How serious are we about Ethanol?

Originally posted on my xanga on 1/10/2007.

So corn-produced ethanol is starting to take the center stage to help with reduce the use of oil for fuel in vehicles. Using a gas-ethanol mix is nothing new, though the people advocating it here in the US would have you believe they just found this "holy grail." Brazil has been using flex-fuel vehicles since the mid-80's. Except their ethanol is produced from sugar cane, which is a more efficient source of ethanol than corn. Yet oddly enough, the US current has trade restrictions in place AGAINST the importation of Brazilian ethanol. And if you listen to all the speeches, the emphasis is on CORN-produced ethanol. Why? It's all political.

If domestic corn ethanol was pitted against Brazil's sugar cane ethanol on a fair market, Brazil's product would win out because of cost. The corn farmers and the corn-ethanol producers know this, and so they lobbied for the trade barrier. So instead of really good ethanol initiative to reduce our dependence on oil and help out a friendly country, we get a plan to help local corn farmers. And as a side note, with the rise of corn-ethanol expect a rise in the cost of not only corn in the supermarket, but an increase in the cost of various meats. Chickens and cows are fed corn-based feed, afterall. Sorry Bessy, ye're gonna hafta go onna di-et 'cause dem poli-ti-cians want yer corn ter run dem fancy cars.

Der Light Gestapo

This is so ludicrous that I'm sick to my stomach. I live in a state so chock full of nuts that they want to regulate what kind of light I use. A law is being pushed on me to use a compact fluorescent light bulb in place of the incandescent lights in my house on the premise that it saves money and it is more environmentally friendly.

B.S.

Environmentally friendly? The fluorescent bulb costs more and contains mercury. MERCURY. Where the hell am I suppose to dispose of the thing when it burns out? Oh, right. Right next to the bin of batteries containing mercury that I cannot dispose of except at California approved waste disposal sites. How many people have recycled their batteries? It's difficult to know where I need to go, so there they sit, in an ever growing bag.

California wants to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. So why not convert to nuclear power? It doesn't generate greenhouse gases.

Fluorescent light is ugly, it's not pure white light. Look at photographs taken under fluorescent light (no flash), there's a slight green tinge -- unless your photo processor adjusts it before printing. Personally, I prefer the reddish hues of incandescent. This isn't just about personal preference.

There are indications of adverse health conditions from "over-illumination". That is, we can suffer headaches, fatigue, or mood changes by being exposed to light that differs from naturally occurring sunlight, either in intensity or in spectra (color). Fluoresent lights also flicker, it's like a miniature UV lightening storm. You don't notice because it flickers at a high rate, but have you ever suffered a headache from staring at a flickering computer monitor?

Fluorescent light also causes damage. Pictures and notes at my desk have become faded from exposure. Why is this? Fluorescent lights are essentially ultraviolet (UV) emitters that excite phosphor deposited on the inside of the tube to emit photons (light). This is very much like the way your TV generates light to form images. That stray UV doesn't just bounce around in the tube, it's gotta go somewhere.

I'm more hip to LED lighting, because the color spectra can be more natural and I doubt that LED will cause damage to my pictures. I'd like to point out that LEDs are more reliable and more efficient. When the cost comes down, LEDs will go into my house. THAT is the light of the future.

Fluorescent is not completely unwanted in our household, I do have a few in our kitchen for uplighting, which we use when we don't need a lot of light. I also have had them in my garage. Otherwise, I prefer my incandescent/halogen light when I'm reading or lounging. Sure, it may be more efficient, but my mental health is worth more than the $60/year in projected energy savings.

Hey, California, how about writing some laws that make sense? Butt out of my life and my ability to choose the environment I want to live in.

The Nanny State Lives

California may ban conventional lightbulbs by 2012

That was the headline on Yahoo this morning, the story is from the Reuters.

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D) Van Nuys introduced the measure which would (I imagine) prohibit the sale of incandescent light bulbs but we won't have to worry about the police breaking down our doors to search for them.

But what happens if I buy the bulbs while out of State and bring them back for my own use? Will I be subject to a fine or jail time? What if I use my computer and order them on line?

And finally, what will California do when people start tossing the compact fluorescent lightbulbs away because they have burned out? These contain mercury, incandescent bulbs don't. That is an environmental problem waiting to explode.

I hope the people of Van Nuys are proud of him, I wish he would treat the citizens of California as adults and not as wayward children.

Full disclosure, in my house, I have replaced all the incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs back in 2002, with the exception of lights on a dimmer switch and 4 halogen fixtures that won't accept the new bulbs.

Calling all Engineers

Here is your chance to build your very own T-1000 (or equivalent) terminator.

Singapore is holding a competition with the winner getting $652K. The competition takes place in May 2008 and they want a robotic urban fighter.

Tuesday

The Noble Savage is French Toast

The PC view of history that stone age tribes lived in peace and harmony looks like its finally being put into the dust bins of history. Now maybe we can go back and learn the facts and also appreciate our own culture (Western and US) without guilt.

Hat tip Lucianne

Splitting the Evangelicals from Israel

Israel's best friend in the world is Evangelical Christians, because we believe the Bible: Genesis 12:3 "he who blesses Israel will be blessed, and he who curses Israel will be cursed".

Now those who oppose Israel are trying to separate Evangelicals from Israel by bad theology. I thought the Church had already gone through this with the persecution of the Jews over the last 2,000 years or so. Nothing new under the sun and another reason why we need to know our theology.

