Thursday, May 10. 2007
 I don't want to hear another word from a Marxist masquerading as a scientist. I'm fresh out of patience for two-trust-fund Savanarolas trying to impress some lumpen girl with a cryptkeeper complexion and a shock of underarm hair by joining ELF and burning down condos and keying elaborate station wagons. I don't want another exposition on why the world will end yesterday by a hayseed Frankenstein's monster droning through an apocalyptic PowerPoint presentation with the graphs upside down and backwards.
And I especially don't want to hear another word about hydrogen. Why? Because it's stupid, that's why. The Queen in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass says that she could believe “six impossible things before breakfast.” Such an attitude is necessary to discuss the hydrogen economy, since no part of it is possible. Putting aside the intractable issues of fundamental physics, hydrogen production costs, and distribution show stoppers, let us proceed to discuss the problems associated with the hydrogen cars themselves. In order for hydrogen to be used as fuel in a car, it has to be stored in the car. As at the station, this could be done either in the form of cryogenic liquid hydrogen or as highly compressed gas. In either case, we come up against serious problems caused by the low density of hydrogen. For example, if liquid hydrogen is the form employed, then storing 20 kilograms onboard (equivalent in energy content to 20 gallons of gasoline) would require an insulated cryogenic fuel tank with a volume of some 280 liters (70 gallons). This cryogenic hydrogen would always be boiling away, which would create concerns for those who have to leave their cars parked for any length of time, and which would also turn the atmospheres in underground or otherwise enclosed parking garages into explosive fuel-air mixtures. Public parking garages containing such cars could be expected to explode regularly, since hydrogen is flammable over concentrations in air ranging from 4 to 75 percent, and the minimum energy required for its ignition is about one-twentieth that required for gasoline or natural gas.
Robert Zubrin at the New Atlantis calmly eviscerates hydrogen weinies, and stomps on their bits. There will be some mathematics, and unlike the 'Reality Based' community, his numbers add up. You want a hydrogen economy? Go to the sun, and get me some.
Wednesday, May 9. 2007
 Allons enfants de la Patrie... See why they use the word "enfants" in La Marseillaise? Students protest French election by going on strike, presumably against their own free education. No Pasaran
Al Gore proclaims "spiritual crisis" to cheering audience. This is getting too wierd for even me. . Judge decides Carriles might be tortured if he is sent to Venezuela? This man is a CIA trained terrorist who blew up a Cuban airliner and killed 76 people most of whom were members of the Cuban National Fencing team. A terrorist is a terrorist and this guy should be in jail or extradited. WaPo. This story made Opie very angry. . "I hate nanny." David Warren is frustrated with Harper . Sarko is wary of hedge funds and venture capitalists. Samizdata. Nobody's perfect. From a piece at Protein Wisdom: “Hate crimes have no place in America,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi boldly declared last week, “no place in a nation where we pledge every morning ‘with liberty and justice for all.’” Pelosi was urging her colleagues to approve a bill aimed at violence motivated by hostility toward members of certain designated groups.
I guess she didn't want to say what she should say, which is "Crime has no place in America." I am considering designating myself a crime-free zone because I am not in a government-protected class. Instead, I am in an S&W protected class. Cut the BS, Mr. Maliki. Who better to deliver that message than Dick Cheney? Lonesome George may get a girlfriend. But will he know what to say? What to do? Sound familiar? EU Referendum, on the UK politics of Iraq: ...this is not what Cameron has in mind. The strategy is to present the government sinking into an ever-deepening mess in the hope that it gets such a bad name (not that it actually needs much help) that even the previously unattractive Conservatives look electable. Power is the name of the game. If that means abandoning the people of Iraq, the good name of our Armed Forces and the national interest, so be it.
Good for Prof. Bainbridge for writing The Complete Guide to Sarbanes-Oxley. I hope his book is obsolete soon, though, because Sarbox is a crazy thing which has hamstrung American finance. Oxley himself agrees.
