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Another video - the Mythbusters team

Major geekdom — they were commissioned by NVidia to do a demo representing the difference between a CPU and a massively parallel Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

Check out Adam and Jamie as they paint the Mona Lisa

Hat tip to Neatorama for the link.

Been there, done that, got the Microsoft tee-shirt

Great seven minute YouTube here: Digital Grunt

Like I said, got the tee-shirt…

A warning - cats are evil and planning world domination

It's true - if you do not believe me, go here: Purple Slinky

Ignore at your peril!

Well DOH!

I have been noticing a large uptick in the level of comment spam attempts here.
Just hit me today, all the students returning to school with shiny new laptops…

About 30% of yesterday's spam was from .EDU addresses — 10% from Europe and Latin America. The rest from the Zombie net at Comcast and Roadrunner, et. al. (ip addresses in the 60's and 70's)

Bill Whittle is back - at the National Review!

Essayist Bill Whittle is an amazing writer but he doesn't post that frequently. He hones his essays until they are word-perfect.

He just had a piece published at National Review Online:

Proud of the GOP
For the first time, I feel like we deserve to win more than they deserve to lose.

Two masterstrokes were accomplished in the last two days of this year’s Republican National Convention. In her first appearance on the national stage — which can only be called a tectonic event — Sarah Palin secured the conservative base for maverick John McCain, while also reaching out to Democratic women. Then on Thursday night, John McCain struck again, making a play for the rest of the Democratic party.

When John McCain was sewing up the nomination in the early spring, I spent a lot of time in many comment sections defending him in as many ways as I knew how. He wasn’t my first choice (Fred) or my second (Rudy), but he was the GOP nominee, fairly elected, and looking at the table I thought he was the only man who had a chance to win in November — because frankly, we Republicans don’t deserve to be this lucky.

Many conservatives were arguing that it would be better to sit this one out, and let the country go to hell, so that we could send the Republican party a message and re-emerge from the ashes in 2012 with “the next Reagan.” I pointed out that there were two problems with this theory:

First, you may not like the fact that Grandma smokes in bed, and you may indeed want to get her attention. But if that message consists of letting her set the bed, the house and the grandchildren on fire, perhaps there was a better way to “send a message.” Second, it pained me to point out that there was no “next Reagan.” Ronald Reagan was on the political scene for almost two decades before he became President. Who was waiting in the wings to magically fill this role? No one.

Newt Gingrich’s fire-breathing army of young reform Republicans who stormed congress in 1994 grew, in about a decade, into the party of Duke Cunningham, Trent Lott, and the Bridge to Nowhere. I watched this unfold — especially after 2004 — and time and time again, the core conservative values of discipline and responsibility were betrayed, mocked, and ignored. Restraint is not an easy sell in a society this affluent — not compared with the view of government as a bottomless bag of candy. That’s why we’re supposed to be the party of adults.

Power corrupts, and I believe there is no power more intoxicating and corrosive than the ability to spend other people’s money at will. If Newt’s Army could go so far astray, you can bet the country was disillusioned, disappointed, and furious — not just ready for change, but eager for it, even change as ethereal and diffuse as what Senator Obama has been peddling. We lost the Senate and the House in 2006 because of this. We were going to lose the presidency in 2008 for it. And we deserved to lose it.

And so — prior to this week — all we had was a grim determination to vote against a dangerous, socialized vision of the future. We were portrayed — largely accurately — as old, tired, out-of-touch, out of ideas, out of candidates . . . too white, too male, too square. It doesn’t matter how true or false that caricature was. That was the narrative, and there was enough of it that fit.

And then the earthquake came.

Two bits more:

Sarah Palin has done more than unify and electrify the base. She’s done something I would not have thought possible, were it not happening in front of my nose: Sarah Palin has stolen Barack Obama’s glamour. She’s stolen his excitement, robbed his electricity, burgled his charisma, purloined his star power, and taken his Hope and Change mantra, woven it into a cold-weather fashion accessory, and wrapped it around her neck.

And:

And, finally . . . what of John McCain? I’ve read many comments about his speech being a disappointment. I don’t know how it looked or played from the floor. But I know how it played from my Los Angeles living room. I believe — and we’ll know soon enough if I’m right — that John McCain did something Thursday night more powerful and astonishing than Sarah Palin did the previous evening. Sarah stole Obama’s glamour. McCain stole his message. (Granted, that may not be a lot, apart from the glamour, but it was all Obama had left.)

