Book Of Norm

Just launched today is a Senate version of the Waxman-Markey bill which was passed by the house a few months ago. Like house bill, it looks like it will have almost no impact on GHG emissions while cutting US jobs, slowing the economic recovery, and generally being crappy piece of legislation which adds many more government oversights and controls. El Obamismo said "With the draft legislation they are announcing today, we are one step closer to putting America in control of our energy future and making America more energy independent," except none of that is true. If you wanted to make the US more energy independent, you would promote nuclear plants and find a real waste facility other than the failed Yucca mountain (a program which Obama has essentially shut down - and which it deserved, but there needs to be a better other option). These idiotic tax-and-trade bills only "save the environment" by marginally reducing US demand through higher costs, and at the same t...

What do you do when you are up in space, and you really long for that cup of Peruvian coffee, slice of French pastry, or Russian lug nut from 1997 that somehow drifted off into space and left your space toaster inoperable? You replicate it. Or actually, you print it. For now the tech is pretty much limited to that third option: the lug nut. Pasty chefts and coffee shops take heart. NASA is looking at flying a 3D printer that will allow those aboard the ISS to create small objects that they need. This is known by the distinctly sci-fi name of Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication, or EBF3. Essentially it uses an electron beam to melt metal and then the beam and a rotating surface to reform the metal in the shape of the object desired. It allows any part to be fabricated as long as there is a good enough rendering of the part (including layers). The benefits in space are readily apparent: the costs of getting anything up to orbit are astronomical, the speed replacements can be delivered is ...

Turns out that human spaceflight is not perhaps as limited as you might think. But there is a catch. Or two. We will never be able to explore the whole universe. It is expanding so rapidly (faster than the speed of light at the edges) that we will never be able to visit the whole thing. Which is not really a problem, because we have a whole lot to explore anyway. But here is the interesting part. With a spaceship which accelerated at a steady 9m per second, or roughly 1g of force, up to the speed of 0.99 the speed of light it would only take 30 years for an astronaut to arrive at the spot as far away as light from our Sun could reach, roughly 15 billion light years. 30 years is incredibly quick, a single lifetime rather than many generations. It means that long distance travel really is possible. But here is the catch. If you then turned that ship around and headed home, you would have a hell of a time making it back to Earth. At just relativistic speeds if you hit the brakes one secon...

Water has been found on the Moon. And not just in the craters near the poles either (which have long been suspected of harboring ice, and have recently proven to be the coldest places in the galaxy, with temps hovering within 10 degrees of absolute 0) but all across the surface of the moon, albeit in very low concentration. Three different satellites have confirmed the presence of water or hydroxyl. Perhaps the most interesting part is how the water got there. Some may have come from comets or other sources. But some may also have come from the solar wind, a stream of high energy hydrogen atoms emitted by the sun, striking the oxygen rich rocks and surface of the moon, breaking apart their bonds, and forming water.

The Mass Senate recently voted to approve a bill that allowed Deval Patrick to appoint an interim Senator to the seat vacated by Ted Kennedy. It looks as though Paul Kirk will be that appointee. The thing is, a couple years ago the Democrat controlled senate voted to block the power of the governor to do so, when it would have been against Democrats interests. Now they reverse their stance, many admitting personal distaste for the measure, so that the Democrats can get back quickly to their crucial 60-40 majority in the Senate. Government based on the will of the people? Based on the rule of law? Drawing limited and enumerated powers from the national and state constitutions? No. None of the above. This is partisan legislating at its most despicable.

Tariffs are the bane of the free market. Econ 101 will tell you that barriers to trade are almost never good things and instead stifle competition and raise end costs to the consumer. Case in point: the Ford Transit Connect This rather cool small work van is very popular in Europe. Actually the whole segment is very popular in Europe and does not even exist over here. Ford thinks there is a business case to be made for importing them as small businesses often dont want or need a big white van that gets 15mpg, can't fit down narrow streets and drives like a tank (and I know - drove one for a winter in Park City delivering skis). And I think they are right, just last night I saw a Scion xB driving by with work ladders on the roof and the rear seats removed. The thing is back in the 1960's Germany (West Germany actually) decided it was against the importation of American chickens and eggs. So it imposed a tariff. The United States, being very proud of its chicken farming and none ...

