Saturday, July 31, 2010

Not Ponies - Boats

In a discussion of government pensions a person who makes their living lobbying for more money for government workers says:

“The biggest fallacy here is the discussion about comparing what a private sector employee gets to a public sector. And if where we want to go from a policy perspective is to go down and bring everybody’s boat down, so that they’re retiring on nothing, I mean that’s an interesting conversation to have. What do you do with those people?” said Cathie G. Eitelberg, senior vice president at the Segal Company, which advises public employee pension fund directors.
This is a move up. The Democrats are no longer promising ponies. We will now get boats.

Which reminds me of John Kerry's little boat. Are we all going to get one of those? I propose we get ahead of this curve and start building yacht basins at once. Let me see. Seventy-six feet long would be about 16 feet in the beam. Times 300 million. I think taxes are going up. But at least we will all have boats. See. We just pass a law.

H/T Instapundit

Overheard On The 'Net - 2

In the comments at Anthony Weiner Flips Out On House Floor I found some amusement:

The Democrats. Throughout American history the party of Slavery, Secession, Segregation and now Socialism.
And.
...from the Plantation to the Collective, Copperhead Democrats have always been slavery's best friends.
You might also find the video at the linked site amusing. Or you might prefer to listen to music.

H/T Instapundit

Perverted Science

Alaskan Winter

From an article at the Daily Beast discussing a Palin Endorsement in a New York House race.

Palin’s team, unsurprisingly, disagrees, saying those candidates she’s endorsed—including Grimm—are going to barrel through the country come November. “People are claiming Sarah Palin is a polarizing figure,” says SarahPAC staffer Rebecca Mansour. “I laugh because we are in the process of electing numerous candidates just like Sarah Palin. We are about to elect dozens of Sarah Palins so polarize that.”
If Sarah's candidates do well I predict a polar winter - for the Democrats.

H/T Hill Buzz where I also got the fine picture.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Atomic Time

I want to tell you about a clock I bought a while back that my mate and I are very happy with. The La Crosse Technology WT-3102B 10-Inch Atomic Analog Clock.

It really isn't an atomic clock. It synchronizes with an atomic clock signal sent out by station WWVB near Boulder, Colorado. If you look at the signal strength maps you can see that the signal is the strongest in the night time hours. Which brings me to how to set up the clock.

At about ten minutes before the hour set the clock to 25 minutes before the hour and insert the battery. Your clock should be reasonably far away from electronic equipment. Especially TVs and Computers. Push the buttons as detailed in the instructions (you get the 4 American continental time zones plus a Daylight Savings on/off option). Then put your clock on an upstairs (no basements) wall that faces to or away from Boulder. When the clock gets the signal it will start spinning. You may have to wait until night to get a strong enough signal. If your building has metal sheathing (siding) the clock may only work in a window facing Boulder.

We put our clock up about 3 ft from a TV set (in a fairly strong signal area - your clock may need to be farther away) on a wall facing Boulder and have never been happier with a clock. We know what time it is to the second. And if the signal is never strong enough? The clock will work as a regular digital clock.

I have had older type atomic clocks that were much harder to set. This one is a piece of cake and I'm super happy to know what time it is. It is especially handy when daylight savings change days come as the clock adjusts automatically. No more clock fiddling to be on time.

Of course you still have to fiddle your alarm unless you have a Sony ICF-C318 Automatic Time Set Clock Radio with Dual Alarm (White). It really isn't an automatic set (WWVB radio) clock. It does adjust for daylight savings and it does have a built in back-up battery so you do not lose the time if the power goes off. The alarm itself is kind of soft, but the radio is loud enough to get you up and it is really obnoxious if you set the radio on top of a running computer. Setting the time and the alarm time are really easy with this radio. However the time does drift some (a few minutes a month). Which is why the atomic wall clock comes in handy.

Update: 31 July 2010 0139z

Commenter rhhardin at Classical Values has some issues with a different model of this clock. They may also apply to the model above. So far I haven't noticed.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Inertia Question

I have started a new blog called The Inertia Question. So what is it all about? That tired feeling you have in the morning before your sixth cup of coffee? No.

I explain what it is all about in my first post which I reprint here in its entirety:

============

This blog is dedicated to getting research done and reporting the results on the questions posed in Chapter 28 of Book 2 of The Feynman Lectures on Physics.

The title of that Chapter is Electromagnetic Mass. And what do you know? There is a wiki page called Electromagnetic Mass.

Those questions are over 100 years old. They are still open. I'd like to close them as best as we can. If the theories of some physicists are correct it should be possible to develop a reaction force without expending mass (rockets). That would make high speed space travel very economical. If enough force could be generated we might even be able to lift off from earth without rockets. Now wouldn't that be nice?

And suppose several different experiments are tried and results are obtained and the results are null? We will have learned something very important and may thus have to revise our conception of the universe or at least fine tune it.

I am soliciting Researchers, Research Proposals, Papers, Funding reports, Funding sources, Parts Donations, "Industry" Gossip (No ad homs - save those for the comments. I have certain minimal standards to uphold, although particularly vile comments will be deleted if I find them. My judgment on the matter is final. So if you post a really nasty comment that you particularly enjoy. Save a copy.), Schematics (use the Tiny CAD software if you want to share the data), etc.

Besides my research goals what are my monetary goals? My guess is that each experiment would cost on the order of $300,000 per year for parts, labor, lab space, etc. I think about 5 experiments with different designs would answer the general question. Then we have an engineering review if the outcome is positive and come up with a road map for further development.

I'd like to further say that I want to see any patents obtained from this research to be available for a reasonable licensing fee. Radio really took off when RCA was formed as a patent combine. Remember the first rule of business: Don't Scare Off The Customers.

And one final thing - if you know of any useful pdfs please leave a url in the comments or send me an e-mail. I want to add resources like that to the sidebar.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, July 29, 2010

I Have A Feeling About Government

I do not do engineering based on received wisdom or feelings. I don't think government should be done that way either.

I place no reliance on Virgin or Pigeon. My method is science my, aim is very limited government.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Hair Of The Body

Althouse has an amusing post up about mixing metaphors. Which may (or may not) explain the title of this post.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Wreck Value

Human Train Wrecks covers the debautched. Sample:

WRECK VALUE:

Notorious drunk and cocaine addict; was known to drink two entire bottles of Old Granddad per day; appeared stumbling drunk on "The Lucy Show"; her husband divorced her, citing "extreme mental cruelty"; described as "the most immoral person alive" by Marlene Dietrich; paid young gay men to populate her home, and referred to them as her "caddies"; once engaged her god-daughter in a makeshift voodoo ritual as an attempt to kill Senator Joseph McCarthy (McCarthy actually did die within a month of her ritual); once fell asleep with a lit cigarette and set her pet poodle Millicent on fire - when one of her "Caddies" discovered the blazing dog, he woke Bankhead. She responded by saying "Millicent's on fire? Put the goddamn thing out!" and then passed out again, as her bed smouldered around her.

