Masters and Students, Sculpture in Stone

I was invited to show, that's my piece in the center, "Cro-magnon Mercury", 25" high, 25" long, about 100 pounds of marble on a 48" high stand, it's in a prominent place in the gallery, I'm real happy about that.  Most of the pieces in the show are real good quality and some are very creative.  I will try to get some better pictures in a few days, close up of the eyes, I get a lot of comments on them.

fossil fuel screwed us again.

Today in oil trading once again it crossed $100 a barrel, to 100.32.  Following 5 years of drill everything you can policy we are a major oil producer and prices are up, again, not down as we have been told.  At the same time cars are driving less and getting higher mileage.  Supply and demand doesn't work in a oligarch economy.  There packing it in ships and sending it overseas, our cheap oil will never happen.

Currently gas prices are down, that won't last long.  If you are shopping for a car, pay attention to the mpg.  Oh, a group did a study of a Volt, total purchase cost, tax, insurance,  fuel and electricity, rebates, credits, repairs, on a 13,000 mile year the cost comes out less than any other car on the market.

Wind turbines ordered, the rich lose one.

10 years or more of law suits and crooked publicity, Gov. Romney way back when he was gov., Congressmen and even Senator Ted Kennedy trying to stop it may have come to an end yesterday.  Cape Wind ordered over 100 turbines to supply over 200,000 east coast homes with power, at a much lower price than they pay now.  A couple hundred of the richest families in the nation, owners of Cape Cod mega mansions fought this, and still have court cases pending, but all approvals are met, and the turbines and construction contracts signed.  Placed beyond 5 miles of shore, the few that will be seen can be blocked from view by your thumb with your arm extended.  Almost no public access is available in the area, only these mansions may see them on clear days, fog, haze and rain will obscure them completely many days.  Among the losers count one of the Koch's homes.

Christmas eve green shine

The last few days have seen hugh numbers of wind turbines ordered all over the world.  In the US Iowa is the leader placing about 300 448 on order a few days ago from Siemens.  The Siemens nacelle (the big box on top holding the turbine) plant near my home will be very busy the next 16 months.  Iowa's energy is 20% renewable, will be 50% by 2020.

This week natural gas prices surged suddenly even though their is a glut on the market.  This bodes well for solar and wind, both sell energy at flat prices for 10 or 20 year periods.  Uncertainty in coal and natural gas costs are exactly what utilities are running from.

2,500 earthquakes in Oklahoma so far this year, almost all epicenters are in fracking areas.  5 years ago Oklahoma had only a few shakers a year.  South central Kansas started fracking 3 years ago, never had the epicenters within that area until the last few months they had several dozen in the 4 to 4.5 severity range, plaster crackers.

Germany yesterday announced 2 more coal plants closing.  Through insulation, conservation and a boom in solar panels on homes and shops energy demand fell 17% in one year.  Their energy prices are actually falling, making them more competitive as a business center.

Jan 1 will be the end of importing 40 and 60 watt old style bulbs.  Manufacturing of them in the US stopped last year.  Warehoused stocks may linger for a year or two in some markets.  Lots of nations have also outlawed these 2 bulbs, world few manufacturers of them remain.  I read a few days ago if every house in the US replaced just one of these with a CFL or LED we could close 2 jumbo coal fired plants immediately.  Now it's inevitable.

Happy Festivus

Bon Nadal i un Feliç Any Nou!

Auguri di un Buon Natale ed un Felice Anno Nuovo
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Fröhliche Weihnachten und ein sehr gutes neues Jahr
Joyeux Noël et Meilleurs Voeux
Feliz navidad y próspero año Nuevo !

Bom Natal e Feliz Ano Novo

С Рождеством и Новым годом

聖誕快樂，新年快樂

20 years to fix the last 15

did you ever have a snort in a van?

Maybe you was raised on weaker stuff.

Climate deniers hot enough to melt ice

This week another environmental info site joined the LA Times and a couple other science and eco sites who recently changed their comment policy.  Climate deniers posting anti-science and false facts will be deleted and blocked.  My paper is full of this hill-billy science comments claiming Freon never hurt no damn ozone, DDT never killed no eagles, oil never killed no frogs.
Attack on freedom of speech said the deleted ones.  No, says the owners of the sites, just fixing the debate rules, debates cannot occur when someone continues to interrupt with insults and repeat things which are not factual.  There are plenty of things to debate, decide, test and improve using facts.  If you want to talk to your uncle that's different, sure he will appreciate your assurance DDT is safe, FEMA has more labor prisons than North Korea, and coal smoke cools the earth by shading it.

Do you know these women's health heros of the year?

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/12/19/3083631/womens-health-heroes-2013/

37 Novembers in a row, each warmer than the previous

NOAA compiles the worlds surface temperature every day from thousands of monitors, reports, and satellite reading.  THIRTY SEVEN without a break.  Recorded temps go back to 1880, and for the last 37 Novembers the mercury rose.
Maybe you live where you had a really cold night, or whole month, but over the whole of the earth, both hemispheres, the sea the land the desert the swamp the mountain, the whole beautiful blue marble was warmer, now we are up to 56.6°F, a 1.4° rise, enough if you have a fever to put you off your game.  1.4° seems small but it's enough to spawn fights over thermostat settings in offices.  It's a  difference that works most the year melting glaciers.  Our food sources, from pigs to pears all have a  comfort range, exceed it and they; stop growing, produce less, produce nothing, die.  In the mid west we know when the temp starts jumping over 101, the tomatoes won't put on fruit, we are risking with global warming additional days when the plant just sets, trying to survive instead of fruiting.

I gave a friend an LED bulb 2 months ago, he was bitching the electric bill was too much.  Today I ask him how he likes it and burning 1/5th as much power for that light?  He hasn't put it in, said he hasn't decided where to put it yet and wonders if he will like it.  Some people are so fucked up, they make it hard for me to save the world, I told him 37 god damn it and this is why we can't have nice things.

The Swede's opinion on Obama

A manufacturing technology business associate of mine called to wish me happy festivus.  He's Swedish, and a US citizen for 15 years or so.  He was talking about how manufacturing business is ramping up, fewer unemployed in our field now, lots of investments, some products are coming back into the US for manufacturing.  Then he said, and homes are selling again, stocks are crazy up, profits are crazy up, agricultural crops and land at all time high and all energy sectors are booming.   And Obama doesn't get any credit for it.  It is absolutely nuts.