 What high heels do to a lady's body. Ah, the sacrifices women make for beauty. Just like Spring flowers, splurging their resources to make sure they get well-pollinated by healthy, clean and articulate, eager, sharp-dressed bumble-bees like me.
Cancer genetics tests for life insurance buyers? Why not, if they already want your cholesterol numbers, which are also largely genetically-determined? Another prominent scientist - Josef Reicholf - makes jokes about global warming. Moonbattery. More on tainted Chinese foodstuffs, this time it's fish food. Never, never eat anything from China, whether you be a dog, cat, fish, or human. Panda fun. It seems to require candle-lit dinners. More on why Hummers are more green than Priuses. Am. Princess Clinton quickly distances herself from her heroine, Segolene. Does this mean they won't be baking madeleines together? Beyond the usual pork. Reparations for Guam? Hmmm, do I recall that Guam is in Pelosi's district? Flopping. Ask the Japanese for money. I did nothing to harm Guam. (I have noticed, interestingly, that we have a regular reader in Guam.) Why Blinder is wrong about off-shoring jobs. Drezner A new Political Dictionary to educate the incorrect: ACRU. (h/t, and a couple of more definitions at Powerline) Speaking of polical correctness, look what is happening to this poor prof: Inside Higher Ed. His crime? He linked to the website of a former White House speechwriter and former presidential candidate. What is anthropology these days? At Harvard, they aren't sure. John Hawk's Weblog. I like that blog - will add it to our Science category. Car-burning party time in France. Why do they like to burn cars? Maybe it's fun to do? Or is it evidence of their famous "sophistication" and "intellectual nuance"? No - I am sure it is just ordinary destructive adolescent fun, with a hip political cover for it. I'd try it too, if I could do it legally, just for the fun of it. Plus it must be good for auto sales. Political demographics. People are moving from blue states to red, in search of lower taxes, better jobs. and a better life. But they carry their blueness with them. Betsy What should the Left propose, now that it has become morally and politically bankrupt? It has been 70 years since the Left had interesting new ideas and, in those 70 years, all of the problems they sought to cure have solved themselves in the US. So now what do they do? Book review in Dissent. If this makes sense to you, let me know. The Fort Dix jihad story. No interest in it. Lock these moron Moslemists up for life - no, don't do that. Jailing somebody costs over $40,000 per year, paid by taxpayers. Better idea, Sharia-style: Execution, or just cut off their right hands and send them back to Albania.
Tuesday, May 8. 2007
 Canada's Menu Foods Income Fund (TSE: MEW.UN) is a major North American contract manufacturer of "wet" pet foods which are sold under a variety of brand names including Iams.
Their recalls have been in the news, as have the the animal death and illness resulting from contaminants in the rice or wheat gluten imported from China. The only importer whose name I have heard mentioned is the Denver-based Wilbur-Ellis, a large agricultural and chemical company which sold the Chinese product to Menu Foods. My guess is that someone in China added material to the gluten to give it the appearance of containing a higher amount of protein than it did. Many lawyers will make money on suits between the involved companies, and in class action suits like this one. One shrewd investor has told me that Menu Foods is an excellent business, and could be a buy around its current depressed price.
 No Bush-hating liberal bias in the news. Anchoress. You see, Bush is too crude to greet a Queen, unlike Clinton. The NYT doesn't like Sarkozy either, because of his strained marital siutuation, unlike Clinton of course.
Social cohesion. Stumbling and Mumbling. Of course people prefer to hang out with people who are on the same page. It's called tribalism, and it is normal and healthy - and adaptive. I am careful to never underestimate the communication, understanding, trust, and assumption gaps when dealing with those from other cultures or even subcultures. I have been burned too often by erroneous assumptions. Do not eat any food made in China. SDA. Seriously. In the UK, politicians rank lower than car dealers in trust. (h/t, Worstall)
Monday, May 7. 2007
I always enjoy reading Lileks' The Bleat. But I believe that Jim is missing the point there: the Minneapolis Strib obviously wants him to leave. When they move you from the executive suite to the mailroom, that's the message, isn't it? However, there is another point to be made here: Newspapers have a future in local news, and, I think, a rosy future if they have good online editions - with reader commentary.
