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Are automobiles a major cause of global warming?
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I did check out the Cree LEDs at Home Depot. Best price for the CR6 was $40 each. I will wait to see if SDG&E does a promotion like they do on CFL bulbs.
Hopefully 2013 will show some economic improvement.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
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It would be interesting legally if mankind did develop the knowledge to have a basic control of the weather/climate. So maybe we could divert the path of a hurricane from hitting Miami, but it hits 50 miles up the coast. Can the people there sue? What if you rent a place at the beach for 2 weeks, and the government decides there hasn't been natural rain for a while, so they're going to make it rain for a while? Pretty crazy/scary stuff.
I always say - be careful what you wish for. I'm sure many might wish for some great energy source to be found - a cold fusion, and then we don't need gas/oil. But what sort of misuses would that lead to - it would make car-bombs look like a candle.
Global warming is not a terrible alternative.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/SOMNIA/2012/08/17/fcf89ed6-e7fb-11e1-936a- -b801f1abab19_story.html
This seems much safer than the Segway. Many places have outlawed the Segway.
http://rynomotors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Spec-Sheet-Production.pdf
1. Segways are overpriced and not worth the money if you are a working stiff, and
2. Anyplace which has "outlawed" them has not done the proper research.
They are safe and environmentally sound. They take up less space than a wheelchair. The are not any more dangerous than riding a bicycle without a helmet. They are so easy to learn that I gave 30-second lessons to 8-11 year old kids at my daughter's middle school and let hundreds of kids ride it over a 2-year period.
They get a bad rap, undeservedly so, in almost every situation.
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blbushsegway.htm
This is far more interesting to me than the Segway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXhhWXw9V7A
The Segway has indicator lights on the panel, which basically say it is "READY TO STEP ONTO."
In Bush's case, he stepped on it before it was in a ready state. Simple as that.
No properly trained rider would to that.
When I taught 100+ kids to ride it in 30 seconds each, they all stepped on it when it was READY, not before.
Myself, when I just had owned it a couple of days, made that mistake of stepping on it before it was in "balance-ready" mode and quickly realized it and stepped off without incident.
So the Segway (and Bush) both got a black eye that day, and for not even a real reason.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
1. It made me FAT. Well, it didn't REALLY, but I did get up to 203 pounds back when I was riding it to work. ( I'm now at 175. )
2. It had a problem with the internal mechanics, and would start shutting down after about 30-60 seconds of riding it. Warranty was out, and repair meant shipping it to Vermont and paying shipping and labor and parts. That's where the "they are too expensive for average working Joes" comment comes in - they are too expensive to fix unless you are rolling in the dough.
I had a great time with mine, though. My kids loved riding it, as did almost everyone I let try it. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but was cut short too early. I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything. (Well, maybe $1 million)
Different purposes.
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/202078/scitech/segway-ceo-dies-after-riding- -two-wheeled-scooter-off-cliff
That's about the worst publicity a product could get. It would be like Bill Gates being killed by some Windows controlled device in his automated home.
It'd be fun to put a 1,500 metallic lime-green 60's style dune-buggy together. Something reliable for an engine like a 4-cyl Honda from a Civic.
President Nixon formed a group called the President’s Advisory Council on Executive Organization to help him sidestep Congress and mold public policy. On April 29, 1970, the Council wrote a memo advising Nixon to establish: “an Environmental Protection Administration, a new independent agency of the Executive Branch. [and the] Executive Branch should be so structured that a high order of public interest is served in making policy, rather than a narrower advocacy position.”
Four decades later, the EPA has grown into the President’s pet behemoth—a darling dragon he can fly to over Congress and blow fire onto America’s energy producers and job creators.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson recently told University of Wisconsin-Madison students that she is proud to work for a President who will bypass Congress and create his own rules via executive order: ‘I’m proud to be part of an EPA that has mobilized science and the law to create modern and innovative protections for the health of the American people. I’m also proud to be working for a president who has said that “we can’t wait” on these issues.’
http://townhall.com/columnists/katiekieffer/2011/11/28/dump_the_epa
The figures, which have triggered debate among climate scientists, reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012, there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures.
This means that the ‘plateau’ or ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996. Before that, temperatures had been stable or declining for about 40 years.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2217286/Global-warming-stopped-16- -years-ago-reveals-Met-Office-report-quietly-released--chart-prove-it.html
Daniel Stone
National Geographic News
Published October 13, 2012
Despite frequent headlines about a warming planet, melting sea ice, and rising oceans, climate analysts pointed to a seeming bright spot this week: During Southern Hemisphere winters, sea ice in the Antarctic, the floating chunks of frozen ocean water, is actually increasing.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121013-antarctica-sea-ice-record- -high-science-global-warming
There's a tick story floating around (peanutallergy.com). Ticks are moving north and one side effect is that people are somehow developing allergic reactions to beef because of them. So if the trend continues (right now we're talking maybe 1,500 severe allergy cases), beef consumption will fall and fewer cows will be contributing to global warming.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20121030/DA284GAG3.html
They'll probably be up and running before our friend down in Port Huron gets her power back.
With global warming increasing the frequency and severity of these storms, all the agencies are getting plenty of practice in shutting down and restarting. :P
The postive is that in NY people can take cabs or walk to work, the store, et al. San Diegans would be stuck in the house trying to figure out how to walk the 6 miles to get bread and milk.
