Cryptogon Reader Contributes $50
May 31st, 2007Eileen has sent another $50! Thanks so much, Eileen.
The Sack of Washington
May 31st, 2007Maybe the author covers this somewhere in the book, but the most important difference, in my opinion, is that Rome didn’t go down with a ready and deployed arsenal of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons. Same primate consciousness as in Rome, but now with nuclear weapons.
Yes, the Soviet Union collapsed and yes, some number of nuclear weapons aren’t accounted for and yes, we’re still here. I often wonder about that one. Was it luck, or divine intervention? Maybe a bit of both.
Via: Vanity Fair:
Comparisons of America and Rome are everywhere these days, whether deploring an over-extended military, social decadence, or illegal immigration. A more disturbing—and largely ignored—similarity lies in the wholesale privatization of the U.S. government, which has blurred the line between public good and personal gain. In an excerpt from his new book, Cullen Murphy charts a dynamic that is more dangerous than corruption, unprecedented in scale, and visible everywhere from Hurricane Katrina to the Iraq war, to the justice system.
President and emperor, America and Rome: the matchup is by now so familiar, so natural, that you just can’t help yourself—it comes to mind unbidden, in the reflexive way that the behavior of chimps reminds you of the behavior of people. Everyone gets it whenever a comparison of Rome and America is drawn—for instance, the offhand allusion to welfare and televised sports as “bread and circuses,” or to illegal immigrants as “barbarian hordes.” If reference is made to an “imperial presidency,” or to the deployment abroad of “American legions,” no one raises an eyebrow and wonders what you could possibly be talking about. Invoke the phrase “decline and fall” and thoughts turn simultaneously to the Roman past and the American present.
To be sure, a lot of Rome-and-America comparisons are glib, and if you’re looking for reasons to brush parallels aside, it’s easy enough to find them. The two entities, Rome and America, are dissimilar in countless ways. But some parallels really do hold up, though maybe not the ones that have been most in the public eye. Think less about decadence, less about military might—and think more about the parochial way these two societies view the outside world, and more about the slow decay of homegrown institutions. Think less about threats from unwelcome barbarians, and more about the powerful dynamics of a multi-ethnic society. Think less about the ability of a superpower to influence everything on earth, and more about how everything on earth affects a superpower.
One core similarity is almost always overlooked—it has to do with “privatization,” which sometimes means “corruption,” though it’s actually a far broader phenomenon. Rome had trouble maintaining a distinction between public and private responsibilities—and between public and private resources. The line between these is never fixed, anywhere. But when it becomes too hazy, or fades altogether, central government becomes impossible to steer. It took a long time to happen, but the fraying connection between imperial will and concrete action is a big part of What Went Wrong in ancient Rome. America has in recent years embarked on a privatization binge like no other in its history, putting into private hands all manner of activities that once were thought to be public tasks—overseeing the nation’s highways, patrolling its neighborhoods, inspecting its food, protecting its borders. This may make sense in the short term—and sometimes, like Rome, we may have no choice in the matter. But how will the consequences play out over decades, or centuries? In all likelihood, very badly.
U.S. Government Fights to Keep Meatpackers from Testing All Slaughtered Cattle for Mad Cow
May 31st, 2007Via: International Herald Tribune:
The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.
The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows.
Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone should test its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive tests on their larger herds as well.
New Zealand: Mother on Oxygen Pump Dies After Power Cut
May 31st, 2007Profits.
Via: CNN:
A 44-year-old woman who needed an electric oxygen pump to breathe died after an energy company cut the power to her home because of a $122 unpaid bill, her family claimed Wednesday.
Police said they had launched an investigation into Folole Muliaga’s death, which happened within two hours of state-owned company Mercury Energy cutting power to her house Tuesday.
Mercury Energy’s general manager, James Moulder, said the company was devastated by the woman’s death and was conducting its own investigation to determine what happened. (Watch as devastated husband and children tell their story)
Muliaga, a schoolteacher with four children between the ages of 5 and 20, had been off work since February with an illness and had fallen behind in her payments to Mercury, said Brenden Sheehan, a relative who provided a copy of the bill.
Relative says family warned company rep she needed machine
Six days before a Mercury Energy representative arrived Tuesday at the house to disconnect the electricity, she was $122 in arrears.
Sheehan said both Muliaga and her son told the technician she was dependent on the oxygen machine to stay alive and invited him into the house to see it. “Then he cut the power off,” Sheehan told The Associated Press.
Muliaga began having difficulty breathing, became faint and then collapsed, he said. Paramedics were unable to revive her, and she was pronounced dead within two hours of the power being cut.
Research Credit: AT
Tesla CEO Literally Makes a Joke Out of Hydrogen Fuel Cell “Quagmire”
May 30th, 2007Nice one.
Via: Tesla Motors:
Good afternoon, Members of the Board.
I am Martin Eberhard, cofounder and CEO of Tesla Motors, based here in California.
Tesla Motors will begin shipping highly-desirable, DOT-compliant electrical cars with well over 200 miles range later this year – perhaps you saw one of our prototypes outside. We have already pre-sold more than 400 cars; 2008 production will easily exceed 1,000 cars, exceeding the worldwide fleet of fuel cell cars.
Additionally, we will deliver Tesla-built battery systems for the newly revived TH!INK City Car this year, with a standing order for many thousand batteries per year.
