Loathing Material.
I confess to a deep antipathy towards Russia. My entire military experience regarded them with suspicion and loathing. Some years after I exited the military, I had an occasion to be a guest of the Soviet government as a member of a Scandinavian/American trade visit. The visit was during the early Yeltsin years and there was noise about a changing Russia. My ten days in Moscow and the military town of Tambov convinced me that Russia was a corrupt society from top to bottom. I did not trust them nor did I believe for one moment they would change for the better. The visit also confirmed my belief that the Russians were deeply humiliated and shamed by where events had brought them and that nothing should be done by the West to further humiliate them. No one asked for my advice and I had no position to give it, but the talk of expanding Nato was troubling to me.
The expansion of Nato was always problematic and made no logical sense. As the EU expanded to include ex-Soviet occupied states, military cooperation and treaties would be necessary, but that should have been inside of an organization that was not dominated by the US. That organization was the EU.
Nato was the necessary creation of the Cold War. Nato should not have been expanded, but the EU could have been expanded as a Nato member. That would have been a distinction with a difference. That did not happen.
The outcome is before us. Georgia has walked into a trap, set by Putin. No direct military assistance can be given to Georgia. The Georgians will suffer greatly for their error and wishful thinking that the US and Europe will be there for them as an ally. The US cavalry will not be riding to their rescue. The best that will be done for Georgia will be well short of Georgian naive expectations.
The outcome is before us. Georgia has walked into a trap, set by Putin. No direct military assistance can be given to Georgia. The Georgians will suffer greatly for their error and wishful thinking that the US and Europe will be there for them as an ally. The US cavalry will not be riding to their rescue. The best that will be done for Georgia will be well short of Georgian naive expectations.
The loathing will spread, wishful thinking will not.
Your next terrorist breeding ground. Georgians with a grudge against the US and hell bent on revenge. Someone must pay, how could they do this to us, they will be thinking.
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush condemned the escalated violence between Russia and U.S.-backed Georgia on Sunday, while Vice President Dick Cheney said aggression against Georgia "must not go unanswered."
ReplyDeletePresident Bush chats with Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin at the start of the Olympic opening ceremonies.
"My administration has been engaged with both sides of this trying to get a ceasefire," Bush told NBC's Bob Costas in an interview in Beijing, China, where the president has attended Olympic events.
Bush was filmed speaking to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during Friday's opening ceremonies and said Sunday that he "was firm with Vladimir Putin" and that "this violence is unacceptable."
Fire at the Turkish section of the BTC pipeline has burnt 20,000 tons of oil, said SOCAR president Rovnaq Abdullayev, Day.Az reports with reference to ANS.
ReplyDelete...
Abdullayev noted that the repaired Baku-Supsa pipeline does not allow exporting the previous volumes, compensating only 50% of volumes, transported before the failure. He said BP has cut oil production from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields and condensate from Shah Deniz field to minimum due to transportation problems.
Abdullayev also said that due to the events in Georgia, oil tankers do not enter the ports of Batumi and Kulevi and if it also occurs in Sunday, export will be reduced to minimum.
Fire Burns Oil
"They seem to have gone beyond the logical stopping point," one senior Western diplomat said, speaking anonymously under normal diplomatic protocol.
ReplyDeleteRussians Keep Going
=========
According to the lady on C2C, who is an expert on extreme situations, special forces guys have a higher level of duro-peptide Y, in their blood, whatever that is. Makes them calmer under pressure.
If it wasn't for Jesus Christ, there would be nothing but wickedness in Russia--so said one Russian thinker whose name I can't recall.
ReplyDelete---
I can't blame those countries for wanting into NATO--they all have statues around that the Russians put up to 'the unnamed soldier'--that they call 'the unnamed rapist'. You can bet many another small country around the edges of Russia is watching all this closely.
Can you get a prescription for that?
ReplyDeleteThe peptide, I mean.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, Sam. I'd never heard of it before.
ReplyDeleteGeorgia isn't very big, but they do have Europe's highest peak, Mt. Elbrus, at 18,481 feet in the Caucasus Mountains.
ReplyDeleteWill the United States put real pressure on Russia to stop? In a news analysis on Sunday, the New York Times reporter Helene Cooper accurately captured what I gather is the prevailing view in our State Department: “While America considers Georgia its strongest ally in the bloc of former Soviet countries, Washington needs Russia too much on big issues like Iran to risk it all to defend Georgia.”
ReplyDeleteWill Russia Get Away With It?
Map of Georgia
Probably.
DOS with it's head permanently up it's ass.
ReplyDeleteCondumb is a fuckin disgrace.
...big issues like Iran.
ReplyDeleteTheir helpfulness has been overwhelming.
And, meanwhile, NBC is photoshopping the "fireworks" at the Olympics.
ReplyDeleteTrish wonders why we come to the Bar for our news?
THE GOALS BEHIND MOSCOW’S PROXY OFFENSIVE IN SOUTH OSSETIA Makes plenty sense and provides good background.
ReplyDeleteJezus wept, news is breaking we (Latvia) just took casualties in A'stan. Ended had a good run, hadn't lost anyone in all the years there, and 18 months since those two in Iraq. Its up on the MoD webpage, hasn't even hit any local news portals yet.
ReplyDeleteAnd with Georgia going on, folks will certainly ask "why are we in the sands anyway?". Conversly, the Georgia thing may end up strengthening NATO - a credible threat and a clear diving line between inside and outside.
like i said..
ReplyDeletehit iran...
hit syria..
hit lebanon...
Russia gobbles Georgia...
USA destroys Iran
Israel takes out Lebanon & Syria
Oil prices DROP...
In the end?
Russia gets screwed
Russian weapons are PROVEN inferior to the Americans (Israeli)
Russia becomes "occupier" ONCE again...
Waking up many in region (from poland to ukraine, from Finland to Norway) to Russia's Empire building
Agam to develop fuel-efficient car engines
ReplyDeleteAug. 11, 2008
DANIELLE KUBES
THE JERUSALEM POST
The Israeli air-conditioning company, Agam Energy Systems Ltd., is expanding its energy conservation technology to develop fuel-efficient technology for car engines.
"Cars are very inefficient," said Ofer Spottheim, business development manager at Agam. "It's the same idea that has been used for the past 100 years. When I took my driving lessons 25 years ago it drove at 10 km/1 litre. It still drives at 10km/1 litre."
Instead the new engine developed by Agam will enable cars to drive at 45 km/litre. The engine is more efficient even in start and stop city driving because the car stores recoverable kinetic energy.
With oil on a worldwide price hike, Spottheim is confident that there will be a big market for fuel-conserving technology.
Compared to a regular car that runs on a piston engine, Agam's prototype uses a turbine that allows for an 80 percent gas reduction and a 90% reduction of C02.
Previous attempts at creating a turbine engine have failed mainly because of the extremely high amount of energy required to move the compressors.
Since cold air is compressed much easier, Agam devised a water-ring compressor that cools the air by spraying cold water.
The engine can also be used as a small to medium sized electricity generator, eliminating the need for coal. Up to 22% more efficient than typical electricity generators of the same size, the price will also be lower per kilowatt.
So far, Agam's prototype has lived up to expectations and the product is expected to be implemented in 2011 in power plants and in 2012 for cars.
