Last Chance

Today is the last day Microsoft is selling its Windows XP operating system. Even though they have announced that they will provide at least limited support for XP until 2014, they are stopping the sale of new copies of XP to vendors. There will be a way for people to get XP after today, although it will surely be expensive:

Microsoft Corp. is scheduled to stop selling its Windows XP operating system to retailers and major computer makers Monday, despite protests from a slice of PC users who don't want to be forced into using XP's successor, Vista.

Once computers loaded with XP have been cleared from the inventory of PC makers such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., consumers who can't live without the old operating system on their new machine will have to buy Vista Ultimate or Vista Business and then legally "downgrade" to XP.

The new Windows operating system that will succeed Vista will be out in 2009. That will be when Microsoft ends full support for XP.

(Little) Things Fall Apart

Rudy Giuliani is widely credited for turning around New York City, taking it from a crime-ridden mess to a relatively safe city. He did this by concentrating on the small things. His police were instructed to stop the minor, "gateway" crimes as well as to hammer hard at the bigger offenders.

My wife and I visited New York City not long before 9/11 and were able to walk from our hotel to see Les Misérables with no problem. The last time I had been in New York City, in the mid-1970s, Times Square was a combat zone. Rudy made a huge difference to that city. Now, however, the city is beginning to slide back.

Does it feel some days as if New York– wealthy, successful, seemingly at the top of the world — is slipping back into the bad old days of crime, noise, dirt, rudeness? Like pentimento rising from an old canvas, the traces of New York's previous misery are appearing on the streets and in the subways — graffiti, aggressive panhandling, open drug dealing, filthy public areas, ear–splitting noise, screeching sirens, a sense of disorder we thought was gone. It's not "Soylent Green" again, but the old Hollywood sense of lawless New York is rearing its ugly head.

Worse, something menacing seems to be happening with violent crime. The newspapers have been filled recently with stories about horribly vicious cases — the trial, for example, that ended last week in a 44–count guilty verdict against the man accused of the brutal rape and torture of a Columbia University student living in Hamilton Heights, a seemingly safe neighborhood.

The new mayor, Michael Bloomberg is very, very concerned with trans fats and the harvesting of organs. Crime? Not so much, it would seem. Quality of life for the taxpaying citizens? Very little. I'd urge you to read the entire article I linked, because the slide is definitely there and it appears to be accelerating rapidly. The author of the article tries mightily to praise Bloomberg but it is obvious that there is something very, very wrong happening in the Big Apple.

Counting Costs

The damage that has been done by flooding in the Midwest is only beginning to be assessed. But damages will certainly run into the billions.

WINFIELD, Mo. - Farmhouses appear to float on lakes, and farmers use boats to get to their barns. Businesses are shuttered as flooded roadways cut off customers. Rail lines, factories, river locks are shut down. Homeowners, who watched and waited and prayed, have seen dreams drowned.

After weeks of flooding through Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Wisconsin, billions of dollars in damage are adding up from dozens of flooded towns, shaky bridges, overwhelmed utilities, and thousands of evacuees.

But the misery index from the Great Flood of 2008 has only started to sink in.

The real damage will be done in future months as food prices soar. Where I live there are still cornfields completely underwater - there will be no crops from those fields. Many others that did not flood outright look wrong. The leaves on the corn is yellow, not the deep green it should be and the plants are only inches high - far too small for this time of year. Yields from those fields will be greatly reduced.

More Vital Governmental Interests

Hot on the heels of the "Great Salt Debate" and the "Kiwi Conundrum" comes the "Swedish Snub"!

An eight-year-old boy has sparked an unlikely outcry in Sweden after failing to invite two of his classmates to his birthday party.

The boy's school says he has violated the children's rights and has complained to the Swedish Parliament.

The school, in Lund, southern Sweden, argues that if invitations are handed out on school premises then it must ensure there is no discrimination.

