Thoughts On A Sunday

The contrariness of weather has certainly made itself known here in New Hampshire, with rain over the weekend turning to warm and sunny for the week. It certainly delayed some of the yard work we had planned, meaning we'll have to get it done during the week after work or school. Normally I wouldn't mind that all that much except I won't be available after work due to meetings in town and a seminar down in Boston. I can't expect BeezleBub to get it done by himself.

The work needs to get done for two reasons – we want to get the work done before the bugs return and; the mulch pile is in the way of the trailer for The Boat, which comes out of storage sometime over the next week.

********

Could the election results in the UK foreshadow what will happen here in the US?

The voters had enough of the tax-and-spend Labour Party, voting in conservative Tories in large numbers. One of the high profile offices handed over to the conservatives was the Mayor of London. Could Prime Minister Gordon Brown suffer the same fate?

********

This crap has got to be stopped cold. The last thing we need is a return to 7th Century morality. If we start stringing up the perpetrators of honor killings, I have a feeling they'll stop. If immigrants want to keep their customs and mores intact, then they shouldn't move to a country that outlaws such barbaric practices.

(H/T Viking Pundit)

********

Blue Crab doesn't like all-electric cars, or at least he doesn't like the hype that surrounds them.

The big problem is there is a disconnect (no pun intended) between the efficiencies of generating electricity on a large scale and the burning of petroleum in an internal combustion engine. Even if the electricity is generated using fossil fuels, the efficiencies are far greater than that of ICE's. Even taking into account the transmission losses, the electric car still has lower total carbon footprint than traditional vehicle.

Here in New Hampshire a large percentage of our electricity comes from nuclear, with hydro a close second. Coal is third, with biomass (think wood chips) fourth. There are a few petroleum-fired power plants in the state, but for the most part they are peak-load plants used only when electricity demand is high.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

********

If this is 'normal', then bring on global warming!

********

There's finally a good use for Britain's National Health Service: it's so bad it drives immigrants, both legal and illegal, to leave the UK. If nothing else it's an endorsement for how not to run a health care system.

********

This is just plain silly.



No, not the video. Rather it's the people that take it seriously. It shows how decadent the West is in danger of becoming.

These folks need to get a life.

(H/T Instapundit)

********

Despite the bleatings of Hillary and the other We-Hate-The-Oil-Companies wackos, the price of gasoline, diesel fuel, propane, and heating oil is driven mainly by the price of crude oil.

Drivers paying ever-increasing prices for fuel can primarily blame two factors — the rising price of crude oil and government taxes, in that order.

Service station owners tend to make just a few cents per gallon, while a whopping 72 percent of the money paid for every gallon goes for crude oil, which rose to $120 per barrel on Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

Meanwhile, 12 percent of the price paid for each gallon of gas goes to state and federal taxes; 8 percent goes to refineries; and another 8 percent covers retail, marketing and distribution costs, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

So it isn't the the greedy oil companies making obscene profits causing the high gas prices, but the price of crude oil and the taxes levied upon gasoline sales.

********

A comment to this post on my New Hampshire blog prompted me to repost a series I wrote and posted on Weekend Pundit five years ago giving advice to those urban and suburban dweller contemplating relocating to 'the country'. Most of the advice is specific to New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont (sort of), but can be used as a general guideline. The posts are being updated to include new information and new links.

If nothing else you may find it amusing, being able to relate to the topics in the posts. Then again you may find yourself rethinking your plans to move away from the urban or suburban areas.

********

Some are predicting the price of polysilicon photovoltaics will be dropping soon as the supply of the polysilicon slugs and wafers will soon be increasing as new manufacturing capacity starts coming on line.

That would suit me just fine as I can see more residences and small businesses using PV cells as the costs come down.

********

Talk about being wrong on so many levels. A lot of people should be fired and the family should sue for millions.

********

There's stupid, and then there's stupid. This guy is definitely stupid.

Thirty-seven-year-old Frank Drake was arrested last October when state police drug officers saw him tending about 44 marijuana plants about 50 yards off the highway in Warner.

Obviously this genius never figured the State Police would recognize marijuana growing within sight of an Interstate highway. I know the stretch of highway where this guy was growing his crop, and it's plainly visible from the road. I guess this guy figured it would be easier for him to tend his plants if they were close to the highway.

What a dolt.

********

And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer is approaching, gas prices are rising, and where the summerfolk are already making their presence known.