Water Kites

Seriously cool development from the Swedish firm Minesto (part of Saab).

A completely new concept of underwater wave energy using a simple 7 ton kite turbine design has been developed by Minesto; which is a spinoff from the Swedish military and aircraft design firm Saab. The Deep Green underwater turbine captures the power of the ocean just like a kite in wind. The system could generate 18 terawatthours of energy annually, enough to provide nearly 4 million British households with reliably green electricity every year. UK households now use about a third of what average US households use in energy.

There is a video and picture at the link. This looks very promising.

Epic Floods

The USGS has released its analysis of the September flooding in Atlanta and it was defined as 'epic'. They usually class such events as either a 100 year event or a 500 year event but the rains in September exceeded the parameters for either. From 8pm September 20th until 8pm the next day some areas received more than 20 inches of rain. Our normal annual rainfall in the area is usually about 50 or so inches which means that we recieved nearly half of our annual rainfall in 24 hours. I can testify that my garden suffered 'epic' damage and it will take me years to recover fully.

Bad Numbers

The October jobs numbers are out and it is not good. "The United States economy shed 190,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent, up from 9.8 percent in September".

I think it is time to refocus our efforts on job creation.

Paul Krugman, Obama’s Faces His Anzio (and why we need more jobs/stimulus):

If the Democrats lose badly in the midterms, the talking heads will say that Mr. Obama tried to do too much, this is a center-right nation, and so on. But the truth is that Mr. Obama put his agenda at risk by doing too little. The fateful decision, early this year, to go for economic half-measures may haunt Democrats for years to come.

Obama was left with a lot on his plate by the last administration. And the efforts at health care reform, environmental policy change, financial reform, an education bill, immigration reform are all important but the jobs picture has become, I think, the number one priority.

The Republicans proved yesterday that they are not serious about moving the country forward. The Republican leadership embraced extremism at the Michele Bachmann 'tea party' event on the Capitol steps. It was an ugly spectacle. It just reinforced the notion that the GOP is not going to partner with this administration to address the problems that we face. Moreover, it proved that they are seriously pushing the fact that they are, if not completely insane, irresponsible and detached from the reality that is America today. We cannot count on them to be at our side as we try and move forward.

We need to re-prioritize and get something done that will add jobs and, in turn, build the economy.

Mixed Emotions

It seems scientist at Stanford have used stem cells to create human eggs and sperm. This development, besides taking sex out of the human reproduction equation, creates some big questions around the ability to engineer the human race. From a geeky, science fiction point of view this is all very cool but from a philosophical one its as scary as all get out.

to quote the article:

Now that we can genetically create children out of a lab with a few samples of skin cells, we can continue to refine the genetic make-up of our species and "refine" our genes, potentially putting evolution into our own hands.

We are obviously making some good progress in stem cell research.

Sick, Sick People

If you were wondering just how twisted the teabaggers are(ably assisted by such exemplary Republicans such as Minority Leader John Boehner (OH), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (VA), Roy Blunt (MO), Jeb Hensarling (TX), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA), Michele Bachmann (MN) -- who was a key organizer of the event -- Virginia Foxx (NC), Ginny Brown-Waite (FL), Jean Schmidt (OH), Sue Myrick (NC), and many more) then you should have to go no further than see the image of Holocaust victims from Dachau used on their posters today at their Washington rally.

h/t Matthew Yglesias at Think Progress

Boxer Serves Up a Wedgie

It's about time the Democrats fought back against the delaying tactics of the Republicans on every important issue facing us but this latest move by Barbara Boxer is going to get a lot of GOP skivvies in a knot:

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved climate change legislation Thursday with no Republicans voting for the bill or even participating in the process.

With Republican boycotting the proceedings, Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) relied on a little used interpretation of committee rules to move the legislation. Traditionally, two minority members are required to conduct committee business. [...]

“This is not a procedure we wanted; it’s a procedure that’s available to us,” said Boxer. “The majority has to be able to do its work…otherwise the whole Senate could come to a screeching halt.”

Republicans called Boxer's move the “nuclear option,” warning that it violated decades of committee precedent.

“I am here to appeal to you and the members of the committee,” Sen. Jim Inhofe, the top Republican on the committee, said in a brief statement. “In the history of this committee, we have not been able to find a time when the bill has been marked up without minority.”