DEVIL'S ADVOCACY:

Was a member of the Algonquin Roundtable; was nearly cast as Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind"; worked with playwrights such as Thornton Wilder and Lillian Hellman; managed to get Greta Garbo, Billie Holiday, Winston Churchill and Hattie MacDaniel in the sack (not at the same time), perhaps winning her the honor of Most Bizarre Sex Life By A Trainwreck; used to be really hot.

SUPPORTING QUOTES:

"My father warned me about men and booze, but he never mentioned a word about women and cocaine."

"Cocaine isn't habit-forming. I should know - I've been using it for years.

"It's the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time."

"I'm as pure as the driven slush."

"When I was 16, dahling, I had a shoebox full of cocaine."
Good for way more than a few minutes of entertainment. Oh. Yeah. Guess the actress.

I Like The Thighs



Kim Carnes is the singer.

H/T Hill Buzz

Fusion - A New Hope?

A private company has just gotten a $50 million cash infusion for its fusion experiments.

A private company in Foothill Ranch that is reportedly experimenting with nuclear fusion power has raised $50 million in funding, according to a report from Socaltech.com.

Little more information was available Monday about the experiments at the company, Tri-Alpha Energy, or the funding itself. In the past, Socaltech reported, Tri-Alpha has received funding from Goldman Sachs, Venrock, Vulcan Capital and New Enterprise Associates.

Tri-Alpha's experiments, based on the work of UC Irvine plasma physics professor Norman Rostoker, have been rumored for years, but the company has not revealed the nature of its experiments to the public.

Solcaltech calls it a "stealth developer of advanced plasma fusion technology.
Well not exactly stealth. I reported on the work of Rostoker and Monkton in additions to something I first posted in November of 2007. Still, the fact that they are either getting new money or a release of promised money is good news. The more different ideas we explore on the way to practical fusion the sooner we will reach that goal. Because this is an experimental field. And as Einstein once said, "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"

Tri-Alpha Energy, Polywell Fusion, and Dense Plasma Focus are all working on the holy grail of fusion physics. The combining of Hydrogen (a proton when ionized) and Boron 11 which is a fusion reaction that gives off very few neutrons and whose reaction product is high energy (relatively) charged particles which would allow converting the resultant energy directly to electricity. This greatly lowers the cost of a power plant. Consider that for a fission (currently Uranium) power plant 80% of the cost is in the steam plant which is used to convert the heat output of the reactor into electricity or shaft horsepower in the case of a ship.

One other point. Consider the millions being spent on these fusion experiments with the billions being spent on ITER which is currently in big financial trouble. The reported fix is to steal money from small research projects in other disciplines.

Of course I like Polywell Fusion. You can learn the basics of fusion energy by reading Principles of Fusion Energy: An Introduction to Fusion Energy for Students of Science and Engineering

Polywell is a little more complicated. You can learn more about Polywell and its potential at: Bussard's IEC Fusion Technology (Polywell Fusion) Explained

And the best part about Polywell? We Will Know In Two Years or less.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Monday, July 26, 2010

How To Get Rid Of Racism



The look on Mike Wallace's face is priceless. Worth 55 seconds of your life. Definitely.

H/T Joan of Argghh!. May I suggest you follow the link and read Joan's take on this video and recent events.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Swapping

Iran has some new friends in the uranium business.

TEHRAN (AFP) - The top diplomats of Iran, Brazil and Turkey will discuss nuclear fuel supplies for Tehran in Istanbul on Sunday, in the first such gathering since the Islamic republic was slapped with new sanctions.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was to meet his Brazilian and Turkish counterparts, Celso Amorim and Ahmet Davutoglu, "to discuss... the Tehran Declaration about the fuel swap," his ministry's spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency.

A Turkish diplomat in Ankara, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, confirmed the three ministers would meet over lunch.
Of course this is all about peaceful uses for nuclear power. Right.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Al Gore's Hockey Stick

Over at Watts Up With That they are discussing Al Gore's
marital and hotel difficulties in relation to a hockey stick graph that is most amusing.

So I thought I'd add a few words to a most ribald discussion.

It was all the fault of improperly labeled RAP music. Just ask Tipper.

Tipper is definitely a victim of No Law.
And for those that don't get the joke: A hint.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Brain Surgery



Putting the criminal justice system in charge of treating drug addiction is literally attempting to do brain surgery with a billy club.


Cross Posted at Classical Values

The CAGW Of The Right

I was reading Hot Air on recent Republican poling re: the 2012 Presidential race and came across this comment:

The next president will be a CONSERVATIVE.
To which I replied:

Would that be a pro Drug War Progressive Conservative or a real conservative?

The Drug War is the CAGW* of the Right.

* Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Like A Rolling Stone - Raw



The band is pretty raw. But I like their youth and enthusiasm. Here are the liner notes so to speak.
Here is our cover version and arrangement of one of the all time greatest songs ever written, Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone". It is such an incredible song in so many different ways; of course, Bob Dylan's lyrics are superb as usual, he is the undisputed poet laureate of rock music. But "Like A Rolling Stone" really stands out as a landmark musical achievement; the song is basically just a C major scale, going up in the first half of the verses, C, Dm, Em, F, G, and then, as if you needed more proof that Dylan is a genius, it goes straight back down again, (F), G, F, Em, Dm, C. It's so simple, but so wonderful, because nobody else had ever thought of doing such a thing, and that is why Dylan is a musical genius, and such a huge influence. Every song written after this one, and indeed every musician, owed something to this song, whether they were aware of it or not. "Like A Rolling Stone" broke down the barrier which said popular songs had to be three minutes maximum, with it's 6 minute plus duration. And it also destroyed the idea that to sing you had to have a technically brilliant voice; Bob Dylan's rough, American drone had just as much power and emotion as any other more professional singer.

Whichever way you look at it, this song is an incredible achievement, but most importantly, it's a wonderful song.

Sam on piano/lead vocals/harmonica, Isaac on guitar (Fender Telecaster) and Sebastian on drums/percussion. Thanks, and we hope you enjoy!
You can listen to more of their stuff at SH Corporation. The guy on the piano is 16 and the band hails from Australia.

