Energy « I have a voice

Category: Energy

June 16, 2012

Favorite news sources

by Nori — Categories: Economics, Energy, Feeding the Soul, Government, Politics, Social networking, Taxing the American Public, Wising up — Comments Off

In my RSS feed (I use Bloglines as I’m still boycotting Google) I have over 30 hard and soft news sources. I can get away with having this many because most don’t produce a lot of data daily. For example, one of my favorite singers, Diana Krall, adds concert dates every couple months. I subscribe so I know when she’ll be coming to our area. The rest of the time the feed is empty. Others, like Breitbart News, Daily Caller and Reason TV and Magazine, put out dozens of news items a day but I don’t read them all. Many news feeds are all reporting on the same thing. Much of it I can mark as read and move on. Many of the sites are aggregate news sources (pulling news from other sites) which makes them a feed inside a feed. I keep them on the list so I can get the newest news and follow the progress as the story develops or changes. I get more of the big picture and I prune away any feed that can’t consistently report accurately. I don’t have time for someone’s speculation. That’s not news, that’s bias.

Here are some of my longest read feeds:

Cato Daily Podcast (my most favored feed)
Wall Street Journal (podcast, twice daily tech news briefing)
Cato (not prolific but interesting and educational informed commentary)
Libertarian News (rss for their US news aggregate only – see websites for other available feeds)
Breitbart News (a real hit and miss as much of this is a repeat if other news sources. They chop one short video interview into multiple sound bite “stories” which is pretty irritating and some of their reporters can’t spell or use a dictionary (anyways not a word, and sherriff has only one r). Despite that, Breitbart still rates highly with me as a news source. They are also a member of the New Media.)
Reason TV/Magazine (libertarian commentary, some of it very good, some of it imminently skip-worthy)
Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom (not prolific but thought provoking)
Downsizing the Federal Government (reporting on unconstitutional action/legislation, waste, fraud. The feed is not prolific but usually interesting)
Daily Caller (fairly comprehensive, includes in-house reporting)
The Washington Independent (Fed Gov’t news, mostly in-house reporting)
Spokesman (reporting on Washington State legislators and legislation)
Supreme Court of Washington (WA State SC)
Public Sector (highlighting Public Sector Union waste/fraud/mismanagement and general self-serving duplicity/stupidity)
Freedom Foundation (small government commentary/news)
Liberty Live
Ron Paul 2012 (the philosophy, the rallies, the videos, the supporters)
CNS News (about a dozen items a day, mostly a repeat of other sources. I’ll eventually prune this feed as it’s mostly a skip/mark as read.)

I also have a couple websites I visit daily. After the top two, the rest on the list are for a slow news day or if I need a different slant on something breaking.

Townhall Cartoons (good political cartoons from a conservative viewpoint – weekdays only)
Drudge Report (news aggregate. Drudge was the seed for the New Media with the breaking of the Lewinsky story. Epic.)
Libertarian News (a dot org with comprehensive news – includes categories for Sci/Tech (good comprehensive coverage), national news (CNN, Fox, BBC, Reuters, AP and Al Jazeera) world news (same list of sources) and tabloid headlines (the total superficial including Yahoo and The Daily Mail from Britain)
Newsmax Breaking News (conservative news, usually fairly stodgy)
Olympia Watch (Washington State political)
National Journal

Add to that a couple inspirational sites like Daily Good and Gimundo, a couple DIY sites (Make and One Project Closer) and one health specific (Celiac.com) and I’ve got a pretty well rounded source for news every day. I just have to stay aware that much of what I read is someone’s personal, and occasionally not very learned, opinion. And I have the Daily Mail tabloid news when I need to check on fashion and the slow motion train wreck of celeb’s lives on slow news days. How could I possibly get through life without knowing which celebs have saggy knees! <rolls eyes> For the real girly, I check out shoepr0n on Tumbler where the only topic is fashion footwear. With all that, who needs TV news?

Once you start an RSS feed you’ll find you do a lot of feed pruning until you’ve developed a comfortable volume with an array of content. As you use the feed, you’ll get a feel for what is slanted by the author or site’s inclination to disaster-monger and you will find yourself weeding out the worst until you have a fairly reliable source for ALL the news. Your perception will change when you are no longer restricted to just what the main stream media feels you should know.

