Archive for the 'Environment' Category
MichaelW on Dec 21 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Foreign affairs, MichaelW's Page
According to the press release (my emphasis):
Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called “consensus” on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made […]
“I don’t like other people telling me what to do.”
MichaelW on Dec 05 2007 | Filed under: Environment, Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, Philosophy, Religion and theology
Amen.
One of the reasons I abhor communitarianism (and tend to see my political philosophy as the opposite of that) is because it vests communitarian thinkers with the self appointed power to tell me (and others) what to do. Provided, of course, that they come up with a claim to do so in the name of […]
Now, it is time to save marriage
Lance on Dec 05 2007 | Filed under: Economics, Environment, Lance's Page
Why? Because it is good for the environment:
Divorce can be bad for the environment. In countries around the world divorce rates have been rising, and each time a family dissolves the result is two new households.
“A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household,” said Jianguo Liu, an ecologist at Michigan State […]
Hugo Chavez and the path to mass murder II
Lance on Nov 08 2007 | Filed under: Environment, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
Part I is here, but in The Ruin of Venezuela I wrote:
As we have seen with Mugabe and many others, once you go down this road it is very difficult to turn things around. As the situation gets worse, in order to keep socialism in place, more force is needed. A Revolutionary ideology cannot allow […]
Lance on Nov 06 2007 | Filed under: Environment, Lance's Page, Technology, Urban planning and development
Very Cool:
The City Car, a design project under way at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is envisioned as a two-seater electric vehicle powered by lithium-ion batteries. It would weigh between 1,000 and 1,200 pounds and could collapse, then stack like a shopping cart with six to eight fitting into a typical parking space. It isn’t […]
Global Warming = California Wildfires
Keith_Indy on Oct 31 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Domestic Politics, Environment, Keith's Page
So says Harry Reid and other environmentalists, so it must be true. No doubt they have checked with everyone who agrees with them and they have a consensus about it.
So, what caused them way back when…
If there was a “worst fire season” in the last century or so, Berlant said, it would probably be […]
The Subtle Oil Shock
Lance on Oct 28 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Economics, Environment, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page, Libertarianism
It hasn’t been all that shocking. Why not? Greg Mankiw supplies a few possibilities. My favorites? Well let us start here:
In contrast to much rhetoric to the contrary, capitalism is the most powerful weapon to achieve energy efficiency we have.
He provides us with some things I am fond of, conjectures. So I will call this […]
Speaking of Common Sense
Lance on Oct 17 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Lance's Page, Libertarianism
While over at Megan’s I noticed a discussion she has about Bjorn Lomborg and her main criticism of him. That is that he doesn’t give enough weight to low probability, but catastrophic events. That is in fact a weakness (and she notes in his defense that it is a very contentious and difficult issue) and […]
Bjorn Lomborg on Al Gore and the IPCC
Lance on Oct 14 2007 | Filed under: Environment, Lance's Page
Bjorn looks at this in much the same way I do:
This year’s Nobel peace prize justly rewards the thousands of scientists of the United Nations climate change panel (the IPCC). These scientists are engaged in excellent, painstaking work that establishes exactly what the world should expect from climate change.
The other award winner, former US vice-president […]
Lance on Oct 12 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Environment, Lance's Page
This just confirms what a bogus award the Nobel Peace Prize has become. Past winners have often been inappropriate, such as when murderous thugs such as Yasser Arafat were awarded for claims and intentions rather than their murderous actions. At least in past cases, as deluded as they often were, the claim is it had […]
News Brief, Chesme siah daree Edition
Joshua Foust on Oct 05 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer
Defense & The War
Mountain Runner makes the case for why mercenaries aren’t all bad, and that the real sunk costs of their use should be handled. It’s similar to David Dryer’s case for their usefulness, which is framed as a counter to P.W. Singer’s point that their use obscures political costs. I […]
News Brief, Truncated For Life Purposes Edition
Joshua Foust on Sep 14 2007 | Filed under: Environment, Foreign affairs, Notes on the war
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense & the War
Reading the Instapundit and his minions, you’d think the one reason Bush wasn’t more popular is because he’s not bombing the shit out of Iran. Luckily, most people don’t think as they do.
How will the bombing-murder of Sattar Abu Risha, the Sunni Sheikh most visibly associated with the progress […]
Some Consensus - II
Keith_Indy on Sep 12 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Keith's Page
The sky is falling, the sky is falling…
Oh wait, no it’s not.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,176495.shtml
A new analysis of peer-reviewed literature reveals that more than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares. More than 300 of the scientists found evidence that 1) a natural moderate 1,500-year climate cycle has produced […]
News Brief, Kometenmelodie 1 Edition
Joshua Foust on Sep 08 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Notes on the war
Stewing in his own juices over at The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War
The Republicans are refusing to ponder any troop withdrawals. Does that now make General Petraeus a Defeatocrat? Maybe not, as he still wants troop levels to remain high—the progress, after all, isn’t yet permanent.
A face-wasted Just For Men’d Osama Bin Laden is set […]
Some Consensus
Keith_Indy on Aug 30 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Keith's Page
The “reality based” ideologues often decry when politics get in the way of science, but that certainly seems what they are doing with regards to global warming. But then, hey, making overblown claims based on the scantiest of evidence, real or anecdotal, gets them in the press, and makes them seem caring.
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=b35c36a3-802a-23ad-46ec-6880767e7966
Of 528 total […]
The “Bull Moose of Climate Change” reminds me of “A Modest Proposal”
Lance on Aug 22 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Domestic Politics, Environment, Humor, Lance's Page, Society
I sauntered over to Instapundit today and noticed this story:
Norway is concerned that its national animal, the moose, is harming the climate by emitting an estimated 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year through its belching and farting.Norwegian newspapers, citing research from Norway’s technical university, said a motorist would have to drive 13,000 kilometers in […]
News Brief, Pizazz We’re Gonna Give It To You* Edition
Joshua Foust on Aug 21 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, social science
Would much rather be back at The Original Conjecturer.
