Today’s bit of nonsensical reporting on meaningless polls comes from the staff reporters at Editor & Publisher:
Gallup: In Shift, More Americans Now Call Themselves Democrats
In a (perhaps) historic shift, more Americans now consider themselves Democrats than Republicans, the Gallup organization revealed today.
Republicans had gained the upper hand in recent years, but 33% of Americans, in the latest Gallup poll, now call themselves Democrats, with those favoring the GOP one point behind. But Gallup says this widens a bit more “once the leanings of Independents are taken into account.”
Independents now make up 34% of the population. When asked if they lean in a certain direction, their answers pushed the Democrat numbers to 49% with Republicans at 42%. One year ago, the parties were dead even at 46% each.
This shift indicates, Gallup says, why its polls show Democrats leading in this year’s congressional races.
The latest poll was taken from January to March 2006, with a national sample of about 1,000 adults.
Gallup’s poll is supposed to indicate trouble for Republicans this November, but I think it’s extremely encouraging.
First, let’s take a look at previous statistics from Gallup:
The red dot indicates where things were in the 4th quarter in 1994 when the Democrats lost 54 seats in the House of Representatives, giving Republicans a majority of seats in the House for the first time since 1954.
They had nearly a five point lead in Party I.D. and still managed to lose the House!
Since then Democrats have seen their lead soar as high as 8.5 in 1997, only to fall and rise and fall again until, in the 4th quarter of 2000, they were holding onto a two-point lead over the GOP (twice what they have today).
President Bush won the election anyway.
Dem fortunes continued to dwindle until the numbers swung into Republican territory and stayed there for most of the next five years.
And now the numbers have swung 1 point in the Democrats’ favor. Hardly stunning and right at the ±1 point margin of error.
If there’s a pattern here, it’s that there is no pattern! When the Dems had a lead of 8.5 in Party I.D., they lost elections. When the Republicans had the lead, Democrats continued to lose elections.
At most, what we learn from Gallup’s numbers is that when they poll adults (as they did in the current poll) instead of registered voters or likely voters, the poll results never predict who will win the next election.
It’s supposed to be significant that, “independents now make up 34% of the population. When asked if they lean in a certain direction, their answers pushed the Democrat numbers to 49% with Republicans at 42%. One year ago, the parties were dead even at 46% each.”
I think it’s worthy of attention that those same independents wouldn’t declare themselves to be Democrats! Hardly a ringing endorsement for Dems, much less a stinging repudiation for the GOP! Gallup’s poll shows the GOP lost people who had identified themselves as “Republicans,” but evidently those people weren’t motivated to switch to the Democrats, which should worry Dem leaders.
When you consider the many factors that will determine which party wins in November, prospects look bleak for Dems:
Republicans in Congress have the Abramoff Scandal, but because Democrats like Harry Reid are also tarnished by their association with Abramoff and his people, the GOP hasn’t been hurt badly. Individual Republicans may lose based on their involvement, but the party in general won’t suffer from the “culture of corruption” charge being leveled by Dems.
Yes, polls show most Americans think the war is going badly, but I think those results are spurious, too. The real poll was the count of people who showed up in U.S. cities to protest the third anniversary of the war in Iraq. Democrats must have despaired when they saw the tiny numbers of protestors who managed to turn out, because if they can’t get their anti-war base to demonstrate, how can they get them to vote?
Bush derangement syndrome has again caused liberals to overstep themselves. In their hatred for President Bush, all they’ve done is motivate conservatives to go to the polls to keep Dems from gaining seats in Congress.
Therefore the real question is, will the Democrat faithful turn out? The lackluster anti-war demonstrations show their base is tired, worn out from six years of fruitless struggle. They’ve had a string of unbroken defeats over the last six years, the latest being the failure of Democrats in the House to vote for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, the fizzle that was FitzMas, and their inability to prevent conservative judges from being appointed to the Supreme Court. It’s no wonder they’re depressed and are looking for scapegoats. Make sure you read the poll results from both stories here and here. One of the polls had over a thousand votes, which makes it enlightening and accurate, at least by the standards of polling these days.
Tags: blog | weblog | politics | democrats | republicans | polls | journalists
12:08:44 am, Categories: Daily blather
From MacKenzie Carpenter of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette comes this article:
Doing mortal combat with adultproof packaging
Michelle Dreyfuss is normally a sweet-natured person, but recently she found herself longing for some box cutters, razor blades or an ice pick — anything to get Cinderella’s Castle out of its plastic box before her little girl Camille dissolved in a puddle of tears.
“There were all these little people that came with it, and each one of them was individually wrapped, and the whole castle was attached to about five or six or 10 of those wire things,” recalled Dreyfuss, of Mount Lebanon, Pa. “I was ready to go crazy, and I just hated the fact that my daughter was standing there so frustrated and panicked.”
Dreyfuss isn’t the only consumer who fights violent impulses when confronted with today’s hard-to-open packaging. Whether it’s Barbie dolls, cell phones or cereal, manufacturers and retailers seem to be singing the same song: Buy our products, please, but don’t assume you’ll actually ever be able to get your hands on them.
Consumer Reports, in fact, announced its first-ever Oyster Awards in this month’s issue, with first prize going to the hard-plastic clamshell packaging for the Uniden Digital Cordless Phone set, which took nine minutes and 22 seconds to open — not the longest, but by far the most dangerous, requiring box cutters and a razor blade. Second prize went to “American Idol” Barbie and her packaging, which took 15 minutes to untie all the wires, rip the stitches from her hair and slice the thick plastic manacles off her arms and torso.
…
Concerns about hard-to-open packaging may not be just about consumer inconvenience. According to 2001 Census Bureau data, people suffered more than twice as many injuries related to household packaging and containers than from skateboards or swimming pools (although those numbers include injuries that involve dropping a package on a foot).And British researchers blame “wrap rage” for more than 60,000 injuries in that country. In 2004, a writer for The Times of London described the CD as “the crucible of wrap rage,” whose old cardboard box was replaced by a “zip strip. The answer to our unwrapping prayers! Yet 12 years later, a pull-tab torn off in hand, we are still chewing through plastic like wild dogs.”
Read the whole article.
Tags: blog | weblog | humor | odd news | life
Health.com offers a list of the most healthy foods in the world: olive oil, soy, yogurt, lentils, and kimchi.
Want to know what you’re least likely to hear at a meal consisting of the foods on this list?
“Please, may I have seconds?”
Tags: blog | weblog | humor | odd news | life | science | healthy food | health | diet
In the ongoing debate over whether human beings are to blame for increasing temperatures, researchers are about to add a new (and far more likely) cause to the mix: the Sun has become brighter over the last twenty years.
From an article in The Australian:
The sun is getting brighter, increasing the pace of climate change and undermining claims that man alone is to blame.
A series of independent studies around the world show a significant rise in the amount of sunshine penetrating the atmosphere to be absorbed by the earth’s surface and turned into heat.
…
The research will concern climate researchers, who are already predicting a rapid rise in global temperatures due to man-made emissions of so-called greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.“The enhanced warming we have seen since the 1990s along with phenomena such as the widespread melting of glaciers could well be due to this increased intensity of sunlight compounding the effect of greenhouse gases,” said Martin Wild of the Institute of Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich, Switzerland.
Researchers will present their findings to the European Geophysical Union conference in Vienna next week.
They reverse a 30-year trend. Measurements of sunshine levels between 1960 and 1990 have shown a decrease in the amount of sunshine reaching the earth, a phenomenon known as global dimming.
This was thought to have been caused by dust, smog and other pollutants, mainly from industrialised Western countries.
The pollutants, known as aerosols, reduced sunshine levels by absorbing and scattering solar radiation and promoting the formation of clouds that reflected radiation back into space.
In the past two decades, however, there have been huge decreases in such pollutants, partly due to industry becoming cleaner but largely because of the collapse of the Soviet Union and much of its heavy industry.
“Sunshine levels had been decreasing by 2 per cent a decade between 1960 and 1980 - a total decline of about 6 per cent. Now they are going up again. Perhaps this is why our Swiss glaciers are melting,” Professor Wild said.
Such rises could be disastrous for agriculture, wildlife and human settlements in many regions, especially the tropics.
But scientists warn they may have to revise these calculations sharply upwards if the impact of “global brightening” has to be factored in.
Atsumu Ohmura, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, has collated measurements from 400 sites worldwide and found an increase in sunshine at 300 of the sites studied.
The areas under scrutiny were mainly in Eurasia and the polar regions.
Some of the areas studied showed a decline in sunshine since 1990, largely in fast-developing countries such as China and India.
“A widespread brightening has been observed since the 1980s. This may substantially affect surface climate, the water cycle, glaciers and ecosystems,” Professor Ohmura said.
