The rich are cooler than you or me

Fox network bloviator Bill O'Reilly announced today that we Americans should save energy by raising our summer thermostats to 71 °F.

I certainly can't afford that setting. Mine's hurting the wallet as it is set at 80°F.

The rich indeed are different than you or me. They're more comfortable this summer.

Much green needed to go green

By 2050, the world population will top nine billion. Where's the food, water, and energy going to come from?

Samuel Bodman [U.S. energy secretary] attending two days of meetings in northern Japan among energy chiefs from Group of Eight industrialized countries and other top economies, said the surge in world oil prices was largely a simple problem of supply and demand.

Production has stalled since 2005 at 85 million barrels a day, while economic growth — particularly in China and India — has pushed demand ever higher, Bodman said before a meeting of ministers from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, India and China.

"We're in a difficult position where we have a lid on production and we have increasing demand in the world," he told a small group of reporters, dismissing the effects of speculation and unclear inventory levels and other factors on oil prices.

By JOSEPH COLEMAN, Associated Press Writer Sat Jun 7

In other words, oil, as energy, is only getting to become scarcer and/or more expensive. and that's the oil-friendly Bush administration saying this.

Also this week, the International Energy Agency

put a figure on the amount it will cost to go green, and it’s a lot: $45 trillion. Even when you spread that amount over the next 42 years, it’s still more than $1 trillion annually, or more than the GDP of many industrialized nations.

Nobuo Tanaka, the agency’s executive director, gave the figure as part of a report calling for “a global energy revolution.” He called for “immediate policy action and technological transition on an unprecedented scale.” The world needed to “completely transform the way we produce and use energy.”

Some reasons why I supported Hillary Clinton

... and why I now support Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States of America

Senator Hillary Clinton's Concession Speech
7 June 2008

I ran as a daughter who benefited from opportunities my mother never dreamed of. I ran as a mother who worries about my daughter's future and a mother who wants to lead all children to brighter tomorrows. To build that future I see, we must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and mothers, and that women enjoy equal opportunities, equal pay, and equal respect. Let us resolve and work toward achieving some very simple propositions: There are no acceptable limits and there are no acceptable prejudices in the twenty-first century.

You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the President of the United States. And that is truly remarkable. <...>

Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it. And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time. That has always been the history of progress in America.

Think of the suffragists who gathered at Seneca Falls in 1848 and those who kept fighting until women could cast their votes. Think of the abolitionists who struggled and died to see the end of slavery. Think of the civil rights heroes and foot-soldiers who marched, protested and risked their lives to bring about the end to segregation and Jim Crow.

Because of them, I grew up taking for granted that women could vote. Because of them, my daughter grew up taking for granted that children of all colors could go to school together. Because of them, Barack Obama and I could wage a hard fought campaign for the Democratic nomination. Because of them, and because of you, children today will grow up taking for granted that an African American or a woman can yes, become President of the United States.

When that day arrives and a woman takes the oath of office as our President, we will all stand taller, proud of the values of our nation, proud that every little girl can dream and that her dreams can come true in America. And all of you will know that because of your passion and hard work you helped pave the way for that day.

So I want to say to my supporters, when you hear people saying - or think to yourself - "if only" or "what if," I say, "please don't go there." Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward.

Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been. We have to work together for what still can be. And that is why I will work my heart out to make sure that Senator Obama is our next President and I hope and pray that all of you will join me in that effort. <...>

our lives, our freedom, our happiness, are best enjoyed, best protected, and best advanced when we do work together.

That is what we will do now as we join forces with Senator Obama and his campaign. We will make history together as we write the next chapter in America's story. We will stand united for the values we hold dear, for the vision of progress we share, and for the country we love. There is nothing more American than that. <...>

I will do it with a heart filled with gratitude, with a deep and abiding love for our country- and with nothing but optimism and confidence for the days ahead. This is now our time to do all that we can to make sure that in this election we add another Democratic president to that very small list of the last 40 years and that we take back our country and once again move with progress and commitment to the future.

Thank you all and God bless you and God bless America.

Proud to be an American

This morning, I'm proud and thrilled to be American.

A divided party? Ha!

A long powerful debate strengthens democracy.

Hillary? Despite some gaffes, and her husband's diminution of his legacy, she proved herself to be one tough broad. And someone whose best days - and best days for America - are still in front of her. I have more admiration for her now than when she announced her candidacy.

But so, with 2,156 delegates to Hillary Clinton's 1,933, it is Barack Obama who will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

I am abashed today that it has been taken more than 200 years for a presidential candidate to not be judged by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. So I look forward to the possibility that on 20 January 2009, Barack Obama, an African-American, will be sworn in as President of the United States.

What do I think is at stake?

• the threat of religious extremism to our national security
• the threat to our lives, economy, and planet from global warming
• our increasingly dangerous dependence on foreign energy sources
  
• the threat to the viability of the middle class in the United States, due in part to the transfer of wealth to the top tier
• the decreasing economic vitality of the United States internationally
• the civil war in Iraq that we hastened- if not caused - and the concomitant enervation of our military
  
• the threats against our basic freedoms from international business and our own government
  
• good health care, not only for the wealthy.
• good education, not only for the wealthy.
  

"There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America."

