Eideard

As an activist against the oppression of peoples’ rights over the past half-century, I always had a modicum of respect for Ted Kennedy. As a leading figure in American mainstream politics with the courage to stick to the standards of freedom that the USA has always represented – he could always be counted on.

Ted Kennedy and his wife, Victoria, at Hyannis Port in 1992
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Worldwide tributes for U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, who has died after a long battle with brain cancer, poured in Wednesday, led by politicians hailing his role in securing a lasting peace in Northern Ireland…

Kennedy, of Irish Catholic ancestry, was initially an outspoken opponent of British military deployment to the province during the violence of the 1970s and 80s in which more than 3,600 people were killed, but later moderated his views to support negotiations that brought all sides to the table.

The senator is credited with getting an American visa for Gerry Adams — leader of the pro-Irish nationalism Sinn Fein party accused of links to Irish Republican Army militants — allowing him to attend a pivotal U.S. conference on Northern Ireland’s future.

Kennedy was awarded an honorary knighthood in March 2009, for his contribution to Northern Irish peace, which included a landmark speech in the province in 1998 urging mainly pro-British Protestants and mainly pro-Irish Catholics to work together…

Sinn Fein president Adams greeted Kennedy’s death with great sadness.

“He has served the American people with courage and commitment for nearly 50 years. His service to Ireland through his role in the peace process was exceptional and contributed significantly to its progress.”

Ted Kennedy was the only one of the Kennedy brothers I never demonstrated against. If that means anything.

For a’ that and a’ that…

Circa 1904

ScottishPower is planning a tidal energy project that will supply all the electricity for one of Scotland’s most famous islands, the Guardian can reveal.

The company is close to signing a supply contract with Diageo, the drinks group, to provide electricity from the project to eight distilleries and maltings on Islay – including the makers of the renowned Laphroaig and Lagavulin whiskies.

The 10MW tidal project, one of the world’s largest, will provide enough electricity for Islay’s 3,500 inhabitants for 23 hours a day.

ScottishPower will submit a planning application in the next couple of months and expects the ten 30-metre underwater turbines to be operational in 2011. The turbines will cost about £50m to install…

There is…strong support on the island, although it is by no means universal. Kevin Sutherland, manager of the Islay group of Diageo distilleries, works at the Caol Ila distillery, which overlooks the Sound. The distillery, like the rest of the island, gets the majority of its electricity from the Hunterston nuclear reactor on the mainland. But the reactor is being decommissioned in 2016 and the distillery suffers frequent power cuts in stormy weather when pylons are blown over.

When the tidal project is built, the distilleries on the island will enjoy a much more secure electricity supply, confounding critics of renewable energy – primarily wind power – who say it is intermittent and unreliable.

One of the biggest obstacles for renewables in Britain has been planning permission. Onshore wind applications are frequently rejected because locals object to the visual impact. Because the Islay generators will be on the seabed, no one can see them and the Scottish government will have the final say on planning.

Trust me. There will be some fop from London who owns fishing rights which he uses once every dozen years – who will find grounds he feels should halt the project.

I am also reminded there were portions of my life entirely powered by Laphroig.

A team of British engineers has broken the longest-standing world land speed record in California.

The steam car, Inspiration, recorded an average speed of 139.843mph (225.06km/h) at Edwards air base, in the Mojave Desert, smashing the 1906 record. American Fred Marriot held the record set in 1906 of 127mph (204km/h).

The 25-foot-long, three-tonne “kettle” was driven by its main financier Charles Burnett III from Lymington, Hampshire.

Speaking from California, Mr Burnett said: “I wouldn’t like to leave it this close again, it was the last but one day we had to do this.

“It was absolutely fantastic I enjoyed every moment of it. The car really did handle beautifully.

“It is a privilege to be involved with such a talented crew, what we have achieved today is a true testament to British engineering, good teamwork and perseverance.”

We covered this well back in development days. As a lifetime gearhead, it’s a delight to be able to post this.

Trees around the world are colonising new territories in response to higher temperatures. From the US west coast to northern Siberia and south-east Asia, trees are growing at higher elevations, and at higher latitudes as the climate warms…

The shift is revealed by the first global analysis of treelines published in the journal Ecology Letters.

However, the trees aren’t responding quite how scientists expected. Instead of advancing as summer temperatures rise, the trees’ ability to colonise new areas appears to be more dependent on whether winter temperatures warm…

Treelines tend to form wherever conditions for growth become too harsh. For example, at high altitudes and latitudes, the climate often becomes too cold for trees to survive. At this boundary, a treeline occurs, with forest on one side and shorter, hardier plants such as shrubs and plants on the other.

