Monday Book Pick: A New American Tea Party
Filed under: American History, Monday Book Pick, Politics, Tea Party
A New American Tea Party: The Counterrevolution Against Bailouts, Handouts, Reckless Spending, and More Taxes by John O’Hara.
This book cover the history of the early Tea Parties in 2009 and provides information on how to “brew your own.” Bonus: Forward by Michelle Malkin!
Is Obama going Nuclear?
Filed under: economy, energy, Environment, Nuclear Power, Our Dear Leader, Politics
It seems that our Dear Leader may actually keep one of his promises. According to Townhall.com:
The Obama administration’s planned loan guarantee to build the first nuclear power plant in the U.S in almost three decades is part of a broad shift in energy strategy to lessen dependence on foreign oil and reduce the use of other fossil fuels blamed for global warming.
President Barack Obama called for “a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants” in his Jan. 27 State of the Union speech and followed that by proposing to triple loan guarantees for new nuclear plants. He wants to use nuclear power and other alternative sources of energy in his effort to shift energy policy.
Obama in the coming week will announce the loan guarantee to build the nuclear power plant, an administration official said Friday. The two new Southern Co. reactors to be built in Burke, Ga., are part of a White House energy plan that administration officials hope will draw Republican support.
Yup, safe, clean nuclear energy. Plentiful electrical energy completely free of greenhouse gases.
Also good for the economy, as Dr. Pournelle stated:
I have to say it again: cheap energy will cause a boom. The only cheap energy I know of is nuclear. Three Hundred Billion bucks in nuclear power will do wonders for the economy. We build 100 1000 MegaWatt nuclear power plants — they will cost no more than 2 billion each and my guess is that the average cost will be closer to 1 billion each (that is the first one costs about 20 billion and the 100th costs about 800 million). The rest of the money goes to prizes and X projects to convert electricity into mobility.
Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore also thinks it is the ecologically sound thing to do.
I am not alone among seasoned environmental activists in changing my mind on this subject. British atmospheric scientist James Lovelock, father of the Gaia theory, believes that nuclear energy is the only way to avoid catastrophic climate change. Stewart Brand, founder of the “Whole Earth Catalog,” says the environmental movement must embrace nuclear energy to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. On occasion, such opinions have been met with excommunication from the anti-nuclear priesthood: The late British Bishop Hugh Montefiore, founder and director of Friends of the Earth, was forced to resign from the group’s board after he wrote a pro-nuclear article in a church newsletter.
…
Over the past 20 years, one of the simplest tools — the machete — has been used to kill more than a million people in Africa, far more than were killed in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings combined. What are car bombs made of? Diesel oil, fertilizer and cars. If we banned everything that can be used to kill people, we would never have harnessed fire.
…
the 103 nuclear plants operating in the United States effectively avoid the release of 700 million tons of CO2emissions annually — the equivalent of the exhaust from more than 100 million automobiles. Imagine if the ratio of coal to nuclear were reversed so that only 20 percent of our electricity was generated from coal and 60 percent from nuclear. This would go a long way toward cleaning the air and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Every responsible environmentalist should support a move in that direction.
Hulu app for the iPad?
By way of Apple Insider, is this TechCrunch post about Hulu getting around the lack of flash support on the iPad/iPhone/iTouch by creating a dedicated app.
One rumor I’ve heard from an industry insider is that Hulu is working on an iPad-friendly version of its site that should be ready by the time the iPad hits the market. Hulu itself is still vague about its plans.
Hulu is a major source of online videos direct from the content providers (i.e. quality streaming videos instead of hacked, malware ridden stuff), so having it on the iPad will provide a lot of added value. I still hold that the apps customized to take advantage of the iPad will be a major factor in driving sales.
Originally published at Urbin Technology.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Walk Hard
Walk Hard – The Dewey Cox Story
This musical bio-pic mockumentary takes on multiple musical bio-pics, but mostly the very well done Johnny Cash story, Walk the Line. John C. Reilly is a great pick, since he does all his own singing and guitar playing, which he actually does quite well! The rest of the cast is quite funny and the music is really good too! Yes, I bought the soundtrack CD.
Just in case your nerd cred is running low
Not a problem for me, but just in case your friends are getting a bit geekier than thou, I have the solution.
A Star Trek:TOS communicator that is a functional USB Microphone/Speaker device.
I kid you not nerdlings. You can plug this thing into your computer and use it with Skype and other VoIP apps, if you dare…
Ok, it would be cooler if it had a USB port instead of an attached cable. Perhaps in rev 2.0.
Monday Book Pick: The Jennifer Morgue
The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross.
It’s another tale from the “Laundry Files.” British Civil Servant Bob Howard is forced to save the world from the horrors of the “Old Ones” once again, while dealing with the mind numbing horrors of government bureaucracy at the same time. Stross pays tribute to the British institution of James Bond in this book as well.
Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration.
This video is made of pure win.
Imagine the media outcry if G.W. Bush had made this mistake.
By way of Resist Tyranny comes this video:
As RT notes:
The teleprompter apparently displayed the word speled correctly: c-o-r-p-s-m-a-n. But he pronounced it “corpse-man.” Twice. Conclusion? Barack Hussein Obama is militarily illiterate.
This is just another example of how deep our Dear Leader‘s lack of experience runs, and how bad his teleprompter addiction is.
Update: Hot Air makes the probably spot on Ron Burgundy comparison.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Forbidden Planet
This SciFi classic hit the screen in 1956. It had a very good cast, including Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen as the dashing young spaceship Captain. It was also the first time Robbie the Robot was seen! Beware the Creatures of the Id!
iPad is bringing new life to the e-book debates
With Apple’s announcement of the iPad and the Apple iBook store, people have been noticing the ongoing debate about e-books, e-readers and the ugly concept of DRM, which assumes that paying customers are thieves.
Joining the fray, is is Stephen Green, also known as the Vodkapundit.