Rusted Sky

Judge douses new coal plants | ajc.com

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 07/01/08

Environmentalists nationwide are celebrating Monday's Fulton County Superior Court decision they say will make it harder —- if not impossible —- to build new coal plants.

Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore's ruling is the first to anchor coal-fired power plants to global warming.

In her 19-page order, Moore invalidated a state permit issued last year for a proposed coal plant in southwest Georgia and instructed the state Environmental Protection Division to limit carbon dioxide emissions in any new permit for the plant.

"There is no question that CO2 is 'subject to regulation under the [federal Clean Air] Act,'" Moore wrote.

Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas that an international panel of scientists has said contributes to global warming by trapping the heat of the sun.

"We think this is the beginning of the end of conventional coal-fired power plants, because of the enormity of their emissions," said Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club's national campaign against coal.

When the founder of Greenpeace starts talking about how we should fast-track nuclear power, do the environmental zealots listen?

Going Nuclear

In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my compatriots. That's the conviction that inspired Greenpeace's first voyage up the spectacular rocky northwest coast to protest the testing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate change.

Well, you won't find it there, will ya?

How about Gwyneth Cravens? She was an anti-nucelar activist - she worked to get the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant on Long Island shut down. Now she wants to go nuclear - and actually had a chance to THINK about her stance while talking with an engineer. Now she has a book out about her conversion.

Ah, heresy is an interesting concept in the environmental community...

But we're going to have to do something. Solar's being blocked, and now coal. Better enjoy this electricity stuff while you can - it might be getting scarce sooner than you think.

J.

You might want to see what you can do with the naked info...

Why You Should be Shooting RAW | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

There’s some confusion as to what the RAW photo format actually is, and, like any good photographic fact, it can incite forum flame wars as quickly as the mention of the words Leica and Bokeh in the same sentence. Although it comes in various flavors -- seemingly one for every different camera model -- RAW is essentially the raw data from the camera’s sensor, hence the name.

If your camera has a RAW setting, you should be using it, no excuses. Here’s why...

J.

Bored Space - $6 Million Kipnis Home Theater

I'd NEVER be able to fit that into the basement... even if we jacked the house up.

J.

Next Big Future: World's First Commercial High Temperature Nuclear Reactor starts construction in China in 2009

J.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Internet Archive: Details: The book of record of the time capsule of cupaloy, deemed capable of resisting the effects of time for five thousand years, preserving an account of universal achievements, embedded in the grounds of the New York World's fair, 1939

Each age considers itself the pinnacle &final triumph above all eras that have gone before. In our time many believe that the human race has reached the ultimate in material and social development ; others, that humanity shall march onward to achievements splendid beyond the imagination of this day, to new worlds of human wealth, power, life, and happiness. We choose, with the latter, to believe that men will solve the problems of the world, that the human race will triumph over its limitations and its adversities, that the future will be glorious.

TO THE PEOPLE OF THAT FUTURE
WE LEAVE THIS LEGACY

J.

Obama's finding it hard to ignore. Expect a 180 on Iraq within the next couple of weeks.

New Iraq report: 15 of 18 benchmarks satisfactory

WASHINGTON (AP) - No matter who is elected president in November, his foreign policy team will have to deal with one of the most frustrating realities in Iraq: the slow pace with which the government in Baghdad operates.

Iraq's political and military success is considered vital to U.S. interests, whether troops stay or go. And while the Iraqi government has made measurable progress in recent months, the pace at which it's done so has been achingly slow.

The White House sees the progress in a particularly positive light, declaring in a new assessment to Congress that Iraq's efforts on 15 of 18 benchmarks are "satisfactory"—almost twice of what it determined to be the case a year ago. The May 2008 report card, obtained by the Associated Press, determines that only two of the benchmarks—enacting and implementing laws to disarm militias and distribute oil revenues—are unsatisfactory.

Hindsight is always 20-20. There were a number of mistakes made in the early days after Saddam's fall - one of the biggest being installing Paul Bremer into the position of controlling the country. He had a very poor view of the Iraqis, and saw no reason to attempt a quick transfer of power to a provisional government. I believe (and I'll probaby get his book to better determine whether I'm right) that he went in with the intention of making his job as pretty much 'king' of Iraq a long-term one. The President wanted a fast transfer - within a couple of months. Bremer dragged it out to about 14.

Sigh. Nothing says 'liberation' like a quick handover of power to the locals. Nothing says 'occupation' like a slow one. I'd estimate that we'd be out of Iraq at this point if Bush's original plans hadn't been ignored by the State Department...

But, as I said, that's 20-20 hindsight.

We're past the tipping point on Iraq, I think. Barring a suicidal nose-dive by the Democrats or Iran, it's going to make it as a modern, secular state. The Iraqi people have been to the edge of the abyss - and have stepped firmly back.

J.

AP Exclusive: US removes uranium from Iraq - Las Vegas Sun

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program _ a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium _ reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" _ the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment _ was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

Think of the children! Deprived of their goodies. We're SO cruel! (weeps bitterly...)

Or not.

Oaky, can we say NOW Saddam was going after WMDs?

J.

What the media was tellign us about the Plame story was true.

Maybe not, eh?

Full document here.

J.

Next Big Future: Creating strong macroscale Carbon nanotube material

They calculated the toughness (the work needed to break the fiber) of a CNT fiber as 975 J g-1. much higher than carbon fibers(12 J g–1), Kevlar fibers (33 J g–1), and CNT fibers reported previously (14–20 J g–1).

Almost 300 times the strength of Kevlar? That's pretty darn good! The minium usable length on something like that, though, would be what, a couple of hundred yards? So 4 cm pieces would be too short... but if they can make 4 cm bits, 4 meters won't be far behind, and then 40 - then 400. What the heck - 4 km strands would almost make the job easy...

J.

Claim: Kids who say 'yuck' may be racist

LONDON, July 7 (UPI) -- Toddlers who say "yuck" when given flavorful foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior, a British government-sponsored organization says.

The London-based National Children's Bureau released a 366-page guide counseling adults on recognizing racist behavior in young children, The Telegraph reported Monday.

The guide, titled Young Children and Racial Justice, warns adults that babies must also be included in the effort to eliminate racism because they have the ability to "recognize different people in their lives."

The bureau says to be aware of children who "react negatively to a culinary tradition other than their own by saying 'yuck'."

"Racist incidents among children in early years settings tend to be around name-calling, casual thoughtless comments and peer group relationships," the guide says.

Staff members are advised not to ignore racist actions and to condemn them when they occur.

Okay, there's too many, WAY too many bureaucrats in the UK these days.

J.

Kerry says McCain lacks judgment to be president

WASHINGTON (AP) - John Kerry says Republican John McCain doesn't have the judgment to be president.

If that's the case, then it's probably a good thing McCain rejected overtures from Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, to form a bipartisan ticket and run with Kerry as his candidate for vice president.

He had the good judgement to distance himself from Kerry. That earns him points in my book!

J.

That's been something demanded all along - "How can we tell when we've won? What's the exit strategy?"

The exit strategy is clear - we leave when the government of Iraq asks us to.

And they have. Oh, there will be a good bit of negotiating, but in time we'll likely have much less of a footprint there than we do in Germany. And THAT's been there for 60+ years.

Iraq official: U.S. could be out by 2011 - CNN.com

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A deadline should be set for the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces from Iraq, and the pullout could be done by 2011, an Iraqi government spokesman said Tuesday.

Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, says a U.S. troop withdrawal in three to five years is possible.

Ali al-Dabbagh said any timetable would depend on "conditions and the circumstances that the country would be undergoing." But he said a pullout within "three, four or five" years was possible.

"It can be 2011 or 2012," al-Dabbagh said. "We don't have a specific date in mind, but we need to agree on the principle of setting a deadline."

What does 'winning in Iraq' look like?

I'd say... like this.

J.

Down in Playing Games I postulated the theory that we need to use each level of energy development to get to the next level. You go from wood fires, to wind and water power, then coal, develop electricity, then nuclear power gets developed - and each new level requires innovative thinking and technologies to get the most out of them. When the technology is more or less mature and (perhaps) facing a decline in the availability of the resources needed - then you allocate resources to developing the next level.

However, we've been blocked in developing nuclear power in the US for political reasons. (France developed the hell out of it, and China's just ordered about 100 nuclear power plants. Good thing they know how to mass-produce stuff, eh?)

And other alternatives... sigh. Nuclear's out. Oil and coal are out. Oil shale? Out. Hydro is pretty well maxed out. Wind? Kills birds, environmentals hate it. Tidal? Fish got rights too, man! Solar's getting quite possible - gut feeling on that, though, is the storage isn't QUITE ready yet. Hydrogen? Well - you need something to generate it - and that's been the major sticking point. Basically, you've got a situation where nothing is acceptable if it's got enough potential to replace what we've already got.

But there've been folks working on stuff in the background. Most SF fans are familar with the Bussard ramjet - and I posted a while back on Dr. Bussard's attempt to come up with funding for a proof-of-concept small, inertial electrostatic confinement reactor, based on the Farnsworth Fusor. The Navy funded a proof-of-concept model - and it worked. Apparently the results are interesting.

REAL interesting.

Looks like, reading between the lines in the comments, there's some significant progress, and it may well be worth spending about $200 million for a 100 MWatt (yep, megawatt - apparently the scaling up of this is such there's not much point to building a 1-10 MWatt test model...) model. If THAT is successful - then look for a revolution.

You can get more info from the forum at Talk-Polywell.Org

But a cautionary note - we've been promised fusion since the 1950s, and billions are spent each year on it. Personally, I think government involvement with something like fusion research turns it into a never-ending jobs program for PhDs - but that's as may be. There MAY be something useful coming out of the research in another 30 years or so. I'm not holding my breath for the government fusion programs, but the Bussard program... I'm hopeful.

Now, I've mentioned BlackLight Power before. The published theory on their ideas has been fairly well debunked. However... they're about to put out 50Kw prototypes. 20 of them.

Which means one of two things. Either they're onto something, or they're REALLY good scam artists.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time physics got a shakeup.

There comes a point in some games where you realize that making it to the next level is assured, if you don't screw up something simple (like diplomacy in the ME) and blow the game. I'm thinking that with all the new stuff coming on line with solar, and with the BLP process, the Bussard fusion reactor... we may be able to make it.

J.

Firedoglake - Obama's Sweet Nothings

You now know all that you need to know about Obama. He does not have the back-bone or the courage to stand up for fundamental principles. That is his essence and it will never change. That is Obama.

Obama's already doing the 180 on the war in Iraq. And FISA. Soon, drilling?

Certainly wasn't what they were expecting, was it?

J.

I've installed a drive or two in my life, and I've had a lot of experience with different brands and various quirks thereof. Over the years, I've seen some real winners. I recall the "Octagon" brand with a great deal of fondness - it provided a LOT of service calls when I was at the CDC. And usually, when the drive failed and wouldn't spin up, you could get it going again with a properly placed whack with the power on.

Samsung was a bit troublesome, Western Digital wasn't, Maxtor was in the middle. Seagate started out good - but I haven't bought one of them in years. You stay with the major brands, and you'll likely have no problems.

However, there's always an exception. Yesterday I bought a new Western Digital 500 GB drive - (Big Blue's getting a trifle tight on space, I was down to about 100 GB... and if someone had told me a decade back I'd be getting a new drive because I was down to ONLY 100 GB, I'd have said they were nuts... but I've got 2 250s and a 500, and I'm getting a bit cramped...) and attempted to install it.

The thing wouldn't spin up. It wasn't recognized by the computer, tried two different SATA cables and two different power connectors, but it wouldn't even twitch. I figured, what the heck - one dud in twenty years or so - I could deal with that. So I took it back, got another one...

And it's dead also. It SPINS, and the system recognizes it as a drive, but that's as far as it goes. I don't think it's a BIOS problem - it recognizes the other 500 GB w/no problems - but it errors out on the new one.

One? I can stand. Two in a row? That's iffy. Real iffy. Should I try a third? It's hard to decide.

J.

When the pundits were bemoaning the LOW cost of food and a rise in obesity levels around the world?

Britain urging return to wartime frugality - Europe- msnbc.com

LONDON - Waste not, want not.
Evoking an era of World War II austerity, British families are being urged to cut food waste and use leftovers in a nationwide effort to fight sharply rising global food prices.

Can't win either way, can ya?

J.

Most of the money spent for oil is going to overseas producers, to countries not necessarily friendly to the US. Pelosi and company don't want this to change.

Domestic oil companies, when proposing to drill here in the US to increase the supply, which would drive down prices, are being roundly shouted down by Pelosi & Co.

If anyone has an interesting in maintaining a high oil price - it'd be the overseas producers.

Why would Pelosi want to continue that?

I'm just wondering...

J.

I've been watching this - and from my perspective, it's not nearly the crisis it's portrayed to be.

First off - let's look at the problem as reported.

Mortgage shakeup won't slow subprime crisis, economists fear

Meanwhile, the number of mortgage default notices, foreclosures and bank repossessions has soared by 53% since June, 2007, with one in every 501 households receiving a foreclosure filing in June, RealtyTrac figures showed on Thursday.

Double that to June's numbers - 1 in 501, which would be about 2.4%.

The major driver of this increase isn't the economy. In this article, even during the boom times of the '90s the rate increased noticeably. So although the economy may be a factor, it's not the major one. The economy was a lot worse in the late '70s - but what was the difference?

I'm thinking it was the mortgages. All the creative stuff, which was designed to let the 'sub-prime' credit risk get into a house with little to no down payment (so no sense of ownership) - and little to no proof of actual income. Adjustable rate mortgages can be a killer - but a lot of people were lured into them because of the low initial payments. Add in people who weren't terribly responsible in the first place, and you have a default and foreclosure looking to happen.

I think there's a large number of people who ARE responsible who got sub-prime loans, and have been working towards paying them off or who converted to regular loans when they got the chance. They won't be statistics.

But the ones who aren't responsible? You'll see them bug out, and then the foreclosure process starts, and the number ratchets up by one.

On the good side - apparently about 14% of loans nationwide were subprime. So I'm thinking the monthly foreclosure rate will probably going peak at an annual rate of about 3% in a few months... and then it's going to drop back.

In the mean time - folks who've got regular mortgages don't have much to worry about. Their payments aren't going to balloon - they're not going to see a sudden demand for money from the bank - and if the economy doesn't tank and they lose their jobs they should ride out the next year or so okay. If your house loses 15% of it's value in the short run - you still have the house and the value will still appreciate. And you're building equity - look to the long term and not next week.

