Rusted Sky

Where HAVE we seen this sort of thing before?

BTW, this was originally on Youtube - then pulled when it got attention by the 'wrong' people. It's been put up a couple of other places. Supposedly it's in a 'neighbor's house', but from other notes I understand it was professionally done in an Obama campaign office.

More info can be found here and here. Interesting grassroots support, no?

Even one of the resident leftists at Wizbang found it 'creepy'. (The others haven't chimed in on it.) There seems to be very little support for this sort of activism - it's the sort of thing that really sets people's teeth on edge.

What are your thoughts?

J.

Baseball Crank: POLITICS: The Integrity Gap, Part I of III: Gov. Sarah Palin - goes into great detail on Sarah Palin's background. I watched the debate Thurs. night, and was struck while watching her by two things -

She's NORMAL. She hasn't bought into the normal political "I'm better than you because I hold public office" meme, and she's what the founding fathers thought would be a model politician - someone who would come from a REGULAR background into politics, serve for a while, then go back to their real lives instead of becoming a political creature. And...

The media is going to completely ignore her from this point. She give McCain a much needed advantage, and we've already seen how her interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric have been so chopped and edited to make her look ignorant and incompetent.

McCain cannot be allowed to win. So her advantage must be nullified as much as possible. You see it in polling on various news sites - they tend to proclaim Biden 'won' the debate, though I sure didn't see that. There is an assumption by the media that we're all incapable of forming an opinion without us being told what everyone else thinks, that reporting is reality - and they control reality by what they report.

Pollsters also believe they control reality. By selecting your sample groups properly, you can come up with the outcomes you (or your client) want, and totally back them up.

But examinations of the polling data and a breakdown of the demographics don't always seem to match the conclusions drawn.

The media doesn't create reality. They just think they do.

And I'm starting to believe Palin's real enough to turn their assumptions. One big problem is, like I said, she's real - not a media fabrication. The second is - it seems she's got a fair amount of integrity. That's something else they don't know how to handle in Washington any more, where 'integrity' seems to mean 'staying bought'. On her battles with the corrupt officials in Alaska -

Palin wasn't independently wealthy, although her family is now well off; her husband made good money as a commercial fisherman and working in the oil fields, but with four children to raise, their status as a two-income family was undoubtedly financially important to them. Yet she was walking away from a plum job with a six-figure salary that had given her a more than 60% pay raise from her job as Mayor. Palin herself had worked only in politics since leaving her sportscasting job some 16 years earlier, and by picking up a crusade against the state's most powerful political figures, she stood an extremely good chance of burying her promising political future for good. But she was willing to walk away from all of that at age 40 to do the right thing. If you can picture Barack Obama doing that, you have a very vivid imagination.

J.

Like a hot, black tent-like covering, in the middle of a desert.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Saudi cleric favours one-eye veil

A Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye.

Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive.

Good lord, what a misogynistic society.

J.

Well, I've been shuffled into a temporary desk job for a while - they needed someone to do some backdoor XP remediation, and I'm it.

Woo.

Dug around in the basement, found the box I'd packed the LAST time I had a cubicle job and brought it in - I'll get the postcards up eventually. The coffee singles... oh, man - they did NOT age well at all. They must be well past their 'use by' date.

Now, as far as 'use by dates' go...

Our environment is supposed to be apolitical - they figure the Democrati/Republican arguements get in the way of getting the job done, and I can agree with that. Politics is usually a 'don't touch' subject.

But... one of the things about a cube job is that there's pretty much no privacy if you raise your voice above a whisper. And this morning, I'm hearing a LOT of political talk. Nobody's happy with the bailout - they're talking about how the media's covering up a lot of culpability in regards to the Democrats blocking any sort of reform - and these guys are, to my knowledge, pretty liberal. And folks who were supporting Obama are very much AGAINST him at this point.

(One favorite thing I heard - "Man, I've been TRYING to tell you Obama's bad news." "Yeah, yeah, don't rub it in!")

Guess seeing their retirement savings lose 15-30% got their attention. (I've lost about 20% in my 401k to date, personally. Good thing is, it's share based so though the shares are losing value individually, the number of shares are the same. And further contributions will be able to buy more shares at a lower price, until it goes back up. Um, IF it goes back up...)

Oh, now they're arguing the FairTax.

I can see this is going to be an entertaining assignment!

J.

At least that seemed to be the way ACORN was going in Ohio.

It's pretty bad. Apparently the theory is it doesn't matter if the voter is qualified or not, just register them and get them voting for Obama.

And now they're in trouble in Nevada.

Nevada state authorities seized records and computers Tuesday from the Las Vegas office of an organization that tries to get low-income people registered to vote, after fielding complaints of voter fraud.

