Wow! Widget Works! Wo0t!

Hah!

Some months ago one of the cables to my camera was lost. Recently I got a new 35 dollar widget that allows me to download pics. Even more recently I dug out my Japan pictures chip.

Behold...Himeji Castle.

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Most Awfulest Merchandising Idea EVAH!

Murdoc's other blog Gunpundit, is generally worth a read. Be advised that eye and soul protection are hardly ever required because stuff like this almost never happens over there.





Yes Mr. toy designer....we mean you.

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Hot

It is hot.

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These Tomatoes are Bad for you.

The FDA is expanding its warning about Salmonella tainted Tomatoes.
The local WAWA seems to be pulling their salads as well.

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Unitydansen...

Yesterday was good day for the opposition, and they deserved every bit of it.

The lefties don't understand much about economics, history, energy tech, the strategy of technology or the enemies we face...but they do understand that politics is a team sport.

This is a lesson many of us on the right would do well to learn lest we join the Libertarians in the aloof moral superiority of utter irrelevancy.

One of the few Democratic candidates with actual cajones', Hillary may be a  narcissistic, leftist, Nixon in a dress, but there is little doubt that were she to be president she would whip out the Ghurka knives on the nations enemies (as well as her political rivals).

So, naturally, the Dems , upon realizing that,   nominated an articulate (and certainly likeable) version of Jimmy Carter with the actual experience removed.

Still, as utterly unsuitable as their policies are for running the country, the Dems are well poised to win it. They certainly deserve their unity dance. The fact that a person of color has a better than even chance of being elected is a fantastic thing for the country. The fact that the odds on favorite to be POTUS is a person with  Obamas' policy views, particularly now, is, IMHO....more than a little worrisome.

I respectfully suggest my fellow conservatives stop with the drama queen temper tantrums and back McCain.

In the meantime, we can all give a tip of the hat to two people who really did break new ground, and open new horizons, as well as the voters who made that happen.


Kudos to the anonymous 4Channer who did the .gif


 ...and managed to politicize the Carmeldansen.
IS NOTHING SACRED?!!?! 

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Last Years Dr Who Finale in a Nutshell..

Not one of mine...found on the interwebz....

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A Positive Review of Speed Racer...

...from John C. Wright...

....And then there are the triple-backflipping ninja-Viking deathcars, covered with spikes, that try to mug Our Hero with their hidden weapons systems. And there are ninjas. And a monkey.

High praise indeed.

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VIKINGS VERSUS PIRATES!!!

With the UN having finally declared pirate season open, the Swedes are sending 2 Goteberg class corvettes (and, presumably a tender) to go a'viking in puntland.

Assuming the ROE are not absolutely retarded, I'm betting on the Vikings.



UPDATE: Galhran ( who has been blogging up a storm lately) beat me to this and has a more in depth analysis. (His commenter's beat me to the obvious as well.  )

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"NEVADA TAN" to be freed.

I can't stop myself from thinking that this is going to be like the "Escape of the Bat Child" for the 4-Channers.

The Sasebo Slasher, referred to by authorities as "Girl A" and better known to many on the internet as Nevada-Tan has reportedly has had her umm... "freedom restrictions" lifted as of Sept.14th.

The girl, now 15, fatally stabbed a 12 year old classmate with a box cutter when she was 11. 
  Because it involved girls of such a young age, this story shocked Japan.
  Because the girl was a gamer, a fan of the film Battle Royale, and frequented some of the more gory nooks and corners of the internet, the  murder  had a similar effect on public perceptions of fandom as the Myazaki killings of the late 80s.

As a testimony to the well adjusted  psychology of these here interwebs, the Otaku connection in this sad tale catapulted the unnamed young girl into celebrity status, inspired morbid fan art like the uncredited piece to the right and massively boosted the sales of  University of Nevada pullovers...I've tastelessly used this meme myself from time to time but it is a good day to reflect on  the forgotten person in all this, Satomi Mitarai, whose life was cut short by the whole sad affair.
.

I am not a forgiving person when it comes to crimes particularly capital ones, but given her age and the better than even chance that this was actually a vicious catfight that became manslaughter, I hope that this girl can maintain her anonymity and lead something of a normal life.