Huh. Me giving financial advice. Anyone knowing my financial history pre-Sue would laugh themselves sick...

J.

Kudlow's Money Politic$ on National Review Online

Bush Says Drill, Drill, Drill — and Oil Drops $9! [Larry Kudlow]
In a dramatic move yesterday President Bush removed the executive-branch moratorium on offshore drilling. Today, at a news conference, Bush repeated his new position, and slammed the Democratic Congress for not removing the congressional moratorium on the Outer Continental Shelf and elsewhere. Crude-oil futures for August delivery plunged $9.26, or 6.3 percent, almost immediately as Bush was speaking, bringing the barrel price down to $136.

Now isn’t this interesting?

Democrats keep saying that it will take 10 years or longer to produce oil from the offshore areas. And they say that oil prices won’t decline for at least that long. And they, along with Obama and McCain, bash so-called oil speculators. And today we had a real-world example as to why they are wrong. All of them. Reid, Pelosi, Obama, McCain — all of them.

J.

just letting us keep more in the first place?

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Congressional Democrats are considering a second round of rebates to taxpayers, saying the benefits of the first checks sent to more than 100 million households this year are being eroded by rising energy prices.

``We will be proceeding with another stimulus package, and we once again hope we will work in a bipartisan way,'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after House Democratic leaders met with a group of economists to discuss the spreading housing crisis and rising gas prices.

But first they have to TAKE the money, run it through a bureaucracy that shaves off, what, about 30% or more, and then they give it back to us?

And we should be grateful?

Man, that Fair Tax plan looks more and more attractive.

J.

Power Line: The Democrats' Perverse Energy Policies...

Though it does have 14 words in it. Should that be added, or subtracted?

Either way, it sums up the Democratic position. They'd better hope for oil to drop to about $30 a barrel, and gas to get down below $2 - because people are going to remember in November who refused to even attempt to solve the problem.

J.

Atlanta newspaper cutting staff by 200

ATLANTA (AP) - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is cutting its staff by nearly 200 jobs, or about 8 percent of its work force, and eliminating some targeted news sections.

In a news release Wednesday, Publisher John Mellott said the moves are aimed at cutting expenses amid dwindling advertising revenues and steadily increasing fuel and newsprint costs. Mellott said the job cuts will be mainly in the news and advertising departments between August and October through voluntary buyouts and layoffs.

J.

The records, or what we tell you?

Latest NOAA Press Release in Total Disagreement with NASA Satellite - Watts Up With That?

It was the eighth warmest June on record for the globe, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Wednesday in the 129 years since records began in 1880. And the first six months of the year were the ninth warmest since record keeping began in 1880, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center reported. The planet's average temperature for June was 60.8 degrees Fahrenheit, 0.9 degrees warmer than average for the month.

DON'T BELIEVE A WORD OF IT. Just a few days ago, the University of Alabama, Huntsville came out with their global assessment and they reported the 22nd warmest in the 30 years of records in their data base (in other words the 9th coldest). In fact, their global mean was actually below the average (base period 1979-1998 ) with a value of -0.11C (-0.19F). This is a full 1.1F degrees colder than the NOAA guesstimate. The other NASA satellite source, RSS had June as the 13th coldest out of the last 30 years.

J.

Oil drops below $130 for first time in a month - Oil & energy- msnbc.com

NEW YORK - Oil prices fell below $130 a barrel for the first time in more than a month Thursday, as a dramatic slide entered a third day along with a sharp sell-off in natural gas.

The declines accelerated amid growing concerns about the weakening U.S. economy.

$17 dollars down. We'll see if the trend continues.

J.

My Way News - House Speaker Pelosi calls Bush 'a total failure'

Uh, where's the energy plan you had, Ms. Speaker?

There's times I think a lot of folks in Washington actually have a clue. There's other times I think they belong in a schoolyard hurling insults back and forth, making fun of shoes and clothes and all that?

J.

FT.com / World / US & Canada - US to open 3.9m acres in Alaska for drilling

The US federal government on Wednesday said it would open 3.9m acres of land in a designated petroleum reserve in Alaska for drilling as a means to help curb rising petrol prices.

“This is welcome news at a time when Americans are paying record prices at the pump,” said C. Stephen Allred, assistant US Secretary for Land and Minerals. “Together with proposed new production from other offshore and onshore areas, these increased supplies will help to stabilise energy costs.’’

Funny, isn't it? When she was blocking drilling, saying that it wouldn't help - the price kept going up. Bush announces drilling - and the price goes down.

Who's got the better handle on reality? I'm thinking Pelosi's lost her grip completely.

J.

Cast of 300 advises Obama on foreign policy - International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON: Every day around 8 a.m., foreign policy aides at Senator Barack Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters send him two e-mails: a briefing on major world developments over the previous 24 hours and a set of questions, accompanied by suggested answers, that the candidate is likely to be asked about international relations during the day.

One recent Q. & A. asked, for example, whether Obama supported the decision by Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to include a timetable for American troop withdrawal in any new security agreements with the United States. The answer, provided to Obama with bullet points, was yes — or "a genuine opportunity," as he put it in a speech on Iraq this week.

Behind the e-mail messages is a tight-knit group of aides supported by a huge 300-person foreign policy campaign bureaucracy, organized like a mini State Department, to assist a candidate whose limited national security experience remains a concern to many voters.

300 people. Man, to try to get that many people to agree on anything is near impossible. And I've got to admit that something like that would be, unfortunately, very fertile ground for a foriegn policy that'll weathervane very, very badly.

I'd rather see him have his own opinions and stick to them (no matter how much I might disagree with them) than have a 'committee' of 300 he has to continually ask what he thinks.

J.

DailyTech - Myth of Consensus Explodes: APS Opens Global Warming Debate

The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming "incontrovertible."

In a posting to the APS forum, editor Jeffrey Marque explains,"There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution."

At least some of the folks at APS aren't buying it.

Larry Gould, Professor of Physics at the University of Hartford and Chairman of the New England Section of the APS, called Monckton's paper an "expose of the IPCC that details numerous exaggerations and "extensive errors"

In an email to DailyTech, Monckton says, "I was dismayed to discover that the IPCC's 2001 and 2007 reports did not devote chapters to the central 'climate sensitivity' question, and did not explain in proper, systematic detail the methods by which they evaluated it. When I began to investigate, it seemed that the IPCC was deliberately concealing and obscuring its method."

According to Monckton, there is substantial support for his results, "in the peer-reviewed literature, most articles on climate sensitivity conclude, as I have done, that climate sensitivity must be harmlessly low."

Monckton, who was the science advisor to Britain's Thatcher administration, says natural variability is the cause of most of the Earth's recent warming. "In the past 70 years the Sun was more active than at almost any other time in the past 11,400 years ... Mars, Jupiter, Neptune’s largest moon, and Pluto warmed at the same time as Earth."

Update 7/17/2008: After publication of this story, the APS responded with a statement that its Physics and Society Forum is merely one unit within the APS, and its views do not reflect those of the Society at large.

The actual posting at the APS is here... and Monckton's paper is here.

J.

Next Big Future: 195K superconductor at dry ice temperatures

A dry-ice temperature superconductor... what will that do for power transmission? Ah. Here's a superconducting power line using liquid nitrogen... they have to keep their line below -200F for it to work... but a 195Kelvin conductor raises that to about -110F. That'd be considerably easier to design for, I would think.