So if we’d signed onto the Kyoto Protocol and had started messing with our economies to reduce CO2 emissions, how stupid would we feel about now as we learn that the Sun is probably to blame for rising temperatures? Pretty darn stupid – and about $500 billion poorer. Thank you, President Bush for bucking the “consensus.”
Recent related articles:
Global Warming, Frodo Baggins, and the Empire State Building
Tags: blog | weblog | global warming | science | climate change
09:56:31 pm, Categories: Daily blather
The Left is in full chortle at the expense of conservatives after results of a long-term study of children in Berkeley, California were revealed in this Toronto Star article:
How to spot a baby conservative
Whiny children, claims a new study, tend to grow up rigid and traditional. Future liberals, on the other hand …Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.
At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.
It goes on from there: liberals are well adjusted and open-minded; conservatives are mean-sprited and have squashed souls. In other words, the complete opposite of what we see in everyday life.
Yes, it’s a truism that you can massage statistics to get any results you want, but these kids (now adults) have been monitored for most of their lives, so the results should be accurate.
So on the one hand, the study’s conclusions must be accurate, but on the other hand, they can’t be correct because they fly in the face of what we conservatives know from life experience to be true. The solution to this conflict is that there must be something unusual about the kids being studied, or where they grew up, or both.
Jonah Goldberg at Townhall.com offers what would seem to be a reasonable explanation for the results:
One obvious problem with this sort of analysis is that the single best predictor of partisan affiliation is the political orientation of your parents. In Berkeley, the most liberal majority-white city in America, most kids are going to be liberal because their parents are liberal. If one or two of the whinier kids turn out to be conservative, it might have more to do with the fact that their parents are whiny conservatives. Heck, if I lived in Berkeley, I might be whiny too.
But I think the real reason is far more sinister. Let’s take it in baby steps:
Alameda County had an abortion rate that was 60% higher per capita than L.A. Hello #1 ranking!
Any child born in abortion-happy Berkeley had to beat pretty long odds to make it to the final trimester, especially during the 80s. As I see it, those poor kids in the study who were pegged as “whiny” were probably more sensitive to the “you’re not wanted here” vibe than the others who grew up to be liberals (who now also don’t want children in their lives).
I find it quite reasonable that a child growing up in the Abortion Capital of America would be whiny and paranoid. After all, just because you’re a kid with a persecution complex, doesn’t mean the residents of Berkeley aren’t out to get you. (Who knows when they might decide retroactive abortions for children up to the 30th trimester are A-OK?)
As Hillary Clinton might have put it: “It takes a village to persecute a child.”
[Update] If you want to read “The Whiny Study,” you can download it from Michelle Malkin’s site.
[Update] The Washington Post’s weblog Red America mentions a similar study released in 2003 “that was roundly mocked by conservatives for lumping the likes of Hitler, Mussolini, Reagan and Limbaugh together as socially warped right-wingers….” That study cost taxpayers $1.2 million. A footnote in “The Whiny Study” says it was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH 16080. Oh well, what’s another million out of our collective pockets….
[Update] This is interesting, I was just out checking for new trackbacks and comments at Red America and got this error:
Bandwidth Limit Exceeded – The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.
Either the Washington Post seriously underestimated how popular their new weblogs would be or else they’re being slammed by spam referrals. Based on bitter experience in dealing with the same problem, I think they’re getting spammed. Welcome to the party, WaPo!
Tags: democrats | republicans | news | politics | liberals | blog | weblog | conservatives | abortion
Ah, Science! Why is it when results of studies into how humans tick are published, relying on them for guidance seems like you’re choosing between the red pill and the blue pill?
I don’t know the answer, but here’s another example of it, this time from Knight Ridder via The Detroit News:
Sleep study is a real eye-opener
A South Carolina professor is exploring whether too much slumber can be hazardous to your health…Studies have documented the health risks for so-called long sleepers – those who report needing more than eight hours on the mattress each night.
For example, one study found long sleepers had a 50% greater risk of stroke than did those who slept six to eight hours a night. They have higher rates of cardiovascular disease and possibly an increased risk for diabetes, Youngstedt says.
Most significantly, [says Shawn Youngstedt, an assistant professor of exercise science in the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health], about 20 studies involving more than a million people have shown that long sleepers have a greater risk of dying than do those who sleep less.
(Researchers ruled out the possibility that the long sleepers simply had more diseases to start with.)
A large Japanese study, for instance, found that those who slept more than 7.5 hours had a greater mortality risk than those who slept less than 6.5 hours. Lack of shut-eye can be hazardous, of course – and sleep centers all over the country have sprung up to solve sleep-disturbing problems such as apnea.
That was the red pill, now the blue:
Dr. Richard Bogan, chairman and chief medical officer of SleepMed in Columbia, S.C., cautions that being a long sleeper isn’t necessarily a health hazard.
“There are long sleepers, just like there are early birds and night owls,” he says.
Pain, stress, disease and mood disorders all can disturb people’s sleep, says Bogan, who believes lack of sleep is a much bigger problem in our busy society than too much sleep.
To complicate matters, there’s also some research suggesting that women who are longer sleepers may have a lower risk of breast cancer. A study published in Cancer Research, following 12,000 women for 20 years, showed that those who reported sleeping nine hours or more per night had about one-third the risk of developing breast cancer that women who slept less had.
So should you sleep less?
“My answer to that is it’s too early to advise people in that direction,” [Youngstedt] says. “On the other hand, I feel completely comfortable advising someone who sleeps six hours and feels fine that they don’t have to worry about getting eight hours,” he says.
“They might actually live longer.”
There you have it! Sleep less, get fewer strokes and live longer. Sleep more, avoid breast cancer and live longer. It brings to mind George Carlin’s witticism: “The surgeon general warned today that saliva causes stomach cancer. But apparently only when swallowed in small amounts over a long period of time.”
Tags: research | health | news | sleep | insomnina | blog | weblog | healthcare
Either that, or a fondness for Oprah and daily soap operas may be a sign your ability to think is on the decline.
From Reuters comes this story:
Daytime TV tied to poorer mental scores in elderly
Older women who say talk shows and soap operas are their favorite TV programs tend to score more poorly on tests of memory, attention and other cognitive skills, researchers reported Monday.
That doesn’t mean that daytime television is a brain drain, they say, since it’s not clear that there’s a direct relationship between the two.
But the findings do point to some association between TV choices and intellectual function, and that could prove useful in evaluating older people for cognitive decline, according lead investigator Dr. Joshua Fogel of Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.
A study of 289 older women without dementia found that those who rated talk shows and soaps as their favorite programs performed more poorly on tests of memory, attention and mental quickness than their peers who cited other types of shows.
What’s more, they were at greater risk of showing signs of clinical impairment. For example, compared with women who preferred to watch news programs, those who favored soaps were more than seven times more likely to show signs of impairment on one of the tests, while talk show fans were more than 13 times more likely to demonstrate impairment.
…
[Fogel] said it’s not possible to tell whether the programs somehow contribute to cognitive decline or whether women in the early stages of decline gravitate toward those shows. Preferences for daytime TV could also be a marker of a sedentary, homebound lifestyle, and research suggests that staying physically and socially active can help stave off mental decline.But regardless of the reasons, a preference for talk shows and soaps “is a marker of something suspicious,” Fogel said.
IrishHealth.com has more details on the study results:
In the new study, healthy women aged 70 to 79 in the US were asked about their favourite types of TV shows, offering a list of 14 options including news, soaps, comedies and game shows, among others.
The women also took tests to measure their memory, decision making abilities and cognitive skills.
The researchers looked for patterns linking cognition abilities and the women’s favourite TV shows.
It was found that women who watched talk shows were 7.3 times more likely to have long term memory problems.
Those who watched soap operas were 13.5 times more likely to have problems with attention.
Tags: oprah | health | news | soap opera | tv | blog | weblog | soap operas | healthcare | science
12:02:04 am, Categories: News, Daily blather, War on Terror, Politics, Bush administration, Idiotarians & Idiots
What a difference three years make!
In 2003, as many as 500,000 Londoners protested the war in Iraq. Last Sunday, police estimated the crowd was about 15,000 people. The numbers fell drastically at other locations as well, Gateway Pundit has the details.
The declining numbers of protesters may prove disastrous for Democrat chances to score gains in the House and Senate in November. If Dems can’t keep their radical, anti-war base fired-up enough to go out and protest, it’s unlikely they can motivate them to vote.
I have to mention this Scottsdale Republic article on the two anti-war protesters that picketed U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth’s Scottsdale, Arizona office.
It was a very small army that protested the Iraq war Friday outside the Scottsdale offices of U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth.
Only two peace activists stood near Raintree Drive and Northsight Boulevard, holding anti-war posters for passing cars to see.
The protest, part of a national campaign to call attention to the human cost of the war, urged Hayworth, R-Ariz., to support legislation reducing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq.
