One Way to Launch a Boat

I've seen worse. Hell, I've done worse.

Baltimore Vows to Fix Sewage Leak, Next Month

Thousands of gallons of sewage leaking into Chinquapin Run; repairs to start next month

Public works officials are urging people to avoid contact with the Chinquapin Run in Northeast Baltimore after discovering hundreds of gallons of sewage have been leaking into it every day for at least three weeks.

A 21-inch sewer main near the stream's intersection with Loch Raven Boulevard is releasing about 15 gallons of sewage into the stream each hour, city officials said Friday. The leak is upstream from where the Chinquapin meets Herring Run on the campus of Morgan State University; from there, the Herring Run flows to the Back River.

Public works crews discovered the leak about three weeks ago.

In about three weeks, they will begin $115,000 in repairs to about 600 feet of the sewer main, officials said. It will take a month to clean and line the weathered main. By the time work begins, at least 15,000 gallons of sewage is estimated to have leaked into the stream.

Maybe they should have thought of that before they start leaking?

Signs have been posted warning people not to come in contact with the water, officials said.

Over the past 13 years, Baltimore has spent $700 million to repair and replace aged sewer pipes under an agreement with the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Maryland Department of the Environment. But the city missed a deadline to complete work required to stop the leaks by the end of last year, and is negotiating with EPA and MDE on a new deadline perhaps a decade into the future.

I'd much rather swim in the Dominion ash ponds than in the Baltimore sewage.

Down By the River

Student Activists Mourn "Death" of James River

Dominion Energy will begin dumping coal ash wastewater into state waters on April 27th after receiving permits from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).  A long string of actions and legal charges against Dominion and the DEQ that have tightened their standards but not enough according to a group of student activists known as The Trillium Collective. This past summer, Dominion illegally dumped 33.7 million gallons of untreated wastewater from toxic coal ash ponds into Quantico Creek and now, these students are concerned about the accountability of both the DEQ and Dominion.

Saturday, April 23rd, The Trillium Collective held a symbolic funeral procession for the contamination of the waterway. The funeral procession started at the General Assembly, passed by Dominion's downtown office, and ended at the James river. Attendees were dressed in all black with a coffin for the James River leading the procession. Other attendees followed with art such as skull masks from the All Saints Theater Company, balls of arsenic and cadmium chained to their feet, or dead fish that read "Death by Dominion." The musicians Dharma Bombs sang hymns like "I'll Fly Away" and "The Saints Come Marching In" while others hummed or wailed in mourning. At the river, mourners shared memories and love for the the passing of the James River that ranged from stories of overcoming depression and fishing to worries for the future for our wildlife and our grandchildren.

What dreck! Other than the music, it sounds kind of like a downer. And where did they get "balls of arsenic and cadmium" to chain to their feet. That stuff is expensive!

I don't think a demonstration is serious if they won't do it nude.

Trillium is  a collective of Virginia Student Environmental Coalition artists and activists, who create and organize for climate justice by combining art and direct action.

"Now that our state water is being legally contaminated we have no choice but to mobilize and inform others. The James River is no longer viable so we have to continue pressuring Dominion and our regulating bodies to improve this situation." -Aaron Tabb, VCU '17

"We wanted to have a funeral to show the gravity of the situation. The river is being killed by Dominion, and the DEQ is letting them get away with it. We chose to do it during Earth Day festivities because the holiday has become superficial, focusing on recycling and conservation without addressing the serious issues that are going to immediately damage our environment. By personifying the river as a passed loved one, we wanted to make people realize that this part of Richmond that we all love is in imminent danger." - Julian McBain, VCU '18

M own belief, formed from years of experience with the ecotoxicology and biogeochemistry of heavy metals, particularly arsenic and cadmium, is that the environment is better served by getting rid of the relatively concentrated material in the waste ponds, which are attractive nuisances to a variety of wildlife, including birds and amphibians.

Playing Catch Up at Clinton.com

We just got back, and stuff packed away, and it's time to deal with three days of accumulate material:

Judge Napolitano says FBI has “overwhelming” evidence to indict and convict Clinton - Sure, and it's also true the administration will run interference as long as possible; which may be forever.

According to Salon, Hillary’s primary success is a sham: Bernie Sanders will remain the true Democratic front-runner until the FBI finishes its Investigation - It's not over until the FBI clears Hillary Clinton— which it absolutely shouldn't. But see above.

