funding for retirement;
- Guardianship of any minor children; and
- A prenuptial agreement protecting your personal interests.
2. Conduct an inventory. Now is a good time to compile a list of your assets. This may include: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other investments; amounts that you've transferred to trusts; retirement plan and IRA funds; and proceeds that will be available from life insurance policies. Also, review any agreements made during the course of your first marriage. For instance, if you were required to name your then-spouse as the beneficiary of your retirement plan accounts, you may have less flexibility than you thought.
3. Consider the variables. Not everything is cut and dried. It's up to you to decide which assets, if any, you will comingle with your new spouse's. Keep in mind, though, that the laws of your state also may come into play. For instance, in community property states, the law presumes that assets will be owned jointly. But most states mandate "equitable distribution," calling for property to be distributed fairly, but not necessarily equally. Also, you'll want to factor in your age and health status, as well as those of your spouse.
4. Pay attention to titles. The way that property is titled, both prior to marriage and after, can have a profound effect. For example, setting up accounts as joint tenants with rights of survivorship (JTWROS) will make it clear that assets will go directly to the other named person, such as your spouse, when you die. But if a title names you as the sole legal owner of assets, they'll pass to your estate and not directly to your spouse.
5. Name your beneficiaries. If you're entering a new marriage you'll likely need to amend your existing will or replace it entirely. In particular, it's important to review the beneficiaries you've named for various assets in the will. Also, take a look at the beneficiary designations in documents for all of your retirement plans, IRAs, and life insurance policies. Those beneficiary designations take precedence over whatever may be in your will.
6. Show some trust. Your estate plan may include one or more trusts, which can be useful in transferring wealth to children of an earlier marriage while imposing some constraints on the recipients. Here are a few possibilities:
Bypass trust: This vehicle could be designed to provide income to a surviving spouse, with the remainder of trust assets going to other designated family members.
Q-tip trust: With a qualified terminable interest property (Q-tip) trust, a surviving spouse may receive income, but not principal, when the owner dies, with children receiving the remainder from the surviving spouse's estate.
Spendthrift trust: As the name implies, this trust can be helpful in restricting beneficiaries' access to assets until they reach a specified age or meet other requirements.
7. Don't forget about taxes. Last, but not least, it makes sense for both of you to consider how to minimize estate tax on the federal and state levels. That likely means use of the generous estate tax exemption ($5.49 million in 2017) as well as the "portability" provision allowing a surviving spouse's estate to benefit from the unused portion of a deceased spouse's exemption. Such provisions could be included in trust documents or other estate planning devices.
The second time around, it's more important than ever to seek expert assistance from your estate planning advisors. Don't hesitate to contact us.
This article was written by a professional financial journalist for Advisor Products and is not intended as legal or investment advice.
© 2023 Advisor Products Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Children who use glucocorticoid inhalers to prevent asthma attacks may be on average a half-inch shorter as adults, according to a recent study.
Children who use glucocorticoid inhalers to prevent asthma attacks may be on average a half-inch shorter as adults, according to "Effect of Inhaled Glucocorticoids in Childhood on Adult Height," a study that appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine. Norman H. Edelman, MD, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, released the following statement:
"The findings of this study highlight important information impacting the treatment of people with asthma. Pediatricians should recognize the value of inhaled steroids in the control of asthma, but be mindful to continually adjust the dose to the lowest dose that is effective in controlling the symptoms and exacerbations of asthma in each patient.
"Past research by the American Lung Association Asthma Clinical Research Centers (ACRC) Network has shown that an effective approach to controlling asthma symptoms and exacerbations is to treat patients with the lowest effective dose of inhaled steroids.
"Asthma patients should continue to take their prescribed medicine and contact their health care provider if they have any questions or concerns regarding their asthma medication."


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Popularly known as the festival of lights. It is an important five-day festival in Hinduism, occurring between mid-October and mid-November. For most hindus/Indians, this is the biggest festival and the day when they want to be with their families and perform the prayers together in their homes. Deepavali is an official holiday in India and marks the end of the harvest season in most of India. In Hinduism, Deepavali marks the return of Lord Rama to his kingdom of Ayodhya after defeating (the demon king) Ravana, the ruler of Lanka.Read More
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- May 7, 2009
Three East County elementary schools are on the hunt for new principals.
McNeal, Freedom and Bashaw elementary schools are all in the process of interviewing candidates for the post.
McNeal Elementary will hold a community forum with its three final contenders at 7 p.m., May 14 at the school, 6325 Lorraine Rd.
Freedom Elementary School will hold interviews with select applicants on May 15 and a community forum with the three finalists on May 19.
