Alfred Holzheu – online and verbose – The Main Pontifications page
Alfred Holzheu – online and verbose – The Main Pontifications page
Entries by Alfred Holzheu (75)
Monday, November 7, 2011 at 9:29 AM
9:29AM
Nov 7, 2011 at 9:29 AM
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/11/03/141958681/planet-money-in-the-new-york-times-magazine#more
This guy writing for NPR has nailed it, personal responsibility is everything, and no one can manufacture an economy or a job.
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Friday, September 2, 2011 at 9:15 PM
9:15PM
Sep 2, 2011 at 9:15 PM
“I wrote this in reply to a reply (who did not see the problem) to a friend who was bemoaning the moving of a division of GE to China, but I feel that it is relevant here also. Also, the competitors to Solyndra who drove down the cost of panels to below manufactuerablitly in the US, were receiving massive direct and indirect subsidies (the artificially low value of the yuan and the use of essentially sweat shop labor) from the Chinese government, and if we used the Chinese system of “equalizing” tariffs to discourage our products from being competitive in China, we could take those same tariffs and “subsidize” our manufacturer’s to make our investment worthwhile.
The problem is that by moving that division to China, although there is a temporary business increase for some US companies, we are sharing our tech with the “economic” enemy. They will copy everything, and then use slave and gulag labor to produce these parts they need to have and cheaper and sell to the rest of the world. Do you realize that there is no Paypal in China (they did not allow it or put horrendous conditions or duties to discourage it) and Cisco has to constantly fight to keep their proprietary code (and have lost every time to the lack of real enforcement of intellectual property rights in China). Look at Apple, Foxcom (Apple’s primary manufacturer in China) is now introducing their own cell phone (with a proprietary OS) that they will sell in competition to Apple all over the world and they only way they know how to do that is that they were taught by us. Are we that stupid? Where are we going to employee people if we constantly put all our manufacturers out of business? They are not our friends.
Alfred
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Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 3:27 PM
3:27PM
Mar 20, 2011 at 3:27 PM
Why are we in Libya? We have no reason to be there, we do not buy their oil, they export virtually nothing to us, they are ruled by what appears to be a mad man, they are a third world developing nation that is powerless to defend against cruise missles. There is no upside, no end game, no possible reason to attack them. Even China and Russia did not concur on this at the seucrity coucil, we have been played again! How long will it take for our foreign affairs people to figure out that they do not like us, want nothing to do with us, etc. etc. etc. One of the only times I can agree with Farrakhan “who do you think you are Mr. Obama?” (in reference to his comment to Gadaffi to step down). This is insanity!
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2:27PM
Mar 20, 2011 at 2:27 PM
Political ‘Science’
“House Republicans rejected amendments offered Tuesday by Democrats that called on Congress to accept the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, it is caused in large part by human activity and it is a threat to human health,” the Hill reports:
Committee ranking Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) offered an amendment Tuesday that called on Congress to agree that climate change is occurring. The amendment failed on a party-line vote of 20-31. No Republicans voted for the amendment.
The amendment says that “Congress accepts the scientific finding of the Environmental Protection Agency that ‘warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.’ “
“This finding is so obviously correct that there should be no need to offer the amendment,” Waxman said.
Two other Democrats offered similar amendments that differed slightly in wording, which were voted down by the same party-line vote.
The Dems’ intent is to portray Republicans as “antiscience,” but only someone with no understanding of science could reach that conclusion. Scientists attempt to explain the world by formulating hypotheses and conducting empirical observations to test them. “Global warming” is one such hypothesis. By treating it as an ideological doctrine and effectively making it part of their party platform, it is Democrats who are showing themselves to be hostile to science.
