Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Computers - Keep your guard up
Here's a snippet concerning a phony Google Toolbar.
This particular website has lots of useful computer information.
Keep in mind that the "real" Google Toolbar is still what it is...
This particular website has lots of useful computer information.
Keep in mind that the "real" Google Toolbar is still what it is...
John Leyden writes for "The Register":
"In brief Virus writers have developed a Trojan downloader attack that poses as an offer for the latest edition of Google's Toolbar, the popular search tool. Spam messages that began circulating on Wednesday attempt to trick users into visiting a maliciously constructed website, disguised to resemble the genuine Google Toolbar site, reports UK-based net security firm SurfControl.
Users who accept a offer to download 'Google Toolbar' software from the bogus site will find themselves installing a Trojan which turns their machines into zombie clients, controlled by hackers?"
Just a business card
This article depicts a pretty ugly scenario...
At the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Carl Prine gives us something to think about:
"In July, a couple of weeks after I got back from Iraq, I was sent to New Jersey -- that was a plum assignment -- and the experiment I was given was pretty simple: Could I simply walk up to a tank car, put my business card in the placard, photograph the tank cars -- sometimes ride on them, sometimes crawl all over them -- wave to workers and simply leave?"
Revealed: how eBay sellers fix auctions
I don't think this should surprise anyone...
I found this article about rigging eBay auctions at www.news.com.au :
"He claimed eBay would never follow up a complaint against him for shill bidding because he generated about £15,000 a month in commission for the company. 'Are they going to ban somebody who’s making them the best part of 15 grand a month? No,' he said."
Telling it like it is
That may be politically incorrect?
But, it would certainly be "The right thing to do!...
But, it would certainly be "The right thing to do!...
In the U.K., Henry Porter thinks, "Tolerating intolerance is still this country's besetting sin":
"If the majority of Muslims truly want to integrate, they could start by kicking out the preachers of hatred from their mosques."
"Imagine the Archbishop of Canterbury or any senior Anglican clergyman giving a sermon which suggested that homosexual men should be thrown off a mountain; that they were no better than filthy dogs. Imagine another priest rising in another church to preach that children should be hit for not praying, that women were deficient, should walk behind men and only go out with their man's permission. Consider what the reaction would be if a third joined in by saying all Jews were born liars."
Politics - Does it trump patriotism?
Well, it sure seems to...
This is from the Wall Street Opinion Journal's featured article on January 25th, 2007:
"This is not to say that the resolution won't have harmful consequences, at home and abroad. At home, it further undermines public support for the Iraq effort. Virginia Republican John Warner even cites a lack of public support to justify his separate non-binding resolution of criticism for Mr. Bush's troop 'surge'. But public pessimism is in part a response to the rhetoric of failure from political leaders like Mr. Warner. The same Senators then wrap their own retreat in the defeatism they helped to promote.
In Iraq, all of this undermines the morale of the military and makes their task that much harder on the ground. When John McCain asked Lieutenant General David Petraeus that precise question during his confirmation hearing Tuesday, the next commander of Coalition operations in Iraq said, 'It would not be a beneficial effect, sir.'
And when Joe Lieberman asked if such a resolution would give the enemy cause to believe that Americans were divided, he added, 'That's correct, sir.' Several Senators protested and demanded that the general stay out of domestic politics, but his only offense was telling the truth. Of course the enemy would take comfort from any Senate declaration that Mr. Bush lacks domestic support."
Religion - the Muslim kind
Who should Muslims believe?
Apparently, it's not an easy answer...
Apparently, it's not an easy answer...
At the Washington Post, Omar Sacirbey asks, "Did Muhammad Really Say That?":
"Muhammad commanded followers not to record what he said to guard against the possibility that they would confuse his words with God's. Instead, Muslims kept the sayings alive orally.
By the early 9th century, about 200 years after Muhammad's death, as many as 700,000 sayings were circulating across the Muslim world. Many were of questionable credibility and some were even fabricated to support political or economic policies.
Leading scholars decided that the sayings should be collected and verified. Using a painstaking process, they traced the chain of narration and scrutinized the character and memory skills of the individual reporters.
