Archive for 2011
August 22, 2011
SOME DISASTER-PREPAREDNESS THOUGHTS FROM READER KEN LIGHTCAP:
We just had major storms in the Kansas City Metro and we lost power for twenty-four hours beginning at 11:30 PM last Thursday night. Forty-eight hours later there were still over 20,000 homes without power. Here are three things I learned the hard way during this latest episode:
Grandchildren, if you are not vigilant, will find your emergency flashlights, play with them and leave them on even after they put them back in the drawer thus leaving you in the dark.
Consistency is your friend. Thursday night as I was falling asleep I realized that I had my cell phone in the bedroom and not out charging in the entry which I always do before going to bed. Just this once I said to myself, it will be OK. It wasn’t. The next day I fought a drained phone trying to find places to charge it (car, McDs etc.) I also didn’t check the weather before bed and because of that we lost our porch umbrella.
Keep a land line for phone and an old low-tech phone you can plug in when power goes out. The five station high-tech phone doesn’t work when there is no power but the old ATT princess phone still does fine. I refuse to give up my land line and even had ATT work it into my new U-Verse bundle.
Just some thoughts to add to the survival posts which have been very helpful to us as we live in severe storm country where we often lose power.
With Florida facing a hurricane threat, here are some hurricane pre-preparedness thoughts, and here’s a list of preparedness gear. Also, a roundup of more resources.
EYESIGHT TO THE BLIND: Blind mother seeing anew thanks to Hub ‘miracle.’ “An ecstatic 35-year-old mother of three is back home in Zambia today and no longer blind after miraculous cutting-edge surgery in Boston restored her eyesight, allowing her to see her children for the first time in three years.”
AS WORRIED CREDITORS, THE CHINESE PROBABLY HOPE THAT THE TEA PARTY GAINS TRACTION: Even in China, Joe Biden couldn’t resist using the Tea Party as a political punching-bag.
20 YEARS OF Knoxville Music.
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Where is Monica Lewinsky now?
LOOKING FOR A JOB? INTERESTED IN NANOTECHNOLOGY? The Foresight Institute is hiring.
AT AMAZON, up to 25% off on college essentials.
GLOCK SHOOTING UPDATE: Reader Kevin Kays writes:
Based on your comments not long ago about attending a GSSF match near Knoxville, I joined GSSF and signed up for a match this past weekend in Colorado. I’d never shot competitively before and had a great time. (I was tempted to say I had a blast, but. . .) My shooting, well, not so great but it was still a lot of fun. Many thanks for introducing me to this. It was a well-attended and well-run event. . . . Another note-Glock has armorers there that do free checkups and upgrades. I had an older model, and they replaced a couple of springs and one or two of the internals at no charge. That’s what I call service.
Yeah, I had fun, too.
Question: What’s the difference between a Federal Jobs Creation Program and Kim Kardashian’s wedding?
Answer: Kim Kardashian’s wedding creates jobs.
Heh.
ASTEROIDS: China Reveals Solar Sail Plan To Prevent Apophis Hitting Earth in 2036. Remember when people used to rely on America for this kind of thing?
CHANGE: Laser Advances In Nuclear Enrichment Spur Terror Fear. “In a little-known effort, General Electric has successfully tested laser enrichment for two years and is seeking federal permission to build a $1 billion plant that would make reactor fuel by the ton. That might be good news for the nuclear industry. But critics fear that if the work succeeds and the secret gets out, rogue states and terrorists could make bomb fuel in much smaller plants that are difficult to detect. Iran has already succeeded with laser enrichment in the lab, and nuclear experts worry that G.E.’s accomplishment might inspire Tehran to build a plant easily hidden from the world’s eyes.” Um, haven’t they basically done that already?
FASTER, PLEASE: Research identifies new way to treat common hospital-acquired infection. “Researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered a molecular process by which the body can defend against the effects of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), pointing the way to a promising new approach for treating an intestinal disease that has become more common, more severe and harder to cure in recent years.”
