Saturday, March 19, 2016

Science Saturday: A Little Hydrogen Bonding

facts do not cease to exist

I see that a new type of hydrogen bond has been discovered. 

1980_series-hhSeries HH

No, not a Wall Street instrument, some kind of new-fangled chemistry discovery:

An entirely new class of hydrogen bond that forms between a boron–hydrogen group and the aromatic, π-electron system of a benzene ring has been discovered. – Chemistry World

I can’t even pretend to know what that means. Maybe Janice the Elder can help us out.

So what’s up in the world of science anyway? First we had to deal with the detection of gravitational waves a few weeks ago and now…new hydrogen bonds!

definition_of_hydrogen_poster-re99255ec74bc4640a50b67a91cef4d66_tvw_8byvr_324

I’m confused by all these new discoveries; I thought the science was settled. This is turning into a brave new world of science.

“Even science must sometimes be treated as a possible enemy. Yes even science.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

I wonder if Barry is keeping up with all of this because, as you know, He’s a yuge fan of science:

167200000“A “drone” you say? What could I do with a thing like that?”

One of his first appointments was physicist Dr. Stephen Chu serve as U.S. Energy Secretary. He and Lady M had a competition of sorts going for awhile: she was trying to reduce childhood obesity in one generation and he was trying to reduce the U.S. per-capita consumption of fossil fuels in the same timeframe.

mo and chuLady M and the amazing Dr. Chu. I don’t think he’s a real doctor, but he does have a degree…in science!

I’m not sure how well Lady M’s effort is coming butt Dr. Chu left after he discovered a secret way to stop global warming (explained in Dr. Chu’s Great Whitewash Caper).

Anyway, Big Guy expected to stop global warming the same way he planned to slow the rise of the oceans – by executive fiat. Results to date have been…sluggish. He blames the Republicans for dragging their feet.

The latest disappointment in a long line of failed disappointing alternative energy programs funded in large part by the U.S. tax payers is Ivanpah, a massive solar thermal power plant in the Mojave Desert.

California regulators may force a massive solar thermal power plant in the Mojave Desert to shut down after years of under-producing electricity — not to mention the plant was blinding pilots flying over the area and incinerating birds. (snip)

Ivanpah, which got a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the Obama administration, only produced a fraction of the power state regulators expected it would. The plant only generated 45 percent of expected power in 2014 and only 68 percent in 2015, according to government data.

And it does all this at a cost of $200 per megawatt hour — nearly six times the cost of electricity from natural gas-fired power plants. Interestingly enough, Ivanpah uses natural gas to supplement its solar production. (snip)

NRG Energy said the plant had only produced about one-quarter of its expected output in the months after it opened. The company needed an infusion of cash [from the Federal Government] to help keep the project afloat. (snip)

That was only the beginning of the company’s problems. Environmentalists quickly attacked the project for killing thousands of birds since it opened. Many birds were incinerated by the intense heat being reflected off Ivanpah’s heliostats, (snip)

Pilots have also reported seeing a “nearly blinding” glare emanating from Ivanpah while flying over the solar plant. The Sandia National Laboratory. – Daily Caller

So, it looks like we’ve still got a few bugs to work out in our quest to replace fossil fuel with clean energy. Maybe this newly discovered hydrogen bond thingie will prove to be helpful.

hindenberg explosion“Science is dangerous, we have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled.”
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

 

Remember, facts don’t cease to exist just because they’re ignored.

science

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Friday, March 18, 2016

A Year of Living Dangerously

“Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation– the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up

Ben Carson clearly had some ambivalence when he endorsed The Donald.

Put it all together and this is what Ben Carson is saying about his Trump endorsement: I would rather have endorsed someone else, Donald Trump engages in the politics of personal destruction, but I endorsed him anyway and he promised me a job. – Red State

Instagram-hater-fake-friends-quotes-memes-5

Butt Lindsay Graham almost choked over his own endorsement of Ted Cruz. It was like watching a Fellini movie.

fellini

"I prefer John Kasich; Cruz is not my first pick by any choice," the South Carolina senator explained. "But I don’t see how John Kasich can mount the opposition that Ted Cruz can to stop Donald Trump from getting 1,237" (the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination).

Unlike Carson, Graham has made it abundantly clear that he really doesn't like Cruz at all. In January, he said Cruz has "exhibited behavior in his time in the Senate that make it impossible for me to believe that he could bring this country together," adding that choosing between him and Trump is "like being shot or poisoned — what does it really matter?" Last month, he joked about Cruz's general unpopularity among his colleagues, saying, "If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you."  - New York Magazine

You decide which is the magic and which is the spaghetti.

Now I hear rumors that Marco Rubio might also endorse Ted Cruz today; unless he gets a better offer from The Donald and decides to go with the “con-man.”  I know that politics make for strange bedfellows, butt this is almost surreal. At the rate we’re going I almost expect Romney to change his mind (again) and come out for Trump too.

 Mitt-Romney-Trump-A-con-man-GOP 2016 DebateYes, I’m going with Trump, turns out his hands are yuge!