Agam, run by reserve colonel Moshe Maroko, a former commander of the IDF technology unit, who was twice awarded with the 'Israel Defense Award', was able to make the leap from air conditioners to engines because both technologies are based on the laws of physics.
Agam added that the company has not neglected original products and is developing an air-conditioning system at double efficiency that is entirely devoid of Freon - a destroyer of the ozone layer.
The mind behind these efficient products is a former senior scientist at the Weizmann Institute Dr. Gad Assaf, who is a specialist in energy and thermodynamics.
Hey, Rufus:
ReplyDeleteRattlegator is posting @ BC
---
Putin assails US over conflict with Georgia
AP MOSCOW: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday harshly criticized the United States for airlifting Georgian troops from Iraq back home.
---
Putin's comments reflected Russia's growing irritation with Western condemnation of Russia's military action against Georgia.
"The scale of their cynicism causes surprise," Putin said. "It's the ability to cast white as black and black as white which is surprising, the ability to cast the aggressor as the victim and blame the victims for the consequences."
From that snippet, doug, it seems that Mr Bush's heart to heart chat with Vald had little effect.
ReplyDeleteHe claims surprise when saying GW behaves as a cynic.
Seems he did not see into George's soul, after all. Or he's just spinning his propaganda. In either case Vlad has decided that a short timer US President will stand idle rather than commit the nation, just as James Buchanan sat idle from 24Dec1860 until he handed control of the Government to Mr Lincoln on 4Mar1861. Even then, hostilities did not commence for another month, on 12Apr1861.
Lame duckitis and transitional challenges . As time has progressed, the period of campaign, lame duckness and transition have all increased, since the 1860's.
With the elction in the US just 85 days away Mr Bush is checkin' out the ladies and watchin' some hoops.
Short timer syndrome, fer sur.
Any news on whether Pakistani President Mushie made his rescheduled flight, to Peking?
Ol' Pooty-Poot's a piece'a work, ain't he?
ReplyDeleteLike I said: I kinda hope the Russkies go ahead and eat the whole enchilada. Kinda wake everyone up real good, and all.
As a matter of fact, there's just not three living, breathing voters in the United States that gives a good Goddamn what the Russians and Georgians do.
ReplyDeleteI figure it's time for the Euros to sweat a little. I'm ready for a little vacation.
Mushie's after our Volleyballers too?
ReplyDeletePutin Saw AssMan's Soul
ReplyDeleteSoul Sistas
Life is Good
He's certainly not after his own, doug.
ReplyDeleteYou're quite right, rufus, the US is absorbed by the Games in Peking.
The little care about geopolitics or the Greater Game.
But then they did not care about the US becoming addicted to foreign oil, either.
Until it was to late to quit, cold turkey.
Fait acompli, the addiction continues.
To the benefit of the Sauds and the Iranians, as well as the Ruskies.
The use of thousands of people, over 15,000, in the Openning of the Games certainly sent a signal.
Wonder how the Brits are planning to top it, or will they demur and put on a "Back to Basics" program?
ReplyDelete"To the benefit of the Sauds and the Iranians, as well as the Ruskies."
ReplyDelete---
But only the Ruskies have control of a majority of the spigots.
The Handles are the levers of power.
"Gazprom:
ReplyDeleteYour fate is in Our Hands"
Paul from Hollywood:
ReplyDeleteFrom Doug’s comment, it seems Putin has given his answer to Cheney’s threat.
The time to act is now. We must respond forcefully now or our credibility is shot to hell. If we do not act, we will be inviting more Russian misadventures and aggression. Many of our allies, particularly Old Europe, will then cower and capitulate to Putin’s threats. We may be quickly surrounded with Russian compliant states limiting our options and power in ways we can’t now foresee.
The sooner we respond the less damage will be done. It is no comfort for our other threatened Allies like Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics to see Georgians die in the streets while we dally to pursue the diplomatic niceties. Hopefully the pause in the action gives us some time to act.
Whether Bush is strong or weak really will be determined over the course of the next few days. Bush has acted in ways that are both strong and weak. Unfortunately, Bush was strong from 911 to and through the initial phase of the Iraq war. Since, with a few exceptions, he has been weak, far too often capitulating to the State Department , the CIA and other so called Realists.
I just hope W remembers that the situation a President leaves the country in when his terms ends is a huge part of how he is remembered. If he screws this up, it will define his Presidency.
But that has been true for the entire tenure of Team43, doug.
ReplyDeleteWe did not wake up yesterday to a new reality. Yet we encouraged the Georgians, prodded them on. Let them sit at the table, as one of the boys.
One of America's Musketters
They won't be fooled, again.
Sad, when Hope is dependent on W.
ReplyDelete"They decide and the Shotgun sings the song"
ReplyDelete---
Kid now in possession of his Semi-Auto Shotgun.
Fun and Games.
That Number 1, Miss Walsh, in 'Life Is Good' has either a little tear in her bikini bottoms, or a little boomerang symbol there, hard to tell which.
ReplyDelete-----
The time to act is now. We must respond forcefully now or our credibility is shot to hell. If we do not act, we will be inviting more Russian misadventures and aggression
We might send them some weapons, anything more we'd be at war with Russia, seems to me.
McCain Calls For Diplomacy, Talk
ReplyDeleteWe've been at war with Russia, bob.
ReplyDeleteIf the enemy rolls tanks into the territory of your allies, you are at war.
Or you demur, letting you ally sink or swim, on their own.
If the planes with the supplies are not in the air, now, they will have little impact, later.
The Ruskies will have won. They will be further emboldened. It is the End, the abject failure of 8 years of US foreign policy if Georgia goes down under the Russian onslaught.
This is the play, not Iran or Iraq or folks that never stood with US. Never joined the posse.
If this is the loyalty the US provids, the Colombians and others around the world will be watching.
If the current US reaction is the best we are willing to do, for an ally.
Thiese Georgians have done as much to side with US, more, than the Israelis ever have. If we'll dump on the Georgians, we'll dump on anyone. Bank on that.
You talkin about the Nike Swoosh, al-Bob?
ReplyDeleteIf Georgia falls, this will also mean the fall of the West in the entire former Soviet Union and beyond. Leaders in neighboring states -- whether in Ukraine, in other Caucasian states or in Central Asia -- will have to consider whether the price of freedom and independence is indeed too high.
ReplyDeleteMr. Saakashvili is president of Georgia.
War Impacts Everyone
I don't really want to know what Obama has said, I can quess.
Yup, I think it's not a tear, but a symbol. George has a few inches to go with his ring finger.
ReplyDeleteGoin for the Gold!
ReplyDeleteAs Mr Bush to the World in 2005
ReplyDeleteThe only force powerful enough to stop the rise of tyranny and terror, and replace hatred with hope, is the force of human freedom... [and]
America will stand with the allies of freedom to support democratic movements in the Middle East and beyond, ...
Guess he was just funnin', aye?
We'll war with the Non-Nuclears over oil, Rat; but, we're sure as hell not going to go to the mats with a "Nuclear" power over some little outfit in the Caucasus.
ReplyDeleteWe've had our "Duke Ferdinand moment;" and that was sufficient.