However, around the world, average air temperatures have risen during the past century. This warming has been most pronounced at high altitudes and latitudes, the exact places where treelines form. So in theory, trees should take advantage of these warmer, more hospitable climates, allowing treelines to advance higher and closer towards the poles…

Crucially, the trees do not seem to be responding to warmer summer temperatures. “We expected growing season warming to be the dominant driver,” says Melanie Harsch. “But we found that it was not, winter temperature was.”

RTFA. Been years since I spent a significant portion of my free time at or above treeline. But, I understand what this is all about.

You should, too.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

It would have been insane (not to be too subtle) for President Obama not to nominate Ben Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. The economics dictated it; the politics dictated it.

Imagine the fallout if Obama had instead selected White House economic counselor Lawrence Summers…How would the economy respond, considering the strong support for Bernanke among economists, business executives and bankers..?

Frankly, only a moron wouldn’t have reappointed Bernanke …Beyond these political calculations, however, there was a larger reason to rename Bernanke: He deserved it.

We will never know whether the world might have suffered a depression if Bernanke’s Fed had not responded so aggressively. But that is plausible…

The fact that the global economy is no longer uncontrollably spiraling downward (for 2010, the Economist Intelligence Unit predicts growth of 2.7 percent for the world and 1.8 percent for the United States) was not a foregone conclusion. Nor was it ordained that the panic gripping financial markets just six months ago would subside. From recent lows in March, the U.S. stock market is now up roughly 50 percent…

Here is where Bernanke distinguished himself. A student of the Great Depression, and especially of the disastrous effects of bank failures, he went well beyond the standard response of lowering interest rates (the overnight Fed funds rate dropped effectively to zero by December). The Fed created a dizzying array of “liquidity facilities” that substituted more than $1 trillion of Fed credit for retreating private credit. The Fed supported markets for mortgages, money market funds, commercial paper, auto loans and student loans. The strategy was, as Wessel says, to do “whatever it takes” to avoid a complete loss of credit and confidence — a loss causing continuous drops in spending and asset prices (for stocks, bonds, homes) and culminating in depression.

Although there were other actors, the Fed’s interventions were decisive in halting the panic. It is an open question whether any other Fed chairman — someone without Bernanke’s detailed knowledge of the Depression — would have been so bold in supporting credit markets. Moreover, Bernanke’s approach inspired similar moves abroad.

As we have noted on this blog, the economies which followed modernist Keynesian remedies – from France and Germany to China – have already succeeded in returning to growth.

But this is also Bernanke’s burden. If the Fed doesn’t withdraw all that extra credit quickly enough, it may spawn inflation. If it withdraws it too quickly, it may subvert recovery. Failure, either way, could mean that reappointment marks the zenith of Bernanke’s prestige.

RTFA. Samuelson covered his buns with that last paragraph. Still, the details within provide an added fillip or two to the tale. And Obama, after all, was bright enough to make a sound choice.

A row has erupted in Mexico after the government distributed a history textbook to primary schools which makes no mention of the Spanish conquest.

The chronology of the text neatly avoids the issue by ending before the Spanish arrived in the early 1500s…

The arrival of the conquistadors resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people and the colonisation of Mexico.

The new history textbook, published and distributed free by the education ministry, omits what historians agree was one of the most important eras in the country’s history – the arrival of the Spanish led by Hernan Cortes in 1519 that led ultimately to colonisation until Mexico gained independence in 1821.

Some opposition politicians have accused the conservative government of President Felipe Calderon of deliberately discouraging a critical analysis of the conquest.

The government is even accused of being closer to the Spanish conquerors than to Mexico’s indigenous population.

Has Mexico been taking lessons from US revisionists?

Sounds like the sort of crap I’d expect from the state board of education in Texas or Kansas.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

As the whirlwind of Cash for Clunkers draws to a close, it’s coming full circle: The Fed site crashed under the load of dealers signing up – it crashed under dealers getting their final deals into the hopper.

Here are five lessons we see for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, cleaning up the national vehicle fleet and helping boost the market for greener cars.

Green Tint + Stimulus = Fast Pass on Capitol Hill: Help consumers, the environment, an ailing industry, entrepreneurs and the U.S. economy in one fell swoop — that was the basic pitch for cash for clunkers. Add in the fact that legislators were in a hurry to leave for their August vacation, and you have a formula for a very speedy $3 billion trip through Congress.

Some economists have argued that the rebates have condensed vehicle purchases into a narrower time frame, rather than spurring additional sales.

The Crystal Ball straw man means nothing. “Some economists” aren’t worth the paper their degree is printed on.

