Contempating Suicide? Be Sure About It If You Are In China

From the Beeb

BEIJING (AP) - Chen Fuchao, a man heavily in debt, had been contemplating suicide on a bridge in southern China for hours when a passer-by came up, shook his hand - and pushed him off the ledge.

Chen fell 26 feet (8 meters) onto a partially inflated emergency air cushion laid out by authorities and survived, suffering spine and elbow injuries, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.

The passer-by, 66-year-old Lai Jiansheng, had been fed up with what he called Chen's "selfish activity," Xinhua said. Traffic around the Haizhu bridge in the city of Guangzhou had been backed up for five hours and police had cordoned off the area.

Several things jump out there.

1. Why in the hell are you trying to kill yourself off a 26-foot ledge? Call that disability point, not a suicide leap.

2. The guy was standing there for 5 hours? I agree with Lai, that is plenty of time to contemplate things. Dave Ramsey can fix your financial life in a 2.5 minute segment.

3. Most important. What kind of a protective air cushion causes spine and elbow injuries when you fall from 26 feet? If this happened in America, Chen would be a fucking millionaire, pay off his bad construction debt and go on the Rodney King talk show circuit.

Apparently, Lai was seen saluting the crowd in TV after Chen bounced. That doesn't fit my stoic buddist image of Chen, but it is TV.

Explains Lai:

I pushed him off because jumpers like Chen are very selfish," the newspaper quoted Mr Lai as saying.

Their action violates a lot of public interests. They do not really dare to kill themselves. Instead, they just want to raise the relevant government authorities' attention to their appeals.

And then this explains everything.

The bridge has gained a macabre reputation, attracting at least 12 would-be suicide jumpers since the start of April, according to the China Daily report.

None of the 12 has jumped, although each has held up traffic for several hours, it said.

How 'bout some Obama haiku. The only rule is it must start like half of his phrases...In America

Using my Obama voice,

In America
people get suicidal
and jump from up high

In China the shame
is a wasted tragedy
and no body count

Banana Republic Leadership

From ABC News Jack Tripper.

A leading bankruptcy attorney representing hedge funds and money managers told ABC News Saturday that Steve Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's Auto Industry Task Force, threatened one of the firms, an investment bank, that if it continued to oppose the administration's Chrysler bankruptcy plan, the White House would use the White House press corps to destroy its reputation.

This is amazing. Use the White House press corps to destroy people? Threatening private citizens? I've said this before and I'll say it again. This guy will end up making Nixon look like an amateur.

To quote our fearless negotiator in chief:

"While many stakeholders made sacrifices and worked constructively, I have to tell you some did not," the president said. "In particular, a group of investment firms and hedge funds decided to hold out...[for more than 29 cents on the dollar]."

A great ruler always governs from the gut. He can't be held back by constitutions or laws. He needs the flexibility to pick and choose. To make or eliminate rules. To threaten, if need be, to get things done. Law in a Banana Republic works that way. And it's for our own good. Kinda reminds me of a Hugo Chavez story from December.

The White House denies this report of course. And threatens anyone who repeats it with severe repercussions. When can we cancel the next election already?

What? Antartic Ice Not Melting?

Who could have seen this coming. Real scientists that's who.



From Fox News

Ice is expanding in much of Antarctica, contrary to the widespread public belief that global warming is melting the continental ice cap.

Ice core drilling in the fast ice off Australia's Davis Station in East Antarctica by the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-Operative Research Center shows that last year, the ice had a maximum thickness of 1.89m, its densest in 10 years.

Looking at snapshots of ice thickness over 5 or 10 year periods is little more than observing a high temperature on a summer day when equating weather to climate, but this information does fly in the face of those global warming Henny Penny's.

But, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand morons, so...

Ahmadinejad Shows Obama How To Handle Tea Party Types

Via AP (so no link)

Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But earlier this month, an Iranian judge leveled a far more serious allegation, charging her with spying for the United States.

She gets 6 years total, but her sentence breaks down thusly:

1 year for actually speaking out about women's issues.
2 years for being incredibly hot and not finding that "hobo" look in a Members Only jacket attractive.
3 years as a negotiating chip/human shield.