Dan:
ReplyDeleteBeauty contests and proxy wars have one thing in common:
Appearance is everything.
And we are utterly, utterly failing at the moment.
That is true, rufus, we are not going.
ReplyDeleteWe'll let 'em sink because Putin's packin' the bigger stones. We've already blinked.
The costs of appeasement will appear, later.
The very idea that gaining nuclear weapons provides a nation with a "Get out of Jail FREE" card is fallacy.
The Ruskies would not have escalated if the Captain's scenario had been implemented, they'd have pulled back and demanded a UN meeting, instead of US going, with hat in hand, to Oyster Bay and pleading for them to stop.
rat wrote:
ReplyDelete"America will stand with the allies of freedom to support democratic movements in the Middle East and beyond, ..."
Guess he was just funnin', aye?"
naw, he really really believes it he's just done so bad a job he CAN'T do anything. All your yammering on about supporting Georgia, mobilizing for war, fighting a war over there, really is just not feasible. We have every finger and toe stuck in the dyke yet the leaks keep on flowing. Pick your poisonous leak: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, oil dependency and an economy poised at the brink of systemic failure. Send the Calvary off to support Georgia...errrr, not gonna happen.
B2s, from above, are totally deniable weapons systems. There is no radar record of their flight over the target.
ReplyDeleteIn 2003 ...
US Air Force B-2 Bomber Drops 80 JDAMS in Historic Test
Less than a half dozen B2 JDAM missions
Would have tipped the balance and the outcome.
No ground troops, except as Peacekeepers. Matching the 58th Army in that job description.
ReplyDeleteIf we had hit 'em at the choke points, from above, the Georgians would have taken the credit.
ReplyDeleteMore than enough plausable deniability.
Afterwards we'd have found the Iranians much more willing to make accomadations in their own nuclear policies.
"Thiese Georgians have done as much to side with US, more, than the Israelis ever have."
ReplyDeleteThe Russian are using 70s technology. So why not supply them Georgians with some Skyhawks and Sherman tanks (was good enough for Israel) so they can go fight the Russians?
All targets were in Georgia, not Russia.
ReplyDeleteWe'd have not attacked Russia.
This whole episode began with Georgians shelling a Russian town completely off the map. With US conniving. Seems to me like this is yet another setup to reignite the cold war. Another excuse to bloat the military budget and the profits of war profiteers.
ReplyDeleteWhy not even that, that is a good question, mat.
ReplyDeleteWe used the Cessna Skymaster to great effect, but that was in the 80's.
And not against tanks.
Or we gave up Georgia in a quid pro que for Iran, or some such ...
ReplyDeleteJust another way to spell Montyard
ahhh, magic bombs delivered anonymously from above. Seems a bit of a stretch with a horrible downside risk of failure.
ReplyDeleteJust like we gave up on the Shah.
ReplyDeleteSee how well that has turned out. At least the Mullahs do not roll tanks, just sponsor suicide bombers, a militarily insignificant tactic.
Little risk of failure, if it had been done in a timely fashion, but that window is gone, now.
ReplyDeleteJust another couple of hundred explosions in the midst of a battle.
It's the Ruskies that took the risk, gambling we'd not respond. As most aggressors do.
They'd have pulled back if the 58th had taken heavy losses and reconsidered their options, giving time for diplomacy to work.
"Or we gave up Georgia in a quid pro que for Iran, or some such ..."
ReplyDeleteYou didn't give up anything. The Georgians allowed that American stooge and complete moron Saakashvili into power, he started this fight, and now Georgians will have to learn to cope with the consequences that this moron has brought on their heads.
Rat, the B-2 is Not Invisible to radar. They can't lock onto it; but, it does leave intermittent blips on the screen. It Has a Signature. No Deniability, I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteWhy would the Russian pull back simply from "Just another couple of hundred explosions in the midst of a battle."? If our engagement came to light (i.e. they got one of those planes) we'd be sucked into the conflict even more deeply. If the bombs succeeded and Russia did halt their advance for a while, what then? Are we obligated to roll on the next attack? I can't see much upside to such a scenario, lotsa downside.
ReplyDeleteNot real evidence, rufus. The Ruskies may know, but it'd not be in their interest to tell. As wi"o" has explained. The propaganda damage to Ruski weapons systems would be worse if the truth were widely known.
ReplyDeleteThe B2 can be 24 miles from the target at release, well above and away from the fray below.
Devastating to either the tunnel access points or that gorge.
The Russians backed down in Berlin, as Obama recently reminded US and they backed down in Cuba. In both cases they were the direct action agent, not working through a local proxy.
As was the case in Korea and Nam.
When the US acted directly against the Russians, the Russians stepped back. They would have again.
We'll have to wait and see how far the Russians advance, before they stop to consolidate their takings.
The thing to remember about renewables - especially in the context of 100% which is simply not near-term feasible - is that full reliance on oil is replaced by full reliance on the climate. The global warming phenomenon is real - causation and duration have become political talking points. Reliability of global climate patterns is the trade. As noted on BC, some funny things are going on with the sun’s geothermal patterns.
ReplyDeleteAccording to CEO of Rentech, building first USA coal-to-liquid plant, the process produces $2/gal gas, including carbon captured, which will be sold as feedstock. Coal can be used to produce liquid fuel, electricity, and hydrogen for future fuel cells.
In USA alone, the “reserves” of coal (USA has 25% of world supply) and oil shale are on the order of 100’s of years. Oil Shale [Glenn Reynolds]
Renewable electric generation, in the absence of storage and power management technologies, will require backup generation capacity to provide the same level of reliability, which is a cost component. I am not anti-renewables, but the next decade will see a reduction in global growth - the USA slow-down now being reflected in Europe, not to mention the increased level of bellicose drum beating. This means the economics will be even more critical.
Biofuels appears to be a developing technology that shows more promise than originally thought - developing plant genetics to produce 20-ft tall switch grass - but the “physical footprint” rivals the carbon footprint as an alternatives screening issue. Who owns this arid land - millions of acres - and how will the environmental impact compare with the smaller physical footprint of fossil fuel plants?
Again from BC, the ethanol from Brazil comes with a heavy subsidy that prevents many people from owning cars.
As far as subsidies, Robert Reisch talks about “seed money” to “jump start” alternative technologies. Fine. The politics probably require it. But long-term subsidies should be a no-go unless the intent is to replace one economic dysfunction with another. (Some economists think that removing the USA ethanol subsidies will destroy entire economies in the Midwest - a measure of the level of interdependence that develops in subsidized industries.) Yes oil is subsidized, but the objective is to move forward, not to punish oil companies, which is as regressive a concept as “reparations”.
So it makes more sense to me to develop reliable fossil fuel reserves while building the intellectual capital and the small to mid-sized pilot plants to support renewables on a schedule, say 20 years out. Diversifying the portfolio.
Rentech is moving forward in Mississippi. The biofuels industry should do the same - if they can. The one thing I will say about biofuels - the energy equation is still hotly disputed - call it disinformation or not, proof on the ground will be required. So make the case.
A footnote on sound bites, “drill drill drill” originated as a reference to domestic oil, but in the broader sense, I interpret it as fossil fuels development - coal, oil shale, natural gas, as well as off-shore oil. In my opinion coal, and possibly oil shale, is the way to go right now, but I do not rule out the psychological impact of drilling on the markets. In my opinion the current market volatility is pure psychology fed by government gridlock and hand wringing and facilitated by entrepreneurial cowardice.
