Carmichael's Position

This is Your Climate Warming God?

Al “the sky is falling’ Gore, may not be an idiot, but he certainly plays one on TV.

In a “Tonight Show” interview with Conan O’Brian, Al is on his usual save the planet with efficient energy sources soapbox… actually a noble cause… when he makes a claim that the earth’s mantle is “Several Million Degrees… at 2 kilometers or so down.” (tolerate the video below for about 40 seconds and hear it for yourself).

This is POWERPOINT AL GORE!  This is the spokes-model for the Green Generation!  “Several million degrees!”??? 

Really?  Several?  (several being more than 2 usually…)

Million?  (that’s like a hundred thousand 10’s!)

Even using the Kelvin scale the earth’s mantle is estimated between 773 to 1173 degrees.  I’d go on to express that “any 8th grader could tell you that” but that just ain’t true, knowing the state of our public education system.  Which is all the worse, most of the American public is clueless when it comes to science, the scientific method, and quantifiable facts, and wouldn’t begin to realize when they were being manipulated by self-serving charlatans.

God, we’re a bunch of dolts!

Hell, the innermost core of the Earth is estimated at only 7,000 degrees K! Ya know, like only a tenth the temperature of a cup of Starbucks coffee.

Al wasn’t generalizing, in a humorous way, like saying GaZillions of degrees implying it’s “Really really hot!” he was trying to issue a persuasive argument.  This is precisely why Al refuses all invitations by legitimate man-made-global-warming scientific skeptics, he would lose… terribly…  first the arguments, then his perceived credibility, then his speaking tours (where he charges GaZillions of dollars each time!), and then his financing.  Then who would pay his electric bill?

Look, I’m all for alternative forms of energy being investigated and utilized, and the cleaner the better.  And the less dependent we are on the Middle East and other Countries for our supply the better too.  But if you are going to make claims, any claims as an “expert” you better damn well have your FACTS right!  It lends credibility to your argument.  But then again, considering your audience… I guess facts are just an Inconvenient Truth.

Apparently Artists Ain’t Just “Right Brained”

How cool is this?

This guy using wood, rope, cams, pulleys, levers, a scientific calculator, and his mind comes up with this stuff.

HT Rex.

The Harvest Moon

This beautiful, just past full, moon this evening is officially the "Harvest Moon" as it is the nearest full moon to the Autumnal Equinox.

Thought I'd try again with the new camera and lens.  The above image is taken with a Nikon D80 on a tripod (target special) with a Nikkor AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED lens at full zoom (all 300mm of it!)  1/125- f5.6.  I then, using Adobe Raw flooded the vibrancies and bumped the saturation to get the above image. 

This treatment really brought out the Mare and some of the more prominent craters.  That big splatter crater in the 5:46 position is Tycho, and the one  almost in the center (just to the 9:00 position) is Copernicus.  Just to the south of Copernicus, along the Moon's Equator, on 19 November 1969, one of my favorite crews, Pete Conrad and Al Bean of Apollo 12 landed in an area known as Oceanus Procellarum or the Ocean of Storms.  That's Al in the NASA image above.

The famous Apollo 11 astronauts landed in the "Sea of Tranquility" or Mare Tranquilitatis about the 1:00 or 2:00 position from the center... then in the lower left corner of that darker bluish sea.

I've always been fascinated by the moon.  Growing up I remember a number of the Moon landings and watching live as Shepard, Young, Cernan, Scott and numerous others explored the surface of this desolate yet beautiful companion. It is too bad that we stopped and now have to start over again.  I would have welcomed the opportunity to be one who would colonize the moon.  Now I guess I, and all the rest of us have to leave it up to Stu's kids.  More about the Apollo Missions can be found here: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo.html 

 

If you would like to briefly explore the moon I've included the image below that maps out the more prominent locations on the surface, it even includes where the various Apollo landings were.  (Note in my image above the axis is tilted counter-clockwise approximately 26 degrees). [Full Size Here]

Enjoy...

Wow! The Things You Find Outside Your Front Door!

Walked outside my hotel room this morning to find this lovely piece of art in the tree next to me.  Not only that, but "The Artist" was still working on this masterpiece!

And what is it that artists have to look so weird?  Here's a close up of this particular one.

 

Very cool!

Example of Why I Find it Difficult to Believe Anything I Hear From the "Sky Is Falling Global Warming Alarmists"

This kind of reporting is nothing but irresponsible...From Australian ABC News:

Plasma, LCDs blamed for accelerating global warming...

