What pit bulls and “No Trespassing” signs are for

Just what I need:

More than 150 high school sophomores from around the state have been enlisted as part of the so-called “Green Corps.” The students are part of the 1st and Green initiative, which aims at encouraging Hoosiers to reduce their carbon footprint by recycling and altering other personal habits.

...some whiny high-school sophomore bitching at me about “being green.”  Sorry, the name is not “Kermit.”

Via:  Roberta, who has a suggestion for them.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:53:47 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Finally... an upgrade

Appears that AT&T has finally heard its customers:

...the company is... allocating an additional $2bn or so to upgrade its network in 2010.
...
The AP also noted that during AT&T’s conference call with reporters and analysts after the announcement of the company’s financial results for the fourth quarter of 2009, Big Phone execs spent “an unprecedented amount” of time and effort defending their beleagured network and talking about how they plan to improve it.

So maybe by the end of the year we can expect its 3G network to be as pervasive as its advertising?

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 20:54:27 GMT | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Latest revision - replace your encyclopedia pages

Well, now we know why there hasn’t been any “global warming.”  It’s because of the ozone hole:

...There is mounting evidence that the ozone hole above the Antarctic has been protecting the southern hemisphere against global warming.

The bizarre side-effect of ozone depletion has been studied by scientists at the University of Leeds.

The ozone hole, caused by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) released into the atmosphere, is now steadily closing, but the research has suggested this could actually increase warming.

Scientists discovered brighter summertime clouds had formed over the area below the hole, which reflect more of the sun’s powerful rays.

“These clouds have acted like a mirror to the sun’s rays, reflecting the sun’s heat away from the surface to the extent that warming from rising carbon emissions has effectively been cancelled out in this region during the summertime,” said Professor Ken Carslaw, who co-authored the research.

So lessee, we spent untold billions in eliminating CFCs to put the ozone hole back, and now...

“You can’t correct two wrongs in that way,” he said.  “The ozone hole was potentially a major catastrophe for the planet that was only stopped by the Montreal Protocol, so we can’t go back on that.”

Why am I unsurprised?

Now I suppose this could make sense.  Could.

But the convenient emergence of this report (in the midst of the “WHAT global warming” uproar), leaves me wondering.  And, even if true, what does the discovery of a hitherto-unknown (but important) factor say about the certainty of those doom-and-gloom predictions that we’ve been getting from the warmingists this last decade.

Climate “Science:”  Making it up as we go along?

Via:  Kathy

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 22:10:24 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Rule 42, ya know...

Played hookey on Sunday and missed posting, so I’ll catch it up this way

Rumor hath it that she’s 42.

Which I guess means she’s either the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything— or one of those people who must Leave The Court at once. Inquiring minds, etal...

Later:  Road Trip Report

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 20:57:08 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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“PR nonsense”

Ace is tired of it:

I have seen this time and time again, where the first statement, provided mere hours after an incident, when people are still in triage and there has been not enough time to even begin an investigation, let alone conclude one, is the rote repetition of the claim that it’s not terrorism, there is no foreign connection, etc.

And if they’re saying that out of the box, then we know for a fact they are actively avoiding lines of questioning that would contradict that claim...
...
If we’re to have genuine confidence in our government at all (is that still a goal they aspire to?), they need to be straight with us, stop giving us PR nonsense, and admit their failings alongside their trumpeting of their successes.

If they keep claiming that every successful terrorist attack is not terrorism, we have every right to suspect they are not taking this seriously, and that they are covering up their failures, and that they are, of course, not dealing with the lapses that caused the failures, and that more of us will be killed just so they can go up in front of the microphones and make pissing-on-our-backs claims like “There is no evidence this was a terrorist attack.”

What scares the hell out of me isn't that terrorism is being treated as a law enforcement issue.  If only.  That may not be the best possible response to terrorism, but at least it would be barely-adequate response...

What scares me more than that is that terrorism is being treated solely as a public relations issue.

Related:

Elsewhere:  Politico’s coverage

Previously:

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 21:37:14 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Blowin’ on the winds?

NOAA Press Release:

Springtime ozone levels above western North America are rising primarily due to air flowing eastward from the Pacific Ocean, a trend that is largest when the air originates in Asia.  These increases in ozone could make it more difficult for the United States to meet Clean Air Act standards for ozone pollution at ground level, according to a new international study...

