Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Change you can believe in!

Barack Obama eases offshore oil drilling ban
Oil firms could be given the chance to explore for reserves off the US coast for the first time in decades, under plans outlined by President Obama.

The White House says drilling will be allowed off Virginia and considered off much of the rest of the Atlantic coast.

The plans would overturn moratoriums on exploration put in place in the 1980s.
So I sit here and have to remind myself that this guy is still better than a McCain/Palin ticket would have been. I think about the average American, and think that this guy is fairly representing them. The odd bit is that at least half of the people he is fairly representing think he is a Godless Commie Antichrist who isn't a legal American. Okay, those are the real nut jobs*, but it is still amazing that he seems to be advancing things that were once part of the Republican agenda.

Those moratoriums on offshore drilling that were put in place in the 1980's came when a right wing agenda was pushing heavily for more nuclear power to curb dependence on foreign oil**.

The only offshore drilling I would lift the ban on may involve oil, but it also requires consenting adults.

* Which may include some of my household's family.

** And possibly to piss off all the hippies for having a really great time with the free love and pot while they had to sneak around snorting expensive coke and paying for hookers.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Marijuana might be more than medicine for California

Californians have managed to get the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis into the hands of the people.
Measure to legalize marijuana will be on California's November ballot

An initiative to legalize marijuana and allow it to be sold and taxed will appear on the November ballot, state election officials announced Wednesday, triggering what will probably be a much-watched campaign that once again puts California on the forefront of the nation's debate over whether to soften drug laws.
It looks quite promising. If ever there were a state where it made total sense to legalize marijuana, it would be California. Then again, it made total sense for that state to legalize same sex marriages and they didn't.

Good luck to California on this one. If nothing else, your state sure could use the tax money.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Union Power

We live in a union. We often call it a union. Yet the unions have trouble in our union.

In response to an impending British strike, the BBC asks...
Do unions have too much power?

Compared to many European Countrys, British Unions have far less power.
Which is probably why the UK Worker is sacked first, has lower redudancy terms and has one of the lowest pensions in Europe.
Sadly, most British Workers don't have the backbone that the French, Germans and Italians have to stick up for the Jobs. Can you imagine Renault,Fiat or Mercedes workers allowing their jobs to be shipped to China without a long hard fight?
This responder has nailed it dead on. Main land Europeans have really strong and very effective unions that have learned to fight every step of the way to keep what little they have. Compared to them, British unions are crap.

American unions are like festering boils compared to the plump bums of the Brits. Unions are not an end, but a means, a process. Americans have let their unions go to shit.

Do unions have too much power? What a stupid question. When have workers, organized or otherwise, ever had too much power?

Give 'em hell Unite!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Seeking Space

Today someone asked me if I could travel abroad, where would I go first?

"Australia." True enough.

Then I admitted that my travel dreams reach a bit further. "What I'd really like is to live in an orbital colony."

After a brief confirmation that orbital colony meant exactly what it sounded like and wasn't a name for some terrestrial bound location, I was asked why. "Wouldn't you miss trees and grass and things?"

A very valid question. On the one hand, I might. On the other hand, with the research I have done on space migration I see no reason why I would have to do without things like trees and grass while living in an orbital colony. Plant life would have to be part of a sustainable solution to the problem.

So why move into space?

First and foremost, because we can! We have all the necessary technology. We have the means. If we were to give up the war in Iraq or Afghanistan for one year, just one of those countries for just one year, we'd have enough to do it. Not that such a project could get completed in a year. It would take longer. But the funds from doing that would cover the costs. Rather than focusing on death and destruction it seems to me like a far greater achievement to build a permanent space habitat orbiting the planet. Such a project is one of hope not just for the space dreamers, not just for the citizens of our country, but for the whole of the planet. To have the ability to reach out beyond our little gravity hole and see people living where they have never lived before would speak volumes for the human potential.

While on the topic of gravity, perhaps that plays a role in my personal affection for the prospect of space migration. Here in the full gravity of Earth I weigh in around 220 pounds. Weight. Gravity creates weight. That equals about 100 kilograms. That is mass. Here on Earth, mass and weight amount to the same thing. In the absence of that gravity, 100 kilos is still 100 kilos, but 220 pounds becomes... 0 pounds! No weight to move around. Instead it becomes mass. Once you get mass moving, it becomes momentum. I feel like I should have momentum. Just a change in the perspective of the thing could change a lot of people's lives.

Another change in perspective would be spatially related. While we live in and have the capability to perceive three dimensional space, our existence relies almost entirely on two dimensional navigation. Look at a map, or a globe, or even Google Earth and you begin to understand how we live on a 2D plane wrapped around a 3D object. With the absence of gravity, we lose the up/down perspective. We shift into a truly 3D environment. With such a shift the brain will adapt to a fuller utilization of our visual perception skills. What glorious developments await for a brain liberated from having to move about on a surface?

On a more personal note, this leads to another dream of mine. Often in my slumbers I dream that I can fly. It is not the flight of a glider, or a bird, or the free fall of sky diving. In my dreams I float and move at my whim. I want that to be a reality.

On an even more personal note, I am obsessed with the concept of breasts in zero gravity. Not only do I want to see free floating boobs, but I want to see what breasts that had never known the tortures of gravity would be like. So even if we had an orbital colony in place within five years and some amorous adventurers got right down to business, I'd still have to wait another 25 years to see the results of mammary glands that had never been pulled down by the Earth. Unless the life extension enthusiasts are correct and everyone currently under the age of 40 can expect to live indefinitely, we need an orbital colony now!

And of course there is all of the great scientific research that can only be done in zero gravity or is best done far away from the obstructing atmosphere of a planet. Things you can't even do in Australia.

Let's get out there!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Pro-Abolishment

If there is any human invention mandated by governments that is potentially more ridiculous than war, it would be Daylight Savings Time. Let's abolish it!

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Sweden's Socialist Nightmare

The right keeps telling me that Obama is a Socialist trying to change America into a Socialist nation like Sweden. What would that mean?
BBC News - Adjusting to Swedish life after the Andijan massacre

'This place,' says Bahram, shouting somewhat, 'is amazing! You can't imagine! The schools, the hospitals! The way they live! And nothing's done by hand! Even the baking! Even cleaning the street! They have these little carts... you just press a button. The police! They smile at you and say 'Hey!'...

It is another world - a looking glass through which the Uzbeks see themselves and their country.

So even as Sweden amazes and delights Bahram, it breaks his heart. 'If we had just a fragment of this development in Uzbekistan,' he says. 'If I could take just a tiny part of this when I go home...'

'Here in Sweden there are laws,' he says. 'And even the government obeys them! There was a minister who did not pay his TV licence - and he lost his job. Can you imagine? And the way they treat people! We saw a prison and do you know, in the canteen, the prisoners take a tray and chose the food they want. Different salads, meats, yogurt… everything. Fresh! In prison! Oh my lord above!'
Those poor people. How dreadful it must be.

Please, don't let America slip into a Socialist nightmare like modern day Sweden.