Hat tip Lucianne

Chinese Cultural Sensitivity

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Nestle's Chinese New Year commercial had been rejected by state-run CCTV. The reason is that the government has declared a ban on any images of pigs or boars on state-run television for Chinese New Year, despite it being the year of the pig. The government says that given that China is a very culturally diverse nation, they must be respectful of the Muslim minority in China.

China?! Being sensitive to the ethnic minority?!

This is particularly odd because the Chinese government periodically arrests people of the various Muslim minority on charges of terrorism, raid mosques, and break up protests in with the usual Chinese finesse (i.e. - at the point of an AK-47).

And this man is still free?

In the UK, a doctor who is also Muslim, Dr Abdul Majid Katme, has called for all Muslim parents to NOT get their children vaccinated against childhood diseases because he claims the vaccines are un-Islamic. Because vaccinations are made from animals and it is not likely the animals were killed in a halal manor any Muslim who takes them is unclean.

So if this call is accepted widely by Muslims in the UK and around the world, measles, mumps, polio and other preventable diseases will kill large number of Muslim children.

In the US, parents who do not allow their children to get medical treatment can and have been thrown in jail. If one is advocating such a measure, one that can drive up health care costs to society, should he remain free or do we work to prevent him from inflicting harm to the community he claims to care about and the rest of us in the name of free speech?

hat tip Lucianne (and yes, some of the comments are by folks who think a pandemic would be a great thing among the Muslims. I disagree with those sentiments).

Hospice Helps Dying Man Lose His Virginity

Hospice Helps Dying Man Lose His Virginity

It's easy for me to say that church-based ministries should not have supported extra-martial sex, especially sex for money. However, I'm not in the nun's shoes, as it were. I would imagine it to be an awfully gray area, especially where it concerns a patient that may very well not share the same standards of conduct as the institution that he is being treated by.

Putting aside, for a moment, the moral issues one quote grabbed me.

"It was not emotionally fulfilling, but the lady was very pleasant and very understanding. I do not know whether I would do it again. I would much rather find a girlfriend, but I have to be realistic." -- Nick Wallis

Enough said.

Ray guns and Econ

Yes, I have two more subjects today.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has opened the first ray gun factory. It will be part of the anti-tank system, shooting a light beam towards incoming artillery or RPG to protect the tank or vehicle.

Now when they can load it on a plane to zap the bad guys (Star Trek) or better yet, hand held phasers, that will be neat.

Ever wonder why Central and South America seem to have such a difficult time providing the economic output and political stability in North America (technically, Mexico is part of North America, but at the moment, I'm considering it part of Central America for this post).

South and Central America have an industrious people, they have natural resources so what is the problem? Political stability? Well, that is a symptom of the problem. It all comes down to economics or rather the lack of economic freedom. If you have the rich and poor and the rich through manipulation of the political process prevent the poor from the possibility of becoming rich, the poor will revolt after a while. Most of the leaders of these revolutions are from the upper middle class (they are the ones who have gone to university and know that revolution is possible and how to do it) and once in power, they want their clans, families, tribes to get rich and keep everyone else poor and the cycle repeats.

Chile has broken this for the most part when the military government allowed more economic freedom and then step down for civilian rule when it saw it couldn't keep power anyway. Argentina tried political freedom after its military government was gotten rid of and some economic freedom, but not enough. In the end, the lack of economic freedom (and accountability), lead to political instability which lead to economic instability and folks there lost a lot of their money wealth.

Allowing economic freedom (knowing some will win and some will lose), will create wealth in those countries and the economic freedom will also create political stability which will create more economic wealth, etc. etc.

Culture

Are some cultures better then others?

Should we as a society actively discriminate and persecute those who follow one culture while honor and applaud those who follow a different culture?

I think we should and I'm willing to bet everyone from the leftest liberal to the rightest conservative agree, when they think it through.

If you see someone befriending a stray dog on the street, take it home, kill and eat it, would you try to stop it? Well in parts of Asia, dogs are food animals, not pets.

If you hear a parent say they are going to circumcise their daughter, would you call child protective services? In parts of African, its a rite of passage.

If you see a brother kill his sister or a father kill his daughter for honor, would you try to prevent the murder or at least call the police? In a number of Islamic Countries, that is the culture.

If someone immigrates from another land to the US, should we not expect them to conform to OUR culture? Dogs are not food animals, female circumcision is not allowed or proper and honor killing is murder.

Or do we allow in the name of cultural sensitivity allow these things to take place in here because they take place in the persons country of origin?

I think some cultures are better then others and am willing to say western culture, for all its faults, is better then the culture in many other places and we in the US should not be ashamed or apologise for our culture.

Hat tip Lucianne

Health Insurance For All? Health Insurance For None!!!

Lately there’s been a big push to provide health insurance to everyone. While this is admirable, and plays really well with the voters, it’s doomed to fail. Here’s why:

Let’s start with the basic concept of insurance. The concept of insurance has been around for a while, but one of the biggest names is Lloyd’s of London. They started by insurance shipments across the ocean. This is how it worked. Sir Bob owns a ship of goods that he wants to ship to the colonies in America. Let’s say that the shipment is worth a total of 500 shillings, and the boat is 1500 shillings (back then they didn’t insure crews). Sir Bob goes up to the gentlemen of Lloyd’s of London and says, “I want to ensure my shipment to the colonies. The shipment is worth 500 shillings, and the boat 1500 shillings.” Lloyd’s of London replies, “Very well, pay us 750 shillings and we will insure your ship and your shipment.” By paying Lloyd’s 750 shillings, Sir Bob is essentially betting that his ship will sink on the way to the colonies. If the ship sinks, Sir Bob gets 2000 shillings. But if the ship arrives safely, he looses 750 shillings to the gents at Lloyd’s of London. So in essence, insurance is gambling.