Maybe we WILL be able to make it to the next level before we're wiped out...

112 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Enjoy!

J.

Study: Carbon nanotubes mimic asbestos - Science- msnbc.com

Soon, very soon, I expect some group somewhere to work work themselves into a lather at the potential hazards of carbon nanotubes, and work diligently at banning even research into production methods...

'Cause, you know, it'll all about saving the planet.

I wonder - will 'carbon' be the new 'radioactivity' for some groups?

J.

For the last 24-48 hours or so, I've had some sort of bug. Possibly a virus, it's hard to tell - but I was feeling like crepe. (Yeah, the paper. Fragile, wrinkled, wadded up and discarded after a party. (grin)) Knees felt like someone was taking hammers to them, as did my back. Was running a fever there for a while, I think it got up to 101 or so. Not much of one, but still enough to be darned uncomfortable.

So I've been mostly horizontal since Saturday night. Called in this morning and told them I wouldn't be in to work - hate doing that since Mondays usually have the more interesting calls. But if I don't relapse, I believe I can make it into work tomorrow.

J.

Got this today...

Hi,

Lately, we've got the domain rustedsky.com and are now offering it to you, because you own the .net version of it.

Domains Alert Service is intended to assist our clients with their promotion on the Internet. We use a lot of methods to increase the effectiveness of a client's presence on the Web. One of those is securing .com domains for anyone using another extension for their site.

There are several reasons why owning a .com is of great importance for any domain holder:
- History of Internet has built up its character: .com is most popular and widely used, and the typical user usually supposes that he/she will find you at rustedsky.com as the users often forget the proper extension. A lot of companies and organizations who use other extensions as primary (.net for Web services or private sites, .org for non-profit organizations etc.) are securing .coms not to lose the visitors who are seeking them there.
- By owning the .com, you will be sure to stay #1 in your own name space.

If you are interested in this domain, please act quickly, as we soon intend to bring it to the auction where the acquisition cost will be higher than now.

Amazing how folks will try to scam you, isn't it? I'm sure the fee would be nominal, probably $60 or so...

J.

Let's Have Some Love for Nuclear Power - WSJ.com

All over the world, nuclear power is making a comeback. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has just commissioned eight new reactors, and says there's "no upper limit" to the number Britain will build in the future. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has challenged her country's program to phase out 17 nuclear reactors by 2020, saying it will be impossible to deal with climate change without them. China and India are building nuclear power plants; France and Russia, both of whom have embraced the technology, are fiercely competing to sell them the hardware.

And this is rather odd-

FOXNews.com - Oil-Rich Emirates Pursue Nuclear Program That Could Be a 'Model' in Persian Gulf - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates, which sits on one-tenth of the world's oil reserves, is likely to be the first Middle Eastern country to have a nuclear energy program.
Abu Dhabi, the UAE's capital, has already appointed an ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency even before it has built a nuclear facility.

The UAE lies in the heart of a region some say could be on course for a nuclear arms buildup. The Emirates is across the Persian Gulf from Iran, which is currently under investigation by the IAEA for its suspect uranium enrichment program.

J.

Wars Update: Fighting Goes Out Of Fashion

(You should read the whole thing, but the really interesting bit is below...)

International terrorism has created a international backlash and a war unlike any other. The only terrorist victories are in the media. On the ground, the terrorists are losing ground everywhere. Their last refuges are chaotic, or cynical, places like Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Gaza, the Sahel, a few of the Philippine islands, and especially tribal regions of Pakistan (where al Qaeda is staging a last stand). They are being chased out of Iraq, Somalia and the Philippines. Iran continues to support terrorism in the face of much local disapproval. Syria and Lebanon are in chaos because of Iranian subsidized factions. Gaza went the same way. Islamic radicals are a traditional reaction to tyranny in their region, and the inability of local despots to rule effectively. Economic and diplomatic ties with the West are interpreted as support, leading to attacks on Western targets that created a devastating counterattack. The result of this in the Moslem world has been dramatic, finally forcing leaders and people to confront their self-inflicted problems. Al Qaeda is as self-destructive as its many predecessors. Al Qaeda suicide bomb attacks that continue to kill civilians, continues to turn Moslems against al Qaeda in a big way. But the terrorists justify such dumb attacks because their doctrine holds that Moslems who don't agree with them, are not really Moslems. You can imagine how well that goes over with most Moslems. You can, but al Qaeda can't, and that is what guarantees their demise.

J.

But actually reality.

Their Fair Share - WSJ.com

Washington is teeing up "the rich" for a big tax hike next year, as a way to make them "pay their fair share." Well, the latest IRS data have arrived on who paid what share of income taxes in 2006, and it's going to be hard for the rich to pay any more than they already do. The data show that the 2003 Bush tax cuts caused what may be the biggest increase in tax payments by the rich in American history.

nearby chart shows that the top 1% of taxpayers, those who earn above $388,806, paid 40% of all income taxes in 2006, the highest share in at least 40 years. The top 10% in income, those earning more than $108,904, paid 71%. Barack Obama says he's going to cut taxes for those at the bottom, but that's also going to be a challenge because Americans with an income below the median paid a record low 2.9% of all income taxes, while the top 50% paid 97.1%. Perhaps he thinks half the country should pay all the taxes to support the other half.

J.

UnionLeader.com - New Hampshire news - McCain returns to NH with visit to Rochester - Tuesday, Jul. 22, 2008

McCain spent most of the day in Maine, where he joined former President George H.W. Bush in Kennebunkport and later campaigned in Portland with the state's two Republican senators.

In Manchester last night, there was just one reporter and one photographer waiting for McCain as his plane -- a white, blue and gold Boeing 737-400 emblazoned with his campaign slogan, "Reform, Prosperity, Peace" -- touched down on the Wiggins Airways tarmac.

You know, I understand that most reporters are liberals - but this is just crazy. This isn't just being in the tank for Obama, it's having gills surgically implanted and your lungs removed.

The comments are interesting... there's some who don't see anything wrong with what the media is doing, some nominal Democrats who think it stinks, and a lot of other people who think it's blazingly unfair.

Why should the press cover McCain? They have already declared Obama the winner and it doesn't matter what the American people think.

They believe it is their duty and right to tell the people who the best person is to lead the free word and to hell with trivial things like fairness or the peoples right to know about the candidates running for the highest office of this great country.

To the main stream media an actual election in which the people decide the outcome of this presidential campaign is a waste of time and money and they think they know what's best for us.
- Jim Kijek, Lexington KY

That more of the media did not show up for McCain should come as no surprise. They are all packed elbow to elbow in the Obama cheering section.

