Looks like Tim Nicholson has won his lawsuit in which he argues that belief in climate change is philosophically akin to a religion.

An interesting outcome from a court case in the UK which I first mentioned a while back:

In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that "a belief in man-made climate change ... is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations".

The ruling could open the door for employees to sue their companies for failing to account for their green lifestyles, such as providing recycling facilities or offering low-carbon travel.

I wonder if this will open the door to other "science-based beliefs" such as having to do with GMOs, illegal drugs and so on receiving legal protection. This will be discussed in depth I am sure.

http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2009/11/is-environmentalism-religion.html

Shades of Marie Antoinette "Let them eat cake?"

Redrant: Last week I purchased ten pounds of new crop Russet potatoes for US $1.50. Some are small. I steam them along with cheap seasonal vegetables like local twenty-five cent corn on the cob and forty cents per pound local cabbage. The larger russets are bakers.

The point is that this fine locally grown in-season produce is available at a tiny fraction of the cost that the First Lady is paying. You might recall the First Lady planting a White House garden but we don't of the First Family actually eating the produce from this garden. It was fertilized with sewage sludge and contains "heavy metals".

Apparently President Obama still smokes cigarettes. The Marie Antoinette hypocrisy is blatant here. We have $20 per pound kale when we have an official unemployment rate nearing 10%. Link and source article below. Greg Lang

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091703679_pf.html

Hi-Ho, the Derry-O

By Dana Milbank
Friday, September 18, 2009

Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?

Here's how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon:

The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.

Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. "Now it's time to buy some food," she told several hundred people who came to watch. "Let's shop!"

Cowbells were rung. Somebody put a lei of marigolds around Obama's neck. The first lady picked up a straw basket and headed for the "Farm at Sunnyside" tent, where she loaded up with organic Asian pears, cherry tomatoes, multicolored potatoes, free-range eggs and, yes, two bunches of Tuscan kale. She left the produce with an aide, who paid the cashier as Obama made her way back to the limousine.

There's nothing like the simple pleasures of a farm stand to return us to our agrarian roots.

The first lady had encouraged Freshfarm Markets, the group that runs popular farmers markets in Dupont Circle and elsewhere, to set up near the White House, and she helped get the approvals to shut down Vermont Avenue during rush hour on Thursdays. But the result was quite the opposite of a quaint farmers market. Considering all the logistics, each tomato she purchased had a carbon footprint of several tons.

The promotion of organic and locally grown food, though an admirable cause, is a risky one for the Obamas, because there's a fine line between promoting healthful eating and sounding like a snob. The president, when he was a candidate in 2007, got in trouble in Iowa when he asked a crowd, "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?" Iowans didn't have a Whole Foods.

For that reason, it's probably just as well that the first lady didn't stop by the Endless Summer Harvest tent yesterday. The Virginia farm had a sign offering "tender baby arugula" -- hydroponically grown, pesticide free -- and $5 for four ounces, which is $20 a pound.

Obama, in her brief speech to the vendors and patrons, handled the affordability issue by pointing out that people who pay with food stamps would get double the coupon value at the market. Even then, though, it's hard to imagine somebody using food stamps to buy what the market offered: $19 bison steak from Gunpowder Bison, organic dandelion greens for $12 per pound from Blueberry Hill Vegetables, the Piedmont Reserve cheese from Everson Dairy at $29 a pound. Rounding out the potential shopping cart: $4 for a piece of "walnut dacquoise" from the Praline Bakery, $9 for a jumbo crab cake at Chris's Marketplace, $8 for a loaf of cranberry-walnut bread and $32 for a bolt of yarn.

The first lady said the market would particularly appeal to federal employees in nearby buildings to "pick up some good stuff for dinner." Yet even they might think twice about spending $3 for a pint of potatoes when potatoes are on sale for 40 cents a pound at Giant. They could get nearly five dozen eggs at Giant for the $5 Obama spent for her dozen.

But whatever the socioeconomics, there can be no doubt that Obama brought some serious attention to her cause. Hundreds of people crowded the market entrance on I Street as police directed pedestrians to alternative subway entrances. Hundreds braved a light rain and gave a hearty cheer when Obama and her entourage took the stage. "I can't imagine there's been a day in the history of our country when people have been more excited about farmers markets," Mayor Adrian Fenty, Obama's warm-up act, told the crowd.

The first lady, in gray slacks and blue sweater, marveled that the people were "so pumped up" despite the rain. "I have never seen so many people so excited about fruits and vegetables!" she said. (Must be the tender baby arugula.)

She spoke of the global reach of her cause: "The first thing world leaders, prime ministers, kings, queens ask me about is the White House garden. And then they ask about Bo."

She spoke of the fuel fed to the world's most powerful man: "I've learned that when my family eats fresh food, healthy food, that it really affects how we feel, how we get through the day . . . whether there's a Cabinet meeting or whether we're just walking the dog."

