Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Golf cart debuts as anti-terror vehicle
Golf cart debuts as anti-terror vehicle
That's right, this assault buggy looks, for all intents and purposes, like a beefed-up USGA golf cart with gun ports for carrying on a firefight while protected from return gunfire and/or riot missiles.
WE, at MAXINE, know that match play can get pretty brutal, almost war-like, at times ... but this is ridicules.
The designer/manufacturer created this battery-powered Anti-Terrorist Assault Cart (A-TAC) vehicle as a response to threats that were exposed after the Mumbai (Bombay, India) hotel attacks of 2008 and is expected to cost only about $45,000.
This excerpted and edited from the BBC -
'Anti-terror buggy' unveiled by firm in India
BBC - 17 February 2010
A mini armored car, designed for use in confined spaces such as airports and hotels targeted in terror attacks, has gone on display at an Indian arms fair.
----
It has been specially designed to transport two armed security personnel during or after terror attacks.
----
The company behind the cart, Metaltech Motor Bodies Pvt Ltd, said the A-TAC had been designed in the aftermath of the attacks [in Mumbai, India].
----
"It's a product of our sense of helplessness over the casualties we took in the attacks. We put our heads and hearts together and came up with the A-TAC." said Metaltech managing director JB Sehrawat.
----
The company said it was offering a prototype of the vehicle, which drew applause from visitors and military scientists attending the arms fair in Delhi, for trials with the sponsors of the Commonwealth Games, due to be held in the city in November.
India has had to reassure foreign countries that those games and next month's hockey World Cup in Delhi will be safe and free of terror attacks.
Reference Here>>
Monday, February 22, 2010
Fraudulent 'Nature Geoscience' study paper on Sea Levels is pulled
Fraudulent 'Nature Geoscience' study paper on Sea Levels is pulled
On what the authors cite as having a lack of confidence in the data they used to reach the conclusion that sea levels would rise by as much as 2.7 feet by the end of the twenty-first century, authors Mark Siddall, Thomas Stocker and Peter Clark pull a study paper published in the journal, Nature Geoscience.
All of this effort to correct the factual record is additional evidence that the Scientific Method was never a consideration as it relates to the agenda that changes in the Earth's climate are directly related to human activity as opposed to sun spots and other natural forces that effect the Earth's atmosphere.
The media loves to attribute all of this recent activity to correct the record on recently discovered "ERRORS" and "SLOPPY MISTAKES" associated with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The truth of the matter is that the retraction of articles and study papers are two different activities designed to communicate for different purposes. Articles are ... well, stories whereas study papers are used as evidence of discovery and require a greater level of scrutiny before they are ever published.
This excerpted and edited from FOXNews -
Scientists Retract Paper on Rising Sea Levels Due to Errors
FOXNews.com - Updated February 22, 2010
Scientists have been forced to retract a paper that claimed sea level were rising thanks to the effects of global warming, after mistakes were discovered that undermined the results.
The paper also highlighted that it reinforced the conclusions of the U.N.'s controversial Fourth Assessment report, which warned of the dangerous of man-made climate change.
However, mistakes in time intervals and inaccurately applied statistics have forced the authors to retract their paper -- the first official retraction ever for the three-year-old journal, notes the Guardian. In an officially published retraction of their paper, the authors acknowledged these mistakes as factors that compromised the results.
"We no longer have confidence in our projections for the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and for this reason the authors retract the results pertaining to sea-level rise after 1900," wrote authors Mark Siddall, Thomas Stocker and Peter Clark.
Since the leak of e-mails from the U.K.'s top global warming scientists in early December, many other errors and sloppy mistakes have been uncovered in leading report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Flaws in weather stations have led some to question claims of rising temperatures, sloppy math led to holes in postulates that the Himalayas were rapidly melting and fears of a man-made food shortage in Africa seem unsubstantiated as well.