Bashaw Elementary School will hold interviews on May 21 and a forum with the three finalists on May 26.
The superintendent's recommendation for all three schools will be presented to the Manatee County School Board for approval on June 8.
Contact Pam McTeer at [email protected].


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Story by
Paul Sawers
Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check h Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check him out on Google+.
For you, I, and probably many others, LinkedIn is a bit of an odd beast. We all no doubt have a profile on the 'social network for professionals', but how often we actually log in and check what's going on is another matter altogether.
Founded in 2003, LinkedIn garnered somewhere in the region of $1.5 billion in revenue last year. Today, it claims 277 million members, 3.5 million active company profiles, 24,000 schools, and 300,000 jobs. Its core mission is to "…connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful".
But blink and you might just have missed its steady shift into the publishing realm. Last month, we reported that anyone will soon be able write and share long-form articles on LinkedIn, representing an extension to its existing Influencer program.
At the Guardian's Changing Media Summit in London yesterday, Allen Blue, co-founder and vice president of product management at LinkedIn, was in the house to talk about all things, well, LinkedIn. But more specifically, he gave some insights into what the company's trying to achieve with its publishing hat on.
Inform. Inspire. Educate.
"When we sat down to think what we could do to make professionals better on a daily basis, we basically tacked on a few words to our mission [statement]," explains Blue. "Could we make the world's professionals more successful by helping them stay informed, inspired and educated?"
Looking through the company's history, there are a few events in LinkedIn's timeline you could argue were the precursor to its push towards publishing. One of those came in 2011, when LinkedIn Today launched as a news aggregator – perhaps loosely similar to something like Flipboard. You could look up topic-specific articles on things that were relevant to you, whether that's IT, marketing or what-not.
But of course, there were key differences.
"Frankly, it didn't have better content than any other news aggregator," said Blue. "But the interesting thing was the way it actually worked. LinkedIn Today was not a news aggregator in a traditional sense, it was actually a social news aggregator, so when you looked at the articles that were in, say, the 'Internet' section, what you were seeing were a bunch of articles being shared by the people who were in the Internet industry."
And, of Course, LinkedIn knows this because it has details from your profile about what industry you work in.
"I know this seems like a subtle point, but it's really not", said Blue. "In the end, it turns out that the things professionals care about most, is what other professionals are saying."
So it's as much about the expertise of the people you network with, as it is the content of the article itself. "We saw that, and when people heard about the way that LinkedIn Today actually operated, they got very excited about it," continued Blue. "But we knew we could do better than that – we wanted to allow professionals to begin directly sharing information that they created with each other."
For the uninitiated, LinkedIn's first real foray into social, user-generated content was with LinkedIn Groups. Today, there are around 2 million groups on LinkedIn, with 100 million people having at least one Group membership. Anyone can create a Group around a specific theme or topic and invite others to join – they can then share research, best practices, statistics, or anything really.
LinkedIn's real push towards becoming a publishing platform sought to mesh the ideas behind Groups and LinkedIn Today – professionals networking with each other, but also treating it as a news and information resource.
Back in October 2012, LinkedIn launched a new initiative that allowed users to subscribe to their favorite so-called "thought leaders". The LinkedIn Influencer Programme rolled out with around 150 prominent business figures, each sharing their thoughts via long-form posts. The influencers included the likes of Caterina Fake, Andrew Chen, David Edelman, Steve Rubel, Ryan Holmes, Emily Chang, Peter Guber, Jeff Weiner…and The Next Web's very own founder Boris.
Two months after, serial entrepreneur Richard Branson became the first thought leader to pass one million followers…double that of Barack Obama at the time, and four times that of the American President today. With more than 4.1 million followers, Richard Branson now has more disciples on LinkedIn than he does on Twitter.
While the Influencer program represented a huge step forwards for LinkedIn building its credentials as an online publishing platform, it was still very restrictive about who could post their words.
"Our original intent was to build an open publishing platform on LinkedIn, but the hilarious thing was the order in which we built it," said Blue. "We started with building the 'Following' system, then decided to go out and get some famous people and maybe they'll come ride on the platform. The amazing thing was, they were very excited about coming to write on LinkedIn."
But how can something like this possibly scale? There's only so many well-known, business-focused 'celebs' out there, and they don't exactly have all the time in the world to pen how-to posts on LinkedIn. And this is why LinkedIn has been seeking to open the platform, and help the mere mortals of the business fraternity share their insights too.
"There are a lot of people out there who have information that they want to share, who currently don't have as much visibility as someone like Sir Richard [Branson]," said Blue. "So a few weeks ago, we finally opened our publishing platform."