And she spoke of her own culinary efforts: "There are times when putting together a healthy meal is harder than you might imagine."

Particularly when it involves a soundstage, an interpreter for the deaf, three TV satellite trucks and the closing of part of downtown Washington.

Van Jones and His STORMtroopers Denounced America the Night After 9/11

http://newsrealblog.com/2009/08/31/van-jones-and-his-stormtroopers-denounced-america-the-night-after-911/

Van Jones and His STORMtroopers Denounced America the Night After 9/11

2009 AUGUST 31

tags: Barack Obama, Glenn Beck Program, National Day of Service,News, Politics, STORM, Van Jones

by Matthew Vadum

President Obama’s green jobs czar Van Jones co-founded the communist group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), Glenn Beck said on his TV show Friday.

STORM described itself and its activities as:

“We upheld the Marxist critique of capitalist exploitation. We agree with Lenin’s analysis of the state and the party. And we found inspiration and guidance in the insurgent revolutionary strategies developed by third world revolutionaries like Mao Tse-Tung and Amilcar Cabral.”

The vehemently anti-American group held a vigil in Oakland, California, “mourning the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world” on the night after Sept. 11, 2001. Jones does not appear to have distanced himself from his past communist activities and is now part of the Obama administration’s push to turn Sept. 11 into a National Day of Service focused on the promotion of the radical environmentalist agenda.

The vigil was reported by World Net Daily which excerpted parts of a history of the now-disbanded group. The 2004 document, called “Reclaiming Revolution: history, summation & lessons from the work of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM),” may be found on an archival site here.

Jones also founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which joined in the vigil according to an Ella Baker Center press release from 2001. The press release contained this passage that quoted Jones:

Ted Kennedy: 'One of his favorite topics of humor was Chappaquiddick'

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2M2YWQ1ODQwNjZiOGVmZWU3MzQ2MmZmMDk4MWExZGY

Friday, August 28, 2009 'One of his favorite topics of humor was Chappaquiddick' [Mark Hemingway] Jules Crittenden mentioned on his blog he heard Ed Klein, former foreign editor ofNewsweek and editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine, recalling on air that Ted Kennedy liked to joke about Chappaquiddick. It seemed to defy belief, so I listened to theepisode of The Diane Rehm Show in question and sure enough — I've transcribed what Klein told guest host Katy Kay (Here's a link to the audio in WMA format, relevant portion starts at about 30:15): I don't know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, "have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?" That is just the most amazing thing. It's not that he didn't feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things, too. EXCUSE ME? If that's true, it makes Kennedy kind of a monster. The odd thing is that if you listen to the whole show, the tone of everyone involved is nauseatingly hagiographic and reverential. Klein apparently let his guard down a bit; after he lets it slip Kennedy liked to joke about the woman he killed you can actually hear in his voice that he's trying to backpedal. The show actually cuts to a break as he's trying to explain himself, and I seriously wonder if it wasn't the producers trying to do Klein a favor. But I'm sorry, there appears to be little to that could explain this. It goes way beyond "you had to be there." UPDATE: Blogging software was a tad buggy and didn't respond to repeated attempts to fix audio link — it should be fixed now. Also, Ed Morrissey has the audio much more convinently packaged at this YouTube link.

So Coleman will be liable for all of Franken's legal expenses if Coleman loses?

I will cross post at my http://fifthestate.net  

BTW: Do all of you liberal-progressive-democrats who read the DailyKos.com know that in Arabic and Farsi "Kos" is a derogatory term for female private parts, it has four letters, starts with "C" ends with "T" with the third letter between "m" and "p" in the alphabet?  Did you know?.......I talked to a guy in a bar last week who claimed the "Coleman will owe" Frankin's legal bills if Coleman loses.  This person theorised that Coleman will agree to concede if the legal actions for this are not pursued. (This is called "blackmail".) ....What actually happened was that early in the year a Minneapolis election judge and official was put on the stand and admitted to emails and perhaps some telephone conversations with Coleman's legal team but not Ginzberg. ........This was not included in discovery. Frankens lawyer cited a Minnesota statute and petitioned for financial redress against Coleman's lawyer for incomplete discovery.  Reporters asked if they were asking for costs related to the delays cost by Coleman's lawyers Franken's lawyers replied "That is for the judge to decide........Recall first the "Martha Steward rule".  It not the offense but the cover up.  Ginzberg cooperated fully and gave a detailed explanation quickly, calling it "an honest mistake"......That is the story.  Google it!.......  I've followed the coverage by those reporters and former reporters covering the trial live and not seems to have mentioned or noticed this "Coleman pays all legal costs if he loses" theory. ............... 