Announcing the formal retraction of the paper from the journal, Siddall told the Guardian,, "It's one of those things that happens. People make mistakes and mistakes happen in science." A formal retraction was required, rather than a correction, because the errors undermined the study's conclusion.
"Retraction is a regular part of the publication process," he said. "Science is a complicated game and there are set procedures in place that act as checks and balances."
Reference Here>>
If retractions of study papers were "a regular part of the publication process" as Mark Siddall, one of the authors of the study paper insists, then why is this the first official retraction ever for the three-year-old journal, Nature Geoscience.
Did Nature Geoscience ask about the validity of the conclusions of this study paper given the fact that weekend before last, Professor Phil Jones, former director of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA), which was where the information the UN based its activity on AGW, in an interview with the BBC conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon?
And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming?
A key figure of the Climategate scandal, Professor Jones further admitted in the BBC interview that there is no evidence the Earth has warmed recently ... and new research suggests existing records aren’t sufficient support for global warming claims. Just a couple of days later, the top U.N. climate change official Yvo de Boer told The Associated Press Thursday, February 18, 2010, that he was resigning after nearly four years.
One wonders what came first in this chicken and egg situation ... did the authors of the study paper that held the conclusion that sea levels would rise by as much as 2.7 feet by the end of the twenty-first century see their "ERROR" first ... or did the journal, Nature Geoscience?
A lie is a lie - no matter how long it takes to be discovered - AGW is a lie!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Worldwide fraud and hoax of AGW loses UN's De Boer
Worldwide fraud and hoax of AGW loses UN's De Boer
As the Queen song, "Another One Bites The Dust" plays in the background, the effort to control human behavior and activity through the concept of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW)/Climate Change has lost another general. The top U.N. climate change official Yvo de Boer told The Associated Press Thursday that he was resigning after nearly four years.
Actually, he will not be leaving until July 1, but he will not be around to relentlessly pester and bully the nations of the world into thinking they have to sign an agreement to curb their plant food production (CO2 ... the gas plants use to create oxygen through osmosis) when they meet in Mexico (one of the nations with the worst air pollution but not one that is the target of any agreement) next November 2010.
Last November 2009 it was discovered that the information and conclusions that have created this sense of urgency to control changes in our Earth's climate were based on what the world media loves to report as ERRORS, was based on conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, destruction of embarrassing and un-supportive information, an organized resistance to disclosure in the peer review process, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more. Simply stated ... a hoax based upon a series of frauds over the last quarter century ... something less that the "Scientific Method".
Over the weekend, Professor Phil Jones, former director of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA), which was where the information the UN based its activity on AGW, in an interview with the BBC conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.
And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.
A key figure of the Climategate scandal, Professor Jones admitted that there is no evidence the Earth has warmed recently ... and new research suggests existing records aren’t sufficient support for global warming claims.
Yvo de Boer was said to be exhausted after the Copehagen summit. Image Credit: The Telegraph
This excerpted and edited from The Daily Caller -
Top UN climate official resigning
By ARTHUR MAX, The DC - 02/18/10 at 6:05 am
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer is known to be deeply disappointed with outcome of the last summit in Copenhagen, which drew 120 world leaders but failed to reach more than a vague promise by several countries to limit carbon emissions — and even that deal fell short of consensus.
But he denied to the AP that his decision to quit was a result of frustration with Copenhagen.
“Copenhagen wasn’t what I had hoped it would be,” he acknowledged, but the summit nonetheless prompted governments to submit plans and targets for reining in the emissions primarily blamed for global warming. “I think that’s a pretty solid foundation for the global response that many are looking for,” he said.
De Boer told the AP he believes talks “are on track,” although it was uncertain that a full treaty could be finalized at the next high-level conference in November.
The partial agreement reached in Copenhagen, brokered by President Barack Obama, “was very significant,” he said. But he acknowledged frustration that the deal was merely “noted” rather than formally adopted by all countries.
“We were about an inch away from a formal agreement. It was basically in our grasp, but it didn’t happen,” he said. “So that was a pity.”
