If you want to know why Incumbents will be thrown out in November...

...consider the political cowardice demonstrated by a Congress unwilling to pass a budget when the current one runs out tomorrow! Could anything be more emblematic of our problems than a legislature unwilling to even vote on keeping itself running? Clearly, incumbents realize any action will be criticized by their opponents. But don't they see that no action is at least equally contemptible?

Goodbye Congress 2010. We look forward to your replacement, and hope it looks nothing like the body that just left the dinner table without finishing the vegetables, or even offering to do the dishes.

What if your A/C used 90% less power?

One of the MAJOR sources of power-draw in our house (and thus the MAJOR source of wallet-draining cost) is our central air conditioner. While we love the ability to cool and filter the air, it comes at an extreme price in both money and power. What if there were a way to do the same job for 90% less? There is! And believe it or not, it was invented here in America.

The new, patented system abandons the power-hungry compressor-driven refrigeration process used in many domestic (and virtually all commercial) air conditioners in favor of a couple of high-efficiency pumps and fans. But it also uses water for evaporative cooling — a concept familiar to many people living in the arid West who have roof-mounted “swamp coolers.”

...“We’ve designed all that into a single core, in which the drying and the cooling are accomplished sort of instantaneously as the air passes through,” Judkoff says. “We got rid of all the disadvantages of evaporative cooling, but we kept all the advantages — evaporative cooling is a very efficient form of cooling.”
In modeling how the DEVap system would perform in Phoenix, “we get on the order of 90 percent savings” in electrical demand, Judkoff says, when compared with a high-efficiency 18 SEER vapor compression air conditioner.

They say the technology is about 2 years away from being available to consumers.

Do you want to blow up Mod-Blog?

If you've ever wanted to blow up Mod-Blog in response to one of our posts this is your chance! Click on thru for a bookmarklet to turn any web page into a game of Asteroids.

The Daily Show Nails Unions

This is an absolutely devestating piece from the Daily Show on current union hypocrisy.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Working Stiffed
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

World's Fastest Pitch!

Not every milestone of sports is hyped to the sky beforehand, and often the greatest moments in sports are completely unexpected. Consider Aroldis Chapman's 105-mph pitch which was the fastest in baseball history.

“I didn’t see it until the ball was behind me,” Gwynn said. “I was trying not to look at the radar reading because I’d be intimidated. I saw how hard he was throwing and just tried to be slow and work my hands.”

The 105-mph pitch was inside for a ball and evened the count at 2-2. Gwynn had fouled off the previous two pitches and fouled off the next before striking out. He ought to be pleased with his effort, forcing Chapman to make seven pitches, the slowest of which was 102 mph.

Another Obama Administration Gaffe

Am I the only one shocked that the Obama Administration is still making spectacular diplomatic gaffes? This time they flew the Phillipine flag upside down behind their president. This signifies that the nation is at war. Not a small thing.

I have actually had this conversation...

Home-grown terror may be on the rise

One of the great accomplishments of the final years of the Bush administration was to prevent any further terrorist attacks in the United States. Between the diligent work of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies and the War in Iraq to distract and divert our enemies, the homefront has remained relatively unscathed.

Terrorism experts are warning that may be about to end. And no, it is not any particular Obama administration policy that is putting us at risk. It is an increasing willingness of Al-Qaeda and its allies to recruit Americans and settle for smaller attacks which are harder to predict and prevent.

"The impact of the attempted attacks during the past year suggests al-Qaeda, and its affiliates and allies, will attempt to conduct smaller-scale attacks targeting the homeland but with greater frequency," said Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, pointing to plots against the subway system in New York, the attempt to down a commercial airliner approaching Detroit and the failed car bombing in Times Square.

Leiter said in his testimony that "al-Qaeda in Pakistan is at one of its weakest points organizationally," but he noted that "regional affiliates and allies can compensate for the potentially decreased willingness of al-Qaeda in Pakistan - the deadliest supplier of such training and guidance - to accept and train new recruits."

"The spike in homegrown violent extremist activity during the past year is indicative of a common cause that rallies independent extremists to want to attack the homeland," said Leiter.

If the Government had built Google

Some simple ways to cut fat

Over the last two years, I have been on a quest to lose weight and maintain my weight loss. Some of the keys to weight loss are complex - setting up a calorie and nutritionally-balanced diet, setting up regular exercise. But some of the keys are finding little tricks that work for you. Mens Health has up a good collection of tips that may be useful to anyone looking to lose a few pounds or keep them off.

Slice Fat from Pizza
Always order your pizza with double tomato sauce and light cheese. Men who eat a lot of tomato products tend to have less prostate cancer—probably because tomatoes are a rich source of lycopene. Reducing the mozzarella by just one-third (you won't miss it) will save you 20 grams (g) of fat per pie. That's as much as in a McDonald's Quarter Pounder.

