Scott Adams (yes, thatScott Adams) has compiled some research on new technologies that would allow homeowners to get completely off the power grid. These technologies include advances in solar panels, lithium-ion batteries made with silicon nanowires, and even micro-nuclear reactors. Oddly, he does not mention residential wind turbines, an existing technology with a long history of improvement.
One issue with these residential power sources is conversion. Most of these technologies produce 12-volt DC, which must be converted to 110-volt AC. Ironically, of course, many household appliances, such as computers, convert that 110 AC back to 12-volt DC. A lot of energy is wasted in those conversions. So to maximize the efficiency of these systems, homes should be wired to accommodate 12-volt DC appliances.
Getting off the power grid is entirely possible — but still prohibitively expensive for most people.
Winter has barely begun, and Wichita has already exhausted its snow removal budget for the season. And a nearby salt mine that supplies the road salt is struggling to keep up with the demand.
“Last year, we had the snowiest January on record,” said Robb Lawson, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “This year, we have had one of the snowiest Decembers on record.”
Hey, Al, where’s that global warming you keep talking about? We could sure use some right about now.
Columnist Jeff Jacoby documents the horrible treatment of women in Islamic cultures — both in Islamic nations as well as Western nations — and asks, where is the outrage?
All these are only examples – the tip of a dreadful iceberg that will never be demolished until Muslims by the millions rise up against it. As for the rest of us, we too have an obligation to raise our voices.
Two observations here:
First, this is further evidence that Islam is a sick religion. I know, I know — many Muslims will protest that these incidents represent only a radical fringe element, and not the “true” Islam. But look at the correlation between the prevalence of these crimes against women and the role of Islam as official government policy. It is in those countries that are most tightly in the grip of Islamic law (Saudi Arabia, Taliban Afghanistan, Pakistan) that these monstrosities most often occur. Moderate Muslims can protest the charge all they want, but the record is clear: Islam, as the world currently knows it, is an enemy of women.
Second, it is curious that the radical feminists who are so quick to criticize the slightest hint of patriarchy in Western cultures are strangely silent on this subject. By passing by these crimes against their sisters in other cultures, they expose the hypocrisy of their agenda. Others have written extensively about this (here and here).
There is, however, a silver lining behind these dark clouds. As more people become exposed to the barbaric treatment of women in Islamic cultures, and hear the deafening silence of the feminists in response, both Islam and feminism will be forced to either moderate their positions, or face further marginalization. Either path suits me fine.
Maybe. When it comes to Special Forces, you never know what’s really being used and what’s just talk. But this story offers a fascinating glimpse into a new era of special operations insertion into dangerous targets.
I’d love to watch a squad of commandos swooping in wearing these things.
It may not rank up there with The Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Olympics, but it comes close.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, despite a mediocre 6-7 season in my fantasy football league, I managed to make it to the championship game against the #1 team (11-3). I made a few adjustments in my lineup, and the changes paid off big time. I beat my opponent handily, 93-65.
Of course, it also helped that several of my opponent’s key players had unusually poor performances. But, hey, I’m not proud — I’ll take a W any way I can get it.
Geophysicist David Demming details the weather events of 2007 that make it mighty difficult to take seriously the sky-is-falling alarmism of the global warming industry.
Summarizing: Record cold weather in the southern hemisphere . . . late freezes in the U.S. that cost billions in agricultural losses . . . record low temperatures throughout the northern hemisphere so far this winter . . . hundreds of deaths directly related to cold weather. Demming names the dates, the places, the numbers.
Here in Kansas, we can personally attest to this frigid climate pattern. We’ve not yet reached January, and already we’ve had three four major snowstorms and a major ice storm, the latter leaving thousands of homes without power. As Demming noted about our predicament here in the Midwest:
Left in the dark and cold, Oklahomans rushed out to buy electric generators powered by gasoline, not solar cells. No one seemed particularly concerned about the welfare of polar bears, penguins or walruses. Fossil fuels don’t seem so awful when you’re in the cold and dark.