‘Tis a strange season, and it’s hard to read the tea leaves in this most interesting, ambivalent year.

0e1220605_the-year-of-living-dangerouslyProceed with caution.

All I know for sure is that with endorsements like this, who needs critics?

Oh, and by the way, the rest of the Fitzgerald quote, that’s less often cited:

One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up

P.S. Again, I apologize for the ads the last two days. I believe Raj has now tracked down their source and kiboshed them. You will be surprised to learn that the source was none other than Disqus, and was supposed to be done on an “opt in” basis only, which I emphatically did NOT do. Although, I admit I was tempted after discovering that I earned $.18 on Wednesday and $.48 yesterday. So don’t tell me I’m not sacrificing for the good of the country.

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Sláinte!

You’ve probably been wondering what Lady M’s been up to while we’ve been preoccupied with Republican debates, Republican primaries, rioting in the streets and the future of America. Well, there’s big news: MO is positively NOT going to run for president! (Unless, you know, she’s drafted or something.)

I know how disappointed you must be, as are the rest of her fans. She broke the devastating news yesterday at the South By Southwest conference in Austin where she delivered another keynote address (Barry, you  may recall, delivered the key keynote last Friday during Nancy Reagan’s funeral.).

mo full viewMy what an interesting…what, dress? Uniform? Apron? Whatever.

 

“First Lady Michelle Obama’s keynote at SXSW brought an all-star panel together for a broad discussion of music, activism, and diversity.”

Music, activism and diversity: the three most important elements in society these days. And Lady M , there to promote her Let Girls Learn initiative, sang a little Boyz II Men for the crowd thus demonstrating how to combine all three.

Mo halfway to the moonI told you it was an…interesting frock, didn’t I?

Well, I’ve got to run; I let Raj talk me into hosting a St. Patrick’s Day party and I’ve got to go make Reuben Eggrolls (whoops! sorry: cultural appropriation alert).

eggrolls

And get the Guinness tapped:

GuinnessPint

Because what better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in America than with homemade Jewish-Chinese food, topped off with a black beer, set to a background of bagpipe music? I think Lady M would be proud: music, activism and diversity.

obamabeer guinness

slainte

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Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

More Sugar!

The votes are (mostly) in , the speeches are (thankfully) over and the fight continues. A few observations.

Ohio: okay, we get it – you love your guy.  To you I make this promise:  If you like your governor, you can keep your governor.

kasich under confetti2Celebrate like it’s 1999 John!

I think we can finally lay to rest the precept that no Republican has ever won their party’s nomination without winning Ohio.

On Hillary’s impressive sweep of Florida and Ohio: apparently you can out-socialize a socialist! Here’s her latest plan to Make Amerika Great Again:, slightly paraphrased: “Hey, how about we kill all of your coal and fossil fuel jobs and replace them with government welfare! And solar!”

Her acceptance speech was a classic Progressive call for “More Sugar” - delivered with all of her standard acidic charm: ( I know it’s hard, butt please stick through to the end for the sugar.)

“So Take Off Your Shoes!”

“And young people across America struggling under the weight of student debt find it difficult to imagine the futures they want. And they deserve a president who will help relieve them of that burden and help future generations go to college without borrowing a dime for tuition.

And grandparents who worry about retirement deserve a president who will protect and then expand social security for those who need it most, not cut or privatize it.

Families deserve a president who will fight for the things that are our priorities at home but too often aren't priorities in Washington: affordable child care, paid family leave, and, something we have waited for long enough, equal pay for equal work for women.”

I can’t help it: I hear Hillary’s shrill voice full of hollow promises and all I can think of is this Firesign Theatre bit from Don't Crush that Dwarf, Hand me the Pliers

"Shoes for Industry! Shoes for the Dead! Shoes for Industry!”

HI! I'm Joe Beats.

Say, what chance does a deceased returning war veteran have for that good payin' job, more sugar, and that free mule we've all been dreaming of?

Now take off your shoes.

Now you can see how increased spending opportunities, mean harder work for everyone, and more of it, too! So, do yourself a favor, Joe. Join with millions of your friends and neighbors, and, TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES!  FOR INDUSTRY!

Yet another spin on the time-honored Progressive jobs plan: the only way to improve the economy in this, the surreal post-normal world created by Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Clinton is to remove your shoes and turn them in to the government: thereby creating jobs for people to make new shoes to replace the shoes you’ve patriotically turned in. It’s like daylight savings time for the economy.

So the next time you hear somebody whining about Donald Trump not having any specific plans for Making America Great Again, play them this video of Hillary’s plan and ask them to choose wisely.

boot-stamping-on-face-foreverToday’s Post Brought to you by Commie Martyrs High School where their motto is:

  "There are no classes in our society, or in our school".

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Beware The Ides of March

There is more than one reason to be wary today. It’s Super Tuesday II and, yes, it is the Ides of March - the day Julius Caesar was assassinated by a coalition of his friends and family.

caesar

Butt that’s not the only significant political take-down that took place on March 15; in 1917 Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate his throne thus ending the 304-year-old Romanov dynasty that ushered in Bolshevik rule. He and his family are taken captive and later executed before a firing squad.

