Wednesday, March 10, 2010
'Nancy Boys'...From Paris
Nancy to (fill in the blank name): "Is that the constitution in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"
Rahm (or Gordon, as the case may be) to Nancy: "Meet me in the Congressional men's shower room."
Two Technologies That Are About To Completely Transform Electricity
Wireless Electricity
Companies like WiTriCity are developing ways to power up devices wirelessly from across a room. And you can already buy products like the Powerpad, a charger that powers up any device you set on top of it.
Carbon Nanotube Thermopower
While wireless electricity might take wires out of electricity, "thermopower" would transform electrical wires into ultratiny nanotubes which can emit enormous amounts of energy.
Each of these electrically and thermally conductive nanotubes was coated with a layer of a highly reactive fuel that can produce heat by decomposing. This fuel was then ignited at one end of the nanotube using either a laser beam or a high-voltage spark, and the result was a fast-moving thermal wave traveling along the length of the carbon nanotube like a flame speeding along the length of a lit fuse. Heat from the fuel goes into the nanotube where it travels thousands of times faster than in the fuel itself. As the heat feeds back to the fuel coating, a thermal wave is created that is guided along the nanotube. With a temperature of 3,000 kelvins, this ring of heat speads along the tube 10,000 times faster than the normal spread of this chemical reaction. The heating produced by that combustion, it turns out, also pushes electrons along the tube, creating a substantial electrical current . . .
After further development, the system now puts out energy, in proportion to its weight, about 100 times greater than an equivalent weight of lithium-ion battery
OCare Numbers by a Dem and Repub Pollster
One of the more amazing aspects of the health-care debate is how steady public opinion has remained. Despite repeated and intense sales efforts by the president and his allies in Congress, most Americans consistently oppose the plan that has become the centerpiece of this legislative season.
In 15 consecutive Rasmussen Reports polls conducted over the past four months, the percentage of Americans that oppose the plan has stayed between 52% and 58%. The number in favor has held steady between 38% and 44%.
The dynamics of the numbers have remained constant as well. Democratic voters strongly support the plan while Republicans and unaffiliated voters oppose it. Senior citizens—the people who use the health-care system more than anybody else and who vote more than anybody else in midterm elections—are more opposed to the plan than younger voters. For every person who strongly favors it, two are strongly opposed.
Mr. Rasmussen is president of Rasmussen Reports and author of "In Search of Self-Governance" (CreateSpace, 2010). Mr. Schoen, formerly a pollster for President Bill Clinton, is the author of "The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy from the Grass Roots to the White House"
Don’t hire those born in the 80s is what this study shows
Using a large nationally representative sample of young people surveyed since 1976, an article in the Journal of Management (published by SAGE) compared the work values of GenY (born in the late 1980s) to those of GenX (born in the 1970s) and Boomers (born in the 1950s) at the same age. This unique design using data from the past and present allowed the authors to identify differences due to generation and not to age or career stage.
Striking differences emerged for valuing leisure. GenY was much more likely than previous generations to say they wanted a job with an easy pace and lots of vacation time, and less likely to want to work overtime. They also saw work as less central to their lives and were more likely to agree that "work is just making a living." At the same time, they placed more importance on salary and status. In other words, the younger generation wants to have their cake (big salaries) and eat it too (work-life balance).
Press accounts often mention that GenY wants to help others and have a positive impact on society, but the study found no differences in preferences for jobs that helped others or were worthwhile to society -- GenX'ers and Boomers embraced such values just as much when they were young. GenY supposedly want interesting and fulfilling jobs where they can make friends, but analyses showed that GenY actually values these things less than previous generations.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100310083450.htm
Impressive
Papaya. The humble papaya is gaining credibility in Western medicine for anticancer powers that folk cultures have recognized for generations.
University of Florida researcher Nam Dang, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues in Japan have documented papaya's dramatic anticancer effect against a broad range of lab-grown tumors, including cancers of the cervix, breast, liver, lung and pancreas. The researchers used an extract made from dried papaya leaves, and the anticancer effects were stronger when cells received larger doses of the tea.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100309182449.htm
They expected 600, but over 2000 showed up at this anti-Obamacare meeting.
An overflow crowd turned out today at 9:45 AM to attend the “Kill the Bill” rally today in St. Charles, MO
Ah, the golden years
Life Is Shorter for Men, but Sexually Active Life Expectancy Is Longer
ScienceDaily (Mar. 10, 2010) 
— At age 55, men can expect another 15 years of sexual activity, but women that age should expect less than 11 years, according to a study by University of Chicago researchers published early online March 10 by the British Medical Journal. Men in good or excellent health at 55 can add 5 to 7 years to that number. Equally healthy women gain slightly less, 3 to 6 years
he results showed that men are more likely to be sexually active, report a good sex life and be interested in sex than women. This difference was most stark among the 75 to 85-year-old group, where almost 40 percent of men, compared to 17 percent of women, were sexually active.
