SUBJ: Should We Expect Moties?

 

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110626.html

 

Cecil Rose

 

 

= = = = = = =

The Great Daylight Fireball of 1972.

 

<http://i.imgur.com/qsNwG.jpg>

 

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Daylight_1972_Fireball>

 

Roland Dobbins

It is my understanding that events of this magnitude take place fairly often, several a year, but are seldom observed. They take place at high altitude and over water and there’s no one there to see them. Like the tree falling in the forest…

= = = = = =

Earth’s temperature.

 

 

Interesting article and comments:

 

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/01/02/
do-solar-scientists-still-think-that-
recent-warming-is-too-large-to-explain-by-solar-activity/

 

I can’t help thinking that it may get cold around here …

 

Love the new format.

 

Andrew McCann.

 

I continue to insist that I just don’t know. I know something about temperature measurements, and models, and combining multiple observations, but I have no idea how to combine all the various temperature measurements to get an average temperature of the Earth, and I do know that what we see in most “annual averages” is a slow steady rise since 1800, which squares with almanacs and general observations. I keep looking for a good introduction to temperature measurement and averaging models, but I haven’t found one I can recommend.

= = = = = = =

Elderly woman asked to remove adult diaper during TSA search

 

http://www.newsherald.com/news/mother-94767-search-adult.html

 

    A woman has filed a complaint with federal authorities over how her elderly mother was treated at Northwest Florida Regional Airport last weekend.

    Jean Weber of Destin filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security after her 95-year-old mother was detained and extensively searched last Saturday while trying to board a plane to fly to Michigan to be with family members during the final stages of her battle with leukemia.

    Her mother, who was in a wheelchair, was asked to remove an adult diaper in order to complete a pat-down search.

 

I know I feel a lot safer now.

 

John

 

Think of the courage required to Do One’s Duty Despite Harassment, and thus to Serve and Protect and Guard Men from Harm. We can only sit in admiration with folded hands…

= = = = = = =

 

On people videotaping police

 

http://www.theagitator.com/2011/06/24/
petty-thuggishness-in-rochester/

 

Dear Dr. Pournelle:

 

Radley Balko is a journalist who’s been covering this sort of thing for awhile now. Given your recent interest I thought I’d send you a link to his website. I hope you feel better soon.

 

Regards,

Tim Scott=

 

= = = = = = =

 

‘Apart from appreciation and investment, it might be an alien concept for laymen outside the Chinese system that one of the most essential functions of art works is corruption.’

 

<http://www.opendemocracy.net/openeconomy/
antony-ou/chinese-art-of-elegant-bribery>

 

Roland Dobbins

= = = = = = = = =

 

The Lordkin and the Burning City.

 

Jerry,

 

This article is astonishing.

 

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/
search?q=cache:lHzJ2PFQcMEJ:peo
riachronicle.com/+http://peoriachronicle
.com/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&
source=www.google.com

 

The lack of response by police is even more reprehensible than the aggression of the mob.

 

KelTec has introduced a new bullpup design, pump action, 12 gauge shotgun with twin magazine tubes that you can select from. Imagine being able to switch from slugs to double ought buck at the flick of a lever. I’m going to get me one of these. It will be a great companion for my HK-91, Dessert Eagle .50, and Barrett 0.50. I think it is getting time to clean out the hippodrome again.

 

Jim Crawford

It may come to that, but I am not eager for it. Long ago I noted that many in the survival movement could hardly wait for the collapse of civilization. I kept pointing out that the goal was to keep it; that it was all very well to be ready for a collapse, and to have the organization and training and abilities to survive that collapse, but the best way to survive a nuclear war is not to have one; I chose to work on Assured Survival as a national strategy, and ballistic missile defenses, even as my friend Mel Tappan established a base in Oregon. I do believe that civilized households ought to be armed; but I am not eager to have live action practice with survival guns.

= = = = = = = =

 

biowarfare

 

Dear Jerry,

 

The basic problem confronting germ warfare, chemical warfare and dirty nukes is dispersion. (Aha! a physics issue) It is very difficult to get wide dispersion, especially in cities, and it is probable that a terrorist attack in a large city would only affect a couple of blocks.

