Problems or opportunities?

Mail 705 Wednesday, December 14, 2011 — 2

Catching up with interesting mail.

· Methane and planetary engineering

· On Newt

· On the Iran Drone

Interesting interactive map showing Republican candidates and their standing in various states.

http://www.economist.com/content/republican-candidates-president?fsrc=nlw%7Cnewe%7C12-14-2011%7Cnew_on_the_economist

Tracy

Giant methane plumes from the sea bed hitting the atmosphere

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/giant-plumes-methane-bubbling-surface-arctic-ocean-163804179.html

OK, so, here comes the next Irwin Allen blockbuster movie. Send in purpose-built submarines, and pitch a giant tent, a couple of miles across, over the plume source. Run a pipe from the peak of the tent to the surface, and into a compressor, and Voila! Natural gas and NO DRILLING!!!

I seem to recall a guy named Jerry Pournelle wrote several short stories that touched on doing things sorta like that, like sailing an iceberg from the Antarctic and running it aground someplace in Africa that *REALLY* needed fresh water…

–John R. Strohm

Stories, and articles in Galaxy Science Fiction, and in a book called A STEP FARTHER OUT. All of which is still true and possible. The only limit we have is nerve, but we seem to have lost a lot of that.

The proper solution to global warming is to go forward. But with the schools we have now and that attitudes that we are developing, that will not happen. But not all of our leaders have lost the dream. We have a few left who understand the challenge of man’s future.

Methane ‘fountains’ and sea ice

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

Given how much dishonesty there appears to be in the climate debate right now, I am not sure how much weight to attach to this — it may prove to be as alarmist as the other notes. But I still present it for your perusal as a datum point. Evidently the Russians have discovered methane ‘fountains’ up north, seemingly actuated by the retreat of permafrost.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/shock-as-retreat-of-arctic-sea-ice-releases-deadly-greenhouse-gas-6276134.html

Respectfully,

Brian P.

What some see as problems others see as opportunities. There has always been methane emission in Siberia. Burning methane produces energy.

spooky! – Two Diamonds Linked by Strange Quantum Entanglement

Hi Jerry,

http://www.livescience.com/17264-quantum-entanglement-macroscopic-diamonds.html

What’s interesting is not just how deep the rabbit hole goes, but that

we are able to explore it at all. Interesting times ahead.

– Paul

Indeed. And who knows where that can lead.

Spengler :: The fifth horseman of the apocalypse

Jerry

An important note from Spengler on the decline of populations worldwide:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/ML13Dj05.html

Ed

SUBJ: What comes after gun control?

The brits have effectively had gun prohibition for a generation. Now . . .

This picture taken in downtown London.

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/945/ukknife1.jpg

I wonder if there will ever again be an England?

Cordially,

John

Roger L. Simon makes the case for Newt.

http://paulinhouston.blogspot.com/2011/12/case-for-newt.html

—

Paul Gordon

I never thought of Newt Gingrich as my first choice for President, but he is nearly always the smartest man in any room he is in, and he has not lost the spirit that caused him to read A STEP FARTHER OUT and call me to talk about it. And he does not want to be surrounded by people less bright than he is. That has to count for something. He spent years as a public intellectual after he was Speaker, and he seems to have learned a lot from being outside government in those years.

Regarding the UAV in Iran situation…

Jerry,

I’ll keep the snide “I told ya so” comments to a minimum, however I will point out that as early as world war 1, pilots would generally carry a grenade or flare with them to aid in the destruction of their aircraft, if forced down behind enemy lines. Not only that, the fighter aircraft arms race during in WWI surged when an aircraft fitted with a revolutionary through-the-propeller machine gun system crashed and was not sufficiently destroyed to hide the presence of the system (deflection wedges attached to the propeller blades). This compromise of cutting-edge military technology led directly to the rapid development of the machine gun interrupter system, making possible the first truly effective air to air machine guns.

This is why Generals pride themselves on being military historians, and is an example of why those arrogant Air Force fighter pilots freak out when non-pilots set policy for air operations without the knowledge or experience gained only through both operational flying and an interest in aviation history.

Or in other words… DUH, any fighter pilot could have seen this coming. It was only a matter of time, no matter what the engineers said. Sometimes the automation goes stupid and then your UAV (or cruise missile or smart bomb or…) goes walkabout. Assuming operational necessity leads to this sort of system employment, the ONLY true mitigating factor is to have a plan ready to use for when (not if, but when) your fancy UAV ends up in the worst possible location and once there, does the worst possible thing. I suppose flying into Pakistan and shacking a mosque would have been worse, but landing intact in Iran is almost pegged on the good-bad scale.

S

Thanks.

We missed a Scandal?

I think we missed an important scandal; with so many happening these days I guess it’s easy to do.  I suspected this was happening — or something like it — and I’m pretty sure you did too. 

<.>

In 2011, Forbes’ 23rd ‘Most Powerful Woman In The World’, HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius was caught double-counting in the ObamaCare budget. Since then, the scandal has been ‘forgotten‘ – deep sixed.

‘What? Kathleen Sebelius?? ObamaCare??? Double-Counting???? No one told me about it!’ Bull crap. I told you HERE and HERE.

Long shot, I know… but it’s as if Kathleen Sebelius, Goldman Sachs, GE, GM, Solyndra, Verizon,Toyota, National Association of Realtors and so many others knew all along there would be zero penalty for cooking the books.

Try double-counting your tax write-off’s…

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http://sadhillnews.com/2011/12/14/bailout-payback-realtors-double-counted-home-sales-for-last-five-years

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Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Federal Expenditures <> government spending

I read Brendan’s email, in which he said:

GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports)….

Federal Expenditures = government spending So, Federal Expenditures per capita per GDP is …

Federal Expenditures/Capita/(private consumption + gross investment + Federal Expenditures + (exports − imports))

He made a major simplifying factor that needs to be addressed. Government Spending is NOT limited to the Federal Government. There are lots and lots of local governments, all of whom (for a very long time) increased their spending at an even faster rate than the Federal Government. But because the national media has no incentive to cover local stories and the local media doesn’t have the time and money to hire people who can dig into local spending, the growth was largely under the radar.

This is a pity because it is far easier to made a difference at the local level than the federal level. Heck, you could even run for office and possibly win.

As a local government employee, I urge all your readers to pay attention to their local governments. Get involved. Read the budget. Read the Board Meeting Agendas. For most localities, that information is posted on the governmental web site. If it isn’t, go to the next meeting and ask — no, DEMAND — them to post the information.

There are even national standards as to what a published budget document should include. These are published by the Government Finance Officers Association (gfoa.org). If your local government budget documents are not vetted by the GFOA, again, ask why. The cost is relatively low, but the information required is useful to taxpayers. (No, the GFOA doesn’t say what your budget should include, just how it should be disclosed.)

The most depressing thing about my job is going to the public budget hearings to present (and defend?) the budget, and no one from the community has bothered to show up.

—

Fredrik V Coulter

Good advice. Really good advice. Thanks