8/07/2016

Thoughts On A Sunday

It's been another fifty-fifty weekend here at The Manse, with hot and humid weather on Saturday (including a small downpour around 5:30 PM), and warm and much drier today. No complaints from me on that combination.

It did mean that many of the indoor chores were done yesterday and the outdoor chores today.

Not a bad way to go through the weekend.

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You know PC has really taken hold in Washington DC when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is considering banning the Gadsen flag in federal workplaces as “racist”. What drove this review by the EEOC?

A complaint from one single solitary federal worker. One.

Reading the follow up, it appears this aggrieved federal employee, whose race will not be divulged by me (but you can probably guess) didn't like the fact that a fellow employee was wearing a hat bearing the Gadsen flag since Gadsen “was a slave trader & owner of slaves.”” What will be next, Old Glory? How about the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution? Many of the same arguments could be made about our nation's flag and the documents which are such a major part of our history and who we are.

The aggrieved federal employee isn't showing himself to be a 'victim' of racism, but just another “I'm a victim” jerk with a means stirring up bad feelings because he can. Or if he really believes what he's saying, then maybe he needs to get some help because he's taking the victim crap too far.

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As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

In this case the holier-than-thou greens pushed for more renewable fuel sources and now they've got them in spades. But the problem is that there has been a serious downside to that success and it has far worse effects than if they had done nothing at all. That has led many of them to reconsider their stance on the Renewable Fuel Mandate.

"The big green groups that got invested in biofuels are tacitly realizing the blunder," said John DeCicco, a research professor at the University of Michigan Energy Institute who previously focused on automotive strategies at the Environmental Defense Fund. "It’s really hard for the people who really -- shall we say -- hate oil viscerally, to think that this alternative that we’ve been promoting is today worse than oil."

The Natural Resources Defense Council used a 96-page report in 2004 to proclaim boundless biofuel benefits: slashed global warming emissions, improved air quality and more wildlife habitat.

Instead, farmers plowed millions of acres of prairie grasses to grow corn for making ethanol, with fertilizer runoff contributing to a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists warned that carbon dioxide emissions associated with corn-based ethanol were higher than expected. And alternatives using switchgrass, algae and other non-edible plant materials have been slow to penetrate the market.

One of the reasons cellulose-based ethanol hasn't made as much headway is the cost, which can be considerably higher than corn-based ethanol. Some of that is due to the more complicated methods required to turn cellulose into sugar, and then into ethanol. While cellulosic feedstock is more readily available, the conversion process is more involved, takes longer, and costs more, hence corn's reign as the feedstock of choice.

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Speaking of renewables, here's a word of warning from Robert Tracinski, who tells us to beware the era of “Green Energy” hype because so much of it ignores the actual costs of using them, choosing to pretend that none of it would even exist if it wasn't for government subsidies.

It all comes down to this: the money 'saved' by using things like solar power is far outweighed by the costs of purchase, installation and maintenance, meaning they wear out long before they pay for themselves.

And then there are electric cars.....

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They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means. (With apologies to Inigo Montoya.)

What most people consider 'moderate' and what the Palestinian Authority (specifically Fatah) considers 'moderate' are two entirely different things.

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Was Microsoft built on stolen goods?

Could be.

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This is something I've known for some time.

Helen Raleigh delves into why access to the China market can be a form of suicide for US companies.

It can be explained in four words: Theft Of Intellectual Property.

China is not known for strong intellectual property rights protection. Since taking over China in 1949, the Communist Party successfully wiped out private property rights, so there’s very little distinction between what’s “yours” versus “mine.” Wholesale “copy and paste” of foreign companies’ intellectual properties has been rampant in China and is rarely prosecuted.

My employer has seen that first hand when knockoffs of three of our most popular products started being sold in Asia and Europe by a Chinese manufacturer at cut-rate prices. When we bought some and did a teardown we found the circuit boards, component layout, and electronic parts were absolutely identical to ours. Even one of our custom logos made it onto the knockoff circuit boards. Any differences were cosmetic, meaning the cases on the products used different colors and one had some decorative ribbing added to change the shape of the exterior.

Now multiply that by the millions for all of the US designed goods being built in China, and you have billions of dollars in lost revenue. What's worse is when a knockoff company then applies for and is issued a Chinese patent for your intellectual property, then sues you, the original company, for patent infringement. That's what's happened to Apple and its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

It may be cheaper to build things in China, but in the end you may lose far more than you saved when a Chinese company starts selling knockoffs of your products to your customers for a much lower price.

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It appears the SJW insanity activism on our college campuses is having an effect. But it isn't the one the clueless fragile snowflakes were wishing for with all their tiny little hearts.

The SJWs have been going off the rails with demands for all kinds of stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with educating them in preparation for surviving in the real world. They get so hung up on gender issues (which nobody really cares about one way or the other), racism issues (which everyone ignores because it is the SJW's themselves who are the biggest racists on campus), LGBTQ issues (which has everyone asking WTF?), and rape culture issues (which exists only in their tiny little minds), they forget the real reason why they are supposed to be attending college to begin with. As such, a lot of alumni are disgusted with what has been going on at their alma mater and the spinelessness of the college administration and they have been showing their displeasure by closing their wallets and withdrawing endowments, both present and future. I bet the SJWs didn't expect that little bit of rebellion from those who have been helping to pay their way through college. They are finding out the hard way that actions have consequences, and their actions are hurting the institution of higher learning they have been trying to take over with their over-the-top protests, anti-constitutional efforts to destroy free speech, and their deluded belief that the free exchange of ideas and the debate that goes with it must be quashed because they don't like hearing things they don't like, even if they are true.

Welcome the real world, comrades!

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And that is the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been fine, the boating fantastic, and where Monday is once again intruding into time that could be better used out on the lake.