It's Official, EPA Declares Air Is Bad For You

How you get trillions of dollars of taxes (cap and trade) without having a congressional debate? Easy, have a bureaucracy promulgate a regulation.

From Fox News.

...the Obama administration's release on Friday of an EPA proposed finding that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases are a danger to public health and welfare.

The EPA also will say tailpipe emissions from motor vehicles contribute to climate change.

Here's the comedy. After praising the proposal, Sen. Barbara Boxer added,

...the best and most flexible way to deal with this serious problem is to enact a market-based cap and trade system, which will help us make the transition to clean energy and will bring us innovation and strong economic growth.

So we are going to have a market based government mandate.

What Sen. Boxer is really saying is, "let's destroy the source of 85% of American energy consumption capacity without a solution and a magic bullet will come along when prices skyrocket."

That's like saying let's hold someones head under water until they grow gills.

Here a little bit of info from the DOE that Ms. Boxer might want to grasp before taxing the shit out of everyone.

Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuels – coal, oil and natural gas -- currently provide more than 85% of all the energy consumed in the United States, nearly two-thirds of our electricity, and virtually all of our transportation fuels. Moreover, it is likely that the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels to power an expanding economy will actually increase over at least the next two decades even with aggressive development and deployment of new renewable and nuclear technologies.

Because our economic health depends on the continued availability of reliable and affordable fossil fuels, the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy oversees two major fossil fuel efforts:

1) Emergency stockpiles of crude oil and heating oil

The Department is responsible for maintaining the readiness of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve. In the event of a major supply interruption, the President could order emergency stocks from either of these two reserves to be released into the market.

2) Research and Development of future fossil energy technologies

My 2 cents. You better have a workable alternative for that 85% of energy you are about to make too expensive for average Americans.

Jacksonville FL Tea Party

Awesome day. Great weather and NO phony politicians. This is what grass roots politics is all about. Forget about the media coverage - either way. I could guess at the crowd (and be wrong) so I'll say about 2500.

Maybe We Can Find Somthing To Criticize Obama About Via Political Cartoons

I saw this over at Savage, so I went looking for some more cartoons from the era. Maybe something that can help inprire someone, somewhere.

Hmmm, this could be turned into something...



OK, I'll try my hand.



Here's a couple from Michael Ramirez at IBD. He's probably the best political cartoonist out there right now.



And one with a second interpretation.

Hurricanes and Sunspots

There is about a 2-3 year lag from the peak of sunspot activity.



Guess when we will have our next hurricane cycle? That's right. After the sun starts it's next solar cycle.



Because sea surface temps follow the sun.

And You Only Thought This Happened In B-Movies

Two guys commit murder. One pleads out and testifies against his partner. In prison, they end up in the same cell and one of them ends up dead in 15 minutes.

McALESTER, Okla. — A 23-year-old inmate beaten to death at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary had been put in a cell with convicted killer he had testified against.

Prison spokesman Jerry Massie says Paul Duran Jr. fought with one cellmate and then was put in a cell with Jessie James Dalton.

Duran was found beaten to death about 15 minutes later.

Massie says the two were not supposed to be put in the same cell and prison officials are trying to determine how it happened.

I'll tell you how it happened. Duran pissed off the prison guards and they made a "mistake."

This makes Prison Break a little more believable. Well, except for season 3. And 4.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory Satellite: NASA, We Have A Problem

It was really a good idea. Get accurate data on green house gasses and spend a little quality time with "science" (as opposed to the usual hysterical fear mongering).

The OCO, orbiting carbon observatory, was set to start working this month, but the satellite shit the bed soon after liftoff. See NASA's explanation here.

Why do I have a feeling that Al Gore and Mark Serreze are secretly happy that this thing went bad? If the science debate is over (Al Gore) and we are in the "death spiral" (Mark Serreze), the new data would only be a distraction. Because they really like the current GHG-global warming hypothesis, and without a platform like the OCO we are back to having science standing on it's head trying to disprove an unproven hypothesis.

Obama Offers To Srap Missle Shield For A Handfull Of Magic Beans

:::Update Medvedev says go to hell:::

So who are we negotiating with here, the Russians or the Iranians? Aren't the Russians selling the Iranians their missile technology? Didn't the Russians help build the nuke plants? Aren't they one in the same?