If I went to NY I sure would not waste time at a Broadway show. The Statue of Liberty. If I ever venture into a big city it would be DC to see the Smithsonian. I drive a 100 miles on back roads to avoid big cities.
Having a 4X4 SUV would make it easier to get around in flooded areas. San Diego does not have the same problems that parts of So CA have with flooding.
But people have short memories and as sea levels rise, it'll be rinse and repeat. And that $10 billion will start to look cheap.
Meanwhile guess what - lots and lots of problems but subways started rolling in much of New York City today. (staradvertiser.com)
Forget boring Hawaii and head to NYC for some fun stuff to visit. :P
No comparison to the appeal Hilo Hawaii has for me. Until we demolish the ignorant Patriot Act with their arrogant TSA losers, I will have to just stick to the "roads less traveled".
Wow, I didn't realize that anyone was still clinging to that tired old debunked g/w theory.
Nat'l Weather Service stats dispute your claims that the frequency and severity of hurricanes is increasing. Their stats show just the opposite.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
"Professors and scientists say although there are some contributing factors, they do not believe Hurricane Sandy is directly caused by global warming."
But ...
"Some individual parts of Sandy and its wrath seem to be influenced by climate change, several climate scientists said." (Sea level rise, the Atlantic is warmer, longer hurricane season).
http://t.news.msn.com/us/scientists-look-at-climate-change-the-superstorm?ocid=a- - - - - nsnews11 (MSN)
In a Bloomberg opinion piece we find this:
“Would this kind of storm happen without climate change? Yes. Fueled by many factors. Is storm stronger because of climate change? Yes.”
Back to my point about getting lots of practice, the piece quotes a reinsurance exec:
“all alerts and measures against it [climate change] have become even more pressing.”
It's always fun to remind people about the results of the Koch brothers funded study too.
And..............if we creatures are the cause of so-called Global Warming, what/who was the cause of previous cooling and heating cycles over many millions of years ?
GW has far too many vested-interest supporters for my liking and their half-truths are shameful. :mad:
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
I kept waiting for him to say that, also, in his opinion, the moon is made of green cheese.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
The science will out in the end. Going to be a lot of infighting and politicking until then. Just like back in the 1670s.
Meanwhile every new "100" (500?) year storm will bring out a new round of links.
I believe that melting of the glaciers is one example, well before automobiles and Al Gore.
Yup, melting glaciers is a great example but then we have to address global cooling cycles that formed those same glaciers.
The Bloomberg rubbish was an "Opinion Piece". Opinions are like - you know what - everyone has one. Why Bloomberg's or L de Caprio of any other talking head should carry credibility is the eternal question.
As a friend in Texas always says............"If it doesn't make sense; follow the money". All these GW/Green taxes mean we're paying 'em and someone else is getting the financial benefit.
No no no, must not go into rant mode.
A tax starting at $20 a metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent and rising at about 6 percent a year could raise $154 billion by 2021, Nick Robins, an analyst at the bank in London, said today in an e-mailed research note, citing Congressional Research Service estimates. “Applied to the Congressional Budget Office’s 2012 baseline, this would halve the fiscal deficit by 2022,” Robins said.
Hurricane Sandy sparked discussion on climate protection in the election after presidential candidates focused on other debates, HSBC said. A continued Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives means Obama’s scope for action will be limited, Robins said. Cap-and-trade legislation stalled in the U.S. Senate after narrowly passing the house in 2009.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-07/obama-may-levy-carbon-tax-to-cut-the-u-- s-deficit-hsbc-says.html
Warmer still: Extreme climate predictions appear most accurate, report says (Washington Post)
Iowa Scientists: Drought a Sign of Climate Change (NY Times)
Guess it's an advantage living next to "da Lake".
"Antarctica overall has been losing relatively small amounts of ice at a more or less constant rate.
One tricky question is whether the overall accelerated melting of the ice sheets can be linked to man-made climate change. Scientists say they cannot make such an attribution directly.
However, they note that current climate-change models predict that some parts of the Antarctic ice sheet will grow while other parts will shrink, and that parts of the Greenland ice will also melt. Observations have borne out these projections so far.
The shrinkage of the permanent ice sheets cannot entirely be explained by any of the decadeslong or centurylong natural shifts in climate cycles, according to Prof. Shepherd."
Polar Ice Sheets Melt at Faster Pace (WSJ)
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
For a lot of very good reasons, California’s environmental regulators have earned a reputation for being, well, crappy to the rest of us. Three ongoing California regulatory battles over poop reinforce their already well-deserved reputation.
Sewage treatment plants are located at the low point of local geography — the coast in California — because it’s much cheaper to let the sewage flow by gravity to the plant than it is to pump it uphill to an inland plant. In Morro Bay, the commission’s staff, on its own, found a site about one mile from the coast, then decreed that site to be the superior location for wastewater treatment. It is recommending the commission force the city to build the plant there.
If the eco-bureaucrats prevail, they will turn the three-year project into a 10-year one and raise its cost from $60 million to $90 million. They will also saddle Morro Bay’s 10,000 residents with higher bills, since it takes a lot of money — and burns a lot of carbon fuel — to pump sewage uphill. This fact seems to be lost on the commission’s staff, which claims it wants to move infrastructure off the coast not for aesthetic reasons, but because of sea level rise caused by global warming — which in turn is caused, we’re told, by burning a lot of carbon fuel.
http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/11/30/crazifornia-three-crappy-regulatory-battle- s/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460