EDITORS COLLUDE with "Distinguished" Professors to silence the education reform debate.

NANOWIRE FOREST uses sunlight to make energy from water.

GIVE HIM CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE:

Obama often says, "Under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years." That's true: It's also true that under Obama's administration, Snooki from "Jersey Shore" got pregnant and Charlie Sheen lost his job. And he can take about as much credit for those developments....

The latter two are his more important accomplishments.

CHANGE: the Obama transition from work to welfare. 'Going Galt' Obama style.

THE BENEFIT of top-down government planning. Live in a small apartment in an urban high rise and drive an electric bicycle to and from the nearest high-speed rail system.

DOWN ON SANTORUM from both ends of the conservative spectrum.

In my estimation, Suzanne Fields is too harsh in her judgment, though I do wish he would back off the social issues and focus on the immediate problems: the economy and foreign policy. Culture is important, but it's not the immediate issue as are the other two.

Rachel Alexander is on more firm grounds opposing Santorum as 'too liberal'. Again the reality doesn't, in my opinion, fully support the charges, but the charges are on economic policy, which is the single most important issue in this election.

FORENSIC ENGINEERING: I'll believe it when I see it on NCIS.

THERE IS ANOTHER REVOLUTION in the Mideast, presently underway, that centers on the all-important area of energy production, and it might be called "the Battle for Leviathan".

At issue is the recent discovery of huge untapped natural gas fields in the Levant Basin, the section of the eastern Mediterranean Sea that abuts Israel to the East, and Cyprus to the North.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that this underwater area holds 123 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas. In simpler terms: That's equal to 20 billion barrels of oil, more than twenty times what the United States maintains in its Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Through "exclusive economic zones" finalized under prevailing laws of the sea, Israel and Cyprus have laid internationally recognized claims to these fields, which analysts suggest could be worth $130 billion to the Israeli economy.

This is why in February, Benjamin Netanyahu became the first Israeli prime minister ever to visit Cyprus, and why the two nations have inked a number of unprecedented pacts with each other.

I recall first reading about the Leviathan natural gas fields a few years ago in a Tom Clancy-like techno-thriller. At the time, I thought it was fiction.

IF YOU WANT to be treated with respect by The New York Times and the rest of the multiculti establishment, make it clear you’re willing to kill them. It worked for the Islamist terrorists; we don't need to be that tough - a willingness to fight back is more than sufficient.

Linked from Instapundit.

BUMMER: So It Turns Out that Obama’s Election Wasn’t the Moment that the Seas Stopped Rising.

MORNING EXAMINER: ObamaCare’s cost just doubled. Tell me something that does surprise me.

IN A SENSE, he's right: Biden tells $10K-a-couple fundraiser audience that GOP doesn’t know the middle class. For those of his, uh, status, $10K/couple donors probably are 'middle class'.

WATCH A LIVE FEED of the Northern Lights. The Canadian Space Agency’s AuroraMAX Camera — located in the city of Yellowknife, near the Arctic Circle — can fulfill all your Northern-Light-viewing needs every night from now until late May (the camera shuts down during the Arctic summer, when the midnight sun prevents aurora viewing). You can get aurora forecasts here; and the live camera is here.

THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY, in one anecdote: “Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.”

BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: “Social justice” is the stubborn application of unworkable solutions to imaginary problems.

INSIDER TRADING: "People who bought politicians seem to be getting a good return."

BRING IT ON: We will not be intimidated.



