February 20, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
Late start tonight; busy day led to a busy evening.
Did get time to step outside into the crystal clear 13°F night to gander at the lunar eclipse.
Very cool. Cold, actually, but fun to see.
Puts our everyday concerns into perspective, when you get that all too rare chance to slow down, pause and look up to see the cosmos working in its own time and rhythm.
To business.
As part of the NYTimes series of extended coverage of the presidential candidates, they’ve just published the following:
For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk
WASHINGTON — Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.
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2 Comments | 
Politics, Presidential election | Tagged: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, lobbyist, Michael Bloomberg, Mike Huckabee, Presidential election, Ron Paul, Vicki Iseman | 
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Posted by mudge
February 19, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
Quirky things going on out there, folks. None seem expansive enough to go all expansive on you, so we’re going to have another episode of SASB:
©
Gassing…
A couple of scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have, they claim, found a way to turn airborne carbon dioxide back into gasoline.
Scientists Would Turn Greenhouse Gas Into Gasoline
By KENNETH CHANG | Published: February 19, 2008
The scientists, F. Jeffrey Martin and William L. Kubic Jr., are proposing a concept, which they have patriotically named Green Freedom, for removing carbon dioxide from the air and turning it back into gasoline.
The idea is simple. Air would be blown over a liquid solution of potassium carbonate, which would absorb the carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide would then be extracted and subjected to chemical reactions that would turn it into fuel: methanol, gasoline or jet fuel.
This process could transform carbon dioxide from an unwanted, climate-changing pollutant into a vast resource for renewable fuels. The closed cycle — equal amounts of carbon dioxide emitted and removed — would mean that cars, trucks and airplanes using the synthetic fuels would no longer be contributing to global warming.
Of course, there’s a hitch, there’s always a hitch.
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1 Comment | China, Navy, Politics, Presidential election, Science, Technology | Tagged: carbon dioxide, China, environmentalists, global warming, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Michael Bloomberg, nuclear energy, Presidential election, satellite, Short Attention Span Blogging©, Star Wars anti-missile system, U.S. Navy | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 18, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
Distracting as the events of the day can be, when we get right down to it, the dire rumblings of our deteriorating economic state cannot be deflected for long.
Almost official
Last Thursday, our scholarly if modestly effective Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, finally said what he’s been hinting at for months: the economy hasn’t seen the floor yet.
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3 Comments | Business, Economy, History, Politics | Tagged: bargaining power, Ben Bernanke, economic stimulus, Federal Reserve, foreclosures, inflation, interest rates, labor unions, Recession, Robert Reich, The Politics of Debt | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 17, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
Mark Benjamin, writing in Salon.com, opened our eyes this weekend with an exclusive look inside the U.S. Air Force’s operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And the illuminating article allows this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere© to return to an abiding interest, what’s going on up there in the sky?
The changing face of military aviation
eighth in an occasional series
The series so far…
The videogame theme has struck yr (justifiably) humble svt before. Take a look.
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3 Comments | Afghanistan, Air Force, Aviation, Iraq occupation, Technology, War | Tagged: Afghanistan, China, Iraq, Mark Benjamin, military aviation, modern warfare, Predator, Salon, Staples, The Law of Armed Conflict, U.S. Air Force, UAV, unmanned aerial vehicle, videogames, World of Warcraft | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 16, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
Always useful, and often picking up on trends little noticed elsewhere, The Economist, best magazine on the planet, is at its typical best describing China’s massive infrastructure boom.
China’s infrastructure splurge
Rushing on by road, rail and air
Feb 14th 2008 | BEIJING | From The Economist print edition
China’s race to build roads, railways and airports speeds ahead. Democracy, says an official, would sacrifice efficiency
“IT’S like approaching the Forbidden City, it’s absolutely incredible.” The adjective is one that Mouzhan Majidi, chief executive of Foster + Partners, liberally attaches to Beijing’s new airport terminal, designed by his British firm. The world’s largest, designed in the gently sinuous form of a Chinese dragon, it was planned and built in four years by an army of 50,000 workers. “The columns on the outside are red and you see them marching for miles and miles,” says Mr Majidi.
A little hyperbole is understandable. The terminal is 3km (1.8 miles) long. The floor space is 17% bigger than all the terminals at London’s Heathrow combined (including about-to-open Terminal Five). Chinese officials like the Forbidden City analogy. Just as the towering vermilion walls and golden roofs of the imperial palace inspire visitors with awe, China wants its golden-roofed terminal to impress those arriving for the Olympic games in August. Part of a $3.8 billion expansion, which included the opening of a third runway in October, it is due to open on February 29th, weeks ahead of schedule.