“In springtime, pollution from across the hemisphere, not nearby sources, contributes to the ozone increases above western North America,” said lead author Owen R. Cooper, Ph.D., of the NOAA-funded Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  “When air is transported from a broad region of south and east Asia, the trend is largest.”
...
The analysis shows an overall significant increase in springtime ozone of 14 percent from 1995 to 2008.  When they included data from 1984, the year with the lowest average ozone level, the scientists saw a similar rate of increase from that time through 2008 and an overall increase in springtime ozone of 29 percent.

“This study did not quantify how much of the ozone increase is solely due to Asia," Cooper said.  “But we can say that the background ozone entering North America increased over the past 14 years and probably over the past 25 years.”

The influence of ozone from Asia and other sources on ground-level air quality is a question for further study, Cooper said.  Scientists will need to routinely measure ozone levels close to the surface at several locations along the West Coast to see whether similar trends are impacting ground-level air quality.

Immediate questions:  If it turns out the inflows introduce a significant amount of ozone (with respect to legislated target levels), should the targets be revised upward?  Or suppose the inflows exceed the target levels - do we ban all economic human activity?

Via:  FuturePundit, via Instapundit

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 00:10:17 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Words of love from a Bitter Clinger

Mike explains all that hatin’ goin’ ’round:

To all you Zombie Media/Democrat Socialist liberal-idiot losers: it ain’t blacks we hate.  It ain’t the poor, it ain’t gays, and it ain’t women.
It’s YOU.

There.  All clear now?

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 22:34:54 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Haiti WTF

USA Today:

Food handouts were shut off Tuesday to thousands of people at a tent city here when the main U.S. aid agency said the Army should not be distributing the packages.

It was not known whether the action reflected a high-level policy decision at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) or confusion in a city where dozens of entities are involved in aid efforts.

“We are not supposed to get rations unless approved by AID,” Maj. Larry Jordan said.

Jordan said that approval was revoked; water was not included in the USAID decision, so the troops continued to hand out bottles of water. The State Department and USAID did not respond to requests for comment...

And from the White House?

Via:  Instapundit

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 20:45:35 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Why all the politics?

Richard McEnroe speaks for many of us:

Understand this:  I don't like politics.  I don't like politicians.  I would have been perfectly happy drinking my sangria and telling my offcolor jokes and writing my novels.

But these bastards won't leave us alone.  We are faced with a government that is determined to intrude into every aspect of our lives at this point, from our health care and our homes to our lightbulbs and our freaking yard sales...

And the Admiministration that nominally heads this government, fronted by an arrogant, ill-informed store mannequin, is placing the responsibility for this intrusion in the hands of a group of people so comprehensively corrupt, criminal, ignorant and insular that they can’t or won’t even keep an accurate count of how many people’s lives they’ve ruined...

...This calls for a fundamental change and fundamental action by a lot of people.

(There’s much more, RTWT.)

And today, C. Edmund Wright:

And no, MS-NBC, this [yesterday’s Brown victory] was not a Tip O’Neil “all politics are local” referendum on potholes and such.  Thanks to big government liberals, no politics are local anymore.  Not even an obscure congressional district known as NY-23.

Every single seat may now hold the key to Washington’s ability to reach into the homes and wallets and lives of every American for any reason they deem necessary.  And that’s what this was about, with health care as the key issue but only one of many concerns about intrusive government.
...
The message was consistent.  Washington was trying to “fundamentally change” America, and beyond their notice, Americans were waking up to what that means and were shouting not “no" -- but “hell no.”

...and we’ll continue shouting “hell no” until they cease playing their usual D.C. games, start listening, and get Washington TF out of our lives.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 18:28:13 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Hark, hark, the snark!

Instapundit:

Democrats lean toward pushing Senate health-care bill through House.  “The argument is, you’re already pregnant.”

I thought these people believed in abortion?

Cybrludite:

No need for those wind turbines off Hyannis anymore.  Just rig up a big alternator to Teddy...

Ace:

A few more catastrophic defeats like this and it might be safe to elect Democrats again.

Richard McEnroe:  What Can Brown Do For You?

(Probably more to come...)

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:12:47 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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