If you want to listen to the real Bob, you will find that most of his work has been expunged from YouTube, but Amazon still sells Bob Dylan.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Government As A Moral Enterprise

David Harsanyi has a column up about the shocking lack of faith in America and all the trouble it is causing in politics. You really need to read it. But I want to excerpt a bit from his closing remarks.

...progressives regard government as a moral enterprise. And in church, you gotta have faith.
There are a lot of Progressives who claim to be conservatives. You know. The kind claiming to belong to the One True Culture Club. (Its a joke son)

H/T Instapundit

Limited Politcs

The more limited your aims in politics the greater the number of votes you can attract. This is especially true if your politics calls for limited government.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Where's The Party, Man?

Francis Cianfrocca is discussing Class Warfare In America. At the end of his piece he mentions a businessman's lament.

...I had a conversation yesterday with an old friend who runs a high-ten-figure hedge fund. (They're flat for the year, like the rest of the hedge-fund world.) What he wants is to join a political party that believes in not taking people's money and in not telling them what to do: small govt without the bibles. This is something I hear from business guys all the time: the whole "social liberal/fiscal conservative" thing. So far, there's no political movement they can believe in.
In fact the lack of such a party is why we are in so much trouble. When the Bible thumping gets too loud the fiscal conservatives stop paying attention to the money and go all in on correcting the social flaws in America at the point of a government gun. The swing voters get disgusted. They listen to the promises lies from the Democrats. And when the Ds get in they run wild. The thumpers then start in with the "what happened to the money - you crooks?" Then the conservatives get fiscal for a while and the cycle starts again. In the mean time the socially liberal/fiscally conservative segment of the population is continually whipsawed.

Which leads to the question: do conservatives really want small government or do they want power over people who are in their opinion self-destructive?

If conservatives want small government (for real) I think broadening the coalition might prove helpful. We are going to need all the deviants and dopers we can enlist (and more) to restrict the leviathan and keep it restricted. That means that even if conservatives get power it might not be wise for them to start in on the margins of their coalition. Because you know what happens when you run out of margin. Here is how Bill Whittle describes loss of margin: "Out of altitude, out of airspeed, out of ideas. Eject! Eject! Eject!" The question is: are conservatives tired of getting ejected? Are they smart enough to figure out what to do? My answer is - most likely YES on the first and NO on the second.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

It's The Carbon Footprint

In response to the moral panic over CO2 production I was inspired to say a few words:

Even if every one in the US committed mass suicide it would make very little difference to the global CO2 burden if we don’t get the Chinese aboard.

If it weren’t for the carbon footprint I’d suggest a war to bomb them back into the stone age. To save the planet.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Radical Conservative

I was discussing the Drug War with a conservative friend and had a few things to say.

Drug crime is rather unusual.

In what we normally think of as crime there is a perpetrator and a victim. The perp tries to make the victim do something against his will.

With drug crime the victim is the perpetrator and there is no conflict of wills. Just a business transaction. And you know the first rule re: government when it comes to business.

When governments controls what is bought and sold the first thing bought and sold is government.

"The Latin American drug cartels have stretched their tentacles much deeper into our lives than most people believe. It's possible they are calling the shots at all levels of government."- William Colby, former CIA Director, 1995
It worked the same way in China.
The Opium Trade

"If the trade is ever legalized, it will cease to be profitable from that time. The more difficulties that attend it, the better for you and us."
-- Directors of Jardine-Matheson

Boodle Boys
There are always "useful idiots" to use Stalin's clever turn of phrase. Which is to say: what ever you think you are doing, objectively you are supporting the cartels. We didn't get rid of the American alcohol cartels by intensifying alcohol prohibition. But at least in some respects people were smarter back then.

It falls into the same category as the useful idiots who promote socialism to help the poor. And the error in thinking is the same: if we put enough guns and power in the hands of the state we can fix this.

What tickles me is that the progressives say - we can fix the economic order with enough government power. While our erstwhile "conservatives" say - we can fix the social order with state power. What can the state do reasonably well? Kill people and break things.

Did you know that the reporting of all transactions of over $10,000 was a drug war measure? Money laundering don't you know. Well our current Congress has lowered the threshold to $600. Swell. Just swell.

Let me paraphrase Franklin:

Those who give up essential liberty for safety will get neither liberty nor safety.

I believe the man was on to something.

=====

What ever power you give the State will eventually be used against you and your interests. And you know this in every context except for the drug war exception. But to think there is a drug war exception is magical thinking.

Suppose for some odd reason the state takes an interest in you and the interest is not benign. What is the easiest way to violate your liberties with little or no recourse? Accuse you of a drug crime. Then the search and seizure rules go out the door. Especially if they bring some drugs with them to make sure you are guilty. There is no reliable way to protect yourself from a status crime. Because possession is 100% of the law in those cases. Of course as a suspected dope fiend the government will take away your children. To protect them from the dope. And even if you eventually get it all resolved in your favor you will have months and possibly years of family trauma to deal with. Why it is enough to drive a person to drugs.

Well. It can't happen here. Except for the fact that we have a very vocal minority (probably a majority for now) cheering them on. And it has happened more than once (see Rampart scandal Los Angeles for one example). But for now it will be confined to "those people" until you are used to it. And then it will expand. In just the way $10,000 became $600.

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." Geo. Washington

Thanks my "conservative" friend for putting such powerful tools in the hands of our Masters.

My advice to the rest of the population: watch out for those who say we must reduce state power "except for". Our rules give advantages to criminals. We do that to protect the liberties of those not criminals from a state with unlimited power. I do not believe in a Drug War exception to that principle.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A Decline In Morals

I'm having an interesting discussion at Moral Authority about the homosexual plot to destroy American values and take down American civilization.

That is not the first time American civilization took the short road to decline. Marriages were once decided on the basis of economic interests and personalities mostly by parents. And then by 1830 or so romance was all the rage and parents had lost much of their say in the matter. Would America ever be the same?

Between 1708/9, when Samuel Gerrish courted Mary Sewall, and 1835, when Theodore Weld courted Angelina Grimke, the rituals of courtship underwent profound changes. Parental influence and involvement in the selection of their children's marriage partner visibly declined. Young women and men were increasingly free to pick or reject a spouse with little parental interference. At the same time that courtship grew freer, however, marriage became an increasingly difficult transition point, particularly for women, and more and more women elected not to marry at all.

