View 684 Tuesday, July 19, 2011
· The Dance Continues, with bunnies and now cows
If you didn’t see my interview with Glenn Reynolds on the Last Shuttle, it’s here.
I have a dental appointment today. Oddly enough it involves something that would definitely profit from my dentist having a 3D printer as described in yesterday’s Mail.
Today I got
3D printing luddites.
The video you linked to is now a part of a new internet meme, wherein the entire field of 3D printing is being called a hoax…because of the way the video was edited and because of the manner in which the technology was presented.
Almost everyone is using, or has benefitted from, a product that was proto-typed in whole or in part by 3D printing. Yet, many people who use those same products on a daily basis think that the technology is a hoax?!
The technology is so disruptive that people are having difficulty facing the reality.
Wait’ll they see what’s happening with nano-biotech. That oughta be fun to watch!
Warren Bonesteel
When I did my Googling on 3d Hoax what I mostly found was convincing arguments that the technology is real; I didn’t see anything convincing to the contrary. It’s with us and more coming. I’d think dentistry would be a major use for this.
The largest year deficit in history was the Bush $500 Billion deficit, but that was dwarfed by the latest Obama deficit: it is now estimated to be $1.65 Trillion. That’s Trillion with a T, the largest deficit in the history of mankind. The Wall Street Journal has an op ed “America’s Debt-Ceiling Opportunity” trying to see the bright side of some of this, but it’s actually chilling. The President continues to act as if failing to increase spending on various projects is the same as failing to send Social Security and Veteran Benefit checks. He insists that the only remedy is to raise revenue, with symbolic “cuts”. This turns out to be a continuation of tax and spend, and none of it would eliminate bunny inspectors, Department of Education SWAT teams, etc. Of course if we eliminate the Department of Education – if the House simply refused to fund it, appropriating no money whatever for the Department of Education – we could not only save a lot of money but possibly save a few schools. Leave education to the States. They can’t do much worse that we are doing now, and some might even do a lot better, saving money while educating kids; others might see something work and try it. The United States spends more per pupil than any nation in the world with the possible exception of Luxembourg; and we don’t get much for that. Try something else.
Now that would help reduce the deficit and might even help the pupils. Of course no one will try that. The “solution” to our lousy schools is always the same, pour in more money. Don’t fire incompetent teachers, but perhaps we can give a hand to those whose education was wrecked by a tenured teacher?
And of course nothing will eliminate the bunny Inspectors. Instead we have proposals to expand those activities. We can borrow more money to federalize agriculture.
The Chicken Inspectors Are Coming –
Now the USDA will implement new rules for egg production similar to what California did with Prop 2.
It’s not just bunnies. We have to stop this cruelty to chickens. Surely the have a right to be free and the Feds must be called in to enforce it….
Law would be first federal legislation addressing treatment of animals on farms
Release Date: 07 July 2011
The United Egg Producers and the Humane Society of the United States http://www.humanesociety.org/ have partnered to work toward the enactment of federal legislation that would set national standards for hens involved in U.S. egg production. The proposed standards, if enacted, would be the first federal law addressing the treatment of animals on farms.
…
The two groups will jointly ask Congress for federal legislation which would require egg producers to increase space per bird in a tiered phase-in, with the amount of space birds are given increasing, in intervals, over the next 15 to 18 years. Currently, the majority of birds are each provided 67 square inches of space, with roughly 50 million receiving 48 square inches. The proposed phase-in would culminate with hens nationwide being provided a minimum of 124–144 square inches of space, along with the other improvements noted.
http://layer-cages.com/2011/07/08/egg-growing-and-layer-cage-conditions-to-change-in-usa/
Surely a whole new arm of USDA chicken house inspectors will be needed.
First the bunnies, then the chickens, tomorrow the pigs and cows.
Dave K
And of course any attempt to cut back on the expansion of these activities is a “cut” and balancing the budget on the backs of – well, of something. Perhaps not the poor. Dumb animals. Whatever. We need to borrow more money, because there is a problem that we have to fix, and Federal Inspectors are the only way to fix it.
While we are at it we can expand the budget of the BATF so that it can sell more guns to Mexican cartels in order to track where they go.
And the Dance goes on.