The media-savvy former Dutch civil servant and climate negotiator was widely credited with raising the profile of climate issues through his frequent press encounters and his backstage lobbying of world leaders.
But his constant travel and frenetic diplomacy failed to bridge the suspicions and distrust between developing and industrial countries that barred the way to a final agreement at the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.
----
Deb Boer, 55, was appointed in 2006 to shepherd through an agreement to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which required industrial countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions an average 5 percent.
He said the high point of his efforts was the agreement by developing countries, reached at the 2007 conference in Bali, Indonesia, to join in efforts to contain global warming in return for financial and technical help from the wealthy nations.
----
When he was hired, he said, he told U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, “If you want someone to sit in Bonn and keep his mouth shut then I’m not the right person for the job.”
----
De Boer said he will be a consultant on climate and sustainability issues for KPMG, a global accounting firm, and will be associated with several universities.
Reference Here>>
So the chief pursuer of the AGW HOAX based upon fraud at the United Nations will be paid by KPMG to continue his good work ... great. As it was to be suspicious of the activity of the United Nations, it is now time to be suspicious of the activities of KPMG.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Kelley Blue Book's top ten family cars ... and no Euros!
Kelley Blue Book's top ten family cars ... and no Euros!
If safe, roomy and affordable are the characteristics that qualify a vehicle as a family car, then the American family has never had so many choices. One would think that with all of these choices, one car out of the Top Ten ... would include a nameplate manufactured by at least one from Europe, but with a tradition of building small, under-powered cars, Euros need not apply.
The Top 10 Family Cars for 2010 (VIDEO) today were named by the expert editors from Kelley Blue Book, www.kbb.com, the leading provider of new car and used car information. In the list, the kbb.com editors recommend what they feel are the very best of the best vehicles for families this year, highlighting specific important attributes for each car and detailing why it made the Top 10 for 2010.
The manufacturers hail from Korea, United States, and Japan with the majority (6 of 10) of the Family cars have their design from American companies with three sporting a Ford nameplate.
This excerpted and edited from KBB -
The KBB Top Ten Family Cars
Editors Compare Important Factors, Recommend a Wide Variety of Vehicles to Meet Every Family's Needs
Kelley Blue Book - IRVINE, Calif., February 16, 2010
Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com assembles a list of the Top 10 New Family Cars, evaluating an ever-lengthening list of eligible vehicles on such factors as resale value, fuel efficiency, capability and kid-friendliness. This year's list features vehicles in a range of sizes and prices, offering something for a wide variety of families – everything from an SUV that can comfortably accommodate nine passengers to a compact, fuel-efficient wagon capable of taking the road less traveled.
"While the product landscape in the new-car world seems ever-changing, the vehicle needs of the typical American family remain fairly constant; capable versatility, value, safety and economical factors usually remain top-of-mind," said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com. "There are many competent choices available on the market today, but the kbb.com editors chose a wide variety of what we feel are the Top 10 Family Cars that should be on every family's consideration list for 2010."
Select Choices from kbb.com's Top 10 Family Cars for 2010 List:
2010 Ford Taurus
2010 Honda Accord Crosstour
2010 Chevrolet Equinox
2010 Subaru Outback
Reference Here>>
The Top 10 list, including full editorial commentary and reasoning behind each of the Kelley Blue Book editors' picks HERE>>
Monday, February 08, 2010
For PROP. 8, Judge believes image means nothing
For PROP. 8, Judge believes image means nothing
In the world of images and logos, a lot is made to impart the exact impression and nature of an effort or business enterprise through branding. The biggest area where branding gives its first impression comes from corporate colors and the graphic elements that are associated with the effort or business enterprise ... the logo.