Bravo! Linked from Instapundit.
~~~~~
Update & bump: more here.

YOU ARE AN OLD FART if you .... And it continues through the comments. I qualify on nearly every count.

SANDRA FLUKE: I will not be silenced. Doesn't matter; no one's listening.

NAACP ASKING UN RIGHTS COUNCIL to put American voting laws on trial. Tell the UN to pound sand - and remind them who's footing their bill.

OBAMA'S not looking so good:


The trend lines are second-order polynomial fits. Data from Rasmussen.

THE YEAR SOLAR GOES BANKRUPT: because 2012 is the year the Obama administration 'goes bankrupt'.

OBAMA ARROGANCE:


The cult of personality. Is any additional evidence necessary?

Much more here.

HERE'S A QUESTION FOR YOU: Does the IEEE Code of Ethics Fully Supports [sic] Advancing Technology For Humanity? Short answer, no. Here's the IEEE Code of Ethics in its entirety:

We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of our technologies in affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree:

1. to accept responsibility in making decisions consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment;

2. to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do exist;

3. to be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data;

4. to reject bribery in all its forms;

5. to improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application, and potential consequences;

6. to maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake technological tasks for others only if qualified by training or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;

7. to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others;

8. to treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion, gender, disability, age, or national origin;

9. to avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious action;

10. to assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and to support them in following this code of ethics.

Approved by the IEEE Board of Directors
February 2006

There is no mention of 'advancing technology for humanity' and rightly so. The IEEE is a professional society; not a 'social justice' society. I have been a member for 42 years, and social justice has not been, is not, and should not be part of the Code of Ethics.

I have no problem with 'advancing technology for humanity' -- and I'm pleased that much of my engineering work has had that effect -- but that's a personal commitment, not a professional one.

PROBABLY NOT: Is the federal Department of Education constitutional?

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. I was out in the yard today, looking at all the branches that have been brought down by recent high winds. That, in turn, reminded me of the wisdom of the ages about inequality: "Sometimes you get the short end of the stick."

Any day now I expect a new Obama administration executive dictate: All sticks shall henceforth have two long short ends."

THERE CAN BE honor among thieves, but not among liberals.

"THIS IS STARTRAM, a proposed launch system that would use magnetic levitation trains, a 1000-mile tunnel, and a superconducting cable to reach low Earth orbit. Amazingly, we already have the technology to do it...at far less than the cost of rockets."


This concept, along with space elevators, has been a staple of science fiction for many years; it's nice to be able to see it as a potentially viable candidate for future space transportation.

OBAMA is running for reelection as a troll.

EIGHT SECRETS about gas prices every Liberal needs to know.

WHY MAJOR ACQUISITION PROGRAMS FAIL. A longer, but better and much more entertaining explanation can be found in Norm Augustine's book, Augustine's Laws.

COMMENT OF THE DAY:

It is not that “Progressives” don’t understand business.

“Progressives” don’t understand reality…

The post is here.

DON'T MESS WITH RUSH: Advertising boycott fails. I'd join the boycott but, alas, I never subscribed to either.

HOW TO COPE with Obama BS (bumper stickers).

OBAMA'S (part-time) economic recovery.

HEH: Even European airlines are fighting against the EU's emissions trading system (carbon tax).

BILL AYERS: Breitbart was a radical right “bombthrower”. This, from a confessed real bomber. Revolting.

SPACE CHRONICLES: FACING THE ULTIMATE FRONTIER: Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on how space exploration -- especially human voyages -- can profoundly inspire scientists and technologists of the future, and charts the path for missions to Mars and beyond. Too few of us are left who can remember the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

There is also a podcast version available at the link above.

WE THE PEOPLE petition the Obama administration to: resign.

BARACK OBAMA has a new campaign ad out running against -- of all people -- Sarah Palin.

The assumption, I suppose, it that the American public is as stupid as the average liberal and can't recognize the association fallacy (Sarah Palin is evil; Sarah Palin is a Republican; therefore, all Republicans are evil).

They also failed to recognize that Palin is a hockey mom and that hockey moms bite!

Exhibit A ... is an absurd new attack ad President Obama has released taking my comments out of context. I’m not running for any office, but I’m more than happy to accept the dubious honor of being Barack Obama’s “enemy of the week” if that includes the opportunity to debate him on the issues Americans are actually concerned about....