 

There is also the problem of control. The Dept of Defense was happy to get rid of biological and chemical weapons because experience had shown that their direction of spread could not be predicted.

 

Bioweapons, of course, have the potential for wider spread because of infection. But, a bioweapons manufacturer has a difficult virulence/infection problem. High-virulence microbes like Ebola do not spread very far because their victims do not live long enough to infect many people.

 

The best examples of “biowarfare” are the Black Death in Europe and the spread of Eurasian diseases in the New World. The Black Death killed about 30% of the European population it affected. Moreover, in the New World, although some people have claimed that 90% of the population died off, the true figure is probably less than 50% and might have been as low as 30%.

 

You remember that smallpox, a highly effective pathogen of world-wide spread, was in fact eliminated.

 

In short, bio-, chemi- and dirty nuclear weapons are greatly overrated as terrorist tools. Plenty of highly local destruction and terror, but not Katrina-level effects.

 

Yours,

 

Bob

I do not discuss technical details of biological warfare with some exceptions when speaking of preparedness; but I can tell you that a good high school biology class could in fact come up with a, if not Katrina, then 9-11 level event involving multiple outbreaks and claiming disproportionate casualties among First Responders and some emergency room workers. If I can work that out, then others can. It is not a trivial matter.

= = = = = = = =

 

 

Mail June 27, 2011 – 1

 

New design

 

I like the new design layout… but is there any chance you could continue using the old parch5.jpg background image – seems like it’s been around long enough to be a tradition.

Chuck

 

It can be done, but the consensus around here is that it comes out weird colors depending on what you are looking at it with. I always saw it as parchment, but many saw an odd pink, and it changed from time to time. I like the grey for readability, and it’s probably time to give that a try. JEP

 

 

= = = = = = = = = =

None of the suggested formats come anywhere close to the standards set by Chaos Manor and Mail for the last 15 years. DO NOT use any of them as an example when setting up your new formats. Please come as close as possible to what you have been doing since I have been subscribing to Chaos Manor.

 

Chuck Anderson

 

Thanks for the kind words. We are trying. I really am trying to come as close as possible to what we have been doing, in part because I sure don’t want to learn something new. I do reserve the right to try various things, but I promise to get rid of them when they are ugly, as some probably will be. It’s an adventure game…

= = = = = = = =

 

 

 

 

The old format worked just fine for me, but I’m sure that I’ll get used to the new one and it will be fine too.

 

An unidentified reader provided the following:

 

“Instead, just post reader mail as it comes in along with your own comment – each in a separate post. I would think this would be simpler for you, too, by eliminating the compilation step.”

 

Please don’t do that. I know that many blogs allow reader comments to appear instantly. It is not necessarily a desirable ‘feature’. I like the idea that letters from your readers, mine or anyone else’s, appear because YOU read them and you, personally (It is YOUR blog, after all.), thought that they were worth passing along. If you feel that my letters, any or all, or those of your other readers that you choose not to publish, for WHATEVER reason, are better suited to the ash bin of history than to your blog, fine.

 

After all, I think that is what attracts many to your site: your personal involvement.

 

Also his suggestion that you comment on ALL of your reader mail seems mighty liberal with your time. Who was it that starved to death answering reader mail? We don’t need you as another example.

 

Anyway, thanks for your efforts.

 

Bob Ludwick

 

The only way to comment here is to send me mail. I get far more mail than I can publish. Some is quite good enough for publication, but it is part of a flood on the same subject. Some is flattering but doesn’t show any new perspectives. Some just doesn’t strike me as appealing to the readers. I select what I think is interesting, and the result is that I think this is one of the most interesting mail sections on the Web. We have a wide variety of readers with great perception and often great expertise.

While I try to read all the reader mail, I am sometimes a long way behind on that. I do have other things I have to get done. I wish I could comment on all the mail I select, but I often can’t. We does the best we can…

= = = = = = == == =

Site Redesign

 

Jerry,

 

As a longtime reader, I can get along with everything I saw on the new page, except that the new page puts Saturday below Sunday. Personally, I can’t stand “blog order” – we read from the top down, and chronological order should run from the top down, not from the bottom up.