In seventeenth and early eighteenth century New England, courtship was not simply a personal, private matter. The law gave parents "the care and power...for the disposing of their Children in Marriage" and it was expected that they would take an active role overseeing their child's choice of a spouse. A father in Puritan New England had a legal right to determine which men would be allowed to court his daughters and a legal responsibility to give or withhold his consent from a child's marriage. A young man who courted a woman without her father's permission might be sued for inveigling the woman's affections.

Parental involvement in courtship was expected because marriage was not merely an emotional relationship between individuals but also a property arrangement among families. A young man was expected to bring land or some other form of property to a marriage while a young woman was expected to bring a dowry worth about half as much.
As you can see we have never recovered. Decisions that were once made rationally are now consummated based on half-witted ideas like romance.

The Puritans had the right idea
Puritan New Englanders, in sharp contrast, did not regard love as a necessary precondition for marriage. Indeed, they associated romantic love with immaturity and impermanence. True love, the Puritans believed, would appear following marriage. A proper marriage, in their view, was based not on love and affection, but on rational considerations of property, compatibility, and religious piety. Thus, it was considered acceptable for a young man to pursue "a goodly lass with aboundation of money," so long as he could eventually love his wife-to-be.
Giving up the strict rules has lead to ruination.
By the middle of the eighteenth century, parental influence over the choice of a spouse had sharply declined. One indication of a decline in parental control was a sudden upsurge in the mid-eighteenth century the number of brides who were pregnant when they got married. In the seventeenth century, fathers--supported by local churches and courts--exercised close control over their childrens' sexual behavior and kept sexual intercourse prior to marriage at extremely low levels. The percentage of women who bore a first child less than eight-and-a half months after marriage was below ten percent. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the figure had shot up to over forty percent.
So as I stated in a comment to Moral Authority in response to this comment:
The legitimizing of homosexuality is one lynchpin in a program to undercut Western sexual morality, and to disrupt the legal and social constraints that give weight, strength, and stability to the family unit.
Dude,

You are not going to get that toothpaste back into the tube. The horse has left the barn. The culture has changed.

Western sexual morality as you think you remember it (I saw a study once that in the US in the 1700s about 1/3 of the brides were already knocked up - true? I haven't cross checked - [see above]) is gone.

You want to do something about Western morality? Forget gays. The bigger hole is adultery and divorce. If we could bring back stoning for adultery and 40 lashes for fornication we might get somewhere. It all started going bad long before women got the vote. But it didn't help.

Cross Posted at Power and Control

The Most Dangerous Drug

Monday, July 19, 2010

NAACP Audience Applauds Racism



I think we can learn a couple of things from this. One is: the government is not your friend. If you want their help they are not your servants. They are your masters. Be prepared to kiss a lot of butt from the get go.

Government functionaries are like this as a class. Throw in some racism and it becomes even more unappealing. The cure is to start taking an axe to the structure and cutting it down to size.

Hot Air has more. Including details about the video.

Update: This comment from Hot Air seems relevant.
Just wait until the government running rampant in all the hospitals. “He said he needed his painkiller – well, I fixed his lily white ass.”

LibTired on July 19, 2010 at 2:31 PM
And who will you sue? The government? Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Moral Authority

In condemning homosexuality Robert Knight, makes an interesting point.

This is no small disagreement. Conservatism, if it means anything, reflects the understanding that, as Russell Kirk said, "there exists a transcendent moral order, to which we ought to try to conform the ways of society ... such convictions may take the form of belief in 'natural law' or may assume some other expression; but with few exceptions conservatives recognize the need for enduring moral authority."
Assume for a minute that fighting homosexuality has some useful purpose (I don't think so) where is this moral authority to be found? In government? The most corruptible and corrupt of our institutions? I don't think so.

And yet my conservative friends are quick to wield the fasces (the power of government) against what ever violates their rigid sense of order. Forgetting altogether that Liberty is a rather disorderly place to live.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it. - Thomas Jefferson

H/T Eric of Classical Values via e-mail.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Fascism

I think a good way to start off a look at fascism is to look at the root: fasces.

Fasces are a bundle of wooden sticks with an axe blade emerging from the center, which is an image that traditionally symbolizes summary power and jurisdiction, and/or "strength through unity".
In other words the root of fascism is government power. The power to make people behave the "right" way. In the modern sense it is the exaltation of government power. The idea that government force is the answer to most questions.

We have two sets of fascists in America. A division of labor from the Progressive (among the people who brought you alcohol prohibition) idea that one party should stand for both economic and personal morality (as they defined it). Today we have the economic fascists party and the moral fascist party. And both of those groups believe they are opposed to each other. Too funny.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Almost Makes You Want To Eat Something



This is a Japanese McDonald's commercial.

You Say You Want A Revolution?

Instapundit has just put up a piece that deserves repeating in its entirety.

WHAT TO DO? In response to this piece by Angelo Codevilla on America’s ruling class, readers wonder what to do. Well, a few things suggest themselves.

First: Mockery. They are very mockable, and they are very thin-skinned. That leads them to erupt in embarrassing ways. Use their sense of entitlement against them.

Second (and related): Transparency. One-party government makes you stupid, and although composed of both Democrats and Republicans the political class is basically its own party, and these people are pretty stupid. Point it out, repeatedly. Use FOIA, ubiquitous videocameras, and other tools to make the stupidity show.

Third: Money. Codevilla writes: “Our ruling class’s agenda is power for itself. While it stakes its claim through intellectual-moral pretense, it holds power by one of the oldest and most prosaic of means: patronage and promises thereof.” The coming budget crisis — already here, really, but still largely denied by the rulers — is an opportunity to defund a lot of this patronage stuff. They’ll try, of course, to cut the muscle and preserve the fat, but that won’t work very well if they’re closely watched (see above). Cut them off in other ways, too. Don’t support the media, nonprofits, and politicians who support them with your money.

Also, make sure that money flows TO things you like: Businesses, alt-media, politicians who aren’t part of the problem, etc. Build up countervailing institutions that don’t depend on the government to survive.

Finally: Don’t act like a subject. Rulers like subjects. Don’t be one. As a famous man once said: Get in their face. Punch back twice as hard. Words for the coming decade?
And do read the Angelo Codevilla piece. It is longish (for an internet bit) but well worth your time.


Update: Instapundit has added to his piece. Go read it. And in the spirit of his additions I too have something to add.

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them. - Fredrick Douglas

And further, Mr. Codevilla has written a book:

The Character of Nations: How Politics Makes and Breaks Prosperity, Family, and Civility

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Mass Displacement And Acceleration



In the interests of science I like to run videos of science experiments from time to time. This one explores buoyancy, displacement, acceleration, energy transfer and probably a few other engineering if not scientific principles. Pay close attention. In fact to master all the concepts you probably ought to watch it several times.

