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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

24 Nov - Plans & Schemes

Desert landscape in Oman.Image via Wikipedia

THE WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL




NEWEST WEAPON AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE: ROCKS

Rocks with a powerful thirst for carbon dioxide (CO2) could suck enough of the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere to help counteract global warming, according to a recent study.
The country of Oman hosts a strip of mantle rocks called peridotites in a formation 350 kilometers (217.5 miles) long and 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) wide.
Formed under searing heat and crushing pressure deep in the Earth, the rocks have unusual chemical properties when thrust up to the surface, including an affinity for carbon dioxide.







THE LIGHTNING PLANETS

Earth is in strange company when it comes to lightning, says a planetary scientist.

WIDE ANGLE: STRANGE LIGHTNING

Lightning is so familiar, but so strange. We explore the ways we don't know these bolts.

FIRST SIGNS OF MELTING SEEN IN EAST ANTARCTICA

Earth's last great icy citadel, the East Antarctica Ice Sheet, is beginning to crumble.

Newest Weapon Against Climate Change: Rocks

Posted by  Michael Reilly  2 HOURS AGO   |   0
A strong contender in the fight against global warming may be right under our feet. Read more

Climate Changing Faster Than Expected

Posted by  Jessica Marshall  6 HOURS AGO   |   0
As climate change exceeds the worst projections, scientists underscore the urgency of reducing emissions. Read more

Global Warming Emails Heat Up Debate

Posted 19 HOURS AGO   |   6
Thousands of e-mails hacked from a research center have provided fodder for climate skeptics. Read more

The Lightning Planets

Posted by  Larry O'Hanlon  20 HOURS AGO   |   0
The Scoop: No matter what planet you're on, lighting is about storms, and about ice and rain -- even if it's not necessarily water rain.If you could see Jupiter's magnetic field, it would be the size of the full moon in the sky---the biggest object... Read more

10 Reasons I'm Thankful for Lightning

Posted 21 HOURS AGO   |   0
It's scary, sure, but here are ten reasons to be thankful for lightning, especially on Thanksgiving. Read more

The mysteries of lightning

Posted by  John D. Cox  23 HOURS AGO   |   0
Scientists don't know everything they want to know about lightning, to be sure, or about the atmosphere over the tropical Atlantic, but on the face of it, it is fair to say that nothing about an airliner flying through the ...Read more

First Signs of Melting Seen in East...

Posted by  Michael Reilly  Mon Nov 23, 2009 04:20 AM ET   |   2
Earth's last great icy citadel, the East Antarctica Ice Sheet, is beginning to crumble under warming. Read more

Whaling: The Beginning of the End?

Posted by  Kieran Mulvaney  Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:57 PM ET   |   8
Japan's whaling fleet left port for the Antarctic last week. Japanese authorities defended the hunt, as usual, as legitimate scientific research. I and others have dealt with that contention almost ad nauseam, and the basic outlines of the argument... Read more

Flashback: Images From the Week's News

Posted Fri Nov 20, 2009 07:00 AM ET   |   0
Take a look back at the top stories of the past week in the Discovery News Flashback Slide Show. Read more

Carbon Dioxide: sources outpacing sinks

Posted by  John D. Cox  Thu Nov 19, 2009 02:09 PM ET   |   8
Galloping increases in human fossil fuel emissions now appear to be outrunning the ability of the world's oceans to absorb them. The first year-by-year accounting of the oceans' role as a carbon sink shows that, even as they soak up ... Read more

Saving The Sharks That Bit Us

Posted by  Larry O'Hanlon  Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:36 PM ET   |   2
A new guest post from shark advocate and shark attack victim Debbie Salamone of the Pew Campaign to End Overfishing in the Southeast: My fellow shark attack victims and I are celebrating today because the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee voted ... Read more

Winds Blow Stronger Over Warming Lake...