This country used to have guts.
Physical Footprints.
ReplyDeleteAgain from BC, I read that the Pickens Wind Corridor is a scheme to acquire right-of-way for a water pipeline to north Texas. True or not, ROW acquisition is not a trivial hurdle for land-intensive technologies.
The Skymaster, 70's technology could be coupled with one or two AGM-65B Maverick anti-tank missiles (Launch Weight: AGM-65B/H, 462 pounds) could be a viable low intensity weapons system. Put twenty or thirty of them into the fray at a time, could be at least as effective as buddy's dad and the B26 missions over Germany.
ReplyDeleteThis is a Hellfire impact, couldn't find a Maverick vid.
Shale to oil, I'm all for it.
ReplyDeleteOne would think that the existing oil companies would be all over that, if it was economicly viable.
You'd think the Federals would be subsidizing development, if it were really a "National Security" issue, as I think it should be.
Same as with the ethanol production. Large swaths of land are Federally owned or managed that currently are unused.
Why just the median dividers on the Interstate Hiway system could provide millions of acres for hardy grasses.
You cannot “break the back” of the oil industry.
ReplyDeleteThey‘ve Got Theirs [Maggies Farm]
The sovereign fund of Abu Dhabi, for example, has a reported $875 billion in assets, while Norway has $391 billion, Singapore has $303 billion and Kuwait has $264 billion in their sovereign funds, which are funded by proceeds from oil sales.
We have Ethanol Now. We're producing a little over 600,000 Barrels/day as we speak. We'll be getting close to One Million Barrels/Day by the end of 09'.
ReplyDeleteThis is from Corn.
The Cellulosic Plants are starting/under Construction Now.
We can do 1.5 Million Barres/Day from Municipal Waste. Those plants are starting construction Right Now. Google Fulcrum, Bluefire, etc.
We can do Another One Million Barrels/Day from corn cobs, stover, rice/wheat straw, etc. Those plants are starting construction, Now.
We can do Another Million Barrels/Day, or so from Forestry waste. Range fuels is already constructing their first plant in Ga. (BC can probably add another couple of million barrels/day, easily.)
We haven't even considered sugar cane, sweet sorghum, switch grass, miscanthus, or other energy "crops," yet.
With the new engines coming out, starting this year (see GM's new 2.0 liter VVT, DI, VTC Ecotec) it will be easy to get 40 mpg out of a two hundred twenty hp Impala.
Then we start adding in Hybrids.
Piss on imported oil. If we buy a drop of it we're suckers. Period.
Why just the median dividers on the Interstate Hiway system could provide millions of acres for hardy grasses.
ReplyDeleteDon't know how many acres might be involved in that, but I did see some swathers and bailers on our trip last year. Seems like a good idea to me.
"That Number 1, Miss Walsh, in 'Life Is Good' has either a little tear in her bikini bottoms, or a little boomerang symbol there, hard to tell which."
ReplyDelete- now that is a bootie check!
Harvesting those medians might be a problem.
ReplyDeleteBut the bigger issue - small scale versus industrial strength - requires 180-degree turns in all heuristics (I think that is the right word). Americans don’t “think” on that scale, devilishly hard to crank out the numbers, economies of scale out the window.
Same thing with decentralizing the grid. What information technology accomplished with barely breaking into a sweat might not be as easy in the mechanical world.
Let alone leveling out the financial markets.
I want one of These, and one of These too.
ReplyDeleteRat, I'm with you on the anti-aircraft/anti-tank weapons. Russia has not Declared War on Georgia, yet. As a result, they Could Not declare it an "Act of War" if we supplied Georgia with these systems.
ReplyDeleteMy "hunch" is that they will, more or less, stop here. Once they've conquered the two breakaways (mountain passes) they can flood the provinces with a couple of hundred thousand troops/armor and keep Georgia under constant threat. Then, manufacture another phony excuse to take the rest, later.
If we buy a drop of it we're suckers.
ReplyDeleteIn more ways than one.
A 'heuristic (hyu̇-ˈris-tik)' is a method to help solve a problem, commonly informal. It is particularly used for a method that often rapidly leads to a solution that is usually reasonably close to the best possible answer. Heuristics are "rules of thumb", educated guesses, intuitive judgments or simply common sense.
ReplyDeleteWe call that DTBW here, Duck Tape and Bailing Wire. If it works really well we call it ergonomical DTBW.
It's a huge asset that could be utilized, bob.
ReplyDeleteThe Koreans embed their "Best and Brightest" as well as the "Best Connected" into the US Army, in the KATUSA program.
These fellows spend four emmersed in the US Army, in Korea.
Anyway, this young Korean told me that some day, Korea would over shadow the US. Which made me laugh.
I said that in Korea every piece of usable land was in production, there was no wasted space.
He readilly agreed.
I mentioned to him the median divide and asked him what he thought we grew on it?
The local crop, he was quick to respond. He was a smart Korean.
Oh, no, I had to relate, we grow weeds on it, I said. Sometimes grass we have to pay people to cut.
First he thought I was lying, so he asked about, then he knew we were nuts.
rat the central planner...though shalt grow switch grass upon all medians!
ReplyDeleteI think we may have forgotten about the quaint notion of "spheres of influence", The Monroe Doctrine, one close to my heart, and the Berlin Conference of 1884, where Europe carved up Africa, are two examples. It is a natural state of political affairs that has been forgotten.
ReplyDeleteCertainly The US would tolerate less unrest in Northern Mexico than it would in Nicaragua or Paraguay. Will the US accept Russian bomber bases in Cuba?
The real acid test will come when China decides it can no longer tolerate an independent Taiwan.
They get industrial sized lawn mowers out ther, slade.
ReplyDeleteWe may not be able to utilize every inch, or acre, but there are acres enough to develop as sweet sorghum or other, better alternative crop.
Perhaps enough to fuel the Federal fleet of vehicles, as a primary production goal.
The federal government fleet now totals 642,233 vehicles and cost taxpayers $3.4 billion last year, according to the AP by way of the Detroit News.
The medians that are viable could be used to produce the equivelent of the fuel used by 642,233 vehicles, in a "carbon credit" type of an exchange. The Federals would not have to use the fuel in all their vehicles, but put it into the market. This entire project could be done through contractors, jump starting the industry.
If it fails to perform, shut it down, or at least do not expand it. It is is economicly viable, expand it. If it should be subsidized for security reasons, make that choice, when ther is a track record.
Wonder how much fuel 642,233 vehicles consume each year?
I was thinking Monroe too. How would we like it if Alaska, or part of it, wanted to join up with Russia? I don't think it would go over so well.
ReplyDelete--
Don't laugh, Ash, there are plenty of roadsides and medians really perfect for that. Can't remember for sure where we saw it, maybe Missouri, but they were harvesting miles of it for hay. Everybody wins, the state gets a little money, the guy on the bailer wins too. Why the heck not?
Here's a place to start, Ash, for that extra summer spending money.