He said; I really don't like some of what he does, maybe more than half of what he does, but I don't hate the guy, I want to be fair, he does a lot of good things too.  It's because of his skin color so many old Americans and business people deny him any credit.  Coming from Sweden we are not so unkind, we can oppose an idea without hate, and we don't use appearance to decide if his idea should be opposed.  What about Syria he said, we missed the chance to help the rebels before radicals took over their cause, but taking away chemical weapons, this is hugh, this is important, but he gets no credit for this.

Abraham Lincoln's lecture, and wind energy

In 1858 or 59 Lincoln wrote a lecture, "Discoveries and Inventions". The following year he gave the lecture in Springfield Illinois, and I think he gave it at least once more, in another Illinois town. Lincoln had two great passions, ending slavery, and advancements in technology. By the time he was in the White House the turn of events and moral imperative tied him to only one of his goals.
Below is the passage of the lecture dealing with wind energy.  The written text of the lecture was left with a friend of Lincoln and not published until 1904, it is rarely picked up and is rarely cited as a speech or writing of the President.  If anyone gives a flip, I can let you know where and how to read the whole thing.

Of all the forces of nature, I should think 
the wind contains the largest amount of mo 
tive power that is, power to move things. 
Take any given space of the earth s surface 
for instance, Illinois; and all the power ex 
erted by all the men, and beasts, and running- 
water, and steam, over and upon it, shall not 
equal the one hundredth part of what is ex 
erted by the blowing of the wind over and 
upon the same space. And yet it has not, so 
far in the world s history, become propor- 
tionably valuable as a motive power. It is ap 
plied extensively, and advantageously, to sail- 
vessels in navigation. Add to this a few wind 
mills, and pumps, and you have about all. 
That, as yet, no very successful mode of con 
trolling, and directing the wind, has been dis 
covered; and that, naturally, it moves by fits 
and starts now so gently as to scarcely stir a 
leaf, and now so roughly as to level a forest 
doubtless have been the insurmountable dif 
ficulties. As yet, the wind is an untamed, and 
unharnessed force; and quite possibly one of 
the greatest discoveries hereafter to be made, 
will be the taming, and harnessing of it. That 
the difficulties of controlling this power are 
very great is quite evident by the fadt that they 
have already been perceived, and struggled 
with more than three thousand years; for 
that power was applied to sail-vessels, at least 
as early as the time of the prophet Isaiah. 

10 minute time suck you will be glad you watched

I am sure you have never seen anyone ski in such utterly dangerous places, and the video is beautiful.

Leaf'n the past behind

Around the block I've seen an electric Nissan Leaf drifting in and out of the garage of an unknown neighbor.  And Nissan is just waking up to what some Danish folks already do, fix the car so electrons can go in, or out.  Nissan is going to make some minor changes so this can be done without any tinkering.  When you have a rolling energy supply, why not make the full benefit available.

*Back up power.  Storms or hackers knock out your coal fired energy source, rather than buying a back up generator, or setting in the dark, let the Leaf do the work.  Fully charged Leaf can run most homes for 2 days, a week if your ultra stingy.

Just the Nissan announcement of Leaf as an emergency back up system will change the way the public thinks of EV, and competitors are idiots if they do not copy the feature.  The plant in Tennessee is set to increase production next year, the demand for the Leaf is increasing.

Insanity plea, who'd a thought the NRA was for it?

Everyone goes bonkers when some killer or the slick lawyer uses the insanity plea.  Drives people nuts,  we don't believe they are insane, just trying to get away with murder.

Since Sandy Hook, the NRA and the GOP have themselves now embraced the wack-a-doodle plea inn the public court of opinion.   In so doing are themselves moving the responsibility for the cost and pain on society from the industry that supplies killers, and the killers themselves, shifting it to the state.  They say the state should have a mechanism to spot and treat these people.  The state should be insuring they are identified, counseled, medicated, locked up if need be.  I'm not saying the state should not do this, I am pointing out who these new voices for this are.   My god, are they saying government can be a force for some kind of good somewhere?  Are they worried about these insanity plea people, their victims, or diverting attention away from their product?

  

Give or join NRDC

We joined NRDC 15 or 20 years ago. It is the most successful environmental group in the US, and they don't work alone, they partner with Sierra Club and many others on some actions. They have the highest rating for spending money on their stated purpose, and very little on the management team and fund raising, lots of non-profits cannot say that. At least visit the site from time to time and click the "take action" button. Happy Festivus.

The civil war in the GOP

Bad timing.  It appears skirmishing has begun, the GOP has so much hate they can not dissipate it fast enough, they are starting to use it on one another.  I am not surprised about this.  Even in the Kansas State house the same thing is going on.  I work with one GOP rep who at least shares one interest of mine, clean energy as a benefit to both humans and the planet.  But he told me this one deviation from the straight line march they demand will earn him a party sponsored challenger.  At the Fed. level, our GOP Senator high 90s% conservative voter Pat Roberts is up for election, and Ted Cruz is sponsoring a Tea Bag challenger against him.  A white guy named Wolf, who is a 2nd cousin to Obama, Ted Cruz raising money against senior senators, such is the warfare.
But, as fun as this is, it's ill timed.  I predict they will settle most these senate and house level fights in 60 days or so one way or the other.  A shame this blow up didn't wait a few months.  Maybe, just maybe it will drag out.
I still think for all the blood and guts that may be shed, overall the rich and corporations will flood who ever is left standing and mount a 2014 election that will be little different in outcome than if the fight never happened.  We who oppose the GOP now for their war on women, voting, charity, the middle class, will still have the same fight come mid terms, I don't see a cake walk.
Additionally, the Kochs have made an effort for the last few years and promise a much bigger one this round, that is to fund county and city, judges and state races for tea baggers.  In races that use to run on $5K, they are dumping in 10K, we are seeing in Kansas county races and small town mayors with thousands from a single donor, and they win, then they work for Koch, and this is whats the matter with Kansas and they are taking it national.  You better start paying attention to the dog catcher races, their being loaded with people who are learning to take money for favors.

laws that same money

Recently there are lots of these funny looking truck trailers on the road, with side skirts and what's called a trailer tail.  I looked at these trailer tails and thought boy that must be a pain in the ass for the driver to fold up.  At a machine shop a few days ago I saw a driver jump out, walk to the back and open the doors, the trailer tail folds automatically as the door swings, it didn't take any extra time.