Men at the age of 30, for example, have a sexually active life expectancy of nearly 35 years, but they can, on average, expect to remain alive for 45 years, including a sexless final decade. For 30-year-old women, SALE is almost 31 years but total life expectancy is more than 50. So men that age can anticipate remaining sexually active for 78 percent of their remaining lifespan, while women at 30 can expect to remain sexually active for only 61 percent of the remaining years.
Makes sense
Budget Wars Spell Grim Future For F-22 and F-35 Planes
News of cost overruns roil the debate over the world’s two most advanced warplanes, the costly F-22 Raptor and the too-big-to-fail F-35 Lightning II. Will UAVs be the final victor?A Mass Murder is a Victim? This is who the Dems want to put on the Court of Appeals?
Hearing Delayed for Obama Judicial Nominee Who Supported Serial Killer
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny gained notoriety in 2005 for his role in trying to fight the execution of convicted serial killer and rapist Michael Ross, also known as The Roadside Strangler, whom Chatigny had described as a victim of his own "sexual sadism."
His conduct in that case, which included threatening to go after Ross' attorney's law license, as well as his ruling in 2001 against sex offender registries created under Megan's Law, has caused a commotion among Republicans on the judiciary panel.
Chatigny stunned those involved in the serial killer case in early 2005 by pressuring Ross' attorney on a conference call to challenge his scheduled execution even though Ross had said he did not want to fight. At the time of the conference call, federal appeals courts had overturned two prior orders from him postponing the execution.
According to a transcript of that Jan. 28 call, the judge threatened to go after the law license of Ross' attorney, T.R. Paulding.
How O works.
Where do the Lobbyists End, and the Obama Administration Begin?
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has uncovered, via a Freedom of Information Act request, a fascinating instance of the symbiotic relationship among 1) left-wing advocacy groups, 2) left-wing Obama administration officials, and 3) lobbyists for moneyed interests who benefit from left-wing policies. It has to do with wind energy. The Obama administration has hailed Spain's wind energy initiatives as a model for its own wind subsidies.
Unfortunately, a devastating study (which we highlighted here) showed that Spain's wind subsidies were a disaster:
they eliminated more than two jobs for every one they created, only one in ten "green jobs" created by the subsidies was permanent, and each wind energy job cost more than $1.3 million.
Emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the Obama Department of Energy is using the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) -- the lobbying arm of "Big Wind" in the U.S. -- to coordinate political responses with two strongly ideological activist groups: the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and the George Soros funded Center for American Progress (CAP).
This is further proof that Obama has betrayed his promise to ban lobbyists. Further, this incident suggests yet another questionable appointment -- Cathy Zoi, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the DoE, injected politics into public policy. Cathy Zoi also happens to be the former CEO of Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection
Acts of Kindness Spread Surprisingly Easily: Just a Few People Can Make a Difference – Very Interesting.
This diagram illustrates how a single act of kindness can spread between individuals and across time. Cooperative behavior spreads three degrees of separation: if Eleni increases her contribution to the public good, it benefits Lucas (one degree of separation), who gives more when paired with Erika (two degrees of separation) in period 2, who gives more when paired with Jay (three degrees of separation) in period 3, who gives more when paired with Brecken in period 4. The effects also persist over time, so that Lucas gives more when paired with Erika (period 2) and also when paired with Lysander (period 3), Bemy (period 4), Sebastian (period 5), and Nicholas (period 6). The effect also persists at two degrees of separation, as Erika not only gives more when paired with Jay (period 3), but also when paired with Harla (period 4) and James (period 5). All the paths in this illustrative cascade are supported by results in the experiments, and it is important to note that if Eleni decreases her initial contribution then her uncooperative
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100308151049.htm
Today’s Polls and Headlines on OCare
RASMUSSEN:
Obama Approval Index: -21 (matches lowest yet)
Strongly Approve 22% (matches lowest yet)
Strongly Disapprove 43%
Total Approval 43% (matches lowest yet)
68% now oppose passing ObamaCare without Republican support (Gallup)
MOB TACTICS USED TO PUSH HEALTHCARE THROUGH...
SLIME TIME!
MASSA: NUDE RAHM MADE IT CLEAR 'I BETTER VOTE WITH THE PRESIDENT'...
Shower run-ins 'far from norm'...
How many times does Democracy have to work? (real answer is every)
'END' OF THE 'END GAME' OR 'THE END'?
TODAY: Obama pushing on health care end game (AP)
Last year:
July 28: Healthcare endgame on Capitol Hill (Reuters)
August 21: Analysis: Health care endgame near but uncertain (AP)
October 14: Senate, administration begin healthcare endgame as Dem leaders express unity (Hill)
October 25: Senators say health care bill endgame is in sight (Politico)
October 27: End Game: So When Will Health Care Really Happen? (TPM)
October 30: Health reform inches closer to endgame (WaPo)
November 23: The Health Care Endgame (NPR)
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