Of course, as Demming admits, none of these facts will deter the global warming true believers. They can it explain it all.
In 2005, a Canadian Greenpeace representative explained “global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter.” In other words, all weather variations are evidence for global warming. I can’t make this stuff up.
In the long term, I have faith in the common sense of the common people. When millions of folks personally experience this kind of weather, they tend not to take seriously the pompous pronouncements of the bureaucrats who want to re-engineer our economy in the name of saving the planet.
The climate is what it is. Our task is to learn how to adapt to it.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go shovel snow out of my driveway.
UPDATE: Even the mainstream media is beginning to question the prevailing wisdom. Former BBC science editor David Whitehouse (PhD in astrophysics) asks “has global warming stopped?” After examining the evidence, he believes there is definitely room for more debate on this subject.
So we are led to the conclusion that either the hypothesis of carbon dioxide induced global warming holds but its effects are being modified in what seems to be an improbable though not impossible way, or, and this really is heresy according to some, the working hypothesis does not stand the test of data.
True science will allow–no, insist– this debate to move forward. Only dogmatic ideologues will attempt to stifle it.
In October 2003, Dr. Crouse gave a lecture at Princeton University on the intersection of conservatism and feminism. It is the best analysis I’ve read on why feminism has lost its influence among American women.
Somewhere along the way, feminism lost its way. The movement forgot that “having it all” included the personal dimension. Life is not just profession and career. Success is not measured JUST in paycheck and status.
The 2003 young businesswoman of the year, Gabrielle Molnar, explained that she didn’t want to be called a feminist because feminism doesn’t support the cause of women.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Feminism has lost sight of what it is that women REALLY want. Most women want to love and be loved. They want the freedom to be all they can be and they want to be treated with dignity and respect. They also want the opportunity to have meaningful careers and productive lives — but most aren’t willing for their ambition to harm their relationships or damage their children.
The issue is no longer about equality of opportunity for women. That was settled a long time ago — Dr. Crouse’s own career is ample evidence of that. The problem with modern feminism is that it has been so tightly linked to radical politics, hatred of all men, and deconstruction of the traditional family, positions that turn off most women.
Of course, this distinction is lost on the mainstream media, who run to NOW for a quote every time a “women’s issue” comes up.
UPDATE: To further buttress Dr. Crouse’s point, here is what an Australian feminist, Virginia Haussegger, wrote about what her commitment to the feminist ideal got her:
The end result: here we are, supposedly “having it all” as we edge 40; excellent education; good qualifications; great jobs; fast-moving careers; good incomes; and many of us own the trendy little inner-city pad we live in. It’s a nice caffe-latte kind of life, really.
But the truth is – for me at least – the career is no longer a challenge, the lifestyle trappings are joyless (the latest Collette Dinnigan frock looks pretty silly on a near-40-year-old), and the point of it all seems, well, pointless.
I am childless and I am angry. Angry that I was so foolish to take the word of my feminist mothers as gospel. Angry that I was daft enough to believe female fulfilment came with a leather briefcase.
It was wrong. It was crap.
In my own personal experience in the corporate world, I see more and more young women — smart, talented, capable of anything they want — make a deliberate choice to either quit work altogether, or at least scale back their careers, in order to devote their energies to something they value more highly: their marriages and kids. Radical feminism has lost these women for good.
It’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted my fantasy football scores. But since my team made it to the championship game this weekend, I thought I’d retrace the unlikely route to that pinnacle.
I finished the regular season with a record of 6-7 — just barely enough to squeek into the playoffs. The losses along the way were sometimes inexplicable. Three times my team scored triple digits — good enough to win any other week — but my opponents had blowout games and outscored me. In week nine I got the highest score of the whole season for the whole league (145) and won — then the next week I got the second-lowest score (42). Go figure. At this point, my team has the highest Points-Against rating of any team in the league (1325), which is a good indication of the strength of schedule I was playing against.