Crap!  And I was going soooo green, watching Discovery HD channel and now the Green Channel in HD about how terrible we humans are for the the future of the planet.  See... If you all would have just let Ronald Reagan Nuke the Crap out of the world back in the 80's we wouldn't have any humans to mess things up for... uh... the cockroaches!

Sorry propensity for digression... Back to the article.  They are not happy enough with the headline... no they have to elaborate their sensationalistic BS with a sub-line:

A gas used in the making of flat screen televisions, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), is being blamed for damaging the atmosphere and accelerating global warming. 

Oh no!  Not Nitrogen Triflouride!  Damn! General Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove" may have been on to something!  Albiet he missed his chemistry by a Nitrogen atom and 2 more fluoride atoms. for those of you who need a refresher on General Ripper's concerns, I provide the following dialogue from the Kubrik film Dr. Strangelove:

Ripper: Mandrake?
Mandrake: Yes, Jack?
Ripper: Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?
Mandrake: Well, I can't say I have.
Ripper: Vodka, that's what they drink, isn't it? Never water?
Mandrake: Well, I-I believe that's what they drink, Jack, yes.
Ripper: On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason.
Mandrake: Oh, eh, yes. I, uhm, can't quite see what you're getting at, Jack.
Ripper: Water, that's what I'm getting at, water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven-tenths of this earth's surface is water. Why, do you realize that seventy percent of you is water?
Mandrake: Uh, uh, Good Lord!
Ripper: And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.
Mandrake: Yes. (he begins to chuckle nervously)
Ripper: Are you beginning to understand?
Mandrake: Yes. (more laughter)
Ripper: Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol?
Mandrake: Well, it did occur to me, Jack, yes.
Ripper: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation. Fluoridation of water?
Mandrake: Uh? Yes, I-I have heard of that, Jack, yes. Yes.
Ripper: Well, do you know what it is?
Mandrake: No, no I don't know what it is, no.
Ripper: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?

Damn digression again... Back to the article.  If you stop at the headlines like most of our MTV generation is wont to do, you will obviously do the right thing and go back to watching TV on your RCA Black and White!  However reading the article to it's conclusion I am troubled by the lack of ANY SCIENTIFIC support for this sensationalistic Headline and Sub-line... Note the absolute nature of both using the term "IS being blamed..." 

However, reading further... I run across this:

Dr Paul Fraser is the chief research scientist at the CSIRO's marine and atmospheric research centre, and an IPCC author.

He says without measuring the quantity of NF3 in the atmosphere it is unclear what impact it will have on the climate.

"We haven't observed it in the atmosphere. It's probably there in very low concentrations," he said.

"The key to whether it's a problem or not is how much is released to the atmosphere."

So I fail to see the supportive argument for the major premise "Plasma, LCDs blamed for accelerating global warming..." When a specific fact of the matter is "...without measuring the quantity of NF3 in the atmosphere it is unclear what impact it will have on the climate. "We haven't observed it in the atmosphere. It's probably there in very low concentrations..."

Y'all getting this?  Scientific evidence has not even been being collected as to the effect NF3 has on the environment, it is not even being measured!!!!  Should it be? Probably... but to make an irresponsible unknown claim like  "Plasma, LCDs blamed for accelerating global warming..."  Is completely and utterly baseless and equates to nothing more than the continued incestuous relationship between the "Global Climate Change/Global Warming" as a religion freaks and the "mainstream responsible, J-school educated Media!" 

What a bunch of WONKS!

I'm going to put my Dr. Strangelove DVD in my high heat emitting Denon  Up-Convert DVD player and watch it on my 42" 1080P LCD flat screen!  Just on General principle!

Oooh! I think I Found a New Hobby! Thanks to XKCD!

People who know me, know my pension for challenging the macramé heads on the "Overboard" nature of Green and GHG's etc...

MODERATION! is a term obviously long forgotten!  But either way... this looks like just too much fun!  From one of my favorite reads XKCD!

Haw!  I don't even have to rent one... I'm thinking I'm due for a road trip to Boulder in my GMC Envoy!  Hell it'll be worth the $100.00 in gas it will take me to drive the 60 miles!

Left -vs- Right... Brained

Hat Tip to my friend Cari--

Here's a test:  Look at the Image below.  Which direction is the woman turning? Clockwise or Counter-Clockwise?  (And yes she can appear to spin in either direction depending on your perspective).

  

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

Some of us can actually get her to reverse course at will. I can do that.  I also seem to be able to see Stereograms those "3D Hidden Images" in the abstract posters pretty rapidly too. (There is a Shark in the Image below.)