What he said… The essay is three pages long - about five or ten minutes and well worth reading.

Unemployment numbers

Coyote Blog notes a coincidence between the recent spike in unemployment and the recent 12% raise in the mandatory Minimum Wage:

New Unemployment Numbers
US unemployment in August “jumped unexpectedly” to 6.1%, by the oddest of coincidences in the first full month just after new, 12% higher US minimum wages took effect.

The unemployment rate is higher than it has been in the United States in the last 5 years, but substantially lower than the rate most Western European countries like France and Germany experience even during peak economic times.

In response, the Obama campaign is urging further increases to the minimum wage and emulation of labor policy and legislation in France and Germany.

Cause and effect — goes hand in hand and people wonder why…

For those who don't want to click on the links above, the unemployment numbers are: France - 8% and Germany - 9.1%.

Makes our 6.1% look good…

Don't mess with Texas - homeowner 1, burglar 0

From FOX News:

Texas Man Kills Home Intruder With His Own Gun
When two gunmen smashed through the glass front door of her suburban Fort Worth home, Kellie Hoehn didn't think twice.

The 34-year-old mother of two grabbed a shotgun that had been pointed at her face early Wednesday, starting a struggle that ended with one intruder killed with his own weapon and another in the hospital.

“I wasn't going to let them get to my babies,” she said, recalling the moment when she pushed up the muzzle of the shotgun, pointing it away from her children's rooms.

I love Heinlein's comment: An armed society is a polite society.

Had the household been armed, there would not have been the scuffle — it would just have been the removal of two goblins from the gene pool.

A questionable alliance? Obama and Khalid al-Mansour

An interesting report from Newsmax:

Obama Had Close Ties to Top Saudi Adviser at Early Age
New evidence has emerged that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was closely associated as early as age 25 to a key adviser to a Saudi billionaire who had mentored the founding members of the Black Panthers.

In a videotaped interview this year on New York’s all news cable channel NY1, a prominent African-American businessman and political figure made the curious disclosures about Obama.

Percy Sutton, the former borough president of Manhattan, off-handedly revealed the unusual circumstances about his first encounter with the young Obama.

“I was introduced to (Obama) by a friend who was raising money for him,” Sutton told NY1 city hall reporter Dominic Carter.

“The friend’s name is Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, from Texas,” Sutton said. “He is the principal adviser to one of the world’s richest men. He told me about Obama.”

Sutton, the founder of Inner City Broadcasting, said al-Mansour contacted him to ask a favor: Would Sutton write a letter in support of Obama’s application to Harvard Law School?

“He wrote to me about him,” Sutton recalled. “And his introduction was there is a young man that has applied to Harvard. I know that you have a few friends up there because you used to go up there to speak. Would you please write a letter in support of him?”

Sutton said he acted on his friend al-Mansour’s advice.

And a bit more:

Although many Americans have never heard of Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour (his full name), he is well known within the black community as a lawyer, an orthodox Muslim, a black nationalist, an author, an international deal-maker, an educator, and an outspoken enemy of Israel.

How many more of these skeletons are in Obama's closet?

Why doesn't he disclose these relationships?

A simple question to Barak Obama

Neanderpundit asks a simple question:

Bring on the Duh.
From Obamessiah, reacting to Palin’s speech:

“We’re into the final day of the convention, and not one serious word about the state of the economy, not one serious word about where they would lead,”

I have a question for you, Mr Obama:

WHY THE FUCK DID GOD ENDOW YOU WITH THOSE SPECTACULAR EARS IF YOU HAVE NO INTENTION OF EVER USING THEM?

Simply put…

That's it for tonight

The meeting went well — it was run by the County and was addressing future plans and zoning. Most of the people out here moved out here for a reason and the interest in preserving “rural character” is high.

The county planners are looking at adding housing and an industrial area.

Needless to say, the meeting was well attended with about 100 residents showing up.

I have to be in Bellingham for an 8:30AM doctors appointment so it's off to the DaveCave™ to check email and then to bed.

Had a bit of a glitch with the hospital — over a year ago, I had a chronic ingrown toenail get really infected so went and had it taken care of (the podiatrist removed a chunk of the nail and it has been fine ever since). The infection didn't respond to the prescribed Cephalexin so two weeks later, I went in, got a culture swab taken and whoop-de-dooo MRSA… A couple weeks of Vancomycin sent that little gift packing and everything was fine.