(..and not stab anybody else.)

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Wow

Hillary...just wow.

Holy toledo.


Barak would have to be suicidal or a lunatic in order to put someone in his VP slot when that person already has a knife in his back.

I do like the fact that the talking heads on FOX are largely unable to talk at the moment. I agree with their sentiments regarding pizza.

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Fuel Cells...on the Cheap?

Despite completely unrelated text on her chalkboard, one of the Brickmuppets' Crack Team of Science Babes ^tm reports on progress on the fuel cell front.
  It seems that two separate science teams, one at MIT and one at Basque University in Spain have developed improved Methanol fuel cells that not only have increased output but are dramatically cheaper due to  the reduction in the amount of platinum required.

The inability to find a substitute for platinum has been one of the big sticking points in fuel cell developments and the major hitch in the Administrations ambitious fuel cell initiative from 2001. The previously anticipated substitutes did not pan out.

Methanol fuel cells run at much lower temperatures than other types and are anticipated to have many applications, particularly personal electronics, as they would have far greater run time than any batteries and could in theory be powered by off the shelf rubbing alcohol methanol from a fuel cartridge or something.  Fuel cells in general are also much more efficient than even diesel engines in producing electricity, though they tend to be very fuel specific and there have been scalability problems.

This is potentially a huge breakthrough.

'Science Babe' is a one second gag from Lucky Star that I did not get....screencap was shamelessly stolen from Chizumatic. Go buy the DVD and support Avatars' livelihood!

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Navy Contemplating Withdrawal

Via Yankee Sailor, the US  fleet on station off Myanmar Burma are on the verge of giving up and leaving as the evil murderous Junta will not allow any save a trickle of aid through....Anybody the aid might have saved at this point is likely dead already.

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China Earthquake Pictures

Galrahn has linked to some incredible pictures from the recent Chinese earthquake.

Many, like this one are hear wrenching....

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Lawn Grues

 I am no longer really required at my folks house as  my dad is fully able to walk, my mom is off chemo and my grandmother continues to make progress, so this week I began the process of moving back into the trailer in earnest.

I arrived at the trailer Tuesday with a truckload of stuff that included a borrowed weed wacker. One important thing on the to do list being trim the yard...which had been completely untended for a month.

That became the major thrust of the operation. Not only was the grass much higher than I had feared,  the yard was full of  logs, limbs, rocks...umm...boulders...a sink, beer cans, beer bottles,  lengths of reebar, a toilet, bits of iron, various cuts of wood...mostly siding and plywood,  a catchers mitt  concrete slabs and plastic toys.

Oh, and my lawn mower didn't work despite hours of attempted resuscitation.

I did a little bit of work on the trees with a hack saw and left.

I used to have woods on 2 sides...now a landscaping business has moved into the former woods on one side...and some time in the last 2 weeks they cleared out those pesky trees....and presumably saved on disposal fees.

It rained Wednesday and Thursday.

Yesterday I arrived with a lawnmower, weedwacker, chainsaw, pruning shears and a crowbar.

The yard is now presentable.

As of when I'd left, the power had not been reconnected yet, that will come this weekend hopefully, but the water is on.

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Damn Gas Prices....

 One of the Brickmuppets' Crack team of Science Babes returns briefly from the beach to review a few things regards that thing that's on everyones mind right now.... GASOLINE ALTERNATIVES.

There is a lot of talk regards Robert Zubrin's plan.
Zubrin is a talented engineer and has an amazing out of the box imagination. His plan is laid out here and there is a typically literate discussion of it going on at Jerry Pournelle's place here.

One big quibble I have is that Zubrin seems dismissive of fears that corn to ethanol processes will lead to food shortages, and indeed it is likely that a lot of the current spike in domestic food prices is due to petrol induced transportation costs.
However, both directly and indirectly, burning food will raise its cost and scarcity. (It's Science!)
Zubrins plan is interesting in other ways. While he is a biofuel advocate, his focus is on methanol. Methanol has a few disadvantages...
It's got poor energy density and it is corrosive, (eating aluminum and rubber) thus it requires  specially designed engines. It is also toxic but given that gasoline is not exactly FDA approved either this at least seems to be a silly gripe. Methanol (like Ethanol) is unsuitable for diesel engines and is generally used in otto cycle engines which exacerbate its poor energy density...One can go ~ half as far on a tank of methanol...assuming you don't have an aluminum engine block in which ones trip is shorter still.