California started the trend, with a law about truck fuel use tied to trailer aerodynamic drag.  Truckers bitched up a storm.  Guess what.  They save 6 - 7.5% on fuel use, combined with side skirts 12%, with low rolling resistant tires even more.  The ROI (return on investment), depends on miles and speeds but in most cases 1 year.  Truckers everywhere are adding them.  That's lower freight costs for consumers, less pollution, less pressure on fuel prices, 12% fewer hours parked at a fuel pump.  Damn the government and their anti-business laws.

In Europe some trucks now have flat hubcaps of cheap material, they save 1%, and also claim 1 year ROI, I have seen a few of these here.  Bonus for other drivers, trailer tails reduce the mist cloud behind the truck in wet conditions

Where there's smoke there's sugar, or meat.

Burn stuff, coal, wood, trash, and you get smoke.  Smoke is bad.  Same thing is going on in your body.  Burn the sugars and starches in food and you get, well not smoke, but same thing, oxidation, in this case it's called free radicals.  Just like smoke, this oxidation in our body can cause cancer, and many other forms of damage to cells throughout the body.
If you consume sugar, or a sugar drink, in the next 5 hours these free radicals rise to very high numbers.  If we eat peas, oranges, or any number of plants that may also contain high levels of sugar, the rise in free radicals is hard to detect.  This is because sugars and starches that reside in unprocessed plants come packaged by nature with 4 great big fancy sounding compounds I won't try to spell out, but these various anti-oxidant chemicals, more correctly phytonutrients, act like a catalytic converter to neutralize pollution in us.
Some food products, the so called super foods, broccoli, blueberries, walnuts, kale, kiwi, cranberries, and many others are so phytonutrient-rich they can neutralize large amounts of free radicals, and even heavy metals in some organs, even cause the body to attack cancer cells.
Meat can't do this.  Dairy can't do this. Eggs can't do this. In fact they add a hell of a lot of toxins and fee radicals to our body, include a very low level of inflamation in the veins following every meal.
You really ought to eat more plants.

Meat, see if you can read this and watch all the videos

http://www.rollingstone.com/feature/belly-beast-meat-factory-farms-animal-activists

Vegi's and fruit, grain and beans, spices, leave the meat eggs and milk at the store.  And no, you won't lack calcium, protien or anything else, it's all in the plants.

The Ratfink Axis

Canada and Australia are sellouts to fossil fuel dollars, like most nations that tie their economy to fossil fuel addiction, corruption follows.  Japan shut many of it's nuke plants after the discovery they are faulty and the nation has no ability or understanding on how to battle a run-away reactor.

handshakes are overrated

Roooosevelt - Stalin
Nixon - Kruschev & Mao
Raygun - Breshnev
McCain - Viet Nam leader, Quadaffie, Asssaddd
Bush - hold hands with Saudi Prince
Bush(old) - exchange body fluids / puke Japan primeee.
and so on.

Since about 35% of women and 60% of men don't wash their hands after pissing I think it should be offered sparingly, and as Jon Stuart said yesterday, dogs can shake hands.  By the way, those numbers are down the last few years, we are a less hygienic society than in the past.

corporations already using a self imposed carbon tax calculation

Shell, Exxon, BP, and these others already have their accounting factoring in a carbon tax to their future business plans and projects, using it in their decision making as if it already is a tax.  Most are using around $33 per CO2 ton.  Setting a carbon tax at the source, the mine or the well head is the simplest form of collection, the oil company pays the tax based on how much carbon is in this particular wells oil, the cost is embedded in the raw product and is thus spread through the market. This can solve all the fights about pollution laws,  driving the market to both conserve and clean up to save, and without so many rules.  It would also mean the dirtiest forms of energy (tar sands for one) would be left in the ground as unprofitable in the face of the carbon tax, meaning there will be writing down of assets and reserves.  These companies actually see this as an easier way into the future, relief from some of the laws and paperwork, higher prices falling on the dirtiest will force a migration to cleaner fuels and practices.  They also are preparing for what they believe is inevitable, they know full well what is causing global warming and that one way or the other it needs to be abated.

Ameren

American Electric Power

Apache

BP

Chevron

CMS Energy

ConAgra Foods

ConocoPhillips

Cummins

Delta Air Lines

Delphi Automotive

Devon Energy

Duke Energy

DuPont

Entergy

ExxonMobil

General Electric

Google

Hess

Integrys Energy

Jabil Circuit

Microsoft

PG&E

Shell

Total

Xcel Energy

Wal-Mart

Walt Disney

Wells Fargo

battle of the Popes for Kansas

Wichita paper editorial cartoon.  The little dog on the left says "Now, if you were a corporation..."

A local cartoonist did this, fitting after Pope Brownback announced a 1 billion dollar 5 year reduction in aid to all sorts of causes, in a low population state that pretty much means the poor WILL go hungry and die of preventable common diseases.  Then later in the week the front page story ask the question if charity from churches were making the poors life too easy.  Even the churches here are hard ass.

Thankfully at least one editorial today suggested the actual Catholic Pope in Rome attacked trickle down economics as cruel.  This is the opening, the beginning of a return of the religious left which has been smothered and coopted by the right.  We could see a little common sense and a shaving off of some of the republican catholic votes back to the center or the left.

The dogs ref to corporations may relate to the states competing for a new Boeing factory which will mean several billion in free land at a large airport, years of no tax, free water, sewer, training, several states are falling over one another to give their way to having a business bully locate in their town.

Devils in the details

Satanist have informed the state of Oklahoma they will submit plans to install a satanic monument on the state house steps, next to the 10 commandment monument.  After hiring lawyers to review the 09 law that allowed the "10", they said they have the right as well.  They singled out the author of the bill for his work, thanking him, saying he has helped Satanist with this law more than any of them could have ever done on their own.  They will submit multiple plans for the state to approve, saying they are eager that it meet community standards.
Thanks again bible thumpers, oh, wait and see the dingbats that come out of the woodwork to run schools when you pass a school voucher law.