Bob Walsh, spokesman for the Nevada secretary of state's office, told FOXNews.com the raid was prompted by ongoing complaints about "erroneous" registration information being submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also called ACORN.

The group was submitting the information through a voter sign-up drive known as Project Vote.

"Some of them used nonexistent names, some of them used false addresses and some of them were duplicates of previously filed applications," Walsh said, describing the complaints, which largely came from the registrar in Clark County, Nev.

Secretary of State Ross Miller said the fraudulent registrations included forms for the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team.

And, oddly enough, it's carried out by Democrats - the same folks who threw all sorts of tantrums here in GA when the state mandated ID when voting.

Because, oddly enough, you can't really tell if someone is eligible to vote UNLESS they have ID.

Isn't that odd?

J.

One more... three videos. VERY interesting.

Got to the debate late - thought they both did pretty well. Obama didn't come off as bad as I thought he would, McCain came off as good as I expected.

But one thing I noticed - after the debate I was watching the news feed as long as it lasted... and the audience reactions to the two men were markedly different.

When McCain started greeting the audience - the people were VERY eager to shake his hand. People in the second row were leaning well forward to get to his hand. The handshakes were several seconds long, and it looked like people (either McCain or the shake-ee) didn't want to let go.

Obama? The folks in the first row were responding and shaking his hand when offered, but his shakes were short. People in the second row didn't lean forward until he explicitly offered his hand to them.

Don't know it means anything or not - but that's what I saw...

As far as what others saw, here's the Drudge poll for 10:44 -

{{{{DRUDGE POLL}}}} WHO WON THE SECOND PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE?...

MCCAIN 73% 28,695

OBAMA 24% 9,523

NEITHER 2% 977

Total Votes: 39,195

The pundits haven't had time to tell people how to think about what they saw. And internet polls are notoriously unreliable.

InstaPundit's is here - Obama didn't come off well.

Did you see it? What did you think?

J.

Some things NEVER change.

J.

The last of the tiny fire-bellied toads the little guy brought home at the end of the last school year has gone to that big pond in the sky. Not sure what it died of - the temperature in the tank was fairly warm, the water fresh, the fruit flies frisky, but it wasn't moving at all.

We buried him with the other three in the garden out back. There was a fifth - but that one escaped early on. Most likely it went down the sink drain since the tank was on the bathroom counter at the time, but unlike Nemo met a less pleasant ending.

They were actually kind of cute - tiny little things about the size of the tip of my index finger. I'm going to miss them somewhat...

J.

Which I am most thankfully not...

I would be looking at the last few weeks with the same anticipation a fighter pilot does when he's behind the target and ready to fire.

You don't want to start shooting when you're too far away - your munitions are limited. Fire too soon, and your shot stream will spread and your chances of a hit go down.

Conversely, you don't want to fire when you're too close - because debris can hit you and possibly FOD out your engine. So you have to choose the moment properly.

You also want to use the right muntions for the range - for distance work, you want to use missiles - when you're up close then you use the guns.

Today McCain started to detail some of the connections that Obama (with the help of the media) has been trying hard to hide. His connection to Ayres is being highlighted - and with all the attention on ACORN, it won't be long until Obama's connection with that will come under scrutiny.

And I believe McCain's got a lot more we haven't even started to imagine yet. (At least that's what I think...)

Will it make a difference? Can McCain shoot down Obama and win the election?

Let us hope so.

But on the other hand - if McCain fails, I believe that within two to four years the Democratic Party will be essentially extinct. Obama might very well be the worst thing to happen to the DNC - especially once we find out who his real handlers are.

(Seriously - do you REALLY think a first-term Senator would have been able to get this far without real money and significant power pushing him up? Man, they beat the CLINTON machine - that's GOT to be expensive.)

Be careful what you wish for - you just might get it. The Democrats have wanted to get back into control for a LONG time - but so far the cost of it is probably over $2 trillion* to date, and may be much, much higher than that before it's all done.

J.

(*That $2 tril comes from the bailouts that have been passed, the damage done to the US economy by the Democrats blocking regulatory bills for the last 8 years, Pelosi being stupidly shrill in her refusal to drill for oil, and a host of other measures designed to hamstring Bush with no regard to other effects. And we won't talk about the blocking of Social Security reform - THAT is really going to run into the bucks.)

Can't really explain it - but see the WHOLE thing.

"I've got a big family!" Hah!
And this one...

Darth Barak collecting on a vote...

And his take on the "O" Team..

This guy is GOOD!

J.

Breitbart.tv » Obama Tells Tax-Burdened Plumber the Plan is to 'Spread the Wealth Around'

"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody that is behind you, that they have a chance for success too."

How does that equate to the poor out-of-work guy becoming a success?

