Coming in just under the wire, my mission to visit one member of the fighting 101st each day is still on track. Today I visited Yeah, Yeah, Sure Sure where T3rrible has a picture of Kate Beckinsale Nude (Just helping out with the Google bomb!)
101st Blog of the Day | Gaius Tuesday, 4 July , 2006 | 
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Although regular readers here understand that I am not a believer that humans are the sole, or even the major, cause of global warming, I understand that yes, there is some warming going on. It's small in global terms, but it's there. But today's Washington Post has a column about the subject that is a must read. Robert J. Samuelson asks the real important question. So what are you going to do about it?
From 2003 to 2050, the world's population is projected to grow from 6.4 billion people to 9.1 billion, a 42 percent increase. If energy use per person and technology remain the same, total energy use and greenhouse gas emissions (mainly, carbon dioxide) will be 42 percent higher in 2050. But that's too low, because societies that grow richer use more energy. Unless we condemn the world's poor to their present poverty — and freeze everyone else's living standards — we need economic growth. With modest growth, energy use and greenhouse emissions more than double by 2050.
Just keeping annual greenhouse gas emissions constant means that the world must somehow offset these huge increases. There are two ways: Improve energy efficiency, or shift to energy sources with lower (or no) greenhouse emissions. Intuitively, you sense this is tough. China, for example, builds about one coal-fired power plant a week. Now a new report from the International Energy Agency in Paris shows all the difficulties (the population, economic growth and energy projections cited above come from the report).
The IEA report assumes that existing technologies are rapidly improved and deployed. Vehicle fuel efficiency increases by 40 percent. In electricity generation, the share for coal (the fuel with the most greenhouse gases) shrinks from about 40 percent to about 25 percent — and much carbon dioxide is captured before going into the atmosphere. Little is captured today. Nuclear energy increases. So do "renewables" (wind, solar, biomass, geothermal); their share of global electricity output rises from 2 percent now to about 15 percent.
Some of these changes seem heroic. They would require tough government regulation, continued technological gains and public acceptance of higher fuel prices. Never mind. Having postulated a crash energy diet, the IEA simulates five scenarios with differing rates of technological change. In each, greenhouse emissions in 2050 are higher than today. The increases vary from 6 percent to 27 percent.
Since 1800 there's been modest global warming. I'm unqualified to judge between those scientists (the majority) who blame man-made greenhouse gases and those (a small minority) who finger natural variations in the global weather system. But if the majority are correct, the IEA report indicates we're now powerless. We can't end annual greenhouse emissions, and once in the atmosphere, the gases seem to linger for decades. So concentration levels rise. They're the villains; they presumably trap the world's heat. They're already about 36 percent higher than in 1800. Even with its program, the IEA says another 45 percent rise may be unavoidable. How much warming this might create is uncertain; so are the consequences.
This is a must read. Samuelson asks a simple question: what sacrifices are you willing to make? No lights? No computers? (There goes this blog). No heat in the winter or air conditioning in the summer? No more cars?
Is everyone else on earth willing to sacrifice?
The issue is an engineering problem. Stop trying to make it a moral crusade and we can progress.
Update: Donald Sensing at One Hand Clapping has links to Stephen Den Beste's series on power and engineering.
Media, Science | Gaius | Comments (19)
I did my best to describe the funeral of a hero, Benjamin James Slaven, a soldier from my son's company (here). Today, I received an email from my son describing the memorial service the company held for Ben in Iraq. I have no words.
It's been at least a month since I posted anything meaningful here. Part of it is the usual stuff: too many missions, too little time in the rear. Part of it is that world issues seem to pale in comparison to some of the things that have happened here recently. The company is still very much in recovery after Ben Slaven's death, and before the memories start to fade, I've decided to deliver a counterpoint to my father's unbelievably moving account of his funeral. I can only hope to be half as eloquent.
14 June 2006, 0730 hours.
It begins with a company formation. Platoons separated by five paces; crisp, clean uniforms and smart, fresh haircuts. Somber faces and shrinkwrapped eyes that turn too quickly under scrutiny. Everyone tries to forget the post chapel behind them and the monument to a fallen brother that lies on a raised dais within. Second platoon is twelve short, missing a full squad. That twelve is inside, saying goodbye to a young man they've all grown to love, someone who's been with them nearly every day for the past eight months.
Right face. By platoon, file from the right, column right. Clear weapons in the clearing barrel. Trudge into the chapel, second row on the right, take seats with weapon under chair.
There is hardly a whisper as the sight is taken in. On a raised platform sits a pair of boots, an M-16 pointing barrel down, sights out, a Kevlar helmet resting atop the buttstock, a set of dogtags dangling from the charging handle. To either side of the weapon are two medals: the Iraq Campaign Medal and the Purple Heart. Resting below the boots is a framed photograph of a smiling young soldier. Once all seats have been taken, the company first sergeant releases everyone on the condition they arrive back at their places by 0830. Many soldiers jump at the chance for a cigarette or two or ten. For many it's just an excuse to get away from the photo, where smiling eyes belie the business of the day. It's difficult to describe the emotions. Sadness, frustration, impotent anger, and, though they'll never say it aloud, relief. "It wasn't me," they all think somewhere in the deepest recesses of their minds. This is not dishonorable, but human, a natural reaction to an unnatural situation. The smell of burning tobacco cuts through the air as sparse chatter flares up here and there among the crowd. All count the minutes.
0900 hours.
The chapel is packed now. Soldiers from the battalion, soldiers from the brigade, majors, colonels, even a general. Though they honor themselves and the fallen, they are interlopers, men and women who didn't know the young man whose life is being commemorated here. There is a camera to the right, recording the ceremony for a family in mourning 7,000 miles away. There is a keyboardist playing "Hero" in a continuous loop. And then it begins. The National Anthem starts and roughly five hundred soldiers rise smartly, arms stiff at the sides, thumbs dressed to pant seams, feet together at the heels and canted at a forty-five degree angle. The song ends, and is followed by the invocation from the battalion chaplain.
Next are remarks from the fallen soldier's friends. His squad leader reads his biography, his driver and good friend reads a personal statement. The company commander gives a short speech, and is followed by the company first sergeant with a scripture reading. The chaplain then reads his own personal statement. Through it all, most have kept their composure, but none are prepared for the final roll call.
The names of the soldier's squad leader, truck commander, and driver are called by the first sergeant and answered. "Specialist Slaven!" Silence. "Specialist Benjamin Slaven!" Silence. "Specialist Benjamin James Slaven!" BANG! The crack of seven rifles fired in unison causes many to jump. Tears spring to eyes. They fire again, and again, and then the lone bugle plays its dirge.
Soldiers fall into line after a few moments to take a walk across the platform and salute the monument to Specialist Slaven. When it's my turn, I stride slowly, execute a right face, and bring my hand slowly to my brow. As I bring my hand back to my side I'm aware of the moisture in my eyes, which turn down as I execute a left face and leave the platform. I see for the first time how full the room really is, as there are many soldiers standing along the back wall. It's all I can do not to run outside, into daylight, away from that monument that means that my friend will never see his dreams of becoming a drill sergeant, an underwater welder, a husband or a father come to life. Run away from the fear that one day my own picture will be in front of that monument, that I'll never see my fiancée or my parents or my brothers and sisters again. Run away from the fear that I'll never become a teacher and raise a family. But I don't run. I walk as quickly as discipline allows outside, where my friends wait and share my grief.
UPDATE: My thanks to Gateway Pundit and Hugh Hewitt for linking to this post. Thanks also to Carry On America, Confederate Yankee, Chez Diva, The Blorg, Riehl World View,
War | Gaius | Comments (11)
A nice article from the Washington Post on the efforts to keep morale up among the troops. While I am far from a fan of the modern version of country music, it's still a nice idea to let the troops hear radio that sounds like home.
BAGHDAD The U.S. military's most popular radio host in Iraq downs her last swig of coffee at 9:53 a.m., slings a pistol over her shoulder and steps into the makeshift studio with five minutes to spare.
She slips on a headset and grabs a puffy microphone from a desk drawer, standing before a bank of three flat-screen monitors and a large sound control board. This is 107.7 on the FM dial, known to U.S. soldiers as Freedom Radio, and it's time for country music.
"We're gonna get it started with LeAnn Rimes and some Kenny Chesney, who you all know I love," says Spec. Kristen King, 21, her sugary twang a product of her Shreveport, La., upbringing. "And don't forget the phone calls, y'all. They're the greatest."
A reservist halfway through a journalism degree at Louisiana State University, King is energetic and apple-cheeked, with a tireless smile. She wears desert camouflage fatigues, and her straight brown hair is pulled tightly behind her head.
Her program, "Country Convoy," is four hours of down-home Americana beamed throughout Iraq from a fiberglass trailer tucked amid a warren of identical units in the fortified Green Zone. On the wall behind her is an Iraqi flag embossed with the logo of her distributor, the Armed Forces Network.
"Kristen King drives the cowboys crazy six days a week," says a baritone voice over the speakers, as the host fiddles with the volume levels and taps her toes. A strobe light alerts her to the first in a steady stream of requests, some of them a bit puzzling.
SPC King says she's hoping to make an Iraqi into a country music fan, too.
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Because I Felt Like It | Gaius | Comments Off
Neely Tucker, writing in the Washington Post has a really nice remembrance of what fireworks used t mean. We hear today, over and over, how many injuries they cause, but this is remembering how it used to be seen. And heard. And felt.
Back when there weren't so many laws against doing stuff, back when you were a kid, the Fourth was grand. Preadolescent children, cigarette lighters in one hand, explosives in the other. You'd wait all year.
"Hey, man, light this one . . . "
It comes back, this small memory of bottle rockets and firecrackers and other illicit flammables, at the sight of the red-white-and-blue fireworks stands that sprout like so many wildflowers along the roadside. An indelible moment of a childhood in another time, back when backyard fireworks did not have a bad reputation.
There was the sound of the match, smell of the gunpowder, the ppffftt , the feel of the bottle rocket taking off (or leaving your fingers, if you were dumb or daring), the dusk and the twilight and the c'mon, c'mon, it's getting late . Time for one more. You didn't watch someone else do it, and you didn't play it on a video game. Bang! The real thing.
It's a longish piece but oh, so worth the read.
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I've been less prolific posting today (as my son puts it) because my wife has been working me like the proverbial dog. We've moved a 400 pound safe, scads of furniture and sorted through a lot of stuff. We've been out to buy bookshelves, then assembled same and cleared out numerous boxes of books from the garage and putting them in their new homes.
In short, a lot of home improvement stuff.
And at the end of the day, I now have an office to work from that looks like an office rather than a place to dump everything we can't find a home for.
I think she loves me.
Several celebrities are joining a "rolling hunger strike" where the participant fasts for 24 hours then "passes the torch" to the next activist. They are doing this to "put their bodies on the line" to force a withdrawal from Iraq.
"We have done everything we could think of to end this war, we have protested, held marches, vigils … lobbied, written letters to Congress," said Dearborn.
"Now it is time to bring the pain and suffering of war home. We are putting our bodies on the line for peace."
Perhaps the only time the anti-Iraq war movement captured lasting coverage was in August 2005, when Sheehan and supporters pitched camp outside Bush's Texas ranch, where the president habitually stays in high summer.
Even then, the fiercely partisan debate unleashed may have harmed Sheehan, who faced fierce fire from conservative groups and radio talk show hosts, as much as it hurt the Bush administration's image over Iraq.
The hunger strike will see at least four activists, Sheehan, veteran comedian and peace campaigner Dick Gregory, former army colonel Ann Wright and environmental campaigner Diane Wilson launch serious, long-term fasts.
"I don't know how long I can fast, but I am making this open-ended," said Wilson.
Other supporters, including Penn, Sarandon, novelist Alice Walker and actor Danny Glover will join a 'rolling" fast, a relay in which 2,700 activists pledge to refuse food for at least 24 hours, and then hand over to a comrade.
Though the anti-war movement is trying hard to puncture public perceptions, some experts believe such protests have little impact on how Americans view foreign wars.
Those experts would be right. This is the most lame, worthless and downright silly thing I have heard of. A rolling hunger strike. The participants don't even have strong enough conviction in the rightness of their cause to lay down a chicken leg for more than a day.
Me, I'll throw another steak on the grill. Happy 4th of July!
UPDATE: Dan Riehl: Give the chefs a day off. Tigerhawk: Support the terrorists on the 4th. Ace of Spades: On disapproval of Shanghai Surprise and The Crossing Guard.
