The Oil Drum | Ruthless Extrapolation

This site is about energy and our future, as per the subtitle. I really enjoyed this article and the physics discussion the comments thread turned into.

The Oil Drum | Ruthless Extrapolation

Fortune, that liberal rag, investigates Fast and Furious

The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal - Fortune Features

The long and short of it is that most of what's being said, especially on conservative blogs, newspapers, radio and TV is flat-out wrong. If you're interested you really need to read the whole article.

Is the rest of the GOP as reactionary as Texas?

I saw some posts on Twitter about how reactionary the Texas GOP Party Platform was and thought they had to be exaggerating. They weren't. You can find the platform here. The emphasis below is mine.

Consider where they get their ideas on strengthening the economy.

We support the principles regarding the public economy as stated in the Republican Party Platform of 1932 to wit: 

Resolution Regarding the Public Economy  

Whereas, constructive plans for financial stabilization cannot be completely organized until our national, State and municipal governments not only balance their budgets but curtail their current expenses as well to a level which can be steadily and economically maintained for some years to come.We urge prompt and drastic reduction of public expenditure and resistance to every appropriation not demonstrably necessary to the performance of government, national or local.The Republican Party established and will continue to uphold the gold standard and will oppose any measure which will undermine the government’s credit or impair the integrity of our national currency. Relief by currency inflation is unsound in principle and dishonest in results. The dollar is impregnable in the marts of the world today and must remain so. An ailing body cannot be cured by quack remedies. This is no time to experiment upon the body politic or financial. 

Source: Republican Party Platform of 1932

Then there's their ideas on teaching critical thinking skills.

We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

Under the heading "PROMOTING INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM AND PERSONAL SAFETY" you'll find gems like this.

We oppose the monitoring of gun ownership, and the taxation and regulation of guns and ammunition.  We collectively urge the legislature to pass “constitutional carry” legislation whereby law-abiding citizens that possess firearms can legally exercise their God-given right to carry that firearm as well.  Until such time we urge the state to re-introduce and pass legislation easing current restrictions on firearms such as open carry and campus carry. 

State Militia – We support the establishment and maintenance of a volunteer Constitutional State Militia with assistance from County Sheriffs.
Militia versus Paid Army – We recognize that the original meaning of the word “militia” in the Constitution refers to an armed citizenry, not the formal paid professional military.
Freedom of Access Act – We urge repeal of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Law. Those who assault peaceful protesters acting under the Constitution should be vigorously prosecuted. Picketing and literature distribution do not fall under the RICO Act.
Judeo-Christian Nation – As America is a nation under God founded on Judeo-Christian principles, we affirm the constitutional right of all individuals to worship in the religion of their choice.
Safeguarding Our Religious Liberties – We affirm that the public acknowledgement of God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom, prosperity and strength. We pledge our influence toward a return to the original intent of the First Amendment and toward dispelling the myth of separation of church and state. We urge the Legislature to increase the ability of faith-based institutions and other organizations to assist the needy and to reduce regulation of such organizations. 

That isn't all, of course. But how typical is this extremely reactionary belief system in the GOP? How many state parties would agree with these desires to roll back the clock? 

R.I.P., Ray Bradbury

One of the great things about being an "active" science fiction fan is that you get to meet the writers whose works you read. I did get to meet Ray Bradbury at an Archon one year and he was one of the really big names in the field that most would be at least a bit intimidated by the idea of getting to meet. But if that did happen to you, he would be pretty effective at taking care of that. He was a great writer and a good man. He was blessed by an amazing talent and the strong drive to write that enabled him to do what he loved for almost his entire life.    Good for him. Rest in peace, Mr. Bradbury.

EconoSpeak: The Long-Term Budget Outlook - It's not what the GOP claims.