You can find more like this at Hawtness which is NSFW. You might want to search for Hawtness Mad Beer Skills for another good one.

And for the ladies among us. Did you know that engineer/airplane designer Howard Hughes designed that female torture instrument known as the under wire bra? The details come from a site called Bikini Science. Which reminds me. I need to go back and carefully re-study the July 4th Bikini Edition for engineering details. You never know what you might learn.

I ♥ Engineering.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Satisfaction Not Guaranteed



And yes Virginia, and California, and New York, there is a BS Removal Kit you can order.

H/T Instapundit

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Opinions

I like this summary of the discussion about the government shutting down 73,000 www sites from Slash Dot.

Here's a time saving summary of about 90% of the posts here today for those who don't feel like doing them one by one:

I haven't the vaguest idea what actually happened here, so I'm going to go ahead and assume that the fascist/conservative/liberal/communist/megacorps/illuminati/mole-people have usurped our freedom once again by taking down a half a billion websites that hosted nothing but honest discourse that they, the aforementioned fascist/conservative/liberal/communist/megacorps/illuminati/mole-people don't want YOU to read. Clearly, the U.S. is as bad as China/Soviet Russia/Somalia/Cuba/The Romulan Empire/The Sith/Microsoft, and any ideas that you live in a free society stem from the idea that you're stupid and just another sheeple being led about by the nose by THE MAN. If, somehow, it turns out that the server in question was hosting Child Pornography/Snuff Films/how-to guides to build Nuclear Weapons/Disney Movies, you can safely assume that those things were just planted in order to steal your freedom, except that you didn't have any, so it's just there to steal your imaginary sense of freedom. Since this sense of freedom was imaginary, it's just Imaginary Property anyway, and couldn't have been stolen from you in the first place, so really, nothing of value was lost. I know all this because years ago I threw out my TV because it only showed mindless pablum like American Idol, and worse yet, they make you watch ads, so now I download American Idol on Bit-torrent instead and watch it on my computer, which is inherently better than watching it on TV, so I'm smarter than you. Something about Old People In Korea, Natalie Portman Naked and Petrified, and Hot Grits. In conclusion, in Soviet Amerikkka, websites view you, and this is probably all Steve Jobs' fault.
I believe some people are insufficiently paranoid.

H/T Diogenes at Talk Polywell

Chicago Republican Sex Scandal

There appears to be a Republican sex scandal brewing in Chicago. I'm not going into all the details. For that you can start with the link provided (and some more below). What I want to look at is who is involved.

Both Roupas and “The Prophet” are “Romney Guys”, a special brand of Republican we’ve identified and described for you on this site repeatedly. Here in Chicago, all of these guys seem to have been part of the Mitt Romney 2008 campaign, before Romney bowed out to John McCain. They’ve never stopped running Romney for president, and have taken over organizations like the CYRs to build them into Romney 2012 ground teams. This is similar to what Barack Obama did between 2004 and 2008 to usurp control of the Democrat Party from the Clintons. The “Romney Guys” are dangerous for a lot of reasons, not just because they are hellbent on pushing a losing 2012 candidate upon the GOP. They’re also a problem because of the entitlement they feel, and the frat boy environment they foster in their ranks, encouraged, we’ve been told, by Mitt Romney himself. For “Romney Guys”, women are to be seen and not heard, don’t deserve much consideration, and are disposable. The goal of each day is to enrich themselves as much as possible, chomp down on some good cigars, drink themselves silly in wood-paneled neighborhood bars, and protect each other to the hilt whenever any of their penises get them into trouble.
Funny thing is that it fits well with yesterday's post about how Romney operatives are attacking Sarah Palin: Politics Revealed.

Here are a few more links to help you get into the meat (so to speak) of the story.

URGENT UPDATE: Affidavits obtained

Chicago Republican Website Features Topless Lady

Lee Roupas is lying

Will indulging millionaire cougar Beth Christie cost Republicans the governorship and Senate seat in Illinois?

The Chicago Young Republicans’ sexual assault scandal and its cover-up

Are police investigating the Chicago Young Republicans and Cook County GOP for an attempted rape?

That is more than enough meat to get you started. If you are still hungry there is Google.

And just for something a little different about Illinois politics: Bill Brady, Barack Obama's Poker Buddy: [Obama is a] 'Socialist With Everyone's Money But [His] Own'. I think a little excerpt is in order.
Right now, the state of Illinois is getting to know Bill Brady, the upstart right-wing Republican for governor who's taken a double-digit lead over incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn.

But Brady comes to the governor's race from the Illinois State Senate, where he represents the Bloomington area. From 2002 to 2004, he served in the Senate alongside a Senator from Chicago by the name of Barack Obama.

David Remnick's new biography of the President, "The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama," mentions that the two were not only Senate colleagues, but also poker buddies. And NBC Chicago's Ward Room discovered, in reading the book, that Brady had a choice quip for the future POTUS describing his accumulation of wealth at the table.
Illinois politics is so screwed. We don't elect candidates in Illinois. We elect machines. And it is all one big machine. Rs, Ds, it doesn't matter. I'll say it again. We are SO screwed.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, July 16, 2010

NAACP Activist: Racism Charges Are Lies

It seems that there is a lot of excitement about purported Tea Party Racism.

However, a former NAACP Chapter President isn't buying it.

The Rev. C.L. Bryant, a black Tea Party activist who used to be an NAACP chapter president in Texas, said charges of racism are lies intended to further a liberal political agenda. ABC News quoted him as saying the NAACP wants to "create a climate where they can say that those on the right are in fact racist and those on the left are their saviors. This is very much what the liberal agenda is about." Blacks who show any signs of independent thinking do so at their peril. In August, Kenneth Gladney, a black Tea Partier from Missouri, was severely beaten by two thugs from the Service Employees International Union. The NAACP started a campaign to defend Mr. Gladney's assailants, saying the victim was an "Uncle Tom" who was "not black enough" to protect.
I've seen pictures of Mr. Gladney and he looked pretty black to me. Especially when you compare him to the current head of the NAACP who could pass for white.

It wasn't the color of his skin that mattered. It was the color of his politics. You see he was selling this little flag at the rally.

Don't Tread On Me
But this is nothing new. It is just a new twist on a very old con.
There is another class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs….There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who do not want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public. – Booker T. Washington
I'd like to see an end to this game once and for all. The only people it benefits are the race hustlers.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Icons

Bill Whittle has a new Afterburner. And in response to it, I'd like to do my bit for those who need a typographical icon (watch the vid to get the joke).