Unfortunately, I was never “cleared”. I should have had two nasal swabs taken a week apart to verify that I no longer had an MRSA infection. Today is the 4th. My surgery is on the 15th. Since there is no time to get cleared, I will be spending my time in isolation…

The plan was to get a group of joint patients together so we could act as mutual support through our three days in the house of pain but I will not have this option.

Well crap…

Nice guys

These mokes should be given mental health screening and then institutionalized for a while…

From the Minneapolis TwinCities.com:

Sheriff's investigation: Anarchists discussed kidnapping delegates
A year ago, the Ramsey County sheriff's office began looking closely at a group called the Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee.

What it found, according to an 18-page search warrant application and affidavit, led to weekend raids on two Minneapolis homes and a temporary St. Paul office for the self-described anarchist group.

According to the document, investigation learned:

• The self-described anarchist group — whose main goal was to “crash” the Republican National Convention,” according to its Web site — traveled to or communicated with affinity groups in 67 cities to recruit members and raise money.
• Group members discussed the possibility of kidnapping delegates, blockading bridges, using liquid sprayers filled with urine or chemicals on police and throwing marbles to trip police and their horses.
• At an “action camp” held from July 31 to Aug. 3 in Lake Geneva, Minn., one member talked of concealing inside giant puppets “materials” that could be used on the street. Others discussed the need for Molotov cocktails, paint, caltrops (devices used to puncture tires), bricks and lockboxes for protesters to lock themselves together.
• Erik Oseland, one of the six group members arrested here, produced a video called “Video Map of the St. Paul Points of Interest.” It included such major companies as Travelers Insurance and Qwest, hotels such as the Embassy Suites and the Crowne Plaza. Also included: the Pioneer Press building.

The main sources for the information were “regular surveillance” of the group and three people who posed as members — two informants and an undercover investigator. The informants monitored e-mails and conversations.

Geneva Finn of the National Lawyers Guild, which represents many of those arrested, said it was hard for her to weigh the evidence in the affidavit because “it's all based on the testimony of people who are not identified, and that's a real problem.”

Police and the Sheriff's Department characterized the anarchists as troublemakers who had come from other cities and states to disrupt the convention.

“Yesterday, there was a group of people, not the protesters … but a group of criminals who came here with a very express goal and intent,” St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington said Tuesday. “They came here to try to stop the convention, to crash the gates, to stop the buses and the delegates. … They failed.”

And of course, the ACLU is getting into the picture:

The ACLU and the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild also criticized the police response to the protesters.

ACLU of Minnesota Executive Director Chuck Samuelson said he believes an excessive number are being charged with serious felonies such as conspiracy to commit riot.

Of the 284 arrests Monday, 130 were made on suspicion of felonies and 51 on gross misdemeanors. Samuelson said that in similar mass arrests during demonstrations, two-thirds are charged with misdemeanors.

Hey Chuck — the ratio changed because this is not some home-grown protest. These are professional anarchists who traveled from other cities to cause havoc and they talked about kidnapping delegates. These mokes were taking things to the next level and fortunately, the police response was measured and appropriate.

I am still sad that the arrests happened when they did — they gave the left some ammunition for P.R. among themselves. Better to watch the persons of interest and catch them in the act. Sill, that would have required a lot more manpower and you cannot have eyes everywhere.

As for the ACLU, they are in the same boat as the labor unions, MADD, Greenpeace, they started out doing great work and their efforts were needed but once their agendas were met, they didn't disband, they suffered scope creep and a corruption of their original ideals.

Light posting today

Been working at the store and there is a community meeting in 30 minutes.
That will probably take a couple hours.

Great comment from Victor Davis Hanson

Maggie's Farm found the link to this great idea from Victor Davis Hanson:

Want Real Change? Quit Nominating Lawyers
The 2008 presidential campaign is supposed to be a referendum on “change” — who brings it and who doesn't.

Real change, however, hasn't yet proven to mean new politics.

The “hope and change” Barack Obama sounds like a traditional Northern liberal who always wants to raise taxes on the upper classes and businesses, expand government services and provide more state assistance to the middle class and poor.

“Maverick” John McCain talks like a conventional Western or Southern conservative in favor of spending cuts, across-the-board lower taxes and smaller government.

This year the media seem to think change means race and sex — whether Barack Obama's background of mixed racial ancestry or the gender of Democratic primary candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

It's certainly true that either the next president or next vice president will not be a white male. But does that mean de facto that the country will be run any differently?

There is, however, one area where we might have seen real change. The Democrats could have not nominated another lawyer. This may partly explain why former military officer John McCain and working-mom Sarah Palin are polling near even with Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, in a year that otherwise favors the Democrats.