April 1, 2012

Still riding the “ain’t no such thing” global warming horse

by Nori — Categories: Economics, Energy, Feeding the Soul, Government, Politics, Wising up — Comments Off

The rain can stop any time now. If it doesn’t, I’m considering ark building as a potential hobby.

There’s lots going on in the global warming debate. Much of the steam has seeped out of the global warmists’ engine. Poland, among other EU eastern border countries, has told the rest of the EU to eff off, they’re going to continue to use their plentiful coal to produce the energy needs of their country. While that was a big thing when they started spouting it at the initial upswell of the global warming debate, now the figurative flipping-off is causing nary a ripple.

India and China are building thorium nuclear power plants patterned on research the US did middle of the last century. As a country, our failure to embrace our own research and our inability to be nimble in retrenching to a better/safer/cheaper nuclear technology is leaving egg on our faces. It’ll be interesting to see what Japan does over the next 10 years.

The EPA has backed off on its suit against a gas drilling company in Texas. It seems the methane in the drinking water was a pre-existing condition. Who knew?! <rolls eyes> I’m hoping the ruling against the EPA on the Sackett case in the Supreme Court was a bit of a wake-up call but I’m wasting zero time and energy holding my breath in anticipation. Governmental arrogance is a well established trait unlikely to change.

I read a really good article on Climate Realists this morning about past warm periods/droughts (decimated the Roman population) and wet periods (people literally had limbs and digits falling off) and plague (fleas brought in by the rat migration due to drought). I need a time machine so I can send those who think we actually have any influence on climate back in time. I’ll even let them pick ice age or drought! See how generous I am?! And no, I’m not bringing them back. I envision this as a one-way trip. I see it as their civic duty to reduce the current population’s influence on the climate by engaging in a little population reduction, a nice little bit of forced altruism.

So, today we’re testing to see if you’re up on the facts on CO2. Yeah, that’s me, poking people through the bars of their cage. <evil laugh> I have to get my ever-so-cheap thrills where I can. It is, after all, still raining.

So, pick one.

I think ALL of the CO2 in the Earth’s Atmosphere is from man.
I’m not sure how much “Man Made” CO2 is in the Earth’s Atmosphere.
There is .04% CO2 in the Earth’s Atmosphere and of that “Man” has added an extra 4% (1 part in 62,500)

If you pick the first, the time machine line forms to my left. If you picked the second, I’m a little surprised you stayed awake long enough to read all the way through this post. You can go back to sleep now.

November 8, 2011

June 28, 2011

EPA regulatory excesses

by Nori — Categories: Energy, Politics — Tags: Energy, EPA — Comments Off

This letter went to President Obama, Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray and Jaime Herrera-Beutler today. My expectation is that, of the four, only Herrera-Beutler is going to understand, agree and take the appropriate action.

I don’t want to send you the pre-formatted letter sent by many using FreedomWorks connector. I will take the time and use my own words to express how distressed I am by our developing welfare state, the unhealthy growth in government and the profligate spending taking place in Washington DC. Our close emulation of Greece lets me use the classic “it’s a Greek tragedy”, but that small joke is the only upside I can see to the current mess we are in and that’s a very sad thing to say.

Today’s focus is on the EPA’s latest train wreck of regulatory excesses which portend rising energy costs that will further forestall this country’s recovery. The EPA is basing it’s regulatory ideology on the assumption that global warming is real and man caused and the citizens of the US are the world’s worst offenders. This is a distressingly unrealistic set of assumptions based entirely on pseudo-science. The IPCC has much to answer for in this matter, though I find the Scientific Journal nearly equally as culpable. Please, take the time to look at ALL the research from scientists who are actually in the field of climatology. Not all climatologists agree about global warming. Not all climatologists who believe in global warming think it is man made. To categorically state all scientists agree there is global warming and that it is man made is patently false. Global warmists are trying to regulate a gas we breathe out. Without CO2, plants can’t thrive, trees can’t grow. More CO2 means plants grow more vigorously and more people can be fed a healthier diet.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand what the new and proposed EPA regulations will do to our society, to our country and to our lifestyle. I join with FreedomWorks to urge you to support legislative efforts to stop EPA’s latest regulatory over-reach. I agree with FreedomWorks, it is a train wreck.