Let’s add another variable into the mix. Sir Bob’s ship can either take route A or route B to the Americas. Route A is longer, but pretty safe. Route B is shorter, but it goes through pirate (ARRR!!!!!) infested waters. If Sir Bob tells Lloyd’s that his ship is going through Route B, the gents at Lloyd’s will charge Sir Bob 1500 shillings instead of the original 750. Why? Because the fellows at Lloyd’s aren’t stupid and realize that there’s a pretty good chance that Sir Bob’s ship will get raided and scuttled by pirates (ARRR!!!!) if it goes through route B. So they want a higher bet, which is pretty reasonable. They’ll only loose 500 shillings at the higher rate. It’s not their problem that Sir Bob is stupid enough to risk going through pirate (ARRR!!!) infested route B.

Now to health insurance. When you pay your monthly premium to the health insurance company, you’re saying to the insurance company that you will get sick and you will get sick with all the diseases that are covered under the insurance policy (this is what is known as coverage). The insurance company takes up that bet and makes you pay according to your health risk. If Bob is overweight, doesn’t exercise, has a family history of heart disease, and drinks a lot of beer, the insurance company looks at Bob and thinks, “You know what? I think this guy is going to get sick.” So naturally, they’re going to charge Bob a higher rate for the same coverage as Dave, who is the same age, but at a nominal weight, has no family history of heart disease, and maintains a fairly healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, this means that there are people out there who won’t be able to afford certain coverage, or coverage at all, due to the fact that they’re considered high risk.

The *real* problem, however, is when government comes in and says it wants health insurance for all. Why? Well, let’s go back to the issue of Bob. Bob is clearly high risk, so the insurance group was originally going to charge him $250 a month for basic coverage, instead of $100 that Dave gets. But the government has stepped in and said that they cannot increase the premium for insurance based on risk. So the insurance company decides to raise the cost of basic coverage for everyone to $125. Why, you ask? Well, like Lloyd’s of London, the insurance company isn’t stupid. They know that if they cover Bob, they’re going to have to pay for a lot of medical expenses, i.e. – loose money. They’re a business, so naturally they want to loose as little money as possible (actually they want to make a profit). But they can’t raise Bob’s premium, so they figure they’ll raise EVERYONE’s premium. They’re already making money off of Dave, because he’s rarely gets sick and probably isn’t going to get as sick as Bob (statistically, anyway). So essentially everyone else who gets coverage from this particular insurance company is paying for Bob’s health problems. But what happens if the insurance company has more Bobs than Daves? And what if health care costs start skyrocketing through the roof? Well, obviously the government isn’t going to allow the insurance company to just raise the rates through the roof. So the insurance company is going to go bankrupt because it can’t pay for all the medical costs. Now you’ve gotten into a situation where NO ONE gets health insurance. Congratulations!!!

I’m sorry if I come across cold and condescending, but this is a serious problem with the idea of trying to give health insurance to EVERYONE in America. Universal health care is not much better, but I will get into that another time. In trying to provide health care to everyone, you either A) Provide less health coverage to everyone than before or B) Not provide health coverage at all because the insurance is too expensive or the insurance company went belly-up. There is no perfect system, but the current market-based insurance system rewards people for taking good care of themselves. Isn’t that a good thing?

The cost of the war

How much is the war in Iraq costing? Well according to Strategy Page, it cost $4.4 billion a month in 2003 and $8 billion a month in 2006.

Why the increase? Well most of the equipment sent over to Iraq in 2003 has been shipped back to be repaired or rebuilt. Combat uses up the equipment much faster then peace time training.

Also while the refurbishing of equipment (helicopters, tanks, APC, trucks, etc) is going on, the military isn't just restoring the equipment to the way it was when it was sent to Iraq. They are taking the opportunity to add the latest improvements to the equipment to make it even more effective on the battlefield. Also, a lot of the increase costs is R&D expense so when the equipment is being refurbished, the latest upgrades are available.

Its one way the military is getting improvements to its equipment which in the long run will help make our troops more effective, but it also adds to the cost of the war which has become a political issue.

Hybrid Update

Back in November 2004 I wrote a long entry on Hybrid cars. Basically another blog was saying the Toyota Prius and other Hybrids were over hyped and that they were not worth the price of the car. The main arguments against hybrids were:
1. Mileage claimed by the manufacturer wasn't achievable in real world driving.
2. Acceleration is sluggish that makes the car dangerous to others, especially on the highway.
3. Drive without the A/C or walk to save the planet.

Well its now January 2007 and wanted to revisit the complaints the original author had against hybrids.

Mileage: Well the EPA is looking to revise how the official MPG is calculated and I believe ALL cars and trucks will see their mileage go down. Hybrids may go down more then other cars.

I'm still getting 46.5 miles per gallon on city driving, freeway is now 49-50 miles per gallon. That's real world driving. A co worker who just purchased a Prius is getting 50 MPG on the freeway and 52 on the city, his real world. My sister-in-law is only getting 25-30 MPG because she drives more assertively, with more acceleration and hard stopping.

The mileage isn't as good as the EPA estimates, but we have all cut our gasoline consumption in half from our prior cars. That isn't too bad.