The best car show in the world, some of the best (if not the best) cinematography of any show on television, an hours worth of hilarity, insane stunts and beautiful exotic cars... and it has always been shot in standard def.... (Clarkson voice).... Until Now. The next season (the 14th) will be shot in HD. Finally. Honestly, this show more than any other show in the world deserves to be in HD. After pro sport, this is the show where HD will actually matter. The catch? As far as I know, Verizon (which I have) does not yet pick up BBC America HD. Of course, there are always the interwebs (and bittorrent), but I would love to just have it on my DVR. Here's hoping that Verizon does the right thing and brings the best show in the world to these HD loving shores. As a side note, I would love it also if the BBC decided to actually show Top Gear on time, rather than months late... but I would settle for HD at this point.

Just saw an amusing advert for going to college online. They used a college age girl walking around in her pj's to sell the idea of online college.... Which is ironic because what you don't get by going to college online is girls. Or human interaction at all for that matter. Pretty funny actually.

As I work on the new Book of Norm website (see nav bar ------->) my brother is working on the new website for his recently mostly completed but still being edited novel. This is set in "The Four Part Land," a Tolkienesque fantasy world with a very developed set of cultures, societies, creatures and geography. The new website also has up the Prelude and first part of the first chapter. Swing on over to http://thefourpartland.com/the_prelude.php to read the prelude. Also - I will be working in the near future to market the book, any thoughts are appreciated.

In what may be a sign of things to come and is a sign of the attitude of the current administration, the United States is currently heavily pressuring the independent judiciary of Honduras to violate their own constitution. It is doing this because the current administration does not like the ruling handed down by the independent judiciary of a sovereign democracy. The Honduran Supreme Court found President Zelaya to be in violation of that nations constitution on a number of fronts. He was thus removed from power. The United States is calling this a "coup." The administration, particularly Hillary and Obama, are pressuring the court to break their own constitution and re-instate President Zelaya. Obama instructed Hillary to punish the judiciary of Honduras because they followed the rule of law rather than his wishes. Say much for his belief in the rule of law? Say much for his belief in democracy? Or for that matter, his own infallibility? At the same time all this is going ...

Interesting WSJ article summing up Obama's approach to what is and what is not a "tax." President Obama didn't make much news on his round of five Sunday talk shows yesterday, with one notable exception. The President revealed a great deal about his philosophy of government and how he defines a tax increase. It turns out the President thinks a health-care tax is not a tax if he thinks the tax is for your own good. Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Mr. Obama was asked by host George Stephanopoulos about the "individual mandate." Under Max Baucus's Senate bill that Mr. Obama supports, everyone would be required to buy health insurance or else pay a penalty as high as $3,800 a year. Mr. Stephanopoulos posed the obvious question about this kind of coercion when "the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don't [buy insurance]. . . . How is that not a tax?" "Well, hold on a second, George," Mr. Ob...

When I was working on the new website www.bookofnorm.com (go check out the basic theme if you like, it is very minimalist, easy to use with touchscreen phones, and quick to navigate through), I came up with the idea of rabbit holes. Namely, when I spend time on a website I normally like to look at a chains of articles that I find interesting. The idea of a rabbit hole is just that - a chain of articles which are linked by a theme. Really it is just a content reorganization from this blog, but I think it will be an interesting read for people. I am working on other new ideas that will revolutionize the web. Ok, not really revolutionize. But things I think should be there. Next up: content mapping.

In an issue near and dear to my heart (though against my professional interests), gas prices are likely headed lower soon. Options traders are betting on a big fall in prices as the slowly recovering world economy is not enough to keep gas prices high - they have gone up over 50% this year, but the demand is just not there. Prices are expected to fall as much as 40% by December - according to options traders. Which, considering that I am now driving my not-so-good-on-gas Ford Expedition again (though to be honest, I got about 22mpg in the s4 anyway), is very good news for me.