 

If the new software is not capable of placing the entries in logical order, the next best thing would be to recreate the “Monday – Tuesday – Wednesday” etc. links that were at the top of the old page, so readers could click a link and read Saturday first, then return to the top and click to read Sunday, instead of having to scroll futilely about the page to read in chronological order.

 

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

 

Respectfully,

Tom Brendel

 

We’re looking at this but I am not sure what to do. The calendar over there on the right is live, and it will let you go to a particular day; that may be the best we can do. For the moment we’re going to stay with what we have, but that doesn’t me we can’t revise once we see just how this works. For the moment I’m trying to get used to using what I have. Thanks.

= = = = = = = = = =

 

 

 

re: contempt of cop

 

It may interest you and your readers to know that in IL it is a class 1 felony punishable by 4-15 years in prison and $25,000 to record a police officer in performance of his duties.

This is on par with rape.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/08/chicago-district-attorney-recording-bad-cops_n_872921.html

http://www.heartland.org/full/29892/In_Illinois_Its_a_Felony_to_Film_Police.html

R

 

There is a trend in this direction. After the Rodney King incident it will not happen in Los Angeles; and I would think that the 14^th Amendment give Congress ample power to defend the rights of citizens to monitor and report the actions of the local police. That is, after all, what Civil Rights is all about. Interesting that Illinois thinks that is not needed.

= = = = = = =

 

Solar Windows

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/25/BUHP1K2FGD.DTL&type=tech

 

San Mateo based company.

 

The product reduces the amount of direct sunlight entering windows and converts it to electricity instead.

 

This product won the GE ecoimagination challenge.

 

John Harlow, President BravePoint

 

That appears to make sense. There is no point in wasting solar energy just to do that: the question is whether it is economical to try to make use of it. Thanks. Intruiging.

= = = = = =

Space Solar Power

 

Hello Jerry,

 

“I do know that when we did the Boeing study one of the tests was transmission of power through atmosphere using Goldstone as the transmitter to a rectenna; the efficiency of the operation, that is, the ratio of usable power out of the rectenna to the input power at Goldstone was about 90%.”

Actually, the recent spate of YouTube videos on the subject say that the rectenna produced an output of around 82.5% of the INCIDENT RF energy.

 

The Goldstone transmitter for the Venus tests produced around 450 kilowatts of rf. The the input power from the grid that was required to produce the rf was not reported. The best klystrons available today produce around 700 kw at an efficiency of 44% (current state of the art). The ones available in 1975 were considerably less efficient. Even granting 40% efficiency, the Goldstone transmitter tests required at least 1.2 megawatts of power from the grid to produce the 30 kilowatts from the rectenna.

 

Some (maybe most) of the newer proposals do away with the thousands of huge klystrons in orbit and replace them with large numbers of lower power solid state modules driving elements of a phased array. Here is a paper listing several alternatives (interestingly, the paper proceeds as if the down link were buildable).:

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/54333065/2/History-of-Wireless-Power-Transmission

 

It includes information on the Goldstone tests, by the way.

 

One of the tables in the paper lists rudimentary specs for the downlink antenna. The number of transmit modules range from 97 million (NASA/DOE with 185 w/module) to 3.5 billion (Old JAXA proposal, with 1 w/module). The NASA/DOE proposal with a downlink at 2.45 GHz, a 1 km transmit antenna, and a 1 km receive rectenna is not believable; the ‘cold equations’ of aperture vs beamwidth don’t allow it. A 1 km diameter transmit antenna @ 2.45 GHz WILL NOT produce a 1 km diameter beam at a distance of 22,500 miles.

 

All of this sort of begs the issue: Antennas are not infinitely scalable, any more than are telescopes. At least not buildable ones. It is a little like using the specs for Hubble (8′ diameter, resolution .05 arc seconds) as ‘proof of principle’ for a telescope with a diameter of 50 million feet so that we could resolve 1 mile surface features on planets orbiting Alpha Centauri. In theory, that would work; in practice, we aren’t building a 50 million ft diameter telescope any time soon. Neither are we building, stabilizing, and maintaining a geosynchronous phased array antenna a couple of kilometers in diameter with a billion (more or less) driven elements any time soon.