Opened, it may be. But it's still not truly open, in the same way as Tumblr or Medium is. LinkedIn basically invited somewhere in the region of sixty-thousand professionals from many facets of business, to come and write for it. Around two-thousand of those have opted in, with "thousands and thousands" of posts popping up on LinkedIn since.
"These people have a different motivation than Sir Richard," explained Blue. "Their motivation is not just sharing their knowledge, but also building an audience, and building a reputation on LinkedIn."
Indeed, Richard Branson already has his reputation firmly cemented. He doesn't need to persuade people to listen to his every word – he has earned his stripes, so to speak. But there are many other people out there – from startup founders and investors, to marketing gurus and hacks – who have stories to tell.
"People use LinkedIn as a mechanism to represent themselves professionally," continued Blue. "But a big way they do it, is that they can establish and prove their expertise. And a publishing platform finally opens up an opportunity for them to do that."
But how can they possibly find an audience, if most people haven't even heard of them? This is the challenge LinkedIn has set itself – to help those people gain an audience.
Finger on the Pulse
Pulse was always a fantastic little news aggregation service, taking your favorite websites and transforming them into an interactive mosaic. It was much like Flipboard, and for many it was actually better. But then LinkedIn weighed in with an offer to acquire the startup last year, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Now called 'LinkedIn Pulse', the service represents a major part of LinkedIn's distribution mechanism. In effect, LinkedIn looks at what's being written by people, classifies it into channels for them, and then broadcasts it out into the Pulse ecosystem. This effectively means that a lesser-known 'Influencer' can get a much broader reach, and it doesn't matter quite so much if they only happen to have a handful of followers on LinkedIn.
But many, if not most, of the people who do contribute content in this way through LinkedIn aren't bloggers or writers. And many of them have much more important things to be doing – such as running businesses. So garnering a post a day or week isn't part of the plan here.
"Right now, our authors are averaging about two posts in the first three weeks [since opening up], which is pretty high – higher than we thought it was going to be," said Blue. "But how do they continue to share their information and knowledge with other people in the professional world? LinkedIn is focusing not only on creating content, but also curating content."
LinkedIn is playing a pivotal role here – it not only provides the technology and platform, it's providing the distribution channels and curation tools too.
"If people can build audiences on LinkedIn of millions of people, it becomes a powerful mechanism for people to associate their own brands, with those folks," said Blue. "It's also a powerful way for publishers to publish their own content in the system, there's actually a constellation of products on LinkedIn, all of which can be used by a publisher or a market in order to distribute content."
A glorified public CV database?
LinkedIn has many tools at its disposal. There's SlideShare, which it acquired back in 2012, there's Company Pages, Groups, Influencers, and Pulse. But can LinkedIn truly shake off any lingering reputation as a glorified public database of CVs and résumés? Blue referred to "…changing people's understanding of what LinkedIn is", adding that they have gone to great lengths to "help people not form an opinion about what our product was, because we knew how far we wanted to go."
Whether it can truly cement its position as a content provider and publisher, remains to be seen. But it certainly has the user-base for it, at least from a membership perspective. Getting this vast army of professionals to better-engage on the platform, and provide their insights, is another matter altogether.
This actually leads to another interesting point though. Blue was asked whether or not LinkedIn could ever conceivably start paying people to contribute – something that would certainly realign the service as more of an online journal, newspaper or magazine. While he didn't exactly rule it out, he wasn't overly warm to the idea either.
"It's not something I've ever thought about – in order for LinkedIn to be successful in the long term, we need everyone to be part of the platform, and able to project their professional identity and participate in the ecosystem that we're trying to build at LinkedIn," he said. "We don't want to set up unfair advantages or differentials within the system, which could prevent people from participating form the highest possible level."
In other words, if they started paying some people to contribute, this would create a multi-tier system that may deter others from feeling like they could or should contribute of their own free will. It would destroy the spirit of what LinkedIn is trying to achieve. But, you never know.
"It's an interesting possibility, [but] we have lots to prove from the publishing platform before we even consider something like that," continued Blue.
In the increasingly democratized world of self-publishing, LinkedIn is up against it for sure. What it must do is continue to build out its brand and encourage more people to contribute – when it opens its publishing platform to everyone, we may have a better idea of what its chances of success are.
Could LinkedIn become a Medium of sorts? A Medium specifically for the business and professional world? That certainly seems to be the direction it's heading.
Feature Image Credit – Shutterstock
Related: LinkedIn at 10: How the social network changed the way we work
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