I think Obama's not thinking things through at ALL.

J.

JammieWearingFool

These ACORN morons aren't even bright enough to come up with fake names that might pass the smell test.

So get this. They turn in 5000 new voter registration forms in Indiana, election officials start checking them and give up after the first 2100 were found to be fraudulent.

Props to CNN for actually reporting this.

So.

Now, here's the question I've got for you. IF these had made it into the system, how many votes would have been cast by people using these fake names?

And here in Georgia, the Democrats don't want voter ID laws. Gee. I wonder why?

J.

Candidates differ on female draft

Even as the U.S. confronts two long wars, neither Sen. John McCain nor Sen. Barack Obama believes the country should take the politically perilous step of reviving the military draft.

But the two presidential candidates disagree on a key foundation of any future draft: Mr. Obama supports a requirement for both men and women to register with the Selective Service, while Mr. McCain doesn't think women should have to register.

If things get to a point where we NEED a draft (and with today's professional military, draftees wouldn't be much use other than glorified cannon fodder - too many ways to screw up a lot of expensive equipment... think about an aircraft maintenance tech who doesn't want to be in the military - he bides his time and then suddenly tosses a bolt into an intake on run-up. BAM! There goes a $10 mil jet engine.) we're going to be in a severe world of hurt. And I don't see drafting women would be the way to go to alleviate it.

Yeah, I'm old fashioned that way.

J.

Because all those fake voter registrations are harmless! Right? Nobody's going to be voting them...

Well, that was the story they tried to tell..

ACORN GROUP SUPPLIED NEARLY 4,000 FAKE VOTER REGISTRATIONS IN CLEVELAND AREA -BOGUS VOTER BOOTED AMID PROBE OF ACORN

Investigators probing ACORN have learned that an Ohio man registered to vote several times and cast a bogus ballot with a fake address, officials said yesterday, as they revealed that nearly 4,000 registration applications supplied by the left-leaning activist group were suspect.

The vote of Darnell Nash, one of four people subpoenaed in a Cuyahoga County probe of ACORN's voter-registration activities, was canceled and his case was turned over to local prosecutors and law enforcement, Board of Elections officials said yesterday.

Nash had registered to vote repeatedly from an address that belonged to a legitimately registered voter, officials said during a hearing at which the subpoenaed voters were to testify.

Board officials had contacted Nash this summer, questioned his address and told him to stop repeat registering.

But still, he breezed into Ohio election offices - the state allows early voting for president - reregistered with a fake address and cast a paper ballot, officials said.

"He came in on 9/30 and Mr. Nash again registered to vote at [someone else's] address, and he cast a ballot," said board official Jane Platten.

J.

I've been toying with the idea of taking a road trip - just the little guy and I - back to St. Louis so I could show him the house I grew up in, the places I knew... Part of it is just spending time with him, part of it is showing him our country. The Gateway Arch is an impressive thing, and it'd be good to go up in it again. I'd even wanted to go to the theater I used to work in over near Northwest Plaza... but it's a bit late for that. Looks like it was torn down a good decade or two ago. I was going to see if the scratch I'd put in one of the windows with my class ring was still there. (Yep, artificial ruby is capable of scratching window glass.) Guess I won't get the chance for that. Then there's the Planetarium in Forest Park... and you know, I can't think of much else I'd want to show him. Noah's Ark in St. Charles is gone, the Admiral is now a floating casino... not much else to worry about.

Google Earth's street view certainly shows quite a bit of the area. It seems much more crowded, and so many things have changed - but that's hardly surprising, it's been... damn. 34 years plus since I left that area and went into the Air Force.

Time passes when you're not paying attention, doesn't it?

J.

MyFox Kansas City | Northland Couple Warns of Political Credit Card Fraud

NORTH KANSAS CITY, MO. -- A North Kansas City couple has been left scratching their heads after they became the victims of a political scam.

Steve and Rachel Larman say a strange credit card charge appeared on their statement this month -- a $2300 donation to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The Larman's say they don't want this to be about their political affiliation, but they say they're not about to give the Obama campaign any help from their pocketbook.

They said they notified Chase, their credit card bank, to report the fraud.

"(They) said that they had seen-they were familiar with this," said Steve Larman. "It was fraud, they believe through telemarketing but they were going to be doing some more investigations."

The Larman's don't want their politics to enter into what is essentially just a fraudulent charge. But they say that the charge involves the Obama campaign adds insult to injury for the registered Republicans.

Voter registration fraud, voter fraud, now credit card fraud...

Yeah, I'm seeing a trend here...

J.

American debt nightmare ends easy credit era - Personal finance- msnbc.com

An inflatable gorilla beckoned from the roof of Don Brown Chevrolet in St. Louis, servers doled out free bowls of pasta and a salesman urged potential customers to "come on up under the canopy and put your hands on" a new set of wheels.