 

Bob Ludwick

 

Thank you. I haven’t looked at the data in decades. I can only say that a team of us, all experienced, with a span of expertise we thought more than adequate, concluded after a lot of hard work that SSPS was economical once the capital costs – considerable capital costs – were paid. General Graham had a similar experience with his team of High Frontier staff and volunteers. So did Lawrence Livermore. I think that conclusion is still viable. Space Solar power isn’t easy – that’s one thing we have learned about space and with a vengeance, nothing is easy – but not easy doesn’t have to mean physically or economically impossible. I do not believe the dream is dead.

= = = = = = =

Benign incompetence or competent malevolence

 

Hello Jerry,

 

“One may draw any conclusion one likes.”

 

True, but the sign being waved by the SEIU half of the Obama/SEIU mutual admiration society, combined by the observed behavior of the Obamunist half over the last two and a half years, should surely influence one’s conclusion a bit, I would think.

 

I suppose that the conclusion would also depend upon whether one thinks that stamping out a capitalist representative republic and replacing it with a socialist/Marxist/communist/fascist tyranny is benign or malevolent. (I know, socialism/Marxism et al are not identical, but one or more of them would be appropriate descriptions of ALL of the Obamunist actions since they took command–literally–of our country.)

 

Bob Ludwick

 

One does not need to impute malice to the normal operations of the Iron Law.

= = = = = = = = =

 

 

 

Chaos Manor Mail Sunday June 26, 2011

 

New Format

 

Jerry,

 

The new format works very well for me. Reading on my iPad in Landscape, the new format is easier for me to read because the length of the lines is shorter and easier to read by just scanning down.

 

I am looking forward to seeing how the new format looks with Chaos Manor Reviews.

 

Keep up the good work. Your Site is loaded with INFORMATION CRITIAL TO THE SURVIVAL OF OUR REPUBLIC!

 

The View From Chaos Manor and Mail should be required reading for EVERY member of Congress.

 

Bob Holmes

Sent from my iPad=

 

I will keep trying. Mail will probably undergo a lot of changes over time. Thanks for the kind words. In particular I need to work on backgrounds and colors, neither of which I find as satisfactory as I did in the old system.

 

= =

 

Suggestion for the new format

 

Message Body:

 

I think you might be better served to stop thinking of your “blog” as a “daybook”. Sticking strictly to a (nearly) everyday post of mail and views isn’t necessary.

 

Instead, just post reader mail as it comes in along with your own comment – each in a separate post. I would think this would be simpler for you, too, by eliminating the compilation step.

 

Then, just intersperse your own view posts as your feel the need. They don’t have to come every day… just when you feel motivated and have the time.

 

The other key benefits to this is: 1) readers can reference and link to a specific reader e-mail since it will be in it’s own post, 2) moving to a user comment section would be easier so that comments could focus on a single topic, 3) finding the post that you last read would be easier.

 

Here’s an example of a blog that uses this style and I think fits what you’re trying to do:

 

http://apocalypsecometh.wordpress.com/

 

Hope this helps! Thanks for all of your work!

 

Thanks for the suggestions, but in fact the present system feels right to me. I want to make it easy to determine the difference between Mail and View, and what’s my contribution and what is comment on someone else’s stuff. But I am open to suggestion and discussion here. Probably not today. Today was a bit exhausting.

= =

 

The new Mail format

 

Jerry

 

I’m sure you have many many items to work on, but I’ll add this: when a user sets the normal font size in Firefox to 24, your comments expand to a reasonable size, but the mail does not.

 

I don’t know why this is happening, but I have to change my Firefox settings when I go to this new site.

 

Ed

 

I don’t know what causes that. It’s an item to add to the list to work on. Thanks.

 

= = = = = = = = = == =

 

Navy Plans to Scrap First Experimental Stealth Ship

 

Check this out; an adventurous photographer accidentally found the Sea Shadow in the Mothball Fleet. http://scotthaefner.com/beyond/mothball-fleet-ghost-ships/

 

-Jay

 

Entropy runs fast with boats…

 

= = = = = = =

 

Using the front sight!