40% of global pregnancies are unintended. The single biggest determining factor in human's emissions of greenhouse gasses is population size. a+b=contraception is the cheapest way to cut greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades. The study, done at the London School of Economics agrees with a WHO report set to come out in November that rampant overpopulation is what is destroying this planet. Thus the solution to the GHG problem, in a brilliantly oblique way, is to reduce the population expansion. Of course, this is not really politically feasible. Could you imagine Obama trying to get up and explain to the American people that his solution to global warming is nationalizing Trojan Condoms and shipping them by the container ship to Asia and Africa? Sadly, what is lost in politics is the ability to brilliantly out-think the problems of the world, the only solutions that are acceptable are the solutions which can be easily explained to the lowest common denominator individual....

Quick recap of what we have seen in the last year or so (and certainly, some of these started with the previous administration, but have gotten worse with the current one. Others are 100% new admin). • Monetary policy will likely cause inflation. • The fiscal-stimulus package will likely result in unprecedented levels of deficits and interest payments that reduce the amount of credit going to the private sector. • Federal spending on infrastructure, social programs, and transfers to the states will increase government consumption and transfers, lead to more regulation and, in some cases, encroach on state responsibilities, damaging the integrity of the legal system. • Bailout policies involve changes in existing rules, damaging property rights, the integrity of the legal system, and the legal enforcement of contracts. • Other measures, or proposed measures, that will reduce economic freedom include higher marginal incometax rates, increased regulation of the financial and manufacturing...

Where is Hillary Clinton? We just announced that we were pulling the missile defense shield, a move with very significant impacts on our international stance, our allies in Europe and some will believe our relationship with Russia (though I can guarantee it wont do a damn bit of good there). Through all of this, she has been no where to be seen. Actually, when was the last time you can remember her doing anything public at all? In her defense, much as I think she is an amoral political operator, I think she is a little more steeped in the realities of politics than our current college professor president. It would not surprise me at all that she is against the move and instead believes that we should have taken on Russia and Iran, the two targets of the system--one directly, one symbolically--instead of trying to appease dictators. What do you get when you appease a dictator? Them screaming about how they will never give up their nuclear programs, or how the holocaust never actually ha...

This is from the Telegraph, and it is pretty funny. I like Dan Brown, but the writing is pretty terrible (especially with Deception Point). His 20 worst sentences, as decided by the editors of the Telegraph: 20. Angels and Demons, chapter 1: Although not overly handsome in a classical sense, the forty-year-old Langdon had what his female colleagues referred to as an ‘erudite’ appeal — wisp of gray in his thick brown hair, probing blue eyes, an arrestingly deep voice, and the strong, carefree smile of a collegiate athlete. They say the first rule of fiction is “show, don’t tell”. This fails that rule. 19. The Da Vinci Code, chapter 83: "The Knights Templar were warriors," Teabing reminded, the sound of his aluminum crutches echoing in this reverberant space. “Remind” is a transitive verb – you need to remind someone of something. You can’t just remind. And if the crutches echo, we know the space is reverberant. 18. The Da Vinci Code, c...

Not sure this assesment is entirely accurate, but an interesting and very dark take on the upcoming chevy volt. http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/15/general-motors-chevy-volt-environment-opinions-contributors-autos.html -- Sent from my Palm Pre

The farse that is acorn, liberal ideology and our current POTUS. From the WSJ: "a fourth Acorn office visit by freelance investigators James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles. As Johnny Carson used to say, it's weird, wild stuff. The woman manning the Acorn office in San Bernardino, Calif., Tresa Kaelke, responds to the pair's requests for help setting up a child-prostitution ring by claiming to be an ex-prostitute herself. "Heidi Fleiss is my hero!" she exclaims. When Giles claims her former pimp abused her, Kaelke tells of having been abused by an ex-husband--then confesses to his premeditated murder." The liberal attitude in response to this can be neatly summarized as follows. NPR's Frank James: "It's also important to keep in mind that ACORN's workers are coming from the same low-income neighborhoods the organization serves, with all that entails--poor schools, high crime and the sorts of social problems that have been documented for deca...

