ClimateGate 2.0...

It looks like FOIA.org has done it again – releasing another set of emails between the various participants in the anthropogenic global warming crowd.  I've only read through a few that Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre have highlighted.  FOIA.org has the whole thing up in a searchable database.  FOIA.org has many megabytes more that they're not releasing yet (the file is there, but encrypted, so all they have to do is release a password to unleash them).  I'm not sure why FOIA.org is playing coy with them – they've made no demands that I'm aware of, so it doesn't appear to be a shakedown.

One thing I'm noticing already: two years ago when the original ClimateGate emails were released, the blogs jumped all over them right way, but the media studiously ignored them for months.  This time they're in the mainstream media right away.  Interesting...

OWS Solution...

Colleague and friend Doug S. passes along this solution to the Occupy Wall Street movement (non-embeddable video clip)...

Mesmerizing...

Wired has a nice collection of ten “mesmerizing” time-lapse videos, like this one:

Unreal...

Several people wrote to ask why I'm not commenting more on the “Super-Committee” super-flop.  Several answers:

First, I'm torn between delight and disgust by the whole affair.  Delight because a Congress deadlocked into inactivity is the safest kind of Congress I can imagine.  Disgust because so few (I'd say less than 5%) of our Congress-critters seem to behave in a way that's in the best interest of the country.

In today's news, I read another story that at one level simply astounds any thinking person in its complete disconnection from reality.  Obama is pushing to extend the Social Security “tax cuts” another year.  This is from the leader of the same party that is so adamant about including tax increases as part of the deficit reduction.  Last year those tax cuts were paid for by issuing government bonds (borrowing, in other words).  One wonders what he's got in mind this time.  Well, I guess we really don't wonder – Obama's angling for re-election, and what better way than to throw a few bucks at the masses?  He might as well be out on the street with wads of money, handing them to anyone who will vote for him.  Sheesh...

There are days (and this is one of them) when I think the only way we can get our country back is through some form of revolution.  The big, big question: can that revolution happen at the ballot box?  I'm not feeling optimistic this morning...

Billions and Billions...

Forbes talks about ServiceNow, the company where I work...

Blog and Local News...

We had a power outage from 4 am to 7:15 am this morning, which messed up my morning routine rather well.  Last night we got just over a half inch of rain, and the world outside is green and wet – sparkly, like jewels.

And now I have to go to work...

Earliest Photographs...

Youth Turnaround?

The 2012 elections are going to be interesting...

Farm Productivity...

The graph at right (click to enlarge) is a fascinating look at what invalidated the Malthusian prophecies of the early 20th century.  Back then, the conventional wisdom was that because human populations were growing much faster than our food production, we were all going to starve and die before the year 2000.

Well, not so much.  In fact, there is now more food per capita than at any previous point in history.  Better food, too (in every sense!).  How did this happen?  Why were the projections so very wrong?

They had the same problem that every static projection has: they assumed that the rate of change of both food production and of population growth would remain the same.  If that had actually happened, the Malthusians would have been correct.  But it didn't; in fact, both changed.  Our food production started climbing very rapidly during WWII with the near-simulateous development of cheap fertilizers, effective insecticides, and selective herbicides.  A few decades later, genetic engineering kicked farm productivity even faster.  There's no end in sight yet for farm productivity improvement.  At the same time, worldwide population growth rates are slowing.  The rate of change on those rates is low, but the effects are cumulative and large over the long term.  Most experts today think that our world's human population will level off (or close to that) before the end of this century.  My guess is that today's experts are probably just as wrong as the Malthusians were 100 years ago – but I have no idea in which direction they're wrong, much less the magnitude of their error!

Payment Problem...

Via my mom:

A drunk woman, stark naked, jumped into a taxi.

The Indian driver opened his eyes wide and stared at the woman. He made no attempt to start the cab.

"What's wrong with you, haven't you ever seen a naked woman before?"

"I'll not be staring at you lady, I am telling you, that would not be proper, where I am coming from."

"Well if you're not bloody staring at me, what are you doing then?"

"Well, I am looking and looking, and I am thinking to myself, where is this lady keeping the money to be paying me with?"

Reform Congress...