Of course, that’s what makes fantasy football so much fun. Just like the real games, there are so many imponderables you can’t control. All you can do is watch the debacles unfold in front of your eyes.
Nevertheless, I made it into the playoffs. In the first round, my Steelers defense netted exactly zero points — but Peyton Manning and Chester Taylor had great days, so I edged past my opponent.
In the second round, I was up against the #2 ranked team. In a previous outing earlier in the season, he was undefeated and I beat him. My luck held in this game, too. My players were not all that great, but his team just happened to have an off day.
So now, I’m in the championship game against #1. 11-3 versus 8-7. My opponent has already beaten me handily twice. No need to project how this one will turn out. Nevertheless, I’ve made some adjustments in my lineup, adding Laurence Maroney and Roydell Williams in an effort to shore up what has been a weakness all season. I may get trounced, but at least I’ll go down swinging.
Eugene Robinson notes the problems that Bill Clinton is making for the Hillary campaign, and projects those forward into a Hillary presidency.
After his eight years as president, and nearly seven as a millionaire statesman/philanthropist/philosopher, is Bill Clinton capable of following any script? He’s used to saying whatever he wants to say, whenever he wants to say it. And he’s a talented improviser, always overflowing with ideas — some of them brilliant, some half-baked — that he can’t wait to share with his listeners.
Does anyone think that William Jefferson Clinton would confine himself to the bland, inoffensive pronouncements we’ve come to expect from presidential spouses? I’d give him two weeks of ribbon-cuttings and ceremonial visits before he felt compelled — and perhaps entitled — to jump into policy. Clearly, the smart thing would be to give him a portfolio of his own rather than let him play hopscotch.
But how would anyone keep him on the reservation? How would anyone tone down his charisma? And what would happen if a new Clinton administration gutted one of the accomplishments of the old Clinton administration? One potential case in point is the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Hillary now says has to be modified. If she were to keep that campaign promise, would Bill just smile sweetly on his way to the next East Room reception?
What people think of Bill Clinton and his presidency is grist for other columns. For now, I’m asking a simpler question: Since the Constitution provides for one president, not two, could he find a way to live in a White House that wasn’t all about him?
When Americans ponder a possible Hillary presidency, they need to think long and hard about Bill’s role in such an administration. That could get real messy in a hurry.
Millions of employees across America (including me) faithfully follow the Dilbert comic strip. One of the great appeals of the strip is its depiction of clueless management, personified by Dilbert’s Pointed-Haired Boss. Every employee can relate to Dilbert’s frustration dealing with a corporate leadership that just doesn’t get it. Just walk through a typical cubicle farm in any office and count how many Dilbert comic strips are posted on the walls. Dilbert is the patron saint of office workers everywhere.
Which makes this story all the more funny. A casino in Des Moines fired David Steward for posting a Dilbert comic strip on the office wall. They found the message of the strip to be “very offensive.” Steward filed suit to get his unemployment benefits, and won.
The casino’s action serves only to reinforce the basic message of Dilbert: Management can become so convinced of their own self-importance they forget their humanity. People who cannot laugh at themselves generally make poor leaders.
No, really. Researchers are now saying that lifestyle choices can be as helpful as medication in dealing with chronic depression.
Might the isolating, sedentary, indoor computer culture explain, for example, why the disorder appears to be surging in young adults? Today’s 20-somethings have a 1-in-4 lifetime risk of experiencing depression’s hallmark black mood, joylessness, fatigue, and suicidal thoughts compared with the 1-in-10 risk of their grandparents’ generation. Americans are 10 times as likely to have depression today as they were 60 years ago, a development that is not merely a result of increased awareness and diagnosis.
Clinical trials have demonstrated that changes such regular vigorous exercise, increased exposure to sunlight, a greater level of social interaction, plenty of rest, and eating more fish can create significant improvement in those suffering from chronic depression. Depression sufferers involved in one such experimental program at the University of Kansas are sold on its benefits.