Chelsea opened a can of worms with a Kinsleyan Gaffe by admitting that "Now that Scalia’s Gone We Can Enact Gun Control." In an attempt to save her vote in Pennsylvania, Hillary tweeted "I know how important gun ownership & particularly hunting is here in Northeastern Pennsylvania." To which the Instapundit quipped "I know which Clinton I believe".  The less experienced liar? Powerline was blunter. "Hillary Wants Your Guns." Yes, she does, while she stands behind a wall of well armed private security and Secret Service Agents.

McAuliffe restores voting rights for 206K ex-felons; GOP calls it move to boost Clinton. I believe that the rights of felons should be restored, but after a slightly more selective process than a blanket amnesty, given the high rate of recidivism. However, Hillary tweeted "Proud of my friend @GovernorVA for continuing to break down barriers to voting." She could be one soon enough.

Judicial Watch was rejected for consideration of a Pulitzer for it's reporting on Hillary Clinton's Benghazi woes and email scandals on the ground that It ‘Does Not Qualify As A News Site’, despite the fact that similar activist organizations on the left are routinely awarded Pulitzers. Go figure.

Hillary Clinton Has No Regrets About Libya Breaking news, she also has no sense of shame.

Women continue to give Hillary the cold shoulder: Gallup: No interest in Clinton even among Democratic women.

Women have never paid as much attention to the current race as men, but Gallup found that the attention gap has expanded in recent months.

Once just two points apart, in February, the gap is now 13 points and is seen in both Democratic and Republican ranks as men continue to be engaged in the election dominated by news coverage of Republican Donald Trump.

What if they held an election and the women didn't show up to vote? Well, That blows Hillary's Whole Campaign Rationale: Jodie Foster tired of ‘the woman thing’: There’s no ‘big plot to keep women down.’

Get Off My Lawn! Bubba does it again, blaming kids for the nation's economic woes. Sometimes I think he doesn't want her to win.

Hillary has ‘described a vision’ of a running mate With unicorns in short supply, she has indicated:

Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, former governors from the key state of Virginia; Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who represents both a more liberal wing of the party and a swing state; former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, a prominent African-American Democrat; and Thomas E. Perez, President Obama’s labor secretary and a Hispanic civil rights lawyer.

Or even more fantastical, Liz "Fauxcahontas" Warren.

Does he know something about the FBI investigation that we don't? Biden hits back at Clinton's criticism of Sanders

Confused Hillary Clinton Rejects Charles Koch 'Endorsement' But I'm pretty sure she'd take money from Satan.

So How Come He's Not Helping?

Wombat-socho has the giant "Rule 5 Sunday: Blue Shirt Double-Dip Edition"  ready at The Other McCain.

Pennsylvania Trolley Museum and More

Georgia and I had breakfast at our favorite Canonsburg diner before we got a hold of Alex and Kelly

 Shellys was full of customers, but we did get a booth right away. I had my usual, the Italian Breakfast, eggs, Italian sausage, home fries and Italian Toast, and lots of coffee. While there Georgia arranged to meet them at the Trolley Nuseum, something none of us had ever seen, even though Kelly was raised in Canonsburg, and one we thought would be easy with a baby in a stroller.

When we arrived at the museum, it was mobbed with families of 2-5 year olds because of a visit from Daniel the Tiger. apparently Daniel is even more popular than Kim Kardashian with th 2-5 year old demographic. We didn't pay for the special audience with Daniel himself, and opted instead for the trolley ride out to the museum itself.

 Graham was unconcerned

Eventually one of the two working trolleys rolled around, and we got on for the mile or so ride around the industrial backyard of Washington, PA,

 And stopped at the museum to see a collection of old trolleys, and related artifacts. It was pretty interesting.

 Graham remained unfazed

 Later, we went back to there house for sandwiches and a walk, with Alex playing the part of the trolley.

 And a quick trip to the mall so Georgia could indulge Graham some more. It was a big day for Graham with repeated non doctor, non day care outings, and he took it like a champ

Finally Grandma Georgia got one more chance to play with him before we all called it a night.

Popsicle!

Don't see stuff like this on TV anymore, alas.