 

Jerry,

 

I just saw video on FOX news from Libya. The rebels have stopped firing into the air. While most are still firing from the hip using the spray and prey method of gun fighting, a few are actually putting the butt stock to their shoulder and may be using the sites. It is fortunate for them that I’m going under the knife for a new pacemaker Monday. They’d be up shit creek without a paddle if Someone such as myself was there with a .50 BMG Barrett with a couple dozen cases of ammo. It would be like hunting sage rats.

 

Jim Crawford

 

Possibly an explanation for why Qadafi is rumored to be seeking a negotiated way out. He wants to stay rich and out of jail. We want him out. Rich is a relative term, but given what we are spending, a week’s worth of war is a lot of money, and although it’s not oil sovereign rich, one could live on that quite well – it beats a Dutch prison.

 

= = = = = = =

 

Decline

 

“In 2008, historian David McCullough http://photoncourier.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html#7108192311108519448 spoke to seminar of some twenty-five students at an Ivy League college, all seniors majoring in history, all honors students. “How many of you know who George Marshall was?” he asked. None did.”

 

 

http://pajamasmedia.com/eddriscoll/

 

Steve Chu

 

Decline of the West. Actually, isn’t Decadence a proper term? Barzun’s Dawn to Decadence is a big book, long, not hard to read but it does take slow reading to understand. The West had a good run. We’ll see what happens.

 

= =

 

Compare and contrast

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/bronstein/detail?entry_id=91589

 

http://news.scotsman.com/news/Scottish-couple-thrown-in-Texas.6789097.jp

 

Steve Chu

 

Which may be illustrative of the previous point. Thanks.

 

= = = = = = = =

 

Chaos Manor Mail June 25, 2011 NEW MAIL

 

• Solar Storm
• True after all
• Hot Fudge Monday
• End of Retirement
• Time to worry

 

We have yet to work out the format of Mail under the new system. Should I attempt to put up a new entry every time I add mail, which I sometimes do several times a day, or should I try to revise each day’s entry? It is pretty certain that each day will be a separate blog entry due to the nature of the process. It is also pretty certain that each entry will have several mail items. I am making each mail subject a “heading” meaning that one ought to be able to see links to them.

 

I need to figure out how to make a template for mail. I have tried the usual method, but it has one effect: when I make a “header” of a format then it takes the coloration out of the hyperlinks. The links are there apparently but they don’t show as links. I am sure I will figure it all out.

 

I have offers of help including by phone from a number of readers. I may take a couple of you up on that once things are going since I am going to need to build templates, particularly for MAIL which has to be done largely by cut and paste, and which I much prefer to keep as nearly unchanged as possible. But I have got this page done and we will see how it looks.

 

Additional: I have published this, then saw a correction, corrected it on the Word version here on my computer, published it again, and it overwrote the old. I am now going to add an item to the bottom and reference it in the headers, and see if that works. If so this is going to be just like the old stuff and I will do this daily.

 

= = = = = = = = = =

 

Getting ready for the next big solar storm

Jerry,

You have probably received this from a variety of sources, but if not, it is well worth posting for your readers.

 

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/22jun_swef2011/

 

 

June 21, 2011: In Sept. 1859, on the eve of a below-average1 solar cycle, the sun unleashed one of the most powerful storms in centuries. The underlying flare was so unusual, researchers still aren’t sure how to categorize it. The blast peppered Earth with the most energetic protons in half-a-millennium, induced electrical currents that set telegraph offices on fire, and sparked Northern Lights over Cuba and Hawaii.

 

This week, officials have gathered at the National Press Club in Washington DC to ask themselves a simple question: What if it happens again? <snip>

 

 

Gordon Foreman

 

And we are, of course, overdue for the kind of enormous solar event that happened in the 19^th Century, and which, so far as we can tell from observations of aurora events at far southern locations such as Alexandria, have been happening at about one per century since classical times. We dealt with this earlier but I don’t have the link handy.

= = = = = = = = = =

 

Woman arrested in Rochester for recording a police traffic stop –

    

“Here is another that one hopes cannot possibly be true.”

