Category Archives: Technology and Society

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

#ProTip To Climate Scientists

3 Comments

When you say “the science is settled,” you are arguing for an end to your research funding.

Oops.

This is all part of the Democrats’ war on science:

Looking forward to a new U.S. President next year, whether the Democrats or the Republicans are in power, I don’t expect a continuation of the status quo on climate science funding. The Democrats are moving away from science towards policy – who needs to spend all that funding on basic climate science research? Global climate modeling might be ‘saved’ if they think these climate models can support local impact assessments (in spite of widespread acknowledgement that they cannot). If the Republicans are elected, Ted Cruz has stated he will stop all funding support for the IPCC and UNFCCC initiatives. That said, he seems to like data and basic scientific research.

Heh.

[Update a few minutes later]

“It’s a bit complicated.”

You don’t say.

Business, General, Space, Technology and Society

Off To DC

3 Comments

I got up at 3 AM to catch a 5 AM flight from LAX to DCA via ORD. Heading there for the FAA-AST Space Transportation Conference tomorrow. Earliest flight I’ve ever taken from there, I think. I had TSA pre-check, but the line wasn’t open yet, so I had to do the whole drill. The American terminal is pretty dead at 4 AM. Anyway, I’m in a flying chair somewhere over the plains with Internet. It almost feels like the 21st century.

Business, Economics, Technology and Society

Shale 2.0

22 Comments

Yeah, I fully expect to see oil go below $20, expecially after the shakeout and bankruptcies that allow pumping at lower prices. And it will be good for everyone except oil companies and oil kleptocracies. Other than California, look for gas below two bucks indefinitely.

[Update a few minuts later]

OK, well, this isn’t as encouraging:

During the 2007 crisis, central banks the world over made a coordinated effort that pumped large amounts of liquidity into the system, easing the pressure. However, since 2009, these same central banks have followed an easy monetary policy, inflating balance sheets to scary levels, as shown in the chart above. They will find it difficult to handle any future crises caused by low oil prices. They are now out of ammunition.

The current oil crisis will see regime changes in strategic places, and a currency crisis is in the offing. The world is staring at deflation. And while the 2007 crisis started in the US and then spread around the world, today’s crisis is affecting all major nations simultaneously. All are struggling due to low oil prices—some directly because of lower revenues, and others because of deflationary pressure.

The next crisis will be larger and longer and it will hurt a lot more than the last one. The windfall at the gas pump is a dark harbinger.

At least we’ll be able to afford to fill the tank, if we have jobs.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Technology and Society, War Commentary

Hillary’s Email Problems

24 Comments

…aren’t going to go away:

All this angers Americans with experience in our military and intelligence services who understand what Ms. Clinton and her staff did—and that they would be held to far harsher standards for attempting anything similar. They know that brave Americans have given their lives protecting Top Secret Codeword information. They know that in every American embassy around the world, our diplomatic outposts that worked for Hillary Clinton, Marine guards have standing orders to fight to the death to protect the classified information that’s inside those embassies. That Hillary Clinton gave similar information away, by choice, is something she needs to explain if she expects to be our next Commander-in-Chief.

She has no explanation, at least not one that doesn’t make it look even worse.

[Update a few minutes later]

“Her disregard wasn’t casual. It was a conscious and involved scheme to avoid the Freedom of Information Act, and possibly also Obama Administration scrutiny of her actions. She put the nation as a whole at risk, along with individual lives of intelligence sources, for political reasons: to avoid accountability.”

As she’s been doing, and gotten away with, for decades. Why wouldn’t she assume that she’d continue to not be held to account?

[Update a while later]

The FBI director would like to indict both Clinton and Abedin.

Analysis: Likely.