Wombat-socho has the giant "Rule 5 Sunday: Blue Shirt Double-Dip Edition"  ready at The Other McCain.

Long Day on the Road

After a half hour or so of letting Skye work off some ya-yas at the dog park, we dropped her off at a new kennel, and headed the led sled for Canonsburg. It started raining almost immediately thereafter, and kept it up a good way past Washington DC. We had a quick McD's lunch somewhere up near Frederick, and got into Canonsburg around 3. After a short rest, we headed over to Alex and Kelly's, where Georgia got to play with Graham until well past bedtime. I learned a couple of new guitar licks. I hope.



That's about all I have today.

Rule 5 Saturday - Gold Coast Queen - Ellie-Jean Coffey

This week's Rule 5 Special Attraction is Ellie-Jean Coffey, professional surfer and bikini wearer from Australia's Gold Coast.

Australian pro surfer Ellie-Jean Coffey says surfing is an 'exotic sport' and posting pictures of herself in bikinis online is just part of her life as an athlete.

The 19-year-old from the Gold Coast, who has more than 234,000 followers on Instagram thanks to the flirtatious pictures she constantly posts online, says it's an easy way for female surfers to brand themselves.

'As much we're competitive and we're athletes, we're also promoting a healthy lifestyle and we're, you know, a little bit sexy,'

Mission accomplished. And it's a family thing: Australia's answer to Kim Kardashian: Meet the teenage surfer who lounges by the pool and takes beach selfies with her sisters (but there's no plan for a reality TV show... yet).

From their selfie-loving first appearances, the Coffey siblings are by all accounts the Kardashians of the Australian surfing world.

However, unlike dark-haired American beauties Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, Kendall and Kylie, the Coffeys have so far turned down all offers to star in their own reality TV series.

Instead the Gold Coast family get their kicks surfing huge waves in the toughest competitions around the world - and they've got the photos to prove it.

Whatever you do, don't marry Kanye West. Or the Australian equivalent. And hopefully, Daddy won't want to change sex.


This week, GOODSTUFFs BLOGGING MAGAZINE (238th Issue) features Gabrielle Drake (Lieutenant Ellis, UFO) and celebrates all kinds of science and groovy chicks. Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup" and links. Wombat-socho has the giant "Rule 5 Sunday: Blue Shirt Double-Dip Edition" ready at The Other McCain.

Flint Officials Charged with Felonies in Faulty Water

3 officials charged in Flint water crisis; more predicted

The Flint water crisis has become a criminal case, with two state regulators and a city employee charged with official misconduct, evidence-tampering and other offenses over the lead contamination that alarmed the country and brought cries of racism.

For nearly 18 months, the poor, majority-black city of 100,000 used the Flint River for tap water as a way to save money — a decision made by a state-appointed emergency manager — while a new pipeline was under construction. But the water wasn't treated to control corrosion. The result: Lead was released from aging pipes and fixtures as water flowed into homes and businesses.

So, just to make that clear. The problem was not high levels of lead in the water used, the problem was the chemistry of the new water caused the leaching of lead from old lead based plumbing already present in the system, that had not been present previously in the Detroit water source they used previously. If they had properly treated the water with phosphates to passivate the lead and raised the pH, it would not have been a serious problem.

Michael Prysby, a former district engineer with the state Department of Environmental Quality, and Stephen Busch, a supervisor in the department's drinking water office, were charged with misconduct, conspiracy, tampering with test results and misdemeanor violations of clean-water law. The felonies carry maximum penalties of four to five years in prison.

Among other things, they were accused of failing to order anticorrosion chemicals added to the water to coat the pipes and prevent them from releasing lead.

But were they told it was needed? I assume these are life time political appointees, and don't know jack shit about drinking water treatment, only how to navigate the political minefields. They could only do what they could with the evidence they were given.

Flint utilities administrator Michael Glasgow, who oversaw day-to-day operations at the city's water plant at the time, also was charged Wednesday with tampering with evidence for allegedly falsifying test results and with willful neglect of duty.

Busch and Prysby pleaded not guilty and were released on bail. Both were suspended without pay. Their attorneys did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Tampering with the evidence and falsifying the tests is another matter. If true, they deserve the jail time.

Will the "Blue Screen of Death" Ground the JSF?