The US will be eliminating adjusting the missile shield that had been planned for Eastern Europe. The US believes that N. Korea is not planning on building long range missiles. Which is pretty much like saying that they think the Easter Bunny has no interest in larger chocolate eggs: a) we have not a damn clue what the Easter Bunny thinks (we cant even confirm basic information like whether it exists) and b) of course the Easter Bunny wants bigger and better eggs. With that analogy out of the way, I would like to point out how this also pisses off some of our closest allies (Eastern Europe) in the vain hope of appeasing Russia. So we gave in to the demands of an aggressive dictatorship over the cries of aid from fledgling democracies in the name of stability and international friendship. Sound historically idiotic to anyone else? Sure, Poland and the Czech Republic saw the missile shield mostly as a protection from the mother to the North, as it should have been. It also happened to p...

Oklo: Natural Nuclear Reactors Creating a nuclear reaction is not simple. In power plants, it involves splitting uranium atoms, and that process releases energy as heat and neutrons that go on to cause other atoms to split. This splitting process is called nuclear fission. In a power plant, sustaining the process of splitting atoms requires the involvement of many scientists and technicians. It came as a great surprise to most, therefore, when, in 1972, French physicist Francis Perrin declared that nature had beaten humans to the punch by creating the world’s first nuclear reactors. Indeed, he argued, nature had a two-billion-year head start. 1 Fifteen natural fission reactors have bee...

From NewScientist: 1 The placebo effect Don't try this at home. Several times a day, for several days, you induce pain in someone. You control the pain with morphine until the final day of the experiment, when you replace the morphine with saline solution. Guess what? The saline takes the pain away. This is the placebo effect: somehow, sometimes, a whole lot of nothing can be very powerful. Except it's not quite nothing. When Fabrizio Benedetti of the University of Turin in Italy carried out the above experiment, he added a final twist by adding naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of morphine, to the saline. The shocking result? The pain-relieving power of saline solution disappeared. So what is going on? D...

Big news (is coming). There is now a Bookofnorm.com But, as if you just clicked on it you would have found out, it is not big news yet because bookofnorm.com just redirects back here.... for now... this will continue to be the blog. I simply like it too much and it is too easy to use (I dont want to FTP every time I post, and I can email posts to this, and I like the format and it has all the old posts etc etc etc). But in the near future there will be, hopefully, a fair bit more coming along.

Obama, at this late and critical hour, has come out basically demanding no watered down compromise but the full bill that he asked for. And he wants it for free. You have to give one thing to him, he is determined to do what he sees as best. I think he has finally realized that this nation faces a very difficult time ahead if we dont get spending under control. So he is demanding that the bill does not add to the deficit. Actually demanding it. On top of that he is demanding that there is immediate coverage provided to those with preexisting conditions. Of course, this is basically saying that people who have never paid for car insurance have the right to demand coverage for a crash, after the crash occured. Make sense to anyone else? Regardless, Obama is demanding that too. He actually went out on a limb and said he would not pass unless it did not cost taxpayers. And it is quite a limb, because most Washington oddsmakers were thinking this would be settled by some kind of co-op compr...

The snuggie is going to be featured at NY fashion week. Yes the snuggie... Which is pretty much incredible, as they will be bringing new animal prints and a doggie snuggie as their big introductions. I still dont want one. http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_ 16032/contentdetail.htm? contentguid=Dyz2LIrd

Pretty interesting and crazy list... This is the original article, as written by Avi Abrams in November, 2006. All rights reserved, @ Ian Media. 1. Bolivia's "Road of Death" North Yungas Road is hands-down the most dangerous in the world for motorists. If other roads could be considered impassable, this one clearly endangers your life. It runs in the Bolivian Andes, 70 km from La Paz to Coroico, and plunges down almost 3,600 meters in an orgy of extremely narrow hairpin curves and 800-meter abyss near-misses. A fatal accident happens there every couple of weeks, 100-200 people perish there every year. In 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank named the La Paz-to-Coroico route "the world's most dangerous road." Among the route there are many visible reminders of accidents, wrecked carcasses of lorries and trucks lie scattered around at the bottom... (read BBC article ) (images via 1 , 2 ) The buses and heavy trucks navigate this road, as this is the only ro...