(Much is occasionally made of the fact that Methanol can be refined (via dehydration) into dimethyl  ether which is a diesel fuel with a substantially higher cetane rating which gives it even better energy density in a compression engine than regular diesel. This is actually a superb diesel and jet fuel with spectacular energy density per volume...rather too much in fact as, unlike other such fuels it is highly  flammable, making it a safety hazard for ships and jets.It also is a gas at normal temperatures and pressures which nullifies  its energy density advantage and imposes handling problems. Thus I am very skeptical that CH₃OCH₃ is the answer to our fuel needs.)

   Note though that methanol has the very large advantage that it can be made from most types of trash as well as the inedible portions of crops....in fact it can be made  from virtually any bio-organic matter.

(This is an good place to remind people that non-edible portions of crops are not technically trash, they are normally recycled into the soil as fertilizer, so alternate fertilization methods are necessary...this is not insurmountable of course, but it is a nontrivial concern)

Methanol is, despite its disadvantages, a vastly better idea than corn based ethanol which is ranked by efficiency on this chart that will...er...spoil the lunch of ethanol fanatics.

Ascending order

Crop	kg oil/ha	litres oil/ha	lbs oil/acre	US gal/acre
corn (maize)	145	172	129	18
cashew nut	148	176	132	19
oats	183	217	163	23
lupine	195	232	175	25
kenaf	230	273	205	29
calendula	256	305	229	33
cotton	273	325	244	35
hemp	305	363	272	39
soybean	375	446	335	48
coffee	386	459	345	49
linseed (flax)	402	478	359	51
hazelnuts	405	482	362	51
euphorbia	440	524	393	56
pumpkin seed	449	534	401	57
coriander	450	536	402	57
mustard seed	481	572	430	61
camelina	490	583	438	62
sesame	585	696	522	74
safflower	655	779	585	83
rice	696	828	622	88
tung oil tree	790	940	705	100
sunflowers	800	952	714	102
cocoa (cacao)	863	1026	771	110
peanuts	890	1059	795	113
opium poppy	978	1163	873	124
rapeseed	1000	1190	893	127
olives	1019	1212	910	129
castor beans	1188	1413	1061	151
pecan nuts	1505	1791	1344	191
jojoba	1528	1818	1365	194
jatropha	1590	1892	1420	202
macadamia nuts	1887	2246	1685	240
brazil nuts	2010	2392	1795	255
avocado	2217	2638	1980	282
coconut	2260	2689	2018	287
oil palm	5000	5950	4465	635

note that of all biofuels listed, corn ethanol has the absolute WORST yield of any listed crop...naturally it is the one congress is pursuing with the utmost vigor.

Zubrins other big proposal is to mandate flex fuel vehicles.
 This is a very sensible idea and would mean that any car sold in the US would have to be capable of running on a wide variety of fuels including corrosive ones like methanol. This would allow consumers to buy whatever fuel was cheaper (perhaps seasonally) and solve a lot of the chicken/egg problem with alternative fuels....namely that people won't buy an alternate fuel car if they cant get fuel for it...and gas stations wont install methanol or other alternate fuel pumps if there are no cars to sell the fuel to. The downside to flexfuel vehicles is a slight reduction in efficiency since tolerances are necessarily lower. Also it has been pretty much accepted by now that it is challenging to say the least for any flexfuel otto engine to be made that will run on kerosenes like diesel fuel.

Ignoring, for now,  the potential represented by steam cars, this is bothersome because not only is the diesel cycle extremely efficient but the kerosenes and vegetable oils they have historically run on have very high energy densities.


Now two companies, Scania and Transonic Combustion have gone at this intractable problem  from the opposite direction and produced diesels that will run on alcohols...and unmodified on regular diesel...and on biodiesel! The Transonic development is rather closely guarded at the moment, but there is a bit of info here. Also, there is a good write-up on the Scania design (which is already commercially available)over at Green Car Congress.