The boy's father has lodged a complaint with the parliamentary ombudsman.

He says the two children were left out because one did not invite his son to his own party and he had fallen out with the other one.

Meanwhile in Belgium, there are rumors that a man may have had a completely unauthorized bowel movement.

Interpol has been notified.

You, There! Step Away From The Kiwis!

Well, it must be the night for British insanity. Close on the heels of the last post, comes this gem from Britain. Government inspectors in Britain have turned away a shipment of kiwi fruit - for being about one millimeter (or four grams) too small to meet European Union standards. The wholesaler who has the undersized fruits is not allowed by law to even donate the fruit - all he can do is send it to a landfill.

Tim Down, a market trader for 25 years, said he was not permitted even to give away the 5,000 Chilean fruits, each of which is about the size of a small hen's egg and weighs about 60g.

Mr Down said his family run firm would lose several hundred pounds in sales because of the ban.

"It is bureaucratic nonsense, they are perfectly fit to eat," Mr Down said at his stall at the Wholesale Fruit Centre in Bristol.

Inspectors from the Rural Payments Agency, an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), made a random check on his stall, and found a number of his kiwis weighed 58g, four grams below the required minimum of 62g.

Mr Down said that 4g in weight was the equivalent of about one millimeter in diameter.

The inspectors also reject curved cucumbers, skinny carrots and straight bananas. Lord knows what a threat to "civilized" society all those are. I imagine the British people must feel safer all the time with the state in control.

Not.

Well, Hello, Nanny

Local councils in Britain have decreed that individuals need to be told how much salt they are allowed apply to their fish and chips. Accordingly, they have taken it upon themselves - at taxpayer expense - to give fish and chip sellers new, government approved, saltshakers.

Pot-holed roads, crumbling schools, litter-strewn streets – there’s no shortage of problem areas crying out for their attention.

But councils believe they have found a better use for their money: reducing the number of holes in chip shop salt shakers.

Research has suggested that slashing the holes from the traditional 17 to five could cut the amount people sprinkle on their food by more than half.

And so at least six councils have ordered five-hole shakers – at taxpayers’ expense – and begun giving them away to chip shops and takeaways in their areas.

Leading the way has been Gateshead Council, which spent 15 days researching the subject of salty takeaways before declaring the new five-hole cellars the solution.

Officers collected information from businesses, obtained samples of fish and chips, measured salt content and ‘carried out experiments to determine how the problem of excessive salt being dispensed could be overcome by design’.

Government is supposed to take care of certain things that are difficult for individuals to organize. Things like military defense, certain infrastructure like roads and bridges or some public health initiatives.

They are not supposed to decree how much salt you are permitted.

Yet the mindset of the local politicians is perfectly described in the last quote in the article:

A spokesman said: ‘Heart disease costs taxpayers £7billion a year so to say that projects such as this are a waste of money is mind-boggling.’

That attitude showcases - perfectly - the ownership that local councils feel they have over the activities of the peasants - er - citizens.

A recent commenter implied we here in America should be more like the "civilized" Europeans. I would only point out that my ancestors came to this country specifically to get away from those "civilized" European ideas, laws and customs. Personally, I'd rather not be "civilized" over my right as an individual to decide what is best for me. That is my right, not the government's.

Jobs. Good Ones.

Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, has been mentioned here at Blue Crab Boulevard several times in the past. Moore is now an eloquent spokesman in favor of nuclear power. He is now the co-chair of an advocacy group called the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, or CASEnergy. They have just released a report detailing the economic impact a "nuclear renaissance" would have. Basically, lots and lots of extremely good jobs would be created.

Currently, 17 companies and consortia are considering around 30 new reactors in the United States. This new era of nuclear energy will translate into tens of thousands of jobs created to construct,maintain and support new reactors.

Both plant construction and operation will create thousands of jobs in communities surrounding the plants. Depending on the building technique selected, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) anticipates new reactors planned will require tens of thousands of workers for construction,engineering and project management —as many as 4,000 per project at peak periods.