A snowmobiling, fishing and hunting mom of five who was trained as a journalist seems like a breath of fresh air — and accentuates the nontraditional background of former naval officer John McCain. If the Republicans win, it may well be that, like George Bush and Dick Cheney, or Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, they weren't members of the legal culture.

On the Democratic side, Barack Obama got out of Harvard Law School, worked for a firm, offered his legal expertise as a community organizer and went into politics. Joe Biden graduated from law school and almost immediately ran for office.

What do you call 100 dead lawyers piled at the bottom of a cliff?
A good start… (cue rimshot)

An interesting idea and may well be part of the McCain/Palin success.

The horrible death toll in Iraq Chicago

From Instapundit comes a link to this story at CBS2Chicago:

Nearly 125 Shot Dead In Chicago Over Summer
Total Is About Double The Death Toll In Iraq

An estimated 123 people were shot and killed over the summer. That's nearly double the number of soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period.

In May, cbs2chicago.com began tracking city shootings and posting them on Google maps. Information compiled from our reporters, wire service reports and the Chicago Police Major Incidents log indicated that 123 people were shot and killed throughout the city between the start of Memorial Day weekend on May 26, and the end of Labor Day on Sept. 1.
According to the Defense Department, 65 soldiers were killed in combat in Iraq. About the same number were killed in Afghanistan over that same period.
In the same time period, an estimated 245 people were shot and wounded in the city.

It's time to pull out I tell you!

A wonderful analysis from Dr. Mercury

Over at Maggie's Farm, frequent technology poster Dr. Mercury sums it up nicely.

Go here and read: From Sparks To Flame

What he said…

And while we are looking at 17 year old mothers, look at this

Both campaigns have an issue with an unmarried 17 year old mother.

Bristol Palin is pregnant.

Barrack Obama's Mom was preggers with him at 17 and not married.

When you read here, there really should not be any comparison — from the UK Telegraph:

From the “It's a small family matter — we will deal with it at home really”

Pakistani women buried alive 'for choosing husbands'
A Pakistani politician has defended a decision to bury five women alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands.

Israr Ullah Zehri, who represents Baluchistan province, told a stunned parliament that northwestern tribesman had done nothing wrong in first shooting the women and then dumping them in a ditch.

“These are centuries-old traditions, and I will continue to defend them,” he said.

“Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid.”

The women, three of whom were teenagers and whose “crime” was that they wished to choose who to marry, were still breathing as mud and stones were shovelled over their bodies, according to Human Rights Watch.

The three girls, thought to be aged between 16 and 18, were kidnapped by a group of men from their Umrani tribe and murdered in Baba Kot, a remote village in Jafferabad district.

According to some reports, Baluchistan government vehicles were used to abduct the girls, and the killing was overseen by a tribal chief who is the brother of a provincial minister from the ruling Pakistan People's Party.

Some accounts said that two older relatives had tried to intervene, but they too were shot and buried alive with the teenagers.

Hey — sound like a Democrat to me…

(cheap shot I know but I am tired and feeling good

The ownership of the Democratic National Party

An interesting eddy to the flow of the news.

From Classical values come these two posts:

#1) - A Wholly Owned Subsidiary Of The Chicago Machine

This happened a while back but I'm just catching up. The DNC has moved a considerable portion of its operations to Chicago.

“This is part of the implementation of the plans Paul [Tewes] discussed last week with the state party chairs,” Finney said. “As part of the efforts to fully integrate DNC operations with the Obama campaign here in Washington, in Chicago and in the states, political, field and constituency operations are moving to Chicago to work in the Obama headquarters. The goal is to consolidate these efforts into one operation and effectively drive one national strategy.”

Isn't that interesting. So the Democrat Party is now a wholly owned subidiary of the Chicago Machine.

#2) - MoveOn.Org Has Taken Over Democrats

Newsweek reports that John Coale, a major Hillary fund raiser, has gone over to John McCain. There is a video from the Republican Convention at the link showing a five minute interview with Mr. Coale.

John Coale, a prominent Washington lawyer, husband of Fox TV host Greta Van Susteren and a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, announced today that he was supporting John McCain for president. Coale, who traveled with Sen. Clinton, President Clinton and her family through out the primary season, complained of sexism, and said the Democratic Party is “being taken over by the moveon.org types” in an exclusive interview with Newsweek.com's Tammy Haddad. He said he tried to prevent Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, from attending an August 18th meeting in Scranton, Pa. with McCain campaign surrogate Carly Fiorina. “I urged him not to go and told him it would embarrass his sister, but he has a mind of his own.”

