I actually “LOLed” when I read this earlier today. The Department of Energy is testing the potential of blasting a special glass into space to curb the effects of global warming.

The particles, consisting of a very fine and special form of glass - “porous-walled glass microspheres” - would be able to absorb a certain amount of carbon dioxide, and would reflect sunlight away from the Earth.

I thought it was interesting to see people using flip phones, which look interestingly like Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Treck”. These days, we also have something we can “set to stun” and shoot at a bad guy to incapacitate him. But to spend millions of dollars trying to recreate weather conditions in 1980 Port Charles is a little much for me.

Laura attempted to find Scotty, who had run off to Mexico, in order so that she could get a divorce and marry Luke. However Luke remained hostile towards Laura, even as Laura made several maneuvers to remain in Luke’s life. Laura decided that she had to show Luke that she had matured and thus moved out of her parents’ home and into an apartment, which just happened to be conveniently located in the same building as Luke’s apartment. Since Luke lived on a floor above Laura, he was forced to walk past her apartment everyday. This ensured that the two kept bumping into each other.

Luke eventually went to work for Edward Quartermaine and his niece Alexandria Quartermaine, who were in search of the Ice Princess, the world’s largest uncut diamond that had been spray-painted black and mounted on a base to be displayed as a statue. Luke promised the Quartermaines that he would get the statue before their rivals, the Cassadines could.

Eventually, Luke and Laura reconciled and decided to get married. Around the same time, World Security Bureau (WSB) agent Robert Scorpio had arrived in town and warned Luke that the Ice Princess mystery was far more serious than previously thought. Hidden inside the base of the statue was a formula that could create a substance called carbonic snow. The Cassadines planned on using carbonic snow in their sinister plot to take over the entire world. It was revealed that Alexandria was in league with the Cassadines and after the Ice Princess had made its way into the hands of several Port Charles citizens, Alexandria and the Cassadine brothers (Victor and Tony) finally got their hands on it and prepared to take it to Mikkos Cassadine, the eldest Cassadine brother (portrayed by sci-fi actor John Colicos).

Alexandria, Victor and Tony invited several guests on an ocean cruise aboard the Titan (Later the Haunted Star). As the Titan left Port Charles, Luke and Robert sneaked on board and were surprised when they found that Laura had also stowed away. Eventually, they arrived at Mikkos’ island in the Atlantic. Luke and Laura found the island a rather passionate setting and made several attempts to make love, only to be interrupted by Robert. Laura soon fell sick with a fever, and when Robert attempted to make Luke leave her behind, he refused and let Robert know that Laura was more important to him than their mission. Eventually Laura recovered and the three set about finding a way to stop the Cassadines.

Meanwhile, Mikkos unleashed his ultimate plan: he planned to hold the world to ransom. If world leaders did not accept his demands for total world domination, he would use his carbonic snow in his weather machine in order to send the Earth into a new ice age. In order to show that he was capable of doing this, he selected Port Charles as a test subject and soon the city was plunged into a blizzard — even though it was still summer. As temperatures in Port Charles continued to plummet, Mikkos managed to capture Luke, Laura and Robert. When his brother Tony and Alexandria Quartermaine expressed doubts about the plan, Mikkos had them killed.

Eventually Luke, Laura, Robert and B-movie actress Tiffany Hill managed to defeat Mikkos, and Luke was able to figure out the password in order to turn off Mikkos’ machine. In the course of the struggle, Mikkos was killed. Luke, Laura and Robert were thus hailed as heroes by the citizens of Port Charles.

Someone should tell the DOE that carbonic snow is the answer.

Ricin has been used to assassinate people - the KGB has used it to kill at least one defector, for example. An amount the site of a pin head can kill a human by blocking cells from producing needed proteins.

Preliminary tests show the substance is ricin, authorities said, but other tests to confirm it are under way.

Meanwhile, the reason the substance was in the room remains a mystery.

“We don’t know who [the ricin] belongs to or why it would be here at this time,” said Capt. Joe Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The FBI said Friday morning it considers this to be a criminal case with no link to terrorism.