The two preeminent hadith scholars, Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, collected 2,602 and 9,200 hadith, respectively, all of them considered sahih, or "sound," authentic and indisputable. Other collections exist, but they include sayings with weak links or other defects."
Corrupt Clergy - and child porn
A real asset to the church and the community... Yuk!...
Gudrun Schultz reports for "LifeSite.net":
"Rev. Frederick Patrick Dunleavy, 65, was arrested Wednesday, Jan.31, following a complaint to police from a witness who alleged to have seen pornographic material in his possession. Multiple images, including video footage, were seized during a search warrant of his residence on Thursday, according to a Toronto police press release. The images were of both boys and girls, between the ages of five and 17.
An activist for homosexual rights, Dunleavy boasted in 2004 of having performed hundreds of same-sex weddings, many of them for U.S. citizens planning to seek legal recognition at home, according to a report by the Oregonian in January 2005."
When is a pig not a pig?
When cultures collide with political correctness, that's when...
At "News.com.au", Rowan Callick reports this:
"ON February 18, the Chinese world will usher in the new year of an animal, but its identity will be suppressed.
A billion people will view China's - and the world's - most-watched annual television show, the Chinese New Year's Eve variety spectacular, but the viewers will be no wiser as to which animal is involved.
The Chinese Government has decreed that the Year of the Pig will be celebrated with the least possible offence to the country's 21 million Muslims, for whom the porker is a dirty, offensive animal whose flesh must not be eaten.
So this year, China Central TV's big event will be more like a politically correct school Christmas pageant in which participants must not mention Jesus for fear of being seen as biased."
Politicians - the Texas legislature's perks
Not bad for part-time...
At the Star-Telegram, Jay Root discusses those perks and benefits:
"The framers of the Texas Constitution envisioned legislators as part-time politicians who would do the people's work in Austin once every two years and then go home to abide by any new laws they passed. But in modern times, the perks and benefits have come to include far more than their paltry $600-a-month salary. Here is a snapshot of what legislators can expect from this "part-time" job:
Annual salary, per the state constitution, of $7,200.
Per diem payments worth $19,460 per member in 2007. ($139 a day during any regular or special session, including weekends, holidays and adjournments)
Yearly pensions for vested legislators, allowing retirement at age 50 for members with 12 years of service, or at age 60 for those with at least eight years. (A 20-year veteran legislator could retire at 50 with a $57,500 annual pension.)
Lifetime retiree healthcare for any member with eight or more years of elected service. As with active members, the state pays 100 percent of the premiums.
Wide discretion to use campaign funds, often tapped for travel, entertainment, car leases and furniture, as well as maintaining second homes in Austin.
Free meals and entertainment, all-expenses-paid travel junkets, golf outings, skeet shoots -- even manicures, pedicures and massages -- all courtesy of special-interest lobbyists.
Blanket exemption from jury service, even when the Legislature is not in session.
Free parking for members and spouses at the Austin airport and city parking meters, free golf at city courses, free swimming at Barton Springs and other pools, courtesy of the city of Austin"
Monday, February 05, 2007
Global Warming - and geology
Here's a "Brief History of Ice Ages and Warming", with some charts and graphs, along with a section on each of the following topics.
- Causes of Global Climate Change
- Playing with Numbers
- A Matter of Opinion
- Unraveling the Earth's Temperature Record
- Stopping Climate Change
- Causes of Global Climate Change
- Playing with Numbers
- A Matter of Opinion
- Unraveling the Earth's Temperature Record
- Stopping Climate Change
At "GeoCraft.com", Monte Hieb and Harrison Hieb have provided a relatively easy to understand overview of "global warming":
"Global warming alarmists maintain that global temperatures have increased since about A.D. 1860 to the present as the result of the so-called 'Industrial Revolution,'-- caused by releases of large amounts of greenhouse gases (principally carbon dioxide) from manmade sources into the atmosphere causing a runaway 'Greenhouse Effect.'