X-35C in formation with F/A-18D
en route to the Patuxent Naval Air Station

Yet another problem with the F-35 Lightning may ground the entire fleet

It seem like only this week that we were talking about the F-35 Lightning’s radar system needing to be periodically rebooted like a Windows 95 desktop. (Wait… it was just this week.) But right on the heels of that news, another story has emerged and not only isn’t the picture getting any prettier, this one could wind up grounding every new Joint Strike Fighter in the entire program until they can get the software figured out. (Daily Mail)

Now, a new report says problems with its logistics software system could ground the entire fleet.
The problem is with what the Department of Defense officials call the ‘brains’ of plane, also known as the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS).
It is designed to support operations, mission planning and to spot any maintenance issues with the vehicle…
A Government Accountability Office report says a failure ‘could take the entire fleet offline’ because there is no backup system.

There’s no need to go into the weeds on the function of the ALIS systems here, though you can read quite a bit about it at the linked report. Suffice it to say that the program monitors many vital functions of the plane’s operation and maintenance. The good news is that if it goes kaput during a mission the plane won’t immediately go up in flames or fall out of the sky, but it also won’t pass certification to get up in the air in the first place. Unfortunately, the system isn’t run locally (as in onboard the aircraft) but from ground control. There is no onboard backup for the system either, so if it loses the thread to home base and the link can’t be reestablished, it’s pretty much down for the count.

A friend of mine who works on the F-35 (previously called the Joint Strike Fighter, or JSF for short) called it "Just Science Fiction", and predicted that it would never fly in combat in his career. He may even be the one to pull the plug on the Navy's version. He's getting ready to retire, and may well be right. 

Missed It By That Much

Seven Earth Day predictions that failed spectacularly

1: “Civilization Will End Within 15 or 30 Years.” Harvard biologist Dr. George Wald warned shortly before the first Earth Day in 1970 that civilization would soon end “unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” Three years before his projection, Wald was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. . .

2: “100-200 Million People Per Year Will Be Starving to Death During the Next Ten Years.” Stanford professor Dr. Paul Ehrlich declared in April 1970 that mass starvation was imminent. His dire predictions failed to materialize as the number of people living in poverty has significantly declined and the amount of food per person has steadily increased, despite population growth. The world’s Gross Domestic Product per person has immeasurably increased despite increases in population. . .

3: “Population Will Inevitably and Completely Outstrip Whatever Small Increases in Food Supplies We Make.” Paul Ehrlich also made the above claim in 1970, shortly before an agricultural revolution that caused the world’s food supply to rapidly increase.
Ehrlich has consistently failed to revise his predictions when confronted with the fact that they did not occur, stating in 2009 that “perhaps the most serious flaw in The Bomb was that it was much too optimistic about the future.”

4: “Demographers Agree Almost Unanimously … Thirty Years From Now, the Entire World … Will Be in Famine.” Environmentalists in 1970 truly believed in a scientific consensus predicting global famine due to population growth in the developing world, especially in India. . .

5: “In A Decade, Urban Dwellers Will Have to Wear Gas Masks to Survive Air Pollution.” Life magazine stated in January 1970 that scientist had “solid experimental and theoretical evidence” to believe that “in a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution … by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching Earth by one half.” Despite the prediction, air quality has been improving worldwide according to the World Health Organization. . .

6: “Childbearing [Will Be] A Punishable Crime Against Society, Unless the Parents Hold a Government License.” David Brower, the first executive director of The Sierra Club made the above claim and went on to say that “[a]ll potential parents [should be] required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing.”  . . . Today, the only major government to ever get close to his vision has been China, which ended its one-child policy last October.

7: “By the Year 2000 … There Won’t Be Any More Crude Oil.” On Earth Day in 1970 ecologist Kenneth Watt famously predicted that the world would run out of oil saying, “You’ll drive up to the pump and say, ‘Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, ‘I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’” . . .  American oil and natural gas reserves are at their highest levels since 1972 and American oil production in 2014 was 80 percent higher than in 2008 thanks to fracking. . . .

But other than that, everything is pretty much going they way they planned it.

Grant writing 101. Use some wiggle words in your dire predictions of what will happen if the world choses not to follow your preferred policies.



Not our husky.

