Category: Uncategorized

Alan Boyle at Cosmic Log has the latest broad look at the state of Fusion. He discusses the state of laser fusion. The the $3.5 billion American National Ignition Facility seems to be doing well. But what excites me is that he has some indirect news on The Polywell Fusion Reactor experiments. The dark horse…

Auric Goldfinger? Not this time Mr. Bond. This time it is Climategate. Ah. Yes. Science Adviser to the President, John Holdren is a Climate Playah. Lift up a rock and another snake comes slithering out from the ongoing University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) scandal, now riding as “Climategate”. Obama Science Czar John…

Earlier I saw signs hanging on chains which blocked a brand new, otherwise perfectly passable sidewalk on the University of Michigan campus. The signs proclaimed “SIDEWALK CLOSED. NO WINTER MAINTENANCE” and yet there was absolutely no indication that any maintenance was needed. The only thing that’s changed is that the temperature has dropped into the…

Here’s a guy who speaks fake Chinese, fake French, fake Italian, fake Russian, fake Spanish, fake German and fake Japanese, in order to invite fellow fakers to reply by speaking in fake English. A tall order, but for those who wonder what our language sounds like to those who don’t speak it, here’s one girl…

Earlier I stumbled across the phrase “New York hostess” in a news article, and as I tend to be hypervigilant about sneaky new trends in language, I wondered precisely what the term meant. The hostess in question is a nightclub hostess named Rachel Uchitel. While “hostess” is not defined, it would see that it is…

One of the things I most like about Michigan is that it’s a relatively car-friendly state. The speed limit is 70, which means that you can comfortably do 75 without having to worry about the cops. This touches on one of my pet annoyances about life on the East Coast — and I recently saw…

And what is that something that is rotten in Denmark? Climate data? Nope. (although that is a likely candidate). The rot stems from the CO2 trade. Denmark is the centre of a comprehensive tax scam involving CO2 quotas, in which the cheats exploit a so-called ‘VAT carrousel’, reports Ekstra Bladet newspaper. Police and authorities in…

I’ve been keeping aquarium fish for years, and I have long known that fish gender is nowhere near as starkly defined and inflexible as it is in higher animals. It has long been known that many species of fish can and do switch gender, sometimes routinely. The process is not well understood, though. Earlier Glenn…

The ITER fusion test reactor project is getting a schedule review [pdf] because the project is seriously out of whack. The scientific and engineering team building the ITER fusion reactor failed to win an expected endorsement from the project’s governing council last week. The council, which represents the seven international partners in the project–China, the…

Is everyone ready for the Christmas season? I’m not. However, Sean Kinsell got me in the mood with this quote from Virginia Postrel on buying Christmas gifts: The problem of buying good presents for other people, even people you supposedly know well, illustrates that old familiar Hayekian concept, the knowledge problem. If you can’t even…

I was reading the other day an article about the Angry Middle. Here is something I found in the article that rings true: It’s not a resurgent right wing that should trouble Obama’s party. Indeed, the stronger the right’s role in shaping the Republican message, the harder it will be for middle-of-the-road voters to use…

Glenn Reynolds links a Reuters report of a new study, which he calls “MORE POTENTIALLY MONEY-SAVING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF HEALTHCARE RESEARCH.” How true. Although cost-cutting is not specifically mentioned in this research report, a new meme is inescapable: save money by eliminating hope. The Reuters headline makes a sweeping claim which I don’t…

One of the paradoxes of blogging is that if you write about something, it tends to be seen as, if not the most important issue, at least as an issue more important than whatever it is you don’t write about. Appearances can be misleading. Sometimes, the most important things are precisely what I do not…

Lord Monckton, Viscount of Brechley, and Prof. Fred Singer are requesting that charges be filed against scientists and others involved in possible violations of Britain’s Freedom Of Information Laws. I can’t wait for the investigations to start in the USA. And don’t forget to order copies of this book: Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny…

The government is in essence a criminal organization. It can murder – through wars and punishment for crime. It can print money. It can make you a slave through taxes. (taxation is theft) It can make you a slave through imprisonment. It can kidnap you. (politely called arrest) It can demand ransoms. (fines) It can…

It’s always nice to take a break from blogging, and for the past three days I did just that. At no point did I have time to get online, not even to check email. The closest I got to blogging was a wonderful visit with M. Simon on Friday night at Rockford’s Irish Rose Saloon.…

Climate scientist Judith Curry has a few words to say about scientific integrity as it relates to climate science given the recent revelations of Climategate. At the heart of this issue is how climate researchers deal with skeptics. I have served my time in the “trenches of the climate war” in the context of the…

Eric, my mate, myself, and a friend of Eric’s from Michigan had evening snacks at the Irish Rose in Rockford. We enjoyed swordfish and grilled zucchini. We enjoyed it very much. And instead of the usual blogger meet up crap (which I enjoy) we talked about our lives. A most enjoyable evening. Did I overuse…

Lots of links over at Glenn’s. My two cents as a professional programmer: it’s pretty clear from the code comments that the CRU dataset is both junky and deliberately manipulated to produce a warming trend. This is devastating to the credibility of the entire field, because CRU is the most widely cited dataset in climate…

Tom Ligon is going to be on the Space Show this Sunday from 12 to 1:30 PDT. You can call in or listen. Information at the link. You can also watch this interview with Tom. And for those of you even less familiar with Tom. He worked with Dr. Robert Bussard on Polywell Fusion Reactor…