XEROX Corporation comes to mind when one thinks of how important it becomes to protect an effort's graphic intellectual property. XEROX did not want the general public to grasp on to, and water down the meaning of their name when one referred to a photo-copy as a "XEROX" just as Kleenex did not want to have everyone refer to a paper wipe by their trade name, Kleenex. XEROX was mostly successful in their efforts through protecting the word XEROX in courts through lawsuits when the company saw the word used in a generic nature thereby watering down the definition and impact of the word, XEROX.
The same sensibility should govern cultural and political messages delivered through graphic intellectual property as well. A lawsuit has been brought upon The Courage Campaign Institute for using the graphic elements of the logo used by The Proposition 8 coalition.
A Judge in the California District Court did not believe the value of the graphic image and the identification brought through a logo graphic was worth defending on behalf of the effort to protect traditional marriage.
Rip-Off logo Image, The Courage Campaign Institute - Image Credit: Case 2:10-cv-00132-LKK-DAD Document 1-3
This excerpted and edited from The Sacramento Bee -
Prop. 8 backers sue foes over logo
By Denny Walsh - The Sacramento Bee - Published: Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 - 10:57 am
The opposing forces in California's war over gay marriage have found something else to squabble about: the gay-marriage camp's mockery of the traditional-marriage camp's logo.
The squabble is playing out in Sacramento in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton.
A stylized silhouette of a man and a woman and a boy and a girl, all with raised arms beneath a banner reading, "Yes On 8 Protect Marriage," is the logo of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative amending the state constitution to declare that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
Since the campaign on behalf of Proposition 8 began using the logo on Jan. 31, 2008, it has employed it in a number of ways, most recently on its Web site.
The Courage Campaign Institute began using an almost-identical logo – the adult figures both are wearing dresses and the banner reads "Prop 8 Trial Tracker" – last week on a Web site it launched for updates and commentary on the San Francisco trial of a federal constitutional challenge to the amendment.
The Proposition 8 coalition is defending the amendment in court because the state would not.
Soon after the Trial Tracker logo showed up, the Proposition 8 promoters cried foul.
The Courage Campaign argues the slightly altered logo is funny, a parody that is cloaked in free-speech protection.
----
ProtectMarriage.com – Yes on 8, a Project of California Renewal sued Tuesday in Sacramento federal court.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants – nonprofit groups that support gay and lesbian marriage – have misappropriated the plaintiff's trademark in a way that is likely to confuse the public, and they "have never utilized the infringing logo in any way that would result in humor, a … requirement for a parody."
The plaintiff claims to have spent "a considerable amount of money in establishing the ProtectMarriage Trademark in the minds of customers as a source of conservative views and traditional family values."
----
Karlton sided with the defendants Wednesday in a nine-page order denying the plaintiff's motion for a temporary restraining order halting the use of the logo on prop8trialtracker.com.
The judge ruled that Courage Campaign's "use of the mark is protected under the First Amendment, in that the use is relevant to an expressive parody and … is not explicitly misleading."
"Any potential for confusion or misdirection is obviated by the images and text that uniformly accompany defendant's use of the mark, namely, photos of homosexual couples together with text explicitly endorsing homosexual marriage," said Karlton.
Reference Here>>
In California ... a vote that has expressed the democratic will of the people by nearly 70% and intellectual property are under assault along with the ability for people to grow food and keep jobs (irrigation water ordered to be turned off in the fields of the Sacramento Valley in order to protect a non-indigenous fish, the Delta Smelt) ... nothing is sacred, except, of course, the decisions of a single politically "progressive" Judge or the wishes of small, but politically "progressive" special interest groups.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Tea Party Nation: Of Palin, Progressives, New Deal, and party politics
Tea Party Nation: Of Palin, Progressives, New Deal, and party politics
Talking heads and news cast pundits are unanimous ... the Tea Party Movement needs, or has a leader in the visage of former Alaska State Governor, Sara Palin after her rather pointed keynote speech she delivered at the first, official convention put on by the Tea Party Nation organization (one of many grassroots organizations that have sprung up after seeing people gather in protest to this current Government's "progressive" expansion and spending agenda).