LL!


And for those who need technical details: the html for is ∅

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Politics Revealed



Tammy Bruce speaks. And rips the Republicans a new one.

And given the Mitttens team's latest outburst I think she has a point.
Still, few express much regard for Palin’s ultimate chances. One adviser to Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and, by traditional standards, the putative 2012 frontrunner, says of Palin, “She’s not a serious human being.”
OK. I'll one up that. Romney is not a human being.

And in case you wondered Tammy also writes books.

H/T Allah Pundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Cockroach Infestation

I was reading Watts Up With That about a dispute between Christopher Monckton and John Abraham about some climate issues. But as is often the case the most interesting stuff is in the comments.

Alexander Feht says:
July 14, 2010 at 11:18 pm

I completely understand, why Christopher Monckton felt a need to make an example of a typical reprehensible representative of modern Academia. People like Christopher Monckton make me hope again that not everything is lost yet under the Moon.

And yet… I spent first half of my life battling liars and cockroaches in the former USSR. I would win against any individual liar or cockroach, no sweat. But year after year after year, I was getting more and more convinced that I didn’t want to die in this battle, overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of my enemies.

So. I live in a quiet valley now, in Colorado Rockies. Grass is green, air is fresh, sky is huge. But what is this constant swish and rustle coming from the East Coast and from the Left Coast? I know this sound well! There is no escape from the battle: cockroaches are coming.
You can read more by Mr. Feht by clicking on his name above.

As to the cockroaches: they are a self inflicted wound. Keep the place clean, limit the availability of free food, plus the occasional dose of poison and you can at least keep them in check.

So how about this for a campaign slogan:

Poison The Cockroaches In November


But perhaps that is too harsh and would be interpreted as a threat, so as an alternative:

Defeat The Cockroaches In November


See you in November.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Dating An Engineer



I also liked this one.

H/T Diogenes via e-mail

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Out Of Control

Analog Designer and control engineer Bob Pease and I have had a discussion or two via e-mail about control theory and control engineering. So when I came across a bit by him in a back issue of Electronic Design on how control control theory relates to how the Federal Reserve ought to control the money supply, I was interested. Here is what Bob had to say about the Fed:

FINANCIAL FLOOBYDUST * Switching gears, Alan Greenspan has admitted that he screwed up and had a bad model for the economy. He claims he misunderstood what was going to happen. What did Spice suggest for him to do? I coulda told you that Greenspan was not doing a good job on his PID controller.

He waited too long to start decreasing the interest rates, and then he decreased them too slowly. I noticed that at the time! Then, by leaving the interest rate at 1% for too long, he got the ARMs to start out too low. And then when the rates went up, the subprime mortgage holders got whip-sawed.

This is exactly how you make a limit-cycle oscillator! In other words, Mr. Greenspan did not have enough D (derivative) term in his controller, and he failed to anticipate new problems. And he had too much gain in the I (integral) path. I can do this any day, on my bench, but I don’t destroy a nation’s economy.

No, I don’t want to take over Greenspan’s job. I don’t want that job. But I could still do it less badly.
Notes: SPICE is an electronic circuit simulator. And you might like a general overview of PID controllers. For reasons I'm not going to go into here this is my favorite mathematical model of a PID controller.

In private conversations with friends who are interested in economics I have maintained for years that economists are ignorant of control theory, treat all economics problems as if they are a calculus problem that can be solved in the limit, and ignore the short term dynamics of our economic plant. Which is to say they are looking for equilibriums rather than dynamisms. I read an economics paper once that said that if you follow the right path - not too much of this or too little of that - you will get optimum results. Assuming of course that the right path can be known in advance. But what if you don't know the right path in advance? Well then you are in need of a control system tuned to the economy that will tell you when and how much to correct your inputs to give a close enough approximation to the ideal path. And if your control system is not properly tuned? Well it will wreck the economy.

We do have a control system and it is not properly tuned. Welcome to the current wreck.

You can read more of my thoughts about control theory and economics at this posts: Economics Made Simple

Here are a few pages of books on Control Theory and Economics.So it is not as if there has been no thought about the problem before. The problem in my estimation is that these books have not influenced practicing economists much. Pity. For all of us.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The Ocean Is Big And I Am Very Very Little



We are in the very best of hands.

H/T Jccarlton at Talk Polywell

Faster



Read about Michael Phelps at Bong Hits For Kellogs.

LEAP: - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Monday, July 12, 2010

The Quantum Mechanic

If you are interested in quantum physics as I am I think you will find this paper very interesting: Modern Physics is Rotting [pdf]. You can also follow the discussion and read some words by the author at Talk Polywell.

You can also read more sections of Prof. Johan F. Prins's forthcoming book at Cathodixx.

Here are the opening paragraphs of the pdf linked above. He then goes on in this piece to give a simplified explanation of his theory with simple math.

Physics is considered to be the purest of all natural sciences. Scientists practising physics are supposedly those “special” people who search for knowledge with an “open mind”. New ideas and concepts are supposedly welcomed and objectively considered and tested. Since my own training is in physics and materials science, I also believed that this behaviour must reign supreme in science. I have applied these rules diligently while building my own career.

It thus came as a traumatic shock to discover when already approaching retirement that the real bigots in the world are to be found within the physics community, and more specifically amongst our modern-day theoretical physicists who have lost the plot many years ago when Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) convinced them during the 1920’s that it is impossible to “visualise” what happens on the atomic scale.
His complete book is due out later this year and I will do a post on it when it is available.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Chemistry Lesson



Another version I like with different graphics: Elements song. And this one Elements.

More Tom Lehrer

For my favorite Chemistry student.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Socialism Is The Answer

I was reading a post at Seeking Alpha about why the economy is headed further down and came across this comment:

This is a classic crisis of capitalism, an epidemic of over-production brought about by its most fundamental limitation/contradiction: the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. This tendency exerts its death-grip every 60-80 years so... it was only a matter of time.
I have two questions and an answer for the gentleman.

