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James Hansen has been adjusting the historic temperature records to produce a positive trend, so if you are citing NASA/GISS data, the conclusion is tainted.
Our Central Ohio water/spring has been extraordinarily warm (as you well know), but Europe had record low temperatures during the same period.
One point does not a trend make (but many more points like this and I might reconsider)
The national temperature of 57.1 degrees F during spring was 5.2 degrees F above the long-term average, besting the previous warmest spring of 1910 by 2.0 degrees F. This marked the largest temperature departure from average of any season on record for the contiguous United States. The spring of...
I thought the carbon markets in Europe and the US had collapsed and that the exchanges had gone out of business. Is forestry a different kind of carbon market.
Voluntary Carbon Market Update
From the inbox: Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace initiative, in partnership with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, released the 2012 State of Voluntary Carbon Markets Report 2012: Developing Dimension at the Carbon Expo last week. The report finds that the market for voluntary carbon offsetting...
It is more economical to postulate that Obama is anti-American. He also has a Muslim sensibility stemming from his days in Indonesia. His decades in the pseudo-Christian churches like Wright's (he has found another in DC) are a diagnostic clue to his bigotries.
Obama, the evil genius crypto-anti-neo-colonialist
“lil mike” from the blog Mike Street Station left the following comment: We went to war to supported the Libyan opposition even though Libya was no threat to us. Therefore, using Obama foreign policy logic, we won't do much more than talk and some minor covert stuff, since Syria is one of the...
What kind of mental derangement makes an African-American despise a man of remarkable and real accomplishment like Cain and admire a total fraud like Obama? Could this explain much of the plight of African-Americans? A kind of mass delusion?
By the way, CD got his facts backwards. American corporations are among the most highly taxed in the world, and plutocrats are in fact heavily taxed and provide most of America's tax revenues. Almost half of all American households (and a majority of African-American households) pay no federal income tax. If the federal budget is to be balanced, taxes on middle class and working class Americans will have to be increased substantially.
--bob sykes
Herman Cain from the Kwaku Network
I suspect that one of these days black Americans are going to treat Herman Cain the way they used to treat him before he became prominently known as a Republican, which is to say, a man of great accomplishments. That day may come soon. Witness the following from the Kwaku Network: Herman Cain i...
Of course, she's under some sort of fatwa and could be a bullet attractor any second. I, myself, might have second thoughts.
--bob sykes
The Couple of the Year
Niall Ferguson and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Two of my favorite minds on the planet. The awesomeness is practically unfathomable.
Forget the German, someone will speak English.
My daughter went to grad school at the U. of Freiburg. Gorgeous Medieval city utterly untouched by WWI and WWII. Walk around and enjoy the city itself. Too bad you have to work.
By the way, the train to Zurich is the fastest way to get their. Also, there's usually a big difference in airfares between Basel and Zurich.
Thinking Too Much About Europe
This time next week, I will be in the town of Freiburg in the Baden-Württemberg state of Germany. I'm there on business to learn a new suite of software that our team will be selling, but I'm a bit overwhelmed about going. It has been quite some time since I've been over to Europe and it strikes...
Back in the 1980s, my wife and I went looking for a home computer. We had two requirements: (1) I needed to include equations in documents I used in my engineering classes; (2) my wife needed the European character set for her Spanish classes. At that time, the Mac was the only computer that could do either. No DOS or IBM clone could do either. So, we bought a fat Mac, and have stayed with Apple ever since.
A few years later, DOS/PC systems had the same capability, but we were still writing BAT and SYS files, and had no GUI. The point is, that early on the Mac provided true functionality that was missing in other platforms and OS. I have a Window 7 machine on my other desk, but I am writing this on a Power Mac. Windows 7 still lacks the file management capability of Mac, although in other regards it's hard to tell the difference (except for the abominable IE).
Unfortunately, over the years many of my favorite programs (SigmaPlot, FrameMaker, MathCad) abandoned the Mac, and most engineering programs never came aboard. Autodesk is an exception, but who has $2000 for a graphics package? So, I need both worlds, but I mostly work in Mac world.
Bob Sykes (Your site always suppresses my name in favor of some stupid code. I think this only happens in TypePad.)
