Happy New Year! I hope all of your Zunes woke up this morning from their Microsoft error induced hangover. What a great new tradition to bring in the new year.
Microsoft’s responded to the Zune 30GB failure, blaming a leap-year handling bug. And they’ve provided a fix. Which is to wait til New Years, when the bug will go away by itself. Huh.
Add comment January 1st, 2009
For a rocket scientist who holds seven degrees, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin sure doesn’t seem to get the basic concept of cause and effect.
First, he refused to cooperate with the Obama transition team because they were “not qualified” to judge his pet project.
Now, worried that his job might be in jeopardy, Rebecca Griffin has decided to launch a public marketing blitz to help her husband keep his plum position at the top of NASA.
Is anyone really surprised?
After all, Mr. Griffin may have a scientific background, but as any lackey in the Bush knows, spin always trumps science, no exceptions allowed.
Remember when Mr. Griffin sacrificed his integrity by secretly editing the NASA mission statement to exclude the phrase to “protect the home planet” so he could later claim that his agency’s work did not include fighting global warming.
Hmmm, and what about his very unscientific comments on NPR’s Morning Edition.
In an interview broadcast yesterday on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” program, Griffin was asked by NPR’s Steve Inskeep whether he is concerned about global warming.
“I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists,” Griffin told Inskeep. “I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with.”
“To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth’s climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change,” Griffin said. “I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that’s a rather arrogant position for people to take.”
Right, nothing could be more arrogant than trying to maintain a planetary climate which sustains about 6.7 billion people, countless ecosystems, and wildlife. Talk about elitism.
If Obama truly wants to put science at the top of his agenda and “restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology” then political hacks like current NASA administrator Michael Griffin have to go.
No exceptions.
Add comment December 31st, 2008
Why are newspapers dying? Could it be that reading the paper is a lot like paying for yesterday’s news at today’s prices.
Don’t believe me. Check this out.
The Seattle P-I’s environmental blog Dateline Earth just discovered a real 52-mpg car which they breathlessly describe as the “car of the future”.
Of course, anyone who spends less than five minutes with the google will soon discover the car of the future has been available in Europe and Japan for many years now.
This turned up on my very first search in an article entitled Why automakers don’t sell a car that gets 50mpg from an article printed in Newsweek on April 4, 2008.
So gas just hit another miserable milestone. Unleaded regular is averaging a record $3.30 a gallon and seems likely to blast past $4 by Memorial Day. Wouldn’t it be great if you could drive a car that gets 50 miles per gallon? Well, you can. Just hop on a plane and fly to Europe, where all new cars average 43mpg, or Japan, where the average hits 50mpg. Here in the United States, we’re stuck at 25mpg in our considerably larger and more powerful cars, trucks and SUVs. So why can’t we do better? Here’s the dirty little secret: we can. “If you want better fuel economy, it’s just a question of when auto companies want to do it and when consumers decide they want to buy it,” says Don Hillebrand, a former Chrysler engineer who is now director of transportation research for Argonne National Labs. “Auto companies can deliver it within a year.”
Ouch. Just because Detroit refuses to build cars that get 50 MPG, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Intrepid reporters for Dateline Earth, please take note.
Add comment December 31st, 2008
In Japan, young adults prefer public transportation to the expense of owning an auto, and no longer view cars as the ultimate status symbol . Rather, the younger generation has shifted its interest from cars to the allure of communication tools like personal computers, mobile phones and services.
Add comment December 30th, 2008
Add comment December 25th, 2008
Coal, not so clean after all.
Parts of Tennessee remain buried under toxic sludge today after a major disaster at a coal plant. A forty-acre pond containing toxic coal ash has collapsed, spilling out millions of gallons of coal ash. Environmentalists say the spill is more than thirty times larger than the Exxon Valdez, but the story has received little national attention.
And what exactly makes coal ash so toxic:
RICK HIND: Well, you’re talking about heavy metals like arsenic, mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium, and all of these metals are actually bioaccumulate in the environment. You saw pictures—in fact, if you go to The Tennessean website or the TVA website, you’ll see just these amazing aerial and on-site photographs of the damage. It reminds me of a volcanic eruption, if you remember the mudslides from Mount St. Helens. It’s just uprooting and moving houses off their foundations. As you said, sludge piling up six feet high, 400 acres covered, as well as fish kills. And now, much of that slug of toxicity, the heavy metals, mercury, for example, can bioaccumulate in fish 60,000 times. So you could see long-term damage from this particular disaster, as well as any leakage that’s been going on.
That’s why we’re calling for a criminal investigation, because really under the Clean Water Act, there’s supposed to be a contingency plan that anticipates this and prevents this kind of disaster. What happened here could happen again right on site at several other of the ponds still holding this toxic sludge. And every other coal plant in the country has a similar problem.
Add comment December 24th, 2008
Add comment December 23rd, 2008
Did you know the corporate media has a varsity team?
I sure didn’t.
Last night on Anderson Cooper, talking head Joe Johns let slip the existence of a media corps varsity team “of the likes you have just never seen.”
This highly trained journalistic strike-force was known for its dogged persistence and ability to get the job done.
They never take no for an answer. Instead, these superheroes will hound presidents, always asking the difficult questions, and are never satisfied with a none response.
Here is the startling revelation, straight from the transcript:
JOHNS: Sure. And nobody wants to jump out there and start slamming him immediately. But I’ve got tell you, at the end of the day, this is a varsity media corps of the likes you have just never seen.
And people are going to hammer away at a question and an individual like Barack Obama doesn’t want to ask. It’s just the nature of the beast. Wherever you go, you’re going to get that question after a certain point.
Wow…at every turn…hammering away at the hard questions…it’s just the nature of the beast. Booyeah, I tell you.
This, of course, got me thinking. Where has the awesome varsity media corps been hiding for the last eight years?
You know, when Bush lied us into the Iraq War, a shredded Constitution, an economic apocalypse, and a climate crisis turned into a daily worldwide catastrophe.
Hmmm.
Add comment December 17th, 2008
George Bush is throwing a “pity party” and everyone is invited! Fabricated intelligence which led to the Iraq War–not his fault. Likewise, the economic meltdown was the result of stupid, rogue investors, certainly not Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, further financial deregulation, or the economic burden of his two unending wars.
Add comment December 17th, 2008
Now is the time for net neutrality.
Dear President-elect Obama,
During the campaign, you pledged to “take a backseat to no one in my commitment to Net Neutrality” and to “protect the Internet’s traditional openness to innovation and creativity and ensure that it remains a platform for free speech and innovation that will benefit consumers and our democracy.” You also committed to appointing leaders at the Federal Communications Commission who support Net Neutrality.
We congratulate you for putting this crucial media and technology issue in the public spotlight, and as the first priority in your technology agenda at www.change.gov.
We urge you to make Net Neutrality a top priority and work with the new Congress and FCC. Net Neutrality is the cornerstone to protecting innovation, free speech and democracy on the Internet. Your support right now is essential.
Click on the link below to remind Mr. Obama that we expect him to keep his promise to preserve an open and fee internet for all.
Add comment December 15th, 2008
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