Here's the conclusion of an excellent opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal:

I've learned from local, state and national political experience that the only solution to entrenched corruption is sudden and relentless reform. Sudden because our permanent political class is adept at changing the subject to divert the public's attention—and we can no longer afford to be indifferent to this system of graft when our country is going bankrupt. Reform must be relentless because fighting corruption is like a game of whack-a-mole. You knock it down in one area only to see it pop up in another.

What are the solutions? We need reform that provides real transparency. Congress should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act like everyone else. We need more detailed financial disclosure reports, and members should submit reports much more often than once a year. All stock transactions above $5,000 should be disclosed within five days.

We need equality under the law. From now on, laws that apply to the private sector must apply to Congress, including whistleblower, conflict-of-interest and insider-trading laws. Trading on nonpublic government information should be illegal both for those who pass on the information and those who trade on it. (This should close the loophole of the blind trusts that aren't really blind because they're managed by family members or friends.)

No more sweetheart land deals with campaign contributors. No gifts of IPO shares. No trading of stocks related to committee assignments. No earmarks where the congressman receives a direct benefit. No accepting campaign contributions while Congress is in session. No lobbyists as family members, and no transitioning into a lobbying career after leaving office. No more revolving door, ever.

This call for real reform must transcend political parties. The grass-roots movements of the right and the left should embrace this. The tea party's mission has always been opposition to waste and crony capitalism, and the Occupy protesters must realize that Washington politicians have been "Occupying Wall Street" long before anyone pitched a tent in Zuccotti Park.

The author is Sarah Palin...

FTL Confirmed?

The OPERA team has re-run their experiment that measured time-in-flight of neutrinos as faster than light (FTL).  This time they used shorter pulses (removing one area of uncertainty in the original experiment) and did a better statistical analysis.  Result: FTL time-in-flight confirmed. 

This doesn't mean there's general agreement that physics is broken.  But it is one (unexpected by most) step in that direction.

Wow!

Economics of Solar Power...

Megan McArdle (by far my favorite economics blogger) has a nice piece up about the economics of solar power, answering the question “Should we be bullish on solar?”  She covers something that most discussions miss: the “whole system” costs of solar, especially the battery problem...

Nitobe Memorial Garden...

In Vancouver, British Columia, Canada.  Gorgeous!  Via BPOD...

Jamul Indian Casino...

Lakes Entertainment's latest quarterly report is out, and it looks much like the last few.  They've recognized another $800k in “impairment losses” (definition below) related to the Jamul casino project, and are still using the same “we haven't given up quite yet” language when talking about it...

Impairment Loss: A special, nonrecurring charge taken to write down an asset with an overstated book value. Generally an asset is considered to be value-impaired when its book value exceeds the future net cash flows expected to be received from its use. An impairment write-down reduces an overstated book value to fair value.

Five Sweet Little Old Ladies...

Via my mom:

Sitting on the side of the road waiting to catch speeding drivers, a Massachusetts state trooper sees a car puttering along at 24 mph. He thinks to himself, "This driver is as dangerous as a speeder!" So he turns on his lights and pulls the driver over.

Approaching the car, he notices that there are five elderly ladies - two in the front seat, and three in the back, wide-eyed and white as ghosts. The driver, obviously confused, says to him, "Officer, I don't understand. I was going the exact speed limit. What seems to be the problem?"

The trooper, trying to contain a chuckle, explains to her that "24" was the Route number, not the speed limit. A bit embarrassed, the woman grinned and thanked the officer for pointing out her error.

"But before you go, Ma'am, I have to ask, "is everyone in this car OK? These women seem awfully shaken."

"Oh, they'll be all right in a minute, officer. We just got off Route 128."

And yes, it's entirely plausible that my mom was one of them...

Banksia grandis...

An Australian native, from BPOD, of course...

Amazing Voyager 2...

Over thirty years old, and a bazillion miles past Pluto – and yet we can still talk to it and control it.  It's an awesome and under-appreciated technological accomplishment...

Maps...

xkcd has an excellent post today on various map projections, and what your preferences say about you...

Hello Faddah, Hello Mama...

IowaHawk strikes again with a theme song for Occupy Wall Street.  Sample stanza:

We are saving
This whole nation
With some squad car
Defecation
We went marching
in Zucotti 
And got applauded by the Nazi Party