In his typical fashion Inhofe is being an asshole and simply ignores the fact that he and the rest of the Republicans on the committee were being childish snots by not even having the common decency to show up for the hearings. Screw 'em!

The Committee sent the bill to the full Senate this morning after it was approved by a vote of 10-1. Baucus was the only dissenting vote.

Moved to the Front of the Line and Why?

WTF is this all about?.

As you can tell from my previous post I am rather disgruntled about the 'special deference' that seems to prevail toward the folks on Wall Street and especially those in firms like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Citigroup when it comes to the Obama administration. I understand the importance of the financial world and all that but it sure seems to me that we are being taken advantage of at every turn. This latest news about the distribution of the scarce H1N1 vaccine really frosts me. If you are wondering why no Democratic voters turned out in New Jersey or Virginia last Tuesday then this is a prime example. What we are seeing from the Obama team is the same old corporate patronage crap we had under the Bush administration. Give us a break and if this is the 'change' I voted for then you can keep the 'change'.

Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked Health and Human Service (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to investigate why the Center for Disease Control (CDC) approved the distribution of the H1NI vaccine to Wall Street firms at a time when the vaccine is unavailable to most Americans.

Recent news reports indicate 13 companies, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Time Warner, have been cleared to receive the vaccine.

The CDC is distributing the much sought-after vaccine to Wall Street firms despite reports of vast shortages. In fact, just yesterday CDC Director Thomas Frieden informed Congress that only 32.3 million doses are available, far less than the 159 million needed to cover those at the highest risk. Given the scarce supply, the CDC has recommended the vaccine be directed only to those at highest risk: pregnant women, infants and children and those up to 24 years, those who care for infants, health and emergency services personnel, and adults with compromised immune systems or other chronic health problems.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today, “Although CREW has been unable to uncover the demographic makeup of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and JP Morgan Chase, it seems safe to assume the vast majority of their employees are not pregnant women, infants and children, young adults up to 24 years old, and healthcare workers.”

Let the Good Times Roll

I just checked and my retirement savings is still about 30% of what it should be. Yes, it has improved in the last year but it still has a way to go. I doubt I am the only sucker out there in the same position but you can't say that about the poor, poor slobs on Wall Street who are expecting to see their income up by about 40% over last year. Yes, it's a big win for the boys on Wall Street after we taxpayers bailed them out of their self created mess to the tune of a trillion dollars or so.

Wall Street cash bonuses are set to increase by about 40 percent this year, the Wall Street Journal said citing a report by compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates.

In a report to be released later on Thursday, Johnson Associates projects that the biggest increases in year-end cash bonuses and equity awards will go to employees in rebounding businesses such as fixed income and equities, the paper said.

The well connected folks at Goldman Sachs are expected to see bonuses averaging of $526,814 this year. This really rubs me the wrong way and this kind of excess is not acceptable... at all. Yeah, I am concerned about health care reform, environmental legislation, military spending and the black money holes in Afghanistan and Iraq but this 'in your face' coddling of the financial sector is rapidly gaining a very high profile in my discontent. These numbers have been rubbing salt in the wounds for way too long and my sense is that the Democrats will see this anger show itself at the polls next year if they don't get off their dead asses and do something about it.

Pathetic

If you really, really want to know how much the Republicans care about the American people you don't have to go far beyond the CBO's preliminary estimate of the Republican amendment to the House health care bill. They could have at least made an effort to appear concerned about the health care crisis in America but no they just dropped their pants and mooned us.

Coverage:
Democrats – 36 million more covered by 2019,
96% of US covered;
Republicans – 3 million more covered by 2019,
83% of US covered

The much vaunted 'deficit hawks' or 'fiscal conservatives' not only managed to come up with a plan that would cover 33 million fewer Americans but they did it by managing to spend 36 billion dollars more over 10 years. Way to go boys! It must have taken them hours, maybe even a whole day to come up with this plan.

Democrats – $104 billion in deficit reduction by 2019
Republicans – $68 billion in deficit reduction by 2019

Since the CBO numbers don't fit their jive, expect the Republicans to discount the CBO estimates as inaccurate and just 'estimates'. Of course, we are supposed to ignore the fact that for the last 8 months or so the GOP has jumped on the very same CBO estimates as the gospel.

There is absolutely no way this crap of a amendment will gain any traction but it was good for a laugh anyway. Now we can just go back to the Republicans trying to delay, lie about and otherwise trash the Democratic plan.