Authorities were called to an Extended Stay America hotel around 3 p.m. PT Thursday after a man brought a bag with a small container to the manager’s office. The man said he found it while retrieving items from a hotel room.

The substance is “100 percent ricin,” Lombardo said.

Ricin takes a deliberate act to produce and it has been found in quantities similar to that found in Las Vegas in Al Qaeda hideouts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

End of an era, they call this. I think it is the beginning of one. We were able to ignore Castro for a long time. I don’t think we will be ignoring Raul. Now, since we are playing in Russia’s backyard, I wonder if we will see more Russian-Cuban gestures of friendship in ours?

Hat Tip: Right Wing News

Are you interested in the science, or just looking for a reason to rail against the machine?

This is an important question because if you are interested in science the ruling out of carbon dioxide as a culprit in climate change is going to be significant.

There are two pieces of information here that it is important for you to consume, if not believe. In fact, I don’t want you to believe it - research it yourself.

1. Carbon Dioxide - the greenhouse gas bogeyman - is not causing global warming
2. The globe is beginning to cool

I know, I know - this kills everything some people live for. It makes you wonder why people are in Bali right now, discussing how we might all avert this catastrophic global event. It makes Al Gore’s Nobel prize a little something different. But, don’t worry about it too much, they didn’t know any better because the data they are using is not very granular in scope and is a bit dated.

In August of 2007, data emerged showing none of the tell-tale signature of greenhouse gas inducing a global change in temperature. While earlier data allowed many to hold a belief that Greenhouse gases could be the culprit, today the data completely removes greenhouse gases as a source of global warming.

The statement has been made and shown in data - CO2 levels and temperature change rise and fall together, however the data now indicates global warming precedes CO2 level rises, not the other way around. The combination of these most-recent findings is turning many into skeptics about the reasons for global climate change.
Yeah - it’s true. 2006 and 2007 are cooler than 2005. Also, NASA made some errors in its data about global climate trends. And while the overall change is only 1/1000th of a degree since 2000, you might want to look at the overall change in the model.

correction of the mistake means that the temperature record now shows that 1934 was the hottest year since 1880 in the US, not 1998. It also means four of the top ten hottest years in the country were in the 1930s and only three in the last ten years.

That’s only important because the global warming politicians are saying:

The space agency’s temperature data are central to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fourth assessment report released this year. The figures indicate that eight of the ten hottest years worldwide since the mid-1800s have occurred since 1990.

Also, the oceans are doing things, which are not convenient truths.

So, what does this all mean? Is global climate change just a big hoax? No, I don’t think so. I am sure that global climate change is as real as the nose on your face (you do have a nose, right?). However, we have got to remove some of our poorly-made assumptions, along with some of the agendas people have attached to the global warming debate. If you are truly interested in climate change, and not just as a means to further your own agenda, then the science is going to tug you back and forth from believer to skeptic until the scientific community agrees and is then proven right.

Cleaner fuel, cleaner living, more efficient automobiles, less plastic, being stewards of our natural legacy are all important things to discuss and act upon, in my book. But the shrill, hand-wringing over greenhouse gases has got to stop now. There is no longer any scientific evidence to support it. I understand this is like turning an aircraft carrier around - it takes a lot of time and space to do it. I promise to help as much as I can, believe me.

For those who will not accept that the quality of science is going to improve over time and reveal changes to what is accepted as the truth, you are ignoring the history of science as we know it, as well as the very essence of the argument for evolution. You simply cannot ignore credible science and then point to science to prove your case without having an agenda outside of a concern about climate change.

You also have to remember, many of us have already been through one climate change scare in our lifetime. We’re still kind of worried about that one, what with the world in a cooling trend right now and all.

Recently, it has come to light, that the oft believed idea that Oil is a finite resource, may not be correct.

HOUSTON — Something mysterious is going on at Eugene Island 330.

Production at the oil field, deep in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, was supposed to have declined years ago. And for a while, it behaved like any normal field: Following its 1973 discovery, Eugene Island 330’s output peaked at about 15,000 barrels a day. By 1989, production had slowed to about 4,000 barrels a day.