Posted by  Jessica Marshall  Thu Nov 19, 2009 04:42 AM ET   |   0
Increasingly blustery weather over the lake may be changing ecosystems and spreading air pollution. Read more

Cigarette Butts Toxic to Fish

Posted by  Michael Reilly  Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:00 AM ET   |   1
Need another reason to quit smoking? Read more

Army Corps Liable For Katrina Flooding

Posted Wed Nov 18, 2009 10:59 PM ET   |   0
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Army Corps of Engineers' failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding in Hurricane Katrina, a decision that could make the federal government vulnerable to billions of dollars in... Read more

More Garbage Patches Waiting to Be Found

Posted by  Sarah Dowdey  Wed Nov 18, 2009 10:17 AM ET   |   1
You've likely heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- two enormous bodies of trash trapped in a swirling confluence of currents. The Pacific patch has gotten a lot of press this year from the planned expedition of banking heir ... Read more

THE ELECTRIFICATION ROADMAP

TReportCoverhe Electrification Roadmap lays out a plan to transition the United States to electric vehicles by 2040. The plan is comprehensive, cogent, informed by organizations immersed in the details of electrification, and synchronized with current real world efforts. If you want to know where we are going, read this. If you want to see a smart business case that offers meaningful solutions to national security, environmental sustainability, energy security and prosperity challenges, read this.
Here are some sound bites from the report:
Purpose:
"To provide a public policy guide to transforming the U.S. light-duty ground transportation system from one that is oil-dependent to one powered almost entirely by electricity."
Goal:
"By 2040, 75 percent of the light-duty vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the United States should be electric miles."
Why is business asking government to develop public policy?:
"Ideally, the technology and deployment of electric vehicles would emerge through regular market mechanisms. Events conclusively demonstrate that this path to electrification is unlikely, however. Therefore, if the desired transformation is to occur anytime in the foreseeable future, focused and sustained public policy will be required."
The problem with oil:
"Heavy reliance on petroleum has created unsustainable risks to American economic and national security. The economic risks are all too clear: so long as the cars and trucks that power our economy are dependent on a single fuel source, the majority of which is produced in hostile nations and unstable regions of the world and the price of which is increasingly volatile, our economy is at the mercy of events and actors largely beyond our control."
"The global oil market is far removed from the free market ideal." 78 to 90 percent of global oil and gas reserves are held by nationally owned companies.
Red Alert: The Second Wave of The Financial Tsunami
The Wave Is gathering force & could hit between the first & second quarter of 2010
The Irreconcilable Differences
Some two decades ago, it was decided by the global financial elites that the framework for the global economy shall consist of:
1) A global derivative-based financial system, controlled by the US Federal Reserve Bank and its associate global banks in the developed countries.
2) The re-location from the West to the East in the production of goods, principally to China and India to “feed” the developed economies.
The entire system was built on a simple principle, that of a FED-controlled global reserve currency which will be the engine for growth for the global economy. It is essentially an imperialist economic principle.
Once we grasp this fundamental truth, Bernanke’s boast that the “US can produce as many US dollars as it wishes at no cost” takes on a different dimension.
I have talked to so many economists and when asked what is the crux of the present financial problem, they all respond in unison, “it is the global imbalances... the West consumes too much while the East saves too much and consumes not enough”. This is exemplified by the huge US trade deficits on the one part and China’s massive surpluses on the other.
Incredible wisdom and almost everyone echoes this mantra. The recent concluded APEC Summit was no different. This mantra was repeated as well as the call for freer trade between trading nations.
This is a grand hoax. All the current leaders on the world’s stage are corrupted to the rotten core and as such have no interest to call a spade a spade and expose the inherent contradictions within the existing financial system.
The call for a multi-polar world is meaningless when the entire global financial system is based on the unipolar US dollar reserve currency. This is the inherent contradiction within the present system and the problems associated with it cannot be resolved by another global reserve currency based on the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights as advocated by some countries. It was stillborn, the very moment it was conceived!
The leaders of China, Japan and the oil producing countries of the Middle East are all cursing and pissing about the current situation, but they don’t have the courage of their convictions to spell it out to their countrymen that they have been conned by the financial spin masters from the Fed acting on the instructions from Goldman Sachs.
Tell me which leader would dare admit that they have exchanged the nation’s wealth for toilet papers?
The toilet paper currency pantomime continues.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary

Executive Order-- Reducing Improper Payments and Eliminating Waste in Federal Programs

Section 1. Purpose. When the Federal Government makes payments to individuals and businesses as program beneficiaries, grantees, or contractors, or on behalf of program beneficiaries, it must make every effort to confirm that the right recipient is receiving the right payment for the right reason at the right time.
Sec. 2. Transparency and Public Participation.
(a) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall:
(i) identify Federal programs in which the highest dollar value or majority of Government-wide improper payments occur (high-priority programs);
 (ii) establish, in coordination with the executive department or agency (agency) responsible for administering the high-priority program annual or semi-annual targets (or where such targets already exist, supplemental targets), as appropriate, for reducing improper payments associated with each high-priority program;
 (iii) issue Government-wide guidance on the implementation of this order, including procedures for identifying and publicizing the list of entities described in subsection (b)(v) of this section and for administrative appeal of the decision to publish the identity of those entities, prior to publication; and
 (iv) establish a working group consisting of Federal, State, and local officials to make recommendations to the Director of OMB designed to improve the Federal Government's measurement of access to Federal programs by the programs' intended beneficiaries. The working group's recommendations shall be prepared in consultation with the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) and submitted within 180 days of the date of this order, and the recommended measurements may be incorporated by the Secretary of the Treasury in the information published pursuant to subsection (b) of this section.
Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Treasury in coordination with the Attorney General and the Director of OMB, shall publish on the Internet information about improper payments under high-priority programs. The information shall include, subject to Federal privacy policies and to the extent permitted by law:
(i) the names of the accountable officials designated under section 3 of this order;
 (ii) current and historical rates and amounts of improper payments, including, where known and appropriate, causes of the improper payments;
 (iii) current and historical rates and amounts of recovery of improper payments, where appropriate (or, where improper payments are identified solely on the basis of a sample, recovery rates and amounts estimated on the basis of the applicable sample);
 (iv) targets for reducing as well as recovering improper payments, where appropriate; and
 (v) the entities that have received the greatest amount of outstanding improper payments (or, where improper payments are identified solely on the basis of a sample, the entities that have received the greatest amount of outstanding improper payments in the applicable sample).

Will The Unemployment Disaster Be Obama's Katrina?

There's a Category 5 storm about to make landfall, and the president and the officials in charge of preparing for the approaching disaster don't seem to be particularly worried. Sound familiar?
Just as Katrina exposed critical weaknesses in the priorities and competence of the Bush administration, the unfolding unemployment disaster is threatening to do the same for the Obama White House.
The members of the Obama administration may not be attending a birthday party at John McCain's ranch in Sedona or shoppingfor expensive Ferragamo shoes in New York as a great American city is destroyed, but their decidedly lackadaisical response to what job losses are doing to multiple great American cities raises the question: will unemployment be Barack Obama's Katrina?
His economic team's resistance to a second round of stimulus, "lukewarm" reaction to Congressional jobs legislation, and prioritization of deficit reduction over job creation certainly has the feel of a taking-in-the-damage-from-2,500-feet flyover moment.
"There is no discussion of a package like a second stimulus," said deputy White House press secretary Jennifer Psaki. "But we are working closely with Congress and consulting with outside experts to determine the right policies and next steps." No word on whether those outside experts include the 1 in 6 workers currently unemployed or underemployed.

RNC considers instituting a purity test

Here, via the New York Times' Caucus blog, is the list of principles candidates would have to abide by in order to get the RNC's endorsement and/or money:
  1. We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;
  2. We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;
  3. We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;
  4. We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;
  5. We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
  6. We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;
  7. We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;
  8. We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;
  9. We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and
  10. We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership

'SMART' ARMOR LEARNS MORE WITH EVERY BULLET

Smart armor being developed by scientists and engineers at U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center in Michigan can not only predict its own failure, but also identify the size of bullets shot at it and even generate electrical power upon impact.
"As a kid, everyone played those video games that showed you how much armor you had left as a percentage bar," said John Wray, a TARDEC contractor. "That's exactly what we're working on here and more."


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