Steve Jobs & The Batcave
About 4 years ago my youngest daughter asked me what job I would do if I could do anything I wanted. I thought about it for a while and then told her that I would design lairs for evil scientists who wanted to take over the world. I'm pretty sure that's what Steve Jobs and I have in common. Ove...
Two hundred million dollar F22s that sit uselessly in hangers are a liability not an advantage. How many F15Ss would that buy?
America's Stealthy Advantage
Chinese J-20 stealth fighter David Axe argues in Wired magazine that developing a stealth jet is cheaper than mass-producing them at $100 million per airframe, giving America, the world's reigning economic superpower, a near monopoly: Once the dilettantes are factored out, there are really o...
Slittyeye got it right. I "taught" engineering at the college and university level for 37 years. I slowly realized that what I was doing was providing structure and discipline via deadlines and grades. I never taught anyone anything. They learned stuff by themselves because of the discipline and structure.
Tim Pawlenty's clueless iCollege remark
Tim Pawlenty said on the Daily Show a year ago: Do you really think in 20 years somebody is going to put on their backpack, drive a half an hour to the University of Minnesota from the suburbs, haul their keister across campus and hear some boring person drone on about Econ 101 or Spanish 101...
I served on college and university faculties for 37 years under at 10 deans. Deans make a great deal of difference in how a college runs. Good ones are very rare. Only one of the 10 I knew was really good and effective. Most were interested only in the next job, and two or three were not interested in doing the work: Dean was just another merit badge, another check-box on the resume.
A really good dean has to be honest and open, and has to energetically support the faculty in their efforts. Faculty are required to bring in external research dollars (lots and lots) and teach high-quality modern courses. This is hard, and an enthusiastic, supportive dean goes a long way. It is amazing what a few well-timed. atta-boy/girls can achieve.
Georgia Tech is one of the great engineering schools in the US. I am glad to see they have gotten a good dean.
--bob sykes
Gary May
Congratulations go to Gary May who has just been named Dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech. Gary and I go way back to undergrad days in the mid 80s. He was NSBE chair one of the years that I was on the National Board. I always knew that he was destined for something like this. ...
I've seen almost all of Washington's films, and I like all of them. I will surely watch this one.
I'm not sure if he's channeling Mike Hammer or Phillip Marlowe, More the former, I guess.
The New Testament eschews revenge, but the Old Testament embraces it. As Christianity disappears, something will replace it, hopefully Yahweh.
Seal Team 6 fully understands Washington, and thank God they do.
--bob sykes
Man On Fire
(from the archives May 2004) Can you kill the man who tried to kill you? Yes or No? If he is part of an organization, should you kill the organizers? If you could, would you? It's very difficult to talk about Denzel Washington's latest film without also talking about Abu Ghraib and bunch of ot...
Only if you have a gun and know how to use and are willing to use it to kill something/one.
The real problem is likely to be animals: bears, pumas, coyotes, wolves, snakes, etc.
Of course any human you see should be treated with extreme caution and suspicion. They can do whatever they like and help will never arrive.
--bob sykes (your site continues to screw up my Google ID. No other site does this.
Privacy & The Dead Hooker
Over the years I've been thinking a lot about privacy and its opposite, 'famousity'. These are things gained and lost by degrees, but people tend to forget that. The simple association I wish to make today is about the matter of fact way I believe that privacy does not automatically lead to safe...
There is a great deal of information about guns on the survivalist blogs. Generally, pistols are a bad idea because it is very difficult to hold one without putting a finger on the trigger.
The best general purpose weapon is a bolt action rifle. But that sort of assumes you're in a war zone and/or need meat. A 22 LR is the most useful in general, because you can scare people with it and hurt them if need be. If you're going to hunt game bigger than a rabbit, you'll need a bigger gun.
Probably the best choice if you're not a gun expert is a double-barrelled shotgun in either 12 or 20 gauge. You can leave them loaded indefinitely (no sprng fatigue), and all you have to do is pull the trigger(s). Some of them have a trigger for each barrel. These will definitely scare people, and the ones you can't scare will be put down. You can also hunt with it.