I suspect that the law was enacted after the Wellstone/Mondale/Coleman election when resent absentee ballots apparently were not recounted because Coleman's lead was larger than the total number of absentee ballots resent so it was mathematically impossible for Mondale to win.  ........  The Coleman win was outside of the mandatory recount parameters.  Just an educated guess.......Beyond the fact there was not pattern of obstruction by Coleman's lawyers and they cooperated with this "snafu" when challenged I don't see a pattern of obstruction. The law, as I read it excluded situations where errors were found.  That includes this.  Also, I can't recall the law ever being applied or it's constitutionality challenged.  In the US with civil cases the "loser pays" but election challenges are different from civil law cases.

Part 1 of modern airship writeup.

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Modern Rigid Airship Technology.

A Modern airship can use all current avionics. The Akron was lost because it used a barometer to determine altitude. A radio altimeter would have prevented this loss. A number of airships flew into storms but standard aviation and marine meteorology can prevent this. The Hindenberg was filled with flammable hydrogen. Modern airships would use helium as a lift gas. Helium has a lift of 62 pound per thousand cubic feet as so call “sea level constants” which are basically low altitude, room temperature and moderate humidity. Think of a 10 x 12 foot bedroom with eight foot ceiling and a very small closet. That is 1,000 cubic feet. Because of the gas volume, airships will never be very fast. Basically, to double the speed, you need eight times the power and thus eight times the fuel consumption. You travel twice as far (airspeed) so, in effect, the “miles per gallon” goes down by a factor of four. The same tends to be true of marine vessels.

There are three basic types of airship, blimps, semi-rigid and rigid. Blimps are blown up somewhat like a balloon. Semi rigid airships traditionally have had a “spine” that extend beyond the gondola. The “Zepplin NT, which, in reality is not that much larger than the Goodyear blimps uses a connected rigid latticework that might be likened to a geodesic dome. Both blimps and semi rigids use “balloonettes” inside the pressurized helium that can be inflated with air to maintain pressure.

A rigid airship has a rigid frame like the zeppelins. Basically, gas envelopes inside hull are “pressure less”. Basically, if you hang a rigid airship in a hanger it will maintain it's shape. This is debatable but rigid is still better for large airships over a million cubic feet.

Compared to the Pre-WWII zeppelins use of helium is the critical difference but weight reduction is also important. A pound of the weight of the airship itself is a pound that can be used for payload or fuels. The older airships used an aluminum alloy for structural girders. A Modern zeppelin would rely heavily on carbon fiber. This and new design technology might reduce the “girder weight” by 50% to 75%. The hull, which is basically an arch design can be “pretense” with kevlar./aramid cord. This is the basic “arch” principle.

The gas envelopes used to be made of canvas cover with cow intestine “goldbeaters skin” or later acetate film stock. The same material technology used in the “plastic-metal” snack food bags, which give very low gas permeability (so the potato chips don't get stale) can be used. Obviously a more robust version can be used but some basic product. I read that the the Goodyear Blimps only purify the helium a couple of times a year. Blimps are pressurized, which increases permeability. Also, the gas cells are much smaller so the ratio of surface area to volume is far higher. A modern zeppelin could go a year, perhaps longer with no significant permeability loss or helium contamination. Basically, the modern zeppelin gas envelopes would weigh a lot less.

These is the outer covering or hull. With a zeppelin we are literally talking about “acres” of “skin” here. The old zeppelins basically used cotton sail canvas with several coats of paint. We have a lot of new, far lighter all weather fabrics. The Metrodome, has a “Teflon” roof more than 25 years old. The “Champion Air” hanger on Cedar between Crosstown and 494 is a fabric exterior. The new Denver airport has a fabric with a 65 year design life. The semi-rigid Zepplin NT has a “skin” close to the space walk space suits. We can make extremely durable “skins” that save a lot of weight. Keep in mind that weight save on the airship is fuel or payload.

As for shape, modern zeppelins will probably have the same basic profile as the Hindenburg. Some “tweaking” perhaps “fatter” but no major changes. For a propulsion system I tend to favor an electric drive system with diesel engines as primary power but diesel fuel turbines as backup power. You could start with proven “off the shelf” components and upgrade later to save weight. My favored drive system is an electric drive with vectored variable pitch propellers, probably six or eight at first with a Hindenburg sized airship. Vectored means that they can be pointed upward for “lift” or the opposite, downward if the airship lets too “light”. Variable pitch means that load and thrust of each unit can be controlled by changing the propeller pitch. For the short term helicopter systems can be used with the design “tweaked” in the future.

For now I would say that the first generation large airships should have six, preferably eight electric drive propeller units for redundancy. This might reduced in the future. I'm pulling numbers out my hat now but lets say that with gas turbines you have 7500 “surge” horsepower. If we figure ten pound of thrust per horsepower (just an educated guess) the zeppelin could take off 75,000 pounds “heavy”. Once in motion the airship would tilt a bit upward but the the “kiting affect” would allow it to operate with this overweight. This takes some fuel but it's relatively efficient. That is a trick to give more weight for fuel and payload.