These are high-paying jobs, many of them are union jobs. And the plants produce enormous economic benefit for their localities. Existing plants currently inject large amounts of money into the local economy:

Already, each reactor generates an estimated $430 million a year in total output for the local community, and nearly $40 million per year in total labor income.

That money creates a cascade throughout the region the plants are situated in. The full white paper can be downloaded here.

The thing is, this will produce more than just nuclear jobs. Huge amounts of construction material will be required. Pumps and valves, piping and cable, concrete and steel. All will provide opportunities for manufacturers to expand their facilities and workforces. Abundant energy will, in turn, allow other sectors of the economy to flourish. It is worth reading this paper if you're worried about the economy and jobs.

One Vote

Glenn Reynolds, writing in The New York Post, discusses the very narrow decision by the US Supreme Court affirming an individual right to keep and bear arms. The "victory" for gun rights was made with a single vote.

I confess that I was one of the Second Amendment scholars who doubted that there were five votes on the high court to support an individual-right view of the Second Amendment.

I'm happy to be wrong about that, but there were only five such votes - demonstrating how narrow the margin was, and how out of touch the court is with the American public, which believes the Second Amendment protects an individual right to arms by a 3-1 margin.

If, as some have been calling for, we had a "Supreme Court that looks like America," this case wouldn't even have been close. Ordinary Americans have generally believed that the "right of the people to keep and bear arms" applied to, you know, the people.

It takes politicians, law professors (and, it turns out, four Supreme Court justices) to believe that a "right of the people" somehow actually doesn't belong to the people at all.

One lonely vote affirmed the Second Amendment rights, folks. One vote. Still think this election is not about the courts? The next President could appoint at least four justices. Think really hard about that. And think about how close we came to losing our rights.

Think hard before you decide who you will vote for. Or before you decide sit this election out.

One vote. Think.

Volcano Madness

Scientists were surprised to find that their theories of how undersea volcanoes behave were wrong. It seems that even when the volcanoes are miles deep, they can erupt explosively and spew rock, lava and megatons of hot gases.

Even under the Arctic ice cap.

New evidence deep beneath the Arctic ice suggests that a series of underwater volcanoes have erupted in violent explosions in the past decade.

Hidden 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) beneath the Arctic surface, the volcanoes can range up to more than a mile (2 kilometers) in diameter and a few hundred yards (meters) tall. They formed along the Gakkel Ridge, a lengthy crack in the ocean crust where two rocky plates are spreading apart, pulling new melted rock to the surface.

Until now, scientists thought undersea volcanoes only dribbled lava from cracks in the seafloor. The extreme pressure from the overlying water makes it difficult for gas and magma to blast outward…..

….Robert Reeves-Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and his colleagues discovered jagged, glassy fragments of rock scattered around the volcanoes, suggesting that explosive eruptions occurred between 1999 and 2001.

There is the now standard disclaimer that any of this could possibly have anything to do with the melting of Arctic ice. While much is made by the true believers and the media (yes, that was redundant, wasn't it?) about the melting of Arctic ice, very little is written about the rapidly growing Antarctic ice. And it is growing very rapidly, indeed. See for yourself: North Pole, South Pole. Here's the Southern anomaly. That is not a declining trend, folks.

Misery In Missouri

The town of Winfield, Missouri has been evacuated after a levee holding back the Mississippi River failed. Despite a huge effort by residents, in the end, the river won the battle and roared through a 20 foot wide breech.

Floodwaters surging down the Mississippi River broke through an earthen levee near the eastern Missouri town of Winfield yesterday, overwhelming a massive sandbagging effort and forcing die-hard residents to evacuate their homes.

The Pin Oak agricultural levee gave way shortly before 5:30 a.m. Central time, the latest of dozens of such structures to be breached or overtopped by floodwaters that have poured into the Mississippi after heavy rains in May and June. Officials said muskrat burrows weakened the levee, contributing to the breach.