HRC to suspend campaign Tuesday evening, 3 June

AP: Clinton to concede tonight

BY BETH FOUHY | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton will concede Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation’s first female president.

The former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City. She will pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care. But for all intents and purposes, the two senior officials said, the campaign is over.

Most campaign staff will be let go and will be paid through June 15, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge her plans.

However ...

Clinton campaign says she's not conceding

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is "absolutely not" planning to concede the campaign to Barack Obama on Tuesday night, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe told CNN on Tuesday.

"No one has the number to be the nominee of the Democratic party right now," he said.

McAuliffe, asked about an AP report that Clinton will acknowledge Tuesday night after the South Dakota and Montana primaries that Obama has the delegates to clinch the nomination for the November presidential election, replied: "They are 100 percent incorrect."

I think that this may be a question of what "is" is. Suspending a campaign is a different thing than conceding a loss. I believe that Clinton will suspend active campaigning, but keep her slate of delegates intact through the convention.

Hors de combat ... Or not!

Betrayal of trust

Like rats scurrying from a sinking (sunken?) ship, President Bush's erstwhile comrades desert him. I'm no fan of the President and the havoc he's brought upon this nation (and the world). But the betrayal of Bush by his past Press Secretary Scott McClellan (and others before him) almost makes me feel sorry for Bush ... almost.

McClennan has written a book in which he tells of the dissembling, ineptitude, and political crassness of the White House before and during the Iraq civil war (and dealing with Hurricane Katrina).

If McClellan had had such strong concerns while at the White House, he should have done his patriotic duty at that time and resigned. "It's time to spend more time with my family", etc., etc.

I experience no schadenfreude, merely pity.

Politico.com: McClellan whacks Bush, White House

Phoenix rises

Another reason to celebrate on this Memorial Day:

This image shows a polygonal pattern in the ground near NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, similar in appearance to icy ground in the arctic regions of Earth.

Phoenix touched down on the Red Planet at 4:53 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53 p.m. Eastern Time), May 25, 2008, in an arctic region called Vastitas Borealis, at 68 degrees north latitude, 234 degrees east longitude.

This is an approximate-color image taken shortly after landing by the spacecraft's Surface Stereo Imager, inferred from two color filters, a violet, 450-nanometer filter and an infrared, 750-nanometer filter.

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

That's a picture on the surface of Mars and transmitted 147 million miles back to Earth. The Phoenix craft slowed in 7 minutes from 12,500+ miles per hour to 5 mph, its heat shield heated in excess of 2500 °F, plopped a parachute, fired small retro rockets, and landed with a mere bump.

It's enough to give one širpuliai (say it, Anglicized: shirples), Lithuanian for goosebumps. Proud to be an American, proud to be a citizen of planet Earth!

Commemorate Memorial Day.

Twitter's utility

Twitter is a messaging service, limited to 160 140 characters, accessed on mobile phones and the web, and whose raison d'etre is "What are you doing?" I began as an unbeliever, and if not now a believer, I have become a regular user.

Dan Farber of CNet has a good take on its relative usefulness.

I first learned of the recent tragic earthquake in China via Twitter messages from people I follow on the service. To be clear, Twitter is not the Holy Grail of communications services--it's an extension of instant messaging and technologies such as RSS. Nor are the 140 characters in a Twitter message a substitute for a blog post or news article. But a "tweet" can be a network amplifier, providing a brief snapshot [emphasis mine], innervated by followers and the followed, that can be broadcast around the world in near real time.

Twitter and related services are currently noisy, spammy, unwieldy, overrated and often unreliable. But over time, the core concepts will become an integral part of the Internet's communications fabric.

Here's how I use Twitter.

• It's a useful business tool. I alert customers to brewery and beer-related events in which I'm participating. And quick beer business updates.
• Succinct beer reviews, particularly at beer tastings or festivals.
• I link the Tweets —as the updates are called— to my blog, website, and FaceBook account.
• Public access to tweets can be controlled. Mine are public, but I limit their personal content.

Here's an example of an established medium using the service to report news: Covering the news with Twitter

But Twitter does not seem ready now to be a replacement tool for the mobile phone, text messaging, or Instant Messaging. There have been all too frequent crashes of the system, incidents of which have seemed to have been increasing as the service's popularity has risen. For example, Twitter is at reduced functioning today.

More about Twitter at Twitter.

No April emails

When you submit a public comment here on the blog, it usually will be posted.

But in April, any private messages sent to me via the Feedback/Guestbook Form may have been lost.

There apparently had been problems with the feedback hosting page. I apologize if I failed to respond to any emails.

The problem has been, I hope, corrected. Try again!

Spam gotcha

Those wavy wierd letters that one is required to type into many website forms to verify that one is a human? They have a name: CAPTCHA, that is, Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart.

Unfortunately, the HALs of our word have recently cracked the code.

Microsoft and other Web companies say that they are interested in creating human verification tests that are harder for computers to crack. But there's an inherent difficulty.

Making the tests harder for the computer makes them harder for humans, too.

Unfortunately , because we'll be getting a lot more spam email until a newer, better spamtrap CAPTCHA can be developed.

The Turing reference in the acronym is to Alan Turing, a British mathematician, who defined a computer as thinking when it would be able to conduct a conversation as if a human, undetected as a computer.