EconoSpeak: The Long-Term Budget Outlook

The actual long term outlook assuming current law stands, including the expiration of the Bush era tax cuts and the Affordable Care Act isn't overturned by the Supreme Court or repealed by a President Romney and his fellow Republicans has been improving lately. That having been said, there are way too many factors that can't be foreseen for it to hold up. It's still interesting given the opposing claims being made.

Austerity Uber Alles

According to the German government, the IMF and the European Central Bank there is one and only one solution to every economic problem in Europe today. Austerity. Cut back. Cut drastically. Throw thousands of government workers out of jobs and any private sector folks who depend on their spending. Don't worry, it'll all work out in the long run.

So picture an editorial cartoon with an American sensibility about the current European debt crisis. Take Angela Merkel and put her in a white cowboy hat and domino mask. Give her a gun in one hand. A really big gun. A bad video game sized BFG. In the other hand she holds proudly an outsized bullet to fit such an outrageous weapon. Silver, of course. Label the bullet "Austerity". Before her stands the villain of the piece, hard-bitten, looking mean and wearing a dirty black outfit. Label him "Depression". Next to him is a prime example of the innocent townfolk of this Western frontier scenario. A middle-aged woman wearing homespun gingham who looks at the villain with terror on her face as her children grip her skirts. Label her "Economies", with a design in her dress of the names of European nations. Label her children as "Jobs" and "Standard of Living". Next frame, Angela's done her best, smoke is rising from the barrel of her gun and the children are staring in horror at the body of their mother lying on the ground. Oops.

RealClimate: Evaluating a 1981 temperature projection

The next time a climate change denier spouts off about how they've never come close to accurate projections of future temperature trends or says that James Hansen is just playing politics instead of doing science keep this in mind. In 1981 Hansen and some associates published a paper that so far has been fairly accurate. 100% accurate? No. But in fact they slightly underestimated the warming trend. Given the uncertainties at the time concerning particulate and aerosol pollution they didn't do badly at all.

RealClimate: Evaluating a 1981 temperature projection

What Did the SC Think Would Happen

When the Supreme Court handed down the Citizens United decision I wonder how much thought the justices in the majority gave to the consequences of what they'd done? I don't think they had a clue.

Mitt Romney and His Rivals Are Running Short on Cash - The Daily Beast

Charles Murray is at it again

In the WSJ Charles Murray is at it again. In an attempt to deflect the criticisms he's received because of his book, "Coming Apart". He attempts to claim that he is right and his critics that say there are more causes than just cultural changes, including numerous changes in our economic infrastructure, are just plain wrong. It seems to me, though, that his arguments can be described at best as sloppy. Consider this excerpt.

It is true that unionized jobs at the major manufacturers provided generous wages in 1960. But they didn't drive the overall wage level in the working class. In the 1960 census, the mean annual earnings of white males ages 30 to 49 who were in working-class occupations (expressed in 2010 dollars) was $33,302. In 2010, the parallel figure from the Current Population Survey was $36,966—more than $3,000 higher than the 1960 mean, using the identical definition of working-class occupations. 

Large numbers of well paying jobs in unionized industries didn't affect the wages that non-unionized employers were offering? Whatever happened to competition? What is an identical definition of working-class occupations? Murray doesn't say and apparently expects us to take his word for it. Another interesting omission is the question of how many of those jobs still exist. He states that he uses an identical definition of working-class occupations. How relevant is an identical definition that was used in 1960 to the job market in 2012 when the overall number of manufacturing jobs has dropped like a rock and millions of women have entered the workforce?

Murray attempted to make a claim that many changes over the last half century were purely cultural and could be reversed by "easy" cultural changes such as denigrating and shaming the white males who have purposefully abandoned the responsible path of marriage and hard work at jobs that still exist if they would only look for them. These changes had nothing to do with jobs being shipped overseas and new technologies that drastically reduce the number of people needed in manufacturing jobs. It has nothing to do with an almost complete collapse of the construction trades after the housing bubble burst several years ago. The fact that we aren't building out new infrastructure like the highway systems or doing a good enough job of maintaining our existing infrastructure is in no way related to these problems.