The National Weather Service subsequently issued a flash-flood warning for eastern Lincoln County, Mo., saying that “water is expected to ultimately inundate the eastern portion of the town of Winfield.” The flooding threatened to swamp about 100 homes and 3,000 acres of farmland.

It may not be over yet for people downriver, either. More water - and other stuff - is heading their way. The Midwest was pounded again by massive storms, including one that wreaked havoc on Omaha, Nebraska. The storm disrupted Olympic swim trials and dropped baseball-sized hail in the city.  

OMAHA — Severe storms with strong winds swept through the Plains on Friday, forcing swimmers practicing for U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha to flee pools and run for cover, killing two people in Iowa, and knocking out power to thousands.

Officials at the Qwest Center near downtown Omaha closed the building to examine it after superstar swimmer Michael Phelps and hundreds of other athletes were herded into hallways because of a tornado warning.

Water poured into the building, down arena steps and onto the deck of the competition pool during the storm. The storm’s winds may have reached 100 mph in some areas, said meteorologist Bryon Miller……

….The Missouri River Wastewater Treatment Plant, which serves the Omaha area, lost power, said Bryan Cook, duty officer for Nebraska Emergency Management.

Untreated wastewater was being discharged into the Missouri River, said Joe Gudenrath, spokesman for Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey. City officials told people to avoid wading or swimming in the water in the stretch of the river that passes by Omaha, and several miles downstream.

Very ugly storms lashed many areas of the Midwest yesterday. At times most of Illinois and a large part of Wisconsin were pretty much all red on the radar.

Protection For Monsters

Despite the ruling by the Supreme Court yesterday banning the death penalty for child rapists, state politicians are vowing to fight on. It is unlikely they will succeed.

"Anybody in the country who cares about children should be outraged that we have a Supreme Court that would issue a decision like this," said Alabama Attorney General Troy King, a Republican. The justices, he said, are "creating a situation where the country is a less safe place to grow up."

The court's 5-4 decision Wednesday derailed the efforts of nearly a dozen states supporting the right to kill those convicted of raping a child — and said execution was confined to attacks that take a life and to other crimes including treason and espionage.

At issue before the high court was a Louisiana case involving Patrick Kennedy, sentenced to die for raping his 8-year-old daughter in her bed, an assault so severe she required surgery.

Michelle Malkin has the description of the damage done to the victim during the rape in question. It is not for the weak of stomach. The Supreme Court has effectively given protection to monsters.

Consider what the makeup of the Supreme Court will be like if a leftist appoints the justices. Remember this in November, folks.

A Place On A Map

I found this by accident when something from Curt at Flopping Aces popped on Memeorandum. Apparently, the Crabitat is ranked in the top 297 political blogs by this site. (As is Flopping Aces and a bunch of other well known sites. Curt got it from Hot Air who got it from Protein Wisdom.)

There are a lot of sites I respect on the map. Blue Crab Boulevard may or may not belong with the rest of them. But thanks for the place on the map.

Super (Down) Size Me

In 2004, the film Super Size Me hit theaters. Much was made of the filmmaker's weight gain from eating McDonald's food exclusively for 30 days. He gained some 24.5 pounds. Expect to hear considerably less about the Virginia man who lost 80 pounds - eating almost exclusively at McDonald's.

QUINTON, Va. - A Virginia man lost about 80 pounds in six months by eating nearly every meal at McDonald's. Not Big Macs, french fries and chocolate shakes. Mostly salads, wraps and apple dippers without the caramel sauce.

Chris Coleson tipped the scales at 278 pounds in December. The 5-foot-8 Coleson now weighs 199 pounds and his waist size has dropped from 50 to 36.