Star Trek "Impulse" Drive Comes Closer to Reality

Bring on the Green Girls! The Curious Link Between the Fly-By Anomaly and the “Impossible” EmDrive Thruster

About 10 years ago, a little-known aerospace engineer called Roger Shawyer made an extraordinary claim. Take a truncated cone, he said, bounce microwaves back and forth inside it and the result will be a thrust toward the narrow end of the cone. Voila … a revolutionary thruster capable of sending spacecraft to the planets and beyond. Shawyer called it the EmDrive.

Just catch a few rays on your solar/stellar panels, send the electricity to the EmDrive, and voila, propulsion without wasting reaction mass. But there's a pesky little problem with one of Newton's Laws.

Shawyer’s announcement was hugely controversial. The system converts one type of energy into kinetic energy, and there are plenty of other systems that do something similar. In that respect it is unremarkable.

The conceptual problems arise with momentum. The system’s total momentum increases as it begins to move. But where does this momentum come from? Shawyer had no convincing explanation, and critics said this was an obvious violation of the law of conservation of momentum.

Shawyer countered with experimental results showing the device worked as he claimed. But his critics were unimpressed. The EmDrive, they said, was equivalent to generating a thrust by standing inside a box and pushing on the sides. In other words, it was snake oil.

If I only had $5  for every proposal for a perpetual motion machine; but I digress.

Since then, something interesting has happened. Various teams around the world have begun to build their own versions of the EmDrive and put them through their paces. And to everyone’s surprise, they’ve begun to reproduce Shawyer’s results. The EmDrive, it seems, really does produce thrust. . . And last year, NASA conducted its own tests in a vacuum to rule out movement of air as the origin of the force. NASA, too, confirmed that the EmDrive produces a thrust. In total, six independent experiments have backed Shawyer’s original claims.

So put one in space with some solar panels, a little machinery to navigate with, and see if it flies!

That leaves an important puzzle—how to explain the seeming violation of conservation of momentum.

The answer is that they don't really know yet, but theories they have will challenge physics as we know it.

Today we get an answer of sorts thanks to the work of Mike McCulloch at Plymouth University in the U.K. McCulloch’s explanation is based on a new theory of inertia that makes startling predictions about the way objects move under very small accelerations.

First some background. Inertia is the resistance of all massive objects to changes in motion or accelerations. In modern physics, inertia is treated as a fundamental property of massive objects subjected to an acceleration. Indeed, mass can be thought of as a measure of inertia. But why inertia exists at all has puzzled scientists for centuries.

McCulloch’s idea is that inertia arises from an effect predicted by general relativity called Unruh radiation. This is the notion that an accelerating object experiences black body radiation. In other words, the universe warms up when you accelerate.

According to McCulloch, inertia is simply the pressure the Unruh radiation exerts on an accelerating body.

Something here doesn't link, at least to me. Does the universe push back against hot objects? Not that I've heard of.

That’s hard to test at the accelerations we normally observe on Earth. But things get interesting when the accelerations involved are smaller and the wavelength of Unruh radiation gets larger.

At very small accelerations, the wavelengths become so large they can no longer fit in the observable universe. When this happens, inertia can take only certain whole-wavelength values and so jumps from one value to the next. In other words, inertia must quantized at small accelerations.

McCulloch says there is observational evidence for this in the form of the famous fly by anomalies. These are the strange jumps in momentum observed in some spacecraft as they fly past Earth toward other planets. That’s exactly what his theory predicts.

Testing this effect more carefully on Earth is hard because the accelerations involved are so small. But one way to make it easier would be to reduce the size of allowed wavelengths of Unruh radiation. “This is what the EmDrive may be doing,” says McCulloch.

If this is true, the rules of physics are stranger than we've imagined

McCulloch’s theory could help to change that, although it is hardly a mainstream idea. It makes two challenging assumptions. The first is that photons have inertial mass. The second is that the speed of light must change within the cavity. That won’t be easy for many theorists to stomach.

But as more experimental confirmations of Shawyer’s EmDrive emerge, theorists are being forced into a difficult position. If not McCulloch’s explanation, then what?

Proving Newton's Laws wrong is one thing, Einstein did that a century ago now, at least at the margins.  But the constancy of the speed of light in integral to Einstein's theories of Relativity. They've been trying for years, and no one has proved Einstein wrong yet.