President Obama offered to consider scrapping plans for a missile defense shield in Europe if Russia helps rein in Iran's nuclear program, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

The article said Obama wrote to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to tell him Russia's aid in resolving the threat from Iran would make the missile shield plans unnecessary, according to an account from Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

A senior administration official told FOX News that Obama sent a letter to Medvedev but "we won't comment on the specifics."

So as long as Iran promises to be good we will drop our defenses... Seriously, it's not like Iran promotes the use of missiles anywhere.

Back to the fairy tale analogy. In Jack's fantasy, he really doesn't have much to lose in the first place. All he gives up is a broke cow and he ends up with a warm meal and a crack at the golden goose. That plus a couple of hours away from his bitchy mother.

In Obama's fantasy, he's betting an American city that the bad guys will stop hating us because we are no longer a threat to defend ourselves. ...And that Russia and Iran will tell him the truth.

Given those two scenarios, the fucking vine to the clouds and the gold-shitting goose takes less suspension of disbelief than honest self-reporting from the Iranian Mullahs.

The Russians and Iranians have to be laughing their asses off at Obama. So what is the fallback position here? You just offered up your most valuable negotiating asset in the first go-round.

Not to mention that Obama has spent the last 18 months signaling that he would scrap missle defense for NOTHING. So the Russians will pinch one of their best trading partners over something that has no value to you? I guess he assumes the Russians don't read newspapers. And in case you didn't notice, nobody fucking asked.

I never understood Jack's mom getting pissed off at the kid for not getting top dollar for that old cow. But if a promise is all Obama can get for our missile defense system after decades of development, we would have been better off having Jack as our Secretary of State.



Update: Medvedev says go to hell. AP translates as,

Russian President Medvedev has said he's willing to discuss the proposed US missile shield with Washington. But he added that any deal linking those talks with negotiations regarding Iran would not be productive.

Russian President Dimitry Medvedev's comments came in response to a New York Times report that US President Barack Obama had written a secret letter to his Russian counterpart offering to halt the planned missile shield, which would be located mainly in Poland and the Czech Republic, in return for Moscow's help in stopping Iran from developing long-range nuclear weapons.

Japanese Scientists Compare Computer Climate Modelling To Ancient Astrology

It looks like kool-aid sales are down dramatically in Japan. From the people who practically invented doomsday movies, comes this (from the UK Register):

(they)compare computer climate modelling to ancient astrology. Others castigate the paucity of the US ground temperature data set used to support the hypothesis, and declare that the unambiguous warming trend from the mid-part of the 20th Century has ceased.

The report by Japan Society of Energy and Resources (JSER) is astonishing rebuke to international pressure, and a vote of confidence in Japan's native marine and astronomical research. Publicly-funded science in the West uniformly backs the hypothesis that industrial influence is primarily responsible for climate change..

And this:

The report by Japan Society of Energy and Resources (JSER) is astonishing rebuke to international pressure, and a vote of confidence in Japan's native marine and astronomical research. Publicly-funded science in the West uniformly backs the hypothesis that industrial influence is primarily responsible for climate change, although fissures have appeared recently.

Leave it to a much older culture to take a "longer view" of our sketchy climate data.

Busted

This has not been a big story in the US, but the British papers have been covering Obama's Churchill snub all week. From the Telegraph.

A bust of the former prime minister once voted the greatest Briton in history, which was loaned to George W Bush from the Government's art collection after the September 11 attacks, has now been formally handed back.

The bronze by Sir Jacob Epstein, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds if it were ever sold on the open market, enjoyed pride of place in the Oval Office during President Bush's tenure.

But when British officials offered to let Mr Obama to hang onto the bust for a further four years, the White House said: "Thanks, but no thanks."

So it's not really a bust...more of a floating head, but it's the messages sent to the one ally we could count on in the last 7 years that is a bit disturbing. Does it signal an end to the wartime presidency or is it another of Obama's famous middle finger messages?

One clue was mentioned by the Telegraph.

Churchill has less happy connotations for Mr Obama than those American politicians who celebrate his wartime leadership. It was during Churchill's second premiership that Britain suppressed Kenya's Mau Mau rebellion. Among Kenyans allegedly tortured by the colonial regime included one Hussein Onyango Obama, the President's grandfather.