The Air Resources Board continues to show a bias toward hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and against the less expensive and more efficient battery electric vehicles. This bias is clearly seen in the ARB Independent Expert Panel Report. Tesla Motors believes this bias is not justified by science or the evidence of actual vehicles and infrastructure.
However, we are actually delighted by the way this bias finds implementation in the ZEV mandate. For the results of this mandate is that all of our potential EV competitors – all the big car companies – remain mired in non-productive, deeply-expensive fuel cell programs, keeping them out of the EV marketplace, and indeed out of the serious ZEV marketplace entirely.
Every year spent on fuel cell programs by GM, Ford, Honda, and the rest is another year we at Tesla Motors can build our technological and market lead in the obvious winning technology: battery electric vehicles. We therefore sarcastically and enthusiastically encourage you to maintain the hydrogen bias and keep our competitors in the quagmire.
Meanwhile, we are on schedule to place 15,000 battery electric Tesla vehicles on the road by the end of 2010.
Sarcasm aside, wouldn’t it be nice for our environment if we had a few competitors?
Korea: Robots to Guard Schools
May 30th, 2007Via: Korea Times:
Sophisticated security robots will be deployed in the near future to patrol schools around the clock to protect students from violence and other dangers.
DU Robo said Wednesday that the Seoul-based venture start-up company plans to begin a pilot run of the security robot, dubbed OFRO, in a middle school.
This is the first time in the world that a robot will be employed to guard an educational institution, according to DU Robo.
“We are set to check the viability of OFRO as a school robot at a middle school in southern Seoul this week along with KT Telecop,” DU Robo CEO Kang Jung-won said.
“After going through the feasibility test, we look to commercialize the feature-rich OFRO that retails at around $100,000 as a school guardian,” he said.
Research Credit: MT
Air-Powered Car by Next Summer; No Plans for Release in America
May 30th, 2007Imagine my shock.
Of course, “Air-powered” is somewhat misleading. The compressed air tanks are a battery. Also, the title of the article includes the phrase “Zero Emissions.” Just keep in mind that this is a different way of storing electricity, since that’s what is going to run the compressors. So, it could be emission free if the compressors are running on wind, solar or hydro power. If the compressors are running on coal, this will be a coal powered air car. In France, where most electricity is generated via nuclear power, this would be a nuclear powered air car, etc.
Once the wind turbines are banned in America, perhaps this car will be allowed.
Via: Popular Mechanics:
India’s largest automaker is set to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine’s pistons. Some 6000 zero-emissions Air Cars are scheduled to hit Indian streets in August of 2008.
Barring any last-minute design changes on the way to production, the Air Car should be surprisingly practical. The $12,700 CityCAT, one of a handful of planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. It will take only a few minutes for the CityCAT to refuel at gas stations equipped with custom air compressor units; MDI says it should cost around $2 to fill the car’s carbon-fiber tanks with 340 liters of air at 4350 psi. Drivers also will be able to plug into the electrical grid and use the car’s built-in compressor to refill the tanks in about 4 hours.
Of course, the Air Car will likely never hit American shores, especially considering its all-glue construction. But that doesn’t mean the major automakers can write it off as a bizarre Indian experiment — MDI has signed deals to bring its design to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.
UK: Man Wrongfully Imprisoned for Three Years to Receive £6,800 Government Bill for “Board and Lodging”
May 30th, 2007I tried to write commentary for this story several times, but each version resulted in statements that could get me in trouble.
Via: BBC:
A 37-year-old man jailed for a crime he did not commit is being charged almost £7,000 for his time in prison.
Warren Blackwell from Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire, has been told the sum will be deducted from compensation to cover savings on rent and food.
He spent three years in jail convicted of sexually assaulting a woman with a history of false claims against men.
The Ministry of Justice said deductions were normal procedure and should not be called “bed and breakfast” costs.
An appeal hearing said Mr Warren’s conviction was unsafe because the woman had made similar accusations in the past about other men.
Mr Warren was told he would receive compensation minus £6,800, which has been assessed as the amount of money he had saved from normal expenses while in jail.
He said: “I was flabbergasted when I was told. How can they justify charging innocent people when murderers live rent free?”
Volkswagen’s 282MPG Car
May 29th, 2007This story is five years old.
Do you get it yet?
Via: Canadian Driver:
A few years ago, Volkswagen took on a task that many people thought was impossible: they decided to develop a fuel-efficient, road-going compact car that could achieve an average fuel consumption of just 3 litres per 100 km (94 mpg). Not only did Volkswagen achieve this milestone in 1999, but they had an even larger goal in mind: an ultra fuel-efficient car with a super stingy fuel consumption rating of just 1 litre per 100 kilometres (282 mpg).
After three years of development in secret, the 1-Litre-Car was unveiled in April in Hamburg, Germany at Volkswagen’s annual stockholders meeting. To prove that it is a viable, road-going automobile and not just a pie-in-the-sky concept, VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech himself drove the 1-Litre-Car from Wolfsburg to Hamburg to join the shareholders meeting – averaging just 0.89 litres per 100 km (317 mpg) along the way.
To design a car with such incredibly low fuel consumption, Volkswagen engineers had to literally go back to the drawing board – they threw out most off-the-shelf body and powertrain solutions, and started with a blank slate.
Cryptogon Reader Contributes $50
May 29th, 2007Thanks to Cryingfreeman for sending $50!