ReplyDeleteHay Harvesting Permits
ReplyDeleteState of Colorado Permit
ReplyDeleteTrouble with Idaho is we don't have an overabundance of four lane roads.
If it fails to perform, shut it down, or at least do not expand it. It is is economicly viable, expand it.
ReplyDeleteCouldn’t agree more with that. At this stage - faced with a jungle of possibilities - we are wasting time in analysis paralysis. Pilot plants are required to get beyond the dueling technologies, especially given regulatory obstacles and geopolitical as well as domestic and market uncertainties. Future present value of capital is a crap shoot. The only way to mitigate risk to commercial investment levels is through on-the-ground performance.
Not to be too curmudgeonly about it, but I can’t see 20-ft tall, high yield plants on the medians, so it would have to be low-yield variety to avoid ecosystem intrusion detrimental to traffic. There is one highway in Montana that has natural speed bumps every mile of so consisting of dead gophers and prairie dogs. Bump. Bump. Bump. For 100 miles.
average auto gets 25mpg and drives 12,000 miles.
ReplyDelete642,233 x 480
308,271,840 gallons
Almost 7 million barrels.
2% of the 315 million barrels per annum that is the five or seven year goal.
A reasonable pilot project.
In India
The distillery at the Mohammed Shahpur Village in the Medak district of Andhra Pradesh, India opened in October 2006 and now produces some 40 kiloliters (10,568 gallons) of ethanol every day from locally grown sweet sorghum and some other feedstock.
...
Sweet sorghum was planted last year on about 1,500 acres in the region with planned expansion to 2,000 acres to provide feedstock for the prototype distillery.
That plant produce 240 barrels per day, on 2,000 acres.
ReplyDelete86,400 barrels per year.
The proposed Federal project,
7 millon barrels would take 81 distileries and 165,000 acres.
More or less.
Back in the day, in eastern Washington, they'd have a jack rabbit outbreak. Dead rabbits all over the roads, flap flap flap. Then they poisoned them all out, haven't seen any forever.
ReplyDeleteIf there’s an argument here I don’t see it. Congress is obsessing with off-shore drilling and the energy debate vacillates between 100% renewables in 10 years or Armageddon.
ReplyDeletebobal,
ReplyDeleteIt's not the fact of growing stuff in the medians that puzzles me but rather the central planning being espoused from folk who normally want the central gov. out of their lives. The giving away of permits seems like a good idea but it doesn't seem to have spawned switch grass to ethanol plants. Even rat is urging subsidies now. Mats, well he central planner extraordinaire.
How about simply adding a 'sin' tax on oil made gas and give out free switch grass permits? It would solve some of the gov's revenue problems, steer some of the profits from the oil trade into our hands, and increase the potential profit for alternatives, whatever they may be. yeah, yeah, the squeals from the average joe over TAX and the PRICE OF GAS would be loud but it seems to me way better then all this central planning BS.
The distilleries run about $13 million a piece, so we're only talkin' a billion dollars.
ReplyDeleteAlready have the land
Contract the entire process out, using loan guarentees or some other, more applicable, Federal funding technique.
It's not the fact of growing stuff in the medians that puzzles me but rather the central planning being espoused from folk who normally want the central gov. out of their lives.
ReplyDeleteI'm generally not in favor of toll roads. So, let the government get a little income from the right-of-ways. The government is needed for certain things, Interstate Highway System one of them, I think. Not much central planning in having the government lawyer draw up a hay contract, put it out for bids.
That is how the system works, and it is not "Central Planning" it's activist Government.
ReplyDeleteIf the Federals contracted the production of ethanol that would be used to fuel their own fleet, allowing Federal median strip lands to be farmed for the bio-mass;
Perhaps 200,000 acres dispersed either in viable areas of the country, or concentrated in a regional zone, what ever's best.
It be a valuable pilot project that would prove economic viability of the concept or not. The scale is large enough to get whatever economies of it are available.
It would be a great propaganda tool, something, a first step, being put in place.
For not much money, in the scale of things.
Here's my idea...
ReplyDeleteAlternative minimum tax on all imported oil
Set it at $60 a barrel
Any oil that is imported BELOW that amount is tariff'd to get the price to $60.00 any revenue is collected for use in alternative energy of your choice...
now today oil is $125 a barrel... so NOW would be the time to pass such an idea when noone expects ever to see oil at that price again...
I expect oil will drop once again down to the 40 dollar range once the world's recession kicks in..
coupled that with over production an oil price collapse is a very real possiblity...
my only fear is the moment oil drop ALL alternative ideas will be dropped like a stone...
from a national security pov we need to keep the idea of alternative energies...
I'd also kick in an investment tax credit for all, for everyone that will invest in geothermic, solar, wind for heating or power generation via existing home & businesses....
the millions of rooftops on strip malls could provide the surface area of amazing recovery...
then make it a law that power companies must buy back at market rates and excess power generated..
at the same time, allow the big electric companies to fill (during off peak times) ponds up stream to generate power during peak times..
since power generation cannot be "stored" we could help the big electric companies use excess capacity at night to move water upstream to be released during the day to generate electricity , al that is needed is to allow them to do it...
the war with russia and opec is real... russia seeks to create a 2nd opec using natural gas as well as choke points with conventional oil...
Lukas already sells into america..
Do not be fooled, the arabs, russians (and others hugo included) look at america as one big fat cow...
it's time to start stopping the transfer of our cash to them...
if we had any balls we'd set a tariff on all products being sold to any oil exporting country to us, based on the profit margin they extract oil to us....
Like the judicial "activism" of Thurgood Marshall?
ReplyDeleteOr possibly Obama’s Civilian National Security Force?
"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
I would hope Obama and his staff are not serious about this but the mere mention is as disturbing as their eyes on the missile defense program.
Sanity above all.
Dick Morris is for a hard reply, uses the Sudeten example--
ReplyDeleteHITLER INVADED SUDETENLAND; NOW PUTIN INVADES SOUTH OSSETIA
By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
On October 3, 1938, Adolf Hitler's armies marched into Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia. Germany said it was responding to separatist demands from the large German population that lived there and that she was merely honoring their desire for reunion with Germany. Hitler's tanks took over a vital part of an independent country that had largely rejected his overtures and allied itself with the West. Neither Britain nor France nor the United States did a thing to stop him.
On August 7, 2008, Vladimir Putin's armies marched into South Ossetia, a part of Georgia. Russia said it was responding to separatist demands from the large Russian population that lived there and that she was merely honoring their desire for reunion with Russia. Putin's tanks took over a vital part of an independent country that had largely rejected his overtures and allied itself with the West. Neither Britain nor France nor the United States did a thing to stop him.
Encouraged by his occupation of Sudetenland, Hitler continued his designs on Czechoslovakia itself and invaded the rest of the nation a few months later.
Will history continue to repeat itself?
Georgia is one of the two countries that have split off from the old Soviet Union and most firmly reached out to the West. Now Putin is testing whether the west will respond to an overt Russian military attack on a part of Georgia, doubtless paving the way for a full scale invasion, perhaps in the coming days. One immediate Russian move would be to use its new found military leverage to force Georgia to give up Abkhazia, another province with a large Russian population.
Russia has encouraged migration by ethnic Russians into its satellite empire ever since Stalin's days and now is using the provinces with large Russian populations to foment discord in nations that lean to the West.