And what do you know, Clinton's own brother has been meeting with the McCain campaign. Huge.

And a bit more:

Let me add that I think it is Hillary's intention to destroy the Democrat Party. Why? Because George Soros has bought the party. It is no good to her any more. Here is a report on it from 2004.

In a December 9th e-mail signed by “Eli Pariser, Justin Ruben, and the whole MoveOn PAC team,” the Soros front group stated: “In the last year, grassroots contributors like us gave more than $300 million to the Kerry campaign and the DNC, and proved that the Party doesn't need corporate cash to be competitive. Now it's our Party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back.”

Who is behind the MoveOn PAC? George Soros. Another is the Tides Foundation which is funded by John Kerry's wife, Teresa Simões-Ferreira Heinz Kerry.

Not a big fan of the Clintons but they do play a good devastating game of political hardball when needed and they are doing it now. Hillary is pissed like we have never seen her before. I smell a faint whiff of burning sulfur as I am typing this.

Hat tip to Maggie's Farm for the link.

A big chunk of glass

A large telescope is being built in Chile - the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

The numbers on this puppy are huge — the primary mirror is 27.5 feet in diameter.

Today they announced a major milestone — from Brookhaven National Laboratory:

Giant Furnace Opens to Reveal 'Perfect' LSST Mirror Blank
The single-piece primary and tertiary mirror blank cast for the LSST is “perfect”, say project astronomers and engineers.

The LSST, or Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, a large survey telescope being built in northern Chile, requires three large mirrors to give crisp images over a record large field of view. The two largest of these mirrors are concentric and fit neatly onto a single mirror blank. The single-piece primary and tertiary mirror blank emerged from the oven at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory Mirror Lab in Tucson, AZ, where team members gathered to celebrate this major milestone.

The Mirror Lab team opened the furnace for a close-up look at the cooled 51,900-pound mirror blank, which consists of an outer 27.5-foot diameter (8.4-meter) primary mirror and an inner 16.5-foot (5-meter) third mirror cast in one mold. It is the first time a combined primary and tertiary mirror has been produced on such a large scale.

To get an idea of the size, here is a photo of the mirror blank:

Like I said, a big chunk of glass.

Obama supporters hit bottom and start digging

The web page in question is not an official Obama page but it's still very classy… NOT

From Mere Rhetoric:

Progressives Passing Around Fake Palin Bikini Pic, Gloating About Inexperience And “Patriotic Valley Trash”
I got the photo this morning from one of the progressive listservs that I subscribe to, complete with the snarky subject line “ready to lead from day one.” Because obviously any woman who wears a bikini is unqualified for leadership. A little searching confirmed that it's just what it looks like - an amateurish fake based on someone's pool party Flickr photo. Which isn't stopping pro-Obama bloggers from displaying some absolutely exquisite hypocrisy:

Click for full size.
If you look very closely you can see a link to a post titled “McCain's ugly jokes AGAINST women.” This screencap is from “The Bruce Blog,” where the lead blogger is a self-described “yogi, a satirist, and militant.” I don't think he's affiliated with the Obama campaign as much as he just really, really hearts it. He's got “Republicans for Obama”, “Muslims for Obama”, “Jews for Obama”, and “Christians for Obama” widgets posted - so you can tell that he's also really, really into unity. Unless you're a woman who shamelessly wears bikinis and bitterly clings to guns. Then you're excluded on the basis of your gender, your social position, and your economic circumstances. Bummer.

Like I said, classy.

Memo to self - when burglarizing a truck, here's where not to hide

From Tampa Bay Bay News Nine:

Police: Burglary suspect trapped in portable toilet
A man was arrested Saturday afternoon after police said he broke into a truck and then was chased into a portable toilet by the owner and his friend.

Police said 22-year-old Lorenzo Earl Knight broke into a 1999 Ford F-150 in the parking lot of International Plaza and stole a digital camera. They said that he then broke into 2000 Ford F-150, and in the process he was seen by the owner of the second truck.

And of course, the inevitable:

According to reports, the owner of the truck and his friend chased Knight to a nearby construction site, where the suspect tried to hide in a portable toilet. Police said the victim and his friend found the portable toilet and turned it over, covering Knight in a “large amount of human waste.”

Flushed with embarrassment?

Bristol Palin's future husband

Didn't take long for his identity to be discovered.