 The US Air Force must have been listening to EU Referendum. They want some light attack aircraft for counter-insurgency work.
Photo is Brazil's Super Tucano. Nice little airplane, and it looks like it would be fun to fly to Cape Cod for the weekend - or low over Sadr City.
Sunday, May 6. 2007
 Sarko wins - big time. Three cheers for France! Maybe we will finally have a friend in Paris.
Al Zawahiri mocks Dem Iraq pullout plan. We all die of heat in 8 months. Yikes! Better bring my will up to date. Wait a minute - that will be mid-January. What the heck? The wrong house from which to steal a gun. Picking a jury for the Padilla case. Are people really this stupid? The DC Madam's employees: It's hard to say that these hos had no choices in life. They were moonlighting. Tony Blair plans last-minute surrender to the EU. These are not our grandparents' Brits. Devil in a red dress. Big Lizards. Condi scares the Imams away. Is there a military tactic to be learned from this? Maybe get the Dallas Cowboy cheerleading squad to stroll around Sadr City for a few hours a day in skimpy cowgirl outfits. Where is Annie Oakley when you need her? A bad joke? No. It's our new Dem leaders. How the Nanny State kills. Bainbridge. On a similar subject, Brit NHS docs finally admit rationing of care. Dem. Project. Vilmar Tavares shares his Antarctica adventures. Children are the problem! Quoted in Worstall from a Brit enviro-family planning offical: “The greatest thing anyone in Britain could do to help the future of the planet would be to have one less child.”
Hmmm. Does that mean one less than I have now? How do I do that - is that an Abraham and Isaac-type command from Gaia? Or does he mean one less than I wanted? What if I only wanted one? What if I have one more by mistake? I need more detailed instructions, please, from our wise government officials, or I won't know how to live. Also, I wonder whether this just applies to the English, or does it apply to their immigrants too? Have they informed them, yet? Photo: A nectarine bloom in southern New England this weekend, sent in by a reader.
Friday, May 4. 2007
 Post Modern vs. More God. Bruce Kesler. We wanted to write a comment on this piece, but haven't found time. Good read.
YouTube gets a competitor who won't take down conservative voices. More funky architecture. Second Empire? Some people call it, erroneously, Victorian. Bush will veto new hate crime legislation. That is the right thing. Crime is crime, and all of us criminals should be treated equally. Another talk show guy - Boortz this time - targeted by the Left. But look at what he said! Same thing we say all the time. I am happy to see that Imus, although I am not a big fan - is sueing CBS in a big way. Heck - they hired him for his poor taste, so they shouldn't fire him for it. How Satan created the Brit NHS. Samizdata. Segolene gets desperate. What she forgets to mention, in her threats, is that the last bunch of riots happened with Chirac. Re our post on Prostitution, Anyone? this week, a happy hooker gets fired by her DC law firm. Well, at least she still has some marketable skills. A reminder from a piece at Powerline: ...al Qaeda itself has repeatedly said that Iraq is the biggest battlefield in their war against civilization. Here is Zawahiri, for example, writing to Zarqawi in July 2005: I want to be the first to congratulate you for what God has blessed you with in terms of fighting battle in the heart of the Islamic world, which was formerly the field for major battles in Islam’s history, and what is now the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era…
If you read our link to Ken Mehlman on Hispanic Repubs, maybe you missed our Dylanologist's frankly curmudgeonly if not acerbic comment: Hispanics are not really a bloc. White hispanics tend to go for Republicans (e.g. Cubans in FL), while Mestizo Hispanics (Mexicans, Salvadorans, etc) break 65-35 in favor of the Democrats. Unfortunately for the Republicans, it is the Mestizo Hispanics that are the rapidly growing part.
