Dec 15 2008

Merry Christmas, with a little intergalactic reminder of the Logos

Category: Christmas,science,space — harmonicminer @ 10:08 am

Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar 2008 – The Big Picture – Boston.com

As we head into the traditional western Holiday Season, I’d like to present this Hubble Space Telescope imagery Advent Calendar. Every day, for the next 25 days, a new photo will be revealed here from the amazing Hubble Space Telescope. As I take this chance to share these images of our amazing Universe with you, I wish for a Happy Holiday to all those who will celebrate, and for Peace on Earth to everyone.

Shoot, I’ll just go whole hog and say, Merry Christmas!

You do want to click the link above; it is quite beautiful. Here’s a taste.  Apologies for the large file, but you’ll see why.

Now go see the rest, at the link above.

Tags: , ,

Dec 14 2008

If CO2 causes global warming, why does the temperature go up BEFORE the CO2 level follows?

Category: global warming — harmonicminer @ 10:26 am

A question for which I have read no reasonable answer that doesn’t sound like hocus/pocus (change the focus):

If CO2 causes global warming, why does the temperature go up BEFORE the CO2 level follows?  This is the message of the ice cores and other methods for linking historical temperature and CO2 levels.

From the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works :: Minority Page

Aussie Scientist Says ‘No relationship between CO2 and temperature’

The bad news for global warming alarmists just keeps rolling in. Below is a very small sampling of very inconvenient developments for Gore, the United Nations, and the mainstream media. Peer-reviewed studies, analyses, and prominent scientists continue to speak out to refute climate fears. The majority of data presented below is from just the past week.  Also see: U.S. Senate Minority Report: “Over 400 Prominent Scientists (now over 500 and rapidly growing) Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007” & â€˜Consensus’ On Man-Made Global Warming Collapses in 2008   – July 18, 2008 & An August 2007 report detailed how proponents of man-made global warming fears enjoy a monumental funding advantage over skeptical scientists.

You really want to look over this entire report and run down some of the links to get a flavor for what you’re not getting in the major media. Don’t forget to check out Part Two of the report, too.

In the meantime, the Left will continue to blab on that “the case is closed” and “the evidence is all in”.  Something’s all in, all right….  and the only thing that seems closed to me are the minds of the eco-panic Left.

Dec 14 2008

A little history for the eco-panicked

Category: global warming — harmonicminer @ 1:24 am

This is priceless.

Tags:

Dec 14 2008

The Music Inside

Category: music — harmonicminer @ 12:35 am

Being a musician, this one just appealed to me:

Stethoscope

Tags:

Dec 13 2008

Too easy to forget about right now

Category: military,national security — harmonicminer @ 10:14 am

What Norman Podhoretz calls World War IV continues, even though the American public isn’t paying the attention it should, largely because the media isn’t either.  (In Podhoretz’ formulation, the “Cold” War was World War III.)  Brilliant, independent war correspondent Michael Yon writes about the difficulty of the war for our military, and the   distortions that happen in it’s reporting.

While Americans sleep tight in their beds, this time of year U.S. soldiers sit shivering through the frigid, crystal clear nights at remote outposts in places most of us have never heard of and will never see. Often they head out into the enveloping darkness, to hunt down and destroy terrorists, who continue to kill innocent Afghans, Americans, Aussies, Balinese, Brits, Indians, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Spanish….in short, anyone who opposes their violent tyranny. Their greatest weapons are ignorance and terror. Witness the latest unprovoked attack on our friends in India.

These enemies have no wish to reconcile with their fellow countrymen, or compromise in any way that would diminish their control of the lives of the ordinary Afghans who don’t share their feral vision of life. They throw acid in the faces of little girls whose only crime is that they go to school. So we must continue to send our toughest men to confront them eye to eye, while performing the difficult balancing act of not alienating those who intend us no harm. This is particularly difficult in Afghanistan, a proud nation with a deep tradition of antipathy toward outsiders — even those who are here to help, though I am finding many Afghans clearly do not want us to leave.

Continue reading “Too easy to forget about right now”

Tags: ,

Dec 13 2008

Transplanted San Fran loons

Category: left,society — harmonicminer @ 10:02 am

Here’s how it is in Washingon state this Christmas:

Just in time for the Christmas season, Washington State Gov. Christine Gregoire has insulted Christians all over the world. Inside the state Capitol building in Olympia there is a traditional holiday display featuring a tree and the Nativity scene; perfectly appropriate since the federal and state Christmas holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

But this year Gregoire decided to add another item to the display. Standing alongside the baby Jesus is a giant placard designed by atheists that reads: “There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

Continue reading “Transplanted San Fran loons”

Tags: ,

Dec 12 2008

Where the jobs have gone, and are going

Category: economy,Uncategorized — harmonicminer @ 9:51 pm

A small business owner explains why he is cutting back, which inevitably results in job losses.

Continue reading “Where the jobs have gone, and are going”

Tags:

Dec 12 2008

The biggest special interest in America?

Category: education — harmonicminer @ 10:04 am

The teachers unions are reflexively against any adjustment to the status quo, and are notorious for Blocking Education Reform

Big labor unions have destroyed countless American industries, including the Detroit automakers who are now begging Congress for a bailout. But these unions don’t just control factories and assembly lines. Our public education system is a slow-motion car crash, driven by the same union special interests that brought the auto companies to the brink of bankruptcy.

This is a particularly apt analogy, since if public education WAS a business (instead of an entitlement), the teachers unions and most school districts would be bankrupt, for failing to produce a product that enough people want to buy, producing it at too high a price, and offering lousy customer service.

Much more and video at the link. Highly recommended.

Tags:

Dec 11 2008

Dividing the promised land part 2

Category: economy,environment,government,humor — harmonicminer @ 1:10 pm

This is about our adventures in dividing a 5 acre lot into two 2.5 acre lots, in San Bernardino County in southern California. It will include human folly, financial folly, governmental folly, economic folly, and environmental folly. Plenty of folly to go around. If you missed it, this post will make a lot more sense if you read Part 1 first.

So, we hired a real estate agent to help us through the land subdivision process. We were starting this about 2 years ago, when the real estate boom was in full flower, and everybody was very busy, including our agent, all the county offices and employees involved, and all the private companies the county engages to perform certain services for it. So, initially, we waited.

Then we waited some more.

What we didn’t know is that while we were waiting, the prices for every aspect of the process were going up, eventually reaching about $20,000, instead of the $14,000-$15,000 we were told initially.

Continue reading “Dividing the promised land part 2”

Tags: , , ,

Dec 11 2008

Christian Derangement Syndrome

Category: politics — harmonicminer @ 9:32 am

Not a disease of Christians, but of those who criticize them, Christian Derangement Syndrome is a malady to which both the Left and some on the Right may fall prey. On the Left, it is recognized as bigotry towards anyone who, for religious reasons, supports the continuation of 4000 years of tradition in keeping marriage a heterosexual thing, is pro-life, etc.  On the Right, the symptoms are similar, but also involve a curious symbiosis with the Christians, because the secular Right NEEDS the Christians to have any power, but simply wants them to shut up and vote their way.  Here are some observations about Christian Derangement Syndrome on the Right:

Continue reading “Christian Derangement Syndrome”

Tags:

« Previous Page — Next Page »