The fun thing about climate predictions is that you do get results. So prophecies can be checked. February 2010 was the first month in which the sun was observed to be sunspot-free since 2007.  We marked the event here.  Now it is 2013, the Solar Maximum, and so a good time to see how our hypotheses have fared in the face of reality.  We stated two hypotheses.  The first hypothesis was related to the notion that sunspots do, indeed, indicate a level of solar activity that may impact Earth's climate.  The second hypothesis predicted that certain parties would massage, or spin, the data to prove their point no matter what is actually observed.  True enough, the first hypothesis is related to climatology and the second to sociology, but we are junior scientists here and so not constrained to any one discipline. 2012 was hot.  It was really hot.  So hot in fact that a good three months before the year was over, CNN declared it the hottest year since...(Read Full Post)