It's not like Mehlman is a guy to take seriously with stuff like this anyways. Remember his big effort with all the high-profile black Republicans running last fall - Steele, Blackwell and Swann? After he tried to get cozy with the NAACP? All lost big-time. So I guess, now, it's back to Hispanics as the "crucial vote" for Republicans. How a bit a little pandering to white folks for a change, Ken? Take them for granted and they just might choose to stay home - let me refer you to November 2006 as a case in point.
Thursday, May 3. 2007
 Gladiator graveyard discovered at Ephesus. Pathologists tell us how they died. (h/t, Wasson)
Banning the words "mom" and "dad" in California. True Moonbattery of the finest sort. John Edwards promises what Johnson "gave" us over 30 years ago. Surber. Guy seems out to lunch and out of touch. Guns in Switzerland. Everybody owns them. Alphecca. The Feinstein Scandal would be three weeks of front page news if she were a Repub. Do you doubt that for one minute? Indeed, it makes Cunningham look like an amateur. Bored with the presidential campaign? Absolutely. Betsy too. Way too early to think about, unless life bores you. Is a repeal of incest laws coming to Europe? Cramer. Hey - that sounds very progressive. Do your own thing, dude. Taboos are so middle class. Your tax dollars at work. The EEOC takes on The Salvation Army. The Truthers and the California Freeway. Ace. (Hint: it was an inside job...all the hallmarks of Halliburton?)
Wednesday, May 2. 2007
Dems snub President Uribe. Why? Because he's not a socialist dictator? Colombia is becoming a shining island of sanity in a sea of garbage. Everyone in the US should be cheerleading Colombia onwards. So how did the NYT do on their real estate deal? Not too well. Not much is working well for the NYT these days. The ten prayers God always answers with a "Yes." Anchoress. Bill Clinton's civil rights record. Jim Miller. But who cares? Maybe the Repub politicians stink, but at least they don't come up with insanity like this.
Tuesday, May 1. 2007
 A Man of Two Havanas. Trailer from the film at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Overfishing bothers me a great deal. We are eating odder and odder fish, too, and the stocks of the old standards are depleted. Did you even wonder what "Chilean Sea Bass" was? It's a Patagonian Toothfish. And "Orange Roughy" is a Slimehead. Can't imagine why they changed their names for the menus. Another warmenist recants, and this one puts his money where his mouth is. Blair. Meanwhile Prince Chuckles wants a war against the climate. DC editors don't want to post the madame's list of names. Why not? In NYC, the names of johns are printed in the paper. Well, somebody will, sooner or later. Somalis in Nashville? Yes, and they are ripping us off. Dust my Broom goes multiculturally sensitive: permits "New Canadian" with different views to beat up wife. I take it as a good sign that the insurgents are killing each other. A "controlled civil war" could work to the Iraqis' advantage. A Brando festival at The Shelf An appendectomy via the mouth. Laparoscopic surgery was amazing, but this new NOTES is something else again. Jeff Jacoby, via Austin Bay: Senator John McCain, adamantly supporting the current “surge” in Iraq, says he would rather lose a presidential campaign than a war. Democrats, all smiles, prefer to lose the war and win the campaign. They’re not alone. In Iraq, Al Qaeda is smiling, too.
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It's not like Mehlman is a guy to take seriously with stuff like this anyways. Remember his big effort with all the high-profile black Republicans running last fall - Steele, Blackwell and Swann? After he tried to get cozy with the NAACP? All lost big-time. So I guess, now, it's back to Hispanics as the "crucial vote" for Republicans. How a bit a little pandering to white folks for a change, Ken? Take them for granted and they just might choose to stay home - let me refer you to November 2006 as a case in point.