“The ways of peace are not bombings and breaking into houses and scaring little children and families,” said Judy Whitehouse, 63, of Phoenix, adding that pulling troops out of Iraq would force Iraqis to work together in building a society.
Must have been a really slow news day.
And check out Michelle Malkin’s photos of peace protesters who can’t get a Peace symbol right, but nonetheless feel they’re qualified to tell us how to fight a war.
Tags: blog | weblog | anti war | iraq | politics | protests | protest | politics
Things are looking bleak for the media elites in this country as 2005 movie and music numbers continued their downward slide. Last year, movie attendance fell by 8% (it fell about 1.7% in 2004) and music CD sales fell 3.5%.
The usual excuse from Hollywood as to why people aren’t going to the movies is that they’re renting videos instead. Well, today shares of Movie Gallery, the No. 2 North American movie rental chain, fell 13% in after-hours trading after they reported preliminary annual results that fell far below Wall Street forecasts. Movie Gallery shares have slid 90% since last June.
Meanwhile, Blockbuster is trading at $3.39, down from a high of $18 just two years ago. They’ve recently begun closing stores.
Netflix, the online video rental service that’s supposed to be where movie renters are turning, had 4 million subscribers in 2005. Not nearly enough to account for the customers Blockbuster and Movie Gallery have lost.
The obvious answer is that people in the Red States aren’t going to see movies and they’re not renting them because they no longer want to watch the stridently anti-American films Hollywood has to sell.
Remember what George Clooney said at the Oscars a few weeks ago? No? That’s OK, I didn’t watch it either. But I’ve read that he praised Hollywood for being “out of touch” with the maintream of American society:
“…I would say that, you know, we are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. I think it’s probably a good thing. We’re the ones who talked about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn’t really popular. And we, you know, we bring up subjects. This Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I’m proud to be a part of this Academy, proud to be part of this community, and proud to be out of touch.”
[Source: M&C Movies.]
Here’s how Charles Krauthammer assessed Hollywood’s out-of-touch condition:
Nothing tells you more about Hollywood than what it chooses to honor. Nominated for best foreign-language film is “Paradise Now,” a sympathetic portrayal of two suicide bombers. Nominated for best picture is “Munich,” a sympathetic portrayal of yesterday’s fashion in barbarism: homicide terrorism.
But until you see “Syriana,” nominated for best screenplay (and George Clooney, for best supporting actor) you have no idea how self-flagellation and self-loathing pass for complexity and moral seriousness in Hollywood.
Krauthammer continues heaping scorn upon Syriana:
In my naivete, I used to think that Hollywood had achieved its nadir with Oliver Stone’s “JFK,” a film that taught a generation of Americans that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the CIA and the FBI in collaboration with Lyndon Johnson. But at least it was for domestic consumption, an internal affair of only marginal interest to other countries. “Syriana,” however, is meant for export, carrying the most vicious and pernicious mendacities about America to a receptive world.
Most liberalism is angst- and guilt-ridden, seeing moral equivalence everywhere. “Syriana” is of a different species entirely – a pathological variety that burns with the certainty of its malign anti-Americanism. Osama bin Laden could not have scripted this film with more conviction.
And so, George Clooney, if your goal is to experience Hollywood in decline, keep on making movies like Syriana that sympathize with terrorists. You’ll sell tickets in Tehran, but there won’t be many in the Red States who’ll pony up the pence to watch Leftist propaganda.
Today, shareholders in media giant Knight Ridder forced management to accept a buyout offer from McClatchy Co. for 4.5 billion. Knight Ridder, owner of 32 daily publications and several other media assets including The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Miami Herald, and The Kansas City Star newspapers, was sold because:
…At least one shareholder with substantial holding [sic], was unhappy with the media monolith’s declining power and profitability and wanted a change.
[Source: EarthTimes.]
That news, coming after the Washington Post’s announcement two weeks ago that it was planning to cut 80 jobs or 9% of its newsroom, and last September’s news from The New York Times Co. that it was cutting its workforce by about 500 employees, are indicators that the mainstream media’s customers, fed up with biased journalism, are turning to other, more balanced news outlets like Fox News.
The flight of TV news viewers and newspaper readers away from the mainstream media has caused advertisers to cut back on how much ad space and commercial time they purchase, hence the current financial quagmire for the MSM.
Better change your ways, guys! It’s not too late to start being Fair and Balanced – that or soon you’ll all be on the dole.
Tags: blog | weblog | mainstream media | journalism | politics | hollywood | movies | media bias | the left | journalists
07:57:09 am, Categories: Science & Tech, Daily blather, Global warming, Junk science, Environmentalism
Yes, I’ve missed a few days of blogging, but I haven’t been slacking! Honest!
I’ve been busy adding comments to the global-warming-for-skeptics article that was posted on Scientific American’s blog, SCIAM Observations, last Friday. If you’re skeptical about global warming or whether humans are responsible for it – I don’t think we are – check out the entry. And don’t forget to read the comments!
Oh yes, if you haven’t read my post Global Warming, Frodo Baggins, and the Empire State Building you can right now. For more info on the debate over the famous “hockey stick” that created so much of current hysteria, read this post.
Tags: blog | weblog | global warming | science | climate change | junk science
10:55:16 pm, Categories: Daily blather
Jon Stewart hosted the Oscars last week and by all accounts he bombed. But he still managed to get off one funny zinger:
A lot of people say this town is too liberal, out of touch with mainstream America, an atheistic pleasure dome, a modern-day beachfront Sodom and Gomorrah, a moral black hole where innocence is obliterated in an endless orgy of sexual gratification and greed. I don’t really have a joke here. I just thought you should know a lot of people are saying that. I’ve been to the parties!
If they put that on a T-shirt I’ll buy a dozen! Well, one.
[Hat tip: Best of the Web]
Tags: blog | weblog | The Daily Show | John Stewart | comedy | hollywood
11:41:37 pm, Categories: News, Science & Tech, Daily blather, Global warming, Junk science, Environmentalism, Global warming headlines
Today the Financial Times website had another one of the global warming penny dreadfuls the media has been so fond of lately:
Level of climate change gases hits record high
The atmosphere’s level of greenhouse gases associated with climate change is hitting record highs, two prominent scientific organisations said yesterday.
A bulletin on greenhouse gas levels by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said there were 377 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 2004, up from around 280ppm before the industrial revolution.
One of the highest year-on-year rises ever in the level of carbon dioxide was recorded at 1.8ppm.
But the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, using a slightly different methodology, said last year’s rise was even greater at 2.6ppm, and overall carbon dioxide levels were at 381ppm.
Carbon dioxide - produced by burning fossil fuels - is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, and is the gas that most concerns climate scientists, because of its warming effect on the earth.
But levels of methane and nitrous oxide, both of which have a much greater effect on the climate but are present in the air in much smaller quantities, have also risen.
Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas, the concentration of which has been rising by about 0.8 parts per billion per year since 1988.
At least a third of the amount of the gas in the atmosphere is the resultof human activities such as fuel combustion, biomass burning, fertiliser use and some industrial processes.
[Emphasis mine.]
What’s wrong with this statement:
Carbon dioxide - produced by burning fossil fuels - is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere
If you said it’s completely false, you win! According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas. Meteorologist Jeff Haby compares the atmospheric quantities of water vapor and CO2:
By quantity, there is much more water vapor than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Water vapor varies from a trace in extremely cold and dry air to about 4% in extremely warm and humid air. The average amount of water vapor in the atmosphere averaged for all locations is between 2 and 3%. Carbon dioxide levels are near 0.04%. That means there is more than 60 times as much water vapor in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide in average conditions.
Ignoring the impact of water vapor, the most important part of the greenhouse effect, is yet another way global warming zealots distort the climate change issue. How do they justify leaving water vapor out of the equation? Here’s what Michael Mann (co-creator of the “hockey stick” graph that’s driving so much of the climate change debate) had to say about it in 2003:
“It is extremely misleading, however, when scientists cite the role of water vapor as a greenhouse gas,” Mann explained. “The concentration of water vapor in the atmosphere can not be controlled by us directly. It is fixed by the surface temperature of the Earth.”
It is the trace gases - methane, C02, nitrous oxides, and chlorofluorocarbons - that “we can actually control,” Mann explained.
Do you sense an agenda in those words? What does Mankind’s inability to control the presence of water vapor in the atmosphere have to do with acknowledging that water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas?
If you ignore Mann’s denial that water vapor is a greenhouse gas, Mankind has an imperceptible (0.28%) effect on the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. If you agree with Mann and choose to ignore water vapor – even though it causes 36-70% of the greenhouse effect – well then, humanity’s impact increases to about 6%.
Six percent, while not a huge amount, is a lot more than 0.28% and will guarantee plenty of headlines in the mainstream media.