Obama Green Energy directive.

This week Obama hit another home run on the environment.  He directed the federal government, military included, to increase their use of renewables by 20% by 2020, in increments starting next year. It also directs them to use less water and reduce their carbon footprint.  They can achieve these goals by doing it of their own accord such as buying a hybrid car or contracting for new windows or insulation for example.  It also directs the government to focus wind and solar installations for their own use on 'brown" sites, land fills or polluted areas to make them productive.  He also directs a 50% reduction of rubbish going to landfills.
Since Obama came to office the government has moved to buy or produce 7% of its electricity from renewables, already a great achievement.
The military is keen on this already, they have been bucking the GOP in Congress the last 5 years buying solar panels, fuel savings devices, shopping for tank and ship engines that save fuel, all against the wishes of the fossil fuel industry and the congress they own.
Our government has 50 thousand buildings, the largest energy and fuel buyer in the world.  The savings from changes in lighting, insulation, better windows, efficient heating will show up in only a couple of years.  Payback on some of these things are fast.  Payback for the environment is almost immediate.
Fuck the oil companies, the coal companies, they're buggy whip makers, times are changing, your turn is over.

bone up on puppy food

See, it's like two sets of workers inside your bones.  One crew is taking down anything that looks weak or corrupt, the other crew is putting up new arch ways and a strong honeycomb structure.
Human bones are made up of connecting rods and stalagtite looking structures and arches.  If we don't get enough nutrition and calcium, and as we enter old age, the crew that puts up the new stuff falls behind.  Bone density goes down, breaks may occur.
Doctors love to push Fosamax and other drugs to fix this.  They increase bone density, partially by laying off the crew that tears out the faulty old material.  The bone is not always stronger as a result of this adding new bone over rotten bone, it's heavier, denser, but not always stronger, breaks may still occur.  The drug industry however profits, so it's considered a net good.

The best prevention and treatment is to keep both bone crews on the job: 1) exercise, walking and weight bearing.  Swimming and biking have little impact.  2) phylates, a nutrient in seeds, whole grains, beans, greens, nuts.  You need to eat a few servings of these every day.  Added benefit, all of these also reduce weight, cut diabetes, heart disease, blood pressure and they have lots of calcium.

In 1949 phylates got a bad rap, a test on puppies indicated they caused bone loss.  Finally someone decided to study humans to addresses this issue, so the results are astonishing, it turns out don't feed puppies walnuts and pinto beans, instead eat them yourself and you both avoid osteoporosis.

About 1/2 in the US are in poverty or in danger of slipping in.

In only a few years the middle class went from being both in the center income wise and as a percent of the population to something else.  What?  Well, we still have a middle class if your goal is to define by 3, we would have to wouldn't we?  But if we track down the middle class of 20 to 40 years ago, most fell off the cliff, the railing was sold for scrap, the safety net was redesigned to catch corporations, and most fell through it.  Some managed to hang on to the middle class position, and a tiny few ascended.  The rich, we use to call them "well off", some fell of course, but their ranks have stratified due to the immense wealth they posses, the number of people with 10 million net worth is hugh, the number of extreme rich is in the thousands.  It is reported that 2,000 families own damn near the whole country, with worths of 1/4 billion and up.

47%, Romney singled them out as his political enemies.  If that's not class warfare I'll kiss his ring.  It is often said the ultra rich are out of touch, do not know the extent of the nations decline or the day to day struggle of so many.  That is pure steaming in the cold air bullshit, they know.

Minimum wage the scary story goes, would cause massive unemployment.  Here's what it might do, it might let the bank teller, the check out girl, the fast food worker, hotel worker quit one of their low paying jobs and spend a little more time with the kids, keep them in school, out of trouble, prepare them to contribute to the country.  Is that what the GOP is really against?

Being energy independent is being a moocher?

Yesterday a friend informed me he will buy a car early next year for in the city driving.  An EV.  Either a  Chevy Spark or Volt, Honda Fit, or Nissan Leaf.  The Spark and Fit have an 82 mile range, not sure about the others.
He works for a company who is openly hostile to conservation of fossil fuel, part of their business is oil, I told him they'll slash your tires.

Which brings me to ALEC, the boiler plate corporate/fossil fuel legislation mill that writes industry and racists bills and sends them ready to vote to every red state in the union.  For next year they are announcing their push......bills that will punish solar panel owners with a "free loader" tax, as well as more attempts to make wind farms harder to approve, and higher car tax on hybrids and EV vehicles.  Weren't those guys against higher taxes and gov. regulations?

WTF, I have sunlight falling on my house, I could buy (from a local businessman and craftsman to install) something that will turn it into electricity, and they want to get the public to consider me a free loader for not buying energy from a giant corporation at a higher price, for being independent, not only that, but put a tax on me for not buying from the monopoly.  This is government by corporations.

Here's another thing.  The more people and businesses with a supplemental source of power, the stronger the community is during a natural or man caused disaster.  If a few gas stations can pump, a few pharmacies are open, some of the homes have limited power, the community can function at some level, the quicker the recovery.  ALEC's interest does not include these.

Poison fish warnings in North Carolina

I was in North Carolina a few days, friends took me to a lake to hike, at the waters edge a sign warns sportsmen not to eat more than two 6oz. servings of fish a month, children and pregnant people should never eat it.  Seems the power plant, as well as some factories have been dumping fly (coal) ash and other shit they don't want to properly deal with right in the god damn lake or piling it on the shore.  A beautiful lake, absolutely poisoned.  But it can't be, I always heard how our corporate benefactors so love the earth they would never do anything to harm it or their customers.

Later the subject of well water came up, turns out in the same area many homeowners have PCB's, cadmium, mercury in the water and had to connect to a municipal water system.  Again, the source is the same set of businesses.
It's our fault for allowing the corporations to wreck the earth for years and years into the future.

My excellent adventure past dead mountain

Made it back.  11 day Turkey day visit to family and friends.  Drove it.  Kansas to DC to North Carolina, back to Kansas.  Great time.
One thing kept showing up at every railroad track we encountered, coal trains.