Remember the Fifth

Today is Guy Fawkes Day and tonight is Bonfire Night for all our English friends who are celebrating the thwarting of the Gunpowder Plot .

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.

Guy Fawkes, an explosive expert, along with other English Catholic protesters secreted 36 barrels of gunpowder in the basement of the Parliament building intending to assassinate King James the First and the members of Parliament on November 5, 1605. Fortunately the plot was discovered and Guy Fawkes was drawn and quartered for his trouble.

The madwoman from Minnesota is staging her own 'Gunpowder Plot' in the Capitol today threatening to storm the offices of Congress with outraged 'teabaggers' and other Libertarians in hopes of quashing health care reform. It should be interesting to see how many crazies show up and what kind of coverage the media gives them. I would hope that the Capitol police are putting on a few extra folks today as Ms. Bachmann has said she wants people "armed and dangerous" in their opposition to the reforms.

Leaves Are Calling

It is an absolutely glorious fall day and I have made my dutiful trip to Kroger(it's seniors day). I am all stocked for the next week with the exception of a Trader Joe's run for yogurt, nuts and 3 buck chuck. I am now going to go outside and take advantage of the weather and move leaves from the front and back yard to the garden. If the weather forecast holds true the garden should be dry enough to till in the leaves by the weekend and I can finally get the garlic in the ground. All of the peas I put in before the rains were washed away or just flat drowned and there are only a few peas vines to be seen. Rats! I will need to decide if it is too late to try another planting. We still haven't had a frost yet and if the ground stays warm enough(and dry enough) I might just get winter peas.

Go outside and enjoy the day too!

Garlic Is Good

Somehow I stumbled upon a cooking website called 101cookbooks and it is chock full of great recipes. I got there via this recipe for garlic soup and after wandering around a bit decided Heidi needed to be on my daily reader list. She evidently has tastes very similar to mine and she is as obsessed with cookbooks as I am. I am well over a hundred even after giving away more than a dozen to the Historical Society for their flea market.

Madam and I had leek and potato soup(home grown leeks no less) for dinner last night and we'll probably finish it up tonight but this garlic soup will be on the table soon. It's a style of soup that I really like. I am definitely going to be trying some of the other recipes as well.

That's a LOT of Bits

Evidently storing all the data from every telephone conversation and email that shoots around the country since 9/11 and who knows what else has caused a 'crunch' at the NSA. Looks like Ft. Meade is out of room.

The National Security Agency is building huge new storage facilities to store the unconstitutionally gained data on the American people's telephone calls and Internet traffic permanently, including new buildings in suburban Salt Lake City, Utah, and San Antonio, Texas.

The NSA has been keeping permanent records of all American's telephone call habits and Internet traffic since shortly after September 11, 2001, according to major news reports, without the constitutionally required warrants from a court.

No longer able to store all the intercepted phone calls and e-mail in its Ft. Meade, Maryland, headquarters, the NSA is engaging in its own housing boom. How much data will these giant, multibillion dollar new facilities hold? According to James Bamford of the New York Review of Books, the facility in Utah alone could hold data that will be measured in Yottabytes. Never heard of Yottabytes? You're not alone. Most computers sold at stores still measure their storage at gigabytes, or billions of bits of data. A few store a terrabyte of information, or one trillion bits of information. That's 1,000,000,000,000 pieces of information. Yottabytes is the highest number that has yet been named in computer information. The number is septillions of billions of bits of data, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits of data.

This begs the question...Just how many people are feeding at the public trough in order to actually do anything with all this data? Yes, there are programs running looking for key words and phrases and running some algorithms trying to link important stuff but it still takes a human to turn it into actionable intelligence. Been there, done that. Methinks this is just a big waste of time.

Election Day

Don' t forget to go out an vote today. I am faced with a dilemma in my voting today. Betty Price the wife of Rep. Tom Price a GOP troglodyte who happens to represent me in Congress (GA6) is running for one of the posts for Roswell's City Council. The problem is that her opponent is a jerk and she is probably this best candidate. Sometime voting is picking the least worst but it will hurt my feelings in selecting her.

Clouds with My Coffee

Thanks to Susie for pointing out some great cloud photos. Some are truly amazing and some are truly inspiring. You shouldn't miss them! I can't decide whether my favorite is the lenticular clouds of Mt. Rainier or the "Morning Glory" tube clouds from Queensland.

hint: you can click on any of the pictures for more info.