To put the psychological impact of 6% versus 0.28% in perspective, let’s say you’re running in the rain while carrying $100 dollars in your hands (100 pennies and 99 one-dollar bills). In your hurry to escape the drenching storm, you drop 6 dollars. Would you stop and pick them up? Now, what would you do if you dropped 28 cents? If it were me, I’d stop for the cash but not waste time on the small change.
The graphic below is another way to look at Man’s impact on greenhouse gases as compared to Nature’s contribution, assuming we include water vapor as a greenhouse gas:
The Empire State Building, at 1,272 feet tall, represents the amount of greenhouse gases that Nature contributes as follows [Source: Geocraft.com, Water Vapor Rules the Greenhouse System.]:
Total: 99.72%
Frodo Baggins, just 3 feet 6 inches in height, represents our contribution as follows:
Total: 0.28%
The following graphic depicts the average global temperatures and atmospheric CO2 variations over the last 600 million years, it shows how insignificant the contribution of CO2 is to the greenhouse effect on Earth. Notice how the CO2 levels were 19 times higher in the Cambrian Period than they are today and yet global temperatures have remained steadily within a 72°F (22°C) to 54°F (12°C) range while CO2 levels have plunged to current levels. [Source: Geocraft.com, Climate and the Carboniferous Period.]
Since such huge changes in CO2 levels haven’t had much effect on global temperatures, I think the increases in CO2 we’re seeing today probably won’t make much difference. No, in all likelihood, it’s the amount of water vapor in our atmosphere that determines whether temperatures go up or down, not CO2. So it’s unsurprising to learn that water vapor has indeed been increasing in the atmosphere. But according to Michael Mann, we don’t have any control over water vapor, so what’s causing the increase?
Already I can see the bumper stickers:
Save the planet! Stop building swimming pools and quit watering lawns to reduce global warming!
Which brings us to another bit of global warming hysteria from Bloomberg.com:
Antarctica’s Annual Melt Equals Water in Lake Tahoe, Study Says
Antarctica is melting at an annual rate equal to dumping Lake Tahoe into the ocean, causing global seawater to rise as much as 0.6 millimeters (0.02 inches) a year, according to a study published by Science.
Researchers used two NASA satellites to measure the loss of the ice sheet on the Earth’s fifth-largest continent between April 2002 and August 2005. The findings contradict an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment in 2001, which predicted the ice sheet would gain mass in the 21st century.
“We can now see Antarctica melting,'’ said Isabella Velicogna, a member of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research Environmental Sciences. “We have a number for the ice sheet. It’s a big step toward understanding how the sea level is going to change.'’
…
Sea level increased 3.2 millimeters a year from all sources of freshwater entering the system during the past decade compared with an increase of an average of 1.8 millimeters during the past 100 years, Velicogna said, adding the numbers show the entry of freshwater into the oceans has speeded up.
It’s actually good news that sea level is rising at 3.2 millimeters (0.1 inches) a year, because historically, sea levels have risen 100 meters (328 feet) since the last ice age ended 12,000 years ago. That’s an average of 8 millimeters (0.3 inches) a year, so if levels are really increasing at 3.2 millimeters a year, the rate of increase has slowed by more than half!
Tags: blog | weblog | global warming | science | climate change | junk science
06:48:53 am, Categories: Daily blather
Hip Tech Blog has put together a Top 10 Coolest Alarm Clocks list. My picks:
Kuku Alarm Clock – It’s a bird-shaped gadget that starts chirping and laying tiny eggs at the set time. The gimmick is you have to gather the eggs and put them in a basket to shut the thing off. I recommend keeping a hammer nearby, just in case.
Sleep Cycle Wrist Watch – This alarm clock “analyzes your sleeping stage via the wireless wristband, and decides an appropriate time that is close to your set time to wake you up.” I might get this one because, if it works as advertised, it probably wakes you during the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep. Usually people awakened during REM feel alert and refreshed, and they’re more likely to remember what they were dreaming. [Source: Wikipedia.]
From Pravda:
Authorities in Lahore have banned kite flying after strings strengthened with glass powder killed seven people, including two children, ahead of an annual festival, a government statement said.”
Kite flying, long a popular sport in Pakistan, has recently become a dueling game in which kite flyers dogfight their kites with others, using string reinforced with glass or wire makes it easier to cut an opponent’s string.
Sounds like fun, but in a crowded city stray strings from such duels are deadly. Last Thursday, a string impregnated with glass powder paste slit the throat of a four-year-old boy as he passed through an upscale neighborhood on his father’s motorcycle.
The bleeding boy, Shayan Ahamad, collapsed and died in the lap of his father before he could be taken to hospital.
The tragedy brought the death toll from such incidents to seven in the past two weeks. Politicians and human rights activists had been calling for a ban on a kite-flying festival planned for Sunday.
The provincial government in Lahore announced Thursday night that the ban on kite-flying took effect immediately.
Police arrested 74 people Friday, including 22 shop owners, for selling or flying kites after the ban was announced, Lahore police chief Amir Zulifquar said.
He said police would not allow anyone to violate the ban, despite the festival planned for the weekend.
The festival, Basant, marks the arrival of spring, and during the two days of festivities the sky is covered with thousands of kites.
From Impact LAB comes this article:
Warning: Not safe for viewing at work.
Fake porn euro notes being sold as a gimmick in Germany are being successfully passed off as real cash.
The notes, in 300, 600 and 1,000 euro denominations have a ring of 12 hearts instead of the usual EU stars and feature hunky men and big-breasted nude women.
Instead of the word ‘Euro’ being printed in the corner these notes have ‘Eros’ - the Greek god of love.
But despite these differences - and the fact that the only large euro notes currently in circulation are 100s, 200s and 500s - police say they are being passed off as the real thing.
Cologne newsagent Bernd Friedhelm, 33, accepted one of the fake 600 euro notes from an unknown customer who bought two cartons of cigarettes and walked off with 534 euros in change.
Friedhelm said: “He told me it was a new type of note and I just figured I hadn’t seen one before.”
A spokesman for the Cologne police said: “You can tell straight away by looking at it that it’s fake.
Actually, a 600 euro note is quite a lot of money – at current exchange rates, it’s $716 bucks. What kind of “newsagent” (news stand?) keeps that much cash on-hand to give change for such bills?
So I was browsing through the “Miserable Failure” tag at Technorati to see what new postings were there besides mine and I happened across this one by egalia at the Tennessee Guerilla Women blog:
GOP Fearful About Frist Senate Seat
You can’t make this stuff up. The Billionaire GOP Party is attacking Harold Ford Jr. for his elitist lifestyle with a website called Fancy Ford.
I’m not an avid fan of Harold Ford, but is this the best they can do?
The Incompetent Party of Billionaires must be having some serious anxiety attacks about losing Bill Frist’s senate seat.
I couldn’t care less about Harold “Fancy” Ford’s chances for reelection, and if Frist loses, well, you win some and lose some. No, it was the “Billionaire GOP Party” and “Party of Billionaires” canards that caught my eye. Liberal Democrats have been saying things like that about Republicans for decades and they’re just not true.
In this post I’ll give you the facts on:
But so I don’t keep you in suspense too long, let’s start with the conclusion first.
From the 2003 Forbes list of the world’s richest people, the four most wealthy Americans were Democrats:
The wealthiest four vote for Democrats. Hmmm, we’re not far into this and already it’s clear the Democratic party is for billionaires.
In 2003, out of 100 senators, 40 were millionaires:
A couple more Republicans than Democrats are millionaires, hardly conclusive except to show the Democrat senators are about as rich as Republican senators.
In 2003, the five wealthiest senators were Democrats:
Whoa! That’s a lot of blue!
The following are the top 10 contributors who have given the most to Democrats and Republicans since 1989:
If the realtors association wasn’t covering its bets by splitting contributions, the list would be solid blue!
According to statistics from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Republicans raised more than Democrats from individuals who contributed small and medium amounts of money during the 2002 election cycle. Democrats far outpaced Republicans among deep-pocketed givers:
Needless to say, despite the near-parity in overall amounts — $384 million to the Republicans vs. $350 million to the Democrats — the number of individual donors to the GOP exceeded those to the Democratic Party by more than 40 percent.
[Source: Washington Times, December 18, 2002]
So the next time you hear a liberal say Republicans are the party of billionaires, you’ll know what the truth is.
Tags: blog | weblog | politics | democrats | republicans | the left | liberals | conservatives | gop
In a valiant attempt to spin the bad news about Air America Radio losing WLIB, their flagship station in New York, Sam Graham-Felsen at The Notion (The Nation’s blog) has this to say:
Air America’s OK
Sure they are Sam, they’re about to lose their flagship station, but things are just fine!
If you read the New York Sun or the New York Post, you might be under the impression that WLIB, Air America Radio’s New York City affiliate, is going under.