From the New York Daily News:

Bristol Palin's pregnancy was an open secret back home
He's a superhunky bad-boy ice hockey player from cold country; she's a chestnut-haired beauty and popular high school senior.

The all-American teen twosome will make GOP vice presidential pick and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a grandma at age 44 - just in time for Christmas.

Doe-eyed Bristol Palin, 17, and ruggedly handsome Levi Johnston, an 18-year-old self-described “f—-in' redneck,” have been dating a year, locals in Wasilla, Alaska, told the Daily News.

And the pregnancy? An open secret in the close-knit town of 9,780.

A bit more:

“They've been together quite a while, more than a year,” she said. “I hope everything comes out well. These are local kids.”

And the two of them:

He certainly looks like he can take care of himself, his future wife and his child. She looks lovely.

As I had said in an earlier post:

Given the way that Sarah Palin turned out and given the way that her kids are being brought up, the kids have got to be a lot more mature for their respective ages than equivalent kids in a nanny-state “protect them at all costs” environment.

I just hope the media will stand back a ways and let them get on with their lives.

Back from the sleep-apnea test

Turns out I have a very mild case of sleep-apnea. Not enough to require or even suggest that a CPAP machine be used which is wonderful. I got to try one for 15 minutes and it was a downright strange sensation. I suppose I could get used to it, especially given the alternatives, but I sure hope I don't have to use one ever…

The mattress was unreal, I have found better ones at a cheap No-Tell Motel.

The technician was a lot of fun — he was born in Lynden (the Dutch community about 20 miles away near the Canadian border). Son of a dairy family, he knew our dairyman. Spent some time in the army traveling the world and then moved back to Lynden and does this. He had done metalwork and knew my blacksmithing teacher and now does cabinetmaking in his spare time.

I have been getting a lot of comment spam recently so I disabled comments while I was away.

No posting today

Going in for a sleep study prior to my general anesthesia on the 15th.

The clinic doesn't have WiFi so I will be forced to read a book!

Shudder…

The power of Hugo Chavez - literally

Sucks to be you.

Hugo Chavez has been 'nationalizing' the major utilities in Venezuela with very predictable results.

From Reuters:

Power blackout in Venezuelan capital, oil province
A power blackout hit major parts of Venezuela on Monday, including the capital and an oil-producing province, darkening buildings, knocking out traffic lights and disrupting plane and train journeys.

It was the second massive outage in just over four months on the OPEC nation's electricity grid, which is creaking from outdated infrastructure and low investment.

Let me get this straight — you want me to come in and build up a solid infrastructure fully knowing that when it is up and running, you will nationalize and pay me pennies on the pound? Not on your life buster!

More:

It was the second massive outage in just over four months on the OPEC nation's electricity grid, which is creaking from outdated infrastructure and low investment.

There were no reports of problems in the country's mainstay oil industry, which is a leading supplier to the United States, the state oil company said.

In some areas, such as the central commercial city of Barquisimeto, electricity was lost for only a few seconds.

Like duh??? That is their only source of income. The barely feed themselves so the oil is where all of the infrastructure money goes.

More:

In April, an even larger blackout hit Venezuela and officials failed to restore power for several hours.

That outage caused chaos for commuters who were caught in snarled traffic or forced to walk miles (kilometers) home as underground trains stopped operating and armed troops poured onto the streets to keep order.

After that outage, the government of President Hugo Chavez acknowledged there has been too little investment in the electricity grid over the last few years. It promised massive spending but warned it could take time for the new investment to improve the system.

Last year, the leftist government nationalized the country's largest private electricity company.

Emphasis mine — how long is it going to take the poor citizens to realize that “for the people” means “for Hugo and his cronies”. There has never been a successful pure socialist state. The only one that comes even close is Iceland because of its incredible riches but even there, as soon as someone starts getting successful, they are taxed into oblivion so the drive to be creative and clever and successful gets stymied and the nation as a whole suffers for the loss — lots of nice art and writing but no commercial innovation…

Bristol Palin's pregnancy

A thought occurred to me today (yes, I know that is unusual but please hang in there).

Given the way that Sarah Palin turned out and given the way that her kids are being brought up, the kids have got to be a lot more mature for their respective ages than equivalent kids in a nanny-state “protect them at all costs” environment.

Look at the stories you hear coming out of liberal colleges. Look at the number of early pregnancies and single parents in the inner cities.