Margaret Dickson, 60, says that four months after having finished the program, she finally feels her old self returning for the first time in 25 years. “I’d always been such a gregarious person at the center of everything,” says the former horse show competitor from Leavenworth, Kan. “I gradually became numb and went into such a fog for so long, cutting off my friendships.” Leery of possible side effects, she avoided medication. For now, bike rides in the park, time in front of her light box, and reconnecting with old friends have done the job.
While there is no doubt that some depression is the result of chemical imbalances that require medication, this data seems to confirm the reverse-psychosomatic basis of severe mood funks.
The lesson here is simple: People who live an active, social, and balanced life are too busy enjoying life to get depressed.
A postcard featuring a color drawing of Santa Claus and a young girl was mailed in 1914, but its journey was slower than Christmas. It just arrived in northwest Kansas.
The Christmas card was dated Dec. 23, 1914, and mailed to Ethel Martin of Oberlin, apparently from her cousins in Alma, Neb.
If your math is slow, that’s 93 years late.
Ethel is deceased, so the Post Office went out of their way to get it to her sister-in-law, Bernice Martin. Bernice was told that the card was apparently found somewhere in Illinois.
There’s gotta be an interesting story in there somewhere.
Two recent reports add further confusion to the “debate-is-over” certitude that once marked global warming science.
First, a news item in today’s edition of Science Daily:
A new study comparing the composite output of 22 leading global climate models with actual climate data finds that the models do an unsatisfactory job of mimicking climate change in key portions of the atmosphere.
This research, published online in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology, raises new concerns about the reliability of models used to forecast global warming.
Second, a Canadian scientist looks at satellite photos of the Arctic ice cap for three dates this year — April 1, August 8, and November 29, 2007 — and observes “a more rapid growth than previously in the record.” Elsewhere, a similar growth in the Antarctic ice cap has been noted.
For a scientific issue that has been so assuredly settled, there is a lot of debate on the fundamental facts still going on.
[Jeanne] Assam, a church security guard with law enforcement experience, fired her own weapon at the invader and stopped his attack, police say. . . .
Assam was one of about a dozen volunteer security guards at the church, half of whom are armed, [Pastor] Boyd said. The guards are licensed, trained and screened, and are church members, not “mercenaries,” he said.
What would have happened at Virginia Tech last spring, if the school had allowed some of its faculty, staff, and even students to be licensed, trained, screened, and armed when Cho went on his rampage?
UPDATE: Here is a detailed eye-witness account of how the whole thing went down.
Last year Mark Steyn published a blockbuster political tome, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, a well-researched look into the demographic trends behind the rise of global Islam, especially in Europe. The book was a bestseller here in America, and in Canada, Mark’s home.
An excerpt from Mark’s book was published in Maclean’s, a leading Canadian news magazine. Now the Canadian Islamic Congress has pressured a couple of Canada’s human rights commissions (one national, one provincial) into reviewing whether the civil rights of Muslims in Canada have been violated by the publishing of this article.
I can defend myself if I have to. But I shouldn’t have to.
If the Canadian Islamic Congress wants to disagree with my book, fine. Join the club. But, if they want to criminalize it, nuts. That way lies madness. . . .
The “progressive” left has grown accustomed to the regulation of speech, thinking it just a useful way of sticking it to Christian fundamentalists, right-wing columnists, and other despised groups. They don’t know they’re riding a tiger that in the end will devour them, too.
Well spoken. Free speech applies to everyone, or it applies to no one. Once we let government get in the business of deciding who can say what, we have surrendered our most basic human right. And sooner or later, that loss will be used against us.
Judging from some posts on Mark’s website, maybe a few Canadians are beginning to wake up to what is happening in their country. But it will be an uphill battle.
Read this profile of a sociopath, and tell me if it reminds you of someone we all know. Here are a few excerpts to whet your appetite:
Glibness and Superficial Charm
Manipulative and Conning
They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors as permissible. They appear to be charming, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victim as merely an instrument to be used. They may dominate and humiliate their victims.