Just off the top of my head, a few of these concerning issues include: a debt crisis that has us hurtling towards a Greek-style collapse, entitlement programs going bankrupt, a credit downgrade for the first time in our history, a government takeover of the health care industry that makes care more expensive and puts a rationing panel of faceless bureaucrats between you and your doctor (aka a “death panel”), $4 and $5 gas at the pump exacerbated by an anti-drilling agenda that rejects good paying energy sector jobs and makes us more dependent on dangerous foreign regimes, a war in Afghanistan that seems unfocused and unending, a global presidential apology tour that’s made us look feeble and ridiculous, a housing market in the tank, the longest streak of high unemployment since World War II, private-sector job creators and industry strangled by burdensome regulations and an out-of-control Obama EPA, an attack on the Constitutional protection of religious liberty, an attack on private industry in right-to-work states, crony capitalism run amok in an administration in bed with their favored cronies to the detriment of genuine free market capitalism, green energy pay-to-play kickbacks to Obama campaign donors, and a Justice Department still stonewalling on a bungled operation that armed violent Mexican drug lords and led to the deaths of hundreds of innocent people.

I’m sure I missed a few things, but the list is just for starters. Along with millions of others, I’m willing and free to discuss these issues with the President anywhere, anytime....

Ouch!

KIRSTEN POWERS: Rush Limbaugh Isn’t the Only Media Misogynist. Powers may be liberal, but she's neither progressive nor stupid.

SOUTHERN STRATEGY: Gingrich-Perry Pre-Convention Ticket in the Works. That's a ticket I could vote for.

NEWT FOR PRESIDENT: Seriously. I'm supporting Newt (with my money as well as my mouth) for three reasons.

First, he's the only serious candidate -- including Barack -- who has demonstrated a 'grand vision' for America. Something like Reagan's shining city on a hill. Sure, Newt's grand visions may be a bit too grand, but without a vision, what is there to strive for? Romney and Santorum are demonstrably capable of 'managing the decline' but neither has shown himself to be the visionary I want in the Oval Office.

Second, Gingrich is a 'Washington insider'. Some may think that a bad thing, but I differ. I've never liked the 'outsider' schtick, simply because the President will have to work with, go around, or bull through 535 other insiders. As Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke observed, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy" and Gingrich knows Congress, knows where the bodies are buried, has proved he can get his way, and has made enough public Tea Party committments that he'll have a very hard time reneging on any of them. Unlike Democrats, Republicans tend to make promises they plan to keep.

Third, Newt, for my money, has his priorities straight. With the exception of Ron Paul on foreign affairs, the candidates' policy stances differ only in detail; all are for lower taxes, less regulation, more jobs, drilling for oil here and now, border control, repeal of ObamaCare, ad nauseum. Only Newt has shown the ability to step back from the current topic of debate and show how it fits into his grander vision of America to be.

And for my fourth and final reason, Thomas Sowell agrees with me.

My choices for the next President of the United States are, in order, Newt Gingrich, followed by Mitt Romney, followed by Rick Santorum, followed by Ron Paul, followed by Diamond (the fat cat), followed by Zeeba (the syphlitic camel), followed by a sack of hammers, followed by (gasp!) Barack Obama.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. A lesson from progressives: when you find yourself in a hole, quit keep digging.

Conservatives are smarter than that.

NEW YORK TIMES ECONOMIST PAUL KRUGMAN: borrow more, spend more, go through an 'orderly' default. The tried-and-true path to prosperity. R-i-i-i-ght.

THE REAL ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY:

While most voters view excessive government spending as the problem, those who feel entitled to rule over the rest of us see the voters as the problem. And that's the real entitlement crisis facing the nation today. The political class wants to govern like it's 1775, a time when kings were kings and consent of the governed didn't matter.

More here.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Remember this from President Obama? "At some point you've made enough money."

Explain to me why that doesn't apply to his government as well.

MISOGYNY revealed. Here's the relevant background.

FOUR YEARS LATER, Obama Campaign Still Running Against Palin.

A storm is on the horizon,


and I truly think that Obama is scared that a contested Republican convention could bring him face-to-face with his worst nightmare.

‘OCCUPY JESUS’: Evangelicals Give OWS a Taste of Its Own Medicine. Follow the link to the complete report. Then ask yourself which side is the more productive.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Remember that childhood phrase that 'every cloud contains a silver lining'? It's been rewritten by the Nanny State to 'every cloud contains a tornado'.

THEY'RE SCARED: The rise of the totalitarians. This is from Australia, but it's equally true here.

56% THINK AMERICA IS OVERTAXED. That's down (!) from 66% two years ago. Is that a result of Obama's continuously demagoging 'the rich'? Or, as an Instapundit reader suggests, does it represent the declining number of actual taxpayers?

BILL MAHER: Santorum homeschools his kids because he wants them locked up in his “Christian madrassa”. If Maher is a typical example of public schooling, I'd home-school myself.