Was man really responsible for pulling the Earth out of the Little Ice Age with his industrial pollution? If so, this may be one of the greatest unheralded achievements of the Industrial Age!
Unfortunately, we tend to overestimate our actual impact on the planet. In this case the magnitude of the gas emissions involved, even by the most aggressive estimates of atmospheric warming by greenhouse gases, is inadequate to account for the magnitude of temperature increases. So what causes the up and down cycles of global climate change?
Causes of Global Climate Change
Climate change is controlled primarily by cyclical eccentricities in Earth's rotation and orbit, as well as variations in the sun's energy output.
'Greenhouse gases' in Earth's atmosphere also influence Earth's temperature, but in a much smaller way. Human additions to total greenhouse gases play a still smaller role, contributing about 0.2% - 0.3% to Earth's greenhouse effect."
Global Warming - and "friendly" chemicals
So, is the fix making things worse?
And should we wonder about our car's catalytic convertors?...
And should we wonder about our car's catalytic convertors?...
The Associated Press's John Heilprin reports the following:
"In fact, the volume of greenhouse gases created as a result of the Montreal agreement's phaseout of CFCs is two times to three times the amount of global-warming carbon dioxide the Kyoto agreement is supposed to eliminate.
This unintended consequence now haunts the nations that signed both U.N. treaties.
Switzerland first tried in 1990 to sound an alarm that the solution for plugging the ozone hole might contribute to another environmental problem. The reaction?
'Nothing, or almost,' said Blaise Horisberger, the Swiss representative to U.N.-backed Montreal treaty. 'We have been permanently raising this issue. It has been really difficult.'"
Global Warming - about that "hockey stick"
And the "mild climatic conditions; in Greenland!...
At 'theNewAmerican.com', Dennis Behreandt writes about global warming:
"Perhaps the most important consideration is one of perspective. Is it warmer now, as is alleged, than ever before in human history? The 'hockey stick' graph says it is. In fact, it is not at all clear that it is warmer now than ever before. The Earth has been warming, more or less, since the beginning of the current Holocene Epoch, when the planet shook off the cold of the last ice age. The overall increase in temperatures has been punctuated by periodic short-term changes. The Medieval Warm Period, a time of temperatures warmer than average beginning in about 800 A.D. and lasting until about 1300 A.D., was followed by the Little Ice Age, a period of several centuries of colder-than-normal temperatures.
It was during the Medieval Warm Period that the Vikings discovered Greenland and made their other remarkable voyages of exploration in the North Atlantic. According to Jared Diamond, professor of geography at the University of California, 'Between A.D. 800 and 1300, ice cores tell us that the climate in Greenland was relatively mild, similar to Greenland's weather today or even slightly warmer.... Thus, the Norse reached Greenland during a period good for growing hay and pasturing animals.' The mild climatic conditions may have helped Eric the Red, Greenland's discoverer, to market the area to potential settlers. The Grœnlendinga Saga records that Eric 'called the land, that he had found, Greenland, for he said, that might attract men thither, when the land had a fine name.' According to Dr. Philip Stott, professor emeritus of bio-geography at the University of London, 'During the Medieval Warm Period, the world was warmer even than today, and history shows that it was a wonderful period of plenty for everyone.'"
Global Warming - and cosmic rays
I guess this study doesn't fit the media's agenda...
At FoxNews.com, Steven Milloy reported this back in October 2006:
"A new study provides experimental evidence that cosmic rays may be a major factor in causing the Earth’s climate to change.
Given the stakes in the current debate over global warming, the research may very well turn out to be one of the most important climate experiments of our time – if only the media would report the story."
...
"Not surprisingly, Svensmark’s potentially myth-shattering study has so far been largely ignored by the media. Though published in the prestigious Proceedings of the Royal Society A, it’s only been reported – and briefly at that – in The New Scientist (Oct. 7), Space Daily (Oct. 6) and the Daily Express (U.K., Oct. 6).
The media’s lack of interest hardly reflects upon the importance of Svensmark’s experiment so much as it reflects upon the media’s and global warming lobby’s excessive investment in greenhouse gas hysteria."