Actually, WLIB isn’t going under but they are dumping AAR – an important difference. WLIB wants to be successful and recognizes that if they stay with AAR they never will be.
Late last week, Brian Maloney at RadioEqualizer broke the story that Air America Radio was about to lose WLIB, AAR’s flagship station in New York. Since then, Maloney has posted this quote from Kathy Malloy, AAR host Mike Malloy’s wife/show producer:
Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:25 pm Post subject: for the record . . .
Kathy Malloy here (using my own log in =)Just FYI y’all, it’s the honest-to-God truth that we were taken off WLIB for financial reasons. Our ARBITRONS were as good/better than every other WLIB program. There’s much behind the scenes goings-on we’re not able to discuss publically, but you should believe me on this.
And we should be on a NEW home in NYC next quarter (ALL of us =)
Thanks for listening,
Molly’s Mom
[Emphasis mine.]
Note: Kathy’s message was posted on husband Mike Malloy’s Truthseekers Forum and it has since been erased (down the memory hole with it, eh “Truthseekers"?)
So there you have it, confirmation that AAR is losing WLIB.
Back to The Notion:
Last night, I attended a fundraiser for Al Franken’s new political action committee, the Midwest Values Pac (MVP). The goal of MVP is to raise money for progressive candidates in Franken’s home state of Minnesota as well as progressive candidates in other states, including Vermont’s Bernie Sanders (for more on MVP, check out this BuzzFlash interview).
I hope the Boys & Girls Club Association in Minnesota is keeping close watch on their checkbook as Al’s not too squeamish about taking money from kids when a paycheck is involved.
Franken gave a hilarious speech, but took a serious tone when he discussed the values that define MVP– universal health care, a living wage, equitable funding for public schools, a just trade policy that protects the interests of working people, and multilateral cooperation, to name a few.
Oh, Socialism again. Well it’s failed every time it’s been tried, but maybe it’ll work in Minnesota!
Albert Einstein had a good definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Al, meet Al.
Anyway, towards the end of the night, I asked Al about the rumors regarding Air America. “Look,” he told me, “Bill O’Reilly alone has said that Air America was on the verge of collapse thirty-six times. We’re not going anywhere.”
Notice how Al is splitting hairs here? The rumor d’jour is not that AAR is about to fail, it’s that they’re about to lose WLIB, which Al certainly knew when Graham-Felson spoke to him. He just chose to sidestep the issue.
AAR’s not going anywhere today or next week, but they’re definitely being nibbled to death by ducks. Their biggest affiliates have dwindled away, and of the remaining stations, the majority continue to reside at the bottom of the ratings lists in their respective markets.
[Update] Welcome Radio Equalizer readers! Settle in and stay awhile.
Tags: blog | weblog | schaedenfreude | air america | politics |miserable failure |mike malloy | wlib | air america radio
02:21:17 pm, Categories: Daily blather
I don’t know why it is, but I’ve had some bizarre Pics of the Day lately. First it was the intersecting deer photo, now it’s this one that clearly shows Wal-Mart has expanded their reach into the Cosmos.
Just compare this picture of the plucky Wal-Mart mascot with the close-up of Stephan’s Quintet:
See what I mean?
Tags: blog | weblog | humor | astronomy | nasa | space | space fotos
CNN has an article comparing NASA’s new CEV with the Apollo series that took us to the Moon nearly 40 years ago:
Size: The four-person CEV will be 18 feet in diameter, compared with 12.8 feet for the cramped three-person Apollo capsule. Yet CEV will be only 10 to 15 percent heavier, because it will be made from newer materials such as carbon composites and aluminum alloys.
Launch: Apollo was launched by the massive Saturn V, the biggest rocket ever built; the CEV capsule will be launched by a smaller rocket. That’s because the CEV will not go directly to the moon. Instead the crew will meet up with heavier pieces of their moon-going spaceship – launched by a separate rocket – in Earth orbit.
Range: CEV will carry more fuel than Apollo, so astronauts will be able to go anywhere on the face of the moon. Apollo had only enough fuel to land on the lunar equator.
Controls: CEV’s computers will be much more powerful than Apollo’s, enabling all four astronauts to descend to the moon’s surface while their spaceship orbits in autopilot mode.
Landing: When CEV returns to Earth, it will most likely land on dry ground. Apollo capsules landed in the ocean, which exposed them to corrosive saltwater and required expensive recovery efforts involving boats and aircraft.
As for the ability to land on dry ground, this image shows the CEV with the proposed “air bags” on the bottom of the craft that will cushion touchdown. If it were me, however, I’d want a lot more cushion. This is how I’d do it.
[Hat tip: Larry in Colorado for the story.]
Tags: blog | weblog | science | nasa | space | cev
10:50:31 pm, Categories: News, Politics, Bush administration, Scandals, Idiotarians & Idiots, Media bias
Last Tuesday, Vice President Cheney gave a keynote address to to the U.S. Labor Department’s 2006 National Summit on Retirement Savings at the Willard Hotel in Washington D.C.
Here’s a photo (hat tip: Drudge Report) that Reuters posted:
It looks like the photographer must have scrambled around the room until he had the perfect angle and then snapped the shot. A quick Photoshop session to crop the photo and voila!
Ha ha, Reuters, very funny – yet another example of biased photojournalism from the mainstream media.
At least, that’s how it looked at first. But when I tried to see the shot from a wider angle, things started to look decidedly odd.
Did you see the word “Retire” in that photo?
After some searching, I found a photo taken by a Dept. of Labor photographer that shows the scene from a distance. There’s the word “Retirement,” easily three feet or more above his head!
Look at this page where all three images are together, it sure doesn’t seem like the word “Retire” could appear behind Cheney’s head based on the angle it was taken (you’d be seeing mostly the underside of his chin and part of the podium at the correct angle). This comparison superimposes the two photos of Cheney’s head, they’re very similar and yet “Retire” only appears in one of them. So they’ve really manipulated this one. I think it’s worse than the Condoleezza Rice “demonized” job.
Already you can’t believe what you read in the mainstream media and now it’s getting so you can’t believe what you see either. Manipulating photos like that has got to be against some code of ethics isn’t it?
[Update] Welcome RightWinged and Michelle Malkin readers! Settle in and stay awhile. You might also want to check out this post on the “Just Kidding” Bandit (be sure to check out the comment).
[Update] So Reuters does have a code of ethics! They just don’t hesitate to ignore it. Michelle Malkin is also following this story and has posted the relevant section from Reuters’s editorial policy, but here’s the important bit:
…We do not take sides and attempt to reflect in our stories, pictures and video the views of all sides. We are not in the business of glorifying one side or another or of disseminating propaganda. Reuters journalists do not offer their own opinions or views.
Liar, liar
Pants on fire
Maybe it’s time that you “Retire”
[Update] Well that was fun while it lasted. I sent this story to James Taranto to see if he wanted to include it in today’s Best of the Web. His opinion (and he should certainly know) is that:
It was probably taken from long distance with a zoom lens.
So, it looks like the “Retire” photo, blatant bit of bias that it is, is also probably genuine, assuming the Reuters photog had the right equipment. Oh well, sorry ’bout the kerfuffle.
[Update] Closure Alert! For the first time on this blog, we’ve actually solved a puzzle! Thanks to help from commenters Howard and tbrosz, I think we’ve figured out how the Cheney photo was taken. In short, the effect the photog used was a form of perspective distortion called a “dolly zoom.” For details, read the comments.
Tags: blog | weblog | mainstream media | journalism | politics | scandal | bush | media bias | the left | journalists
Here’s a cautionary tale from the Associated Press:
A man wearing a ski mask walked into a bank and demanded money, then told tellers, “just kidding,” authorities said.
Ryan Wright, 20, surrendered to police Monday night, said Sgt. Mark Hanson, a Williston police detective. Wright was formally charged Tuesday.
Judge David Nelson set his bail at $1,000 and ordered Wright to stay away from alcohol and bars….
“He never showed a weapon, but the tellers got quite scared and concerned and thought the worst,” Hanson said.
No customers were in the bank at the time of the Feb. 17 incident, he said. Wright then went about his banking business, taking some money from his checking account and then leaving.
If convicted, Wright faces up to five years in jail and a $5,000 fine.
“You don’t walk into a bank with a ski mask and say ‘Give me all your money,’ ” Hanson said. “It’s just like going on an airplane and saying you have a bomb.”
You’ve got to think faster on your feet than Ryan did if you’re going to be a lawbreaker. What he should have said to the police was “Dude, when I said ‘Give me all your money,’ I was just singing the Stones tune ‘Some Girls‘ out loud….The mask? Why I’m just complying with the European Union’s Optical Radiation Directive to avoid sunburn.”
See, no problem. Feel free to use these excuses if you’re ever in similar straits. Let me know how it turns out – by email, not in person.