Order the Steak Fries
If you love french fries, always order the steak fries. Large-cut fries don't absorb as much oil as shoestring or curly fries, which lowers the fat count.

Do I resemble that remark?

Waves at Ocean Grove

Waves at Ocean Grove
Originally uploaded by nomad7674

Falling in Love Costs You Friends

It's a common stereotype that anyone who falls in love has no time for friends - so common that it is the plot of countless Hollywood movies. It turns out that science backs up the theory. Studies of social networks - real ones, not just Facebook - show the innermost circle of friends constricts when a new love interest enters the picture.

"People who are in romantic relationships - instead of having the typical five [individuals] on average, they only have four in that circle," explained Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Oxford.

"And bearing in mind that one of those is the new person that's come into your life, it means you've had to give up two others."...

The results confirmed the widely held view that love can lead to a smaller support network, with typically one family member and one friend being pushed out to accommodate the new lover.

"The intimacy of a relationship - your emotional engagement with it - correlates very tightly with the frequency of your interactions with those individuals," observed Professor Dunbar.

"If you don't see people, the emotional engagement starts to drop off, and quickly.

Zuckerberg Expresses Everything I Hate About Facebook

WARNING: Strong language at the link

From the horse's mouth, every reason you ever need to not trust Facebook with any information. Sadly, idiots will still put sensitive information up and wonder why their info has been sold.

CT Health Care Reform Backlash

Do you remember when President Obama promised that his Health Care Reform plan would bring down the costs of health care for all Americans? Those of us in Connecticut are wondering how he will explain the latest move by insurers who now want the ability to raise rates by over 20% in 2011.

Aetna asked earlier this summer for an average 24.7 percent increase over last year for small-group HMO plans. State regulators approved an average increase of 18 percent for all of Aetna's small-group plans and 14.2 percent for large-group and middle-market plans, according to Aetna and an initial review of documents provided to The Courant by the state Insurance Department...

In what might appear to be an oddity, companies are citing a huge range of effects that the health care reform mandates will have on plan prices — from near zero to well over 20 percent...

ConnectiCare is seeking an average 22.2 percent hike for its individual-market HMO plans, according to a filing with state regulators...Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut, by far the largest insurer of Connecticut residents, said in a letter that it expects the federal health reform law to increase rates by as much as 22.9 percent for just a single provision — removing annual spending caps...

Somehow, I suspect suddenly health care will return to be a #1 issue in the Fall elections... at least in my home state.

Delaware Says Goodbye to Old Rubbish and the GOP Throws a Fit

Let me preface this post by saying that I suspect Delaware will go Democrat again this fall. Sadly, I doubt O'Donnell can be elected here. We're just too blue a state for her. But, at worse we end up with a Democratic ordained Presbyterian minister as our Senator. We could certainly do worse (Someone like say...Mike Castle). And all of that really isn't the point of what happened here last night anyway. Last night was about giving the boot to one of the few people I would truly call a RINO.

I mean, Mike Castle actually voted to go along with impeaching President Bush in 2008. Any conservative in Delaware knows that Castle would be more at home on the Democratic Underground than he would any conservative site. He actually makes McCain look like a stable, responsible member of the GOP. Those of us in Delaware have supported him in the House because, well, there hasn't been anyone running against him. O'Donnell actually marks the first real challenge that Castle has faced, and when considering his potential to be a key player in the Senate, this election became as much about defeating him as it did getting O'Donnell in.

And this is what the GOP doesn't understand. The GOP is so focused on taking Congress, that it seems their standards are playing second fiddle. There are elements in the party that so desperately want a majority, that they have turned rather nasty on anyone with whom they disagree. No place is this more clear than last night when Karl Rove lost his mind on camera...



Yes, it's so important that we have the majority, that we'll take whatever we can get! But surprise, the GOP is in for a shock. Rove tried to push the tea party leaders to "get in line" with the rest of the party, thinking he could co-opt the movement. While I'm not a tea partier, I have to say that I agree with them on this; give us actual conservative candidates who will represent economic frugality or the GOP can stop counting on our votes. I am a conservative first, and a Republican second. Sadly, it seems like we are awash in many who want to put the (R) first.

Ben Domenech from Redstate said it well,

Here’s my view: Conservatives should not tolerate the likes of Mike Castle because of the simple fact that a 51 member Senate with Mike Castle is a Senate where Mike Castle is the most important vote in the room. As Specter and others before him, that Senator will set the terms of policy debates, determining in advance what can succeed and fail. Those who advance the argument that a majority with Castle is better than being in the minority tend to place priorities on Senate committee chairmanships and staff ratios and lobbyist cash… a list which pales in comparison to the power they would wield as the broker for both sides. Again and again I saw this play out during my time as a Senate staffer, and anyone who tells you contrary is incredibly naive about the way legislative decisions are made.