And if you need further proof that the EPA’s regulatory path is a bad idea, remember what raising energy costs will do to those who have low income or live on a fixed income. As the price of energy rises it will take an increasingly larger percentage of the poor’s available funds. Rising energy costs equal a decrease in the poor’s standard of living. Anything you do that facilitates, even passively, the increase in energy costs will be most acutely felt by the poor. This is a much greater threat to the poor than anything done to reform entitlement programs.

April 7, 2011

The truth about nuclear power?

by Nori — Categories: Economics, Energy, Feeding the Soul, Politics — Tags: environmental, nuclear, science — Comments Off

Read the unpalatable truth about the anti-nuclear lobby for the truth about nuclear power.

And then comes the rant . . . I think this one’s been building for a while.

One of the things that irritates me to the extreme is the misreporting/slanting of the facts done by activists and politicians. Not just on nuclear, but on the budget, budget reform, government reform, the environment and global warming. Maybe misreporting is the wrong term. Maybe I should use misleading or misrepresenting or misinterpreting instead. Regardless of the term used to describe the verbalization, it’s just plain wrong and the action seriously undermines the credibility of the person or organization perpetrating the lie. I hate being taken for a fool and that’s what the media, politicians and activists often do; feed us false information and encourage us to make false choices by using emotion and seemingly likely potential disaster scenarios instead of stating the facts.

Here’s an article on various environmental movements’ failure to ground their activism in scientific fact. After you’ve read this fairly short article, get the site’s RSS feed. If you don’t stay up on this stuff you’re going to continue to believe the main stream media’s take on all things scientific.

If you’re concerned about the environment, if you’re concerned about global warming, you should take the time to truly study the issues for yourself. Don’t believe what others are saying. Don’t advocate for an idea just because it gives you warm fuzzies or because someone you like or respect says it’s so. Question everything. In today’s information age, there is no excuse for not researching to find the truth.

It’s important to stay educated. Education is a life-long task. For the environmental/green movement, I’d suggest you start with Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist. Dr. Patrick Moore writes an engaging firsthand account of his many years spent as the ultimate Greenpeace insider, a co-founder and leader in the organization’s top committee. Moore explains why, 15 years after co-founding it, he left Greenpeace to establish a more sensible, science-based approach to environmentalism. From energy independence to climate change, genetic engineering to aquaculture, Moore sheds new light on some of the most controversial subjects in the news today.

Where do you fall on the gullibility scale? I think I’m pretty far down because I have a solid “connect the dots” mentality and a strong attachment to dealing in sound logic. All the puzzle pieces must fit smoothly or the puzzle is flawed. I cannot believe in a disconnect and I don’t believe in someone who has colored, bent or misrepresented the facts unless I already know the facts to be true. If it’s important, verify. If you’re going to repeat it to anyone, verify. Always. Don’t add to the problem by spreading false information.

Monbiot, in his article on nuclear power, says it better than I ever could. “We have a duty to base our judgments on the best available information. This is not only because we owe it to other people to represent the issues fairly, but also because we owe it to ourselves not to squander our lives on fairytales.”

February 24, 2011

Energy independence

by Nori — Categories: Economics, Energy, Government, Politics — Comments Off

This morning in my CNS News Brief I saw this -

Oil Shock By Rich Galen As an expert in the area of predicting gasoline prices, I am willing to bet a Starbucks Grande Mocha that we’ll be peeking at $4.00 per gallon gasoline by this summer — $5.00 in California. At some point, higher oil prices will put enormous negative pressure on the fragile economic recovery in the West

I honestly hope the uprising in the Middle East causes the price of oil to “necessarily skyrocket.” Yeah, I can hear you gasping at me, but listen to my reasoning.

