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Fact Checking Climategate

Posted by BLOGASSAULT on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 9:47:01 PM
   Here is a fun article from Voices In My Head. Seems the MSM is far more interested in fact checking Sarah Palin's book than the leaked emails from CRU.
 

Now we have this. From the AP's article covering (up) ClimateGate:

The AP studied all the e-mails for context, with five reporters reading and rereading them—about 1 million words in total.

That's less than half the reporters they assigned to "fact-check" Sarah Palin's book.
 
   What a surprise.
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GM's Chevy Volt Marketing Song

Posted by BLOGASSAULT on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 9:17:03 PM
   This is what you get when you put the govenment in charge of marketing for a car manufacturer. Via Jalopnik.
 
GM, we need to talk. Your new cars are good, you've got interesting tech features and your quality's competitive. Crap like this Chevy Volt dance undermines all your efforts. We're not laughing with you, we're laughing at you.
 
 
 
   Agreed! This is beyond horrible.
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Gangsta Grip

Posted by BLOGASSAULT on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 8:52:11 PM
   An interesting story in Slate, Via Snowflakes From Hell, on the origins of the sideways "gangsta grip".
 
'Gangsta Grip' is even in the Urban Dictionary.
 
Here is a picture if you don't know what I am talking about
 
Go to fullsize image
 
 
 
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When Do We Take This Seriously?

Posted by BLOGASSAULT on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 7:42:30 PM
   Here is Sf Gate's The Thin Green Line's big story for today...
 
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So Much For A Low Cost Hybrid

Posted by BLOGASSAULT on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 6:50:00 PM
     Guess what? The U.S. National Research Council has decided that electric cars like the Chevy Volt and the Toyota Prius are likely not to get any cheaper to build than the past few years.
 
   Doesn't jive with what Toyota just announced. This is a good example of government waste; doing studies that get contradicted the same day.
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Climate Change Art - Or Something

Posted by BLOGASSAULT on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 2:10:54 PM
   In the Huffingtin Post we have a link to some climate change art displayed in Copenhagen. I am no conasure of art, but I am pretty sure that I could do this...
 
   My kitchen rug looks like this every night when I get home after the dogs have been running around the house.
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Toyota Offering Up Affordable Prius

Posted by BLOGASSAULT on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 1:41:06 PM
   Toyota is going to offer an affordable Prius to consumers in 2012. (Via Instapundit)

The world’s No. 1 automaker has for years offered a litany of reasons why adding a cord to the world’s most popular hybrid wasn’t as easy as all those enthusiasts who have done it would have you believe. There were questions about range, reliability and cost. But it seems Toyota has at last answered them, and today it announced it will offer the plug-in Prius in “widespread release” as a 2012 model.

So what made Toyota finally get off the dime? Could it be that the company that made hybrid a household word is a wee bit worried about losing the green mantle to General Motors or Nissan? After all, the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf electric vehicles roll into showrooms at the end of next year.

The New York Times says Toyota has “scrambled to gain the upper hand in an increasingly crowded battle over next-generation ‘green’ technology.” It’s a fair assessment, now that everyone’s jumping on the hybrid bandwagon. You know it’s a crowded field when there’s a Porsche Cayenne hybrid and even a Tata Nano hybrid on the horizon.
 
   I like what Glenn Reynolds said about bailoutmotors. The fact is, there are a lot of people who aren't going to buy any kind of GM product until the governmnent gets out of the car business.
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It isn't Always About Guns With Mayor Bloomberg

Posted by BLOGASSAULT on Monday, December 14, 2009 7:03:21 PM
   Sometimes it is about the environment. Here is a picture of him admiring some wind turbines in Denmark.
 
 
   And he should feel right at home there because handguns are illegal. Maybe he should move there and run for town council under the 'Green Movement/Anti-Gun Socialist Party'.
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More Good News For Gun Sales

Posted by BLOGASSAULT on Monday, December 14, 2009 3:51:34 PM
   Large portions of tax money collected from the sale of firearms goes to wildlife and hunting programs in many states. With the high volume of gun sales over the last two years, these governmnet programs are probably bursting at the seams with cash! Michigan did well:
 
The newspaper said Michigan is expecting $17 million from the taxes, $6 million more than last year's record, which will be coming at a time when the state's departments of natural resources and environmental quality are merging.
 
      That's almost three times the amount of last years numbers, and last year was a record as well. Pretty impressive!
 
   According to the latest numbers, tax obligations for firearms are up 52% over last year at this time.
 
According to the most recent Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax Collection Report, released by the Department of the Treasury, firearm and ammunition manufacturers report excise tax obligations to be more than $122 million in the second calendar quarter of 2009, up 52 percent over the same time period reported in 2008.

This dramatic increase follows a 43 percent increase in excise tax obligations from the previous quarter (1Q, 2009) and 12 straight months of significant increases in FBI background checks – another strong indicator of firearm sales. Excise tax obligations over the last reported 12 months (July 2008 through June 2009) were more than $419.8 million, an increase of $105.9 million (33.7 percent) over the preceding 12–month period (July 2007 through June 2008). The year’s substantial increases in background checks and federal excise tax obligations began just prior to the 2008 elections and flourished despite a worsening economy.

Manufacturers of firearms and ammunition pay a federal excise tax -- a major source of wildlife conservation funding -- on all firearms and ammunition manufactured (11 percent on long guns and ammunition and 10 percent on handguns).
 
   Pretty impressive if you ask me! Here is one area were he could actually count as "jobs created or saved"!
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Developing Countries Walk Out Of Copenhagen Talks

Posted by BLOGASSAULT on Monday, December 14, 2009 3:15:38 PM
   There is now no denying that these countries want our money after staging a walk out to protest no extrension of the Kyoto provisions.

The walk out occurred as African nations sought guarantees that the summit would not sideline talks about the future of the Kyoto Protocol. They want a second seven-year commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012, be given priority over broader discussions on a "long-term vision" for cooperation on tackling climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol, which was never ratified by the United States, ties rich countries to legally binding limits on emissions. Poorer countries do not have the same legally binding curbs. The Protocol is also a mechanism to transfer clean-energy technology to poorer nations.
 
   They want the money, the technology, and the free pass that all the developing countries got under the old protocal. What a surprise...
 
 
Poor countries ended a boycott of U.N. climate talks Monday after getting assurances that rich nations were not conspiring to soften their commitments to cutting greenhouse gases, European officials said.

European Union environment spokesman Andreas Carlgren said informal talks resolved the impasse, which was started by African countries and backed by major developing countries, including China and India.

Rich and poor countries "found a reasonable solution," he said.
 
    Well, they got what they wanted I guess. There is no details on what they agreed upon.
 
The developing countries want to extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which imposed penalties on rich nations if they did not comply with its strict emissions limits but made no such binding demands on developing nations.

It was the second time the Africans have disrupted the climate talks. At the last round of negotiations in November, the African bloc forced a one-day suspension until wealthy countries agreed to spell out what steps they will take to reduce emissions.

"They are trying to put the pressure on" before Obama and other world leaders arrive, said Gustavo Silva-Chavez, a climate change specialist with the Environmental Defense Fund. "They want to make sure that developed countries are not left off the hook."
 
   Well, good for them. God forbid they have to go to these talks and get nothing out of them. Besides, they are poor. We should not forget that. Problem is, they are obviously not poor enough to not show up. Did they hitch a ride with another country, or did they take their own private jet? I wounder if they are taking part in any of the other, shall we say, pleaseantries that Copenhagen is offering this week.
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
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