Let me get this straight. The problem with capitalism is that it produces too much? You would rather have the reverse problem? Socialism is your answer.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

USB Modem For Your PC

A while back when my Windows XP box died I was able, with some help from my readers and my mom, to get a Gateway DX4831-01. A very nice machine with lots of ports. But a modem port was not one of the built in options. The first mate of course was always pestering me to send FAXes to take care of various bits of business, so I went searching Amazon for a USB Modem. This is the one I got:



I had set up my Win 7 for 64 bits and I found that none of the software included on their CD was of ANY use. Dang. Well I don't give up easy. So I went looking around. First thing I went to the TRENDnet site and went looking for my modem. I got to the modem page and found a Win 7 64 bit driver and downloaded it. I loaded the driver (ran the .exe) and when it finished I plugged in the modem (you will not be prompted) after I connected it to a phone line. Then I went to the Win icon and clicked Devices and Printers. You get a modem (USB) icon and also a FAX icon. I clicked on the FAX icon and away I went. One other thing. Not every USB port on my computer worked with the modem. So you may have to try plugging it in to different USB ports.

If you want to get a dial-up connection to a server or ISP click Devices and Printers and then right click on the modem icon and then click on Dial-up Networking. I did not try this since I have a cable modem.

Because of the odd shape I think a USB 2.0 A-Male to A-Female Extension Cable is definitely in order.

This modem has served my needs well so far and I would definitely buy another.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Blue Sky - The Allman Brothers

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Policing For Fun And Profit

I was looking for the drug courier profile page which used to be on this site and came across this page.

Perhaps the most profitable investment a community can make is establishing a POLICE K-9 UNIT. A properly trained K-9 will usually pay for itself in 60 days and keep the revenue of city hall running high by utilizing the drug forfeiture laws.
I'll bet that jailing people for their personal bad habits is quite profitable. There are so many of them. Of course we have Drug Police. But that is only a small part of how people are harming themselves. We need Food Police. And of course the world will not be safe for children without Sex Police (who will obviously be issued Sex Pistols). And everyone knows that bad thoughts invariably lead to bad actions so we will no doubt need Thought Police. I'm sure Dogs can be trained to smell Drugs, Food, and Sex. But what would be really useful is Dogs that can read minds and alert appropriately. "Judge, the dog was wagging its tail which it has been trained to do when anyone is thinking bad thoughts about the President or the County Commissioner." I'll bet local governments could make a fortune with such dogs.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Purity Of Essence



Purity of Essence has morphed into Purity of Earth.

Inspired by this bit on $Green Jobs at Hot Air.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

An Extreme Drop In Value

It appears that Present obama is suffering an extreme drop in value when it comes to his fund raising abilities.

Pres. Obama is the best fundraiser the Dem Party has, but his drawing power is way down from its peak during the '08 campaign.

Obama is heading to MO and NV today to raise money for Sec/State Robin Carnahan (D), running for an open Senate seat, and Senate Maj. Leader Harry Reid.

But Carnahan's campaign wasn't able to completely sell out the Folly Theater, where Obama will appear for a grassroots event on Carnahan's behalf, at the prices they wanted. Tickets once priced at $250 are now going for $99, while $35 tickets are half off.
We can only hope this is the beginning of his

Going Out Of Business Sale - Prices Reduced Up To 60%

I look forward to a final closeout sale in 2012.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Safe Drilling For Oil



You can study the graphic used in the video in more detail at Safe Drilling. Which also has text and some good links.

Friday, July 09, 2010

The 1920 Census

You learn something new every day.

Congress failed to reapportion following the 1920 Census. The failure was in part the result of a difference of opinion over the method of dividing political power. Throughout the 1920s, Congress debated which of two mathematical models for reapportionment—whose outcomes for distribution of House seats differed—would be used. In 1929, one mathematical method was selected for the reapportionment, but it was not applied until after the 1930 Census. Furthermore, the debate about apportionment methods was not over. In 1941, a different model was chosen called "the method of equal proportions." It is still in use today.

The failure to reapportion in 1920 was also a reflection of regional power dynamics. The results of the 1920 Census revealed a major and continuing shift in population from rural to urban areas, which meant that many representatives elected from rural districts resisted reapportionment. Also, the growing number of immigrants entering this country had some impact on population shifts. Delay followed delay as rural interests tried to come up with mechanisms that would reduce the impact of the population shift. Congressmen from rural areas that would lose seats to more urbanized areas simply blocked passage of reapportionment legislation for 9 years.

During the congressional debates on Pubic Law 71-13, which was enacted in 1929, language requiring that districts be composed of contiguous, compact territory and contain the same number of individuals was deleted. Therefore, the reapportionment law that finally passed in 1929 was silent on the subject of rules for how the states were to establish districts to elect their representatives. As a result, some states simply stopped redistricting, despite major changes in the internal distribution of their populations over time from rural to urban to suburban. A process of malapportionment—meaning establishment of districts containing unequal population sizes—continued unchecked for decades.


Adapted from United States General Accounting Office, May 1998, Decennial Census: Overview of Historical Census Issues, GAO/GGD-98-103. [pdf]
So what was the practical effect of all these shenanigans? Funny you should ask. In discussing Daniel Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of ProhibitionGeorge Will has this to say.
By 1900, per capita consumption of alcohol was similar to today's, but mere temperance was insufficient for the likes of Carry Nation. She was "six feet tall, with the biceps of a stevedore, the face of a prison warden, and the persistence of a toothache," and she wanted Prohibition. It was produced by the sophisticated tenacity of the Anti-Saloon League, which at its peak was spending the equivalent of 50 million of today's dollars annually. Okrent calls it "the mightiest pressure group in the nation's history." It even prevented redistricting after the 1920 Census, the first census to reveal that America's urban -- and most wet -- population was a majority.
So that is how the census became delayed. And who was allied with the forces of prohibition and the dwindling rural population? You will never guess. Unless you like history as much as I do.
...President Woodrow Wilson's progressivism became a wartime justification for what Okrent calls ``the federal government's sudden leap into countless aspects of American life,'' including drink.

And so Prohibition came. Sort of. Briefly.

After the first few years, alcohol consumption dropped only 30 percent. Soon smugglers were outrunning the Coast Guard ships in advanced speedboats, and courts inundated by violations of Prohibition began to resort to plea bargains to speed ``enforcement'' of laws so unenforceable that Detroit became known as the City on a Still.

Prohibition agents cherished $1,800 jobs because of the bribes that came with them. Fiorello La Guardia taunted the government that it would need ``150,000 agents to watch the first 150,000.''

After 13 years, Prohibition, by then reduced to an alliance between evangelical Christians and criminals, was washed away by ``social nullification'' -- a tide of alcohol -- and by the exertions of wealthy people like Pierre du Pont who hoped that the return of liquor taxes would be accompanied by lower income taxes. (They were.) Ex-bootleggers found new business opportunities in the southern Nevada desert. And in the Second World War, draft boards exempted brewery workers as essential to the war effort.