But sitting across from a salesman in a quiet back room, Adrian Clark could see it would not be nearly that easy. This was the ninth or tenth dealership for Clark, a steamfitter looking for a car to commute to a new job. Every one offered a variation on the discouragement he was getting here: Without $1,000 for a downpayment, no loan.

I am not surprised at the tightening of credit. We're going to have to teach people that it's better to save up for what you want than spend endlessly, and it's going to be a hard lesson for our culture to relearn. Trying to teach the little guy that lesson now...

And dang. Three more bushels of credit card offers and I could have re-insulated the attic.

J.

Frost 'one more thing' for grape growers | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat | Santa Rosa, CA

A record cold snap in Mendocino County over the weekend caused little damage to wine grapes but chilled the hearts of farmers who already have suffered huge losses this year.

"It's just one more thing on top of one more thing. You kind of hold your breath," said Potter Valley wine grape grower Bill Pauli.
Temperatures dropped to 31 degrees in the Ukiah Valley on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, the coldest Oct. 12 morning since record keeping began in Ukiah in 1893, said Troy Nicolini, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Eureka. The previous record was 34 degrees in 1916.

Up in Oregon...

East Oregonian | Weekend cold set new record lows

Weekend cold set new record lows
Pendleton breaks 118-year-old record...

Cold temperatures set several new record lows this weekend, including a low of 22 Saturday in downtown Pendleton that broke a 118 year-old record of 24.

We might be wishing for some global warming before the year's over...

J.

24,000 Felons Getting Ballots, Despite Eligibility Questions - News Story - KIRO Seattle

SEATTLE -- An exclusive KIRO Team 7 Investigation discovers the state will send ballots to thousands of convicted felons in the next week, even though many can't legally vote.

The Secretary of State’s Office fired up a new multimillion-dollar computer in 2006. Its job was to catch, and then cancel, illegal voters.

Well, not all illegal voters.

KIRO-TV recently ran its own data to double check the state's work. Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne found out the system was set up to ignore the existence of approximately 24,000 convicted felons.

The State of Washington never stopped sending Tracy Wilkinson ballots in the mail, even though it appears she's not eligible to vote.
In 2002, she pleaded guilty to a felony prescription drug charge, then, according to court files, failed to pay all her fines.

A Snohomish County judge ruled "the defendant is not entitled to restoration of civil rights or discharge" - legal speak for "you can't vote!"

You ever notice that Republicans don't seem to support an environment where voter fraud is encouraged?

J.

Officials: FBI investigates ACORN for voter fraud

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election.

A senior law enforcement official confirmed the investigation to The Associated Press on Thursday. A second senior law enforcement official says the FBI was looking at results of recent raids on ACORN offices in several states for any evidence of a coordinated national scam.

Kind of funny, isn't it, watching a paper DoS attack? Of course, the results aren't particularly amusing.

J.

Play Infocom Adventures Online!

The old text-based adventures - the Zork series, Starcross, Planetfall, Leather Goddesses of Phobos...

Enjoy!

J.

That the Democrats love the 'poor' as a conceptual voting block, but is rather revolted by the temerity of the 'proles' to question their betters.

Pajamas Media » The Democratic Party’s Drubbing of Joe the Plumber

I realize it's all about winning at this point. But someone has to ask: What has happened to the Democratic Party?

It seems like just yesterday that the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy was talking about income equality and civil rights and worker protections and going to bat for the little guy, the blue collar laborer, the everyday Joe the Plumber.

Now, the well-to-do elites who run the Democratic Party and their surrogates greet these people with brickbats. They insult them, talk down to them, and even try to destroy them. Isn't that the sort of war on the working class that Democrats are always accusing those greedy and heartless Republicans of waging?

Let's look at it another way - the Dems are promising all sorts of government handouts. Where are they going to get the money for it? Not from the poor, who don't pay any taxes anyway (but are promised tax rebates or credits) but from the putative 'rich'.

What defines 'rich'? The supposed arbitary line is $250k, but it's tough to really define. It's going to devolve quickly to the point where if you pay taxes, you're going to be considered rich.

And if you're considered 'rich', then you deserve to pay more taxes. Sweet little feedback loop there, isn't it?

You charge businesses more tax, the money has to come from somewhere. The business may pass the cost along, or it may simply lay off people. Who will need to be on government assistance, and who then can be bought by promises of more money by the Democrats. Sweet little feedback loop there, isn't it?

The Dems win, coming and going. We - the little folk - lose either way.

J.