Global Warming - and hurricane strength
I'm considering this a media bias post because of the apparent disparity in reporting..
Michael Asher writes at DailyTech.com:
"Last week, a similar study was published in Science. However, this paper, written by a team of four researchers, claims Emmanuel's work was fundamentally flawed, and that the data doesn't support any increase in hurricane intensity. The paper showed that estimation of storm strength has increased in recent years, mostly due to better satellite imagery, and that storms in decades past were actually stronger than we first thought. Unlike the earlier study, this report was greeted with resounding silence. No headlines, no guest show appearances, and no special award from Time."
Global Warming - about Greenland's glaciers
Shouldn't we wonder why we don't hear more of this?...
I found this interesting article at Breitbart.com :
"Greenland's glaciers have been shrinking for the past century, according to a Danish study, suggesting that the ice melt is not a recent phenomenon caused by global warming.
Danish researchers from Aarhus University studied glaciers on Disko island, in western Greenland in the Atlantic, from the end of the 19th century until the present day.
'This study, which covers 247 of 350 glaciers on Disko, is the most comprehensive ever conducted on the movements of Greenland's glaciers,' glaciologist Jacob Clement Yde, who carried out the study with Niels Tvis Knudsen, told AFP."
Global Warming - and global dimming
So, could it be "pollute more to save the planet"?...
I found this at PBS.org :
"Is global dimming masking the full impact of global warming? Some climate experts worry that it is, with the possible consequence that as we reduce pollution, the climate will heat up to unprecedented levels."
"To find out what global dimming means for the fate of the planet, NOVA reports on the findings of the world's top climate detectives, including an American scientist who found a grim but crucial opportunity immediately following September 11, 2001, when the entire U.S. airline fleet was grounded for three days. This presented a unique opportunity to study the effects of airplane vapor trails on the atmosphere (see The Contrail Effect). Comparing changes in the daily temperature range showed that the absence of dimming from aircraft pollution alone made a marked difference to the temperature. This result hints at how much the effects of atmospheric pollution had been underestimated."
Global Warming - Some sanity
Here's a Q & A session that goes a long way toward putting the global warming issue in perspective...
In Canada's Globe and Mail, Margaret Wente calmly answers some questions about an article she wrote:
"Everyone talks about the weather, Mark Twain famously said, but nobody does anything about it.
That may be changing, as the public gets more worried about global warming.
But how much of the concern about climate change is based on reality versus hype? And how much are people personally willing to sacrifice to save the planet?
'Politicians are terrific at promising a free lunch, but they're not so good at telling people there is no such thing. So take those opinion polls with a bag of salt. Only when people are asked to make tough choices and pay up will their good intentions be put to the test,' Globe columnist Margaret Wente wrote this week.
Last weekend, Ms. Wente sought out the broad middle ground in the global-warming debate, which she writes "has become so shrill, so political and so polarized that it's impossible for even a reasonably well-informed person to figure out who or what to believe. Only one thing is for sure: Science isn't all that is driving this debate. Politics, ideology and scaremongering are too."
'...The very great uncertainty of long-term climate impacts is a point that often gets lost in the debate. The scenarios range from mild to severe, but it's the extreme ones that get the ink.'"
Global Warming - We've been there before
Apparently, the coast of Antartica was ice-free before...
Patrick J. Michaels is Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies at the Cato Institute and author of Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media. He writes:
"The scare du jour on global warming is a massive inundation of our coast caused by rapid loss of ice from Antarctica. It's a core point in Al Gore's science fiction movie, and it continues to be thumped by doomsayers around the world, in the echo chamber of the alarmist media. It's also a bunch of hooey."
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Heat Mining
Are we about to come full circle?
Cavemen heated rocks, didn't they?...
Cavemen heated rocks, didn't they?...
Gareth Cook writes for the Boston Globe. He discusses "the power of rocks":
"Heat mining -- which takes advantage of advances in drilling and geological understanding -- could make geothermal power practical across much broader swaths of the country.
"What was thought to be impossible 10 years ago is now possible,' said Roy Baria , a British geophysical consultant. 'The technology has moved significantly.'
