Words Fail Me
September 5th, 2008, by Craig
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Right Montana
September 3rd, 2008, by CraigFor my friends on the Dextra side of the political spectrum, I’d like to introduce you to Right Montana.
Right Montana is a site where right-leaning folks can start their own blog with minimal fuss, and best of all, it’s free.
There are people to help you get things up and running if you’re wanted to start a blog, but don’t know how.
It takes less than 5 minutes to start your own blog and be up and running.
(For our sinestra pals, you can get an account and comment, but we reserve the right to be arbitrary and capricious. If you start a blog, and it’s content doesn’t meet muster, it will be summarily nuked. Private property’s a bitch, ain’t it, boys?)
Montana’s Progressive Candidate Says He Can Beat Baucus
September 3rd, 2008, by CraigHe believes that Montanans are ready for a parliamentary government.
Me, I’m still waiting for so-called non-partisan progressive organizations to endorse the truly progressive candidate.
That, and Godot.
(I think I’ve used that line already, but dammit, it works.)
We Get Searches
September 3rd, 2008, by CraigTons and tons of searches.
First up: “mtpolitics” obama muslim.
What’cha doin’ there, slick? Tryin’ to catch me passing along slime? Like the whole Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence party meme that they keep trying to pass along over at Theft in Pennsylvania? (Psst, guys. It’s been debunked. But don’t let that stop you from repeating it.)
Oh, yeah, back to the searches.
Next: Montana Boob Blog
Well, the best candidate I can think of is — again — Theft in Pennsylvania.
Sorry, but it’s true.
More Than Meets The Eye
September 2nd, 2008, by CraigI can’t help it. I just think that this stuff is cool.
The concept of programmable matter can be thought of as “the ultimate form of digital printing”, Rattner told ZDNet Asia Wednesday in an interview. “You literally could make an object of any imaginable shape, or design an object of any imaginable shape, and simply ‘hit the print command’ and the matter would take that shape.
[...]
This particular technology, though, is far from being an illusion–Intel’s scientists and engineers, who have been laboring in exploratory research, have come up with early prototypes at the centimeter and millimeter scale, according to Rattner, who is also senior fellow and vice president of the corporate technology group at Intel. “And we’ll go from millimeters to microns, I guess, some time over the next five to 10 years.”
Two orders of magnitude in a decade.
The mind boggles.
Sometimes You Know When Something’s Been Done Right
September 2nd, 2008, by CraigJust by looking at who thinks it’s wrong.
Instead of going for sweeping changes that could cost Montanans jobs, the EQC opted for small changes that, while I don’t agree with some of them, are more common-sense approaches that aren’t radical changes with massive unintended consequences.
Mostly, though, I’m pleased that the EQC spiked most of the legislation generated by Pennsylvania environmental advocacy groups.
That Big Nuclear Power Plant Up There In The Sky?
September 2nd, 2008, by CraigIt had its first spotless month in a century. (Would that be considered “sun-o-pause”? –Ed.)
There are climatologists who now posit that sunspot activity has more of an effect on climate than anything Man has (or could) do.
So, the next few years could be interesting. Are we headed toward a heat disaster, as the Cult of Gaia would have us believe, or could we be in for a repeat of the Maunder Minimum?
When it comes to food supplies, etc., the latter scenario is far more problematic than the former, if you ask me. Which you didn’t, but I’m telling you anyway.
Because that’s what sad little lonely geeks like me do, in our own little universes. (Sorry — couldn’t resist.)
Two minutes, by yourself, you know and you feel shame, you know. And then you get free.
September 1st, 2008, by CraigBeen cranky for a while, if you haven’t noticed.
Hell, I’ve even admitted it:
[C]omments lately generate more heat than light, as it were, and to be fair, I’m as much at fault as anyone.
Some time off, and some introspection have certainly helped my state of mind; nefarious overtones to the contrary, and I’ve regained my sense of humor.
Anyway, during my self-imposed timeout, I had a chance to experience a blog without comments, and I found it to be boring, so those are back on.
Lotsa stuff to talk about in the days and months ahead, dont’cha think?
Should be a good time.
The Left on Energy? Clueless.
August 17th, 2008, by CraigThere’s an old saw about American politics: Keep Democrats out of the boardroom and Republicans out of the bedroom.
I’d like to add a third option to that one. “Keep Liberal Arts majors out of energy policy.”
No, really. Leave it to people who actually understand it, can do the math, and understand what’s involved.
The left seems to believe in some sort of fantasy that an artificial shortage of petroleum will drive us to use alternatives. They love, love, love the high gas prices, though you’d never hear them admit it. (Except for the Sierra Club. Kudos to them for admitting it. Would that their fellow travelers be as honest.)
They look at some guy who builds an off-grid house and say, “See. It can be done,” but they never seem to think about the problem of scale. Our nation uses a lot of energy. A lot.
Some of you may remember Steven Den Beste from his old blog, USS Clueless. He recently made a brief return to his engineering-oriented writing, and talked a little bit about some of the alternatives, and where they stand today.
He writes:
I don’t blog about that kind of thing anymore. I never enjoyed blogging about energy, anyway, because for too many people “alternate energy” is more about religion than about physics. They believe that if we are just creative enough, we can overcome fundamental physical limitations — and it’s not that easy.
In order for “alternate energy” to become feasible, it has to satisfy all of the following criteria:
1. It has to be huge (in terms of both energy and power)
2. It has to be reliable (not intermittent or unschedulable)
3. It has to be concentrated (not diffuse)
4. It has to be possible to utilize it efficiently
5. The capital investment and operating cost to utilize it has to be comparable to existing energy sources (per gigawatt, and per terajoule).If it fails to satisfy any of those, then it can’t scale enough to make any difference. Solar power fails #3, and currently it also fails #5. (It also partially fails #2, but there are ways to work around that.)