When we got into West Virginia we passed a mountain top removal crime scene.   The tops were being pushed over the side, below the trees knocked at angles on other trees waiting to be covered by 100 feet of rubble.  In one valley we watched as 3 tracks winding in parallel carried 2 loaded trains side by side, another moved the opposite way empty.  The whole trip we saw trains, everywhere, yesterday the last drive, in the flat lands of Kansas a coal train over a mile long moved south, 4 engines in front, two in the center, and one at the end.  We have got to conserve and get off coal, we have to save the Appalachia.  Buy an LED or CFL damn it.

The true cost of coal includes health and environmental damage, we know of some of these.  In my town so many coal trains come through, one an hour I think, it made travel from east to west slow, even stopping fire trucks and ambulances, killing some who would be saved.  The city raised a few miles of the track in some areas to cure this problem.  This was millions in cost, for someone else's coal, Oklahoma or Arkansas, maybe Texas, but we pay millions for it.  The true cost of coal?

bye

stuff to do and family for the next 10 days or so, bye.

Media may not be writing their own stories any more.

A few days ago my newspaper did a piece on college professors pay.  Headlines screamed that at least 12 in my state were getting over $100,000.  Text used terms like "raking in" describing the pay.  They listed deans and administrators too, a couple were over 200k.    That list only showed the income of female coaches, not men coaches, if they had shown men they would have a half dozen making several million a year, but that was left out of the story.

In my family I have 4 university professors, 5 plus a 6th retired if I get into the distant cousins.  None of them make much.  They do it because they like it, life on a campus can be fun and entertaining, sports, music, youth.  It's a good living, they do fine, but I know engineers, small business owners, even top notch carpenters and mechanics, computer programmers, who make around what they do.  It certainly seems fair, actually I think they should be making far more, these are the people who are suppose to push our best and brightest up onto the top shelves.

So I was looking on line at that story and suddenly I found the same story in a half dozen states, all published within the last 2 months.  Now I smell a rat.  Some anti tax or anti education group, or the Kochs, some rat has written this story and given it to papers in various states, shit the stories were very similar, all the locals had to do was download the state universities pay scale, which they published with names attached.  

Dreamlifter's nightmare.

A modified 747, one of only 4, flies from Seattle to Japan, or Italy, or Kansas every few days to pick up sections of the 787 fuselage or wing and haul them to assembly in Seattle. This morning Boeing may be down to only 3. Last night one landed in Wichita at the wrong airport. 6 miles north of McConnell AFB shared runway with the aircraft builder Spirit (the former Boeing factory sold to the Canadians). Anywho, they landed at Jabara Airport, named for a Syrian emigrant who became a Korean War Ace fighter pilot. Jabara Airport is a couple miles from the Koch Brothers homes and their headquarters.  It caters to small jets owned by the 1%ers of Kansas.   The picture shows the plane laying under our current grey sky.  
The problem it's certified for 9,119 ft. take off, Jabara has 6,100.  Well, they can wait a couple days for temps to fall to freezing, that helps, they can use that time to take out some of the gear that moves and secures freight, that might lower the weight a few ton, they can take off with minimum fuel for the short flight, they can take down the chain link fence.  To the south are high end medical clinics and hundreds of expensive homes, to the north is a mix of open land and 5 acre McRanchs, a stiff north cold wind will be the best.  I assume they will have to get an FAA waiver and an insurance policy.  Otherwise they could take it apart in the open and haul it 6 miles to the Boeing hangers and glue it back together, a 1 year project for sure.  But with only 3 Dreamlifters available, another event and the 787 DreamLiner build schedule becomes a nightmare.  

How did it happen.  On a clear night with no other traffic the McConnell air traffic control would give an experienced pilot of a large slow aircraft clearance to land a few miles out, then set and watch, the crew in this case, coming from the north, saw the lights of the first airport, they are in alignment, and ended their employment with Boeing 6 miles out.   This looks like pilot error, their are a number mistakes here, navigational aids should have been reporting distance and vector.  Kudos for getting it stopped though, that was great.

UPDATE: As the temp fell near freezing, wind kicked up to 15 to 20 out of the north, they pumped most the fuel out of it and at mid day they took off easy as you please, circled around and landed at the other airport.  Seemed no effort at all.

10,000 hits

 
click to enlarge

Republicans make protesting a privilege for the rich.

 Federal Lands Jobs and Energy Security Act.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), makes applications to drill approved  automatically in 60 days if the Department of Interior fails to act on with in that time.  I sell machinery to corporations, oil companies in the past (but not now), I can tell you they cannot act in 60 days, yet this will demand the government to, or the approval is by default.  Lets see what would be a good strategy, how about bundle up all your requests and send them in at once, ask other drillers to do the same, making it impossible to review them all.  

What if you find out they will frac next to your property, under this new law filing a complaint, or motion, asking for a meeting or to speak, under this law that is called a protest, and protesting comes with a $5,000 filing fee.  Protest tax!  And you better move fast.

Only the guy with the big house or the fancy horse farm is going to plunk down 5k to  protest.  In almost every oil rich country corruption and stepping on the public is common place.  As the US grows into a major oil and gas producer....well just look at the middle east as the model, petro-states run by religion and corporations based on graft and suppression of the people.

I hope the Senate won't take this up but I am not too sure, and Obama, he worries me on shit like this, he wants to keep trying to do favors to the oil industry hoping they will call off the dogs, sometimes I think he doesn't learn very fast.

To break the oil habit, it takes a village.

Burning oil to generate electricity is common on small  islands and remote villages from Alaska to central you-name-it.  In the lower 48 very little electricity is made from oil, but world wide the pollution is significant, some global warming experts identify it as one of the fixes that could quickly make a difference in global warming.
Not only are villagers living near a smoke belching screaming generator barn, the cost is crippling.  The oil shipped or trucked adds additional pollutants to the environment.

The solution is emerging, it's solar panels for most locations.  One Pacific Island recently installed more than enough to run the area during daylight.  The generators are backup and don't run often.  LED lights and batteries get people through the evenings.  The cost is much less than diesel, in about 5 years they break even.  Villagers don't miss the roar or smoke of the old system.

In other areas a few lucky villages are buying wind turbines, especially near the poles.  A few years ago I gave few dollars to an Eskimo village crowd funding for mid size wind mills.  They raised enough to buy two I think.