MEGAN MCARDLE: Climate Science Shouldn’t Be Religion For Left or Right. That’s true. On the other hand, recent events have suggested that a good deal of skepticism is justified, both for climate science and — in particular — for the policy “solutions” being peddled, most of which are fairly transparent scams or power-grabs.
COMING: The hybrid camper trailer? “We’ve heard about range-extending trailers which could allow EVs to become range-extended plug-in hybrids, but how about this: a trailer with its own battery storage, regenerative braking and even electric-drive assist. That’s the idea behind German camper trailer firm Knaus Tabbert’s concept, on display this summer at Düsseldorf’s Caravan Salon. And besides adding hybrid capabilities to the car that happens to be towing the trailer, the trailer itself can use the energy gained through regenerative braking for its climate control, refrigerator, lights and more.”
THE BUSH DEMOCRACY AGENDA ROLLS ON, ACCOMPANIED BY BOMBS: W’s Third Term In The Middle East. “That truth is that the United States has become more powerful in the Middle East today than at any time since the early 1950s. Perhaps not since President Eisenhower’s CIA helped restore the Shah in Iran has the US loomed this large in the political calculations of Middle Eastern regimes. . . . President Obama is pushing a democracy agenda in the Middle East that is as aggressive as President Bush’s; he adopts regime change by violence if necessary as a core component of his regional approach and, to put it mildly, he is not afraid to bomb. But where President Bush’s tough guy posture (‘Bring ‘Em On!’) alienated opinion abroad and among liberals at home, President Obama’s reluctant warrior stance makes it easier for others to work with him.”
Plus this: “In many ways we are living through George W. Bush’s third term in the Middle East, and neither President Obama’s friends nor his enemies want to admit it.”
THE CAUSE OF RIOTS and the price of food. “This isn’t rocket science. It stands to reason that people become desperate when food is unobtainable. It’s often said that any society is three square meals from anarchy. But what’s interesting about this analysis is that Lagi and co say that high food prices don’t necessarily trigger riots themselves, they simply create the conditions in which social unrest can flourish.” So maybe printing money and promoting food-based ethanol is a bad idea? Unless, you know, you want to create social unrest. (Via Ken Anderson).
TRUTH ON THE MARKET ANNOUNCES a symposium on deregulating the legal profession.
BROKEN PROMISE: General Motors Again Ripping Off Americans: Warranties Edition.
IN THE MAIL: From Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Ghost Ship.
AN EPIDEMIC OF FALSE RAPE ACCUSATIONS IN BALTIMORE? “More than 30 percent of the cases investigated by detectives each year are deemed unfounded, five times the national average.”
ECO-TERRORISM? Hawaii’s Genetically Modified Papayas Attacked.
Thousands of papaya trees were chopped down on 10 acres of Big Island farmland under the cover of night last month. Hawaii County police said the destruction appeared to be done with a machete, but there are no leads and few clues beyond the tree stumps and all the fruit left to rot.
“It’s hard to imagine anybody putting that much effort into doing something like that,” said Delan Perry, vice president of the Hawaii Papaya Industry Association. “It means somebody has to have passionate reason.”
A growing theory among farmers is that the attack was an act of eco-terrorism, a violent protest against the biotechnology used in growing papayas here. Police did not respond to calls seeking comment.
The majority of papayas grown on 170 farms on Oahu and the Big Island are genetically modified.
University of Hawaii scientists developed the genetically modified fruit that’s resistant to a ring spot virus that wiped out production on Oahu in the 1950s and was detected in the Puna district on the Big Island in the 1990s.
The culprit should be confined to a desert island with nothing but non-modified papayas to eat. Hope there’s no ring spot virus outbreak . . .
UPDATE: Reader Greg Geil writes: “Isn’t it ironic how left-wingers accuse the right of being “anti-science” for being skeptical of climate change, yet when it comes to biotechnology that produces an abundance of “genetically modified” food, the left is against that science. The original ‘green revolution’ was about using science to increase crop yields, yet liberals are strongly anti-science when it comes to that green revolution. Liberals are also anti-science when if comes to food safety (irradiation).”