Srsly?

It's been really dry so far this winter.  It's been unseasonably warm, 52 F yesterday.  Does that really mean that it's time to water the lawn?  On the 26th of December, in a city that averages 17 inches of water annually, my neighbor is watering his slightly green lawn.

I suppose though when my kids are out riding their new bikes past his window, it seems like lawn watering makes sense.

Technology Fail

The dimmer switch has been buzzing lately.  Not thinking the problem through, I went and replaced the existing switch with another dimmer switch that I had laying around.  The new switch emitted the same buzzing.  I looked up at the lights and immediately saw my problem.

Two recently installed CFLs.  That's all I could find last time I was at the store.  Fluorescent  bulbs, even with electronic ballasts operate at a certain frequency.  Modern dimmer switches operate by rapidly turning on and off the power to the bulb.  This happens at a variable frequency that is set by the switch position.  Long story short, the modern CFLs don't like the frequency they are being cycled at.

I'm off to the store to look for some good ole fashioned incandescent bulbs, but at some point I'm going to have to find another solution.  Thanks technology.

A Common Theme?

I got done reading Linoge's excellent post on logical fallacies presented as arguments for gun control.  It sounded strangely familiar to another argument I had heard repeated over and over, but had seen little evidence for.  You see scientists and the World agree that global warming is caused by dirty evil humans.

Since everyone knows that global warming is real and kills, we have to do something.  Invariably "do something" means passing laws that make the honest person's life more difficult while rewarding the rich and the criminal.

Maybe that's why so many of the gunnies I know remain unconvinced on the subject of global warming.  We've seen this scheme before, and we weren't fooled the first time.

Stupidest Thing I've Seen All Day

I just got done watching the commercial below. At the end of it I literally did a facepalm. Crap like this can't really sell cars, can it?

Fish, Fish Got His Wish

So as details started coming out about the crazy guy that was holding hostages at the Discovery Channel, I had a couple of thoughts.

First, crazy can find you anywhere.  Who at the Discovery Channel woke up today thinking, I bet today is the day the nut with the bombs shows up?  Remain aware of your surroundings and carry your guns.

Second, when I found out that his crusade was against human beings "infesting" the planet and that he wanted to save every animal but the humans, all I could think after SWAT had taken him out was, "Well, one less human in the world."

Seriously, any other whack-jobs that think like this dude, do us all a favor and when you decide to reduce the human population do it quietly in your own home.

Wonder No More

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you sent a big city news paper reporter out west to report on a group's effort to stop scaring the bejesus out of kids with Al Gore's global warming propaganda?  Well wonder no more.

Apparently everyone in favor of teaching the "other side" (her quotes, not mine) of global warming is a Tea Party conservative Republican (redneck hillbilly simpleton).  This continued anthropogenic global warming back and forth is really getting old.  The real truth on global warming is that WE DON'T KNOW.

Snow Protip

Don't ever stand under the spot where the roof sheds snow.  This goes double when trying to clean snow off of said roof.  You could end up injured or dead.

First Day of Spring

This is what the first day of spring looks like in Northern New Mexico.

At my house in Denver I hear they have about a foot.  Welcome to springtime in the Rockies.

Best Recorded Voice Ever

After driving in near white out conditions while worrying about your son who is in the hospital for an asthma flare up (he's fine and they got out last night) on the day where an hour mysteriously disappears, the best two words ever are

DELAYED START!

Thank you global warming, you're the best ever.

Monday Morning Laugh

Via Tam...

Ever see The Day After Tomorrow?

Please go play Kiss The Locomotive.

Between that and the title of the post, I can't get the grin off of my face.  If you're in need of a laugh on a Monday morning head on over.

Coincidence, I Think Not

So I was sitting at the dinner table tonight.  I'm heading south in a couple of days and wanted to know how that part of the country looked weather wise.  My brother and his wife live down in the southwest corner of Colorado (next door to the house I grew up in) and he told me they were getting feet of snow.