Bill Clinton updated his famous campaign line, “It’s the economy, stupid,” with a cleantech twist this month at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas. He suggested modeling a set of incentives for electric vehicles after cash for clunkers, saying the high level of participation in the program “proves that Americans will bite if you make it economical enough.”

The Obama administration’s efforts to promote greener cars have so far focused mostly at offsetting the sticker price (through a $7,500 tax credit for plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles, for example.) But that might not be enough to spur a sustainable leap to greener vehicles. For evidence, look to the success of Japan’s more comprehensive approach to boosting hybrids and the results of a new study on Canadian rebates for hybrid buyers. However, making Americans “bite” at plug-in vehicles over the long term might require other regulations affecting vehicle cost, such as fuel prices.

Yup.

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He has been captured by bank surveillance cameras in four states, sneering and holding a pistol sideways during heists.

Yet another dipshit who learned to be a gangster by watching television and movies. Since you [1] don’t need a gun to rob a bank and [2] there’s a reason the gunsights are on top.

The FBI is searching for this suspect, who they say has robbed at least 10 banks in the South. Now authorities hope to catch the serial bank robber by plastering his image on electronic billboards throughout the South. He…has robbed at least 10 banks in Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee…

The brazen bandit has been captured in surveillance footage sporting the same close-cropped hairstyle and goatee in many of the holdups. He does not seem to make any effort to cover his face and sometimes is seen aiming a handgun sideways, showing his tattoos on both forearms as he gestures at bank employees…

The suspect has not yet harmed anybody in the robberies, but the FBI considers him extremely dangerous.

“This guy has made no effort to hide the gun,” Keithley said . “He has threatened the use of it in every bank robbery that he has committed. He has put the gun in the faces of tellers, threatened to use the gun against them…. So certainly we need to get this guy in custody before he does harm someone.”

Stupid, ignorant, ego-smitten idiots are usually limited to being footsoldiers in the world of professional gangsters.

Oh – and speaking of brains – the FBI press release sparking coverage included photos of this thug. Which most beancounter newspapers haven’t printed.

UPDATE: This thug’s name is Chad E. Schaffner and he has been caught. A vacationing, retired highway patrol officer paid attention to the behavior of another resident at the same motel – looked around the Web for more info – called the local coppers and they arrested Schaffner without a problem.

What good comes from mandatory vaccines, eh?

We all know that influenza vaccination helps prevent disease, but a new study from Canada suggests it may also prevent another public health problem: inappropriate antibiotic use. The findings come from a new study in the September 1, 2009 issue of Clinical Infectious Disease, which is now available online.

Starting in 2000, the Canadian province of Ontario introduced a universal immunization program offering free influenza vaccines to anyone 6 months of age or older. Other provinces continued to target only high-risk groups and their contacts for vaccination. The authors compared prescription rates for influenza-associated respiratory antibiotics before and after the Ontario program began, and compared the Ontario prescription rates with those of other provinces.

The broader immunization effort in Ontario was associated with a 64 percent decline in these antibiotic prescriptions compared with the other provinces that maintained targeted vaccination programs. Additionally, influenza-associated mortality fell 39 percent. Flu-related hospitalizations, emergency department use, and doctors’ office visits also fell an average of 52 percent.

Influenza and upper respiratory conditions account for a substantial number of antibiotic prescriptions, even though antibiotics don’t work against viruses such as the flu. The overuse of antibiotics and the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria continue to be serious public health problems.

Here I am posting this in the United States where half the wingnuts in the nation still consider vaccination the work of the AntiChrist – and half the remainder think it may be an infringement on their liberty.

Our nation has the sense of science and logic of your average Stone Age sloth.

Multitaskers of media activities like watching YouTube, writing e-mail and talking on the phone are not very good at any of their tasks, according to a Stanford University report.

Researchers who published the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said the results had surprised them. They were looking for the secret to good media multitaskers but instead found broad-based incompetence.

“Heavy multitaskers are lousy at multitasking… The more you do it, the worse you get,” said Stanford communications professor Clifford Nass.

Compulsive media multitaskers are worse at focusing their attention, worse at organizing information, and worse at quickly switching between tasks, the Stanford scientists wrote…

“We knew that multitasking was difficult from a cognitive perspective. We thought, ‘What’s this special ability that people have that allows them to multitask?’ … Rather than finding things that they were doing better, we found things they were doing worse,” Stanford symbolic systems professor Eyal Ophir said.

I wonder how this would play out in other cultures, other nations?

For example, nations without decades of dedication to ignoring commercials. Add that to MTV and Americans have the attention span of a cricket,