The United States and the European Union must not turn away at this crucial moment in history. The U.S. should take visible steps to bolster Georgia, including the dispatch of supplies, materials, and other manifestations of our determination not to let this nation be invaded.
Russia's goal in this imperialism is to intimidate any nation on its borders into rejecting overtures from the west and to try to prove that the west will offer no real protection against Russian military designs.
NATO should speed consideration of Georgia's application for admission and should extend its security umbrella to include the struggling democracy.
If the United States appeases Russia now, it will pay the same price British Prime Minister Nevelle Chamberlain paid in the 1930s. This invasion must not be allowed to stand or, at the very least, it must be contained to South Ossetia and not allowed to lap over into the rest of Georgia.
We're awash in energy, and Potential energy.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. comprises 2.1 Billion Acres. 1.2 Billion of those are considered Arable. We Rowcrop about 250 Million of those. About 450 Million of those are loosely described as "grazing."
We Pay farmers Not to Farm 34 Million Acres; and, we enforce a Severe Penalty for Early Withdrawal if they attempt to get out of their contracts.
We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
ReplyDeleteWhat in hell is Obama talking about here? The Americorps, or the SS, or something in between?
hehehe--the Idaho Elephant Party never forgets--though I had forgotten, that Larry had his pants down to his toes, long ago. And no, I don't know why all sexual misbehavers are named Larry.
ReplyDeleteFor Immediate Release Contact: Sid Smith
August 8, 2008 (208) 343-6405
EDWARDS’ CONFESSION JOGS MEMORY
Fourteen years ago, Idaho Democrat candidate fessed up to his own affair
BOISE, ID – Former Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards admitted today that tabloid accounts of his affair with a former campaign staffer were true, sparking widespread nostalgia among Idaho Republicans.
In 1994, then-Congressman Larry LaRocco, who is now the Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate, admitted that he misled Idaho voters regarding an affair with a former employee and the ensuing sexual discrimination lawsuit. The Spokesman-Review in Spokane called the debacle the “LaRocco Horror Picture Show,” and the headline in Boise’s Idaho Statesman said “LaRocco Caught in ’92 Lie.” The Statesman refused to endorse LaRocco, stating, “LaRocco has also shown voters he cannot be trusted to tell the truth.”
“Idaho has changed a lot in 14 years, with a lot of new voters arriving in that time,” said state party chairman, Norm Semanko. “I wonder how well those new arrivals truly know Larry LaRocco, and his past.”
[30]
Not like that activist example at all, more like a Manhatten Project style of activism, seems to me.
ReplyDeleteLoan or market guarenttees of a billion dollars, to promote alternative fuels from Federal lands, through a network of up to 80 distilleries, producing the energy equivelent of 7 million barrels of gasoline.
Which is the guesstimate of Federal vehicle consumption.
If it could be produced from the highway medians, that holds a certain sense of poetic justice, seems to me.
I don't know Bob. The whole concept is bizarre. But it suggests a level of naivete among his advisers.
ReplyDeleteThe world is becoming one big cognitive disconnect.
Obama is over...
ReplyDeleteRussia just swung another 10% of voters to the right...
Thanks to the Bear...
yippie...
Obama, dont let the doorknob hit ya on the ass on the way out...
It's a time for change...
"Poetic Justice"
ReplyDeleteMuch better than
"Economic Justice"
How about we charge countries that sell oil to us be tariffed based on how they vote in the UN?
ReplyDeleteAny country that exports to us and votes against us has the highest tariff?
The Civilian Security Force explained, bob
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. comprises 2.1 Billion Acres. 1.2 Billion of those are considered Arable. We Rowcrop about 250 Million of those. About 450 Million of those are loosely described as "grazing."
ReplyDeleteI understand the land is available. Questioning impact of the physical footprint as an environmental obstacle. Look at the trouble Rat described with the wild horses - went to court I believe.
Don't ever underestimate how "nuts" this country can be.
Why sure, if the hiway net could produce the fuel required to use it, that's poetic symetry.
ReplyDeleteCircle of life stuff.
Balance on an industrial level.
Could be sweet.
There was already a Federal law banning what the Forest Service wanted to do.
ReplyDeleteThe Forest Service said they were exempt from the law.
The Judge disagreed.
I doubt that there are existing laws regarding ag production on those medians. The may be regulations, but not much law.
Laws can be changed, if the public need demands it.
So, if we wanted to "push" it would be a place to start.
Thanks, Rat. I generally read American Thinker but missed that.
ReplyDeleteHe plans to double the Peace Corps' budget by 2011, and expand AmeriCorps, USA Freedom Corps, VISTA, YouthBuild Program, and the Senior Corps. Plus, he proposes to form a Classroom Corps, Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, Veterans Corps, Homeland Security Corps, Global Energy Corps, and a Green Jobs Corps. Here a corps - there a corps - everywhere a corps corps.
I don't much like this idea. And, I didn't know we had some of those corps. It may be time I checked that Senior Corps out. I remember one of my aunts was in The Grey Panthers, a corps of ladies with too much time on their hands, in service to the hospital here.
I suggest a Highway Hay Corps, as long as we're in the corps business.
The old "we got a variance" gambit.
ReplyDeleteKnow it well.
Iowa Produces more Transport Fuels than it uses. So does Nebraska.
ReplyDeleteThere are, probably, no more than a handful of U.S. Counties that could not do the same by using Municipal Solid Waste, Forestry Waste, Energy Crops, Straw, and Stover, etc.
The Key to Energy Crops (advanced switchgrass, miscanthus, sorghum - sweet, and giant, jatropha, etc) is government help in the form of loan guarantees, markets, etc in helping the farmers make the transition. A farmer whose family income depends on his profitability cannot afford to "take a flyer" on an unbuilt plant, utilizing new technology, by new-to-the-business entrepreneurs, and plant an unfamiliar-to-him crop. He's going to have to have some help with the transition.
THIS is the type of thing Government Can, and Should, do.
We've, also, GOT TO HAVE Flexfuel Vehicles. NOW! It costs less than a hundred dollars for a manufacturer to make a vehicle "flexfuel." Brazil did it; We can do it.
And, we've gotta make the oil companies offer it. They've had a lot of tax breaks over the years; and, now it's time for them to pay the piper. All new stations must offer e85. All renovations to include it. The "Big Boys" with ten or more stations must offer e85 in at least 10% of those stations. The "Tax Credits" are available, now.
Will we do it? I don't know. Can we do it? You Betcha. Easier than falling off a log.
Will the Saudis like it? Whadda you think? Are they Rich and Powerful? Immeasurably.
What do I think? I just don't know.
From the American Thinker piece:
ReplyDeleteHe couldn't be clearer in signaling his intentions, including a Social Investment Fund Network to link local non-profits with the federal government.
Enough said.
Don:(at BC, says)
ReplyDeleteGee, I wonder if the Georgians regret listening to the nice Americans and sending the Nukes back to Russia after the USSR fell apart? Sure did them a lot of good to snuggle up to us didn’t it?
NATO is nearly dead. The missile shield is stone cold dead. Of course it’ll take a few months to a couple years for the de facto to become de jure but it’s gone. The Ukraine, the Stans are going under the Russian boot next, and eventually the Baltics.
