Archive for the 'History' Category

Saturday Afternoon Links: The Extreme Green Edition

Published by steve on August 28, 2010 in 2010, Green Energy, History, Progressives, global warming and links. 4 Comments

The green movement gets more shrill by the day. Via Treehugger, “Pee and wash in the same fixture”:

To save water, Eco Urinal is designed to use the water that was used for washing hands to flush the urine. By this process, we don’t have to use water twice after using the urinal.

Moreover, it reduces the establishment expenses by optimizing the materials. Upper space of this urinal is made with glass, and it helps to secure a clear view for users. It also promotes people to keep their sanitation because people need to wash their hands to flush the urine after use.

Your Tax Dollars at Work.

*Whew*

Another Act of Treason.

Today’s World News has a great round up of Glenn Beck’s 8/28 rally

Via BoingBoing:

Like I'm going to ride my bike 35 miles to work. One way. In mid January...

Eight-Twenty-Eight: Too Big To Ignore

Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran

Swing states swinging away from Obama

The Consent of the Governed

Even with a fast track ‘Green Technology’ patents (how about fat tracking, you know, regular patents), there isn’t much patentable innovation flowing in. Via treehugger:

Back in December we learned that green tech companies were receiving a fast track through the US patent process in order to boost innovation among start-ups and innovators. The first 3,000 applicants would sail through the process in just 12 months, as opposed to 40 months. We asked if zipping through the patent process would really move green tech forward. Turns out, it doesn’t. The fast track program is already off course for filling up the 3,000 slots.

According to Martin LaMonica at CNET, the trial program has only had 1,477 patent petitions since December. When over 25,000 patents would have qualified for the fast track process, what gives?

No one really knows for sure — it’s just simply not as booming as it was thought it would be. One possibility is that it’s relatively expensive to go through the patent process, and green tech companies are struggling as it is. Also, not a high number of the applicants actually meet the qualifications, let alone even need patents for what they’re doing — much of what’s happening in clean tech is based on innovations that have already been patented. (emphasis added)

Like I’ve said before, the green movement is trying to save the planet with turn of the century technology.

“>

Technology Reveals The Original Colors Of Ancient Greek Statues

Published by steve on August 27, 2010 in History and Science. 6 Comments

Remember the awful ‘colorized’ black and white movies? Science is doing one better.

Archaeologists using UV, IR & X-ray spectroscopy have revealed how ancient Greek statues looked with their original painted finishes. And it’s not pretty.

I would stick with the white marble look.

Twenty Is The New Fifteen

Published by steve on August 20, 2010 in History, Progressives, Science and news. 5 Comments

It seems more and more adults in their 20′s (a.k.a. 20 somethings) don’t want to grow up. Via the NYT:

The 20s are a black box, and there is a lot of churning in there. One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year. Forty percent move back home with their parents at least once. They go through an average of seven jobs in their 20s, more job changes than in any other stretch. Two-thirds spend at least some time living with a romantic partner without being married. And marriage occurs later than ever. The median age at first marriage in the early 1970s, when the baby boomers were young, was 21 for women and 23 for men; by 2009 it had climbed to 26 for women and 28 for men, five years in a little more than a generation.

We’re in the thick of what one sociologist calls “the changing timetable for adulthood.” Sociologists traditionally define the “transition to adulthood” as marked by five milestones: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child. In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men had, by the time they reached 30, passed all five milestones. Among 30-year-olds in 2000, according to data from the United States Census Bureau, fewer than half of the women and one-third of the men had done so. A Canadian study reported that a typical 30-year-old in 2001 had completed the same number of milestones as a 25-year-old in the early ’70s.

It’s like the 60′s all over again.

Great Day At Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Published by steve on August 14, 2010 in History and travel. 4 Comments

As I’ve said before, Michigan has it share of problems, but it has tremendous upsides as well.

It was a beautiful day and my pictures don’t do the scenery justice. If you have never been to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, I highly recommend visiting.

George Washington Motivator

Published by steve on August 12, 2010 in History and Progressives. 0 Comments

EPA Is Using Global Warming Hoax To Seize More Control From States

Published by steve on August 12, 2010 in Green Energy, History, Progressives, global warming, news and video. 8 Comments

Effective 2011, if a state wants to wants to construct a new Coal fired power plant, their plans must include mitigation of CO2 emissions to address the global warming fraud. Via the EPA:

The Clean Air Act requires states to develop EPA-approved implementation plans that include requirements for issuing air permits. When federal permitting requirements change, as they did after EPA finalized the GHG Tailoring Rule, states may need to modify these plans.

In the first rule, EPA is proposing to require permitting programs in 13 states to make changes to their implementation plans to ensure that GHG emissions will be covered. All other states that implement an EPA-approved air permitting program must review their existing permitting authority and inform EPA if their programs do not address GHG emissions.

Because some states may not be able to develop and submit revisions to their plans before the Tailoring Rule becomes effective in 2011, in the second rule, EPA is proposing a federal implementation plan, which would allow EPA to issue permits for large GHG emitters located in these states. This would be a temporary measure that is in place until the state can revise its own plan and resume responsibility for GHG permitting.

This is is the implementation by fiat of the fatally flawed Progressive Federalism concept where the Federal Government establishes regulatory floors rather than having states regulate themselves, and it will not work.

And we all know that this is going to cause more economic distress. Via Alan Caruba @ Warning Signs:

What it doesn’t say is that this power to regulate that does not exist in the present Clean Air Act.

It will cause electricity costs to skyrocket along with gasoline and all other oil derivatives. It will utterly wreck the U.S. economy that is already in dire straits.

If an invading nation had imposed these kinds of restrictions on Americans, we would be in the streets with guns and any other means to fight them.

There is NO global warming. Carbon dioxide plays NO role in this non-event.

This is regulation by deception, by lies, by the arrogance of environmentalists who view the human race as a cancer on the planet.

Thank you Richard Nixon for giving us the EPA:

Obama: Folks Need A Degree

Published by steve on August 10, 2010 in History, Progressives and economy. 11 Comments

Obama truly has no idea how the real world works Via ABC:

The president said, “A high school diploma is not going to be enough. Folks need a college degree. They need workforce training. They need a higher education. And so today I want to talk about the higher education strategy that we’re pursuing not only to lead the world once more in college graduation rates, but to make sure our graduates are ready for a career; ready to meet the challenges of a 21st century economy. “

What Obama and the liberals will create is a type of credential inflation (as opposed to monetary inflation) where an increasing number of college graduates will be chasing a finite number of jobs. This will cause many employers to require a college degree needlessly for jobs that at one time did not require a degree. Furthermore, employers will start requiring Masters for jobs that today only Bachelor’s Degree.

Of course, if Obama’s plan is realized, the real winner in all this will be the Colleges who will see a surge in enrollment and a nice profit.

Education is important. However, a college degree will not determine if you are a success or a failure. Hard work, perseverance, risk taking and creativity are keys the keys to success. Just take a look at this abbreviated list of very successful people who never attended, or dropped out of, college: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Paul Allen, Mark Twain. Richard Branson, Warren Buffet, Ted Turner, Harry Truman, Mark Zuckerberg, Ray Bradbury, The Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, David Oreck, Michael Dell and Richard DeVos.

The underlying details of the employment report were mixed. The positives: a slgiht increase in hours worked and in hourly wages, and the slight decreases in part time workers (for economic reasons) and in the long term unemployed.

The negatives include the weak hiring of only 12,000 ex-Census, the declines in the participation rate and employment-population rate, and the significant downward revision to the June employment report.

Overall this was a weak report.

The graphs show a scary picture: