I Have To Hate You

Ok, not really hate. ENVY is the right word.

Sorry, Folks

I'm fighting to keep this site on line. The hosting company is as well. But comments are completely dead right now until I can get some control back. email me if you want to tell me something. The addy is on the "about" page.

Attack On The Site

The Crabitat is under attack right now and may have to be shut down for a while. Backup site is at http://bluecrabboulevard.blogspot.com/

This is a rotten situation and I have no idea what to do right now. I have killed all comments again but even the hosting company is at a loss on this attack. It is coming from everywhere.

Discovery Lifts Off

STS-116 is away and everything looks nominal right now. Launch blog is reporting everything is going very well right now. Main engine cutoff should be monetary.

Godspeed, Discovery.

Knocked Offline Again

The spammers hit me again a while ago with another directed attack. Hopefully the reactivated plugins will deal with this.

The Nannies Of New York, Part Three

The Opinion Journal has taken note of the move by the New York City Health Department to ban trans fats. They point to the conflicting data - one might call it junk science -  that the advocates of the ban are using. And they also note one screaming bit of hypocrisy going on in the background of all this hoopla.

You wouldn't know it from the media coverage, but the science on the dangers of trans fats is still being debated, which helps explain FDA approval of the ingredient. It also explains why the American Heart Association, while no fan of trans fats, was critical of the New York proposal and fears it may backfire if food outlets revert to even less healthy alternatives.

The food nannies insist that trans fats raise cholesterol and cause heart disease. The problem, says Steven Milloy of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, is that the studies purporting to show this link are inconclusive at best. "People cite lab studies that show transient changes in blood lipids when people consume trans fats, but that's a long way from heart attacks and heart disease," says Mr. Milloy.

Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health is one of the nation's leading trans fat alarmists. Earlier this year he co-authored an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that said trans fats "appear to increase the risk of coronary heart disease more than any other macroingredient." As evidence the article cited three studies. One showed a statistically insignificant correlation between trans fats and heart disease when other risk factors are considered. The other two studies found a link between very high consumption of trans fats and heart trouble, but statistically the association was weak.

Before other cities decide to regulate diets absent a safety issue, they might also consider that some of the same people now pushing for a trans fat ban once recommended the ingredient as a substitute for another health scare: saturated fats. Twenty years ago, Mr. Jacobson's CSPI launched a public relations blitz against fast food joints for using palm oil to cook fries. The group claimed victory when restaurants started using partially hydrogenated oil instead. In 1988, a CSPI newsletter declared that "the charges against trans fat just don't hold up. And by extension, hydrogenated oils seem relatively innocent." Today, Mr. Jacobson is claiming trans fats kill 30,000 people a year. We wonder if he feels guilty.

I've noted earlier the insanity of local bans for Federally approved foods. You're looking at the possibility of greatly increased costs across the board as companies struggle to comply with conflicting rules from municipalities all across the country. But as the O-J points out, there appears to be a more litigious reason for some of this. Will trans fats be the next asbestos cash cow for the hungry lawyers? Probably. They're always looking for the next big score.

(Coup) Help Wanted

One sign that the coup you just carried out isn't actually supported by anyone other than your troops that backed you is when you have to run advertisements in the newspapers looking for people to fill the cabinet. That is exactly the situation that Frank Bainimarama, the army leader who just overthrew the elected government of Fiji, finds himself in. He's running ads looking for people with no criminal records.

"Applicants must be of outstanding character and without any criminal records," the advertisements noted, asking aspirants to submit applications at military headquarters by Tuesday. "Each must not have been declared bankrupt."

"The deadline indicates the urgency in trying to get qualified people in to help in the running of the affairs of the state," Maj. Neumi Leweni, a military spokesman, told state-owned Fiji One News television. He added that the posts of finance and foreign affairs ministers would not be advertised.

Bainimarama's hand-picked interim leader, Maj. Jona Senilagakali, took over the prime minister's office for the first time Friday, arriving with an armed military guard. Some top government officials have been reappointed, the Fiji Times newspapers reported, including the chief executive officers for tourism and agriculture.

I can honestly say that I have never heard of anything like this. It really doesn't look much like Bainimarama actually had any real popular support for his actions. Or all that much of a plan before he did it much beyond taking over.

Senate Passes Indian Nuclear Deal

The final session for this Senate passed passed the final legislation to approve a deal with India that will allow the US and India to cooperate on civilian nuclear power programs. The deal, despite some opposition, serves to bind the two democracies closer together.

"This truly bipartisan effort is an excellent step forward," said Henry Hyde, the outgoing Republican chairman of the House International Relations Committee. "It recognises the nuclear reality of India," he said Saturday.

Named after the retiring 16-term Congressman, the "Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006" was expected to be signed by Bush into law.

Under the controversial deal, India, a non-signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), will be given access to civilian nuclear fuel and technology in return for placing its atomic reactors under global scrutiny.

The US Congress had to create a rare exception for India from some of the requirements of the US Atomic Energy Act, which currently prohibits nuclear sales to non-NPT signatories.

Washington stopped nuclear cooperation with India after it conducted its first nuclear test in 1974.

"This is a historic day for this House and for the United States," said Tom Lantos, the new Democratic chairman of the House international relations committee.

If all requirements are met in the agreement, India's nuclear program will come under safeguards approved by the IAEA. There are still a number of hurdles to full implementation. Once all conditions have been satisfied, the Congress will have to vote once again on the program. Is it perfect? No. Does it at least bring India under some nuclear controls instead of leaving them completely outside the international community? Yes it does. It is a foot in the door to get them into the Non-Proliferation Treaty eventually. Right now they are under no international oversight whatsoever.

Chicago Shooting Rampage Update

The gunman was a disgruntled inventor who thought that he had been cheated over a patent.

Joe Jackson forced a security guard at gunpoint to take him up to the 38th floor offices of Wood, Phillips, Katz, Clark & Mortimer, which specialized in intellectual property and patents. He carried a revolver, knife and hammer in a large manila envelope and chained the office doors behind him, police said.

Jackson, 59, told police before he was shot that he had been cheated over a toilet he had invented for use in trucks, Police Superintendent Phil Cline said Saturday.

He was holding a hostage at gunpoint Friday when a SWAT officer shot him from about 45 yards away, Cline said earlier. There were no negotiations and the hostage was unharmed, police said.

"There was at least another 25 to 30 people on the floor and I think the Chicago police officers from SWAT saved those people's lives," he said.

Good Lord. A toilet for a truck.

Discovery Being Fueled For Second Launch Attempt

The space shuttle Discovery is being fueled at this hour in preparation for a night launch attempt in just over six hours. The countdown clock is running. The weather is not looking real promising right now, however. They are predicting a 70% chance that the weather will not cooperate today. Forecasts for the next few days are not really much better until Tuesday at the earliest. But the launch blog was activated just a few minutes ago, so you can follow progress there. You can read about the STS-116 mission here.

Strange Happenings

The Governor of Virginia, Timothy M. Kaine, has admitted in a radio interview that he has witnessed paranormal activity in the governor's mansion (cue creepy Theremin music).

Asked on his monthly radio show on the Virginia News Network whether he has had paranormal experiences like previous Executive Mansion occupants, Kaine flatly answered: "Yes."

Kaine said Thursday that at the same "inconvenient time" every week, the telephone rings in his family's private quarters — and when he picks up the phone, nobody's there. He said he's researching whether "something odd happened" on the same day and hour sometime in the mansion's history.

Unlike some previous residents and staff, Kaine said his family has not seen the friendly ghost of a young woman who is said to haunt the mansion.

However, he said first lady Anne Holton witnessed other strange occurrences in the mansion as the daughter of Gov. Linwood Holton in the early 1970s — a portrait mysteriously taken from the wall and deposited in another room, for example.

Well, of course the place is haunted. Long time readers know that we here at Blue Crab Boulevard have more than our share of paranormality (which some people continue to mispronounce. There is no "ab" sound in that word). In fact, we're the proud proprietors of that fountain of paranormality, Professor Gaius' Paranormality Research Academy and Coffee Shop. We applied our very special para-scientific (Reuters Grade™) methods to a recent picture of the governor taken at the mansion and were able to find hard evidence of the hauntings! You can thank us later.

On a related note, we probably should stop calling the governor every week. That joke is getting kind of stale; he never laughs.

Windy Promises

The first large scale study of wind farms in Britain has found out that actual power production is not even close to projections. Some of the actual production figures are laughably low compared to what proponents stated. Now long term readers around here know that my background is in the field of power engineering. They also know that these kinds of problems are right in line with what I expressed in a wind power primer I wrote not long after I started  Blue Crab Boulevard.

The first independent study to rate farms according to how much electricity they produce shows that wind farms south of the Scottish border are not generating as much as the Government assumed when it set the target of producing a tenth of Britain's energy from renewables by 2010 and 15 per cent by 2015.

Despite millions being spent on wind turbines, the study by the Renewable Energy Foundation shows that England and Wales are not windy enough to allow large turbines to work at the rates claimed for them. The foundation, a charity that aims to evaluate wind and other forms of renewable energy on an equal basis, based its study of more than 500 turbines now in operation on data supplied by companies to Ofgem, the energy regulator.