Grandiose Sense of Self
Feels entitled to certain things as “their right.”
Pathological Lying
Has no problem lying coolly and easily and it is almost impossible for them to be truthful on a consistent basis. Can create, and get caught up in, a complex belief about their own powers and abilities. Extremely convincing and even able to pass lie detector tests.
Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt
A deep seated rage, which is split off and repressed, is at their core. Does not see others around them as people, but only as targets and opportunities. Instead of friends, they have victims and accomplices who end up as victims. The end always justifies the means and they let nothing stand in their way.
Read the whole thing.
Oh — and do you think it would be possible for such a person to ever be elected as President?
Based on a design originally conceived by DaVinci over 500 years ago, this new approach to gear shifting replaces the jerky shifts with a smooth transition up and down a wide range of gear ratios.
This new technology holds promise for other forms of powered locomotion as well, including automobiles.
Glenn Reynolds comments on the Omaha mall shooting:
It’s worth noting — since apparently most of the media reports haven’t — that this was another mass shooting in a “gun-free” zone. It seems to me that we’ve reached the point at which a facility that bans firearms, making its patrons unable to defend themselves, should be subject to lawsuit for its failure to protect them. The pattern of mass shootings in “gun free” zones is well-established at this point, and I don’t see why places that take the affirmative step of forcing their law-abiding patrons to go unarmed should get off scot-free.
Reynolds links to an article that calls attention to the preference for gun-free zones among the crazies who commit these horrible crimes. Like a fox drawn to a henhouse, the perps know that gun-free zones are their best chance for maximum body count.
Despite the lack of news coverage, people are beginning to notice what research has shown for years: Multiple-victim public shootings keep occurring in places where guns already are banned. Forty states have broad right-to-carry laws, but even within these states it is the “gun-free zones,” not other public places, where the attacks happen.
I think he’s right. No one is calling for a return to the days of the Old West, where every insult was resolved in a hail of bullets (if, indeed, that stereotype ever really existed). But allowing responsible, well-trained citizens to carry firearms for their own protection is surely better than forcing them to face the world as defenseless sheep.
Finally, the Pentagon is using some smart P.R. to get out the message of what the military is accomplishing in Iraq. And they’re getting that message out, of all places, on university campuses.
The “Why We Serve” program . . .
. . . sends recently returned veterans across the country to share their decisions to join the military and their experiences abroad with the public. The program started with presentations to mostly small community groups but branched out this fall to college campuses.
The vets encounter an occasional hostile question and snooty professor complaining about the the “one-sided” nature of the presentations (as if the other side is not represented on today’s campuses??). But overall, the response has been positive. At a recent event at Syracuse University,
The program ended with a lengthy standing ovation from most of the crowd.
“I feel like there is another side that everyone needs to hear,” said Samantha Wilder, a Syracuse freshman from Williamsburg, Va. “There are pictures we never see. There’s a side we never see.”
Thanks to these programs, students are now able to see that other side.
During the Vietnam war, an American officer was reported to have described an operation as “destroying the town in order to save it.” That oxymoron became an icon of military double-speak.
That quote came to mind while reading this article by AP’s Robin McDowell, describing the carbon impact of the climate change conference currently underway in Bali, Indonesia.
The U.N. estimates 47,000 tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants will be pumped into the atmosphere during the 12-day conference in Bali, mostly from plane flights but also from waste and electricity used by hotel air conditioners.
If correct, [Chris] Goodall said, that is equivalent to what a Western city of 1.5 million people, such as Marseilles, France, would emit in a day.
But he believes the real figure will be twice that, more like 100,000 tons, close to what the African country of Chad churns out in a year.
Conference organizers are making a good-faith effort to stay “green” by using recycled paper and making bicycles available to attendees.
Yet SUVs, taxis and other cars sit in long lines at the gates to the site, spewing out exhaust as they wait to get through security checkpoints.
And this is just one of several conferences that have been or will be conducted on this issue.
