Innovation is the answer to Oil Problem: Bloom Box

Sharky and Sharky have always believed that innovation is the answer to the US's energy problems. Innovation that will provide all of our energy and bankrupt all the nations that have built their socialist dictatorships on oil. Sharky and Sharky see the Bloom Box from BloomEnergy as the first step. This unit makes Solar Panels look like a box of duds. KR Sridhar, Ph.D and John Finn are the founders of the BloomEnergy. (Sorry CBS sticks a Liptor commercial in the middle of the story)


Follow on announcement:
Schwarzenegger gets Energized

©Sharky&Sharky

Is The Whole World Going InterNUTS?

With the recent indictment, in Italy, of four Google executives who had no responsibility for the uploading and subsequent posting of a video showing an Italian child with Down syndrome being harassed and humiliated, the world courts have yet again taken a turn for the far worse.  This ruling sets a dangerous precedent for future internet censorship both in Italy and abroad.

“A company’s rights cannot prevail over a person’s dignity. This sentence sends a clear signal,” public prosecutor Alfredo Robledo told reporters outside the Milan courthouse.

Not to be outdone, Apple has recently banned what they determine to be "sexy" apps from it's app store in an effort to placate complaints that certain people, perhaps Rosie O'Donnell or Ellen Degeneres, find unacceptable as a matter of "taste."  Can you imagine the outcry if religious apps were so banned because they upset certain agnostics or atheists or heaven forbid Muslims? (can you even say heaven anymore)

Apple's Phil Schiller: "It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable."


Google has recently caved to the Chinese government with regards to not providing banned search results.  Results the PRC deems subversive and a threat to their country.  Like the truth.


"Google has decided that in order to create the best possible search experience for our mainland China users we will not include sites whose content is not accessible," company spokeswoman Debbie Frost said Friday.


The internet, for all it's faults, is one of the few sources of information that is not state sponsored.  i.e. if you don't like the way a story reads, you can likely find another slant. The continuance of altering this ideal is frightening at best.  SharkyandSharky believe Freedom of information is - FREEDOM.

©Sharky&Sharky

“What you shooting at, Hoss?”

On Sunday February 20, 2010, The New York Times' writer C.J. Chivers, did a military analysis of the current situation in Afghanistan. Sharky&Sharky think that this is another situation in which the American citizen is being financially hosed to the tune of billions and the American soldiers are being wounded and killed due to little Afghanistan National Army support:

U.S. Fatalities in and around Afghanistan

Country of Death ......................................Fatalities
Afghanistan ...................................................880
Germany (from wounds in theatre) .................... 12
Pakistan........................................................   15
USA (from wounds in theatre)...........................   17
Uzbekistan ...................................................     1
Total ............................................................ 925

On the battlefied at Marja, Chiver's noted:

1. No Afghan soldier used a map or planned a complicated patrol
2. Afghan officers organized no indirect fire support
3. The ANA provided no battlefield resupply ( probably to busy smoking dope)
4. In battles the Afghan soldiers did not aim; they would point in the rough direction of the incoming fire and pulled off rounds without sighting.
5. The Afghani soldiers' rifles muzzles were often elevated several degrees high of any visible target.

The US Marines would often shout at the these Afgani clown soldiers (remember these are the warriors that allegedly defeated Alexander and the Russians). “What you shooting at, Hoss?” one Marine yelled during a long battle on the second day, as an Afghan pulled the trigger repeatedly and nonchalantly at nothing that was visible to anyone else.

Sharky&Sharky thought that commiting to taking out the Taliban in Afghanistan was a good thing that Barry had decided to do. Events are proving us and Barry wrong. It appears that the Afgani soldiers do not want any harm to befall the Taliban.

©Sharky&Sharky

His own men will not help..

DAVID GUTTENFELDER / AP

Excuse Sharky and Sharky while we stand dumbstruck. U.S. Marine Lt. Scott Holub has nothing better to do but carry this wounded Afghani Army soldier. Maybe the Afghan National Army does not bring their wounded men back from a battle zone. Perhaps culturally Afghanis just leave their wounded on the field to slowly die or join the Taliban after giving up some vital information.