Looks like we’ve got the Republican answer to Jimmy Carter.
Ukraine had some nukes, this fellow says Georgia did too.
According to a live Steve @ FOX News, the Russians are thirty-five miles from the Capital and the Georgian troops are in rout.
ReplyDeleteHe reports they are falling back in disarray, under the cover of darkness.
To late, to turn back now.
Agree with everything Rufus wrote above - as long as parallel track for coal and oil shale.
ReplyDeleteYes government must be involved. Just watch out for those buzz words.
Which why, slade, the paramount issue in Election 2008 is the Senate.
ReplyDeleteA minimum of 44 Senators, loyal and true. That is where to make the stand. If Maverick wins, well and good. But if he does win, but without a cohesive minority, in the Senate, he's no where.
If Obama wins, that 44+ seat bloc can stop anything to extreme coming down the pike.
With Senator McCain in the opposition's vanguard.
Here's Why Obama Can't Win
ReplyDeleteI'm not certain I'm convinced by this.
Read somewhere, the other day, that if the demographic described as "Grey Whites" voted for Obama at levels of 30% or above, he'd win.
ReplyDeleteIf he failed to reach that threshold, amongst "Grey Whites", he'd lose. The author seemed quite sure of the numbers.
Do not recall where I saw it, though.
Georgian President Runs for Cover
ReplyDeleteBush works on Serve.
Agree with everything Rufus - and Rat - wrote above.
ReplyDeleteRe government sponsorship in closing the technology gap.
It is still a State by State contest, RCP's map remains unchanged.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see what else happens in the next 85 days.
Ash took advantage of a low-hanging Wart @ BC.
ReplyDeleteOld Style Stove Is Answer To Your Energy Woes
ReplyDelete"Grey" whites? Must mean older whites, or, an alien(grey)/white hybrid.
Salim Hamdan gets 5 1/2 years. Hamdan, who admitted working for al-Qaeda leader, could be eligible for release in just six months with time served.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a bit of both, bob.
ReplyDeleteI'd say Seniors, but though Grey I do not consider myself Senior, yet.
Though the AARP will let me join them, for a fee.
No, the article was adament, Grey Whites, have a JAWS effect on Obama. Oh, that was a Great White.
my bad
Which why, slade, the paramount issue in Election 2008 is the Senate.
ReplyDeleteAlways maintained that - as well as looking at the team of advisers coming in with the executive, which concerns me about Obama to no end.
I heard awhile back from some analyst that the public has a "Georgia where?" attitude about it. True enough.
Obviously, the energy issue is working against the Democrats - to the extent that we might see off-shore drilling before anything else. I don't think so but far from sure about anything.
The environmental platform has become radicalized - in a Peter Principle sense - to the extent that they broke ranks with the public. The technical squabbling doesn't help.
I don't see that it's that complicated. Normal business practices. Not rocket science.
Holy Shiite.
ReplyDeleteI had this experience. One time I caught a fair sized trout that had a smaller trout in its mouth, about half in half out, like that seal. I read somewhere that trout always try to get the smaller trout, heads first, which is the way this one was.
It's a watery jungle out there.
I have successfully avoided the AARP so far, I think it's just a big advertising racket.
Later.
Key oil pipeline targeted with over 50 missiles
ReplyDeleteFor Doug etal--C2C tonite--
ReplyDeleteMon 08.11 >>
Journalist and teacher, Frosty Wooldridge will discuss his work campaigning against illegal immigration and the ramifications of adding 100 million people to the U.S. population by 2035.
"..Renewable electric generation, in the absence of storage and power management technologies, will require backup generation capacity to provide the same level of reliability,..”
ReplyDeleteSlade,
I agree. But don’t forget that electric car batteries can provide a huge source of distributive storage capacity.
Also:
MIT claims 24/7 solar power
R. Colin Johnson
EE Times
PORTLAND, Ore. — Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have combined a liquid catalyst with photovoltaic cells to achieve what they claim is a solar energy system that could generate electricity around the clock.
A liquid catalyst was added to water before electrolysis to achieve what the researchers claim is almost 100-percent efficiency. When combined with photovoltaic cells to store energy chemically, the resulting solar energy systems could generate electricity around the clock, the MIT team said.
"The hard part of getting water to split is not the hydrogen -- platinum as a catalyst works fine for the hydrogen. But platinum works very poorly for oxygen, making you use much more energy," said MIT chemistry professor Daniel Nocera. "What we have done is made a catalyst work for the oxygen part without any extra energy. In fact, with our catalyst almost 100 percent of the current used for electrolysis goes into making oxygen and hydrogen."
Nickel oxide catalysts are currently used to boost the efficiency of electrolyzers, and they worked equally well in MIT's formulation, Nocera acknowledged. He added that the toxicity of nickel oxide forces the use of expensive, hermetically-sealed water containers. MIT's patented catalyst formulation is "green," Nocera said, and can be used in inexpensive open containers.
"Nickel oxide can't be used around anything else in the environment because of corrosion -- even the carbon dioxide in the air will react with it to make carbonates," said Nocera. "But our catalyst uses abundant materials that don't react with environment."
MIT's patented formulation of cobalt phosphate was dissolved in water. When the electrical current is passed through it to initiate electrolysis, the catalyst attached itself to the oxygen electrode to increase its efficiency. When the electrical current was turned off, the cobalt phosphate dissolved back into water.
The simplicity of the process enables basic electrolyzers to be used, the researchers said.
"Because our catalyst is green, the machines that perform electrolysis can be much less expensive than they are today, since they don't need to be protected from environmental contaminants," said Nocera.
==
So basically you’ll be using home produced Hydrogen as a means for electric power storage. When needed, this Hydrogen can then be used to power fuel cells.
Hey al-Bob,
ReplyDeleteThat stove is so efficient that in addition to baking bread for pennies, your Pickup will get 100mpg.
Aether:
ReplyDeleteThis is a fine example of projection on behalf of Anatoly Churkin the Russians appointee to the UNSC
The Obstacle
“During Sunday’s meeting, Khalilzad asked Churkin repeatedly, “Is your government’s objective regime change in Georgia?”
Churkin responded, “Sometimes there are occasions when, and we know from history, there are different leaders who come to power either democratically or semi-democratically . . . and they become an obstacle.”"
Hey, al-Bob, prepare to pay for the World's HIV Medical Costs.
ReplyDeleteW is SO Compassionat w/OUR Money.
---
www.mysanantonio.com National - U.S. acts to open borders to foreigners with HIV
After more than two decades on the books, a little-known yet strictly enforced federal law barring foreigners with HIV or AIDS from entering the country is on its way out.
Tucked in a bill pledging $48 billion to combat the disease, signed into law by President Bush last week, was language stripping the provision from federal immigration law.
But that change didn't fully lift the entry ban on visitors with HIV or AIDS, which applies whether they're on tourist jaunts or seeking longer stays. The secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services still needs to delete HIV from the agency's list of “communicable diseases of public health significance,” which includes tuberculosis, gonorrhea and leprosy.
An HHS spokeswoman declined to comment, noting administrators are still reviewing the new law. An April report from the Congressional Budget Office said that, based on information from HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV will be dropped from the list and new regulations will be in place in two years.
