To Palinize, or not to Palinize?

That is the question facing the mainstream media in their approach to Michele Bachmann. They are at the cusp. George Stephanopolous just set the scene by making it Bachmann’s responsibility to prepare 28 kids and foster kids (most all grown by now) for the media nightmare which is about to descend upon them. Gee, nice family you got there. It would be a reeeal shame if something happened to them, you know?

CNN’s Kiran Chetry spent her whole session clearly wrestling with Bachmann for control of the narrative. Five of six questions asked by Chetry were distractions about gaffes, including one in which she asked if this was all too distracting. Have you EVER seen any of the lefty press ask Bachmann her position on tax policy? She … Continue reading

Fukushima Leaks 15K Liters

The news gets worse and better.

About 15 metric tons of water with a low level of radiation leaked from a storage tank at the plant on the Pacific coast, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it was investigating the cause of the leak which was later repaired.

via Radioactive water leaks from Japan’s damaged plant | Reuters.

 

If my math is right (I don’t have my Fukushima cheat sheet with me), this is less than one hour’s worth of water throughput, and it is lightly contaminated, not heavily. That’s not good, but it’s a lot better than it could be.

And, the decontamination machinery which was abruptly stopped after running only an hour and a half … Continue reading

TEPCO's Other Cooling Problem

TEPCO hosted a record-breaking shareholders’ meeting, not only becoming he longest, but perhaps the most contentious in living memory.

“I apologize from the bottom of my heart for the trouble and fear that we have brought to our shareholders, and to society,” said the chairman, Tsunehisa Katsumata, at a tightly guarded Tokyo hotel.

“We will do our utmost to bring the accident to a resolution and to work toward our mission of providing a stable source of electricity,” he said.

Some investors refused to be placated. “Go jump into a reactor and die!” one elderly man shouted at the row of executives present, before being escorted out by attendants.

At one point, when Mr. Katsumata tried to wrap up a question-and-answer session, angry shareholders rushed the stage. The … Continue reading

Intent

[pullquote]The constitution means now what it did long ago.[/pullquote]

I don’t much care for the term “original intent”. The constitution has a meaning and that meaning does not change over time. Time does pass and things do change, but if there was intent at the beginning then that intent can hardly change when the ones who intended are gone.

There is exactly one way to change the meaning of the constitution, and that is through Amendments. Anything else is interpretation, which is good and absolutely necessary to the functioning of society, but it does not supplant the intent. Unfortunately, many today believe that interpretation does supplant intent either from their own ignorance or the ignorance of their teachers. Don’t believe it.

The constitution means now what it did … Continue reading

Fukushima Cooling Proposal (re-write)

I’ll just summarize the gist of my cooling idea: Combined evap and recirc as poor man’s external primary/secondary loop.  At this point, this proposal is only viable if the current filtration process fails either in part or in whole.

[ UPDATE: It has failed again

“At the Fukushima plant, meanwhile, recovery efforts have been slow and perilous. A circulation system that would allow the plant’s reactors to re-use cooling water — which officials have called an important step toward resolving the crisis — was started up Monday but shut down just 1.5 hours later.

The system was designed to reduce the amount of contaminated runoff from the reactors, which are being kept cool with water. Tokyo Electric officials have said that 110,000 tons of … Continue reading

2011: Year of the Open Source Meltdown

Increasingly, the development model for Open Source software seems to be (excuse me) “Hope & Force”.  Perhaps you have read of my discontent with PulseAudio due to their unrealistic and abusive treatment of users, and now FireFox is also telling users to blow goats.

Asa Dotzler, director of Firefox, has made it clear he doesn’t consider the enterprise users worth supporting.

In several comments added to a follow-up post by Kaply, Dotzler did not mince words.

“Enterprise has never been (and I’ll argue, shouldn’t be) a focus of ours,” Dotzler said. “I can’t imagine why we’d focus at all on the kinds of environments you care so much about.”

Later Thursday, Dotzler essentially said it was a return-on-investment decision.

Continue reading

Cut, Cap, Balance Pledge is a Trojan Horse

The more I think about this, the more I vehemently dislike this pledge idea.  Stop talking, and just fight.

[pullquote]We already had a pledge and the Republicans sold us down the river.  This is just more of Lucy and the football.[/pullquote]

There are several honest Republicans pushing this idea, but it’s still rotten.  This is marketed as an offense to be used against Democrats, but in fact, it is a defense to shield Republicans from the base.  This is establishment Republicans trying to convince us that the way to win in Washington is to help them convince their democrat friends to vote with the Republicans.

That is the wrong answer.  This is just more of Lucy and the football.  We do not need to expend a single … Continue reading

Republicans Failed on Pledge, Want Another Pledge

Republicans are now fertilizing their own Astroturf with a mixture of the remains of the last pledge and some fresh manure for flavor.  The problem is that it would only make things worse, for reasons that are pretty obvious.

Here’s the pitch:

———————–

THE PLEDGE

I pledge to urge my Senators and Member of the House of Representatives to oppose any debt limit increase unless all three of the following conditions have been met:

  • Cut – Substantial cuts in spending that will reduce the deficit next year and thereafter.
  • Cap – Enforceable spending caps that will put federal spending on a path to a balanced budget.
  • Balance – Congressional passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — but only if it includes both a spending … Continue reading
  • Fukushima Cooling Proposal

    I’m no expert, but it may make sense to evaporate rather than purify our way toward a reduced bulk of heavily contaminated water.

    TEPCO set up a water-purifying rig and had planned to replace the filters about once a month, based on expected radiation levels.  About a week ago, they fired it up and five hours later, they shut it down with filters at 110% of the limit.  Perhaps purifying the water is not an appropriate measure right now.

    Here’s an overview of my proposal: Take hot water from containment and flash it with a mild vacuum. Draw off the fairly clean steam, and condense it elsewhere. Return the remainder to containment. This reduces the bulk of heavily contaminated water while slightly increasing its concentration. … Continue reading

    Obama's Sophisticated Military/Political Strategy

    Unfortunately, the target is “generic Republican”, and the timeframe is next year’s election. This miserable campaign speech masquerading as a military announcement is a signal to his base and to the rest of the world that the only enemy he will commit to fight is Republicans. Assad? Fine. Taliban? Fine. Ahmadinejad? You kidding? He’ll call me names in the UN! No, no, no, let me be clear. We’re outta here.

    Moron Democrats have no concept of honor or victory. They are seized with, possessed by, a retarded concept of balance wherein we should never win but always tie, there is no right and wrong, and good news should be met with the punishment of those who achieved it.
    I don’t know who will run Afghanistan next, but … Continue reading