Just sayin' ya know…

The case of the missing sunspots

Fascinating ongoing discussion at Watts Up with That. Editor Anthony Watts started off by pointing that we have gone one calendar month with no sunspots. Someone wrote in to correct him and let him know that the brief sun-specks that showed up on August 21 and 22 were being counted as full-on sunspots even though their life was only a few tens of hours at best.

From Watts Up with That:

Sunspeck counts after all…Sun DOES NOT have first spotless calendar month since June 1913

After going days without counting the August 21/22 “sunspeck” NOAA and SIDC Brussels now says it was NOT a spotless month! Both data sets below have been recently revised.

Here is the SIDC data:
http://www.sidc.be/products/ri_hemispheric/

Here is the NOAA data:
ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/STP/SOLAR_DATA/SUNSPOT_NUMBERS/MONTHLY

The NOAA data shows July as 0.5 but they have not yet updated for August as SIDC has. SIDC reports 0.5 for August. It will be interesting to see what NOAA will do.

SIDCÂ officially counted that sunspeck after all. It only took them a week to figure out if they were going to count it or not, since no number was assigned originally.

But there appears to be an error in the data from the one station that reported a spot, Catania, Italy. No other stations monitoring that day reported a spot. Here is the drawing from that Observatory:

ftp://ftp.ct.astro.it/sundraw/OAC_D_20080821_063500.jpg
ftp://ftp.ct.astro.it/sundraw/OAC_D_20080822_055000.jpg

But according to Leif Svalgaard, “SIDC reported a spot in the south, while the spot(s) Catania [reported] was in the north.” This is a puzzle. See his exchange below.

Also, other observatories show no spots at all. For example, at the 150 foot solar solar tower at the Mount Wilson Observatory, the drawings from those dates show no spots at all:

ftp://howard.astro.ucla.edu/pub/obs/drawings/dr080821.jpg

ftp://howard.astro.ucla.edu/pub/obs/drawings/dr080822.jpg

Inquires have been sent, stay tuned.

Later in the post is the original post and it's import on our cooling weather patterns followed by over 150 comments ranging from frothing AGW'rs to people providing links to research on the cooling. A fun read in a barroom brawl sort of way…

Sara Palin's experience as Governor

People have been saying that Governor Palin doesn't have experience with matters military and foreign. Blackfive reports on some of her duties as Governor of Alaska:

Commanding Alaska's Guard w/ 24/7 missile defense
One area of Sarah Palin's background that may help her is Alaska's unique role in our national security and homeland defense. Several folks have have mentioned this but Tom W. was specific and his info jibes with the record.

Alaska is the first line of defense in our missile interceptor defense system. The 49th Missile Defense Battalion of the Alaska National Guard is the unit that protects the entire nation from ballistic missile attacks. It’s on permanent active duty, unlike other Guard units.

As governor of Alaska, Palin is briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland security, and counterterrorism. Her exposure to classified material may rival even Biden's.

She's also the commander in chief of the Alaska State Defense Force (ASDF), a federally recognized militia incorporated into Homeland Security's counterterrorism plans.

Palin is privy to military and intelligence secrets that are vital to the entire country's defense. Given Alaska's proximity to Russia, she may have security clearances we don't even know about.

According to the Washington Post, she first met with McCain in February, but nobody ever found out. This is a woman used to keeping secrets.

She can be entrusted with our national security, because she already is.

I agree with that assessment except for the thought that her access to classified material may rival Biden's. Highly unlikely as Biden's seat on the Foreign Relations committee would expose him to information on a very wide array of topics. But her experience in keeping the homeland safe fits perfectly with her image as the competent American woman.It's not the same as having your finger on the button, but it a heckuva lot closer than Biden or Barry O has ever been.

Hat tip to Firehand for the link.

Well crap - R.I.P. Don LaFontaine

From Entertainment Tonight:

Don LaFontaine Dies at 68
LaFontaine, known as the “King of Voiceovers,” died Monday afternoon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. LaFontaine's agent, Vanessa Gilbert, tells ET that he passed away following complications from Pneumothorax, the presence of air or gas in the pleural cavity, the result of a collapsed lung. The official cause of death has not yet been released.

Over the past 25 years, LaFontaine cemented his position as the “King of Voiceovers.” Aside from being the preeminent voice in the movie trailer industry, Don also worked as the voice of Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, as well as for CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and UPN, in addition to TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network. By conservative estimates, he voiced hundreds of thousands of television and radio spots, including commercials for Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, Budweiser, McDonalds, Coke, and many other corporate sponsors.