Acceleration: I've taken the car on trips to Las Vegas and all around So Cal and have not had any problem keeping up with traffic getting on or off the freeway. Acceleration is fine. No, the sports cars won't have to worry about my overtaking them, but I'm not holding anyone but street racers back.

No AC or walk: Walking to work is not a practical option, I live over 12 miles away from work and it would take several hours to walk each way. No AC? Well turning off the AC may help a car get 1 to 2 MPG improvement, but I haven't seen any car that is getting 46 MPG in the city, real world not just EPA MPG.

4 people have purchased Toyota Prius' after I recommended them (they didn't buy the car because of me, but they did seem to value my opinion of the car) and they are all happy with the cars.

So hybrids can be useful in helping to reducing the amount of gasoline the US uses every day. They are not the solution to the energy questions, but they are part of the solution.

Sen Warner is a fool

I didn't see the President's SOTU speech last night, was in class learning about data mining and how SAS provides tools to make data mining easier and how businesses can make better use of the information. There are lots of other places on the web talking about the SOTU speech and will let you go see them.

Story in the Washington Post is just amazing to me. Yes, I'm quoting from the story because they've written parts of it better then I would have.

The setting:
General Petraeus, new head of the forces in Iraq (I don't think he's head of CENCOM because he is only a Lt. General (3 stars) and not a full General (4 stars)) was testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The question:
Senator Lieberman asked Gen Petraeus

if Senate resolutions condemning White House Iraq policy "would give the enemy
some comfort."

The answer:
General Petraeus answered: "That's correct, sir."

The reaction from the fool (Sen Warner)

Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), until recently chairman of the Armed Services
Committee and a co-sponsor of one of those resolutions, later explained to the
general that he needed to be more careful about appearing to wade into a
political debate and warned Petraeus to not let himself be trapped into
portraying members of Congress as unpatriotic for disagreeing with President
Bush:

When I worked for Uncle Sam many years ago (civilian side, not military), I was told I had limits placed on what political activities I could partake in. Basically I couldn't work on political campaigns anymore and attending political rallies were actively discouraged. It might give the appearance of violating the rules. However, no one ever tried to take away my 1st Amendment right of free speech. Especially when asked a question from a superior, I was expected to answer truthfully.

I admit I haven't been in government service for a long time, but I haven't heard anything saying federal workers and especially military personnel are to not answer questions when asked by their lawful superiors as long as the question is not illegal. So if Sen Lieberman asked a lawful question (will these Senate resolutions provide some comfort to the enemy), the General was bound to answer it. If he didn't, he could have been held in contempt of Congress and put in jail.

For Sen Warner to take General Petraeus to task for answering a lawful question truthfully shows how much respect Sen Warner has for the rule of law the rest of us citizens must follow, ignorance of the military tradition (tell the truth even if its not what the superior wants to hear aka as duty and honor) and himself to be a fool.

I can't talk too much because Boxer is one of my Senators and she is a bigger fool then Warner, although Warner seems to want to give her a race for the title of biggest fool.

Hat tip Lucianne.

Where the money is going

Two more items from Strategy Page (yes they wrote the news and I'm relying it and linking to it).

Future Combat System 1.1

They have tested sending images from a UAV to an AH-64 that was 75 km away. The battlefield internet is starting to come into being. It will be interesting to see how the troops can utilize the information and if the leaders will devise a way to prevent information overload. If too much information flows in, people will be so busy looking at the data, they won't have time to fight and then will taking casualties they should have.

Procurement

What is the real direction the Army is taking in regards to the Future Combat System or any of the other new wiz bang weapons that have been in the press? Well, while statements from Army leaders is important and looking at how the Army is spending its R/D is important, the best indicator is what the Army is spending to buy for its troops.

The bulk of the money is NOT being spent on helicopters or UAVs or on ammunition or missiles, but on the more mundane things like radios, truck and armored vehicles.

US and Chinese aircraft

Two items from Strategy Page today.

Chinese JH-7, their version of the F-15E. Sounds bad from a Yankee view point. The F-15E is one of the best air to ground planes in the business, and its really not comforting to hear about a possible adversary having a plane that capable. But the story goes on to say the plane is underpowered, has an operating radius of 900 KM (around 400 miles) and a 5 ton bomb load.

The plane could be used to help blockade Taiwan, but the PRC would have to station the plane close to the coast and it would be difficult to reach beyond Taiwan to intercept the shipping. The PRC could end up like the German ME-109 during the Battle of Britain in WW2. The plane's operating radius is just long enough to get into combat and too short to effectively do its job once it gets there because it has to return to base to refuel.

The second item is a change in tactics in the operation of the AH-64 Apache helicopter. The AH-64 was originally intended to operate in the tree tops or use buildings to shield them against the enemy. If they flew higher, they would be easier targets for SAM's and other fighter aircraft. Well, in Iraq, there aren't any fighters to worry about and the only SAM's are small shoulder launched ones. There is however, a lot of ground fire. By staying higher in the air, the sensors can see more and the helicopter can avoid the ground fire which helps the maintenance folks keep the AH-64 in flyable service.

For the person who has everything

That subject doesn't include me.

Even though my birthday was last week, I didn't get any of these gifts from my lovely wife, she knows I'd do something silly like try to fly them. Ok, so I haven't had a flying lesson yet, getting one of these for my birthday would be a great encouragement to take lessons. The fact that we can't afford them either is beside the point right?

Planes for sale:
1980 Dassault Mirage F1 (basic info on plane)

1953 Lockheed T-33 (basic info on plane)

1972 North American Northrop F5 (basic info on plane)

So, anybody got a spare million or 5 I could have??? The T-33 or F-5 would be my preference.

