Year: 2012

It appears that the floating debris from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year is reaching North America sooner than expected.

10:01 am

It appears that the floating debris from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year is reaching North America sooner than expected.

I got a laugh from the last two sentences of this story. The early arrival of “more than 200 bottles, cans, buoys and floats” from Japan was immediately turned into a crisis that required government intervention.

With debris making landfall sooner than predicted, U.S. lawmakers have started to question whether the government is truly prepared. “Many people said we wouldn’t see any of this impact until 2013 or 2014, and now ships and motorcycles and this various debris is showing up and people want answers,” U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said.

And if the debris was taking longer to get here? Cantwell would then argue we need to spend more money to track it more precisely. By her standards, no matter what happens, government has got to get bigger.

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Renovations at a Los Angeles restaurant in February uncovered a neon light, hidden inside a wall, that had been was switched on in 1935 and left burning for 77 years.

10:31 pm

It just kept going and going: Renovations at a Los Angeles restaurant in February uncovered a neon light, hidden inside a wall, that had been was switched on in 1935 and left burning for 77 years.

The walls of the restaurant featured numerous hand-tinted transparencies of mountain and forest landscapes, each of which was backlit by a rectangular neon light. One such light was installed in a window-like nook in a basement restroom, where it softly illuminated a woodland scene.

In 1949, the nook was covered over with plastic and plywood when part of the restroom was partitioned off as a storage area. But for some reason, workmen never got around to disconnecting the electricity. For the next 62 years the illuminated tubing was hidden within the wall. Meieran estimates that the neon tube has racked up more than $17,000 in electrical bills.

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The TSA has decided to no longer require the elderly to remove their jackets, belts, and shoes when going through airport security.

7:00 pm

How nice of them: The TSA has decided to no longer require the elderly to remove their jackets, belts, and shoes when going through airport security.

My emotional response to the TSA about this are two words not appropriate in mixed company, the first starting with “F” and the second with “Y”. My more rational response is to call for the end of this damn agency so the U.S. can get back to being the home of free and land of the brave.

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Europe ponders choosing the design of the next generation Ariane rocket.

4:25 pm

Europe ponders the design choices for the next generation of their Ariane rocket.

Though the article above makes no mention of Falcon 9 and its very low launch costs, I have no doubt that Falcon 9 hovers like a ghost over the negotiations on what ESA will do with Ariane 5, a rocket that despite an excellent launch record has never really been able to make a profit due to high costs.

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Two Democrats joined Republicans yesterday on a Senate committee to block the U.S. military from increasing its use of alternatives fossil fuels.

2:52 pm

Two Democrats joined Republicans yesterday on a Senate committee to block the U.S. military from increasing its use of alternatives fossil fuels.

What stood out to me in this article was the following quote:

As part of this support, in December the Navy agreed to spend $12 million for 450,000 gallons of “advanced biofuels,” which can be blended with petroleum in a 50:50 mixture and burned in conventional engines. The Navy and Air Force have both set a goal of using advanced biofuels for 50% of their fuel use by the end of this decade. But the current $26-a-gallon price tag angered congressional Republicans, who accuse the Obama Administration of using the military to support its green agenda. [emphasis mine]

$26 per gallon for biofuels? I find it astonishing that anyone voted for this program.

Of course the military wants options. And of course we want to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, if only to reduce the money pouring into the hands of the radical Islamists of the Middle East. But at that price, these alternative fuels are simply not competitive or affordable.

5 comments

The campaign of political terrorism by the left.

10:49 am

The campaign of political terrorism by the left.

In this post you will hear that audio clip. You will also read about a months-long campaign of harassment carried out by at least three individuals: Ron Brynaert, Neal Rauhauser, and Brett Kimberlin — much of it directed at critics of Brett Kimberlin. This harassment includes repeated references to critics’ family members, workplace complaints, publication of personal information such as home addresses and pictures of residences, bogus allegations of criminal activity, whisper campaigns, frivolous legal actions, and frivolous State Bar complaints.

And finally, you will hear a comparison of one of those men’s voices to that of the man who made the call that sent police to my home. And you’ll read a declaration from a forensic audio expert comparing those two voices.

The phone call falsely claimed that the blogger had shot his wife, causing a swat team to descend on the blogger’s home with their guns raised. As he noted, “When I opened the door, deputies pointed guns at me and ordered me to put my hands in the air. I had a cell phone in my hand. Fortunately, they did not mistake it for a gun.”

That these leftwing thugs are from the left is only relevant in that too many members of the left excuse this kind of behavior. Bad behavior is bad behavior, no matter what one’s political beliefs. These individuals should be shunned by the left, and prosecuted if they commit illegal acts that threaten the lives of their opponents.

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Cronies ‘R’ us

7:34 pm

“Cronies ‘R’ us,” an illustrative example of why conservatives don’t trust the Republican Party.

As this story points out, the problem in Washington is not merely the fact that the Democrats like to spend other people’s money like water (which they do). It is also because too many established members of the Republican party have been all too willing to join them in this spendthrift behavior.

It is for this reason the tea party movement exists, and why so many established Republicans, like Richard Lugar in Indiana, are getting kicked out of office. The movement isn’t partisan, it is merely focused on making whatever progress it can. Kick out Democrats wherever possible, and do the same for those Republicans who like to be me-too Democrats.

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Climategate continues

4:27 pm

Climategate continues.

The article describes more evidence that the tree ring data used by global warming scientists was fraudulently manipulated to suggest a warming in the past half century when the full data set showed no such thing.

Until the climate field cleans house and admits to this wrong-doing, no one is going to trust anything they say.

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