Ice Reality Check: Arctic Ice Now 31.3% Over Last Year, plus Scientists Counter Latest Arctic 'Record' Warmth Claims as 'Pseudoscience'

'Reality-based' PC science doesn't necessarily match up to reality. What's it gonna do for the credibility of teachers looking to indoctrinate kids in the cult of Global Warming when the papers are blathering out how the temperature's taking a sudden nose dive?

Oh, wait. The media wouldn't do that - would they?

J.

Almost writes itself... Something to do with 'No ????, Sherlock..."

But Sherlock Holmes wouldn't attempt to hide the truth.

Blow to image of 'green' reusable nappy - Times Online

A government report that found old-fashioned reusable nappies damage the environment more than disposables has been hushed up because ministers are embarrassed by its findings.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has instructed civil servants not to publicise the conclusions of the £50,000 nappy research project and to adopt a 'defensive' stance towards its conclusions.

The report found that using washable nappies, hailed by councils throughout Britain as a key way of saving the planet, have a higher carbon footprint than their disposable equivalents unless parents adopt an extreme approach to laundering them.

To reduce the impact of cloth nappies on climate change parents would have to hang wet nappies out to dry all year round, keep them for years for use on younger children, and make sure the water in their washing machines does not exceed 60C.

The conclusions will upset proponents of real nappies who have claimed they can help save the planet.

J.

Sun’s protective ‘bubble’ is shrinking « Watts Up With That?The protective bubble around the sun that helps to shield the Earth from harmful interstellar radiation is shrinking and getting weaker, NASA scientists have warned.

New data has revealed that the heliosphere, the protective shield of energy that surrounds our solar system, has weakened by 25 per cent over the past decade and is now at it lowest level since the space race began 50 years ago.

I've just got two questions.

How did Bush manage to turn off the sun?

How is Obama going to turn it back on?

Discuss amongst yourselves...

J.

House Democrats Contemplate Abolishing 401(k) Tax Breaks | workforce.com

House Democrats Contemplate Abolishing 401(k) Tax Breaks
Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.

Man, this just plain REEKS. But hey, you gotta pay for that $Trillion bailout of the financial sector some way or another...

Updated...

Democrats version of AYB...

Citizen: What happen ?
Economist: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Citizen: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Dems: All your money are belong to us.
Dems: You are on the way to destruction.
Citizen: What you say !!
Dems: You have no chance to prosper make your time.
Dems: Ha ha ha ha ....

We'll see if this goes anywhere - but it shows a certain mindset. All your money really belongs to Washington - it's just temporarily on loan to you.

J.

Things I Won't Work With: Triazadienyl Fluoride. In the Pipeline:

You start off by making absolutely pure anhydrous hydrogen azide, which is a proposal that you don't hear very often around the lab, and is the sort of thing that leads to thoughts of career changes. (Maybe I could go into the insurance business and sell policies to whoever took over the prep). The next step is introduction of the fluorine, and when elemental fluorine is the most easily handled reagent in your scheme, let me tell you, you're in pretty deep.

Big bangs in tiny packages. What fun!

J.

Server's down at work, so I've got a bit of free time. We went to see "City Of Ember" - a movie which got MUCH less publicity than it should have.

The premise is that to avoid an unspecified disaster, a city was built far underground. The inhabitants don't know they're underground, as such - they believe that all that exists is the little bubble of light and warmth they're occupying. The city was stocked with sufficient food and goods to last 200 years, at which point a box was to open detailing the exit instructions.

The box, however, got misplaced, and the instructions damaged.

Now the city is at 241 years, things are failing, and food is about out. The Generator's about to pack it in, leaving the city in permanent darkness.

Okay, that's enough of the background - now to my thoughts on it...

If you're looking to make a city last for 200+ years, with essentially no maintenance, what would you make it out of?

If you're looking to power a city for 200+ years, with essentially no maintenance aside from replacing light bulbs, what would be the best option?

If you're looking to FEED a city for 200+ years - what are your options for food supplies in the first place?

We'll take the last one first, then get to the others in turn.

There's no real mention of the population, but in the book (yes, there's a book, and did you think I wouldn't get it? The little guy's reading it for school...) the population seems to be small village size. A mention in the sequel (Dang, there's a sequel, just blew the suspense, right?) indicates about 450 people. Let's round it up to 500. (There's no mention of population control, but since this is a YA book, that's not surprising.) So figure a steady population of 500.

What quantity of supplies would each person need per day? Food, of course, is the biggie. Figure 3 lbs/person/day on that. Clothing and other consumables we'll count as 1 lb/person/day. Misc. supplies - we'll call that another pound. So roughly 5 lbs/person/day as a baseline quantity... some will eat more, some less, but 5 is a usable number.

