February 29, 2008
MUDGE’s Musings
Last post, Michael Bloomberg told us that no, he is not a candidate for the presidency in 2008.
Today, some interesting commentary.
Declining to Enter Field, Mayor Eyes Sideline Role
For more than two years, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had the ultimate presidential campaign that wasn’t. Aides spent hundreds of hours and untold dollars plotting out a route to the White House. But the prospects for his maybe-I-will, maybe-I-won’t campaign were never tested in the quiet of a voting booth.
This week, as Mr. Bloomberg officially ended his flirtation with a presidential campaign, he said he would seek other ways to influence national politics and spread his gospel of “independent, nonpartisan” politics, perhaps to whoever takes up residence in the White House next year.
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2 Comments | 
Politics, Presidential election | Tagged: Independent, Michael Bloomberg, Obama, Obama-Bloomberg, Presidential election, vice president | 
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Posted by mudge
February 28, 2008
MUDGE’s Musings
It’s only fitting, for mm300, to return to a most intriguing topic here at this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere©, the potential independent presidential ambitions of Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City.
Faithful reader won’t mind being reminded of some of our previous posts that consider Mr. Bloomberg’s elaborate dance over the past several months.
Indeed, mm066 is the single most hit post on this site.
Obviously, he intrigues many of you as much as he does yr (justifiably) humble svt.
So Mayor Mike wrote an opinion piece in today’s NYTimes.
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3 Comments | Politics, Presidential election | Tagged: Independent, Michael Bloomberg, Obama, Obama-Bloomberg, Presidential election, urban agenda | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 27, 2008
MUDGE’s Musings
Susan Jacoby has just released a book, “The Age of American Unreason“, and contributed to the Opinion page of the Washington Post a couple of Sundays ago.
The Dumbing Of America
Call Me a Snob, but Really, We’re a Nation of Dunces
By Susan Jacoby | Sunday, February 17, 2008; B01
“The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself.” Ralph Waldo Emerson offered that observation in 1837, but his words echo with painful prescience in today’s very different United States. Americans are in serious intellectual trouble — in danger of losing our hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations.
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5 Comments | Civilization, Education | Tagged: "creation science", American Idol, are you smarter than a fifth grader?, dumbing of America, nation of dunces, state lotteries, Susan Jacoby, The Age of American Unreason, the decider, YouTube | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 26, 2008
MUDGE’s Musings
Well, I’m sure that the august Mr. Branson was not present on the Virgin Atlantic test flight from London to Amsterdam the other day. Partially powered by biofuel processed from babassu nuts and coconut oil.
Doesn’t babassu nut sound like the latest dance craze? Well, it’s nut. Um, not.
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1 Comment | Agribusiness, Environment, Geopolitics, Technology | Tagged: babassu nut, biofuel, Boeing 747, coconut oil, hybrid powered vehicles, Northern Rock, petroleum, Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic Airways | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 26, 2008
MUDGE’s Musings
Not dollars, yen, pounds, rupees, tolars, etc. You.
WordPress.com, those absolutely wonderful folks who provide safe harbor for over 2½-million bloggers, is good enough to keep track of page hits.
And, as I write this, this infinitesimal nanocorner of the ‘Sphere© has received just over 9,000 hits in the 9½ months of its active lifetime.
That number represents a blink of a fraction of an hour for many blog sites out there, but it’s a significant number for yr (justifiably) humble svt.
So, I’m grateful.
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2 Comments | Blogging, Blogging Process Hall of Fame, Blogroll | Tagged: BlogExplosion, BlogExplosion.com, Blogging, Blogging Process Hall of Fame©, WordPress, WordPress.com | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 25, 2008
MUDGE’s Musings
You’ll recall the uproar NYTimes precipitated last week with their hazy “revelation” of a purported John McCain affair. We even deigned to notice it here in this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere©.
That was the outrage-inducing lead of what actually was a reasonably good rehash of the good senator’s lobbyist affinity over the years. He apparently never met one he couldn’t do business with.
But sex sells even for the Gray Lady of Times Square, and that’s what McCain supporters zeroed in on, along with the rest of us. The ferociously detailed dotted ‘i’s and crossed ‘t’s of McCain’s lobbyist dealings over the past 20 years thus easily became the 95% of the Times story that not enough people read.
Word was that the story has caused the Republican party’s loony wing to bury their concerns with McCain, in the immortal spirit of “the enemy of my enemy must be my friend.”