If you have kids (you do), any gun is a hazard, because kids search out their homes in detail and find everything. You could get a gun safe. I don't like kids and guns in the same house.
Some gun blogs point out that if you are concerned about economic collapse and a zero-value dollar the best barter stuff is ammo. 22 LR is the best choice, but whatever gun stores usually stock is fine.
Ammo is good because it can be broken down into small value units: one 22 per can of soup. Gold and silver are big value items and are hard to break down into soup cans. Also, gold sales are reported to the feds.
Really, you should get out of LA. (Is that where you live?) Find a home in Amish country. Ohio is nice. In Amish country, you won't need a gun, and you could get work on a farm. So could your kids.
If you come to Knox Co., I'd be happy to welcome you.
--bob sykes
Staring Down the Barrel
I love the mechanical coolness of firearms, but somehow I haven't managed to get one. I'm rather in a survival mode of thinking these days, sensitive as I am to the lies and distortions coming out of Japan as regards the actual status of their reactors, and the to the lies and distortions coming...
I read the book (and the Fountainhead) a number of years ago and enjoyed it, so I'll see the movie when it gets out in my part of the boondocks. Some stuff gets to DirectV before it hits our three "big" screens.
Future Coup - Surviving Nero
If Petraeus said he'd run for President, the Right would forget about Sarah Palin in a heartbeat, and we would have a President an order of magnitude (or two) more educated, worldwise and honorable. I think we'll have a military coup before we have a lamer who can completely ruin the country. ...
There is a fully constitutional process for eliminating the existing Constitution by amendment.
On the other hand, it is notorious that the Convention that wrote the Constitution did so without authority. They were merely supposed to improve the Articles around the margins.
However, that is legal quibling. The fact is the States accepted the proposed Constitution as a legitimate product of the Convention and proceeded to adopt it by election.
So no Big Man with a Gun is needed, nor would anyone violate his oath if the amendment process were followed. Oaths would also be satisfied if another Constitution Convention were called as is provided in the current Constitution.
Future Coup - Surviving Nero
If Petraeus said he'd run for President, the Right would forget about Sarah Palin in a heartbeat, and we would have a President an order of magnitude (or two) more educated, worldwise and honorable. I think we'll have a military coup before we have a lamer who can completely ruin the country. ...
The problem is the federal government itself: a military coup does not solve that, it merely aggravates it.
It is necessary to eliminate the federal government in toto. At a minimum, a return to the Articles of Confederation (cleaning the slavery thing) would be desirable, but reducing the USA to a customs union would be ideal.
There would be no President to drag us into undeclared wars, no federal courts to overturn democratically made policies and laws or to meddle in local affairs and no overweening lawless federal bureaucrats.
All spending/taxation decisions would devolve to the States. Undoubtedly, State taxes would increase as federal subsidies for education, roads, etc, etc would cease. There would also have to be some serious decisions regarding federal entitlements. But the Catholic theory of subsidiarity (pushing all decisions to the lowest practicable level) would be realized.
Future Coup - Surviving Nero
If Petraeus said he'd run for President, the Right would forget about Sarah Palin in a heartbeat, and we would have a President an order of magnitude (or two) more educated, worldwise and honorable. I think we'll have a military coup before we have a lamer who can completely ruin the country. ...
A Black jew like Jesus. Good grief!
Anyway, I graduated from Northeastern in 1966. Then it was a route out of the working class and into the middle class. And it worked for me. I went from Dorchester to a faculty position in a major university. Nowadays, Northeastern has turned its back on the working class and focuses on middle class kids who are too stupid to get into the Ivies.
Harvard, then as now, was thoroughly elitist. Everyone there is a member of the ruling class or soon will be. It is full of poseurs who claim to be oppressed or victims of this that or the other. Of course, they themselves are the oppressors.
--bob sykes
Two Harvards
I don't know that I ever wrote about a particular day that I can still remember clearly. It was the day that I went to the Harvard Business School orientation seminar at the Airport Hilton some time back around 1985. I had become something of a star at Cal State, making Dean's list, holding 18 u...
No theologians? How about Gary Wills (often interesting) and Teilhard de Chardin (for a little mysticism).