250 years x 365 days x 500 people x 5 lbs a day = 233,143,750 lbs of consumables. Or, roughly, 116,572 tons. A C-5 can haul about 135 tons. A semi, 40 tons. So you're looking at 864 C-5 loads, or 2915 semi-fulls. Or about one rush-hour's worth of semis' in a major city, possibly less. Logistically, it's not impossible.

However, storing all that stuff for 250 years is another matter. Durable goods wouldn't be much trouble - vaccuum pack fabric goods and you're golden until they're unpacked. Metals and such - use the right alloys and corrosion won't be a problem. Furniture and furnishings? Again - proper materials can make a big difference.

Food storage, however... THAT is a different matter.

Bulk storage is the way to go here, most likely of dried or vaccuum-packed foods. (Much mention is made in the book of stews and soups - and one scene in the movie had a mention of 'airtights' in regards to food.) Add a water source, and you're good, plus dried foods take up much less volume and weight than fresh or water-packed. Wheat packs well - there have been, as I recall, instances of bread baked from wheat put into Egyptian tombs 3-5000 years ago. So dry wheat will last, as would items like block sugar, salt, dried potatoes, fruit and such. The diet would likely be monotonous, but healthy enough with additions of vitamins and mineral supplements. Have a central bakery and a good yeast culture, and you're good to go...

More later...

Okay, now we've got food out of the way, let's look at the buildings and other infrastructure. The underground cavern, in itself, isn't a problem. Natural caverns abound, and one large enough for a city of 500 people wouldn't be difficult to locate - or build if you had to. (Get a triple-head borer like this and run it back and forth a few dozen times, you could carve out quite a space.)

Lay in a 20x20 grid, and you'd have room for 400 houses, which seemed to be set up as shop areas on the first floor, and apartments on the second. With a limited population, I could foresee a gradual movement in population across the city, as kids are born, grow up, meet and marry, they set up housekeeping in an unoccupied house in a different area of the city. When couples pass on, their houses are cleaned out and made ready for the next time it's needed, so at any time up to perhaps two-thirds of the possible housing in the city is unoccupied. There is a 'mayor's office' which would possibly also handle housing assignments.

But what materials would be best?

If you're looking at an environment that's going to stay relatively static, (as in, oh, a cave or cavern somewhere...) you'd want to go for materials that'd work for the conditions. Proper steel alloys would work okay, as would brick and mortar construction. In fact, it would seem that pretty much everything from treated canvas shelters would be sufficient... but if you REALLY want it to last I think either stone blocks or poured concrete would be the best bet. Add in ceramic tile flooring and you're all set.

Plumbing, however, might be another issue. 500 people would create a fair amount of waste, and it'd be an ongoing problem. But the Romans had that figured out centuries ago, with facilities that are still operational today. Bedpans, thundermugs and the like for #2, cleaned out in a central trough latrine, perhaps urinals in the home for #1, with perhaps bracket fungus gardens providing the needed toilet paper... (and yes, THAT little detail was skipped over...) Nightsoil collectors would be a needed, though unfortunate, duty in the small town. On the good side, there'd be plenty of fertilizer for the bracket fungi and other plants. (Greenhouses were mentioned.) Composting would probably be a good idea...

And on that note, what happens to pretty much everything that gets worn out? Furniture, clothing, shoes, mattresses, mechanisms, latrine flapper valves - it's all got to go somewhere. There are trash pits around the perimeter of the city - when something gets worn out, give it the old heave-ho. Make 'em deep, though, and you might want to compost stuff like mattresses, clothing, and shoes.

So. We've got food and housing, and waste disposal down. What does that leave?

Ah, yes. Power.

That'll be the next step. Anyone got suggestions?

J.

Commentary » Blog Archive » This Should Be News

Barney Frank and Joe Biden are the sodium pentothal of the Democratic Party. Biden told us to be afraid on national security. Frank tells us they Democrats will be coming after us with a big tax increase. Now Frank tells us that he wants a 25% reduction in defense spending.

So let's get this straight: we are going to see more than $4 trillion in new spending, have a big tax increase, and defund our military - while certain to face international challenges where "it's not gonna be apparent that we're right." And this is what Democrats are saying?

Who DOESN'T like watching a train wreck? Um, aside from the passengers and crew of the train, that is...

J.

Remember the black light incandescent bulbs from about 20-30 years back? Like this?

They do not work. You will get a vague purplish glow.

If you want real UV, you're going to need a fluorescent fixture and bulb. Like this, or a CF bulb like this.

THOSE will do the job. Of course, if you're really looking to light the place up... something like THIS might be a bit much. Unless you're looking to crisp your retinas, that is...

J.

I've blogged about BlackLight Power, Inc before, a few times...

My latest post on it was that they've shipped out a 50kw test cell to a university for the PhDs to play with there.

Looks like they're having a good time with it. Apparently they've got something repeatable. Workable? Practical? That's another matter - we'll see about that.