Information on planes available for sale at http://www.aviatorsale.com/default.asp

More on China's ASAT test

One thing I and most media stories didn't mention about the Chinese ASAT test was the debris from the test (all those small bits from the smashed satellite) is already causing concern for those who have other satellites up there. If some of the debris crosses another satellite's path (or the international space station for that matter), it could be bad. Small pieces could damage solar panels while larger pieces can act as their own ASAT weapon and take the satellite off line.

Hat tip Argghhh!!!

Computers at the speed of light

Scientists said yesterday that they had achieved a long-sought goal of slowing waves of light to a relatively leisurely pace and using those harnessed pulses to store
an image.

Physicists said the new approach to taming light could hasten the arrival of a futuristic era in which computers and other devices will process information on optical beams instead of with electricity, which for all its spark is still cumbersome compared with light.

I'll I can say about this is WOW. Ok, and hope when computers are run by light instead of electrons, they have an operating system that is stable enough to run it.

Hat tip Lucianne.

Rail Guns coming??

The Navy has tested a rail gun in Virginia and is happy with the results.

If this works as well in a full scale model as it did in the test, the consequences are huge. No more explosives stored in the ship's magazines. No more surface to surface or surface to air missiles with ranges of less then 250 miles needed. The cost of firing the weapon will decrease from $1 million (for a Tomahawk) a shot to the cost of a bullet (a few hundred at most). No warhead is needed in the shot because of the velocity of the bullet.

Strategy Page also has an interesting write up on the subject.

This technology won't be available for a number of years still and a test of concept does not make a weapon system, but the development continues.

Looking forward to seeing more on this.

Hat tip Lucianne

Thursday Items

Two items in the news I wanted to talk about today.

The first is a story from Spaceref.com on China's successful test of an ASAT weapon. Yep, the Chinese got a kinetic energy ASAT weapon and were able to test it on one of their old weather satellite. The US also has an ASAT weapon but we only tested it once, think in 1985 and now it is supposed to be against international law to test ASAT weapons because it creates more junk in space which can damage other satellite or the international space station. But I guess since the US didn't do the testing its not newsworthy.

The scary thing is, if the PRC does have an effective ASAT program, a large part of the US smart bombs are now vulnerable. They rely on GPS guidance and if the Chinese take out the GPS satellite, our expensive JDAMS are now just dumb bombs.

Hat tip Lucianne

The second item is about Senator Obama. He is running for President. His father was a Muslim and according to Islamic Law, that makes Sen. Obama a Muslim. However, Sen. Obama claims to be a Christian. Now the penalty for leaving the Islamic faith is death in many countries. It will be interesting to see if anyone will ask him if he will feel threatened visiting places like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, or Turkey. It will be interesting to see if CAIR will agree that people have the right to choose their religion and that includes the right to change their religion without fear of persecution as stated in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Will be interesting to see what develops.

Hat tip Lucianne

Have a good Day

Wednesday

Well, had a story I wanted to comment on and link to, but IE crashed and now I can't find the dumb thing. Oh well, such is life.

I do have a favor to ask, will the person who turned off the heat from the sun PLEASE turn it back on? Its been FREEZING here in So Cal for the last week.

Ok, ok, for you folks in Denver, Chicago etc. stop laughing. When it gets below 60 F, its cold in CA. Our houses are not built to survive high 30 F weather. And So Cal residences basically don't know how to drive in the rain, if there is any ice, you don't want to be on the road.

Yesterday (Tuesday), went outside during the day, bright sunny day and it was still cold. Why isn't the sun working???

Hope your staying warm and hopefully I'll have something more profound to say tomorrow.

Oil Prices and the local price for gasoline

I saw it again.

A Bloomberg article said crude oil fell to a 19 month low or $51.21 a barrel. On the comments section at Lucianne.com, someone asked (paraphrased) why do gas stations raise the price immediately when prices increase but take a while to lower the price when oil prices go down?

Welcome to Econ 101.

The basic answer (as the station owners admit to on TV), when the price of oil increases, they raise prices on anticipation of more expensive fuel in the future. The don't want to lower prices when oil prices fall because they already have the more expensive gasoline in their storage tanks they need to sell first.

And folks need to remember its not just the local gasoline station setting the price. The distributor and the refinery all adjust their prices based on what the future costs of the material will be and adjust their prices accordingly.

The oil industry isn't the only one to practice this type of pricing either. The computer industry follows the same logic. When a memory factory in Taiwan burns down (as what happened a number of years ago), the price for RAM went up over night. Even though the RAM on store shelves didn't change from before or after the fire, but everyone knew that RAM would be in short supply until the factory could be fixed and put back into production. So everyone started to buy RAM and the shortage everyone feared developed because of the panic buying. Of course stores will raise prices if something is selling out quickly and they are not likely to be able to order new supplies, the laws of supply and demand apply. Demand goes up, so do prices. However once the panic ended, the industry saw there was still enough memory even with the factory off line so the price started to come down on RAM. However, for the people and stores who purchased the high price RAM, they wanted to get rid of it without losing too much money so they tried to hold prices steady while the old RAM was sold.

Bottom line, if people think there will be a shortage of the item or a price increase for an item in the future, they will raise prices on their current stock so they will be better able to pay for the higher prices and to make some additional profit. When the shortage turns into a glut, people will try to hold prices at the old level until they can sell the existing inventory at the high price and then lower prices for the new cheaper inventory. If another vendor has the same or similar item and can lower prices faster (by holding less inventory, like Dell Computer for example) then the companies holding the high priced inventory will take a bath on liquidating their inventory just to keep market share. Its called capitalism.