I would also add Jane Austin and Ernest Hemingway.
yours,
bob sykes
Closing in on T50
Several years ago, I launched a project for my future learning and reference. I called it T50 which has to do with numbering out fifty thinkers whose works I would follow on my path to wisdom. Driving to work this morning I thought about those I have accumulated. You'll find them often cited her...
The Duke of Windsor playing golf in Bermuda during WWII.
Abdication
I hate to tell you that I told you so. But I wonder if there is anyone who can consider Barack Obama the Leader of the Free World. He never wanted to be that, he is not, and he has shrunk America in the process, now beneath the contempt of Kadafi. That, is pathetic in the extreme, and this exac...
A little biogeography lesson:
Libyans, like all North Africans are genetically white, swarthy but white. The Moors of Shakespeare. Black Africans live south of the Sahara. There are, of course, some black Africans living in Libyan, but they are Gadhafi's hired mercenaries, and they are killing Libya's native whites.
No No Fly
Short of chemical or biowarefare there's nothing so revolting I can think of in modern warfare than the strafing of civilians from jet fighters. This is precisely what has been going on in Libya the past few days. It illustrates a sort of contempt for his nation that proves Kadafi is a tribalist...
Elimination of Somali piracy requires a military presence on the ground sufficient to suppress the various militias and pirates. This was tried once before, but we and our allies don't have the stomach for the level of violence needed.
We don't even allow our military to use sufficient force to engage pirates caught in the act on the high seas.
The truth is, the costs of piracy are still less than the costs of suppressing it.
--sykes.1 (google is confused again)
The Somali Rabbit Hole
In May of 2008, I went to the mat looking for some sensible discussion about the US policy in the Horn of Africa and Somalia in particular. There was a lot of noise surrounding my calling Somalia a failed state, which it was and still remains. I would say 'much to the consternation of my opponen...
The reality is that energy supplies are large and increasing, yes increasing. While cheap, easily recovered oil is declining, total oil reserves are not. Also oil is a minor (but economically dominant) fraction of total fossil fuel reserves. Natural gas, including gas hydrates, is by far the largest reserve, and coal is much more abundant than oil. All told there is probably a few hundred years supply at current consumption levels.
Then, there is nuclear. While uranium reserves are the principal source of fuel for fission reactors now, there are larger thorium reserves. There are also breeder reactors.
I discount fusion, solar and wind, which are examples of criminal fraud and not energy sources.
In the very long run, the ice sheets come back and latitudes higher than about 30 N/S become uninhabitable.
There is no such thing as long-term planning or sustainable activities: both concepts also belong in the trash heap of criminal fraud.
--bob sykes
Towards A New Urban/Rural Balance
Nikka raises a sterling point in one word 'Doomstead'. All these doomsteads, rural, urban, island, suffer from the same problem. No matter how many networks of reinforced concrete pillboxes with interlocking fields of fire you have, they can't save you from stepping on a rusty nail and dying of...
In a true doom scenario, there will be a huge population die-off, and surviving will have a large random element. The die-off is well-described in "One Second After," the scariest book I've ever read. But the survivorship as portrayed is romanticized. "Road Warrior" and "The Road" do it better.
However, doom is unlikely in the extreme, so focus on your retirement. You should consider a small, rural midwestern town, say 10,000 to 20,000 people, somewhere from Ohio to Iowa. You will have cable TV (or at least satellite, which is better) and all the amenities within an hours drive. The local Krogers will carry any European beer/cheese you want and every Californian wine you ever heard of. The state-run/licensed liquor store knows all about single malt scotches. If you fall down and can't get up, the local hospital will life-flight you serious medicine. You will not have urban congestion or crime, and there are fewer rattlesnakes that far north. None where I live. Housing is cheap, so you will have a nice nest egg from the sale of your Californian hovel. You will have a much nicer house, too.
And you can still annoy people with your blog.
Towards A New Urban/Rural Balance
Nikka raises a sterling point in one word 'Doomstead'. All these doomsteads, rural, urban, island, suffer from the same problem. No matter how many networks of reinforced concrete pillboxes with interlocking fields of fire you have, they can't save you from stepping on a rusty nail and dying of...
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