Another Ground Beef Recall

If you buy ground beef (even after all my preaching) then you should know that there is another recall underway. It includes products sold by Trader Joe's, Acme Markets, BJ's, Giant, Shaw's and others. A full list is below.

A recall of more than a half-million-pounds of ground beef was issued Friday by its producer, Fairbank Farms of Ashville, N.Y.

The packages were sold under a variety of brand names, ranging from Acme Markets' Lancaster Brand Ground Beef and Extra Lean Ground Beef to Giant Food Stores Meatloaf and Meatball Mix to Trader Joe's Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Ground Beef. (See full list below.)

Consumers are advised to look for packages with sell-by dates of Sept. 19 through Sept. 28. The number "EST. 492" would also be inside the USDA inspection mark or on the nutrition label.

"Consumers who identify these products should return them to the point of purchase for a full refund," said Ron Allen, Fairbank Farms CEO.

The concern is that the meat may have been tainted with a harmful strain of e. coli. Ground beef should always be cooked thoroughly - to an internal temperature of 160 degrees or more - to kill any bacteria mixed in by the grinding process.

Originally, the recall applied to eight states - Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Virginia, Massachusetts and North Carolina.

Because some of the food chains may have redistributed packages, Fairbank Farms has expanded the range to include all Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states.

Here's the list of recalled products, all packaged products with sell-by dates of 9-19-09 to 9-28-09 (unless specified):

Acme Markets. Lancaster Brand Ground Beef 90/10, 1-pound and 2-pound trays. Lancaster Brand Extra Lean Ground Beef 96/04, 1-pound tray. Wild Harvest Natural Angus Ground Beef 85/15, 1-pound tray.

BJ's Wholesale Club/Burris. Fresh Ground Beef Patties 85/15, 5-pound tray. Lean Ground Beef 93/07, 3-pound and 5-pound trays. Meatloaf and Meatball Mix, 2.5-pound tray.

Ford Brothers Fresh Ground Beef Patty 80/20, 3-pound tray.

Giant Food Stores. Giant Meatloaf & Meatball Mix, 1-pound tray. Giant Nature's Promise Ground Beef, 1-pound tray. Giant Nature's Promise Ground Beef Patties, 1-pound tray. Giant Extra Lean Ground Beef 96/04, 1-pound tray.

Price Chopper. Price Chopper Meatloaf & Meatball Mix, 1-pound and 2.5-pound trays. Price Chopper Extra Lean Ground Beef 96/4, 1-pound tray. Price Chopper Fresh Ground Beef Chuck for Chili 80/20, 1-pound tray.

Trader Joe's. Brick packs with sell-by dates of 10/06/09 or 10/07/09): Trader Joe's Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Ground Beef 85/15, 1-pound brick pack, and Trader Joe's Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Ground Beef 80/20, 1-pound brick pack. Packaged Products with sell-by dates of 9/19/09 to 09/28/09: Trader Joe's Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Beef Patty 85/15, 1-pound tray, and Trader Joe's Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Ground Beef 96/4 Extra Lean, 1-pound tray.

Shaw's Supermarkets. Shaw's Fresh Ground Beef 93/7, 1-pound and 2-pound trays. Shaw's Fresh Ground Beef 80/20, 1-pound, 2-pound, 3-pound trays. Shaw's Fresh Ground Beef 75/25, 1-pound and 3-pound trays. Shaw's Fresh Ground Sirloin Beef Patties 90/10, 1.3-pound tray. Shaw's Fresh Ground Round Beef Patties 85/15, 1.3-pound tray. Shaw's Fresh Ground Beef Patties 80/20, 1.3-pound tray. Shaw's Fresh Ground Beef Patties Family Pack 80/20, 3-pound tray. Shaw's Angus Ground Beef 85/15, 1-pound tray. Shaw's Fresh Ground Round Beef 85/15, 1-pound, 2-pound, 3-pound trays. Shaw's Natural Ground Beef 90/10, 1-pound tray. Shaw's Natural Ground Beef 85/15, 1-pound tray. Shaw's Fresh Ground Sirloin 90/10, 1-pound, 2-pound and 3-pound trays. Meatloaf & Meatball Mix, 1-pound tray.

Other products. Cases of 10-pound Fairbank Farms Fresh Ground Beef Chubs. "These products had a sell date of 10/3/09, 10/4/09 or 10/5/09, but will likely not bear those sell-by dates on their package labels," according to the processor. "These products were distributed to retail establishments in Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia for further processing."