Dumb Stuff, Left Wing, War | Gaius | Comments (1)
North Korea today tested at least three missiles today including the problematic Taepodong 2 long-range missile. However, that missile failed.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea launched a long-range Taepodong-2 missile and two small Scud-type missiles within a two-hour period, but the long-range missile appears to have failed, a diplomatic source told Reuters on Tuesday.
CNN also reported that a Taepodong had been fired.
The Taepodong 2 missile, which had been under intense scrutiny by the United States and other western powers, appeared to have failed in flight, the diplomatic source said.
A Pentagon official told Reuters North Korea appeared also to have launched at least two small Scud-type missiles, but not the intercontinental ballistic missile that has been a focus of international concern.
"This appears not to be the launch of the missile that's been so widely reported of late," said the official, who asked not to named. He referred to the small missiles as "lesser variety" Scud types.
The official spoke before reports that the third, long-range Taepodong missile firing had been reported.
Japan's NHK TV reported the first of the two smaller missiles landed in the Sea of Japan about 375 miles from Japan.
Cheyenne Mountain went into a heightened state of readiness within the last two weeks, Reuters reports.
The commander of U.S. Northern Command ordered the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, which rings the bunkered operations center, to take "necessary security precautions commensurate with its missions," said Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command.
American officials have led a global chorus of concern that North Korea may soon test the Taepodong-2, believed capable of reaching Alaska.
It was the North's first missile firing in eight years.
On Monday, Pyongyang vowed to respond with an "annihilating" nuclear strike if attacked preemptively by the United States.
The heightened "force protection" level was put in place in the past two weeks, said Kucharek, adding that he could not be more specific because details of the move were classified.
Lt. Col. Marcella Adams, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Space Command, said precautions had been stepped up for the safety and security of people working in the complex.
Now, inquiring minds might want to be asking if the North Korean Taepodong 2 missile failed all by itself, or if the failure had a wee bit of help from the US.
Oh, by the way, Kim old man. The US sent a manned mission into space today.
UPDATE: More from the New York Times. Still not much detail as yet.
Christopher Hitchens writes in the Examiner today about why we shouldn't pay attention to opinion polls that purport to show how the rest of the world views us. Since I have long been a critic of polls and polling, this rings for me.
For example, I am quite certain that an opinion poll of any kind, taken in the Muslim world in 1992, would have discovered enormous resentment at the failure of the United States to intervene militarily in Bosnia. But this ingredient in the famous mixture of Islamic grievances is seldom, if ever, mentioned, and certainly wasn’t head-counted at the time. As a result of that just and necessary intervention, large numbers of Orthodox Christians, not just in Serbia, now record strongly “anti-American” opinions. Which goes to show that you can’t please everybody.
It also goes to show that you probably shouldn’t try. A country that attempted to be in everybody’s good books would be quite paralyzed. The last time everybody said they liked the United States (or said that they said they liked the United States) was just after Sept. 11, when the nation was panicked and traumatized and trying to count its dead. Well, no thanks. This is too high a price to be paid for being popular.
Measurements of opinion are in any event static, and they assume passivity, and a consensus upon knowledge. If you had asked people in 2001 whether they thought it was likely that Afghans and Iraqis would be holding free elections in a couple of years (not that any polling group ever did even suggest such a question), I doubt you would have got a very good response. And how, in any case, could people have known enough to know what they were supposedly talking about?
If I was to interrupt this article every few sentences, asking you whether or not I was making a good impression on you, I hope and believe that you would think I was a servile jerk. Yet this is what our politicians are doing in every speech (most notably in the absurd recent debate on “flag-burning”) and this is apparently what we hire Karen Hughes to do in our public diplomacy.
Read the whole thing, I think Hitchens has nailed this one.
Civilization, Democracy, Media | Gaius | Comments Off
Third time a charm, the shuttle Discovery roared off the launch pad today in a successful launch.
"And liftoff of the space shuttle Discovery — returning to the space station, paving the way for future missions and beyond," said NASA launch commentator Bruce Buckingham. " … As it turns out, patience was a virtue — the third time's the charm," Buckingham said.
There were hugs and handshakes in NASA's Mission Control as Discovery made its way into orbit.
Plans call for a 12-day mission to deliver supplies to the international space station and drop off European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, of Germany, who will join the Expedition 13 crew members already there.
NASA mission specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson are on their first flights into space.