In other words, your personal choices make a big difference. What a surprise. On the same note, Steve Chapman notes the latest push by the Nannies of New York - aka the NYC Health Department - to regulate the posting of nutritional information.

The 21st century has many problems, but a shortage of information is not one of them. Trying to avoid being endlessly barraged with facts is like trying to stay dry in a hurricane. But no matter. One government body after another has the idea that some people need more information, and it will be supplied or else.

The targets of this campaign are restaurants. New York City has a new law commanding chain outlets to post the calorie count of every item on menus and menu boards. The legislatures in New York and California are considering state laws to require even more extensive disclosures.

The reason, as the New York City Health Department explains, is that "New Yorkers get a third or more of their calories away from home. The lack of readily available calorie information in food service establishments makes it easy to consume too many calories without realizing it."

Imposing this mandate is supposed to help combat obesity. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health asserts that if just 10 percent of restaurant patrons cut their intake by a mere 100 calories per meal, we would see a 39 percent decline in weight gain.

As Chapman notes, food labeling began in earnest in the 1970s. Americans have steadily gained weight ever since. So the assumption that more information will lead to better choices is founded on flawed logic. It hasn't worked yet, why would it start doing so now?

You are responsible for what eating decisions you make, not the government. That is as it should be.

Gators Gone Wild

The reptile legions are on the march. Four new species of alligator have been discovered in the past few days. There's the Chicago River alligator:

A father-son alligator wrangler team dragged a 5-foot, 45-pound live alligator from the Chicago River's most notorious stretch, Bubbly Creek, on Friday.

The 'gator, christened "White Sox'' by Ald. James Balcer (11th), had a better day than Balcer's team.

"He's in a box, so he's happy now," said Dan, the younger of the wranglers who was working on behalf of the Chicago Herpetological Society. He and his father, Bob, asked that their last names not be used.

Then there's the New York pool gator:

LAGRANGE, N.Y. - A Dutchess County family getting their pool ready for summer found a 4-foot alligator lounging atop the cover.

State Trooper Jason Kelley arrived at the house at 2960 State Route 82 on Thursday and called in Sgt. Gerry Salmon, who state police said is a herpetologist.

Salmon captured the reptile and it was taken into custody by the state Department of Environmental Conservation officers R. Hodor and D. Read.

The question is, how high is the gator's bail? Next, there's the Tennessee drain pipe alligator:

Putnam County Officer Chris Brown said when children in the neighborhood first heard a growling noise coming from the drain, they thought it was a dog. But when officials arrived on the scene, they discovered an alligator at least 2 feet long.

Alligators disguised as drain pipes. This is not good, people. And finally, there is the Augusta golf gator:

AUGUSTA, Ga.—It's something you'd expect to see in Florida…but this afternoon, an alligator drew quite a crowd to the Canal section of Walton Way. It was somewhere from six to eight feet long.

You have to line up early to get tickets to the Master's.

The Next Misery

As floodwaters recede in many areas of the Midwest, the next wave of misery arrives: mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes annoy inside and out. Celebrating National Mosquito Control Awareness Week can be as simple as changing the water in your birdbath. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water, even something as unlikely as a toy dump truck filled with rain from a week ago.

Anything that holds rain water should be turned over or thrown out, such as old tires, unused buckets and trash cans.

Pot saucers on the deck are another potential breeding site; it doesn't take much water for mosquitoes to breed. And don't neglect the gutters; clogged downspouts create wonderful reservoirs for mosquitoes.

If you are among a growing number of homeowners with rain barrels, standing water provides another welcoming breeding ground. Use a natural biological control called Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis; it comes in products such as Mosquito Dunks that kill mosquito larvae before adults hatch.

I can confirm that the mosquitoes are horrendous in my area. It has to be even worse in those areas that really flooded out this year. Here are a few pointers for homeowners on how to deal with mosquitoes. It's a really good idea to do whatever you can to help control the little pests. West Nile virus is in many areas of the country and is nothing to sneer at.