Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

July 2006

The Heat of Summer

Do you think it’s a coincidence that the level of anxiety about global warming seems to intensify just before the heat of summer? Neither does Alan Caruba commenting on CNSNews.com.

Are You Bored With Global Warming?

Are you bored with hearing about global warming all the time? Me, too. The din of asinine predictions, warnings and claims that global warming is real, i.e. a rapid increase in the overall temperature of the Earth, always seems to occur just as summer arrives when — surprise — it gets warmer.

It must have been a slow news day on June 23 because my daily newspaper ran the following headline at the very top of the front page: “Global warming is real, scientists warn.”

Since the 1980s, environmentalists have been telling us that the next Ice Age — due any day now — has been cancelled, and instead, the Earth will suffer sizzling temperatures that will make it uninhabitable.

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For an exhaustive list of stuff that global warming messes up go to numberwatch.co.uk. It can keep you busy for a bit, but pick out a couple and have a laugh or two.

05 Jul 2006 by Environment Global Warming Media

Diplomatic ADD

My guess is that Kim Jong Il wasn’t getting the attention he needs as one of the premier candidates for the world’s worst case of Diplomatic Attention Deficit Disorder. Right up there competing for the title is Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Right now, the United Nations Security Council is meeting to decide what wording to use in a stern letter to Kim. That’ll do the trick for sure, just like the retarded effort of the Clinton Administration to prevent Kim from getting nukes. In other words, useless.

See previous article The Four Most Dangerous Men.

05 Jul 2006 by Degenerates International United Nations

Without Them

We might not even have an Independence Day to celebrate!

Without the brave men and women of the Army, battles being fought abroad might be fought on our own soil.

Without the months that sailors in the Navy spend away from their homes and families defending the seas and supporting the other branches we might not celebrate our freedom.

Without the bravery, dedication and intensity of the U. S. Marines, we might live under the evil influence of foreign masters.

Without the fine men and women of the U. S. Air Force watching and defending the skies of the Earth, we might face threats from over the horizon.

Thanks to the Coast Guard, our coasts and waterways are protected from incursions by evil forces seen worldwide.

God bless all the men and women in the Armed Forces! They prove continuously that these colors don’t run!

04 Jul 2006 by Culture Military Patriotism

Discovery to Launch on July 4th?

UPDATE: All Systems were GO and Discovery blasted off this afternoon! Godspeed to the Astronauts.

Image: Discovery clears the pad on liftoff — FoxNews.com

Discovery is on the pad and poised for a Fourth of July launch. NASA gives it a sixty-percent chance of launching.

NASA – Space Shuttle

Discovery’s a “Go” for Independence Day

After analysis of available data, the Mission Management Team has given a “go” for Tuesday’s launch of Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station.

During a routine inspection Sunday night after the draining of the external fuel tank, a crack was discovered in the foam near a bracket that holds the liquid oxygen feedline in place. It is believed that the rain experienced during Sunday’s launch attempt caused water to run down the feedline and form ice near the top of the strut next to the feedline bracket. As the tank warmed and expanded, the ice that formed most likely pinched the foam on the top of the strut, causing a crack and eventual loss of the small piece of foam. The Mission Management Team met Monday at 6:30 p.m. EDT to discuss the results of the information before making a final decision regarding Tuesday’s launch attempt.

Extensive analysis showed that the area around the crack is intact and there is no concern for heating as there is adequate foam in place on the strut. Additional borescope inspection of the tank revealed that the bracket has no cracks.

Currently, there is a 60 percent chance of favorable launch weather for Tuesday and a 40 percent chance of favorable weather for Wednesday according to Air Force First Lt. Kaleb Nordgren of the 45th Weather Squadron. If the weather cooperates this will be the first Independence Day launch of a space shuttle!

A Fourth of July Discovery Launch would nicely compliment STS-4 Columbia‘s Fourth of July, 1982 landing at Edwards AFB in California.

