Monday, July 30, 2007

Here We Blow Again....

Funny, just when I get done watching a show of respected meteorologists say that frequency and severity of hurricanes seem to follow a 30-year cycle, and they don't know what causes it, this comes along. Please don't ask "What is an article about the increased frequency of hurricanes being caused by climate change doing in a site about Green Cars?" I frankly don't know. But it is interesting how nearly anything that comes up these days runs Anything = Global Warming, no matter how many intermediate steps have to be postulated.

Let's see. An increase in the frequency of dirty socks produces Global Warming. Dirty socks = washing = hot water = electricity = burning fossil fuels = more CO2 = Global Warming. There, that wasn't so difficult, was it? Now you try it. And knock it off with those dirty socks!

The Discount on Legends These Days

"Legendary Talk-Show Host Tom Snyder Dies"

No- you talked to people on TV, Tom. Beowulf is legendary, you're (now) a re-run.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Another Sign of the End Times

I may be confused about all this. There's a car chase (admittedly in Phoenix, where the sun beats down constantly on people's heads), and somewhere in the process, two news helicopters collide in midair, killing those aboard. Now there's talk of charging Mr. Car Chase Suspect (or Person of Excessive Speed, or whatever) with the deaths of the people in the helicopters. Surely I'm missing something, maybe he shot them down.

But -no- a glance at a story shows that some people are quite serious about this. I just don't understand how. To merely stretch this same logic a tad, all the people who sit home and watch TV coverage of car chases could claim that said drivers caused the flat spots on their asses.

The helicopters were engaged in inherently dangerous, completely voluntary (an in no way necessary) activity when pilot error (as captured on the radios right before the crash) caused the mid-air collision that resulted in the four deaths. Arguments that they would have been sitting somewhere drinking coffee if there had been no car chase are puerile.

I hasten to note that the deaths of police, paramedics, firefighters, or other "first responders" (of which TV news helicopter crews are NOT included) are in no way involved in what I have said here, as they are there in the performance of their duties.

If the individual involved can be charged in the four deaths, it indicates that there is a bad, bad law involved, one that should immediately be repealed. It reflects Harry Truman's principle that even one bad law breeds contempt for all law.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Juice at a Fundamental Level

Now this is kinda interesting.....bacterial dynamos, would you believe?

Thursday, July 26, 2007

This Is The Life


....or at least, it is for me. Family gatherings are the greatest! More pix....

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Maybe Not !

Here and I was letting myself think that the next wave of technology is always the wave of the future. With VOIP (phone calls on the Internet), maybe not.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Not Their Finest Hour...

Several weeks ago, I posted on the danger of environmental tinkering in a vacuum. Now it is proposed by some UK think tank to do just that, brushing off the implications of environmental engineering by stating "-three strategies are generally available-" as if it were proven that any of these will work, and how much, and completely ignores the terminal danger in raising or lowering the albedo (basically reflectivity) of the planet. Environmentalism is truly well on the path to becoming the new religion, and this may be its first leap of faith. Let us hope it is founded in True Belief. Since beliefs in the name of science are apparently part the New World Order, my belief is that the proposal above is to embark on a 20-year plan, without the slightest evidence that it can produce the intended result......and some of the unintended consequences are potentially disastrous.

In response to those who may take me to task for having advanced no solution, I can only propose what no one dares say now, but which will in the end prove inevitable. We will do less, with less people, and the "equilibrium" some talk about will be restored. Whether this is done the easy way or the hard way remains to be seen.

Friday, July 13, 2007

I KNEW This Would Be Fun

.....when I first saw the name "Dance Dance Immolation." As the article goes on to explain, "-DDI, however, combines the (dance) movements with flamethrowers--needless to say, it's for grown-ups only."

Spoilsports.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Coming Home To Roost Dept.

"I feel we are being railroaded, and the market generally forced (us) into a corner or even a cul-de-sac. In a free market, we have made Microsoft dominant, and now we have the collective responsibility to reverse this situation to re-establish balance and competition. If I am being driven down the Vista route, then an Apple Mac is smarter money and cheaper."

- Richard Snooks, Capital & Regional CIO, see complete article.

Friday, July 6, 2007

"Chance" of Morons in the Neighborhood

OK, I've only got one thing to say about the controversy over whether Fred Rogers is responsible for the "entitled" generation: Get Over It, Take A Pill, Soak Your Head. Nothing on TV is responsible for anything; it's entertainment. Now repeat that until you never feel the need to take this kind of nonsense seriously, ever, ever again.

Also: "Grown Up" means being responsible. If you're an idiot, running around with some sense of entitlement to an A instead of a C, or that you've some right to esteem without having done anything estimable, that's your problem.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Thought of the Day....

It's not that most of the idiots and yo-yos in this world don't know anything. They learned what they needed to know to do what they do. A lot of people awarded a sheepskin know what they had to learn to get their ticket punched. Along the way, they may have learned how to golf, bowl, blow their nose into a hanky instead of the tablecloth, and whatnot. What makes them idiots is that they don't know what they don't know.

The Price of Freedom

Interesting July 4th reading on Snopes.com concerning the price of freedom, and our need to turn History into Legend.

"That's History. Not what happened, but what people make themselves believe must have happened."

- Alistair Cooke