The New York Times even refused to print McCain's editorial response to Obama's outrageous editorial statements on Iraq and Afghanistan. Like an arrogant liberal college professor speaking to a freshman student, the editor at the NYT tells McCain to "re-write the article and re-submit it"

But, I guess they are just living up to their motto, "all the news that's fit to print". If it doesn't agree with their position (bent over for Obama), it's obviously not fit to print.
- Bob Garlington, Humble, Texas

All you right wingers quit complaining. You are all jealous because John McCain doesn't have a message other than repeating the Bush doctrine which has led to the world hating us, global warming, the housing crisis, and this energy crisis. Once Obama is elected, puts his justices in place and has a Democratically controlled congress there will be no stopping us putting this country on the right course forever. We'll get rid of the right wing media bias by reenacting the Fairness Doctrine and making our country safer by passing gun laws that will keep so many guns from being circulated for starters.
We need more people who think like Obama does to fill our cabinets, committees and government agencies to enforce his philosophy.
Get an education!
- David Martinez, San Franciso, CA

Only one or two newsgroupies for McCain? Not like the fauning mainstream newsgroupies like O'bama has? Now that's what I call Fair and Balanced!
- The Mikester, Farmers Branch, TX

An absolute disgrace. When three so-called "distingushed" news anchors (from NBC, CBS and ABC) accompany the democratic candidate for his 1st trip overseas, yet continue to neglect to cover the Republican candidate, it is quite obvious the aforementioned media outlets are liberally biased and are part of the George Soros liberal conspiracy to have the main stream media help elect a democrat, no matter what the cost...no matter what the inexperience, and no matter what radical islamic fundamental beliefs he comes from, all whilst continuing to play the race card.
Barack Hussein Obama is an empty suit who will bring nothing but reverse discrimination to our country and we should vote accordingly. McCain isn't my #1 choice, but he's a hell of alot better and more experienced, than the guy who gives good speaches, promises alot and speaks so well.
I wish folks like Glenn Beck or Mike Huckabee were our choices!!!
- Jack, Thassee

For anyone who knows anything about Journalism, it is the news media;s job to cover both sides of anissue of election, not McCain's or Obama's job to convince/get them to cover theirs. Obama may be doing a better job of wooing the media, but that still doesnt remove the blame from the media's side of just being ridiculously pro-Obama, and not so much anti-mccain as more indifferent and ignoring towards him
- Mike, Kansas

The media is disgusting! Talk about hipocracy! For such a liberal establishment that is supposedly so "tolerant and inclusive," it just goes to show you how they're all just full of crap!
Liberals (ummm, democommunists) are just made up of hateful intellectual wannabes who are too stupid to realize they're just a bunch of sheeples. They're following a loser who just wants to be president despite the fact that he's not even near qualified for the job! Never mind he'll run this country straight into the pit! But liberals are too intellectual and refined to know better.. Whatever!
- Ray, Colorado Springs

The "swarm" of media surrounding Obama and following his every move has been traveling with him. His campaign now takes part of "the swarm" with them to guarrantee maximum coverage. We have entered the phase of the general election where the media has cast objectivity out the window and are now unapologetically biased. The loss of a free and unbiased press will lead to the demise of the democracy.
- Jack, Des Moines, IA

The real problem I see with Obama is the more he shows himself, the worse he looks. Right now, he's got a carefully crafted image, and the media's doing what it can to protect it.

But sometimes it doesn't quite manage...

In case you don't want to follow the link - here's what happened. The question asked from ABC News was...

"If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you support the surge:"

"No, because keep in mind that question, you wouldn't ... but keep in mind that kind of hypothetical is very difficult to know hindsight is 20-20 ... later ... but I think that what I'm absolutely convinced of is that at that time we had to change the political debate because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with."

J.

Stocks jump as crude drops $3 a barrel: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Stocks initially fell on uneasiness about the continuing impact of the housing market downturn and the credit crisis on financial company earnings. Disappointing results from American Express Co. and Wachovia Corp. fed those worries.

But a $3 drop in oil -- which took crude's decline in recent weeks to nearly $20 a barrel -- persuaded some investors to wade back into equities.

Did Bush announce he was going to drill? Yes.

Of course, the first three things are probably MUCH more important than the fourth...

J.

Might not even be getting the story - much less the whole thing.

Admittedly, this is pretty much tabloid-grade stuff. But - considering some of the speculation that Edwards was first VP grade material, and now down to a 'cabinet level' post - wouldn't it be even SLIGHTLY newsworthy that he had a mistress while his wife's breast cancer is progressing? Oh, silly me - he's a Democrat. A Republican, however - would be front-page news.

But this isn't even backpage.

Edwards and the agony of the MSM. - By Mickey Kaus - Slate Magazine#getitsecond#getitsecond#getitsecond

As things stand, here's a rundown of media performance on the John Edwards front:

--The New York Times doesn't tell you what happened yesterday.

--The print edition of the Washington Post doesn't tell you what happened yesterday.

--Newsweek doesn't tell you what happened yesterday.

--Time doesn't tell you what happened yesterday.

--Katie Couric didn't tell you what happened yesterday.

--Brian Williams didn't tell you what happened yesterday.

--Charlie Gibson didn't tell you what happened yesterday.

--RealClearPolitics doesn't tell you what happened yesterday.

--HuffingtonPost doesn't tell you what happened yesterday (and it's their story!). I blame the commenters.

--Mark Halperin doesn't tell you what happened yesterday.

--Mark Ambinder doesn't tell you what happened yesterday.

--One Roger Simon tells you what happened yesterday--but the other Roger Simon doesn't!

Has the gap between what the MSM lets you know and what happened--and what you can easily find out happened--ever been greater? ...

We just didn't realize quite how far it went.

I have to admit, it gives me a great deal to think about. This is going to be a quick summary of my memories of the media coverages of the last 30-40 years, so if you don't remember the same things or see them the same way, I'll certainly understand. But I think a lot of our recent history has been shaped by attitudes generated by the media.

Viet Nam was the first real media war where the media varied the 'spin' on how we were supposed to think about it - from winnable to lost - and what was actually going on in-country didn't matter. Then, after Nixon, we had the Ford administration - and he was played as an ineffectual buffoon. Carter was played up during the run in '76 as the 'Saint', holy and virtuous and even admitting in "Playboy" he lusted in his heart - and without looking I couldn't even tell you who he was running against.

By that point, the media was fiddlin' with the controls like someone trying out differing settings in a video game. Reagan managed to win by out media-ing the media, and he kept it up for 8 years. Bush Sr. wasn't so adroit - and who doesn't remember his "Read my lips - no new taxes" pledge that was broken? Clinton was played up as the new, fresh guy who would take us forward... and I'm thinking Bush Sr. was just as happy to retire after 12 years in the White House.

The media knew about Hillary's tirades in the White House, and no matter how they spun it she wouldn't cooperate so they could show her as an appealing enough figure to get her medical plan passed. Yay, she baked cookies. Big whoop. Election time comes around, and you've got Mr. Viagra Dole popping up, but he wasn't stiff enough competition for Clinton, especially with Perot lending a hand. (Oh, lord. Heck with it - I'm on a roll...)

Then we've got Bush against Gore - the friendly guy against the stuffed-shirt. I think the media tried a bit on that one to see if they could portray Bush as being better than Gore - amd at the last minute they had to bring up decades-old drunk-driving charges to try to push the election to Gore. It almost worked... but I think it was a little too overt, a little too noticeable.

And then the Recount Frenzy begain. Did you get pretty much used to all sorts of ballots getting discovered here and there across the nation - oddly enough in states where the margins were razor thin? My brother told me about an election in Washington state where the REPUBLICAN candidate won by a slim margin... and the Democrat contested it. Oddly enough, a couple of boxes of uncounted ballots showed up from a very Democratic precinct... and they were just enough to give the Democrat an unassailable margin.

Yet no investigation was ever done as to why those boxes suddenly appeared. Didn't much matter, I guess - the proper candidate was in office, and that was all that mattered, right?

Yeah. Sure.

Then 9/11 hit - and for a while the media played it straight. But the Afghanistan campaign started up - and all you heard day after day was "Quagmire! Bogged down! Losing momentum!"... while we won.