Wombat-socho has the giant "Rule 5 Sunday: Blue Shirt Double-Dip Edition" ready at The Other McCain.

Scrubbing the Files at Clinton.com

Today we find out that the State Department Office Removed Benghazi Files After Congressional Subpoena.

State Department officials removed files from the secretary’s office related to the Benghazi attack in Libya and transferred them to another department after receiving a congressional subpoena last spring, delaying the release of the records to Congress for over a year.

Attorneys for the State Department said the electronic folders, which contain hundreds of documents related to the Benghazi attack and Libya, were belatedly rediscovered at the end of last year.

They said the files had been overlooked by State Department officials because the executive secretary’s office transferred them to another department and flagged them for archiving last April, shortly after receiving a subpoena from the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

"Overlooked". Yeah, I'll bet they were looked over several times before they were handed over.

The new source of documents includes electronic folders used by senior officials under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. They were originally kept in the executive secretary’s office, which handles communication and coordination between the secretary of state’s office and other department bureaus.

The House Benghazi Committee requested documents from the secretary’s office in a subpoena filed in March 2015. Congressional investigators met with the head of the executive secretary’s office staff to discuss its records maintenance system and the scope of the subpoena last April. That same month, State Department officials sent the electronic folders to another bureau for archiving, and they were not searched in response to the request.

I'm beginning to think we should just fire them all and start over.

Just a reminder Firms that paid for Clinton speeches have US gov't interests. Which is why she has the money for this: Hillary PAC Spends $1 Million to ‘Correct’ Commenters on Reddit and Facebook. Roll Call announces Hillary Clinton Is Too Big to Fail. The Democratic Party Now Belongs to Hillary Clinton. She bought it fair and square. But Bernie Sanders equals Hillary Clinton's campaign fundraising: $182 million. Money well wasted.

America Ferrera

It was an honest mistake, and quite likely correct: ABC Journalist Is Mistaken for a Hillary Supporter By ‘Bernie Bro’. Ugly Betty wants to snuggle Ugly Hillary: 'Ugly Betty' Star America Ferrera Wants to 'Snuggle in Onesies' with Hillary. Seriously. But is there room in the bed with Huma?

More of Camille Paglia's thoughts on Hillary: "My tentative theory is that Hillary may have sporadic flare-ups of goiter, worsened under stress."

"Coughing is a symptom. High collars mask a swollen throat. In serious cases, an operation may be necessary. Is this chronic thyroid condition disqualifying in a presidential candidate? Certainly not in my view, but I don’t like being lied to — by candidates, campaign staffs, or their media sycophants."

If you don't like being lied to, you don't like the Clintons.

Ms. Clinton promises mind control if elected: Clinton Vows to Spend 'Every Single Minute' as President to 'Change Gun Culture' One of the most important of several reasons I couldn't be #NeverTrump. I'm #NeverHillary.

Wombat-socho has the giant "Rule 5 Sunday: Blue Shirt Double-Dip Edition" ready at The Other McCain.

RIP - Lonnie Mack

The best bluesman you never heard of:

Singer Roasts Starbucks for Anti-Welsh Discrimination

Coffee shop customer allegedly 'told to speak English or get out' when ordering in Welsh

A customer who placed an order in Welsh at a Starbucks was told to “speak English or get out”, it has been claimed.

Welsh classical soprano Gwawr Edwards, from Aberystwyth , said the reaction from a member of staff when another customer ordered in Welsh was “a disgrace”.

Gwawr took to Twitter to complain about the alleged incident in her hometown.

Gwarth mai ymateb un o staff @StarbucksAber oedd "speak English or get out" wrth gwsmer yn archebu yn iaith gwlad ei hunan! #tramorwr #sack

— Gwawr Edwards (@gwawredwards) April 12, 2016

Its translation is: “It’s a disgrace that the reaction of a staff member in @StarbucksAber to a customer trying to order in their own language was ‘Speak English or get out’.”

Gwawr, now that's name to conjure with!

Midnite Music - "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

RIP, the artist formerly formerly known as Prince:

Pretty good guitar solo starts around 3:38.

Also died yesterday, Chyna, a former wrestling star and actress, found dead at Redondo Beach home.

Chyna, who rose to fame as a wrestler and actress, was found dead Wednesday in her Redondo Beach home, her manager said.