That's enough rambling for today.

More dust

With the new blog format, even us non-html savy people can add stuff and make some small changes to the blog. Enjoy the new format, all one or 2 of our visitors.

Pardon Our Dust

As you can tell, Carpetbloggers is receiving a face lift. I've transferred to a new layout and started to reacquaint myself with the old Carpetbloggers HTML layout.

Please be patient as this process continues as I clean up the layout, transfer old data, check for dead links, and hopefully integrate the old comments system.

If you find anything amiss, please don't hesitate to let me know.

ETA: Links have been verified. Wow, after two years, fully a third of the blogroll dropped off the face of the earth, stopped blogging, or changed addresses. Talk about a dynamic environment.

F-35

This last Wednesday I had the privilege of being invited to watch the F-35 fly its third test flight. The cold pre-dawn sky gave way to a sunrise when a white minivan passed us by. Somebody remarked, "Well, there goes Jon." Jon Beesley is the chief test pilot for the F-35. A few fire trucks passed by and after a feet-numbing hour, there was a roar of engines. Soon, we could see down the flight line that a gray Lockheed Martin F-16 had pulled out. It taxied right in front of us to the end of the runway followed about ten minutes later by a white F-16 with Edwards AFB markings. Chase planes. They disappeared behind a building that hid the end of the runway from our view. About ten minutes after that, the F-35 pulled out of its hanger and taxied by.

It was incredible to see it in person.

It, too, disappeared behind the building and it was another half hour before there was a scream of engines and F-16s tore by and pulled into the air. Circling around, they approached the runway low and slow from where they took off. Then the roar of the F-35s engines spooling up echoed off of the buildings, I noted that a couple of antenna dishes seemed to be trained on the aircraft. After a few moments, the sleek, gray shape of the Lightening II rushed by, it rotated on its main gear and lifted into the air with a slight flutter. Escorted by the chase planes, it continued to climb out from the airstrip. I thought I saw the landing gear retract, but it was too far away to be sure. We couldn't stay and wait for it to land.

Still, it was a worthwhile trip to see what could be the last manned fighter-bomber. UAVs might not be an effective substitute, but one cannot ignore the technological and political advantages of not having to worry about a pilot.

Of interest: The powerplant of the Edwards F-16 had a much higher and louder pitch then the Lockheed Martin test F-16. The F-35's engine sounded lower than either. Both F-16s had flight control surfaces bouncing all over as they taxied, but when the F-35 ran over the same segment of pavement, nothing moved--everything was tight. The pilot also seems to sit much higher in the F-35 (warning huge image!), the impression I got reminded me of an F-117 than the F-16.

Random thought: If this aircraft has the low observable coatings, just how will the Dallas-Ft Worth air controllers be sworn to secrecy? Not sure how that would work out.

Sen Boxer and San Francisco - what a way to start the day

I normally try to post once or maybe twice a day, but saw these two articles and had to tell the 1 or 2 people that may see it. Ok, so I could reach more people by shouting the news on the sidewalk, but this way I don't get arrested for disturbing the peace.

News story 1

The city of San Francisco will mandate every business in the city limits to offer sick leave to every employee. Full time, part time and temp. It doesn't matter if you have 1,000 employees or 1, or if you hire domestic help or a factory worker. Don't get me wrong, I like sick leave as an employee, but I also know that for small businesses, they often don't have the profit margin to pay for this. Add this the rise in SF minimum wage and the requirement for businesses to spend on health insurance for employees and you have a recipe for small business disaster. And less we forget, small business the the engine that creates most of the new jobs in an economy. I expect to see every small business that can't afford to already offer sick leave and is not dependent on foot traffic (like restaurants and the like) to look to move out of the city as soon as possible.

Yes the measure was passed by the citizens of SF by over 60%, but I expect most of those who voted for it either already have sick leave (from working for the government or at a large company) or think they can get a free benefit from their employers. It will be interesting to see what the law of unintended consequences will be.

Hat tip Lucianne

News story #2

California's junior senator says those who don't have children shouldn't have an opinion supporting the war because they

"pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family."

Funny, I thought we were passed the days where childless couples or people were not supposed to scorned by society, especially our Liberal Elite. But I guess politics trumps all.

I wonder how this will play with Boxer's friends and neighbors in SF? Probably well because the intended target was Secretary of State Rice, a woman who chose a life different then Senator Boxer and I think is a far better person then the Senator.

Yes I'm in California and am not pleased with my elected officials.

Hat tip Lucianne.

Killer Rabbit??

You gotta see this to believe it.

A rabbit that weighs 10.5 kg (that's roughly 23 pounds)???

A rabbit that can provide 7 kg of meat (15.4 pounds)???

Check out the story. North Korea wants them to help solve their food problem, but as the farmer who breeds them says, "they (the rabbits) eat a lot". What will NK feed the rabbits to feed the people when there are reports of the NK peasants eating grass because there is nothing else to eat?

Hat tip Lucianne

The Correct Degree of Aggression

Hat tip Blackfive.

I'm borrowing the title and will borrow what Blackfive said:

Best post of the week, maybe month.

China's new toy - the Jian-10

The Christian Science Monitor has a story about a new Chinese fighter called the Jian-10.

They were helped by the Israelis and appears to have features similar to the F-16, The Euro Fighter, Russian planes and French planes.