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Saturday, August 14, 2010 at 5:36 PM
5:36PM
Aug 14, 2010 at 5:36 PM
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/question638.htm
If you truly want to get real, you must separate the conversion efficiency of solar energy into food from the the conversion of solar energy into mechanical motion. Although plants are indispensable for the production of food (even us omnivores know that), they are very poor at making that transition from solar nuclear froth into making the wheels of the bus go round and round. Both are important, but both have their place. To digress a little, there are probably seas of methane on Titian, ergo hydrocarbons are probably a gift from the GOD, and we can use that gift to produce modern life. Consequently we can produce food, or produce solar cells (assuming that you don’t buy into the CO2 is bad hypothesis) from that energetic bounty. Each has its proper place and efficiency coefficient, but to take the inefficient process of growing a plum and making fuel from it is just stupid, when the same expenditure of effort can produce 15 times the energy with solar cells. I am ignoring nuclear for the moment as we do not have a environmentally acceptable process to extract energy from the true source. If someone comes up with a solution to this conundrum, all bets are off. But until then, we need to drink reality tea, not fantasy koolaid.
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Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 9:01 AM
9:01AM
Jul 29, 2010 at 9:01 AM
Gallons of Oil Spilled 102,144,000. gallons
Gallons of Dispersant 1,100,000. gallons
Total gallons of Spill 103,244,000. gallons
Gallon of water in Gulf 650,000,000,000,000,000. Thats 650 Quadrillion
Decimal Percentage 0.000000000158837
Parts per Billions 0.001588369230769
Parts per Trillion 158.836923076923
PPT of Gold 50.
No wonder they are having trouble find the oil to clean up.
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Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 12:05 PM
12:05PM
May 29, 2010 at 12:05 PM
I had an interesting thought, namely that all tourists are in a fashion illegal immigrants, with the only difference being that they are not trying get a job. The demonizaton of a particular immigrant group is dangerous, and as history shows, once on that path, it is easy to dehumanize them, then in extreme cases kill them. We are moving down that path. These people are for the most part just you and me looking to better themselves but through the accident of birth ended up in a country that can not feed them. But of course a country has to keep to the rule of law to avoid anarchy, so obviously a worker in this country needs to be documented. But like the drug trade, the problem is in the demand. As long as employers will hire undocumented aliens, which is like putting candy in front of a 4 year old (no I am not comparing the current group of illegal immigrants to 4 year old children, there are many analogies, I just happened to use that one) they will come, they have no choice.
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Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 8:27 AM
8:27AM
Mar 23, 2010 at 8:27 AM
Bill
You said in your TED speak regarding the TerraPower that there is has been no scientific support for the climate skeptics, which is probably true, but I have to ask, and I have done a fair amount of research though I am not in any way a scientist or expert on climate issues, but what is the real science supporting the CO2 forcing issue? If your read the IPCC report or any of the scientific papers, they are all self-referential and rely almost completely on statistical linkage which is itself based on paleo-climate data that is a guess at best, and by all accounts very much open to interpretation. There is no way to formulate a hypothesis and test it as we don’t even have the tools to accurately measure any of the variables. Additionally, look at the scale of things (the Earth and its environment), we are but the pimple on a flea on the back of an elephant relative to the terrestrial forces, let alone solar or galactic ones. One volcano in Iceland will produce more CO2 and other “green house” gases than every car in the US in all of history. The Chilean earthquakes have released more energy than mankind has produced in its history and some. We can do nothing that has any permanent effect, we are always just one hurricane, one volcano, one earth quake away from oblivion, and if we wish to survive, we must insulate ourselves from a very hostile natural system. Nature is very much entropic, while life is syntropic.
All that being said, I am strongly in favor of your comments regarding RD and the use of nuclear energy. Energy is the driver of all things, and its availability and price dictate the progress of man.
Alfred Holzheu
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Monday, March 22, 2010 at 8:22 PM
8:22PM
Mar 22, 2010 at 8:22 PM
The great American Experiment is over, RIP. Eugenics is now the law of the land, and Peter Pan economics now rule the day, very SADDD. There does not seem to be anyone who actually cares any more, when junk science can win out over rational thought, and voodoo economics can supplant reality, we are truly lost!
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Monday, March 15, 2010 at 8:08 PM
8:08PM
Mar 15, 2010 at 8:08 PM
Does anyone see the resemblance of this lawlessness to the prohibition. Come on!!!! get real, the drug trade feeds on its illicit nature, and that is a human invention. YOU CAN NOT LEGISLATE MORALITY!!! It has never worked in thousands of years and will not work tomorrow. Why is this so difficult to understand?
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“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” Albert Einstein