Last week the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a study concluding that heat mining could generate enough energy by 2050 to replace the coal-fired and nuclear power plants that are likely to be retired over the next several decades."
California - not always ahead of the times
And look who's at the root cause...
In a story titled "Victory for California Consumers, Homebuilders; Vinyl Piping System Approval Will Reduce Home Costs" at PRNewsWire.com we find this tidbit:
"Installation of CPVC pipe in California homes had been held up for 20 years by a coalition of labor unions, environmental activists and other pressure groups."
The Media - Information Warfare
Didn't recognize the story? No surprise there...
StrategyPage.com reported this back in June:
"But then, when the story appears, it often has no connection with what actually happened, other than the names of the reporter and the soldiers or marines. The troops get curious about how this can be. Reporters have learned to dread inquiring emails from the troops they were recently embedded with. Sometimes the reporters are still embedded when some of their reporting appears in print or on the air."
The Media - Exposing some myths
I'm a John Stossel fan of sorts, too...
Back in June, Walter Williams wrote this in the Washington Times:
"John Stossel, ABC's '20/20' anchorman, has a recently released book about the various untruths we accept, many from the media and academic elite. The book is appropriately titled 'Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity.'
As a longtime media insider, Mr. Stossel is well positioned to talk about the media's gross lack of understanding that often becomes part of the conventional wisdom. Mr. Stossel gives many examples. Let's look at a few."
"Gravy train on biscuit wheels"
Believe it or not, federal employment has decreased by 2% or 51,000 jobs, under current President Bush.
Yes, decreased!...
Yes, decreased!...
I saw this at the National Review back in June. Greg Kaza was apparently the only one who wanted to notice:
"The May employment report, with a headline jobs-growth figure of 75,000, at best drew mixed reactions from Wall Street and the financial press. Deeper within the data, however, an important and positive development deserves to be noted: Total federal government employment under President George W. Bush continues to decline."
The Media - New York Times in colonial times
They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
So here's a picture for you to contemplate...
So here's a picture for you to contemplate...
I found this picture on the PowerLine blog. Apparently, Les Baitzer sent it to them. Looks like same old, same old:
"Be sure to read between the lines"
PS - I can't verify that this is genuine, but it does seem plausible.
In France - On the Riviera
I guess it's not exactly as advertised...
This article, at theFirstPost.com, by Philip Jacobson contains what could easily be a "Mission Impossible" plot line:
"The Foreign Office's current advice to British citizens travelling in the South of France - especially in and around Marseilles - is to keep car doors locked and windows shut at all times, to avoid bag snatching, and to be "extremely wary" of anyone offering to help with a supposed problem - flat tyre, faulty exhaust, etc - with their vehicle. Meanwhile, a British family who sold their home near St Tropez after a series of break-ins, car thefts and assaults that the police allegedly ignored have urged anyone contemplating settling in the region to engage one of the many private security companies now offering "instant response" deals."
Oil and Gas - "Shale oil — now?"
How about this?
Could we possibly have the last laugh on oil?...
Could we possibly have the last laugh on oil?...
In June of 2006, Stephen Speckman reported this in the Deseret Morning News:
"It's estimated that Utah has more oil in shale deposits than there is oil in Saudi Arabia, according to John Baardson, chief executive officer of Oil Tech partner BAARD Energy.
And throughout Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, an estimated 1 trillion barrels of oil are locked in shale, compared with about 700 billion barrels of untapped oil in the entire Middle East, he said."
Oil and Gas - "Digging black gold"
"More oil than the Middle East."
I have to wonder why we don't hear more about it...
Could it be because it's "good" news?...
I have to wonder why we don't hear more about it...
Could it be because it's "good" news?...
In the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Rick Barrett reported this some time ago:
"Alberta's oil sands cover 54,000 square miles, about the size of North Carolina. There are an estimated 1.7 trillion to 2.5 trillion barrels of bitumen there, more oil than in the Middle East. The supply could help reduce U.S. dependency on overseas oil by 50%, the U.S. Department of Energy says."