Then Mr. Murray wonders why there are so many critics of his work. If this article reflects the book, which I admit that I haven't read, then I'm surprised there aren't even more critics.

Inhofe Tells the Truth?

Inhofe's Stunning Admission To Maddow on Global Warming: 'I Thought It Must Be True Until I Found Out What It Cost" | ThinkProgress

Once upon a time a man named James Inhofe ran for mayor of Tulsa. He seemed to be a nice, sane moderate Republican. What a difference a few decades make. The man is a loon nowadays. It's just hard to tell exactly what kind.

Is it still talent if it's hopelessly corrupted?

I've read in several places from people who step back and view these things objectively that Rush Limbaugh is, whatever else he may be, a truly talented radio personality. But look at what he chose to do with his career. The incident with his treatment of Sandra Fluke is just the latest case of his mouth producing utter garbage spewed in the direction of those who dare to be put into the position of opposing his political viewpoint for whatever reason. Because she thinks that employers, whether religiously affiliated or not, should have to provide coverage for birth control medication she was called a slut, prostitute and round heeled. And those were the most tasteful things he said. So as my title asks, is he really still a talent? Sure, those who share his viewpoint will never quit listening no matter how outrageous his language or statements are. But wouldn't someone who was still a real talent be able to hold onto an audience, even broadening his audience, without this kind of disgusting display of coarseness?

A Couple of Windows XP Tips

There are a lot of people still using Windows XP out there. Here are a couple of ideas for tweaking performance of your system.

The first one might seem a bit counter-intuitive but yes, fixing something in Internet Explorer can help with your whole system. First step, I cannot recommend enough that if you are using IE and haven't upgraded to version 8, please do so. Lots of web sites don't play nice with IE6 now and IE8 offers noticeably better performance than 7 does. Then open your browser and you'll see a menu item on the upper right toolbar that says Tools. Clicking on that gives you a drop down menu that has as its last choice Options. The dialog box that opens when you click on that has a section with the title of Browsing History that includes a Delete button. Clicking on that button brings up another box with multiple choices that you choose with check boxes. Looking at the choices under the horizontal line you'll see Temporary Internet Files, Cookies, History, Form Data, Passwords and InPrivate Filtering Data. Above that horizontal line I mentioned earlier is an option to keep all of that data for any web sites in your favorites list. Personally I just worry about the Temporary Internet Files option since that accounts for the really big data items such as every single graphic on the web sites you browse to. I just choose that one item and click on the Delete button. But if you're worried about privacy or want to wring every last bit of space out of the process you can go ahead and delete them all. Just remember that getting rid of the cookies and passwords can cost you some convenience on web sites you use so much that you don't want to log in every time you go back.

Another tweak is to get rid of some of the graphic  bells and whistles used by Windows for all of their menus and dialog boxes by default. Find your My Computer icon, whether you have it on your desktop or in your Start menu. BTW, if you use it a lot it's convenient to have it on the desktop and you can have it there just by right clicking on it in the Start menu and choosing Show on Desktop from the menu that appears. Another option that appears is Properties. If you right click on the Properties selection a dialog box pops up with multiple tabs. Click on the Advanced tab. Click on the Settings button in the Performance section. What I do is click on the radio button for Adjust for Best Performance, which clears all of the radio buttons and then adjust the details by scrolling down and checking these options: smooth edges of screen fonts, use common tasks in folders, use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop and use visual styles on windows and buttons. This gets rid of lots of "special effects" while not changing the appearance very much at all. And it does improve performance noticeably, though not by a huge amount. Things are just snappier when using menus and when Windows many windows pop up.

Rep. Darrell Issa Bars Minority Witness, a Woman, on Contraception - ABC News

Rep. Darrell Issa Bars Minority Witness, a Woman, on Contraception - ABC News

It's not about conscience, it's about misogyny and control. If God was as offended by birth control as these men seem to be then I think he'd let us know quite directly.