The study shows that even wind farms in Cornwall on west-facing coasts, which might be expected to be the most efficient, operated at only 24·1 per cent of capacity on average. Turbines in mid-Wales ran on average at only 23·8 per cent. Those in the Yorkshire Dales ran at 24·9 per cent and Cumbria 25·9 of capacity. The only regions with turbines operating at or above 30 per cent of capacity were in southern Scotland, which averaged 31·5 per cent, Caithness, Orkney and Shetland at 32·9 per cent and offshore (North Hoyle and Scroby Sands on opposite sides of the country), which came in at 32·6 per cent.

….

The foundation's report found some real "turkeys" in lowland England – some attached to the offices of high profile companies. Worst of all is the turbine close to the M25 at Kings Langley, Herts at the HQ of Renewable Energy Systems, the green energy division of Robert McAlpine group. This produces 7·7 per cent of the electricity it would if there was enough wind for it to run continuously at full power.

The study says the turbine at GlaxoSmithKline's pharmaceutical plant at Barnard Castle, Co Durham, which is in a built up area and uses second-hand turbines, operates at 8·8 per cent of capacity. "We are really talking about a garden ornament, not a power station. These are statements about the company's corporate social responsibility, not efficient generating capacity," Mr Constable said.

The foundation says that too much subsidy (£45.50 per megawatt hour under the renewables obligation which gives wind farms 60-70 per cent of their annual income) has encouraged wind development in poor sites.

What a surprise. Throwing subsidies at the projects leads to bad projects. As I have stated in the past, wind power certainly has a place, but it simply is not a magic bullet as some people try to claim it is. There are real drawbacks here and real insurmountable engineering problems. And they are insurmountable, it is not possible to throw enough dollars at the problem to repeal the laws of physics.

The Tragedy Of Underage Penguin Partying

Paving With Good Intentions

Eran Lerman, the director of the American Jewish Committee's Israel and Middle Eastern Office, pens an op-ed in the Rocky Mountain News that dismantles Jimmy Carter's latest literary effort. Lerman gives Carter credit for good intentions, and so is more tolerant than I am on that.

Five key objections to his approach need to be raised - not because Israel should be above criticism, but rather because the false anticipation of such an external "verdict" is precisely what has vitiated the Palestinians' future, and the peace process, for much too long. Carter hopes to help the Palestinians; Carter's book does them a disservice.

1. To begin with, there is the title - and the jacket, which helps perpetuate a false image of the "wall" of separation (and the "facts" he quotes about the barrier are equally inaccurate). To allude to the loaded issue of race - from the depth of Carter's own experience in the transition form the old to the new South; let alone the apartheid regime in South Africa - is to misread the very nature of the conflict between two nations which have no racial differentiation between them.

2. Of far greater consequence is the constantly repeated assertion that Israel is in breach of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242. Carter claims that the solution lies in "Withdrawal to the 1967 border as specified in U.N. Resolution 242 and as promised in the Camp David Accords and the Oslo Agreement and prescribed in the Roadmap . . . Peace will come to Israel and the Middle East only when the Israeli government is willing to comply with international law" (Pages 215-216).

Therein lies, tragically, the false hope, offered here to the Palestinians, that the need to seek a reasonable accommodation with the mainstream of Israeli opinion can be replaced by some coercive international judgment upon Israel's policies.

But neither the specific history of 242 (which Carter ignores), nor the language of Camp David, Oslo and the Roadmap support his reading.

There are more reasons, I'd encourage you to read it all. It really hammers Carter and his book. Even if Carter has had good intentions on a lot of things, I find it very hard to give him that kind of credit for this terrible book of his. This is so blatantly anti-Israel, so hideously one-sided, that it is pretty hard to give him even the benefit of the doubt. But even if you do grant him that slack, consider what gets paved with good intentions.

Playing Santa Isn’t As Easy As It Looks

Everyone knows that Santa manages to get down chimneys, lots and lots of chimneys, on Christmas Eve. So it must be easy to do, right? Well, no, actually there's a man in Colorado who can prove it's a lot harder than it looks. He locked himself out of his house and decided he'd use the Santa trick - hey if a fat guy in a red suit can do it, why not him, right?

And he promptly got himself stuck.

The man, whose name wasn't released, fell about 12 feet down the shaft. Authorities said he was hurt but did not elaborate on the nature and extent of his injuries.

He convinced authorities it was his home, and there was no evidence he was breaking in, city spokeswoman Jennifer Galli said. Police were present but made no arrests.

Firefighters rescued the man by lowering a ladder into the chimney and lifting him to safety, Galli said.

Generally speaking, wouldn't a spare key under a doormat be handier? (Actually, that is not recommended, that is the first place burglars look. But there are any number of ways to keep spare keys where they can be found in a hurry in case of locking yourself out). Oh well, his antics will provide hours of entertainment for the neighbors. They'll be discussing this for years.