Obviously - truthful reporting of battle conditions is diffiicult work. And you've got to be careful about giving out too much information, because CNN's a worldwide thing at this point and your enemy might be listening. But the military learned the media wasn't trustworthy in Viet Nam - and didn't figure they'd have changed, and I think the media felt put-out that they weren't trusted by the military.

Besides - winning isn't a good story in wartime if you're worried about your ratings. You need a hook - something to keep people tuning in. So every delay was a quagmire, every battle something that'd never been done and possibly would never be... until we finished up combat operations considerably sooner than we could have imagined a decade ago.

The MILITARY had changed - but the media hadn't.

Let's look stateside real quick for one shining example of how NOT to cover a disaster.

Katrina. Remember the riots inside the stadium, the dead bodies, the cannibalism? Remember how, in the cleanup, it DIDN'T HAPPEN the way the media reported it? But they were looking for hooks - for ratings boosters - and if cannibalism isn't gonna get you to tune in again in a half-hour, nothing will! The need to get the viewer BACK and the demands of a 24-7 news cycle combined to create a journalistic fiasco.

This is getting pretty long - but I think you can draw your own conclusions. Journalists project a story with words. Reporters tell what's happening. A reporter can function as a journalist - but a journalist is too busy telling the story inside his head to really make a good reporter. There are exceptions - Michael Yon and Michael Totten come to mind - but they're not primarily graduates of a 'reality-based' academic environment, both have spent a LOT of time in the real world in some pretty unpleasant places.

Are even THEIR reports the whole story? Of course not. You NEVER get the ENTIRE story. But you can get enough information from enough sources to be able to tell the shape of the story, and be able to piece things together like a jigsaw - then make out the shapes of the pieces that should be there, but are missing.

And if you look back, it seems like there's a LOT of missing pieces that you were told were there... which can change how you see and understand unfolding events.

Which makes you wonder when you see the news or read the paper... what aren't they telling?

And lest you think I'm going all conspiracy-crazy here - look at the coverage of Obama, and of McCain. Even hournalists are noticing.

Media's guilt plays well for Obama and McCain -- chicagotribune.com

Did you ever notice that when John McCain is on TV he's always grumpy?" asked a colleague in the cafeteria who whispered, lest others denounce him for Barackian Thought Crimes.

McCain's always made to look old and angry, a curmudgeon. And Barack Obama? He's always seen as presidential, cool, smiling, shaking hands," whispered the guy.

I believe this phenomenon is called liberal bias. And the country has caught on.

Which might explain why Obama and McCain are even in the polls. Where would Obama be WITHOUT support from the MSM?

J.

Obama scraps visit to wounded troops

BERLIN (AP) - Sen. Barack Obama scrapped plans to visit wounded members of the armed forces in Germany as part of his overseas trip, a decision his spokesman said was made because the Democratic presidential candidate thought it would be inappropriate on a campaign-funded journey.
The spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said Thursday that Obama made his decision out of respect for the servicemen and women, but Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign immediately criticized the move.

"Barack Obama is wrong. It is never inappropriate to visit our men and women in the military," said Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the Republican contender.

Yeah, that Barak's a classy dude, isn't he? Got his priorities straight, you betcha.

Hillary would have gone. She knows she needs to show a softer side, and could have used the votes.

McCain? Certainly HE would have gone.

Obama? About all I can figure is he thinks he doesn't need to worry about the military vote. After all - they're in the military and can't vote, right?

Wrong, you pompous jerk. They're going to remember this - and any democrats in the military that were on the fence are going to be quite impressed by your reasoning.

Now watch. I'll predict that ANY very close state will have hordes of lawyers descend - and the first thing they'll try to toss out as disqualified are the military absentee ballots.

The man wants to be CinC - but won't go visit the troops.

Stay classy, Obama - you wouldn't want to tick off your Code Pink groupies.

J.

Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Freebies Bonanza

Might be to your taste, might not - but 'free' is certainly affordable.

Thanks, Claire!

Jerry

'Big hole' in plane prompts Manila stop - News- msnbc.com

MANILA, Philippines - A Qantas flight en route to Australia from London made an emergency stop in Manila on Friday after a loud bang punched a hole in the Boeing 747-400’s fuselage, officials and passengers said.

There were no injuries, but some of the 350 passengers vomited after disembarking, said Manila International Airport Authority deputy manager for operations Octavio Lina.

What I can see doesn't look like explosives damage - more likely metal fatigue and crack propagation. I think the fuselage behind the fairing cracked, split, and pushed an edge of the fairing out where the wind could take it.

Then *BANG* - you've got a real problem.

This is why airlines are so hot on maintenace. It's a long way down - and you can't pull over and stop to see what's wrong in-flight.

j.

When every little city council has more power than they know what to do with, the tendency is NOT to see how they can best manage it - it's to see how far they can take it.

After all, what good is power if you don't USE it?

And this seems to be pushing the limits a bit far.

Painter given ｣30 fine for smoking 'at work'...in his own van | Mail Online

For painter and decorator Gordon Williams, his van is simply a means of getting from A to B.

But council officials chose to give the vehicle a more lofty status.

When they spotted him behind the wheel with a cigarette, they handed him an on-the-spot fine of ｣30 - for smoking in his place of work.

How long before we go the UK route here?

J.

MoneyNews - Mundell: Tax Hike Will Cause Recession

Nobel Prize winner and Columbia University economist Robert Mundell, a principal contributor to the creation of the euro, says that ending the Bush tax cuts — as proposed by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama — would cause "a big recession, a nosedive."

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mundell said, "the most important thing that could be done with respect to tax rates is to make the Bush tax cuts permanent."

Mundell, an expert in many areas of economics including the proposition that low taxes stimulate an economy, also provided the intellectual groundwork behind the Reagan tax-cut revolution.

Well, they used to believe in bleeding people at one time, too. The Democrats are apparently still at that level of thinking regarding the economy.

J.

The Gatekeepers TRIED to block things.

LAT bans its bloggers fromdiscussing Edwards charges. - By Mickey Kaus - Slate Magazine

LAT Gags Blogs
Editors ban discussion of Edwards love-child charges.
By Mickey Kaus
Updated Friday, July 25, 2008, at 6:58 AM ET
Here's some MSM. ... 4:07 A.M.

___________________________

LAT Gags Blogs: In a move that has apparently stirred up some internal discontent, the Los Angeles Times has banned its bloggers , including political bloggers, from mentioning the Edwards/Rielle Hunter story. Even bloggers who want to mention the story in order to make a skeptical we-don't-trust-the-Enquirer point are forbidden from doing so. Kausfiles has obtained a copy of the email Times bloggers received from editor Tony Pierce. [I've excised the recipient list and omitted Pierce's email address]:

From: "Pierce, Tony"

Date: July 24, 2008 10:54:41 AM PDT

To: [XXX]

Subject: john edwards

Hey bloggers,

There has been a little buzz surrounding John Edwards and his alleged affair. Because the only source has been the National Enquirer we have decided not to cover the rumors or salacious speculations. So I am asking you all not to blog about this topic until further notified.

If you have any questions or are ever in need of story ideas that would best fit your blog, please don't hesitate to ask

Keep rockin,

Tony

That will certainly calm paranoia about the Mainstream Media (MSM) suppressing the Edwards scandal. ...

That had better change.

J.