As a friend of mine in the business of campaigns and elections has said, electing moderates simply to secure a majority for Republicans is a self-defeating proposition. We’ve seen this play out time and again. Career politicians abhor principle, and adore power and fecklessness. Their presence in Washington provides constant aid and comfort to the Left. They dilute the brand, confuse voters and sell out conservatives just at the moment they are needed most.

A world with no homework... just home "lectures"?

I give this idea high marks for creativity, and I think it would have worked with me. But I am not sure if most students could manage to put their teacher first, when YouTube has so much empty entertainment to offer. Then again, maybe the answer is the same either way - disciplined students or disciplining parents.

However, instead of lecturing about polynomials and exponents during class time – and then giving his young charges 30 problems to work on at home – Fisch has flipped the sequence. He’s recorded his lectures on video and uploaded them to YouTube for his 28 students to watch at home. Then, in class, he works with students as they solve problems and experiment with the concepts.
Lectures at night, “homework” during the day. Call it the Fisch Flip.
“When you do a standard lecture in class, and then the students go home to do the problems, some of them are lost. They spend a whole lot of time being frustrated and, even worse, doing it wrong,” Fisch told me.

Irony Overload

Yes, I know in the end, he called it off, but others did not. The extreme irony of it all stands.

Perhaps the Most Effective Political Ad of 2010

From the campaign of Meg Whitman for Governor.

9/11 - We Will Never Forget

President Obama's Roots and his Philosophy

One of the things that was largely overlooked during the campaign was President Obamas childhood outside of the mainland USA. He grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia and also spent time in African countries too. I thought at the time that then candidate Obama could use this time spent overseas to his advantage to say that he has a better understanding of how things work in other parts of the world. Dinesh D'Souza has up an interesting article on how his time overseas coupled with his father's philosophies influenced President Obama. It is an interesting read and brings up some ideas that are rarely talked about. Also, it is nice to have an article that mentions the President's time oversears that was not written by a "birther".

Happy Labor Day!

Yet another reason NOT to have an affair...

...or rather the same old reason - it always comes out at exactly the WRONG time. Like, for example, when the mine you're working in collapses, and both your wife and your mistress come out to hold vigil. And meet.

Britain's Sun newspaper reports the wife of Yonni Barrios, Marta Salinas, was stunned and upset to find his girlfriend Susana Valenzuela also conducting a vigil for him.

Salinas told the newspaper: "Barrios is my husband. He loves me and I am his devoted wife. This woman has no legitimacy."

But The Sun reported Valenzuela as saying the 50-year-old miner was going to leave his wife for her.

"We are in love. I'll wait for him," she told the paper.

So, perhaps there is one Chilean miner who is NOT sorry to hear they won't be able to get him out of there for a while.

Not Again - Another Oil Rig Explosion

Since the Gulf Oil Spill, the Obama administration has been trying to impose a ban on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico which judges have steadily stricken down. One has to wonder if that may now change since a second oil rig has exploded in the Gulf, about 200 miles away from the existing spill. The question is, are two explosions so close together in time an indication of a systemic problem with inspection/regulation? Or is it all coincidental?

Either way, I'm happy to see no one was killed by this explosion. But less happy to hear that oil slicks have been sighted by the Coast Guard.

Apple revamps all iPods, Apple TV

If you missed today's Apple Event(liveblog, video, here are the high points:

• iTunes 10 announced with new "Ping" social network
• New (tiny) iPod Shuffle
• New (tiny) touchscreen iPod Nano
• New (full sized) iPod Touch with HD camera and FaceTime
• New Apple TV with streaming, including NetFlix
• iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iOS 4.2 for iPad with bug fixes, Game Center, and Apple TV integration

Overall, a jam-packed keynote. My quick impressions:

• Unimpressed with "Ping" - I don't need ANOTHER social network
• iPod Nano seems almost too small. Teens will miss the camera from the last model.
• iPod Touch with Cameras will kill the Flip Video market completely. Worthy upgrade.
• New AppleTV looks nice, but I think I like Roku HD better.
• Looking forward to iOS 4.1, but 4.2 on iPad may be too late coming in November.

What were your thoughts?

California judges plastic bags more important than budget crisis

If you're a politician facing re-election with a crushing budget deficit, impossible budget, and hard decisions that require strength and fortitude, what do you do? In California, you change the subject.

Supporters of AB1998 say the 19 billion plastic bags Californians use every year harm the environment and cost the state $25 million annually to collect and transport to landfills.
"California is poised to lead a national movement against plastic bag pollution that is injuring and killing marine life and imposing a costly blight on our land," said the bill's author, Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica.
The ban, if eventually signed into law, would take effect in supermarkets and large retail stores in 2012. It would apply to smaller stores in 2013.

Here's hoping Republicans - especially the governor - are able to call Democratic lawmakers on this attempt at sleight-of-hand. California needs legislators and executives ready to make tough choices, not politicians ready to run away to "easy" wins.

I am curious to hear what our Caliornian Mod-Bloggers and readers think of this.