Solar panels here are usually met with the "hey they only work in daylight" gotcha.  So, I say build big solar farms, and set a two tiered rate schedule, much lower in the daytime.  People will make a bigger effort at running washers, dryers and other appliances during the day.  The night load will be reduced somewhat leaving wind (which runs more at night than day) to pick up much of the evening demand.

Dopamine, it's all in your head.

The pleasure of a friends company, a good joke, book, beauty, sensual art or encounters, good food, all these cause a chemical release in the brain that intensifies the pleasure, in fact is most of the pleasure, that's dopamine we make it and we consume it in our head.  Street drugs are the most severe dopamine enablers.  Brain scans record this, and demonstrate that in between use of these drugs, dopamine background levels fall.  In other words, the normal hum-drum level of happy is reduced, to feel good the drugs need to be applied more often and in greater doses.  Addiction!

Accidentally it was discovered in a brain scan, then studied and confirmed, obese people have the identical dopamine reaction with sugar.  Addiction.  Dopamine levels can only be elevated to "happy" with sugar.  Of course they don't go to the same level of high, and sugar doesn't push them to carjack or turn tricks for sugar money.  But, I can now understand a little better the glutton's dilemma.  Got a monkey on your back cold turkey man, and seriously, there is no reason to give babies or children sugar, my son didn't taste a soft drink until he was almost 4, and then by a god damn fat ass brother in law who bought him a 24 ounce coke in a bakery and an 8inch chocolate cookie (the house speciality).  Asshole.  Biblethumping asshole.  Well the kid is 30 now, and does not have a sugar habit.   

In the movie "Heaven Can Wait" Warren Beatty, in his new life found out that among his vast wealth was a sugar business, he tells his advisors to sell it because, "sugar, it's bad for the body".

heat moves, thats it, heat moves - friday junk science

Bet you didn't know that heat moves and cold does not move.  There is only heat, the opposite is less heat.  Cold can only be explained as absence of heat.   Cold has no force. Cold cannot travel, only heat has force, can travel.  Heat is atoms in motion, the more or faster the atoms move, the higher the heat.  Absolute zero is as the absence of all heat (all motion) and is impossible to achieve.  Nowhere in space does absolute zero exist. In a laboratory they can get down to few thousandths of a degree over it, but not to it.
If we apply heat to flame to a fork we can feel the heat move along it's length.  Put an ice cube on it and    the heat is spent moving into the ice melting some of it, therefore the cool feeling that we might mistaken for cold moving, instead it is heat moving into cold.  All examples of cooling and warming are one direction.  Heat moves, cold does not.
This is the action in the fridge or airconditioner, heat is being moved out and replaced by less heat through gasses that in vacuum vessels boil at lower temperatures than surrounding temperatures.  This boiling off of the heat is expended through fins or fans or baths.
The Alaska pipeline sets on permafrost that is kept frozen by pipes into the ground under each foundation.  The pipe is a sealed vacuum tube with a little water in it.  The degree of  vacuum (negative atmosphere) determines when the water boils.  Water boils in a vacuum at temps other than 212°f.  These are set to boil at temps of the typical permafrost, when winter cold falls below these values the heat syphon moves heat in the permafrost to the cooler air thus freezing the permafrost to a far lower temperature enabling it to get through the summer without thawing and sinking the pipeline.

check out cooling fins on top

Speaker Bohner wants to find a way.......

a way to ignore two girls, Mexicans, 13 and 15 and their story. Find a way my ass, the votes are in the house, already enough Republicans support it to pass if he will let it come to a vote, if he will do what he wants muslims to do, speak out against the extremest among them. As you watch him fiddle with his breakfast you know he knows he is on the wrong side of history. Here we see one more catholic not following Christ's teachings. By the way, the comments about this video where I snatched it, rude and crude. There is so much hate coming from white people, it's embarrassing to be white.

Kansas hoops, 5 beats 4

 KU 94, Duke 83.  I didn't expect the Jayhawks to win.  KU is mostly a team of freshmen.  The two exhibition games and a game against Louisiana Monroe were sloppy boring wins stuffed full of fouls, turnovers and busted set plays.  Finally it clicked last night, they figured out how to be a team in the nick of time.

I like the Jayhawk mascot and logo, we consider it a mythical bird, the name's meaning is a mystery, but the Missouri slavers first named the free-state settlers Jayhawks, whatever kind of insult it was at the time is lost.   As for the Duke logo, what the hell is that?  It looks like parenthesis with nothing in it.  Why did they drop the blue devil  logo?  Religiosity?

drying poodles in the microwave

Yea, not so funny, the old joke may have some truth to it I don't know.  But aren't we all that quivering wet poodle riding the glass turntable?  It's all flying right through us; radio, microwave, TV, WiFi, satellite data, to say nothing of background frequencies from exploding stars, white dwarfs, and your neighbors remote controlled drone looking in your bedroom window, e-gads, were all in a microwave on "thaw" cycle.

Duke University, may their basketball team forever have sore feet and blurry vision, just came up with a panel, a bit like a solar panel, to harvest all these errant transmissions and convert it to energy.  In a few years we may have a funny looking little white card standing on the shelf and cabled to the cell phone or computer charging the dickens out of it.  The tin foil hat guys were right all along, but rather than shooting up the mall over it, maybe we buy a little card that will snatch free power out of thin air 24 7.

Correction on methane's ability to kill earth

 Pound for pound, the comparative impact of CH₄ on climate change is over 20 times greater than CO₂over a 100-year period.

Turns out in my previous post I may have made a mistake.  Methane, CH₄ , shares with other green house gases the ability to let light waves pass through to the earth, and the ability to reflect back on the earth infrared (radiant heat) waves, warming our world.  I have seen it stated various ways but have opted for the one above which uses a lower number tied to a time frame which deals with the different live spans of both gases at high altitude.  

So it may appear that methane will stress the earth at a slower pace, but a kill is a kill.

trucks, natural gas, sieves

correction in blue
Last week I posted (look at the second one down) "Another one of your stupid ideas shot down,......".  Concerning the idea that Natural Gas gives off 1/2 the CO2 of coal, therefore it's a good idea, but that just ain't so, if, and we must, count the destructive power of the methane leaks.  Methane, or CH4, being NG before it's burned in your water heater or local power plant.  Methane molecules are a full 102 20-25 times more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2.  Leaks at the well, the pipe, the compressor, and the utility plant conspire to make claimed advantages worthless.