GOOD NEWS from England's health care system: "If we ever do get single payer, government health care on this side of the Atlantic, we won’t have to worry about all those death panels critics keep warning us about. Given the bureaucratic delays and inefficiencies in the system, patients can be confident that, abused and neglected as they will be in government-run nursing homes, they will die of old age before the death panels ever meet."

NATURALLY: Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan speaks at University of California, Berkeley.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. I just paid $61 for a skosh over 15 gallons of regular today. I can now understand why some prefer to stay on welfare to work; the cost of gasoline is so high that low-wage workers probably lose money by working if they have to drive.

DON'T CAMPAIGN while driving. Running over your voters is not a good election strategy. Neither is turning your Mercedes into scrap iron ....

UPDATE: "the first Democrat to throw himself under the bus."

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: the only 'product' liberal arts graduates seem to be able to produce is whine.

SPLC [SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER] has been an incredibly successful organization. It has consistently solved the poverty problems of its directors....

TAXI MEDALLIONS -- brute protectionism.

A THOUGHT on Daylight Saving Time:

MORE TAXPAYER MONEY wasted to bring 3000 granite countertops to Los Angeles. All in the name of 'art'.

'WE CAN'T WAIT!' Yes, we can.

TOP HEAVY.

NO NEED to be multilingual: Dana Perino (FOX News) describing an interview she recently had with a Navy SEAL.

After discussing all the countries that he had been sent to, she asked if they had to learn several languages. "No ma'am, we don't go there to talk."

From my email.

OCCUPY WALL STREET needs bailout. Wasn't that why they 'occupied' Wall Street?

RANDOM THOUGHTS: Obamaland is much like Disneyland. There's ...

MainStreet, where the bible-thumping gun lovers live;

FantasyLand, where all good liberals and progressives live, with unicorns and rainbows for all;

TomorrowLand, where automobiles will run on unicorn droppings, algae, and natural gas;

FrontierLand, where liberals and progressives send their surrogates to blow things up; and

AdventureLand, where liberals and progressives go for vacation.

What's not to like?

MICHELLE MALKIN: Government Subsidized ‘Affordable’ Green Bulb Coming Soon to a Store Near You.

My house contains over 70 conventional light sockets. While I rarely have more than 7 or 8 lights actually turned on at any given time, replacing all the bulbs with energy-efficient 'green' LED bulbs would cost me about $3,500.

Do I look like a fool?

MICHAEL BARONE: Are 'the rich' for Romney?

COUGH DROPS, the mandate.

WHITE HOUSE works to shape debate over health law.

White House officials summoned dozens of leaders of nonprofit organizations that strongly back the health law to help them coordinate plans for a prayer vigil, press conferences and other events outside the court when justices hear arguments for three days beginning March 26.

Can 'astroturfing' get any more blatant?

MORE ECOFAIL: "China is blocking orders for at least $12 billion worth of Airbus jets to protest the European Union's emissions trading fees.... Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said his company is seeing 'retaliation threats' from 26 countries [including China]."

GREAT AMERICANS: Medal of Honor winner Tibor Rubin.

ANOTHER INDUSTRY TO GOVERNMENT: "Stop Meddling."

ECOFAIL: Colorado's Own Green Loan Sinkhole. Crony capitalism at it's best.

Isn't it remarkable how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, just as Obama predicted would happen if he didn't win the presidency?

[SOLAR STORM] IMPACT less than predicted. As usual. Any news headline that starts with '[TBD] Disaster Looming' should also have the subheadline that reads '99.99% to be unaffected'.

JONAH GOLDBERG: Someone Take the Wheel. In an article about fully-automated (driverless) cars, there was this nugget:

Health and safety -- particularly for "the children" -- have become all-purpose writs for social meddling. The list of dangerous substances and activities we need to be protected from grows by the day. With the help of a media establishment that turns anecdotes into epidemics in a heartbeat, the state ceaselessly empowers itself to constrain our freedoms for what the experts tell us is for our own good.

Read it all.

THE MORE THE PLANS FAIL, the more the Obama administration plans.

NASA ENGINEERS are shifting the orbits of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Odyssey probes, to ensure they have line-of-sight communications with the Curiosity lander as it descends to land at Gale crater on Mars.

HAPPY PRIVACY DAY! Share Everything.

ENTITLEMENT NATION.

While most voters view excessive government spending as the problem, those who feel entitled to rule over the rest of us see the voters as the problem. And that's the real entitlement crisis facing the nation today. The political class wants to govern like it's 1775, a time when kings were kings and consent of the governed didn't matter.

Read it all.

FOR THE MEDICALLY INCLINED: Using avatars to understand adverse drug reactions. I particularly liked this sentence: "After typing in a few common ingredients or drugs (e.g., acetaminophen, ibuprofen, amoxicillin or vioxx) and seeing what they possibly can do to your body, you might be tempted to swear off all drugs forever." That's the way I feel every time I see a drug commercial on television.