 

Sorry, this one looks very true. I have heard of this happening before, in many different venues. The link posted on your site was deleted. Apparently local markets had the clip deleted. A print media link was still there. YouTube had the clip in several spots and will likely keep the information available now.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/22/emily-good-arrested-videotaping-police-rochester_n_882122.html

 

Huffingtonpost picked up on the matter and has some commentary upon telling the story.

Interestingly, the police did a bit of revenge harassment just after this incident, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxHPW-l88f0&feature=related.

 

A bit of color on the matters prior to this one. apparently the woman doing the taping was involved in this protest. http://dailybail.com/home/rochester-ny-sends-25-policecars-and-the-swat-team-to-evict.html .

 

Things are not well with the police and community in Rochester, NY.

 

R,

Rose

 

= = = = = = = = = =

Hot Fudge Monday:

 

Hot Fudge Sundae … narrowly avoids becoming Hot Fudge Monday this week:

 

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/25/asteroid-to-give-earth-close-shave-monday/?test=faces

 

<snip>

 

The asteroid will make its closest approach at 9:26 a.m. EDT (1326 GMT) on June 27 and will pass just over 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface, NASA <http://www.foxnews.com/topics/space/nasa.htm#r_src=ramp> officials say. At that particular moment, the asteroid — which scientists have named 2011 MD — will be sailing high off the coast of Antarctica, almost 2,000 miles (3,218 km) south-southwest of South Africa <http://www.foxnews.com/topics/south-africa.htm#r_src=ramp> .

 

Asteroid 2011 MD was discovered Wednesday (June 22) by LINEAR, a pair of robotic telescopes in New Mexico <http://www.foxnews.com/topics/mexico.htm#r_src=ramp> that scan the skies for near-Earth asteroids <http://www.space.com/11802-nasa-asteroid-mission-dangerous-1999-rq36.html> . The best estimates suggest that this asteroid is between 29 to 98 feet (9 to 30 meters) wide.<snip>

 

After making its closest pass to Earth, the asteroid will zoom through the zone of geosynchronous satellites. The chance of a collision with a satellite or piece of space junk is exceedingly remote.<snip>

 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/25/asteroid-to-give-earth-close-shave-monday/#ixzz1QI3oAWdF

 

Jim

 

Well, it missed.

= = = = = = = = = =

The End of Retirement

 

I know this won’t apply to you. But, this may apply to other readers:

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/retirement-know-dead-europacific-pento-175638657.html

 

I remember talking with my real estate tycoon friend in Chiang Mai in

2002 about the coming crash in real estate. This is the most succinct way of pointing out what some of the men in the room already knew. I don’t know how much clearer I can present it than the author of this article did. If you read it and understand it then it means that certain of us are doomed.

 

If you are retired now, you have it good. It will be worse for most people in my generation when we reach your age. Hopefully, it will be worst for the Boomers and hopefully much better for us who planned and did not laugh at facts and did not call the messengers “conspiracy theorists”.

——–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

 

Well, some can always do as the Greeks have done, and riot to make the government pay their pensions. I note that one of the causes of the end of the Roman Republic was inability to pay pensions – that is give small farms – to retired Legionnaires who had spent their lives in the Army and had no way to make a living and support families. Military pay and pensions was a main concern for aspiring leaders, but when there wasn’t enough money to support them, leaders came forth who promised that they would.

 

Of course that can’t happen here. And while the public might support the pensions of troopers and cops, the notion of working and paying taxes to support the retirement of the Department of Education Inspector General’s SWAT team, or the retired Department of Agriculture Pet Rabbit License Inspectors might be a bit more problematical.

 

= = = = = = = = = =

Subject: Supremes 8-0 endorse Dyson over EPA on global warming

 

 

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/24/the-supremes-recommend-the-supreme-skeptic/#more-42189

 

 

 

<snip>

“The court, we caution, endorses no particular view of the complicated issues related to carbon-dioxide emissions and climate change,” reads the 8-0 decision, delivered by the court’s acclaimed liberal, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The court decision noted that the Environmental Protection Agency itself had “Acknowledg[ed] that not all scientists agreed on the causes and consequences of the rise in global temperatures,” before suggesting readers consult “views opposing” the conventional wisdom. Specifically, the justices’ recommended reading was a superb profile of Princeton’s Freeman Dyson, perhaps America’s most respected scientist, written in the New York Times Magazine, March 29, 2009.