I don't know what generation of jet aircraft they think it is (F-35 & F-22 are fifth generation, F-14, 15, 16, 18 are fourth generation, F-4, A-6 are third, F-104, 105, 106 are second and F-86 is first generation for reference), or if the plane is has any stealth abilities. That is not meant to mock the plane, I just don't know and looking from the small pictures I've seen (actually the same picture in different articles), it looks like it a lot of sharp angles that radar can get a return off of.

I've read about this plane a week ago or so on Strategy Page (can't find the article) but linking to CSM since the information isn't very different from the earlier story.

Yes we need the F-22 and F-35 (maybe more F-35 then F-22) because we need to make sure we have either the best planes or at least others do not have better planes then we do.

(hat tip Lucianne, check out the comments by visitors to that site about what they think about the Jian-10)

Have a good day.

Silly String

An article on Strategy Page talks about how the troops are using Silly String to help them find booby traps. The spray a line into a room they need to search and if it falls to the floor, the room is safer to enter. If the Silly String hangs in the air, its most likely resting on wires that can be almost invisable to see that will set off the booby traps.

Go read the article and if you wnat to help the troops get the Silly String they want (its not GI issued so most of it is provided by Mom and Dad), there is a woman who is buying the stuff and sending it to her son (who is in Iraq) and other units as well.

Another example of our troops finding a new way to lesson their danger and the US public getting the troops the stuff they need with out the red tape.

More Pictures

Ok, the boss is still MIA, so I'll waste some more bandwidth/storage space with more funny pictures from Strategy Page.

The first picture is for the hunters who want to go after, oh I don't know, APC's or light tanks. It looks like it would be fun to shoot though.



The second item is a political statement. Its an Iraqi (read Soviet) anti-aircraft weapon and some soldiers remember a certain actress who posed with a similar weapon back in the late 1960s. I can't find the direct link to the picture but it is on Strategy Page Humor section.

Have a good day.

Since the boss hasn't been heard from, I will use more bandwidth to show some funny pictures from Strategy Page. These are all from the humor section and yes, many are photo shopped. They are still pretty funny and work a laugh.

I know the F-14 has been retired, but just think if it was designed as a typical government program, you might get the multi-seat Tomcat



or the super Tomcat



Next we have the military's new all glass/digital cockpit, or at least how the new male pilots would like it to be if just the engineers would make a few modifications, right boss?



Now I saw all the Star War movies and will someone please explain to me why that X-Wing wasn't able to make a safe landing? I mean its not like it has to catch the wire or anything, it lands like a Harrier.



And finally, this Highway Patrol department is very serious about enforcing the speeding laws

Have a good day

Airplanes and Humor

When you see the plane to the right, what do you think?

My what a pretty plane or

What allergic reaction did the plane have to its last batch of jet fuel or

That's it, no more pizza after 11pm.

Well, according to the WSJ (subscription required), its a modified 747 and not a new airplane for sale. According to the article:

"The plane is officially called the Large Cargo Freighter. The craft is a
standard 747 that received an extreme makeover in Taipei, Taiwan, last summer --
a process that involved removing the jet's passenger cabin and signature hump,
then replacing them with a cavernous cargo hold. The tail section now swings
open on giant hinges that protrude from one side of the fuselage, like elbows."

The purpose of the plane is to transport the various sections of the 787 to the final assembly plant. The plane can hold about as much cargo as 3 regular 747 freighters (in size if not in weight).

It will get the job done but it will never win any beauty contests.

James Lilek's is a columnist and author and writes a daily blog about his life. Its funny and amusing and not intended to be replace deep thinking. He also writes a daily column for the Minneapolis Tribune and in today's column, he says good buy to Target. No, no new boycott has started but rather Target has closed the store he shopped at and will replace it with a new store and building in October. I find it interesting to read about how people can become attached to their favorite store. Definitely worth a read.

Its Friday!!!

Today is Friday and the weekend will soon be upon us.

Ok, for those of us who are in school, it means more studying time. For those of us who are working, it means time to relax and get caught up on personal things. For those of us who are working full time and going to school full time (me, the boss is almost full time in school but makes up for it by having 3 young kids) it means "just another day in paradise" (if you don't get the song reference, your too young to remember Phil Collins). The weekend will be a time to catch up on homework and get bills paid etc so can survive another week.

Two news stories of interest.

Before I go into them, I need to apologize for not hat tipping the other blogs that provided leads to some of the stories I posted on this week. I will be going back to fix some of them but will promise to give proper credit from here on to other blogs I've read and got links from. I've been out of blogging for a while.

Ok, now with the confession done, back to the stories.

Thomas Lifson over at American Thinker has a very disturbing story about the Minn Airport. If a passenger has a seeing eye dog, they may have a difficult time getting a taxi ride. 3/4 of the taxi drivers are Somalians. In Islam, the dog is not a clean animal. So, they do not want to give rides to anyone who has a dog because they don't want to defile their cars with an unclean animal.

If the drivers had a no animal policy, they could and should be able to say no to animals. However, seeing eye dogs are not considered animals but rather an extension of the person. This is why they are allowed in stores, restaurants and other places where animals are not normally allowed. For the taxi drivers to say they will not carry a passenger who has a seeing eye dog because of their religion, should have their airport license or permit taken away. They can still drive a taxi, just not work the airport run. If this is allowed, what about other violations of Islam? Will the taxi drivers be able to refuse those who have alcohol (the taxi drivers have already tried that), what about a female who is traveling alone? what about a homosexual?