That post is worth a read, as are two of his earlier pieces on alternative energy.
For the record, and for what it’s worth, I think we do need to develop alternatives, but until we find something that can actually scale enough to make a difference, we need to use what’s available. Doing otherwise is cutting off our nose to spite our face.
[UPDATE]: I guess liberal arts majors fail at reading comprehension, too. Either that, or he’s deliberately misrepresenting my position. How can someone read this as a “silver bullet against alternative energy,” when you need only read the paragraph above to see the words, “I think we do need to develop alternatives?” And further, how does a degree in engineering followed long career in engineering make someone a “self-proclaimed” engineer?
Oh, and a note for the president of the Craig Sprout Fan Club (really, this man crush you have on me is kind of embarrassing), if there were only some way to respond to a post, other than in the comments, that would show up underneath the main post, then people could see that link and click on it and read a response at another site. Maybe someone should get to work on that, huh? They could call it . . . trackback . . . or maybe pingback . . .
Yeah, that’s the ticket. Someone should do that.
Another Insurance Scenario For You
August 2nd, 2008, by CraigThis one is semi-hypothetical. That is to say, the particulars have been obfuscated, but the situation is essentially as written.
There is a family who has a child with an obvious impairment. She was missing developmental milestones by the age of two, and by three she was seeing specialists, and attending a special preschool. At every turn, the diagnosis was the same: “We don’t know. She’s a puzzle.”
The parents were given strategies to cope, and to help, but most of the suggestions were just guesses, and their child made progress, but it was slow, and they still didn’t understand what was going on.
Enter serendipity. They met someone who was a professional, but not a doctor, who recognized the problem right away. Not only did the professional know what the problem was, he’d dealt with it with his own child. In the first meeting, he explained what was going on, and was able to show concrete examples. He gave the parents some “homework,” and within a week, there was visible progress. It was that fast. Armed with a diagnosis, everything fell into place. The parents were able to understand their daughter’s behaviors, and began to understand what they could do to help her along. They would need help from professionals, but just having an explanation was a quantum leap.
Unfortunately, the professional was mostly retired due to being physically unable to perform his duties, and would be unable to see their girl on any kind of regular basis, but the family could make an appointment to see a younger, less experienced professional who had limited experience.
The question was raised. Perhaps the professional could act in an advisory capacity? Unfortunately, he couldn’t, due to the narrow definition of the condition, and of his professional obligations. Besides, he lamented, how could anyone afford what he needed to charge without insurance? And what insurance company would pay for someone to be a “consultant?” No, all things considered, there really wasn’t much to do, but continue with the treatment that the insurance would cover, and hope that the inexperienced professional could figure things out on her own.
Now what do you think would best serve the patient and all involved?
I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep on saying it. Insurance isn’t the solution. Insurance is the problem.
In Which I Agree With The Chairman of the Montana Democratic Party
July 29th, 2008, by Craig“I resent pretend cowboys, including the bushwhacker from Crawford, Texas (President George W. Bush), the goat herder from Billings (Republican U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg) and the disk jockey from the Northern Ag Network (Republican state Senate candidate Taylor Brown),” he [former trial lawyer and MT Democratic Party Chairman --Ed.] said.
Yes, I resent pretend cowboys, too!
By the by, since we’re talking about the Democratic convention, did you catch the news about how Republicans were trying to gain entrance to the convention so that they could make a stink with video recordings?
You didn’t?
Oh, yeah, that’s because it was the Democrats who did that to the Republicans.
Was there any wailing and gnashing of teeth about a possible quorom?
No, but really, that was because only 12 legislators showed up.
Still and all, while this is funny (at least to me), I have a pretty strong hunch that the Democrats are going to clean the GOP’s clock this cycle. There are going to be a few exceptions, of course, but by and large, I think it’s going into the “D” column this year.
Can We Just Admit That It’s Bullshit Now?
July 25th, 2008, by CraigCarbon Dioxide?
Sure.
Methane?
Alright.
Sunspots?
Makes sense.
OK, now you’re just yanking my chain.
Global Warming Strikes Montana
July 21st, 2008, by CraigSo, the Clark Fork Coalition (an angelic non-profit) came up with this report that Global Warming is Very Real™, and a Huge Threat™, etc., etc.
Get this, though. They used 50 years of data to make their extrapolations.
50 years!! Out of 4 billion.
Unless I fat-fingered my calculator, in statistical terms, that is a sample of 0.00000125 percent. One millionth of one percent.
I’m no statistician, but that’s not a very good sample to extrapolate from.
You can find another study, that looks at more of the long term data and concludes, basically, there’s been nothing outside normal variations for quite some time.
The study does go on to detail some of the effects of proposed climate change legislation, and concludes, again, that Montanans will bear a high price, for no tangible gain.
You did read that report when it came out, didn’t you?
Oh, yeah, you didn’t hear anything about it.
Quelle surprise.
Finally, comes this tidbit about that “consensus” thing we hear so much about. While you’re over there, read this article, too.
Cracks Me Right Up, It Does
July 21st, 2008, by CraigSince our sinestra pals here in Montana spill so many electrons bitching about Max Baucus, I would think that they would be positively elated that a truly progressive candidate is in the race.
Too bad he has an “R” behind his name, huh?
I mean, here’s your chance to prove that you will truly vote principle over party, and you’ll likely squander it on the more conservative candidate.
It’s pretty funny, when you think about it.