Tags: humor | darwin award | life | blog | weblog | odd news
Practical fuel cells are a step closer with news that researchers at UCLA and the University of Michigan “have demonstrated the ability to store large amounts of hydrogen at the right pressure.” All that’s left is to figure out how to keep the hydrogen stored at ambient temperature and we’ll be sporting around in cars powered by clean-burning hydrogen fuel cells.
Tags: blog | weblog | energy | politics | fuel cells | technology | hydrogen | news
Baxter International of Deerfield, Ill., has announced that it is beginning a Phase II trial of its process of stem cells to rebuild failing hearts, according to this article by UPI.
Baxter told the Tribune researchers will use its Isolex cell separation system to extract stem cells from the many types of cells in bone marrow. The cells will then be injected directly into the heart via catheter in hopes of regenerating damaged areas.
Supporters of stem cell research believe blood vessels leading to the heart can be rebuilt and damaged areas of the heart can be regenerated.
If Baxter’s trial is successful, the therapy would face at least one other trial and would be at least three to five years from winning federal regulatory approval as a standard treatment.
Here’s more on the process from the Baxter website:
This year, more than a million people in the United States will have a heart attack. More than 40 percent will die from it. Most of the rest will suffer permanent damage to the heart that will need to be managed the rest of their lives. Treatment options include medication, angioplasty and bypass surgery, all of which are designed to stabilize the patient and restore blood flow to the heart. But no treatment available today can actually repair damaged heart tissue and reverse the process of cardiovascular injury.
In the future, this may no longer be the case. Baxter technology is playing a key role in an experimental therapy that uses a patient’s own stem cells to grow new blood vessels and regenerate damaged heart tissue….
For an explanation of what a Phase II trial is, see this entry.
Tags: stem cells | health | news | biotechnology | medicine | blog | weblog | pharma | healthcare | isolex | heart surgery | medical breakthroughs
129 voters in the small hamlet of Newfane, Vermont for approving a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush:
Whereas George W. Bush has:
1. Misled the nation about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction;
2. Misled the nation about ties between Iraq and Al Quaeda;
3. Used these falsehoods to lead our nation into war unsupported by international law;
4. Not told the truth about American policy with respect to the use of torture; and
5. Has directed the government to engage in domestic spying, in direct contravention of U.S. law.Therefore, the voters of the town of Newfane ask that our representative to the U.S. House of Representatives file articles of impeachment to remove him from office.
Selectboard member Dan DeWalt wrote the Town Meeting resolution and gathered enough signatures to get the question onto the ballot by attending events like this one protesting U.S. military action against Iraq:
Carrying signs reading “Not in our names,” “No blood for oil” and “We are being lied to,” peace demonstrators of all ages met at Living Memorial Park before marching down Western Avenue and High Street Saturday morning.
…
Among the requests for peace, love and community there were also calls for President Bush’s impeachment and references to Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as the true axis of evil.Dan DeWalt of South Newfane, one of the many speakers that day, said his initial perspective on the Bush administration was that it was a joke. His views, he said, quickly changed.
“I thought it was a fool and some old farts,” he said. “But now I realize we are all facing grave danger.”
DeWalt said if Bush declares war against Iraq in order to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein without support from other world leaders, the United States would be “represented by a rogue leader and we would become a rogue nation.”
Oops! Sorry, that protest happened in 2002! Dan and his buddies have had impeachment on the brain for at least four years!
There’s a term in psychiatry: folie à deux (a madness shared by two) – it’s a rare condition in which two or more people share the same delusion. Well someone should call Guinness, because the 129 people who voted to impeach Bush have just set the world record for mass paranoid delusion.
Tags: humor | darwin award | evolution | blog | weblog
Well, I’m back and winding down after a 36-hour shift spent staring at a computer screen while designing graphics for a tradeshow. I’ll be heading for bed in a moment, but first: A blast from the past!
According to an article released Monday on the News.scotsman, the Western Isles Council in the Hebrides is trying to deal with the rotting remains of a 48-foot-long sperm whale that washed up on the beach.
The council has looked into hiring a truck to move the carcass from the rocks at Scarista, on Harris, but it would be a tricky operation because the whale’s body is wedged tightly in a cliff. Tugging it free would require heavy machinery and cost upwards of $9,000 dollars.
They now think their only alternative may be to demolish the whale with high explosives:
Experts are due to fly to Harris to carry out a post-mortem examination of the body, which has been leaking blood and gas, to find out how it died.
The local authority’s environmental chairman, Angus Nicolson, said: “It is the council’s responsibility to dispose of the carcase. We may have to blow it up if it is physically impossible to get close in to lift it.”
He said the remains would be taken to a landfill site at Bennadrove, near Stornoway.
If this situation seems vaguely familiar, you may be thinking of the Amazing Exploding Whale that achieved immortal fame on the Oregon coast, near Florence on November 12, 1970. That’s when local (or loco?) officials decided to blow up a stranded whale carcass because it was too big to bury and smelled really bad.
They packed the body with explosives and set them off. Moments later, the onlookers were pelted by noisome smelling chunks of blubber, and the roof of a car parked a quarter-mile from the explosion was caved in by a hefty piece o’ moby. Here’s the video of what happened.
Result: Everyone connected with the fiasco carried from the scene the combined stench of putrifying whale flesh and of total failure.
The whale’s remains on the beach were too big to leave for scavenging birds, so a bulldozer was called in and they buried what was left.
The story’s been a staple of the Internet for ages and even became an urban legend for a while.
Now, I long ago made a pact with myself never to quote Santayana, so let’s just say the Western Isles Council doesn’t seem to have learned any history from the Internet. If they do go through with their plans, I hope their insurance is paid up and that they have sturdy umbrellas nearby.
Tags: blog | weblog | humor | life | whale | demolition | news
11:34:50 pm, Categories: News, Science & Tech, Historic events, Politics, Bush administration, Environmentalism
President Bush has been busy this week. Besides reaching agreement with India on an historic nuclear energy pact, he also announced that India is the first nation to accept a U.S. invitation to participate in new clean coal project.
From the DOE press release:
President George W. Bush announced today that India will become the first country to participate on the government steering committee for the U.S. Department of Energy’s FutureGen project – an initiative to build and operate the world’s first coal-based power plant that removes and sequesters carbon dioxide (CO2) while it produces electricity and hydrogen. As a partner, the Indian government will contribute $10 million to the FutureGen Initiative and Indian companies will also be invited to participate in the private sector segment.
“We welcome India in to our effort to build the first zero-emissions coal power plant,” Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said. “The success of the FutureGen Initiative will lead to the effective and environmentally clean use of coal to power economies around the globe.”
FutureGen will use coal – a low-cost, abundant, and geographically diverse energy resource – to globally supply clean energy. The FutureGen Initiative is a 10-year effort announced by President Bush in 2003 to integrate advanced coal gasification technology, hydrogen from coal, power generation, carbon dioxide capture, and geologic storage.
…
FutureGen is scheduled to begin operations around 2012 and will be the first plant in the world to produce both electricity and commercial-grade hydrogen from coal simultaneously. Virtually every aspect of the 275 megawatt prototype plant will be based on cutting-edge technology. Technologies planned for testing at the prototype plant could ultimately lead to power plants that are fuel-flexible and capable of multi-product output. Eventually, the technologies could provide electric power generation with no emissions, including carbon dioxide, at a market competitive cost. FutureGen will emit virtually no airborne pollutants; no wastewater will be discharged; solid wastes will be converted to commercially valuable, environmentally benign products and carbon gases will be captured before they escape into the atmosphere.
So when President Bush said “Our nation is on the threshold of some new energy technologies that I think will startle the American people” last week in Michigan, FutureGen and this new CO2 oil recovery technology must have been what he was talking about.
Tags: blog | weblog | energy | politics | oil | energy policy | bush | news
11:12:00 pm, Categories: News, Science & Tech, Global warming, Politics, Bush administration, Environmentalism
This press release from DOE looks to be really good news:
The Department of Energy (DOE) released today reports indicating that state-of-the-art enhanced oil recovery techniques could significantly increase recoverable oil resources of the United States in the future. According to the findings, 89 billion barrels or more could eventually be added to the current U.S. proven reserves of 21.4 billion barrels.
…
The 89 billion barrel jump in resources was one of a number of possible increases identified in a series of assessments done for DOE which also found that, in the longer term, multiple advances in technology and widespread sequestration of industrial carbon dioxide could eventually add as much as 430 billion new barrels to the technically recoverable resource.If the 89 billion barrels in resources is converted to reserves, the U.S. would be fifth in the world behind Iraq with 115 billion barrels, and an additional 430 billion barrels would make it first, ahead of Saudi Arabia with 261 billion barrels.
Incredible! If they can extract even half of 430 billion barrels, we’ll be able to thumb our collective nose at OPEC.