The pace is only expected to pick up, prompting some to ask if the issue is creating a “cure” industry as various groups claim a stake in efforts to curb global warming.
Trust me — if there is money to be made in this new “industry,” the conferences will keep on coming, whatever the carbon cost. But it’s okay, because it’s all in the name of saving the planet.
As Glenn Reynolds likes to say, I’ll believe global warming is a crisis as soon as those who keep telling me it is a crisis start acting as if it were a crisis.
Anthony Watts is a former meteorologist who now runs his own weather data service in California. Among his current projects is a comprehensive survey of the physical installation of all the temperature measuring stations throughout the U.S. These measuring stations are supposed to comply with strict standards of placement, proximity, construction, etc.
If what he has discovered thus far is any indication, “global warming” rests on a mighty shaky foundation. Many of these stations display what Watts calls “microsite biases”–placement near things like parking lots, air conditioning exhausts, rooftops, etc., that would artificially inflate the readings.
Watts has prepared a thorough summary of the problems he’s seen in this presentation.
Watts’ work was featured in a recent Arizona Republicarticle about global warming skeptics.
Following the latest Democratic and Republican “debates” hosted by CNN, the conservative blogosphere has been apoplectic about the cheap shots, Democratic plants, and general goofiness of the events.
But now, the stink is so bad that even the L. A. Times is saying, “enough already.” The Times’ media critic Tim Rutten skewers the network for its lousy question selection, and concludes,
CNN has failed in its responsibilities to the political process and it’s time for the leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties to take the network out of our electoral affairs.
I recently read Bjorn Lomborg’s book, Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming. Lomborg acknowledges that global warming exists, and attributes at least some of the cause to human activity. But he argues that it is folly to think that changing our lifestyles and economic systems will have any measurable impact on improving the situation. The trillions of dollars that would be required to make even a dent in the warming trend would be better spent tackling other social, health, and technology issues — initiatives that would reap far greater benefits to billions of people, at a fraction of the cost.
Instead, we are lectured about the urgent need to drop everything else, and devote the full resources of the planet to combating global warming. Anyone who opposes this massive campaign is marked as a heretic, or worse.
Lomborg sees a grim parallel to this apocalyptic approach in an earlier period, when climate change triggered widespread witch hunts.
Alarmism has a long history in the climate debate. Perhaps most chillingly, this was evident in the witch trials in medieval Europe. After the Inquisition’s eradication of the actual heretics (like Cathars and Waldensians), most witches from the early 1400s onward were accused of creating bad weather. The pope in 1484 recognized that witches “have blasted the produce of the earth, the grapes of the vine, the fruits of the trees, . . . vineyards, orchards, meadows, pasture-lands, corn, wheat and all other cereals.” As Europe descended into the Little Ice Age, more and more areas experienced crop failure, high food prices, and hunger; witches became obvious scapegoats in weakly governed areas. As many as half a million individuals were executed between 1500 and 1700, and there was a strong correlation between low temperatures and high numbers of witchcraft trials across the European continent.
When politicians today scream that energy companies are “treasonous” and “we need to start treating them now as traitors,” can witch trials be far behind?
With idiots like Helen Thomas asking the questions at White House briefings, it doesn’t take Americans long to figure out that they are not being served by objective journalists, but lectured by shrill political hacks.
White House press secretary Dana Perino does a masterful job of putting Thomas in her place.
UPDATE: Here is a detailed article on Perino’s background and credentials. Very impressive young lady.
Rep. John Murtha, just back from Iraq, blurted out an honest impression about what he saw during his trip: “The surge is working.”
Naturally, that didn’t sit well with the Diva on the Hill, Nancy Pelosi, so she got to him, and Murtha hastily repaired the damage in a follow-up statement: “The fact remains that the war in Iraq cannot be won militarily, and that we must begin an orderly redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq as soon as practicable.”
So all is right with the world again: We are winning the war in Iraq, and the Democrats are digging themselves deeper into their defeatist hole. Gotta love it.
