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Cumulative Model.

The Reference Frame

Global Warming? Forget Humans.

The Worms Did It!

Instead of Anthropogenic Global Warming, it turns out to be Oligochaetapogenic Global Warming!

The Show Must Go On…

Yep. Just joined a new band. Have a show 2nite. Have 30 sum-odd songs to learn…. and yesterday I had the good fortune of cutting my middle fret finger whilst opening a can of food for dog. It bled quite nicely thank you Iams. God what a klutz! Hope it didnt get into her food – now she’s developed a taste for blood!Anyway. Still gonna play though. What’s a little blood and pain anyway.

A Legal Puzzler!

Sorry I haven’t kept up with my blog. I’ve not been feeling very conversational lately. Oh well. What can you do?….

You can post a Legal Puzzler Of Coarse!

From Orrin Kerr at Volokh:

Bob commits crime X, which has a statute of limitations of five years. Twenty years later — fifteen years after the statute of limitations has passed — a police officer finds out about the details of Bob’s crime.

The officer realizes that Bob cannot be punished for the crime because the statute of limitations has long passed. The officer decides to visit Bob at his home anyway to ask Bob about the crime twenty years earlier. The officer tells Bob what he knows about what Bob did and asks Bob if it is true that he did it. Bob lies and says he didn’t do it. Bob is then charged with intentionally lying to a police officer, which in our hypothetical jurisdiction is a felony. The government’s proof: twenty earlier, Bob did in fact commit crime X.

Question: Is it constitutional for Bob to be charged and punished for lying to the officer about the crime he committed 20 years earlier?

I think I know the answer, but I’ll let this simmer for a while.

“Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking, Just a Moment…”
“Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking, Just a Moment…”
“Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking, Just a Moment…”
“Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking, Just a Moment…”
“Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking, Just a Moment…”
“Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking, Just a Moment…”
“Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking, Just a Moment…”
“Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking, Just a Moment…”
“Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking, Just a Moment…”
“Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking, Just a Moment…”
“Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking, Just a Moment…”
“Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking, Just a Moment…”

Why is it always the ugly ones…?

So when they get these dry cleaned, do they come back wrapped in suits?

F***ing Brilliant!!!

Swear Jar

Stolen From: Sully.

The Life Cycle of Junk Science.

Below is the life cycle of junk science, from the web blog Daily Dollop It shows the history of classic junk science, from diet pills to The Population Bomb.

Genesis
1) Maverick Scientist has an Idea.
2) Other scientists deride the Idea.
3) SF Writers use Idea as image of bleak future.
4) Academics debate Idea.
5) Politicians begins to discuss the Idea, but don’t understand it.
6) General Public ignores the Idea.

Growth
7) Champion arrives to actively promote and publicize Idea.
8) Scientists form a consensus that agrees with Idea.
9) Academics teach Idea as fact.
10) Fast Adapters change lifestyle, ridicule General Public.
11) Hollywood makes disaster movie, sometimes based on SF novel from 3.
12) General Public makes token lifestyle changes.
13) Politicians use Idea to attack political enemies.

Hysteria
14) Scientific consensus begins ruthlessly crushing dissent.
15) Champion is hailed as Messianic Leader.
16) Academics announce society is doomed.
17) General public accepts Idea.
18) Opponents of Idea are cast as wicked and immoral.
19) Music Industry holds benefit, sometimes using film name from 11.

Critical Mass
20) Dissenting Scientist proposes alternative theory to Idea.
21) Scientific consensus denounces Dissenting Scientist.
22) Messianic Leader begins making ludicrous claims unrelated to Idea.
23) Politicians propose massive social, fiscal, and moral changes to accommodate Idea.
24) Time Magazine puts Maverick Scientist, Messiah, Idea, or all 3 on cover.

Death and Rebirth
25) Dissenting Scientist is proven to be right, nothing happens.
26) Scientists form new consensus, claim they knew all along.
27) Fast Adapters are ridiculed by General Public.
28) Academics continue to teach Idea as “compelling theory”.
29) Politicians raise taxes, just in case.
30) Messiah and Entertainment Industry find new Maverick Scientist.
31) Return to Step 1.

Stolen from: Watts Up With That?

Debate? What Debate???

This is not a good sign for the Republicans. I’m looking around at the usual places, but know one is even bothering to conduct an instapoll to see who won.

Just Can't Win. Pt. One. UPDATE!

Jonathan Adler at Volokh posted about a group of environmentalists trying to remove hydroelectric dams from Kenya. They’re already built and paid for and produce emissions-free electricity, thus are a very eco-friendly way to get cheap power to the people who desperately need a cheap source of power.

Replacing this energy with natural gas–the cleanest fossil-fuel source–would still pump 473,000 tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. This is roughly equal to the annual emissions of 102,000 cars.

Given this alternative, one would think that environmentalists would form a human shield around the dams to protect them. Instead, they have been fighting tooth-and-nail to tear them down because the dams stand in the way of migrating salmon. Environmentalists don’t even let many states, including California, count hydro as renewable.

The Great San Joaquin Valley, where I live, is bigger than many countries in Europe, and has a huge problem with air quality because all the icky smoggy stuff gets trapped between two mountain ranges, especially during the summer months when a massive high pressure ridge caps the region, providing little wind, and does not allow air to circulate out of the region. Europe and Japan are getting between 40 nd 70 percent of their energy from nuclear power, but the stupid liberals who run the state won’t allow it here.

Patric Moore, the founder and former member of Greenpeace, was in town not too long ago trying to convince the powers that be to build a small nuclear plant here in Fresno, and then went to Sactown (Sacramento) to try and convince the bosses to relax some the no-nukes regulations that make building new plants impossible. Though there is strong local support for the venture here in town luck, the current plutocrats running things will never relent. Localy, for at least forty years, there has been talk of building a hydroelectric dam above Milerton Lake, but, because of environmental resistance, it just won’t fly, not in the “state” we’re in.

OK, no big deal you say. They can build more wind farms or solar power generating facilities. Here’s your answe, again from Adler.

Their opposition to nuclear energy is well known. Wind power? Two years ago the Center for Biological Diversity sued California’s Altamont Pass Wind Farm for obstructing and shredding migrating birds. (“Cuisinarts of the sky” is what many greens call wind farms.) Solar? Worldwatch Institute’s Christopher Flavin has been decidedly lukewarm about solar farms because they involve placing acres of mirrors in pristine desert habitat. The Sierra Club and Wilderness Society once testified before Congress to keep California’s Mojave Desert–one of the prime solar sites in the country–off limits to all development. Geothermal energy? They are unlikely to get enviro blessings, because some of the best sites are located on protected federal lands.

Yes, California, the home of such conservationist / green libs such as Streisand and the glimmer twins Tim Robbins and Susan Serandon, has issues with hydroelectric power. You would think in a state that has some of the most atmospherically polluted cities in the US (greater LA, Bakersfield, I’m lookin’ in your direction) would do all it can to provide the cleanest power to support its population. But it will never happen. The movers and shakers spend gobs of time shuttling around in private jets, spending our tax dollars on luxuries, while trying to force us to use CF bulbs even if we don’t like them (in case you’re wondering, must of my lights were switched over a year and a half ago) and during the winter, where it gets into the 20’s on occasion, we in the valley are no longer allowed to use our wood burning fireplaces to help keep warm. So we have to use more power, and pay hefty power bills to the “Axis Of Oil” (just heard that term today – I like it, clever).

PS. I don’t think all liberals are stupid, just the ones who run the state.

UPDATE: They just can’t help themselves, can they!