Anthony Anzaldo said she was found in the afternoon and that no cause of death had been determined. She was 46.

Redondo Beach police received a call from Anzaldo and the apartment building manager around 3:25 p.m., Lt. Todd Heywood said. When officers arrived, they found her dead on her bed.

The Police Department was investigating, but there were no obvious signs of foul play, Heywood said.

I'll be pissed if Keith Richards outlives me.

Wombat-socho has the giant "Rule 5 Sunday: Blue Shirt Double-Dip Edition" ready at The Other McCain.

Taiwanese Scientists Cast Doubt on "Iron Hypothesis"

John H. Martin

“Give me a half tanker of iron,
and I will give you an ice age.”

Said John H. Martin, one of the great oceanographers of my age. His hypothesis was that in areas of the ocean with "high" nutrient concentrations and low chlorophyll (HNLC areas), like much of the Pacific, iron was the limiting nutrient, and that adding iron could stimulate oceanic primary. In another link, stimulating primary production would increase the rate of sedimentation of the fixed carbon produced by the phytoplankton, and remove some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, offsetting or even reducing atmospheric CO2 and offset or even reverse global warming. He didn't really propose to set off a new ice age.

A lot of experiments were carried out to test "the iron hypothesis." It worked sometimes, and it didn't work sometimes. Biology is like that. It's not as straightforward as rocket science. New studies by Taiwanese researchers also find that iron fertilization was not always effective:

Taiwanese Researchers Dismiss Iron Fertilisation Carbon Capture

Taiwanese researchers have poured cold water on the possibility of capturing carbon with artificial algae blooms, created by fertilising the oceans with iron. The problem appears to be that the artificial algae bloom depletes other essential ocean nutrients, causing a reduction in algae growth elsewhere in the ocean.

To alleviate the impact of global warming, scientists have proposed a hypothesis of “iron fertilization,” assuming that adding iron into the ocean can boost the growth of algae to absorb the carbon dioxide in the air.

However, researchers in Taiwan have found flaws in this hypothesis.

Working with Columbia University, a NTU research group led by Haojia Abby Ren, associate professor of Geosciences at National Taiwan University (NTU), has poured iron into 12 waters around the globe to perform experiments on the “iron fertilization” hypothesis. It turned out algae only thrives in one-third of the areas tested.
The growth of algae requires nutrients other than iron, such as nitrate and phosphate. With the growing amount of algae, consumption of these nutrients also increases in the area. But when currents carry the algae to other waters, the nutrients become relatively scare elements, making algae hard to grow.

Read more: http://international.thenewslens.com/post/312664/

This claim is backed by an earlier study, which suggests that increased iron outflows into the ocean during the last ice age, caused by glaciers scraping iron rich minerals into the sea, did not increase algae growth in equatorial regions, because increased algae growth in subantarctic zones depleted other ocean nutrients.

One third of the ocean is a lot of ocean . . .

Once in A Very Long Time

Once in Four Lifetimes - The conservative assumptions behind Virginia water-discharge permits, says DEQ, reduce the odds of harming aquatic wildlife to fewer than three incidents in a thousand years.

Earlier this year Dominion Virginia Power was granted permits to drain water from coal ash ponds at its Bremo and Possum Point power stations, treat the water to remove heavy metals, and discharge the effluent into the James River and Quantico Creek. Citizens have understandable concerns. What limits did DEQ place on the heavy metals in the wastewater? How were the limits determined? And what assurances do Virginians have that those limits will safeguard the public health and the health of aquatic species?

In a nod to transparency, Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has posted the permits online. To get a flavor, you can view the Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (VPDES) permit for the Bremo Power station here. Unfortunately, that document is indecipherable to the layman. DEQ permit writers live in a world all their own, replete with jargon, acronyms, arcane regulatory procedures and complex statistical formulations that only DEQ, power companies and the environmentalist groups that sue them seem to understand.

Wondering how DEQ set the heavy metals limits listed in its permits, from arsenic and mercury to lead and selenium, I sat down recently with Fred Cunningham, DEQ’s manager-office of water permits, and Allan Brockenbrough, manager-VPDES permits. The two career DEQ employees walked me through the process. Because the Possum Point permit is under appeal, they did not address the coal-ash permits specifically. But they said that the procedures for apply to all industrial sites, including power stations with coal ash ponds.