Falling under the Astrological Sign of Twins I am oft accused having the Gemini trait of two personalities.  Actually I like to think of it as being flexible!  In reality I am one who explores both sides of my brain in fairly equal proportion.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what the two sides of your brain control respectively here's a brief synopsis:

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

• uses logic
• detail oriented
• facts rule
• words and language
• present and past
• math and science
• can comprehend
• knowing
• acknowledges order/pattern perception
• knows object name
• reality based
• forms strategies
• practical
• safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

• uses feeling
• "big picture" oriented
• imagination rules
• symbols and images
• present and future
• philosophy & religion
• can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
• believes
• appreciates
• spatial perception
• knows object function
• fantasy based
• presents possibilities
• impetuous
• risk taking

In this political season, I find it sort of ironic that those stereotypical traits associated with Liberal (Left) -vs- Conservative (Right) are contained in the juxtaposed sides of our minds.

So, You're Telling Me They Call You "Mariah?"

Cool commercial...  Hat tip to my fiend Tommy for calling attention to it via his Blog "Driving Fast, Taking Chances."  Yeah, I figured out the metaphor about 10 seconds into it, creative though.

Especially relevant considering who I work for now... yes I can help your company explore alternative energy options... Ping me at jcarmichael@nuenergen.com and visit us at www.NuEnergen.com .

The Mariah reference, for those of you born in the MTV generation, is in regard to a song from the musical "Paint Your Wagon."  One of the only Musicals a Heterosexual male can publicly claim to enjoy!  Hell, It starred Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin for God's Sake!  (Who both sang in the Movie!!!! No Seriously!!! They Did!!)

4.72 Miles Per Second!

Well that ought to put it in perspective! 

And if that doesn't work for you... try 24,933 FEET! per "One Mississippi!"

That is how fast the non-functioning NRO Satellite ("US 193") was traveling this evening when the USS Lake Erie (CG-70) firing a modified SM-3 "Standard" missile scored a HIT on it!

Oh, did I mention that was from over 133 vertical miles away?!!! 

Bravo Zulu Crew of the USS Lake Erie! 

The DOD press release follows:

---

DoD Succeeds In Intercepting Non-Functioning Satellite

A network of land-, air-, sea- and spaced-based sensors confirms that the U.S. military intercepted a non-functioning National Reconnaissance Office satellite which was in its final orbits before entering the earth's atmosphere.

At approximately 10:26 p.m. EST today, a U.S. Navy AEGIS warship,  the USS Lake Erie (CG-70), fired a single modified tactical Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) hitting the satellite approximately 247 kilometers (133 nautical miles) over the Pacific Ocean as it traveled in space at more than 17,000 mph. USS Decatur (DDG-73) and USS Russell (DDG-59) were also part of the task force.

US NAVY Photos:

The objective was to rupture the fuel tank to dissipate the approximately 1,000 pounds (453 kg) of hydrazine, a hazardous fuel which could pose a danger to people on earth, before it entered into earth's atmosphere.   Confirmation that the fuel tank has been fragmented should be available within 24 hours.

Due to the relatively low altitude of the satellite at the time of the engagement, debris will begin to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere immediately. Nearly all of the debris will burn up on reentry within 24-48 hours and the remaining debris should re-enter within 40 days.  

Now that is Skeet Shooting!  PULL!

Taking Donations!

I'm making it official, to anyone who would like to contribute, I will be glad to accept your donations to the "Let's Send John Into Space" fund!  The "Let's Make Sure He Stays There" fund is different!  We have about a year and a half to raise the funds! 

All I need is $200,000 +/- not sure what £100,000 currently converts to... I'm only about $200,000 short right now.

Hell, I promise to even write about my trip! It's sure to thrill my dozens of readers!   If you're really nice I might even publish pictures!!!

Here's the story from "This is London"

"The Virgin Galactic spacecraft, which was being unveiled in New York today, is already under construction. Test flights are expected to begin in June, with commercial flights starting 12 months later."

...Once the mother ship reaches 50,000 feet, which was the cruising altitude of Concorde, the spaceship is released and its rocket is fired, accelerating the craft up to 2,500mph, and taking it to 110km, officially making its passengers astronauts.

If you would like to find an address to contribute to or if the fine folks at Virgin Galactic would like to offer up a trip for a "Regular Joe" or "Regular John" in this case(coffee and Raisin Bran will help with being defined as 'Regular') just leave your interest in contributing in the comments section.  I'll reply in private.  Or maybe in public... we'll see!