The numbers are mind-bending. Beijing’s airport is now the ninth busiest in the world. The longest sea-crossing bridge: 36km (22+ miles), six-lanes, between Shanghai and Ningbo (anyone else never hear before of Ningbo, much less that it’s important enough to build the longest bridge in the world to get there?).
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3 Comments | Business, China, Environment, Global trade, Transportation | Tagged: air travel, airports, Beijing, Best Buy, bullet train, China, highways, infrastructure, Ningbo, ocean crossing bridges, rail lines, rail travel, Shanghai, Target, Wal-Mart | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 15, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
All the adjectives are used up. Horrifying. Ghastly. Tragic. Pointless. Frightful. Sickening.
Another perfectly normal person, on a perfectly normal day, bursts into a college lecture hall and murders five people. And then does what he probably should have done in the first place thereby saving us most of those used up adjectives, and shot himself.
Now the Chicago area has a new St. Valentine’s Day massacre for a new century.
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Leave a Comment » | Civilization, Terrorism | Tagged: campus murders, latch-key children, Northern Illinois University, NRA, Second Amendment, St. Valentine's Day Massacre | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 14, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
Time for another in the continuing saga of Michael Bloomberg, billionaire mayor of New York City, and his interesting feints at running for president this year.
At the bottom of this post, we’ll provide our ever lengthening link list, as this story has intrigued this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere© for many months now.
Yesterday, 13-February, President Bush signed the tax rebate legislation that he, George III, promises will lift this nation out of its recessionary funk.
The mayor, who knows a thing or two about matters financial (made his not inconsiderable fortune reporting financial news to professionals by harnessing novel technology to do so), spoke quite colorfully today.
He characterized the rebate as “like giving a drink to an alcoholic,” and said the nation “has a balance sheet that’s starting to look more and more like a third-world country.”
Not sure, but Burkina Faso might have just been insulted.
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5 Comments | Economy, Politics, Presidential election | Tagged: billionaire, Burkina Faso, Charles Dickens, mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, nanocorner of the ‘Sphere©, Presidential election, Recession, tax rebate | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 13, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
I’m a curmudgeon, but not a dope.
I believe in strong competent leaders. And I have absolutely no trouble with the concept that a strong competent leader is a woman.
The women in my life are strong, competent people. My wife, my daughter, my mother and mother-in-law: not one is a weakling or a coward.
For most of the past decade, by most measures by far the most remunerative in my 40+ years in the workforce [bar inflation, a subject of a future post], my supervisors, managers, directors and even one vice president / corporate officer, are all women. Strong, competent leaders, each of them.
Not all of them easy to work with or for, but that’s equally true of all of the men I have worked for all of these years.
Have I established gender neutrality credentials? Feminist (if a guy of a certain age is permitted to so classify himself) credentials? I hope so, because it’s how I lead my life.
Thus, I have absolutely no trouble with the concept of a woman ascending to the office of President of the United States of America. Long overdue.
But.
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2 Comments | Politics, Presidential election | Tagged: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, David Greenberg, feminism, Hillary Clinton, Maureen Dowd | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 12, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
Coffee is bad for you; oh, wait, no it isn’t. Not so fast, it’s bad. No, it’s good.
Remember that scientific tennis match?
Now the latest medical hacky sack: artificial sweeteners.
Artificial sweeteners are used to assist weight loss; oh, wait, they cause weight gain.
What is wrong with this picture?
Just about everything.
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1 Comment | Health, Medicine | Tagged: artificial sweeteners, Diet Mountain Dew, medical research, saccharin, scientific research, sugar substitutes | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 11, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
Automotive breakthroughs – Truth, or Myth?
- Carburetors that get you 100 miles to the gallon.
- Gasoline engines that can be converted to run on water.
Myth, of course. Anyone trying to sell you stock in the latter, which seems to surface every few years, should be reported to the SEC.
Okay, those were easy ones. These next two are more difficult.
- Hybrid vehicles are good for the environment.
- Biofuels can cleanly end our dependence on petroleum.
Sorry, myths, both.
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3 Comments | Agribusiness, Environment, Science, Technology | Tagged: Amazon, battery, biofuel, Brazil, Disraeli, ethanol, greenhouse gases, hybrid cars, landfill, lead, Mark Twain, Prius, Sandy Szwarc, soybeans, Tahoe Hybrid | Permalink
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