©Sharky&Sharky

U. S. BUDGET

The Dearth of Rare Earth..Update

...UM whose been paying attention to the store?  As in: Europium, Lanthanum, Neodymium, Dysprosium and Terbium.

All of the above are invaluable to present day lifestyles with respect to technology.  All are mandatory for the "Green" future of mankind - yes I said MANkind.  And ALL of them are controlled primarily by China - due to the fact that the Chinese are the only major country that can process the raw materials necessary to produce them. China is our largest creditor.

For instance - Toyota's Prius requires approximately 7,500 tons of Lanthanum and 1,000 tons of Neodymium per year to build the batteries in these cars.  Wind turbines (the cure-all for "free green" electricity) use Neodymium as the main component in their magnets.  Without uninterrupted availability of these rare earths, these technologies will cease.  At least cease to be available to the West.

Ah yes, the holder of much of America's ever increasing debt, in large part due to the Chosen One, also controls the majority of the supply of these elements.  As China's consumption of these elements continues to increase, the Chinese government may choose not to export them to the US the future.  Whoops!

How could this possibly have been allowed to occur?

SharkyandSharky believe it's just another example of our government keeping us safe.

UPDATE...UPDATE...UPDATE..Feb 17, 2010

China is no longer our largest creditor. What a relief! Japan is. Didn't we bomb Japan and install America's Caesar to rule them for awhile? From then until now Japan has become the world's largest supplier of electronic goods. The US now only owes China $755B while we now owe the people we bombed (remember when the US knew how to close out a war) $768B. Lest you forget to add that is $1.5T we owe these two countries alone.

Do not worry we will sink ourselved before we sink the rest of the world. Here is a nice display from CNBC of our debt situation right now. The Biggest Holders of US Government Debt - CNBC 

©Sharky&Sharky

Government Flow Chart

War On Terrorism - Or War On America

More nation states have fallen due to bankruptcy than due to invasion.  This country's obsession with spreading fear amongst it's people, as a result of the destruction of the twin towers, needs to cease and needs to cease now.  The notion that ONLY government can protect us from ourselves and our enemies is not only ludicrous but dangerous to the point of extinction.

The sum of our fears exceeds our ability to defend against them.  Every shadow we see, or the shadows the government assures us we see,  is now blown totally out of proportion such that the cost of finding the "bogey man" under the bed is not only benefiting the few but destroying the many.  From recent coined scare phrases such as:

Terrorist Level
Home Invasion
Hate Crime
Sexual Predator
Person Of Interest
Enemy Combatant

to we must all sacrifice for the betterment and safety of our society, is simply a smokescreen to misdirect, much as a magician on stage, our cumulative attention from that which matters most to that which does not.

What is really happening.  Simply put, the military - read police state - is completely out of control.

Obama’s total military budget is nearly $1 trillion.  This includes Pentagon spending of $ 880 billion. Add secret ‘black programmes’ (about $70b); military aid to foreign nations like Egypt, Israel and Pakistan; 225,000 military ‘contractors’ (mercenaries and workers); and veteran’s costs.  Add $75b (nearly 2.5 times France’s total defense budget) for 16 intelligence agencies with 200,000 employees.  The Afghanistan and Iraq wars ($1 trillion so far), will cost $200-250 billion more this year, including hidden and indirect expenses. Obama’s Afghan ‘surge’ of 30,000 new troops will cost an additional $33 billion  -- more than Germany’s total defense budget. No wonder US defence stocks rose after Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama’s ‘austerity’ budget. 

So you may ask, what is a trillion dollars.  To spend $1 trillion, one would have had to start spending $1 million daily soon after Rome was founded and continue for 2,738 years until today.  

Now you see the MONEY in FEAR.

Not only are we less safe, we have no remaining capital to protect America's biggest weapon, at least it use to be, our economy.

©Sharky&Sharky

Hey Fatty - Yeah I'm Talking To You..Update

The wonders of being the First Lady.  Today, Ms. Obama launched the Lets Move campaign ostensibly designed to purge the country of fat kids.  As one in three children are now considered obese, whatever the hell that means, if we don't get our move on, the country is doomed.