The truth about this Tea Party Movement is that it does not need a leader to follow, just a recognition of what many term American constitutional principles and American Culture. What has most people upset with our current political landscape is the direction embraced by politicians from both political parties. Simply stated, a progressive STATE-IST solution to all governance ... there is a governmental solution to all perceived problems in our society, culture, and process that effect our lives.
The problem with this view is that it does not match up with what is stated in the document that is the keel-board upon which our country was founded ... the United States Constitution.
We have had many attempts to turn this country into a fascist, socialist, "PROGRESSIVE" paradise starting at the turn of the last century, reaching major strength through the Herbert Hoover' 31st Presidency, through the Franklin Delano Roosevelt five terms as President (and the main reason why the elected office of President has been term limited to just two terms), and now with a one-party Democrat Congress (House of Representatives & Senate) and 44th Presidency of the politically radical Democrat Party Obama Administration.
Democrats, however, are not the only politicians who can lay claim to a progressive agenda, many recognized Republican Party standouts are very "Big, Bigger, Biggest Government" state-ist as well. Chief among them are George H.W. Bush, the 41st President, Geoprge W. Bush, the 43rd President, Colin Powell, former military Chief of Staff and one-time presidential hopeful, Charlie Crist, former Governor of Florida and Senate seat hopeful, the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, William Weld, former Governor of Massachusetts, and the jury is out on the politician and successful business mogul who replaced Weld as Governor and 2008 presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, and current United States Senators, John McCain (his progressive stand cost him the 2008 presidency), Lindsey Graham, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins.
The Tea Party Movement is not Republican, Democrat, or Independent registered voter driven or, for that matter, owned. That really is the issue here, the Tea Party Movement is about washing out Progressive politics and re-establishing a Constitutional Government that is smaller and attempts to be responsive -- to, for, and by the voting citizen!
Sarah Palin seemed very much in her element addressing the crowd of 1,100 conservative activists, who had each paid several hundred dollars to see the former governor deliver her most-anticipated speech since the 2008 campaign. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks from C-SPAN broadcast (2010)
This partial definition of the Tea Party Movement excerpted and edited from ABCNews-
Palin: 'America Is Ready for Another Revolution' Ex-V.P. Candidate Assails Obama at Convention, Fuels Acolytes' Passion
By STEVEN PORTNOY - NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 7, 2010
former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said the Tea Party movement is the "future of politics in America," and it's got Democrats "running scared."
Delivering the keynote address at the first-ever National Tea Party Convention, Palin brought the audience to its feet several times, taunting the Obama administration, mocking its supporters and warning Democrats that their agenda is "out of touch, out of date, and if Scott Brown is any indication, it's running out of time."
Referring to the Republican who won the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in the Bay State, Palin told activists, "If there's hope in Massachusetts, there's hope everywhere."
----
"I caution against allowing this movement to be defined by any one leader or politician," Palin said, calling the conservative populist Tea Party "bigger than any king or queen."
"And it's a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter," Palin said, delivering her first of many swipes at President Obama and his administration.
Taunting those who voted for the Democratic ticket in 2008, Palin asked to laughs, "How is that 'hope-y, change-y stuff workin' out for ya'?" While criticizing the administration for its record of transparency on stimulus spending, and accusing Democrats of committing "generational theft" amid a sharp rise in deficit spending, Palin saved her strongest rhetorical fire for the president's handling of terrorism.
"We can't spin our way out of this threat," Palin said, referring to Obama's reticence to call the effort against al Qaeda a "war on terror."
"To win that war," Palin said, "we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lecturn." The line brought her another standing ovation, and some of the biggest applause of the night.
----
The Tea Party movement, Palin argued, is "about the people. Who can argue with a movement that is about the people and for the people?"
----
Palin took questions submitted in advance to the Web site of Tea Party Nation, the group that organized the event at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center.