SpaceLine.org — July 4, 1982 – 9:09:31 a.m. PDT at Runway 22, Edwards Air Force Base, California. Rollout distance was 9,878 feet. Rollout time was 73 seconds. Mission duration was 7 days, 1 hour, 9 minutes, 31 seconds. Landing occurred during the 113th orbit.

This was the first landing on the 15,000-foot concrete runway at Edwards.

I was lucky enough to have been on Rogers Dry Lake on July 4th, 1982 and witnessed the arrival of STS-4 at Edwards and also to observe NASA’s 747 piggy-back departure with another of the Space Shuttle Fleet in tow that same Day – spectacular! President Reagan was there that day, although I didn’t get close enough to see him.

04 Jul 2006 by Aerospace Rocket Science

The Greenbat Epidemic

Out there in neverland, there exists a special breed of moonbat — these are people who never look at actual science, but blindly believe the (as Al Gore calls it) “over-represented” mantra of environmental doom and global warming — let’s call them Greenbats.

As reported today, Democrats, suffering from a dearth of any actual problem-solving ideas, take on nonsensical Greenbat “designer issues” that solve no known problems, and severely handicap businesses and taxpayers in California.

California Politics – Some legislators thinking green – sacbee.com

Democrats pushing bills, opposed by business, on water and air quality.

Maybe it’s the summer heat, or maybe it’s Al Gore‘s documentary.

Whatever the cause, California environmentalists and Democratic lawmakers have embarked on an ambitious campaign to catapult the state ahead of the nation on a number of green initiatives.

From greenhouse-gas caps to alternative energy, they say it’s time to make significant changes after watching a number of clean water and air quality bills vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in recent years. They say the looming election should also help motivate politicians to think green.

“There’s no question the leadership California can provide on this issue on the sustainability of our planet,” Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, D-Los Angeles, recently testified before an environmental committee. “The world really is watching today what we do in California.”

Despite plenty of science to the contrary, environmentalists (Greenbats) and Democrats looking for more tax dollars drum up these zany clichés to further strangle California Businesses.

Maybe Democrats and Greenbats alike should read an excerpt from the World Climate Report, a blog that actually does the research leading to conclusions such as:

“Supreme Court Warms Up To Climate Change”.

[. . . ]

Folks on my side of the issue, know that there’s not a suite of regulations and/or technology that can significantly alter the course of the earth’s temperature evolution for the life of anyone on this court, or, for that matter, for any of the next several appointees. By then, society will likely be producing or using energy in ways that are so different than today that this huge catfight will look like what it really is – a silly diversion, compared to some real-world problems, like nutsos with nuclear weapons, or people flying airplanes into skyscrapers for the love of a bevy of non-experienced women.

[. . .]

Read the entire World Climate Report article “Supreme Court Warms Up To Climate Change”.

03 Jul 2006 by Greenbats Money and Business Whacko Politics

Monkey Business

Just think about this when you decide whether or not to have that one last beer before driving home from the 4th of July picnic this year . . .

From University of Washington News:

‘Ape-earances’ can be deceiving for many under the influence of alcohol

It’s pretty difficult to overlook the proverbial 800-pound gorilla, or even an average-size person dressed in a gorilla suit.

But a new study indicates that people who were given a simple visual task while mildly intoxicated were twice as likely to have missed seeing the person in a gorilla suit than were people who were not under the influence of alcohol.

The study, appearing in the current issue of the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, is the first to show visual errors caused by “inattentional blindness” are more likely to occur under the influence of alcohol. This phenomenon occurs when important, but unexpected, objects appear in the visual field but are not detected when people are focused on another task, according to Seema Clifasefi, a postdoctoral psychology researcher at the University of Washington.

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UPDATE: Damsel tells me that she read that drivers using Cell Phones are also subject to “inattentional blindness” just the same as drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

02 Jul 2006 by Culture Science

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