Both immigrant and HIV awareness advocates, however, say the toughest hurdle has been cleared, that the lifting of the immigration provision has been a long time coming — politics finally catching up with medical knowledge.
"politics finally catching up with medical knowledge."
ReplyDelete---
...and rendering Common Sense a distant memory from the past.
Lifeofthemind says:
ReplyDeletePresident speaks at the hour, 5 minutes from now.
I saw that Mat - also the interview with one of the MIT researchers.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of something I saw at BC: “Strategy is for amateurs. Logistics is for professionals.”
I am not being insulting. I remind myself of this when I read about the technical “breakthroughs”.
I expect you know the buzz on this as well as I do.
Funded by $10M private grant. Better show something for the investment. A new liquid catalyst for the old electrolysis. One step at a time.
Essentially a bulky “vacuum tube.” The mechanics of storing hydrogen in a home a bit iffy.
I support the research, but the economics of “closing the technology gap” in decelerating global economies, now having flashbacks to last century power politics, puts renewables and solar in the long-term - which is to say 20-30 years out. In my mind.
The way this Georgia thing is falling out might make the argument moot.
Bush just said he thought Russia was trying ti overthrow the Georgian Government. That is nothing new. That is the standard old Soviet model.
ReplyDeleteThe Russians are not that adaptive. This thing was in the planning for some time.
ReplyDeleteThat Churkin fellow must be a survivor, as he spoke at the Borah Symposium years ago, about perestroika and glasnost, he was in Gorby's corner then. Young, smart, a little smart assed too. I think that's the same guy. Vitaly Churkin. Looks to me like he's for sale to the highest bidder. Looking for that dacha outside Moscow to retire to.
ReplyDeleteBush just said he thought Russia was trying ti overthrow the Georgian Government.
ReplyDeleteWell, no shit, George. I had that figured out this morning.
"Russia’s aggression against Georgia is both a matter of urgent moral and strategic importance to the United States,” said Mr McCain. “The implications go beyond their threat to . . . a democratic Georgia. Russia is using violence against Georgia, in part, to intimidate other neighbours such as Ukraine, for choosing to associate with the west.”
ReplyDeleteMr McCain’s statement – his third since the crisis began – stood in clear contrast on Monday to the relatively low-key response of the Bush administration and the Obama campaign. Barack Obama himself issued a statement on Saturday but remains on vacation in Hawaii.
I wonder if the Georgians could put up any kind of hearty guerilla war? Less than half the population of New York City and a state about the size of Ohio or something.
ReplyDeleteBob, the Georgians are stunned, in shock but not awe. Russia will pay hell for this misadventure:
ReplyDeleteBush Says Russia Must Reverse Course
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 11, 2008
Filed at 5:31 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is denouncing what he calls Russia's dramatic and brutal escalation of violence in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. He pressed Moscow to accept an immediate cease-fire and to pull back its troops.
Bush put the crisis at the top of his agenda as he returned from the Olympic Games in Beijing.
In a Rose Garden statement Monday, Bush said there appeared to be an attempt by Russia to unseat Georgia's pro-Western president, Mikhail Saakashvili.
He demanded an immediate cease-fire, the withdrawal of Russian troops from the conflict zone and a return to the status quo as of Aug. 6.
Russia has ignored calls for a truce and has responded with overwhelming military force
And Ash is, as usual, denouncing President Bush, while Obama relaxes in Hawaii--
ReplyDeleteash:(from BC)
my my, now wasn’t that a powerful statement by our glorious POTUS?
buddy larsen: (from BC)
He said “Russia must immediately withdraw from Georgia” –What was it you wanted to hear, Ash? A threat to launch ICBMs?
I think your Bush hatred is your political position. Maybe someday you’ll develop some sort of principle other than animus, and thereby begin the climb the stairway to coherence.
The Georgians understand that they cannot stand up to full NeoSoviet divisions. They need to take off the uniforms and devolve to an army of one and kill Russians.
ReplyDeleteAsh relishes in shock but rarely awes.
ReplyDeleteBlogger 2164th said...
ReplyDelete"Bush just said he thought Russia was trying ti overthrow the Georgian Government."
actually in classic Bush mangled language fashion he said "they are trying to overthrow Russia's democratically elected government"
bobal, since you are keen on what it said over there here was my response to Buddy:
"ash:
yeah, he said “Russia must immediately withdraw from Georgia” - another line in the sand that will be crossed with no response. He’s bluffed and been called so many times its become laughable. Superb poker player my ass. No, a threat to launch ICBM’s would be a problem. It is sad the hole he’s dug so deep for US. He looked and sounded beat in the statement. It’s a good thing for him that it had little national coverage…so far."
Tyson Foods has backed down/turned chicken on the muzzie holiday/Labor Day fiasco. The good news of the day, I like their chicken.
ReplyDeleteIt strikes me that a person might have some bad words for Putin and Company, killers, and leave off the Bush-bashing for one day.
ReplyDeleteI am not being insulting. I remind myself of this when I read about the technical "breakthroughs".
ReplyDeleteNo offense taken, Slade. My point was that where there's a will there's a way. Technical challenges can be overcome. We've been running on the same tread wheel like dumb mice for much too long. It's time to search for alternatives.
==
Agam to develop fuel-efficient car engines
Aug. 11, 2008
DANIELLE KUBES
THE JERUSALEM POST
The Israeli air-conditioning company, Agam Energy Systems Ltd., is expanding its energy conservation technology to develop fuel-efficient technology for car engines.
"Cars are very inefficient," said Ofer Spottheim, business development manager at Agam. "It's the same idea that has been used for the past 100 years. When I took my driving lessons 25 years ago it drove at 10 km/1 litre. It still drives at 10km/1 litre."
Instead the new engine developed by Agam will enable cars to drive at 45 km/litre. The engine is more efficient even in start and stop city driving because the car stores recoverable kinetic energy.
With oil on a worldwide price hike, Spottheim is confident that there will be a big market for fuel-conserving technology.
Compared to a regular car that runs on a piston engine, Agam's prototype uses a turbine that allows for an 80 percent gas reduction and a 90% reduction of C02.
Previous attempts at creating a turbine engine have failed mainly because of the extremely high amount of energy required to move the compressors.
Since cold air is compressed much easier, Agam devised a water-ring compressor that cools the air by spraying cold water.
The engine can also be used as a small to medium sized electricity generator, eliminating the need for coal. Up to 22% more efficient than typical electricity generators of the same size, the price will also be lower per kilowatt.
So far, Agam's prototype has lived up to expectations and the product is expected to be implemented in 2011 in power plants and in 2012 for cars.
Agam, run by reserve colonel Moshe Maroko, a former commander of the IDF technology unit, who was twice awarded with the 'Israel Defense Award', was able to make the leap from air conditioners to engines because both technologies are based on the laws of physics.
Agam added that the company has not neglected original products and is developing an air-conditioning system at double efficiency that is entirely devoid of Freon - a destroyer of the ozone layer.
The mind behind these efficient products is a former senior scientist at the Weizmann Institute Dr. Gad Assaf, who is a specialist in energy and thermodynamics.
==
where there's a will there's a way
ReplyDeleteYep. Words to live by.
Honeymoon over.