Not only that...biodiesel, particularly from algae is an exceedingly promising fuel that need not interfere with crop production in any way. Brickmuppet Blog has ranted on this from time to time but there have recently been a  promising  development or two in this area.

Algael oil is 50 times as productive as the best non-algael  biofuel crops. There are hurdles to be sure, but certain species of algae produce oil as a energy storage medium and it requires very little refining to be used as fuel. The algae needs water, light, fertilizer and a sealed environment to keep competing , less "oily" breeds of algae, out, but its tanks need not be associated with farmland in any way, thus no food crop displacement. With artificial lighting (and assuming a way to mitigate the kerosene smell) the algael farms and pressing/refining rigs can be located in industrial parks or even cities. It is the only crop that can potentially replace petroleum in cars without turning the entire planet into farmland.

There is a very comprehensive overview of Algeal Oil theory here.

Note that with flexfuel vehicles, one need not worry about the need to replace ALL of the oil we consume. A mixture of algael oil, alcohols from trash and even our own domestic oil production would render us energy independent. The competition between the three would likely drive down prices over time as well.

Of course there is no such thing as a free lunch. None of the biofuel proposals will work without electrical input of some sort, either to facilitate fermentation or provide light, ventilation or just press the algae. Thus an external power source is needed. If one is serious about biofuels one is going to need to increase power generation capacity as our grid is already under strain.

If one is serious about biofuels one is likely enthusiastic about reducing pollution. Thus one is going to have to look at relatively non polluting sources of said power.

If one is not living in a fantasy land one needs to dismiss SOLAR and wind except for certain regional/ niche applications...our hydro is about at capacity and geothermal is useful in limited areas.

Thus if one is serious about biofuels one is going to be foursquare for  a crash program to increase our nuclear power infrastructure.

Ultimately, when it comes to alternattive energy, nuclear is the only alternative.

Nuclear is the future.

A rant from last year on THAT topic is here.

Today's 'Science Babe' is actually Emma Sky from the Phoenix Wright games. I believe it is  official artwork despite her summer attire.

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A Bit of Perspective...

Via Malkin :Cartoon via Red Planet

The government is making a lot more off the gas than the gas companies.

Keep that in mind the next time some populist pinhead threatens to nationalize the petroleum industry.

(just sayin'.)

Given the need to transfer to alternate fuels because of well founded concerns about feeding jihadism petro dollars and the need to increase self sufficiency,  gas (or other carbon tax) is not something that I'm in principal opposed to....certainly less than other taxes.

The downside is that (as we are seeing now) gas prices have a sort of pachinko effect through the economy and expensive gas is just obnoxious.

A tax however is IMHO vastly preferable to the sort of byzantine cap and trade system favored by the greens which involve a sort of UN sponsored "indulgence" system and give tremendous power to governing bodies over the means of production....which has been the evil opposite of a good thing historically.

UPDATE:It should also be noted in passing that the price of oil has not risen in absolute terms quite as much as it seems from looking at its dollar price....The Dollar has actually gone down quite a bit in value. This is not to say that more rfineries or production would not help, but the Dollar is a big issue in and of itself.

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Cold Wind

Over at Chizumatic, Steven explains why he feels a cold wind blowing. Oddly, this is based on the small number of ads in Protoculture Addicts, which is basically a very professional fanzine, however I fear his chilliness is not unwarranted, as has been suggested more than once .
 There is some interesting discussion in his comments. Go ahead and comment over there.


Update: Colder still (via)


Sad girl in snow is a screen cap from Kanon...obtained via the default source for all sad girl in snow needs.

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Fashion Force

 Richard Fernandez posts an off center but thoughtful piece on what seem to be positive development in Iraqi fashion, based in part on his own experiences growing up in the Phillipines.... The Ray-Ban Theory of History.

One of his readers, a USMC officer replies with his own observations.

Very good reads both.

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On the Diplomacy Front

Girl Duo to Represent Japan in 'World Cosplay

Summit'

We can only stand by and hope that Mothera will be appeased...
 

Via Wonderduck...
(who says he is too tired to blog about this...while denying any involvement with vampires.)
UPDATE: I should have known...this innocuous tip from the Duck...it was a trap.

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