My old pal, Sarge, One Angry Zebra ask if it still wouldn't be a net good if trucks were converted from diesel to NG?  I said I suppose so but not much.  But, it's as likely I was wrong, it may never be a net good.  I have found scientific studies which suggest NG as a bridge to even cleaner energies is instead a gangplank.  

If we only measure CO2, then NG is the winner, it puts out less than gasoline or diesel, as it also put out less than coal.  It's a winner in that race.  But the infrastructure moving it and storing it is the problem, starting at the well head.  NOAA scientist in February measured CH4 leaks at dozens of wellheads in Texas found leaks of 6-12% at or near the well.  We haven't moved it yet and we already lost enough to overwhelm the CO2 advantage of burning it instead of diesel.  Remember it's 102 20-25 times the destructive power of CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

To complicate things, CH4 lives 12 years in the high atmosphere, CO2 100 years.  In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science they did the calculations on converting trucks from diesel to NG.  Figuring the impact of burning each fuel, the life of the burned fuels in the atmosphere, the life of CH4 escaping throughout the infrastructure.  Converting vehicles today to NG will not have a positive impact on radiative forcing of the climate (warming) for 80 years or more.  Unless, the well-to-wheels CH4 leaks are reduced by 45-70%.  Stopping all leaks is impossible, but for this fuel to live up to what the industry propaganda claims, leaks must be 2% or less throughout the infrastructure.  Again, as before I remind you, the industry will do nothing to reduce leaks unless forced.  They have so much gas available, what do they care?  And these numbers are from only a few wells, most areas deny access for testing.  My guess is there are some examples out there of far worse leaks

Wind solar wave and geothermal looks better all the time doesn't it?  Science is interesting isn't it?  Whether you believe it or not, it's still true.

melt all the land and sea ice

google national geographic ice melt to see other parts of the world if all the ice melts.  Boy it sure does a job on Cuba, Florida and Alaska.

Another of your stupid ideas shot down, for free, your welcome.

correction in blue

Burning natural gas puts off 50% the CO2 as coal in generation plants, and in transportation it pollutes far less than diesel or gasoline.  We know this, and the industry runs adds on TV to drive it home, so the public believes it could help reverse the slide to global warming.  In truth it won’t, or if it does, not much and not for a very long time.

The largest use of natural gas is for electricity generation.  For a number of years now it's been replacing coal as a fuel, the replacement rate is 2.5% a year.  Sounds good so far. 

When we burn methane (natural gas) it makes CO2, a greenhouse gas, who’s molecules live for up to 100 years aloft if not absorbed into the biosphere.  If there is a methane leak at the well, pipeline or generation plant, the unburned methane rises, also a greenhouse gas and 102 20-25 times more powerful than CO2.  102 20-25 times more powerful than CO2 at trapping heat.  Methane molecules life in the upper atmosphere is about 12 years.

Estimates and early studies vary, but leaks (from well to the turbine's flame) range from 1.5% to 8% of natural gas is lost.  So it’s complicated, but like compounding of interest the numbers are rather startling when figuring; the conversion rate, the CO2 savings in burning NG over coal, the leak rates, the life and power of each destructive green house molecule. 

The worse case scenario is the 8% leak rate.  If this is true the switch to NG makes things worse for 60 years before it achieves an actual improvement.  If the rate of conversion to NG doubled to 5% a year it would take 50 years to cross into the plus column.  If however, the leak rate is 1.5%, the pay off is immediate, but it’s not much of a gain, we would be only a little better off, and I would take that small advantage.  My gut says that 1.5% is not going to stand up, the leak rate, like every ship wreck or oil platform explosion will turn out to be multiples of what the industry wants to claim.

This only looked at one item, power generation fuel substitution.  It did not look at fracking and it’s multiple layers of community damage. It did not look at transportation use of NG and the leaks in those tanks, engines, and during refueling.  Nor the hissing leaking pipes running below our streets, into our homes.  It did not look at oil wells which often (as you may smell if you drive past one) has methane escaping at the wellhead.  Refiners often flare off NG rather than capture it during refining of oil.  The overall oil and gas industry methane leak rate is unknown but might be over 15% of what we use.  The industry however says oh it’s tiny, why would we let an asset escape?  Well, maybe because your making so damn much money on it that putting improved seals in the pipeline compressor or capturing rather than flaring just isn’t worth it.  We have to remember, they are in the business of ripping resources from the earth, nothing else.

Ever wonder if the higher price energy and water stingy washer is worth it?

One of these days your gonna need a new washing machine.  I just got one, about as energy and water stingy as I could find to buy, had it 4 months, our water consumption is way down, big drop, power use is down too a few dollars a month.
Consumer report illustrates how much you can save by spending more, maybe lots more, for the energy efficiency model.

Energy use for 300 cycles a year for 10 years.  $780 for the best units, but a whopping $2,180 for the worst.  Water use, 43,200 gallons, or up to 153,600 gallons for the worst wasters.  If you have an old machine you've sent the power company a minimum of $2k the last 10 years.  Water in some markets is mucho $, so that adds up too, and me, I don't like sending it to the utility.

pick'n peppers ahead of the freeze

Went out a few minutes ago, picked the last of my bell peppers and jalapenos, all of them, even the tiny little guys the size of a big pill.  A nice last harvest. Washed and in the fridge already.
Came in chopped onions garlic celery and two tomatilla and a jalapeno, sautéed for a few minutes added oregano, cumin and smoky paprika and salt a squirt of catsup.  Wow, a good tomatilla salsa.

we shall never be younger

Pussy Riot to the Gulag Archapipelago, the warden will see you now.

With only a few months left on her prison term the 23 year old musician Nadezhda Tolokonnikova is being sent to central Siberia, 4500 Km from her family, in the dead of winter, to a frozen isolated work camp.  The gulag system lives, and Putin and the Russian Church are eager to provide their enemies the opportunity to die there.  One of the only times she was able to converse with outsiders she claimed abuse by prison officials, now the trans-Siberian railway will carry her where the cry of rape will freeze in the empty forest.  

Imagine, Snowden, the self made savior of freedom and human rights, has chosen Russia to hide in and cry how dangerous the US is.  Hell is empty, all the devils are up here.

poor doctor

Preventative Care Kills return business and profits.