There's a lot of stuff I see in the course of a day that I'd like to comment on - but don't have the time (or, sometimes, the desire) to do a blog entry on.

So I've started a new blog - "Bits and Pieces", at bits.rustedsky.net. If you spot something there you want to comment on, feel free. It'll usually just be a link to something I find interesting.

Enjoy!

J.

XM/Sirius Merger Gets FCC Approval - FOXBusiness.com

Federal regulators formally approved the merger of the nation's only two satellite radio operators Friday, ending a 16-month-long drama closely watched by Washington and Wall Street.

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s $3.3 billion buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. will mean 18 million-plus subscribers will be able to receive programming from both services. Executives say it will mean huge cost savings that will lead to a first-ever profit for the relatively nascent industry.

J.

Monkey in the Middle: Letter from the Troops: 'Obama is a Buffoon, a Charlatan, a Hindrance to their Mission' . When his plane arrived (also containing Senators Reed and Hagel, but the news has hardly mentioned them), there was a "ramp freeze." This means if you are on the flight line, and not directly involved with the event in question, you stay where you are and don't move. For a combat flight arriving or departing, this takes about ten minutes, and involves the active runway and crossing taxiways only. For Obama's flight, this took 90 minutes, during which time a variety of military missions came grinding to a halt. Obviously, this visit was important, right? . 95% of base wanted nothing to do with him. I have met three troops who support him, and literally hundreds who regard him as a buffoon, a charlatan, a hindrance to their mission or a flat out enemy of progress. Even when the rumors were publicly admitted, almost no one left their duty sections to try to see him, unless they were officers whose presence was officially required. . Mister Obama's motorcade drove up from the flight line and entered the dining hall toward the end of lunch time. Diners were chased out and told to make other arrangements for food, in the middle of the duty day. . Now, there are close to 8000 troops on the base and its nearby satellites. No one came up from the Army side (except perhaps a few ranking officers). The airbase resumed operation, once he cleared the flightline, as if nothing had happened. The dining hall holds about 300 people and was not full. The troops did not want to meet him and the feeling was apparently mutual. In attendance, besides the Official Entourage, were the base's senior officers, some support personnel, and a very few carefully vetted supporters who'd made special arrangements. No photos were allowed. No question and answer with the troops. No real acknowledgment that the troops existed.

Yeah. Not with MY vote, he ain't.

J.

Mamma Mia! (2008)

Pierce Brosnan... sings worse than I do. Other than that - this was the funniest movie I've seen in a LONG time! The plot worked, the scenery was great, the acting incredible - just a whole lot of fun! Definitely a "Must Buy" when it hits the stores...

J.

The Associated Press: Analysis: US now winning Iraq war that seemed lost

BAGHDAD (AP) — The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost.

Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace — a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago.

Despite the occasional bursts of violence, Iraq has reached the point where the insurgents, who once controlled whole cities, no longer have the clout to threaten the viability of the central government.

That does not mean the war has ended or that U.S. troops have no role in Iraq. It means the combat phase finally is ending, years past the time when President Bush optimistically declared it had. The new phase focuses on training the Iraqi army and police, restraining the flow of illicit weaponry from Iran, supporting closer links between Baghdad and local governments, pushing the integration of former insurgents into legitimate government jobs and assisting in rebuilding the economy.

Well, it's water under the bridge at this point. Things are coming along okay in Iraq, and if we don't screw it up they're going to be a free, democratic country in a year or two.

But I'm not going to underestimate the ability of the Democrats to pull defeat out of the jaws of victory.

J.

Next Big Future

Universal allergy treatment going to Phase III clinical trials

Cytos Biotechnology has a product CYT003-QbG10 with the potential to treat many different allergies because it does not give people tiny doses of the specific substance that they are allergic. Instead, it works by distracting the overactive immune system, which is thought to be the cause of most allergic reactions. Current allergy shot treatments require about one hundred shots over several years with a very high total cost. ($35 [often after medical plan coverage] per shot times 100, $3500 overall treatment)

J.

To know what's good for them.

The Far Left's War on Direct Democracy - WSJ.com

A total of 24 states allow voters to change laws on their own by collecting signatures and putting initiatives on the ballot. It's healthy that the entrenched political class should face some real legislative competition from initiative-toting citizens. Unfortunately, some special interests have declared war on the initiative process, using tactics ranging from restrictive laws to outright thuggery.

The initiative is a reform born out of the Progressive Era, when there was general agreement that powerful interests had too much influence over legislators. It was adopted by most states in the Midwest and West, including Ohio and California. It was largely rejected by Eastern states, which were dominated by political machines, and in the South, where Jim Crow legislators feared giving more power to ordinary people.

But more power to ordinary people remains unpopular in some quarters, and nothing illustrates the war on the initiative more than the reaction to Ward Connerly's measures to ban racial quotas and preferences. The former University of California regent has convinced three liberal states -- California, Washington and Michigan -- to approve race-neutral government policies in public hiring, contracting and university admissions. He also prodded Florida lawmakers into passing such a law. This year his American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI) aimed to make the ballot in five more states. But thanks to strong-arm tactics, the initiative has only made the ballot in Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska.

"The key to defeating the initiative is to keep it off the ballot in the first place," says Donna Stern, Midwest director for the Detroit-based By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). "That's the only way we're going to win." Her group's name certainly describes the tactics that are being used to thwart Mr. Connerly.

Aggressive legal challenges have bordered on the absurd, going so far as to claim that a blank line on one petition was a "duplicate" of another blank line on another petition and thus evidence of fraud. In Missouri, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan completely rewrote the initiative's ballot summary to portray it in a negative light. By the time courts ruled she had overstepped her authority, there wasn't enough time to collect sufficient signatures.

Don't you just LOVE 'progressive' politics?

J.

If 3 out of 4 methods of measurement don't agree with the 4th, and there's serious validity questions about #4 - should you accept ithat #4 is right and the others wrong?

Seems like that's what NASA's doing. Odd, isn't it?

Nasa is out of line on global warming - Telegraph

Considering that the measures recommended by the world's politicians to combat global warming will cost tens of trillions of dollars and involve very drastic changes to our way of life, it might be thought wise to check the reliability of the evidence on which they base their belief that our planet is actually getting hotter.

There are four internationally recognised sources of data on world temperatures, but the one most often cited by supporters of global warming is that run by James Hansen of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).

Hansen has been for 20 years the world's leading scientific advocate of global warming (and Al Gore's closest ally). But in the past year a number of expert US scientists have been conducting a public investigation, through scientific blogs, which raises large question marks over the methods used to arrive at his figures.

First they noted the increasingly glaring discrepancy between the figures given by GISS, which show temperatures continuing to race upwards, and those given by the other three main data sources, which all show temperatures having fallen since 1998, dropping dramatically in the past year to levels around the average of the past 30 years.

Two sets of data, from satellites, go back to 1979: one produced by Dr Roy Spencer, formerly of Nasa, now at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, the other by Remote Sensing Systems. Their figures correspond closely with those produced by the Hadley Centre for Climate Studies of our own Met Office, based on global surface temperature readings.

Right out on their own, however, are the quite different figures produced by GISS which, strangely for a body sponsored by Nasa, rely not on satellites but also on surface readings. Hansen's latest graph shows temperatures rising since 1880, at accelerating speed in the past 10 years.