For more information, call the USDA hotline at 1-888-674-6854, the Fairbank Farms consumer hotline at 1-877-546-0122, or go to www.fairbankfarms.com.

h/t Susie

Stupid in Action

It began with the "daughter of Darth" criticizing President Obama for honoring fallen troops at Dover Air Force Base and now, yesterday, it was Mr. Ego himself criticizing the president for being on hand as flag-draped coffins returned home. The interview on FAUX news even made the second page of the AJC this morning!

Mr. Limbaugh criticized Mr. Obama's trip as part of a broader attack on the president's handling of Afghanistan and his credentials.

"It was a photo op precisely because he's having big-time trouble on this whole Afghanistan dithering situation," Mr. Limbaugh said on "Fox News Sunday." ... "I think he's got an out-of-this-world ego. He's very narcissistic. And he's able to focus all attention on him all the time," he said.

President Obama paid his respects to fallen U.S. soldiers. So what? This isn't an especially controversial thing to do unless you consider that President Bush purposely didn't greet returning caskets even once during his two miserable terms in office and to top it off didn't even allow photographs of the hundreds and hundreds of caskets that came home to Dover on his watch. Gimme' a break!

Neither Liz Cheney or Gasbag noted that when 16 Americans were killed in an attack on the U. S. Embassy in Beirut, then-President Reagan appeared at Andrews Air Force Base greeting the flag-draped coffins with a full press contingent and the First Lady to boot. How convenient. How does that not qualify as a 'photo-op'? All I can say is that someone with "talent on loan from God" has a lot of nerve uttering statements so brazenly full of shit.

A couple of days ago digby, as usual, put her finger on core issue:

"Any discussion that there's something untoward in the President greeting dead soldiers is wingnut revisionist crap. Kings and leaders have been doing this since time began. It's a sign of respect for the fallen and they do it publicly as gesture on behalf of the people. That these so-called patriots think there's now something wrong with that tells you everything you need to know about their sincerity."

Speaking of Scary

If you have a few minutes and want to really give yourself a scare this Halloween then read Matt Taibbi 's piece on the true story of how Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers were brought down and how utterly corrupt the players on Wall Street really are. He doesn't leave out President Obama's financial team either. It's a fairly long article but worth the few minutes it will take to read it.

Scared the hell out of me.

The Devil is in the Candy

It is raining again, not a continuous downpour but constant drizzle with occasional downpours so between the steps of baking the weekly sourdough I am cruising around the net. Steve Benen has an interesting bit today in his weekly "This Week in God" post.

In a truly bizarre piece, CBN published fears from Kimberly Daniels about Halloween, which, I assure you, was not a parody.

During Halloween, time-released curses are always loosed. A time-released curse is a period that has been set aside to release demonic activity and to ensnare souls in great measure ... During this period demons are assigned against those who participate in the rituals and festivities. These demons are automatically drawn to the fetishes that open doors for them to come into the lives of human beings. For example, most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches.

I do not buy candy during the Halloween season. Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store. The demons cannot tell the difference.

The CBN piece, which was eventually removed from the site out of embarrassment, went on to say, "While the lukewarm and ignorant think of these customs as 'just harmless fun,' the vortexes of hell are releasing new assignments against souls. Witches take pride in laughing at the ignorance of natural men (those who ignore the spirit realm).... The danger of Halloween is not in the scary things we see but in the secret, wicked, cruel activities that go on behind the scenes." These "scary things" include, according to the article, "orgies between animals and humans," "animal and human sacrifices," and "sacrificing babies to shed innocent blood."

I guess the main question we have to answer is whether the demons inhabit every piece of candy or whether they have 'favorites'. If I was a demon I am pretty sure I would lean toward certain candies over others. I would have to say I would go for Almond Joy or Mounds over lets say a Milkyway or a Twix bar over a PayDay. I'm pretty fond of Nestle's Crunch, however. Then again, some of the older treats are nice too, like MaryJane and Bit o' Honey. It would be a tough choice. Are there enough demons to inhabit every piece or is some just missed for lack of participation? If there are more demons than candy are there candy possession fights? As to the witches praying and dedicating over all the candy...does Hershey's and M&M Mars have witches on staff or do they just bring them in for the Halloween season?

Definitely some questions around the whole demonic candy possession scenario.

If you were a demon and had to possess some candy which would it be?