90% of heart disease can be prevented, and most of it can be reversed, with a plant based diet.
Almost all high blood pressure, diabetes, gout, can be reduced to the point of calling it cured.
Most cancers can be avoided, and a few can be shrunk, by a plant based diet.
Of the top 10 killers, only gun shots cannot be impacted by diet.

None of this makes the doctors, hospitals or drug companies any money, neither does it make fast food or the meat industry money.  So, it's (their) wealth over (your) health.

A friend signed up for Obamacare

Friend of the wife got signed up.  She has a good income, not eligible for any discount subsidy so she just called up BlueCross and bam she is ready to go.  They will give her a certificate of insurance to use if she needs to, I don't know, maybe you send it in with your tax return.
BlueCross told her that anyone can sign up through an insurance provider rather than the government sites, but if you are eligible for subsidy you have to use the certificate to get it through some exercise, again I don't know how but it can be done.
People, especially if you are not going to get a subsidy (somewhere around a 50k or 60k income level) you can just do it on your own now.  For the friend, she had a pre-existing condition from surgery 10 years ago that has kept her from having insurance ever since.  This is a good deal, she is thrilled.

Bird killers, it sure as hell ain't windmills.

Canada did a study of bird kills.  Power generating wind turbines did not make the list, they kill only around 2 birds a year each on average.

1. Domestic and feral cats: 200 million
2. Power lines, collisions and electrocutions: 25 million
3. Collisions with houses or buildings: 25 million
4. Vehicle collisions: 14 million
5. Game bird hunting: 5 million
6. Agricultural pesticides 2.7 million
7. Agricultural mowing: 2.2 million young birds, equivalent to one million adult birds
8. Commercial forestry: 1.4 million nests, equivalent to 900,000 adult birds
9. Communications towers: 220,000

The myth promoted by Koch's and their fellow opponents of wind turbines is just that, myth.  There are a few turbines that have whacked a number of birds, but most never hit one.  I spend a few hours with the operating manager of a wind farm in western Kansas, he has 90 turbines.  He said he has never found a bird under one of his yet.  Last year 2 eagles were reported found near towers (somewhere?) in Kansas, 1 had a bullet hole through it, so.....

Nature Porn or Zen?

11 mostly red states amazing surprise

Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Registered voters in these states view on global warming and the EPA:
92% of democrats trust the EPA to regulate green house gases.
58% of republicans trust the EPA to regulate green house gasses.
65% of all voters say climate change is a serious problem.
74% of all voters say the EPA should make more laws on pollution. 
12% of these states reps. believe the public wants stronger laws on pollution.

These numbers are a shocker.  The public is far more progressive than I imagined, and the politicians couldn't be more isolated.  Clearly politicians are hearing from and fund raising among a narrow group.  We knew that.  But I don't think any of us knew it was this lop sided, shit, these guys are 50+ points off on what they think people want, if we can convince more to speak up, write, call, visit these guys local offices, maybe we can raise it to 15%.  Ha, it's a goal, one thing I learned, without a goal, not much happens.  
The poll also probed the environment as a campaign issue, running against the EPA and science will not pay off in most of these areas in 2014, so we need to make it an issue.

The publics determination as shown here, to act on global warming, ties nicely into explaining the rapid movement to divest.  See the 2nd blog below.

Vegan recipes I really like

Tom, Outta the Cornfield ask, so here are some I make often.

Red Beans and Rice. A southern dish, variations are as many as meat loaf, I just leave out the sausage.
Saute (chopped) medium onion, bell peppers, 2 or 3 stalks celery, 1 or 5 garlics, add equal amounts of red beans and cooked brown rice, a can of chopped tomato, thyme, oregano, paprika, bay leaf, pepper(s) of your choice (black, cayenne, chipotle, jalapeno) salt.  Simmer slow for 15 to 45 min. or how ever long you can wait.

Spaghetti sauce.  Take any sauce recipe, leave out the meat, add white beans and add lots more basil than they call for.  I have had this in Italy.  I then use whole grain pasta.  You may have to experiment, some of the whole grain pasta's are not so great, I like Barilla, as good as white flour pasta.

Indian Potatoes with Cauliflower
Stir every few minutes while you make this.
Saute 1 minute 1T oil, 1t cumin, 1t garlic, 1t ginger.
Add and saute 7 min. (chopped) 2 or 3 potato, 1/2t paprika, 1/2t garam masala, 1/2t tumeric.
Add 1/2 (chopped) medium cauliflower and 1t fresh cilantro, lower heat to a simmer 10 min., cover.
You may need to add a tiny amount of water in the last few minutes.

What is Garam masala?  If you cannot buy this, make do with as many of these as you can get your hands on.  Mix these in descending order, say a spoon of the first item and a little bit less of each as you go.  Cumin, Coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cayenne, nutmeg.  Shake it up and you now have the secret to many Indian dishes.  There are a hundred recipes for this spice, so use what ever of these you have you will get part way at least.

Pilaf, Lentil, Millet, Barley or Rice.  Variations on rice pilaf, same thing, this can also be made with combinations of these grains but cooking time means you use different pans then combine near the end.
Basically it's a small amount of vegis cooked with the grain.
1 carrot diced small, 1 celery stalk diced.  Sometimes a few shavings of onion, or a few peas.  A little salt and pepper at the end.
Put the vegis in with the grain and simmer till grain is done.  Brown lentil takes 25 to 30 min., red takes 5 or 10 min., green in between.  Millet about 20 min. (2.5 times water to grain on millet). Barley takes over an hour so add vegi's at about 50 minutes.  At serving time I sometimes add a little vegi oil and/or nuts, even raisins work.
Bonus salad.  You can cool a bit of this then add any of these: few fresh diced onion, diced pepper, cucumber, tomato, oil and vinegar, even drained-washed beans, sha-zam a high protein salad.

Americans don't eat lentil or millet very often.  They are both high in protein easy to digest and fast to prepare.  Almost all millet is grown in Colorado, most is organic, low priced, buy it at a store that sells bulk.  Millet is nutty or even popcorn like flavor.  It's also tiny and round, drop it and it goes everywhere like ball bearings.


OK, in a few days I'm going to give you some more, including some soups worth fighting over, yea, grab a wooden spoon and go in swinging.