We are not going to become energy independent until the general hue and cry over the cost of foreign oil (the primary source of our diesel, home heating oil, gas, airplane fuel and propane) in this nation becomes overwhelming. It must be loud enough to drown out those people who are getting rich by advocating Americans should live in mud huts and bicycle everywhere to “save our planet.”

As the price of oil rises, the transfer of the additional cost for that oil will trickle down to everything in our economy. I really do mean everything, the cost of our food, the energy to run our homes and business, the cost of every product we manufacture, purchase and consume. Remember, the cost of oil rises for the whole world, not just for us. That means everything that China produces will cost more. Every piece of produce grown here and in South America will cost more both to grow and to transport to our local grocer’s. A significant rise in the cost of oil will effect every aspect of our lives and will, in some cases, significantly impact our standard of living.

Once the price of oil rises and everyone, even the little people, are crying because everything costs too much, we will finally step up to the mark and “drill here, drill now”. We will build the needed refineries and nuclear power plants. We just have to get into a position where we hurt enough financially to get our asses (aka Democratic donkeys) in gear and allow it. Hopefully the fallout from the disruption in the Middle East means that time is fast approaching.

Now here’s the other shoe. OPEC knows they have to walk a very fine line when setting the price of oil. If they price oil too high and/or raise the price of oil too fast they give Americans the incentive to become energy independent. With a “green” President in the White House OPEC can raise the price of oil quite a bit before the President becomes overwhelmed by people demanding we produce enough oil to become energy independent. OPEC is balancing the price of oil against the green movement’s rhetoric. If the price rises too fast the voice of the masses will overwhelm the steadfastness of the green movement and OPEC will drop the price of oil and take the pressure off so there’s no incentive for us to “drill here, drill now.” Don’t believe me? Just watch.

September 22, 2010

Clueless or devious?

by Nori — Categories: Economics, Energy, Government — Comments Off

I don’t know if you get the CNSNews daily news brief. I do. This blip actually made me shake my head.

Hillary Clinton Wants Global Standards for Cook Stoves
(CNSNews.com) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a “global alliance for clean cook stoves” Tuesday at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. The U.S. is paying $50 million over five years to provide clean cook stoves to developing countries, to reduce deaths from smoke inhalation and to fight climate change, Clinton said.

Really? Boy is she out of the loop. For decades forward thinkers the world over have been working on this problem using smart manufacturing practices and PRIVATE sector money. Don’t believe me? It’s true. Do a Google search on the following phrase and see what you get . . . rocket stove cooking developing nations. As to the inventor of the more efficient method of cooking, do a search on Ianto Evans. It’s been done, folks. It is totally not necessary to waste our tax dollars dabbling in something that is a) none of our government’s business b) does nothing to advance our country’s security or prosperity and c) is a waste of our tax dollars.

For a synopsis of one of the improved cooking stove projects, go to this link. If you know ANYTHING about rocket stoves or rocket mass heaters, you’d know that Ms. Hillary is definitely a day late and wasting a lot of our short dollars on something that’s already been invented, is in production and is being distributed to developing nations the world over using free market capital.

There was NO value in the government stepping in and distributing our tax dollars to foreign countries when the private sector is already handling the problem . This is just another example of the government stepping in where it doesn’t belong, increasing the size of government and adding bureaucracy to something that’s already working.

December 17, 2009

October 5, 2009

December 16, 2008

Green — new tradition or excuse?

by DJ — Categories: Energy — Tags: Energy, holidays — 2 Comments

I am starting to see a disturbing trend with my friends. I am getting electronic Christmas cards all in the name of being green and leaving a smaller carbon footprint on the earth. While I applaud them for sending me anything at all, it distresses me to read that they are sending an electronic card this year because it is the green thing to do. I certainly understand why, but at the same time, there is just nothing more wonderful than opening that hand-addressed card with a personalized signature on the inside. So my question is this… what is the real motivation for sending me that electronic card? Are you just too lazy to actually pick out a card, sign it, stamp it and mail it? Please don’t get me wrong. I’m all for electronic mail. It’s great for basic communication. But I don’t think I will ever be able to give up sending out my Christmas cards all in the name of being green.

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