The 430 billion barrel potential was identified in increments of up to 110 billon barrels from applying today’s state-of-the-art enhanced recovery in discovered fields:
- 90 billion in light oil, 20 billion in heavy oil; up to 179 billion barrels from undiscovered oil
- 119 billion from conventional technology, 60 billion from enhanced recovery; up to 111 billion barrels from reserve growth
- 71 billion from conventional technology, 40 billion from enhanced recovery; up to 20 billion from tapping the residual oil zone with enhanced recovery; and, another 10 billion from tar sands.
But if we did get the whole 430 billion? Wow! The U.S. currently consumes 21 million barrels of petroleum daily or 7.7 billion barrels annually. Which means we could continue our current rate of consumption for another 55 years without importing a drop from OPEC! Heck, by 2061 we’ll probably have hydrogen fuel cells, fusion power, and who knows what else to replace oil, so we may never run out.
Tags: blog | weblog | opec | politics | oil | energy policy | bush | news
10:54:36 pm, Categories: Daily blather
I am nothing if not accommodating, check out the TechEBlog list of the Top 10 Strangest Lego Creations. While I think the Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite is rightly described as a “masterpiece,” the Lego Difference Engine,"able to solve mathematical problems (2nd/3rd-order polynomials) and calculate the answers to 3 or 4 digits,” is astounding.
Tags: blog | weblog | oscars | academy awards | movies | hollywood | lego | humor
06:39:04 pm, Categories: Daily blather
I never watch ‘em and I never miss ‘em. [rimshot] They’re too long, too pretentious, and far too irrelevant to waste a precious Sunday evening on.
If you’re not brimming wth disdain for Hollywood and plan to be tuning in, I highly recommend you read Ann Coulter’s Oscar predictions first:
After consulting with the Yale admissions committee, the awards committee will give the Oscar to … “Paradise Now,” a heartwarming story about Palestinian suicide bombers. How good is it? Al-Jazeera gave it 4 1/2 pipe bombs. It’s Air Syria’s featured in-flight movie this month – go figure! I don’t want to spoil the ending for you, but let’s just say there won’t be a sequel.
Read the whole thing.
Then from TopFive.com we’ve got even more Oscar predictions:
3. Winona Ryder steals the show. Literally.
2. The red carpet festivities come to a screeching halt when Melissa Rivers breaks to chase a Frisbee.
and the Number 1 Oscar Prediction…
1. The crowd thins considerably after the Oscar for Best Animated Feature goes to Disney’s “Mohammed.”
Tags: blog | weblog | oscars | academy awards | movies | hollywood
09:37:16 pm, Categories: Daily blather
Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding. By folding and creasing a sheet of paper (without cutting), intricate designs can be made, such as these winning entries from the fourth annual MIT Student Origami Competition.
If that’s not enough, check out some of these unusual pieces:
Still want more? Check out Joseph Wu’s gallery.
Tags: blog | weblog | art | origami | life | papercraft
It was just another day of armed robbery for Jared Gipson until he tried to hold up the Blalock’s Beauty College:
[The] would-be victims attacked Gipson, pummeling him with curling irons, hair dryers, a table leg and their own fists. He had to be taken to the hospital and had 21 cuts stitched up.
But the same women who beat him later pleaded for mercy for Gipson, saying the more than 200 years he could have faced as a habitual offender was too much. Prosecutors agreed to drop that distinction, which reduced his maximum sentence to 104 years.
That’s pretty generous, he could have gotten a life sentence! [kidding]
“They feel they inflicted some measure of justice themselves,” prosecutor Brady O’Callahan said.
Gipson, 25, received a 25-year sentence for armed robbery Friday. Caddo District Judge Scott Crichton said it was a more lenient sentence than he would have imposed had the victims themselves not asked him to go easy.
Read the whole ABC News article.
[Hat tip: Fark.com.]
[Update] Found a photo of The Fighting Ladies of BBC at The ShrevePort Times.
Tags: blog | weblog | humor | odd news | life | crime
10:35:06 pm, Categories: Daily blather
Pop Quiz time again.
You’re trapped in a fast-food restaurant and your only source of water is the ice machine or the toilet.
What do you do?
From Tampa Bays 10 comes this article:
TMI Alert! (Don’t say I didn’t warn you!)
12-year-old Jasmine Roberts is a seventh-grade student at Benito Middle School in New Tampa.
When it came time for her to choose a science project, she wondered about the ice in fast food restaurants.
Jasmine Roberts, 7th-grade student: “My hypothesis was that the fast food restaurants’ ice would contain more bacteria that the fast food restaurants’ toilet water.”
So Roberts set out to test her hypothesis, selecting five fast food restaurants, within a ten-mile radius of the University of South Florida.
Roberts says at each restaurant she flushed the toilet once, the used sterile gloves to gather samples.
Jasmine Roberts: “Using the sterile beaker I scooped up some water and closed the lid.”
Roberts also collected ice from soda fountains inside the five fast food restaurants. She also asked for cups of ice at the same restaurant’s drive thru windows.
She tested the samples at a lab at the Moffitt Cancer Center where she volunteers with a USF professor. Roberts says the results did not surprise her.
Jasmine Roberts: “I found that 70-percent of the time, the ice from the fast food restaurant’s contain more bacteria than the fast food restaurant’s toilet water.”
I’m still trying to figure out how ice machines can possibly contain water that’s dirtier than what’s in a toilet. From employees who don’t wash their hands after using the commode? Probably best not to know.
By the way, Jasmine’s project won first prize at her middle school’s science fair and at the regional science fair. She’s now 800 bucks richer, thanks to her inspiration. And I’m sure a lot of restaurants will be significantly poorer after this story gets around.
Tags: blog | weblog | humor | odd news | life | science | fast food
Was it really just two days ago that lefty blogs like Daily Kos, Rising Hegemon, and MOsanthrope were doing the Ferret Happy Dance over the bad ratings for Fox News?
Well, as usual, they weren’t being Fair and Balanced! Yes, Fox News did drop about 5% in the ratings, and perennial losers MSNBC and CNN managed some big gains. But big is relative. For example, when only your Mom is watching your show, if your Dad starts watching too, you’ve doubled your ratings!
From MediaBistro:
On the news side, the smaller news outlets showed the greatest growth as CNN Headline News soared in prime, elevating its audience by 73 percent to 347,000 total viewers. MSNBC was up 24 percent to 357,000 total viewers, and CNBC jumped 37 percent with 164,000 viewers. CNN was up 3 percent with 657,000 viewers, while ratings king Fox News Channel was off 5 percent, averaging 1.49 million viewers.
In short, Fox has about the same number of viewers as CNN Headline News, CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC combined. In fact, the top nine shows in February all belonged to Fox. Again from MediaBistro:
In the 25-54 demographic this month, O’Reilly was #1 with 454,000 viewers, way more than anyone else. Shep was #2, H&C was #3, Hume was #4, and Fox & Friends was #5.
FNC’s least popular programs among young viewers (Fox News Live, DaySide and The Big Story) still ranked higher than all but one of CNN’s shows.
CNN’s top program, Larry King Live, ranked tenth, with 228,000 demo viewers. Anderson Cooper was second with 207,000 and Lou Dobbs was third with 167,000.
Air America Radio, notorious for their Robbin’ da ‘Hood scandal and mysteriously vanishing affiliates may be on its last legs according to this news scoop from Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer. It seems that AAR is likely to lose their flagship station, WLIB-AM in New York because of contract disputes.
While the network’s last day on WLIB isn’t known for certain, an internal source providing backing documentation points to the end of March. At this time, Air America parent Piquant LLC has no firm back-up plan for where in the nation’s largest radio market its programming will now air.
Some inside the firm are already referring to WLIB in the past tense.
Without WLIB, Air America faces an immediate, crushing blow. Worth perhaps 100 small markets combined, an on-air presence in New York City is absolutely vital to the company’s survival. If an immediate and suitable replacement isn’t found, the consequences would be dire.
[Hat tip: Michelle Malkin for the original link]
Tags: blog | weblog | schaedenfreude | air america | politics | limbaugh | rush limbaugh | miserable failure
09:15:44 pm, Categories: Daily blather
Tonight we had dinner out and, since it was my turn to pick, we went to the Olive Garden (I like their spaghetti, so sue me). Our waiter, call him Mark, brought menus and a bottle of wine from which he poured samples. I don’t drink, but it was a nice touch and I thought it enhanced the dining experience.
When Mark came back to see if we wanted more wine, I asked him when they’d started giving away samples. He said they’d always done it. I was a liitle surprised and replied that it had never happened to us before. (We usually hit the Olive Garden twice a year and we’ve been going for nigh on 10 years, I’d have noticed if a waiter offered wine.)
He blinked at me doubtfully and repeated that they’d been doing it forever. His expression was so sincere I had to believe him.