My next focus is on naval zeppelin operations. More payload tricks here. BTW: Most people think of German Zeppelins in World War I as “bombing London” but the main effort was “Naval” and the German Zeppelins managed to keep the British navy in port during most of WWI. Even then, German used “amphibious zeppelins” to great advantage. Something I figured out but was surprised the WWI Germans also did.

Somali Pirates size US ship.

I was actually talking to a former Somali pirate a few days ago! “Retired” from it a long time ago, now a Minneapolis cab driver, who drinks beer but I suspect that he maintains contacts in Somalia.
Back five or so years back when he did it the Somali pirates preyed on the locals. Then the Somalis set up an alliance/bribery with the North Koreans and Cubans. The commies harvested far more fish than they said they would so the coastline got very badly over fished. This caused the Somali fisherman to venture farther out into shipping lanes to try to catch fish. The pirates followed and started harassing shipping.
The pirates found this more lucrative than an empty fishing boat (the old piracy when he did it was basically “commandeer the catch” and some valuables on the boat). According to the “pirate emeritus” this turned into an “industry” due to the money of course but also the lack of retaliation.
Over a few more beers I slipped in a few more leading questions and technical details but he stayed in “kabe” so I tend to believe him.
I also assumed he had no malice against us but he had communication potential with the current class of pirates. We also had a lengthy discussions about the capabilities and uses of moder n “flying aircraft carriers” (google it) of you are lazy http://newwars.wordpress.com/2009/02/17/amazing-aircraft-carrier-alternatives-flying-aircraft-carriers/
I’ve studied airships for more than 30 years. Airships can be tendered and refueled by marine ships. They can stay on station for days or even weeks at a time without refueling. Their radar is “look down” and can have “line of sight” radius of hundreds of miles.. The aircraft launch and retrieval was refined even for jets in the 1950’s but you don’t exactly need a “supersonic stealth fighter” airplane to counter a pirate boat, just a “weapons platform”. Heck, a diesel engine biplane would do just fine. Also, with an “air drop” launch an airplane can have a far greater takeoff weight, the equivalent of air-refueling “topping off”.
Our “pirate emeritus” listened intently to the details on this. I might have said that it was very early develop but I was acting sort of “drunk” at the time. Again, a lot of technical questions back and forth so I think he was “pumping me for information”.
An even chance the “flying aircraft carriers” might get back to Somalia and the pirates. If the active Somali pirates get in a “tizzy” over it the US communications eavesdropping will pick up “chatter” on this weapon that is so secret that not even the US government knows about it.
We will see if this is what it takes for a US native to communicate and idea to the US government.

Want to get healthy? Exercise 7 minutes a week

Want to get healthy? Exercise 7 minutes a week

Last Updated: 2009-01-28 11:48:01 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Michael Kahn

LONDON (Reuters) - Rigorous workouts lasting as little as three minutes may help prevent diabetes by helping control blood sugar, British researchers said on Wednesday.

The findings published in the journal BioMed Central Endocrine Disorders suggest that people unable to meet government guidelines calling for moderate to vigorous exercise several hours per week can still benefit from exercise.

"This is such a brief amount of exercise you can do it without breaking a sweat," said James Timmons, an exercise biologist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, who led the study.

"You can make just as big as an effect doing this as you can by doing hours and hours of endurance training each week."

Type 2 diabetes, which affects an estimated 246 million adults worldwide and accounts for 6 percent of all global deaths, is a condition in which the body gradually loses the ability to use insulin properly to convert food to energy.

Very strict diet and vigorous, regular and sustained exercise can reverse type 2 diabetes, but this can be difficult for many people. The condition is closely linked to inactivity.

Timmons and his team showed that just seven minutes of exercise each week helped a group of 16 men in their early twenties control their insulin.

The volunteers, who were relatively out of shape but otherwise healthy, rode an exercise bike four times daily in 30 second spurts two days a week.

After two weeks, the young men had a 23 percent improvement in how effectively their body used insulin to clear glucose, or blood sugar, from the blood stream, Timmons said.

The effect appears to last up to 10 days after the last round of exercise, he added in a telephone interview.

"The simple idea is if you are doing tense muscle contractions during sprints or exercise on a bike you really enhance insulin's ability to clear glucose out of the bloodstream," Timmons said.

The findings highlight a way for people who do not have time to work out a few hours each week as recommended to improve their health, he added.

His team did not look for other important benefits to health that come from exercise, such as lowered blood pressure or weight control, but said another study had shown similar benefits to heart function.

But Timmons said getting people to exercise even a little could translate into big savings for health systems that spend hundreds of million of dollars treating diabetes.