I had the news on in the background on the TV behind me.  Typically I never watch the news because I can't take so much cheer and joy.  So as I am sitting there snacking on a cream cheese filled wonton and Ed Greene, the local weather man on one of our 4 news stations in Denver says,

"A viewer sent in a picture of the snow in southwest Colorado.  You can see how high the snow is on the street sign.  There's East St. and East Ct."

At this point I almost choked on my wonton and spun around to watch the TV.  There on the moving picture box that I rarely watch was the intersection of my childhood.  I grew up on that snow filled corner.  My sister-in-law had taken the picture earlier in the day and my brother urged her to submit it to the news station so they would put it up on their website.  They never expected it would get on the news.

The sad thing is, they live in southwest Colorado.  That part of Colorado, for no good reason, is in the New Mexico media market.  That means by law they cannot get the news station that put my sister-in-law's picture on the air.  The upside is that they get to hear about the nightly murders in Albuquerque.

I've got to say, there was something especially cool about seeing the sleepy little corner of the sleepy little town where I grew up on the news, even if it was just to show the pile of snow.

Roadless = Jobless

Having come from the oil and gas industry, I was well aware of the potential problems for that industry with the Roadless Rule.

I was not aware, however that it had the potential to close down coal mines.  Colorado coal is among the cleanest in the West, with low sulfur and ash content.  Colorado coal is also the most likely to be impacted by the roadless rule.  Over at the Denver Post, Steve Baker has the quote that sums it all up.

Baker, 50, recalled how government invocation of eminent domain in the 1970s uprooted his father, a cattleman southwest of Denver. The family moved.
Baker found work as a logger, until federal restrictions kicked in. He turned to mining.
"I lost one profession. I see it coming for this one," Baker said.
"What are these 'green jobs' going to be? Monitoring our locked-up areas? Standing in little guard shacks so nobody drives through?"

If they keep shutting down coal mining, how will we run our coal powered cars?

Not Propaganda

Sometime back I was contacted by someone at Carbon Nation.  They are putting together a wonderful work of art and were wondering if they could use a picture of some lodgepole pine trees killed by pine beatles that I had taken up near Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

I visited their site and checked out the four minute trailer.  If AGW propaganda pieces are your thing go check it out.  If you don't have 4 minutes of your life to waste, I would still encourage you to watch the last 40 seconds.  This is truly how some of these folks think.  Scary.

I replied back to the original inquiry to using my picture in the negative, saying that I do not support propaganda of this sort.  Apparently, as I have now been informed, no one they have talked to believes that this video is propaganda.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Take a look and see for yourself.

Wine, Whine, and Agricultural Change

There have been several articles lately discussing wine production and climate change.  The English wine makers are excited about the warmer temperatures allowing them to produce more complex red wines.  The French are crying over their percieved loss of winemaking dominance.

What neither seem to realize is this is not the first time, nor will it be the last where changes in climate patterns force a change in land use.  I grew up in Southwest Colorado.  I have seen more cliff dwellings and kivas from Ancient Pueblo Peoples (we always called them Anasazi, but that isn't politically correct anymore) than anyone probably should.  The question that was always asked is, "Where did they go and why did they leave?"  The where did they go has been a tough question to answer, but the why did they leave...not so much.

Drought and changes in growing season length forced these folks to move elsewhere.  So the French can whine and the English can cheer, but nothing new is happening here.

Climate Modeling Computers to Be Powered By Coal

The National Center for Atmospheric Research has decided that running their newest supercomputer off of power generated by wind, solar, and cleaner burning natural gas from Colorado was just too expensive.  This super computer will be used to run models that will be used to scare the bejesus out of everyone using dire climate change predictions.

The facility's anticipated cost is $66 million and will be located in Wyoming.  It is estimated that up to 96% of Wyoming's electricity comes from coal fired power plants.  I would insert some comment about hypocracy, but I am convinced that the vast majority of anthropomorphic climate change supporters have no understanding of that word's meaning.