I'm willing to forgive the diplomatic faux pas, since the replacement is now the only Republican with any real power in Washington - Abe Lincoln.

If we keep moving towards socialism at the current pace, the bust in the White House during Obama's second term may look like this.

Sensor Drift, A New Weapon In The Green Scare Or Just Henny Penny Coming Home To Roost

Why is it that every time there is a malfunction of some kind in environmental science methods, the error is always on the side of global warming? I'm just saying, from the hockey stick graph to forgetting the role of the sun in the Earth's climate, a conspiracy-minded individual might start to get suspicious.

The problem is that it's not the environmental scientists that are catching the errors...it's everyday folks looking at the data. OK, by folks I mean science geeks who work in windowless rooms and can looks at thousands of fields of data without getting drunk first.

Case in point. The National Snow and Ice Data Center was forced to admit that the maps they have been making this year of Arctic sea ice were grossly underestimating actual sea ice. The problem, something called sensor drift. The really big problem. A 5-year old could draw the edge of the sea ice better than the NSIDC.

A statement from the NSIDC clears things up:

As some of our readers have already noticed, there was a significant problem with the daily sea ice data images on February 16. The problem arose from a malfunction of the satellite sensor we use for our daily sea ice products. Upon further investigation, we discovered that starting around early January, an error known as sensor drift caused a slowly growing underestimation of Arctic sea ice extent. The underestimation reached approximately 500,000 square kilometers (193,000 square miles) by mid-February. Sensor drift, although infrequent, does occasionally occur and it is one of the things that we account for during quality control measures prior to archiving the data. See below for more details.

We have removed the most recent data and are investigating alternative data sources that will provide correct results. It is not clear when we will have data back online, but we are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

So by quality control, you guys at the NSIDC mean the random chance that a reader catches your mistakes.

The money quote from NSIDC:

On February 16, 2009, as emails came in from puzzled readers, it became clear that there was a significant problem: sea-ice-covered regions were showing up as open ocean...Sensor drift is a perfect but unfortunate example of the problems encountered in near-real-time analysis.

In other words, real-time data is great when it is used to gin up end-of-the-earth stories in the New York Times, but real time data "is what is is" when it makes you look like Henny Penny.



Obviously environmental scientists just don't get the BIG PICTURE. Credibility is king for researchers. Eventually, eventually the truth wins out. Real science will win out. And if you are not willing to participate in the actual scientific process, someone else (probably with a lot less grant money and fewer Hollywood friends) will expose your research for what it is. And when that happens, sensor drift (and all of the other excuses) will be exposed for what it is.

Researcher bias.

And by Henny Penny, I mean Henny Penny. Check out Prof Mark Serreze, a sea ice specialist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) and his "death spiral" - global warming hyperbole.

Subsidizing Irresponsibility

The old adage has never been more true: You want more of something, subsidize, it. Less of something, tax it. This country is subsidizing irresponsible behavior like a meteor is going to wipe out the earth in a matter of weeks.

Self reliance is dead. It's dead as a concept. It's dead as a romantic idea. It's dead dead.

Item. The oct-tot mom from California. The poster child of irresponsibility. She is the this generations' Alex DeLarge of aimless self gratification. A "disabled" worker using a phony settlement check and tons of government assistance who goes on plastic surgery trips so she can look like a fat and very poor man's version of Angelina Jolie. All the while sprinkling the hospitals with a score of her offspring. Which of course means we have to sell several more millions of dollars worth of t-bills to some nameless chi-com.

She has been walking around with her middle finger pointed at the country for years. Sure. Sure. We know you don't have time to read the meter, you are just here for a little invitro.

Maybe Kubrick was right. A sick society is responsible for creating the "little Alex's" and Nadya's of the world. But that really wasn't his point was it?

Maybe Nadya is doing exactly what the government wants her to do? I mean how many tax payers will it take in 20 years to pay for the social programs AND the next handfull of stimulus/bailout programs.

The only way this Ponzi scheme works is if we get hundreds of millions of new suckers to pay taxes. Nadya may just end up being the most patriotic woman in the country.