From the BlackLight Power, Inc main page...

BlackLight
Power, Inc. is the inventor of a new primary energy source with applications to heating, distributed power generation, central power generation, and motive power. It is based on a new chemical process of releasing the latent energy of the hydrogen atom, the BlackLight Process. On October 20, 2008, BlackLight announced off-site validation of a 50 kW reactor. Rowan Scientists confirmed BLP's 1 kW and 50 kW power source tests corresponding to 20 kilojoules and 1.0 megajoules respectively. Chemical analysis of the reactant and product R-Ni powder could account for less than 1% of the observed energy from known chemistry. BlackLight's results have been published widely and replicated by independent groups.

It might not make any sense, but it seems to work. It's repeatable, and verified. Where it'll go from here, I don't know. But there's SOMETHING in the works, and if it's a scam I sure don't see where the hook is.

J.

Cost of crash: $2,800,000,000,000 | Business | The Guardian

J.

Having taken care of food, water and housing, all that remains is to find some source of lights and POWER for the people of the city. After all, you're going to need lights and some form of heat. (Cooling likely won't be a problem. Food storage isn't really an issue, the ambient temperature's probably going to be in the mid 50's.)

Let's look at lighting first.

The movie version of "City of Ember" showed incandescent lighting suspended over the city. In the book, reference was made to 'storerooms full of light bulbs of all kinds'. That's what we've got to work with. Now, there's a certain advantage to incandescent lighting that might not be apparent at first in a cave - it throws off a lot of heat, too.

The only problem is - there's no way to really catch it. That heat is going to go... up, when it's needed down below. (Hey, ambient temperature below 60, remember?) (Hmm, heat ducts above light fixtures with fans? No, that's something else to break. Maybe heat pipes? Nothing to break there...)

Currently, there's three commercially viable types of interior lighting. You've got incandescent lights, flourescent lighting, and LEDs. Sulfur bulbs have seen some commerical use, but they're a bit on the touchy side, needing a magnetron and forced air cooling. Again, there's plenty of heating from it, perhaps air ducting would work? There's other bulbs available, like halogen and sodium bulbs - but we'll go with what was seen in the movie. Incandescent, tungsten filament it is.

Now - how do you get an incandescent bulb to last as long as possible? (You only have a limited supply, after all...) The obvious way would seem to be de-rate the thing - take a 130 volt bulb and run it at 120 volts - and you should get longer life, right? (Increasing it by a factor of about 2.8, it says here.) Of course, your brightness goes down also, by 25%, but your wattage decreases by 14%. Regulate your input to about 100-110 volts, and you'll have a VERY long lasting bulb.

(How long? Well, how about 106+ years? I did a brief search to see what frequency and voltage the bulb was designed for, with no luck. It's a 4-watt bulb with a .08 in. straight filament, not thinner and coiled the way they make tungsten filaments today. So an 'eternal' incandescent with a 5-10 year life isn't inconceiveable.)

So you've got a bulb. Big whoop - what are you going to power it with?

The 'Generator' seen in the movie was a very LARGE thing (easily the size of a 10 story building, and about half as wide and deep as it was tall) - occasionally throwing off sparks. (Guess the insulation was breaking down, too...) But in reality, high-output generators aren't all that large. A 10 megawatt generator is about the size of a large minivan, sans power unit. Let's see what something like Ember would actually NEED.

Okay, Let's start with lighting. 500 1kw bulbs for external lighting - that's 500kw.

You've got 400 buildings. (Judging by the map at the front of the book, that's probably overcounting by a factor of 4, but we'll run with it.) 10kw per building should do - about 1 kw for lighting, 4 for cooking and refrigeration, 5 for general heating.

10kw x 400 buildings - (not all of which will be running that load at the same time) you're looking at 4 MW.

4.5 MW so far. Add in an extra MW for city infrastructure, and you're up to 5.5 MW, leaving you 4.5 MW spare capacity. Add on two megawatts for the greenhouses, and you're at 3/4ths load for one generator.

So put in 10 for redundancy. (What the heck, you've got a BIG generator building, gotta have something to fill it, right?)

Use magnetic levitation bearings so there's minimal to no metal-metal contact, or engineer it to use fatty wastes from the city as bearing lube.

What powers the generator? Let's look at options.

A nuclear power plant's probably out of the question. Admittedly, radioisotope generators exist for long-term power supply needs - but they're relatively low-wattage compared to the needs here. There's other options - but I'm not aware of any low-maintenance nuclear plant that could go 250 years with barely skilled operators. (The Hyperion comes close, though.)

Coal? Nah. Solar? Nope. Wind? Don't think so...

Water? Well, there's this handy river...