Defense
How to make an EFP.
The difficulty of sea mines.
These two takes on the SCO exercises (covered in sometimes much greater depth here, at Registan.net, and Bonnie Boyd’s Central Asia blog) have some interesting tidbits: the PLA has never performed a distance deployment before, and it’s a […]
News Brief, My News Brief Beat Up Your Honor Student Edition
Joshua Foust on Aug 17 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Environment, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war
Defense
Phillip Carter has some choice things to say of the Scott Thomas Beauchamp affair: “Anyone who finds Beauchamp’s story incredible merely because it’s upsetting has no idea what war can do… How, then, should journalists tell the story of what happens in wartime? At best, the American public is getting a filtered picture of the […]
Global Warming: The Early Years
MichaelW on Aug 14 2007 | Filed under: Environment, Media, MichaelW's Page
As an ideal follow up to my most recent post on Anthropogenic Global WarmingTM, Keith forwarded me an interesting tidbit from the Washington Times’ “Inside the Beltway” round-up:
D.C. resident John Lockwood was conducting research at the Library of Congress and came across an intriguing Page 2 headline in the Nov. 2, 1922 edition of The […]
On The Wings Of Butterflies
MichaelW on Aug 13 2007 | Filed under: Environment, Media, MichaelW's Page, Technology
My favorite class of all time was a course on chaos theory that I took my senior year in college. I think it was listed as part of the Chemistry Department’s curriculum (hey, whaddya know, it still is!), but it also involved physics and statistics (and thankfully, little math). My fondness for […]
News Brief, This Is My Sundown Edition
Joshua Foust on Aug 08 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense
DARPA wants many outrageous things—an oil-free Air Force, invisibility cloaks, piezoelectric bodysuits, kill-proof animal-esque soldiers, and so on. For the latter, my quite serious question is: at what point do these enhanced soldiers cease being human, and are reduced to machines? It’s all very Ghost in the Shell.
Calling Kevin Drum: Legacy of […]
News Brief, Much Much Better Off Edition
Joshua Foust on Aug 07 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war
Defense
As usual, Cathy Young chimes in on the Beauchamp debate with several highly cogent points: “I think there are good reasons to question Beauchamp’s accuracy, and neither TNR nor liberal bloggers are doing themselves any favors by coming uncritically to his defense. But conservative bloggers aren’t covering themselves in glory either when they stridenly insist […]
Bio-Fuel Increases Price of Ice Cream
Keith_Indy on Jul 16 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Keith's Page, Technology
The increase in the amount of bio-fuel production, specifically ethanol, is driving up the costs of anything that feeds or is produced with grain. This is leading to higher prices for milk, ice cream, cereal, and a host of other staples. The UN is also having a harder time buying grain to feed […]
Supporting carbon creds means no street cred
The Poet Omar on Jul 12 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, The Poet Omar's Page
Since the entire concept of carbon credits emerged a few years ago, I’ve constantly found myself questioning not only the actual effectiveness, but also the underlying motivation behind them. Donating or purchasing carbon credits basically seemed, to me at least, to be the designer way for rich (or wealthier than average) people to buy […]
Keith_Indy on Jun 25 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Keith's Page, Technology
Instapundit links to an article in Reason about how the increased production of ethanol is leading to higher prices for food.
I also think it could lead to increasing reliance by America on foreign grain. Which, as we saw with the pet food recall, could mean a riskier supply. You can poison grain, but […]
News Brief, I Worked Late Then Went to the Wilco Show Edition
Joshua Foust on Jun 22 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Notes on the war
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense
Follow up to the story on the pathetic number of fluents in Arabic currently stationed at the Baghdad Vatican-Embassy (and shame on me for not noticing this): the 3/3 proficiency level is virtually useless—both because it is not advanced enough for technical or legal matters, and it of a sort not actually […]
All Your Weather Base Are Belong To Us
MichaelW on Jun 18 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Environment, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology
“Kyoto, we have a problem.”
Few things annoy me more than the modern Lysenkoism of Anthropogenic Global WarmingTM and its rapturous congregation who viciously condemn any who dare challenge their scriptures. Each day it seems that we are bombarded with yet more bald-faced propaganda designed to scare us (and especially our children) into submission to […]
Keith_Indy on May 16 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Keith's Page, Technology
I’ve often commented that I don’t really trust computer climate models because they’ve seemed to me to be missing a lot of variables. So, it’s a little satisfying to see this article, which shows that MIT researchers are enhancing the model to more accurately account for a significant variable.
Global climate models are missing a […]
Sunny Times for Chinese Solar Power?
Lance on May 13 2007 | Filed under: Environment, Investing, Lance's Page, Technology
To get rich is glorious in China nowadays. Scientists are no exception.
A top home-grown inventor, 41-year-old Ma Xin, is currently engineering a reverse takeover of a small Singapore-listed investment company, Rowsley, in a deal worth 2.7 billion Singapore dollars ($1.6 billion) that would bring a small part of his high-tech corporate empire, Sinocome Group, to […]
News Brief, Planet Unicorn Heyyy Edition
Joshua Foust on May 03 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Media, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Technology, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer, where you’ll find an explanation for the edition name. I’m sorry.
The Pentagon
I think Lance should have highlighted Blackfive’s major point about the stupid restrictions on war blogs: the Pentagon has already lost the information war in the public arena. The supreme importance of competing narratives was chillingly highlighted in the […]
Next »