Then suddenly — some say almost inexplicably — Eugene Island’s fortunes reversed. The field, operated by PennzEnergy Co., is now producing 13,000 barrels a day, and probable reserves have rocketed to more than 400 million barrels from 60 million. Stranger still, scientists studying the field say the crude coming out of the pipe is of a geological age quite different from the oil that gushed 10 years ago.

Imagine what our “friends” in the Middle East will think, or what they will do, when it is confirmed that oil didn’t come from dinosaurs or peat moss. What will happen to the Global Economy when we can drill for our own oil right off the coast or go back to oil fields long thought empty?

With the recent push to re-open the UFO theory, we must ask ourselves…why wasn’t this done sooner?

Carter, Symington and Kucinich all admit seeing things in the sky they couldn’t identify. Why are they made to feel like sideshow freaks by our media outlets, and why isn’t our Government taking them seriously.

Other countries are open about what they find, namely Mexico. Their fighter pilots film and record sightings from as far back as the 70’s, and that Government is open and honest with its populace. Their local media groups also air this information without commentary or prejudice.

Is it possible that there is some conspiracy, created to hide the fact that “they” exist. Is it possible that the Military-Industrial Complex is being given special consideration in regards to technology and information by our visitors? Both are very possible.

We all know that certain energy sources, non-renewable energy sources, are fast running low. What better thing to do, then to allow our people to stay dependant on oil and coal, while they corner the market on the next version of propulsion. They suck as much money out of us as possible, until the pumps run dry, and then, low and behold, they have new exciting technology that allows us to run our cars and power our communities for ever. Instead of paying the old oil companies for oil, we now pay the new “Oil Companies” for our “Anti-matter” or “Dilithium Crystals”

The only plus I see in the whole situation…we will finally get our flying cars!

If you wanted to start the process of a large-scale invasion, either benign or malignant, how would you do it?

If it was my job, the first thing I would do would be to visit my target clandestinely and identify their weaknesses. I would then ascertain the easiest ways to make the populace ready for assimilation. Assimilation can come in many different ways; from full blown genetic manipulation to simply making the inhabitants “ready’ for their first visit. I suppose, if my purpose was scientific or exploratory in nature…I would choose the least invasive method at my disposal.

The least invasive for me, would be to influence those groups ‘most susceptible to outside influence’. There is no other group on this planet, that more closely resemble that statement, than Liberals.

By influencing our media, both small screen and silver, “they” are in a unique position to get us “ready” for our first visit. Liberals have even gone so far as to take up the cause of the aliens local to our Southwest. What better way to indoctrinate us to think and feel those warm and fuzzy thoughts than to make it all so reasonable?

They are out there, and they want to take over this world. They have started the brainwashing process already, and soon it may be too late. Keep your eyes open and watch them, for they are watching you.

I am not a scientist, nor do I play one on TV.

That being said, there are probably a number of things I am not going to understand about “global warming”. However, I am a (debatable) relatively intelligent guy and I do read. I will assume the following are true:

• Holistically speaking, the earth has warmed somewhere in the neighborhood of .5 degrees Celcius over the past 100 years.
• Global warming is reference to an increase in the average temperature of the earth as posed by David Sandalow in a paper at The Brookings Institute. Mr. Sandalow is making a rather lazy rebuttal to author Michael Crichton’s thoughts on what he considers to be the Climate Fad of global warming.

Personally, I find most of the cause and effects models posed in support of human-caused global warming to be laughable. At the same time, I don’t think we should just ignore the need to clean up after ourselves. There is a terrific need in practically every corner of the world to create a means to control the damage we do to our ecosystem. Humans are the only species I know of capable of this.

Like Mr. Crichton, I remember the “population explosion” and “coming ice age” hair-pulling of the 1970’s. Human populations have certainly increased over the past 30 years, but nothing like they were “modeled”, and apparently the earth has gotten warmer over the past 100 years, so the giraffes will survive.

• From 1940 - 1970, average global temperatures went down - 30 years = 2nd ice age, we’re doomed by this natural phenomenon
• From 1970 - 2000, average global temperatures went up - 30 years = greatest calamity of our time, it’s all our fault.

Continue reading ‘Global’ Warming?…