Hydroelectric power might be the way to do it. Engineer 10 water turbines, with massive (and I mean MASSIVE) pipes supplying them. Magnetic bearings again - that'll reduce wear. Make everything oversized and overthick - if the usual engineering practice calls for a tube of X diameter with a tubing wall thickness of Y, make it 10Y thick.

Yeah, it's overkill. But this system CAN'T be allowed to fail.

Without power, the City is doomed.

Your thoughts?

J.

Hmmm. Probably not.

The Strata-Sphere ｻ Wild Pew Poll

Pew has come out with another one of those fanciful polls assuming a never before seen historic edge in Democrat turnout models. The bottom line is Pew has Obama up 15% nationally, but to pull this off Obama needs to see Democrats turnout ahead of conservatives and the GOP by a crazy 39%-24% edge - or 15%. Historically the largest discrepancy seen in the best of years for Democrats is 4%.

2 points, after outspending McCain at least 3 to 1, with the media in the tank for Obama...

ONLY 2 points? With the supposed disdain the people have for the Republican party?

Something just isn't right here.

There's speculation that polls have been decidedly oversampling Democrats. If that's so, then when the 4th rolls around, there's going to be some REALLY interesting results, and there's going to be a lot of people who are quite upset.

The question will be - will the Democrats be able to come up with enough votes in the so-called 'battleground' states to swing the electorahttp://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/6875l college their way? Perhaps registering 123% of the voting population will help...

J.

If enough of a stink is made. Damn shame it has to work like that.

Hall adviser fired, linked to Ohio voting fraud probe - RecordOnline.com - The Times Herald Record

NEW PALTZ — Congressman John Hall (D-Dover Plains) fired one of his long-time campaign advisers Tuesday, after learning that she’s embroiled in voter fraud investigations in Ohio.

Amy Little, 49, has been a registered Democrat in New York since 1991, and Ulster County election officials said she voted in the party primary here in February.

But in October, Little registered to vote in Ohio. On her registration paperwork, she indicated she moved from her home at 142 Guilford Schoolhouse Road in New Paltz to a place at 1979 N. 4th St. in Columbus, near Ohio State University.

That Ohio address also doubles as headquarters for a grassroots get-out-the-vote group called Vote Today Ohio.

J.

OCTOBER SURPRISE: ALIEN ENDORSES MCCAIN!|Weekly World News

Anyway - time's getting short. Soon it'll be over. And you've got to wonder... has all the hysterical screaming and shouting by the left about curtailment of civil rights, censorship, imposition of a theocracy and the like a simple overreaction, or projection about what THEY plan to do when they get power?

Look at how Joe the Plumber's been treated for simply daring to disagree with Obama publicly. How long until dissent isn't considered 'patriotic', but a jailable offense?

How far could Obama take things, with a willing House and Senate? We've already seen they're willing to ignore public input on the bailout bill - so there's a precedent for further disregarding of the public wishes.

"One man, one vote, one last time" up above isn't meant as a joke - it's meant as a caution. Obama's got the manners down to be a dictator - smooth speechs, eloquent and charismatic as hell - and he both knows what's GOOD for us and refuses to explain what he wants to do aside from vague generalizations. It's damn hard to persuade do-gooders to NOT wreck things in their zeal to help and get things 'perfect' for the people they want to help.

It's hard enough to keep the bus on the road when the driver has to fight off people trying to run it off a cliff. It'll be worse when the driver's cooperating with 'em.

Your mileage may vary, but I believe an Obama Presidency would be very bad for the United States. He's untested, inexperienced, and seems to think that a smooth eloquence will suffice to cover any gaps he might have or any gaffes he might make.

I don't.

I'm not wild about McCain, either - but he stands a chance against Obama and has a lot more practical experience. And as the saying goes - "There might not be anyone you want to vote FOR, but there's certainly going to be someone you want to vote AGAINST."

And I'm against Obama.

J.

California Cities Cut Police Budgets - WSJ.com

VALLEJO, Calif. -- When the economic crisis deepened this fall, this city already was losing scores of police and firefighters because it could no longer afford the rich salaries and benefits it offered after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Now, with crime on the rise and tax revenue sinking, this San Francisco Bay area city faces more cuts in police and fire department budgets.

I believe that as time goes on and money starts to dry up, you're going to see a lot of the 'nice to have' stuff disappearing from city and state budgets to keep the 'must-have' things in operation. Fire and police, roads and water and garbage collection - beyond that, all else is superfluous. Social services? Nice to have, but not essential.

When money gets short, you cut out the luxuries in favor of essentials. The trouble is, I think most cities in CA have enshrined the luxuries as necessitites - and their population won't like cutting THEIR favorites - even if it means a cutback in the real essentials.

Good luck, Vallejo - you're going to need it.

J.