I pondered this imponderable between the salad course and the arrival of the spaghetti. Suddenly the answer hit me: It must be that we’re in an alternate Universe! In this one the only difference is that they serve wine samples at Olive Garden. See what you miss if you don’t pay attention?
If only all of life’s other problems were so easily answered. Now the next problem: How the heck did we get here?
Tags: blog | weblog | odd news | life
Via a Drudge Report Flash: David Gregory, NBC Chief White House Correspondent from India, called the Imus program this morning and was apparently so drunk he was giggling and babbling. Imus had to cut him off in embarassment.
Here’s a sample:
IMUS: Having a lot of fun there. What’s wrong with you?
GREGORY: I just think it’s funny. [Laughter] [Laughter] [Laughter]
CHARLES: He’s drunk.
IMUS: He is drunk!
CHARLES: Oh god.
IMUS: Why don’t you compose yourself and get back to us. You want to?
GREGORY: [Laughter] [Laughter] [Laughter]
…
GREGORY: I would add, I would add that this is how you say thank you.IMUS: What is it again?
[Speaking foreign language]
IMUS: Well that’s great. But we have to go. It’s always nice to hear from you.
GREGORY: I’ll call you after dinner.
IMUS: NBC Chief White House Correspondent from New Delhi, India. Clearly drunk.
Ah, the misery that is working in the MSM, sure must be a tough life what with getting hand cramps from writing down what people tell you and flying around the world from bar to bar. It’s no wonder that “Renana Brooks, a clinical psychologist practicing in Washington who said she had counseled several White House correspondents, said the last few years had given rise to’White House reporter syndrome [WHRS],’ in which competitive high achievers feel restricted and controlled and become emotionally isolated from others who are not steeped in the same experience.” [Source: New York Times.]
Ought to be interesting to see how Gregory apologizes for this latest episode of WHRS.
David, David, self-medicating with alcohol is not the answer.
[Update] Oh it’s OK, Gregory wasn’t drunk, Don Imus just made him sound stupid, according to what NBC News spokeswoman Barbara Levin told Human Events.
“Do you listen to Imus? I mean this is what Imus does,” Levin said. “I would just say my reaction is that this is an absurd accusation. Of course, David Gregory wasn’t drinking.”
When asked if Gregory was drunk, Levin said: “No, of course not!”
Looks like we’ve hit the denial stage, which type is it? Hmmm:
Jackpot! NBC and David Gregory have both types!
The blog Insignificant Thoughts is also following the story and has links to audio and video clips of Gregory being bludgeoned into stupidity by wily ol’ Imus.
Tags: blog | weblog | mainstream media | journalism | politics | humor | odd news | media bias | the left | journalists | imus
I’m a science fiction fan from way back, but I never expected to write a headine like the one for this post!
Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan’s company, is hiring spaceship builders:
If you’re looking to get your hands dirty and be on the ground floor of public space travel, you might touch base with one of the leading spaceline builders.
Scaled Composites in Mojave, California is in the deep design stage of a fleet of commercial suborbital spaceships and launch aircraft. They are also in recruitment mode to find the right talent to build the commercial spaceships for the new industry of private spaceflight.
This same firm rocketed into history in 2004 with a trio of suborbital flights of its piloted SpaceShipOne. It was the first private spacecraft that flew back-to-back treks within a 14-day period to snag the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
Spaceship work at Scaled is led by Burt Rutan, President of the company that he founded in 1982. Scaled Composites, LLC is an aerospace and specialty composites development company located in Mojave, some 80 miles north of Los Angeles.
Scaled is primarily focused on air vehicle design, tooling, manufacturing, specialty composite structure design, analysis, fabrication and developmental flight test.
Rutan told that while the company’s mail box tends to stay “full", he is on the lookout for skilled people to help in constructing spaceships.
“We are looking for people that like to build things with their hands and are good craftsman,” Rutan explained. “We need those that give 100-percent each day and enjoy a fast-paced research and development environment.”
Rutan said that his company hires individuals from all kinds of backgrounds, not just the normal “aerospace pool". “We look for those who have passion…are talented in building quality things…work well in a team atmosphere, and are trustworthy.”
The first order of spaceline business is designing the new SpaceShipTwo (SS2) and White Knight Two (WK2) launch systems, now in development at Scaled Composites.
[Source: E-Composites, Inc.]
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s company, is also hiring. I like how they describe the type of people they’re looking for:
“Blue Origin is hiring highly qualified and dedicated individuals. Our hiring bar is unabashedly extreme, and we insist on keeping our team size small (measured in the dozens). This means the person occupying each and every spot must be among the most technically gifted in his or her field. Other hiring criteria include:
- You must have a genuine passion for space. Without passion, you will find what we’re trying to do too difficult. There are much easier jobs.
- You must want to work in a small company.
- We are building real hardware – not PowerPoint presentations. This must excite you. You must be a builder.”
Tags: blog | weblog | blue origin | scaled composites | spaceship | rutan | bezos | space travel
09:24:31 pm, Categories: News, Daily blather, War on Terror, Politics, Bush administration, Idiotarians & Idiots
Only it’s not President Bush this time, it’s John Caffery, a resident of Beaumont, Texas, who last Sunday afternoon erected a large sign that had one of the controversial Mohammed cartoons on it. The sign also carries a message about the subsequent rioting throughout the world caused by the publishing of the cartoons in a Danish newspaper.
From The Beaumont Enterprise:
John Caffery called it an act of cowardice by U.S. newspapers for not publishing controversial Muslim-based cartoons, so the local resident decided to take matters into his own hands.
Caffery couldn’t understand why American newspapers opted to omit the cartoons but write about the rioting. He said newspapers were not giving the public all of the information they needed to understand.
So he decided to be a source of information, he said, because it’s a matter of free speech. At the very least, he can let his local community know the rioting, violence and denouncement of the United States is over a cartoon.
“It’s cowardly for (a) newspaper giving in to the pressure from the Muslims for these so-called offending cartoons,” Caffery said. “Most of the cartoons are pretty silly. The one out there on the sign is probably one of the least offending cartoons.”
The sign is four feet by eight feet, according to Caffery’s estimation, and was made as “large as it feasibly” could be made, he said. A cartoon of Muhammad’s head shaped like a lit bomb is depicted to the left and a statement on the right reads “For this cartoon in Danish and Norwegian newspapers, Muslims worldwide have rioted and killed, and now offer $11 million reward to kill the cartoonist.”
Read the whole article [hat tip: Fark.com] and be sure to check out the cartoons and this update on the cartoon kerfuffle at Michelle Malkin’s site.
[Update] I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that of these newspapers and TV stations that have carried the Caffery story:
Not one of them had a picture of Caffery’s sign! Our pusillanimous mainstream media!
Does anyone know if the media’s cowardly behavior during the cartoon controversy can be held against them when it’s license renewal time? It should be easy to argue that they haven’t been acting in the public interest.
[Update] I came up empty on searches for John Caffery’s email address. I was hoping he could send me a photo of his sign so I could post it here – if you read this and know John, please forward my request on to him.
Tags: blog | weblog | politics | war on terror | bush | islamofascists | cartoons | mohammed
According to the Tennessee Guerilla Women, President Bush is only polling at 34% in a recent CBS survey. Of course, being CBS (described by evil genius Karl Rove as “a network which is third in ratings and, if you look at the demographics of their consumers, it’s like 70 percent Democrat") they had to fiddle with the results to make it look worse for Bush. Wizbang has the details.
But no matter how you figure it, the numbers are definitely down for President Bush.
So who cares?! Certainly not Bush, because he can’t run again. It’s all about legacy now and I’ll happily take W’s over the miserable failure that is Clinton’s legacy!
[Update] John Hawkins at Right-Wing News explains how the MSM slants a poll and the correct way to read the CBS mess.
Tags: blog | weblog | politics | clinton | bush | democrats | republicans | media bias
08:30:19 am, Categories: Daily blather
What’s worse than being on a flight undergoing unusually severe turbulence and full of airsick, terrified passengers? That same flight with a stewardess screaming “We’re going to crash! We’re going to crash! We’re going to crash!”
From Sky News:
The Virgin flight hit bad weather three hours into a journey from Gatwick to Las Vegas.
Some passengers were sick and others thrown from their seats as luggage, drinks and trays were tossed around.
Those using the toilet at the time were stuck in the cubicle while others prayed and cried.
And their ordeal was intensified by the screaming stewardess.
Passenger Paul Gibson told The Daily Mirror: “She began screaming every time the plane shook.
“She shouted at the top of her voice, ‘We’re going to crash! We’re going to crash! We’re going to crash!’”
The un-named woman - in her mid 20s - also lobbed sick bags across the cabin when poorly passengers screamed for more.
Read the whole article.
[Hat tip: Drudge Report]
Tags: blog | weblog | humor | life | odd news | airlines | travel | virgin
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