Bolshevik-troops-burn-Czar-portrait-4_jpg__1072x0_q85_upscale
So a little heads up for politicians and proletarians alike: when the people finally get fed up enough they take matters into their own hands. And that doesn’t always work out so well either so let’s be careful out there.

The Democrats have their own kind of quandary; they have to choose between an old socialist and an even older socialist. The Republican options are less clear. Removing one Caesar won’t necessarily solve Rome’s problem:

The men who murdered Caesar considered themselves as “liberators” of the republic. Whatever may have been their motives, they seem to have taken little thought as to how Rome would be governed after they had killed their tyrant. If they thought that the senate would take up the powers it had lost, and successfully rule the republic, they were grievously mistaken. The only leading man of the senate who had survived the last civil war was Cicero; but Cicero with all his learning and eloquence could not take the place of Caesar. What Rome needed was what the liberators had taken from her, a master mind of broad views and of great executive power. We need not be surprised that the death of Caesar was followed by confusion and dismay.

And we all know how badly the Bolshevik Revolution turned out:

lenin

So if you’re voting today please beware the Ides of March. And choose wisely, weed-hopper,

ChooseWisely_eb8044f3.aspx

Because elections have consequences.

ELECTIONS

Now get out there and seize the day as it is the only March 15, 2016 you’ll ever have.

dickens quotes

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Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Monday, March 14, 2016

Our Revolutionaries Aren’t Murderers

Funny, we were just talking about Professor Ayers the other day and up he pops on Twitter with this:

bill ayers

First things first: is it any wonder the public education system has produced such a crop of highly educated morons? The former head of the Education Department at the University of Illinois doesn’t know the difference between “altar” and “alter?”

Secondly, I presume, based on the vignette and the tweet, these are the people the host would prefer to dine with: Karl Marx, Che Guevara, Malcolm X, and Edward Snowden. Not surprising, coming from the author of such educational tomes as Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism, Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident, and Teaching for Social Justice: A Democracy and Education Reader.

I wonder if the altar was set up the night Tucker Carlson and Andrew Breitbart dined with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn?

 

Upon further reflection perhaps Ayer’s tweet was shorthand for “the dining room will alter America.”

While Ayers is still highly regarded in the education field, and has previously served as the American Educational Research Association’s Vice President for Curriculum Studies he also has had his critics over the years:

"Calling Bill Ayers a school reformer is a bit like calling Joseph Stalin an agricultural reformer." - Sol Stern

 

famine-in-ukraine

“Reform,” I guess you could call it that.

I guess it’s not surprising then that Ayers showed up to protest Trump in Chicago on Friday (and speak to the media):

Screen Capture #181Irony is wasted on the uneducated

Anyway, as you are well aware tomorrow is Super Tuesday II, so if you live in one of the target states get out there and fight for your candidate of choice. Because our enemies are legion. And Andrew would want you to.

andrew breitbart our revolutionaries

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Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Stay Thirsty, My Friend

It’s Sunday, we’re still recovering from yet another week of gob smacking, and as if that weren’t enough, we’ve also been forced to sacrifice a precious hour to the Daylight Savings gods. For no apparently good reason.

daylight savings i hate it

So we’re going to go easy on the politics today. Although I do have a suggestion for the GOPe; if they really don’t want to back Trump, I’ve located the only man in the world who can beat him, and the good news is - he’s going to be available soon!

That’s right,only The Most Interesting Man In The World can beat The Donald at this point. Although they do seem to have some shared experiences: “He once had an awkward moment, just to see how it feels.”

trump-eagle-555 

most interesting man's owl“Not quite my friend; when you pose with birds, they must fear YOU.”

Perhaps The Most Interesting Man In The World is the only person who could possibly Make America Even Greater than The Donald would. And don’t give me any crap about him not being eligible to run for president - he’s a Mexican for goodness sake; that’s better than being a naturalized citizen these days.

And like The Donald, “His presidential run will be a sprint. But he will be running,”

most interesting man

And if none of that convinced you to throw your support to The Most Interesting Man in the World, here are a dozen more reasons:

12. His words carry weight that would break a less interesting man's jaw

11.If he were to pat you on the back, you would list it on your resume.

10. He once warned a psychic.

9. He once ran a marathon, because it was on his way.

8. Mosquitos refuse to bite him purely out of respect.

7. If he were to mispronounce your name, you would feel compelled to change it.

6. If opportunity knocks, and he's not home, opportunity waits.

5. His two cents is worth $37 in change.

4. Once, a rattlesnake bit him. After five days of excruciating pain, the snake finally died.

3. When he has a 50/50 shot, the odds are 80/20 in his favor.

2. He has won the lifetime achievement award, twice.

1. Presidents take his birthday off.

So forget about the candidates, their polls and their positions for at least today. Get out there and enjoy your day, regardless of the time or weather. We really do only go around once in life.

what time it is

So remember to stay thirsty, my friend.

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network