<snip>

Somewhat in the same vein, Justice Ginsburg notes carbon dioxide is necessary and ubiquitous, and thus shouldn’t be the target of indiscriminate attacks. “After all, we each emit carbon dioxide merely by breathing,” she notes, repeating a point that Dyson couldn’t have said better himself.

To see exactly what the Supreme Court said in its remarkable American Electric Power v. Connecticut decision, click here http://probeinternational.org/library/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/10-1741.pdf .

 

The link goes to http://probeinternational.org/library/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/10-1741.pdf which is a copy of the decision.

 

Skimming the decision … basically convinces that it needs more than a skim that while the Supremes may have avoided one trap they may have opened others; specifically, this clause on page 2 about “federal common law” caught my eye in the skim…

 

<snip>

(a) Since Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U. S. 64, 78, recognized that there “is no federal general common law,” a new federal commonlaw has emerged for subjects of national concern. When dealing”with air and water in their ambient or interstate aspects, there is a federal common law.” Milwaukee I, 406 U. S., at 103. Decisions of this Court predating Erie, but compatible with the emerging distinction between general common law and the new federal common law,have approved federal common-law suits brought by one State toabate pollution emanating from another State. See, e.g., Missouri v. Illinois, 180 U. S. 208, 241–243 . <snip>

 

Jim

 

A Federal Common Law is certainly a change from when I took (and taught) Constitutional Law. A game changer indeed.

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Navy to scrap a twenty-six year old X-Project test vehicle –

 

Dear Jerry,

 

If the airforce were ending an x-project, they would send the third item to the Smithsonian and scrap what was left without a qualm or question. A naval vessel is a different matter…it is BIG! So, if the navy has learned what the can from the 26 years of studying the vehicle, why NOT scrap it if no none wants it? I don’t understand the problem.

 

I hope you continue to feel better.

 

R,

Rose

 

Agreed. I wasn’t horrified, just not clear. Thanks

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Immigration Reform Rally

 

 

One of several photographs sent of SEIU rallies for immigration reform. One may draw any conclusion one likes.

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The Hill

 

I have discovered that I ought either to go up that hill more regularly, or stop doing it. Alas, I am more or less laid low. I hope to recover soon.

 

 

Humph….

More, not less!

 

 

mark

 

From my Oregon heart specialist friend. He is of course correct. Corragio… and thanks

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Imperial presidency and the war powers act

 

When playing Sid Meier’s Civilization with the Democracy form of government, one of the most annoying things that can happen to you is for your Senate to over-ride your attack on another player. I can imagine how real, live Presidents might feel if this would happen. It’s too bad our real, live Congress doesn’t have the moral fiber of the Senate in the Civilization game.

Nick

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Is it time to worry yet?

 

 

In his second post-FOMC press conference, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke

touched on every topic, admitting that the recovery was weaker than

expected and that beyond temporary factors like supply chain

disruptions in Japan and high energy prices, he was at a loss as to

what was causing the soft patch. In a Q&A session with reporters,

Bernanke said a disorderly default in Greece would have significant

effects on the U.S. economy, while adding that the Fed still had

several tools at its disposal to pump up the economy.

 

http://blogs.forbes.com/afontevecchia/2011/06/22/bernanke-admits-hes-clueless-on-economys-soft-patch/

 

When exactly do we start worrying?

 

 

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

 

I would have said the time to start worrying was when Congress forced Fannie Mae to start giving loans to people who could not pay them back. Then when TARP did nothing and there were no shovel ready jobs and… Well, there’s a lot to worry about. Ah well

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This seems like a move of quiet desperation.

 

 

To help Harrisburg out of its financial crisis, area Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have called for three days of fasting and praying for a more cooperative spirit among Harrisburg government leaders, the business community and residents.

 

The voluntary event will start at midnight on Tuesday and run through

5 p.m. Friday. During that time, various churches and temples will be open to the public.

 

Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson said she will participate in the event.

 

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/06/harrisburg_mayor_linda_thompso_36.html

 

——–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

 

Well, it couldn’t hurt…