The primary message they wished to convey is this: DEQ permits create an ample safety buffer. Accounting for just two of the conservative assumptions built into the process, say Cunningham and Brockenbrough, the chances of a scenario occurring that endangers either the public health or aquatic life are in the realm of thrice every thousand years. The incorporation of other conservative assumptions reduces that incidence even further.

Brockenbrough put it this way: “When you make one conservative assumption, and a second, and a third, and a fourth, they all build on each other.”

Heavy metal discharge limits in Dominion’s Bremo permit (Click to enlarge

Virginia environmentalists active in the coal ash debate have not taken issue with the DEQ methodology, which they neither criticize nor endorse. Their main thrust has been to ensure that wastewater is monitored and tested with sufficient frequency and duration to make the public comfortable that Water Quality Standards are being met. Also, in the case of Possum Point permit, the Potomac Riverkeeper Network has appealed on the grounds that Dominion should employ Best Available Technology, even if the resulting water quality exceeds DEQ standards. If Virginia can reduce at reasonable cost the level of pollutants released into Virginia waters, even if they exist only in trace elements, why not do it?

What environmentalists are really concerned with is making everything as difficult as possible for energy producers. Anyone with a lick of sense would prefer that these long lived mildly hazardous waste ponds be eliminated, even if it were to cause a short lived problem in the receiving water, which it won't

A Little Dab Will Do at Clinton.com

A small collection today. First, off to HotAir for a funny story revealed in Hillary Clinton's email.

Julie Louis-Dreyfus received what she thought was a fan letter from Hillary Clinton back in 2013. Printed on Clinton’s Secretary of State letterhead, the note read, “Dear Julia, Hope you get everything you want as Veep — gun control, immigration and education reform.” Louis-Dreyfus, best known for her role as Elaine on Seinfeld, now stars on a show called Veep where she plays the president.

You can sort of see why Hillary Clinton might have some cause to be a fan of a show about a woman president. And Louis-Dreyfus, who is a fan of Clinton, was so pleased by the note she had it framed. But, in a story published today, Louis-Dreyfus tells the Hollywood Reporter she eventually found out Hillary wasn’t such a big fan after all:

For Louis-Dreyfus, it was more than flattery. Here was confirmation, at the highest level, of just how much her HBO comedy had won the respect of the finicky Beltway crowd.
Then, some two years later, Louis-Dreyfus would learn of a second document — the note behind the note, as it were. This one, dated around the same time and unveiled as part of a batch of exposed Clinton emails, was from the secretary of state to her then-aide, Robert V. Russo.
“A friend wants me to sign something for Julia Lewis-Dreyfus for Veep. Any ideas?” Clinton wrote, her question (and mangling of the star’s name) suggesting unfamiliarity with the series. Russo responded: “Let me brainstorm on this one/do some research. I confess I haven’t seen the show!”

It's good the see that the Secretary of State and her staff focusing on the big issues.

Hillary Clinton Is an Agent of Oppression!



Eh, abortion is not one of my issues. In fact, I think most liberals should have one or two, on the off chance that there's a genetic link.

George Clooney hates these lavish Clinton fundraisers, but they’re necessary because of Citizens United, Koch brothers. My right to free speech matches your right to free speech. Besides, it's settled law, Live with it and Move On!

MSNBC whines that Hillary Has Run for Decades Against the Media’s ‘Very Negative’ Coverage while over at Salon, Camille Paglia tells us Enough with the Hillary cult: Her admirers ignore reality, dream of worshipping a queen. Yes, of course, she wants Bernie.

I have trouble understanding the fuzzy rosy filter through which Hillary fans see their champion. So much must be overlooked or discounted—from Hillary’s compulsive money-lust and her brazen indifference to normal rules to her conspiratorial use of shadowy surrogates and her sociopathic shape-shifting in policy positions for momentary expedience.
. . .
I’m starting to wonder, given the increasing dysfunction of our democratic institutions, if the Hillary cult isn’t perhaps registering an atavistic longing for monarchy. Or perhaps it’s just a neo-pagan reversion to idolatry, as can be felt in the Little Italy street festival scene of The Godfather, Part II, where devout pedestrians pin money to the statue of San Rocco as it is carried by in procession.

Well said. Read the rest.