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Leave a Comment » | Mainstream media, Politics, Presidential election | Tagged: 1963, assassination, Barack Obama, Dallas, John F. Kennedy, John McCain, lobbyist, Presidential election, sexual affair | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 24, 2008
MUDGE’s Musings
Ralph Nader, who made his name beating up on a GM car with its engine in the wrong place, once again finds himself in the wrong place, announcing another 3rd party run for the presidency.
Nader to Run Again
By Sarah Wheaton | February 24, 2008, 11:26 am
“Dissent is the mother of ascent,” Ralph Nader said on “Meet the Press” this morning. “And in that context, I have decided to run for president.”
Beginning his third third-party run in as many presidential elections, Mr. Nader, a consumer advocate, cited a litany of issues he feels have been “taken off the table,” including single-payer health care, the war, labor law reform, and “cracking down on corporate crime.”
Nice to know that while certain bodily functions may diminish or even disappear by age 74, the ability to be a fatuous obsolete horse’s ass stays strong well into one’s eighth decade.
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4 Comments | Politics, Presidential election | Tagged: 3rd party candidate, Michael Bloomberg, Ralph Nader | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 23, 2008
MUDGE’s Musings
Wind power, as are all alternatives to our majority present day power generation technologies, is of increasing interest, especially as coal-fired power and nuclear power plants are presently deemed obnoxious.
This nanocorner of the ‘Sphere© has covered alternative energy a number of times, and wind power specifically, most recently here and here.
Today’s NYTimes journeys to Texas to find the fastest growing region for wind power generation, since nothing, but nothing is done by half in Texas (except, perhaps, the wits of our sitting President, most proud of his Texas origin).
The Energy Challenge
Move Over, Oil, There’s Money in Texas Wind
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS | Published: February 23, 2008
SWEETWATER, Tex. — The wind turbines that recently went up on Louis Brooks’s ranch are twice as high as the Statue of Liberty, with blades that span as wide as the wingspan of a jumbo jet. More important from his point of view, he is paid $500 a month apiece to permit 78 of them on his land, with 76 more on the way.
“That’s just money you’re hearing,” he said as they hummed in a brisk breeze recently.
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2 Comments | Technology | Tagged: coal-fired power, Eiffel Tower, nuclear power, Paris, Texas, turbine farms, wind power, wind turbines | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 22, 2008
MUDGE’s Musings
Shooting a missile at a satellite is rocket science. And, apparently, a year late, we’ve figured it out.
Spy Satellite’s Downing Shows a New U.S. Weapon Capability
By Marc Kaufman and Josh White | Washington Post Staff Writers | Friday, February 22, 2008; Page A03
The unprecedented downing of an errant spy satellite by a Navy missile makes it clear that the Pentagon has a new weapon in its arsenal — an anti-satellite missile adapted from the nation’s missile defense program.
While the dramatic intercept took place well below the altitude where most satellites orbit, defense and space experts said Wednesday night’s first-shot success strongly suggests that the military has the technology and know-how to knock out satellites at much higher orbits.
When the plans were announced a week or so ago, we were bemused.
The physics required have got to be astounding. See, the satellite is in a deteriorating orbit, so it might not be acting totally predictably.
The missile was built, of course, by the lowest bidder.
And they launched it from a missile cruiser sailing in the Pacific, which any mariner will tell you is totally falsely named.
I’m thinking the challenge was tantamount to shooting an arrow at a duck in flight several miles away, from the back of a rodeo bull.
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3 Comments | China, Geopolitics, India, Navy, Politics, Science, Technology | Tagged: China, fallout shelters, GPS, India, Iran, Israel, militarization of space, missile, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, shot down satellite, Tang, U.S. Navy | Permalink
Posted by mudge
February 21, 2008
MUDGE’S Musings
All of this fancy electronic equipment we’ve been blithely voting with… how accurate is it, really? And even those paper ballots and those infamous hanging chad laden punch cards… how careful, how bullet proof is the counting and authentication process?
This is a topic that during this marathon of an election season continues to trouble yr (justifiably) humble svt, so much so that we’ve tackled it a couple of times over the past few months (here and here most recently).
ars technica is a site that stirs guilty feelings, as one never gets there frequently enough. Tonight, as is typical, the long delayed visit was rewarded by a fresh look at the topic of ballot authentication.
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Leave a Comment » | Criminal behavior, Politics, Presidential election, Technology | Tagged: ballots, chain-of-custody, e-voting, electronic voting, Politics, Presidential election | Permalink
Posted by mudge
Left-handed Complement 