The other three all show a flattening out after 2001 and a marked downward plunge of 0.6 degrees Celsius in 2007/8, equivalent to almost all the net warming recorded in the 20th century.

Over at Wattsupwiththat.com, an effort is being made to survey pretty much all the ground stations in the US to see if there might be environmental factors causing error. And there's been a LOT of error, apparently. You wouldn't think that locating a thermometer next to a blacktop parking lot, a furnace outlet, or an air conditioning unit would skew the record, would ya?

AGW's stopped being about science. Now, it's about politics... and by extension, power gained by control of people through persuasion or coercion.

Add in the fact that the arctic ice is thicker, Australia's having a cold winter, Alaska's having a cold summer, and there's no sunspots...

We may wish for warming in a few years.

J.

How not to measure temperature, part 68 at Watts Up With That? shows a ground station... surrounded by parking lots and roads, and within a few dozen yards of the college power plant.

How reliable is the data? How much of an effect do the roads and parking lots (and cars) and such have on the record from this station?

The data used by the AGW folk come from ground stations like these - they're 1 of the 4 methods of gathering earth and air temperatures... and the only one showing global warming.

Can't imagine why that would be... can you?

J.

Pelosi: 'I'm trying to save the planet' - David Rogers - Politico.com

With fewer than 20 legislative days before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, the entire appropriations process has largely ground to a halt because of the ham-handed fighting that followed Republican attempts to lift the moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration. And after promising fairness and open debate, Pelosi has resorted to hard-nosed parliamentary devices that effectively bar any chance for Republicans to offer policy alternatives.

“I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet,” she says impatiently when questioned. “I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy.”

“I respect the office that I hold,” she says. “And when you win the election, you win the majority, and what is the power of the speaker? To set the agenda, the power of recognition, and I am not giving the gavel away to anyone.”

And if it craters the economy - well, she was only trying to do what she thought was right! (Never mind she wouldn't allow anyone else to have a say.)

Sigh.

There's people I really and sincerely believe shouldn't have been elected, because they're incapable of looking at anything beyond what THEY want, and the side effects of getting what they want doesn't matter - as long as they get what they want.

She's one of them.

The comments at the bottom are interesting... If Pelosi's reading them, I hope she gets a sense of how badly she's misjudged the situation. Because there's a great deal of anger - and it's not too far from the 'tar and feathers' stage.

She's not trying to anything but cause missery for eveyone. The poor, the elderly, and the children of this country are suffering because the Democrate lead Congress and Senate ( who are the ones who ACTAULLY MAKE LAW) are standing in the way of a NATIONAL ENERGY CRISIS. Jobs are being lost left and right because we will not develop our own energy. Look at the automotive industry. Look at the prices of food. How are people on fixed incomes going to survive? Now look at what Sierra Club has done: They helped block a Electric plant that would have been built in Ga. They stopped a gas well from being opened in Michigan. 80 electric plants are slated to built and 30 of them are litigation? Because gropus like Sierra Club against energy progress. Many groups say Solar is the answer...REALLY? The Beurea Of Land Management has put a TWO YEAR moritorium on a Solar power plants...so and EVRINOMENTAL IMPACT STUDY CAN BE DONE! Nancy's ECO warrior line " No Drill- NO Spill" is as tired as she is old. Technology improvements have reduced ecological horrors she screamed about years ago. I don't recall all alot of news about oil spills after Katrina hit and all those Oil Ridges werre turned over and laying at the bottom of sea. The Democrates gave Reagan a hard time about the people having to eat dog food........Well the Democrates keeping the people hostage to foriegn energy sources are focing them to very the same thing...Gas or dog food?

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As one of the richest women in America, Pelosi doesn't have to worry about the price of gas. Members of Congress have their cars and their gas paid for by the taxpayers. Why should those who never have to buy gas worry about the cost. Those of us that are finding it hard to pay for gas just to get us to our jobs are the ones that want to drill here, drill now, and then we will pay less! The Congress controls the purse strings of this country and the Democrats control Congress. Our economy was doing just fine up until two years ago. What happened two years ago? The Democrats took over Congress. We have gone down hill ever since. So, what should we do? We should NOT elect the Democrats back to Congress this November. If we do, then we deserve what we get! The Democrats will not allow the United States to develop and provide for its own energy. The United States will be a third world nation within the next few years. This country is not going to like Socialism.

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If this isn't one of the biggest loads of horse poop I've ever heard. This woman is an obstructionist, socialist, communist, and doesn't give a tinkers damn about the planet, or anything except getting liberal democrats into powerful positions so they can run amock with their idiotic ideas and destroy this country. They have a track record, but they have so many willing accomplices in the media that the truth seldom gets out, and when it does, the do their damndest to condem whom ever has the stones to stand up to them. What's a shame is that there isn't a spine in all of congress that will take these America haters to task. Break out the pitch forks, for the time is near! - Courteous Wolf

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She can't even save California -- Since she's been in office, California has gone into the toilet. Our economy is horrible, our public schools are the worst in the country, we are the gang capital of the WORLD, our beaches are continuously closed and unsafe due to sewage spills and our hospitals/emergency rooms are closing and/or overcrowded with illegal immigrants. We spend billions feeding illegals, yet she and buddies have voted to decrease funding for Senior citizens, the blind and the handicapped, yet if you're a 14 year old illegal, and pregnant, she rolls out the red carpet handing out money for any and all entitlement programs. Did I mention the litter and graffitti EVERYWHERE. Even our traffic signs are tagged in Los Angeles. Nancy -- go away. You are senile and sick, and dangerous to the human race. Try to clean up your own city! San Francisco has become a national joke. D.C. is full of morons from the top down and from side to side. There is no difference in the parties -- both are morally corrupt, arrogant, power hungery, and in the pocket of special interests groups. You too Harry -- do us all a favor and leave with Georgie.

Pelosi and Reid - are you listening? Do you think the anger being expressed is in support of you? You still have a chance here to salvage things - but the window is closing fast.

J.

But have you noticed how today's 'Progressives' seem adamant about not doing anything?

We can't drill for oil. We can't use nuclear power. We can't use wind. Solar is blocked, until 'environmental considerations' are addressed. Wood? Right out. Coal? Same, along with natural gas.

So why do they deserve the label "Progressive?

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Poll: Most Americans want offshore drilling « - Blogs from CNN.com

CNN) — Most Americans favor an increase in offshore oil drilling but the public is split over whether or not it would result in lower gas prices in the next year, according to a just-released CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll.

More than two thirds of Americans say they favor increasing drilling efforts off America's costs while only 30 percent disapprove of such action. Those numbers come the same day President Bush publicly scolded Democratic congressional leaders for not putting his proposal to expand domestic oil drilling, specifically on the outer continental shelf, to a vote.

J.

Polar Ice Check - Still a lot of ice up there - Watts Up With That?

From the Barents Observer:
http://www.barentsobserver.com/?cat=16149&id=4498513

New data from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute shows that there is more ice than normal in the Arctic waters north of the Svalbard archipelago.

In most years, there are open waters in the area north of the archipelago in July month. Studies from this year however show that the area is covered by ice, the Meteorological Institute writes in a press release.

In mid-July, the research vessel Lance and the Swedish ship MV Stockholm got stuck in ice in the area and needed help from the Norwegian Coast Guard to get loose.

The ice findings from the area spurred surprise among the researchers, many of whom expect the very North Pole to be ice-free by September this year.

J.