Ms. Obama says the issue threatens America's future.  Sounds like it's time for the "Obese Police."  In her family, the children are banned (that's right - banned) from watching TV during the week and are now eating tasty fruits, vegetables and water. Seems that parental management was instrumental in helping her children lose weight. Sharky&Sharky wonders why this will not work for the rest of the nation.  And in order to further set a good example of her commitment, Ms. Obama performed a hula-hoop routine at the White House.  Hula-hoops.  Who knew they were the key to America's future.

ARAMARK is in full support. This company has been feeding school children for years. Now the company wants to make the children slim.  Sharky&Sharky suspects the SEIU is also in full support.

UPDATE...UPDATE...UPDATE Feb 23

On a parallel front Southwest Airlines continues its obesity management campaign:

Complete Story on Emile's weight gain in Vegas

                                                

 Kevin will rollover other passengers

©Sharky&Sharky

A Love Haiti Relationship

Now that the planet knows what it is going to take to rebuild one of the most backward and corrupt counties in the world, it has come time to "think outside of the box."

According to the acting head of the UN mission in Haiti, Mr. Edmund Mulet, reconstruction will take several decades and is starting at "less than zero."  I'm not sure what is meant by this statement - perhaps starting at the amoeba level?

What are they planning on reconstructing, fifty story high rises and four lane highways?  Perhaps championship golf courses and amusement parks with state of the art roller coasters or casinos.  Who knows.  But the U.S. has already raised $500 million in private donations and with that tidy sum a win-win-win plan can come together quickly and benefit all parties involved.

As previously noted in this space, the U.S. has a tremendous illegal immigration resource just waiting to be utilized - approximately 12 million Mexicans.  How 'bout rounding up a few mil (although these sneaky bastards are becoming harder and harder to find due to their illegal/legal documentation) and sending them on down to Haiti.  We know how hard they work and a bonus is they now have quite a bit of construction knowledge garnered in the U.S.  We solve a problem, they solve a problem and Haiti no longer has a problem.

Win-win-win.

©Sharky&Sharky

Immigration Shamnesty

"The proposed immigration amnesty would benefit the 12 to 20 million undocumented aliens (illegal immigrants) currently living in the United States. An amnesty for illegal aliens forgives their acts of illegal immigration and implicitly forgives other related illegal acts such as driving and working with false documents. The result of an amnesty is that large numbers of foreigners who illegally gained entry into the United States are rewarded with legal status (Green Card) for breaking immigration laws."


Let me understand this principle.  If you are an illegal immigrant/alien, you WILL NOT be held accountable for driving or working with false/fake documents.   Now why does this not apply equally to legal American citizens.  So if I apply for a job with a fake social security number or decide to drive without a legal license, why should I suffer at the hands of the law?  Why indeed?


The Obama administration's Proposed Immigration Reform and Amnesty Bill will provide just that. More "Sweeping Change" across this once great nation.  Here's a quote -


President Barack Obama"We are not going to ship back 12 million people, we're not going to do it as a practical matter. We would have to take all our law enforcement that we have available and we would have to use it and put people on buses, and rip families apart, and that's not who we are, that's not what America is about. So what I've proposed... is you say we're going to bring these folks out of the shadows. We're going to make them pay a fine, they are going to have to learn English, they are going to have to go to the back of the line...but they will have a pathway to citizenship over the course of 10 years."


Pay a fine?  What - 100 pesos?  Going to MAKE them(?) speak English?  When was the last time you saw a sign, menu, product packaging or anything else that didn't have Spanish printed on it?  Back of the line - as in the back of the bus?  I thought this country had moved on from blatant racism.  Guess not.


Better learn to love tequila and tacos - and soon!

©Sharky&Sharky

At Last By The Young Etta James

Worship The Internet Too Much?

click to enlarge

$182,000

That's the estimated cost of security for each athlete and official at the upcoming 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Original estimates for security were $175 million.  Now that the games are upon us, that cost has ballooned to $1 billion to protect 5,500 participants.  Think about it.  If that same number were applied to the entire U.S. population per annum the cost would be, are you ready for this - $54.6 trillion.  And that cost would be for one year.

In a "new" world where everyone wants some form of change be it Cap and Trade, carbon sequestration, eliminating whale hunting, greener energy solutions or some other form of mass social reordering, it's seems it is time to move on from world wide amateur athletic competition.

©Sharky&Sharky