If we allow a government monopoly to grant permits to those who discriminate, the government monopoly should be abolished. The Minn Airport Authority should allow any taxi driver, and not just those who pay for the permits to be allowed to pick up passengers at the airport and those who refuse to take a passenger for religious reasons should be forced to go to the back of the line of taxi's.

(hat tip Lucianne)

Story Two (yes a long post, will anyone read it, not likely but oh well)

From Space.com
Super Soldiers: Tomorrow's 'Army of One' Technology by Charles Choi

Its about the new weapons and equipment being tested by the Army and how it will effect the battlefield in the future. Wow.

I hope it makes the US (our) soldiers so good that it will not ever be close to a fair fight. In combat, a fair fight means you didn't plan your battle correctly. To the soldier (so I've read, never have been one myself), a "fair fight" means all the bad guys or enemy are dead, wounded and no longer a threat or captured and all your guys are unhurt and able to go home.

(hat tip Lucianne)

Various minor items

This is the 12th post since the boss emailed and said he wanted to revive Carpetbloggers from a dormant to an active or at least a semi-active blog.

I think its time he writes something.

Part of the problem is knowing what type of blog this will be. Will it be one which reviews all the news and posts links here? Will it be a glorified Xanga site where we only write about the small goings on in our daily lives? Will it be something in between? Newsey but more commentary on the news then links and how the news relates to our (the writers) lives?

Other thing I got to ask the boss on, how to check the site meter to see if ANYONE is visiting? If you are visiting, do me a favor please, leave a comment, even if its just "I came here by mistake and won't be back", would be appreciated. Of course if you were a regular or semi-regular visitor that would be better but given the number of blogs out there, that is asking a lot.

I was going to ask if anyone could shed light on why the B-36 was accepted while the YB-35 wasn't. Both were piston airplanes in the age of jet fighters (post WW2) and both were basically obsolete before the B-36 entered service in 1949. Actually the YB-49 was more advanced then either, but being a new design, there were lots of problems and the program was killed before they could be fixed. Any ideas?

The Concourse of Hypocrisy

The Concourse of Hypocrisy is a web page looking at the cars in Berkley California and the bumper stickers on them. Berkley is a liberal city and many people there are against the GWOT saying "No War for Oil".

So what cars do the socially conscious drive in Berkley? Well lets just say I get better mileage with my Prius then any car on the page and no I don't have any bumper stickers on my car.

The difference between meer mortals and the elite

Joel Mowbray in the 2 Jan 2007 Washington Times, writes about the difference in punishment between two people when it came to the mishandling of classified data.

One was an analyst who is spending 12 1/2 years in prison plus fines and legal fees for passing low classified documents to a friendly country.

One was a high governmental official who had to pay a small fine and lied to investigators about what he did when he was caught with highly classified documents and destroyed some others so they could not be reviewed by others and possibly embarrass him or his former boss.

I thought we were supposed to be all equal before the law, but some are more equal then others it appears. Ok, to tell the truth, I know that people in this country are not equal before the law, those with money have more access to the legal system then those who are poor. Those with political power or connections to political power can get away with things that would land the rest of us in jail.

This is a case of that. One man is in jail and one is free for the same act. Actually, the one in jail should have had a lessor sentence then the one who is free because the documents he took were less valuable/embarrassing.

Welcome 2007

2006 saw somethings end, never to be seen again and the start of new things that will be with us for many years. 2007 we can expect more new things to start and hopefully get rid of some old things that need to go. Some of these, ok many of these, will be of little importance to the 2 readers of this blog, but I find them interesting or important.

1. We are finally making use of our 37 inch LCD TV. We moved it from the living room to the family room and wall mounted it. In the first 7 months we owned the TV (May to December) we used it about a total of 10 hours, from Dec 30 through Jan 1, we probably used it about 12 hours, think it will get more use now. Next step will be getting the high def package but that will wait for now.

2. We reconfigured the stereo system in the living room and finally got the tape player and the PHONOGRAPH up and running. For the first time since the early 1990's I played a record. Or as my 5 year old nephew called the phonograph "an early IPod".

3. Sadam won't be around to cheer on the bad guys in Iraq as he is worm food now. Good bye and not sorry to see him go.

4. Tower Records is no more (at least in the US). They got caught in the changing market (from Records to CD's to downloads) and were not able to keep up with the market demand. Apple figured it out, but Tower Record went the way of Music Land and others.

5. The Airbus 380 was supposed to be flying but we are still waiting for the first delivery.

6. The KC-135 tankers were supposed to be replaced by the Boeing 767 tanker version, Japan and Italy are getting theirs, but the USAF is just restarting the contracting bid.

7. The first F-35 airframes were delivered, but the program is over budget. Hopefully they solved the weight problem and will keep it solved.

8. The first F-22 squadron was deployed in Langley Virginia.

9. AT&T purchased Bell South so the AT&T phone system is almost put back together. Remember, SBC purchased Ameritech (Midwest Baby bell), Pacific Bell, AT&T and now Bell South. Verizon purchased the New York baby bell and setup a large cell system so we now basically have two land line phone providers in the US, as well as various cell phone providers, some who are owned by the various phone companies.

10. Phone companies are spending lots of money to re-do their networks with fiber optic cables so they can provide TV as well as phone and Internet access. Lomita is the first city in the South Bay (Los Angeles area) to provide this service, Q1 2007.

11. Foxtrot comics went from a daily to only a Sunday strip. It was one of my favorite and sorry to see it happen.

That's all I can think about for now.