----
Palin urged a return to fiscal restraint, an expansion of domestic oil exploration, and for leaders to not be "afraid to kind of go back to some of our roots as a God-fearing nation."
"It would be wise of us to start seeking some divine intervention again in this country, so that we can be safe and secure and prosperous again," Palin said.
----
Addressing the notion that the Tea Party should become the nation's third major political party, Palin instead said, "The Republican Party would be really smart to absorb as much of the Tea Party as possible."
----
Palin urged fellow conservative politicians to "plow right on through" attacks by the "irrelevant, lamestream media."
"The political potshots that they want to take at you for standing up and saying what you believe in and proclaiming the patriotic love that you have for country -- a lot of those in the 'lamestream' media, they don't want to hear that."
But, Palin said, "At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter what they have to say about you, because I really believe that there are more of us than they want us to believe."
Reference Here>>
Q & A with Sara Palin after Tea Party Nation convention Keynote Address. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks from C-SPAN broadcast (2010)
Jay Carroll Jenks, a gentleman who resided on North La Brea Avenue in Hollywood, California and lived through the last great expansion of Progressive Government in the FDR era and suffered through "The New Deal" as an independent letter-set printer (and my Grandfather) left notes describing his frustration copeing with a control, over personal freedom approach tucked in an envelope titled on the front "PET PEEVES ... thru 1938"
Here is a sample of what was written in his own hand:
PET PEEVES against the NEW DEAL from start to and through 1938
F.D.R. and Mrs. F.D.R. -- Too much GAB
Roosevelt Family -- Too much GRAB
CAPITALISTS -- Although blamed for Retrenching - who wouldn't with unsound Democratic Principles being involked every week, and no encouragement to plan for the future
EXCESSIVE TAXES -- in Higher Brackets - discouraging to Big Business, with no incentive to make Sky the Limit
REORGANIZATION THREAT -- Another retarder of Big Business
RELIEF -- Too easy to start with - then too much Politics mixed in
RADIO and SCREEN -- overflowing with Propaganda and Soft Soap
Nat. LABOR BOARD -- Too Much POWER - Too Much C.I.O. [Congress of Industrial Organizations] - Too Much MEDDLING / All Reaching for Regimentation
POWER -- Too Much given to all Federal Bureaus and Agencies - Usurping States Rights
TARRIFFFF -- Too Hard to keep out (too low) Forign Goods which are produced much cheaper than possible in U.S.A.
AGRICULTURAL CONTROL -- Killing Hogs. Restricting Production, etc. Killing the "Land of Plenty" and creating a "Land of Scarcity"
CONGRESS -- Rubber Stampers. Thinking more of Vote Baiting than of the Needs and Welfare of their constituents
PURGE -- what a Mess of Tripe. What the Beginning of the End of all of the above (I HOPE)
OBSERVATION -- HITLER obtained a "SEEMING" Victory. I don't believe it! The English are noted for their DIPLOMACY and the eventual result (in Time) will prove that the "Chess Play" of Chamberlain, et al, was "premeditated" to the Nth degree
--END OF LETTER--
We all know what happened after 1938 ... the World became involved in a bloody world war, the second of the century, and the progressive policies that preceeded WWII were eclipised with the purge of McCarthyism and a free enterprise flood of pent up demand and creativity.
The Tea Party Movement is a response to many of the same type of reflections our country is going through right now ... as if it were 1938. The more things change ... they remain the same.
Let us all get back to the Constitution and the pursuit of happiness.
"In Springfield: They're Eating The Dogs - They're Eating The Cats"
Inventiveness is always in the eye of the beholder. Here is a remade Dr. Seuss book cover graphic featuring stylized Trumpian hair posted at...
-
Inventiveness is always in the eye of the beholder. Here is a remade Dr. Seuss book cover graphic featuring stylized Trumpian hair posted at...
-
AJ Allmendinger taking a circuit around Portland Raceway - Photo credit: Phillip Abbott, USA LAT Photographic - Copyright © 2006 Champ Car W...