He recently parodied himself on a series of national television commercials for Geico. At last count, he has worked on nearly 5000 films, including appearances as the in-show announcer for the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards. Based on contracts signed, he has the distinction of being perhaps the single busiest actor in the history of SAG. Don is survived by his wife — singer/actress Nita Whitaker, and three children: Christine, Skye and Elyse.

There is a fun video of him here at YouTube

Global warming Cooling - the IPCC's accuracy

From the UK Telegraph:

The 'consensus' on climate change is a catastrophe in itself
As the estimated cost of measures proposed by politicians to “combat global warming” soars ever higher – such as the International Energy Council's $45 trillion – “fighting climate change” has become the single most expensive item on the world's political agenda.

As Senators Obama and McCain vie with the leaders of the European Union to promise 50, 60, even 80 per cent cuts in “carbon emissions”, it is clear that to realise even half their imaginary targets would necessitate a dramatic change in how we all live, and a drastic reduction in living standards.

All this makes it rather important to know just why our politicians have come to believe that global warming is the most serious challenge confronting mankind, and just how reliable is the evidence for the theory on which their policies are based.

By far the most influential player in putting climate change at the top of the global agenda has been the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chan ge (IPCC), set up in 1988, not least on the initiative of the Thatcher government. (This was why the first chairman of its scientific working group was Sir John Houghton, then the head of the UK's Meteorological Office.)

A bit more:

The common view of the IPCC is that it consists of 2,500 of the world's leading scientists who, after carefully weighing all the evidence, have arrived at a “consensus” that world temperatures are rising disastrously, and that the only plausible cause has been rising levels of CO2 and other man-made greenhouse gases.

In fact, as has become ever more apparent over the past 20 years –not least thanks to the evidence of a succession of scientists who have participated in the IPCC itself – the reality of this curious body could scarcely be more different.

It is not so much a scientific as a political organisation. Its brief has never been to look dispassionately at all the evidence for man-made global warming: it has always taken this as an accepted fact.

Indeed only a comparatively small part of its reports are concerned with the science of climate change at all. The greater part must start by accepting the official line, and are concerned only with assessing the impact of warming and what should be done about it.

And more:

The idea that the IPCC represents any kind of genuine scientific “consensus” is a complete fiction.

Again and again there have been examples of how evidence has been manipulated to promote the official line, the most glaring instance being the notorious “hockey stick”.

Initially the advocates of global warming had one huge problem. Evidence from all over the world indicated that the earth was hotter 1,000 years ago than it is today.

And more:

By the time of its latest report, last year, the IPCC had an even greater problem. Far from continuing to rise in line with rising CO2, as its computer models predicted they should, global temperatures since the abnormally hot year of 1998 had flattened out at a lower level and were even falling – a trend confirmed by Nasa's satellite readings over the past 18 months.

So pronounced has this been that even scientists supporting the warmist thesis now concede that, due to changes in ocean currents, we can expect a decade or more of “cooling”, before the “underlying warming trend” reappears.

The point is that none of this was predicted by the computer models on which the IPCC relies.

For a good read, go here and download the PDF of Prejudiced Authors, Prejudiced Findings

Hurricane Blogging

Marcus is blogging from New Orleans - check out Ridin' Gustav:

And So It Begins…
The first squall just hit, a steady rain, some gusts, and it got dark in a hurry.

Too dark for decent outdoor pics, but that never stopped me. :-) I had to jack the gamma into lower earth orbit, but those aren't stars you're seeing, but raindrops.

A bit more:

I am in a well built multi-story home. This home took 4-5 ft. of water during Katrina. A 30 ft. storm surge would not flood the upper stories of this residence. The lower floor is constructed entirely of steel-reinforced cinder blocks. It would require a direct hit from a Fujita Class V tornado to take down this home. The French Quarter hotel where Mayor Nagin and the rest of the emergency staff, along with virtually all the media reporting on the storm, are staying, is no better protected.

The only place I can readily imagine that could be safer would be in a bank vault, provided I could locate one high enough not to flood.

I think that for the vast majority of people, evacuation in the face of this storm is the only prudent course of action. I believe my situation to be unique, or I would have bugged out.

I have been a believer in disaster preparedness for a long, long time. I could survive for at least, I don't know, three months maybe, without any outside resources. The most likely repercussion, the almost certain repercussion, is that I'll be without power for awhile, and thus unable to access the Net. I have no doubt that someone that reads this will then conclude that I have met my reward, in more ways than one. We shall see.

We shall see…