Astronauts Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum will conduct two spacewalks to test a new shuttle robotic arm and to repair a piece of equipment outside the space station.
They might also do a third spacewalk to test repair techniques on the shuttle's thermal protection system — that would add a day to the mission.
NASA decided to go ahead with the launch after finding a pencil-sized crack in the foam insulation around the shuttle's fuel tank on Monday.
"It all looks fine, and the structure is in good shape," Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier told reporters Monday evening.
The astronauts were all smiles as they suited up Tuesday morning.
Shuttle commander Steve Lindsey appeared relaxed, shaking a crew assistant's hand before entering the cockpit where he was strapped into his seat for the ride into space.
Nowak was the last to take her seat, and the hatch was sealed at 12:29 p.m. ET.
Discovery rocked toward space at 2:38 p.m. ET.
Congratulations, America! Happy 4th of July!
We here at Blue Crab Boulevard continue our pioneering chronicling of the animal uprising by bringing you all the latest developments. We have warned in the past of the murderous marauding monkeys, now comes word of a simian jailbreak in Virginia.
The 20-pound Japanese macaque and her family were being moved from their holding cells to the exhibit for routine feeding and cleaning when she got away Sunday morning, said David Jobe, education curator at Mill Mountain Zoo. She was still on the run Monday morning.
"We hope that because they're active in the daytime, she slept last night and woke up this morning hungry," Jobe said. "We hope to take advantage of a hungry monkey."
At 11, Oops is the youngest of four so-called snow monkeys at the zoo. The furry, light brown monkey with the red face got her name because the others were not supposed to reproduce.
Jobe said he believes she is staying in the forest so she can be in earshot of her family. It's her first trip out of the zoo, and while the staff hadn't seen her since Sunday morning, they heard her throughout the day Sunday as they searched in the forest that surrounds the zoo, he said.
"Part of our concern for her is that it's the first time she's ever been anywhere else and we're sure she's frightened," Jobe said.
The four-acre zoo, which sits on a mountain inside a Roanoke city park, had never had an escape from its grounds in its 55 years until Sunday, Jobe said. At some point while the monkeys were being shifted, either a zoo employee made a mistake or a piece of equipment malfunctioned, Jobe said.
We suspect that one of the employees took a bribe to look the other way. Just look for an employee who's suddenly flush with bananas. You can bet the monkey isn't scared, though. She's out there setting traps for the searchers.
The Anchoress has found the root of all evil, the thing that is the curse of the world and all that is going wrong with it. Please, do stay away from the ball bearings, Anchoress. Lest people think you obsessive!
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The Swiss Foreign Ministry condemned Israel for violating "International Law" in it's Gaza incursion.
Switzerland said Monday that Israel has been violating international law in its Gaza offensive by heavy destruction and endangering civilians in acts of collective punishment banned under the Geneva conventions on the conduct of warfare.
"A number of actions by the Israeli defense forces in their offensive against the Gaza Strip have violated the principle of proportionality and are to be seen as forms of collective punishment, which is forbidden," the Swiss Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"There is no doubt that Israel has not taken the precautions required of it in international law to protect the civilian population and infrastructure," it said. The statement did not name the Geneva Conventions, but it referred to provisions of the 1949 treaty, which is regarded as the cornerstone of international law on the obligations of warring and occupying powers.
There would be a lot more credibility to these words if the Swiss had bothered to rouse themselves to condemn something like the collective punishment of a Palestinian strapping on a bomb and walking into a fast food restaurant for a quick detonation. Or the proportionality of a bunch of Hamas-led, fun loving terrorists launching rockets at civilians. Or the protection of civilian population of a group of thugs sneaking over a border to kidnap an 18 year old student so they could murder him.
Oh well, the Swiss have spoken up. Time to go back to your chocolate.
There would be a lot more credibility to these words if the Swiss had bothered to rouse themselves to condemn something like the collective punishment of a Palestinian strapping on a bomb and walking into a fast food restaurant for a quick detonation. Or the proportionality of a bunch of Hamas-led, fun loving terrorists launching rockets at civilians. Or the protection of civilian population of a group of thugs sneaking over a border to kidnap an 18 year old student so they could murder him.
Oh well, the Swiss have spoken up. Time to go back to your chocolate.
War, World news | Gaius | Comments (11)
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