In the fight between law and appetite, bet on appetite. And: Americans then were, and let us hope still are, magnificently ungovernable by elected nuisances
Of course the Progressives had introduced drug prohibition in 1914 with the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act (except that cocaine is not a narcotic - but never mind), but they had bigger game in mind. Now what is so interesting about today's political situation is that "conservatives" spout progressive dogma about Drug Prohibition and yet haven't a clue as to the antecedents of their position.

So it seems that at one time progressives wanted to run all of your life and conservatives thought that your life was your own business not the government's. Now we have a division of labor so to speak. The liberals stand for personal liberty and economic chains while the conservatives go with personal chains and economic liberty. For the most part. They all have their little fetishes that intrude on the opposition's territory though. That is what makes them interesting even if they are mostly unbearable.

Oh. Yeah. The George Will piece is called: Bet on appetite, not law, for Americans. If we look at the opiate/cocaine laws first enacted 96 years ago it appears that appetite is still winning. And the pot laws which are only 73 years old? There are two grow op stores in my town of 150,000. At first they were harassed. Now after ten or fifteen years they are solid citizens. Verrrrrrry interesting? No?

And you might want to read Eric's A Good First Step at Classical Values which shows one of the progressive's little fetishes. And a thermodynamic explanation of politics is also pertinent.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Faith In Numbers



Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Alarmism

More than six billion humans face extinction every year. And every year millions die. If the death rate accelerates it is hard to predict the overwhelmingly catastrophic consequences.

Inspired by Ecologist who says:

More than 25% of flowers face extinction – many before they are even discovered
I wonder if he didn't spell his name wrong. Mistakes happen. I'm just wondering if it shouldn't be Ecoligist.

And where did I find this person? At the Guardian UK's enviro blog where they claim Germany will get all its energy from renewables (or France) by 2050.
I wonder what their plan is for days when the wind doesn't blow? Or days when it blows too strong? Solar I guess until the sun goes down.

Except for one minor problem, German subsidies will be shifted from solar to wind.
The German photovoltaic industry knew bad news was on the way, and it could have been worse. Last week, Germany’s Environment Ministry recommended a shift in subsidies from solar energy installations to offshore wind farms. The solar sector breathed a collective sigh of relief because the subsidy could have easily been significantly cut or completely eliminated. Nevertheless outraged, the German Solar Industry Association issued a statement complaining that its members were in “a sensitive phase of development and [face] harsh competition with Asia.”

With Germany's impressive track record of renewable energy legislation, we have to wonder if the future will cause fickle investors to flock to wind now that solar subsidies have been cut in Germany. On the surface, this might look like a victory for wind power, but if you do a bit of digging, a different picture emerges.

Germans get 13% of their energy from renewable sources, but little of this energy comes from offshore wind farms, and the technology has been struggling to get out of the starting blocks. "The development of the offshore wind industry has gone forward more slowly than expected," said Michael Schroeren, a spokesman for Germany’s environment ministry. "And the cost of these new technologies is also higher than was expected." By shifting subsidies from solar to wind, the German government is essentially signaling to the market that wind isn't doing that great, and that the technology needs all the help it can get.
And why is a subsidy even necessary? Simple. Solar and wind are not competitive without lower cost collectors and really low cost storage. Otherwise you have to keep coal and natural gas plants on hot standby to make up for instantaneous declines in output. And of course on a really good day when solar and wind are producing more electricity than needed the excess is just wasted. And you still need the fossil fuel plants on hot standby - just in case. So where is the subsidy for storage? Not in evidence.

It looks to me like a classic case of ignorant politicians leading a stupid people. Well, in the long run the Germans (and every one else for that matter) always get what they deserve. Let us hope they get it good and hard and soon. Pour encourager les autres. Nothing like a Greek tragedy to wake people up.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Power Is A Function Of Time



From the YouTube page.
connvee3 October 24, 2009

FACEBOOK: If you're on Facebook, JOIN their page as a fan...I wanted to do the full version 11 min. but youtube says No -10min only. So here it is, a few cut here and there. Also, my uncles are doing well in So. Cal. They have a web site Chambersbrothersreunited.com. And the art work(with the exception of the blue cow bell pic) was created by Dylan Chambers, Lester's son. I hope you enjoy it. Keep the memories coming, it's nice to read how their music touched your lives...God Bless yaaa!

Demonstrate LOVE to those before You!
I saw the Brothers at the Filmore in San Francisco back in the day. I still have fond memories of that show and the gang I went with. Ed Herny are you out there?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

A Little Rest

I took a rest day today. More goodies a little later.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Bikini Edition - Obama Version

If you were looking for my regular bikini edition go here.

I have pretty much refrained from blaming Obama for the mess in the gulf. But his ineptness and failure to waive the Jones act as Bush did for Katrina pretty much hangs this bird

around Obama's neck. Especially when you consider that bioremediation technology is available:


The company is SpillFighters.com. And they have a few words to say on the subject:
...there is one simple and natural solution. “Oil Eating Microbes”.

Microbes occur in nature (in fact humans have over a pound of microbes in their bodies) and each type of microbe is programmed to do certain tasks. Some decompose plant matter, others help break down toxins. In the last 20 years scientists have been able to find and ‘harvest’ these naturally occurring oil-eating microbes from around the world and increase their reproduction cycle so that trillions are now available to help us!

These microbes are commercially available and have been tested successful on large oil spills around the world. These microbes can be supplied immediately in large enough quantities to ‘bioremediate’ the oil that is now washing up on the beaches and in the marshes of the Gulf Coast. The microbes are simply mixed with water and sprayed on the oil as it reaches the calmer waters near shore or on shore itself. Once applied to the oil, the microbes eat it—leaving a natural waste product that is harmless to marine life. Their waste is non-toxic and can actually be beneficial to the plants and sea creatures that feed on it.

The process to completely clean an area of oil is dependent on a few things—but it can usually be accomplished in just a few weeks — not years. If we can adopt this solution immediately, we have a chance to save the Gulf—if we wait, we’ll just be cleaning up corpses of our precious wildlife and bailing out millions of individuals and businesses again.
You can reach the head of Spill Fighters at:

J. Brent Tuttle
SpillFighters.com
jbrenttuttle
at
gmail
dot
com

And it wouldn't hurt to contact your Congress Critter with this information. And you might wish to add in the President. Just in case.

House of Representatives

The Senate

The President

H/T Atlas Shrugs and Hot Air photos and Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Monday, July 05, 2010

Take Heart



Made me cry. And stand up and salute. Which I did.