megaspora » 2007

Archive for October, 2007

Climate Change, Inc.

By: psr, 2007-10-22

What’s hip and cool on the outside, but a blushing lie on the inside? Man-made climate change. It’s the talk of the world. It’s the politically correct thing to say, and it’s also the politically incorrect thing to deny.

Lots of people have jumped on the bandwagon to declare that we are experiencing unusual global warming, and it’s caused by human activity on Earth.

It is worth putting things into perspective. The Earth is a some 4.5 billion year old system, and is far bigger and more complex than any man-made system or artifact. Humans have inhabited this planet for the past 130,000 years only. Human machinery and industrialization began some 200 years ago, at most. Human-produced CO2 emissions (widely regarded as a …

2007-10-22 | Braindead - Economy - General - World | Trackback | 3 Comments »

Plagiarism or forecast?

By: psr, 2007-10-19

In Spain, the ruling party (socialist PSOE), presented yesterday a new publicity campaign with its leader (JosÃ© Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero) as the centre of attention: â€œCon Z de Zapateroâ€, (â€œWith a Z as in Zapateroâ€). It has a strong resemblance to â€œZ comme Zorglubâ€, the title of one of the great Spirou comics, from 1960. For those who do not know Spirou, Zorglub was one of the bad guys in the stories.

Therefore, is â€œWith a Z as in Zapateroâ€ a forecast that Zapatero will be the Zorglub (the villain) of our time?

Maybe not, and maybe it is just plagiarism of a comic on the part of the PSOE.

Whether forecast or plagiarism, the new publicity campaign by the PSOE is also a message of praise of a person, …

2007-10-19 | Braindead - Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

Tied hands at the European Commission

By: psr, 2007-10-17

Numerous member states make up todayâ€™s European Union, and it grows every so often to incorporate new members. All these states pay for the expenses of the E.U., including administrative costs, EU subsidies, and other forms of aid given by the E.U.

In return for their contribution, each state expects to receive an equal share of E.U. aid back, in one or other form.

Funds administered by the European Commission are therefore subject to being distributed mostly according to geography rather than based on merit or need. Because such awarding method is meaningless, this reflects on the efficiency, quality and usefulness of several major E.U. projects.

For instance, the â€œEurofighterâ€ and the â€œGalileoâ€ project have had to assign manufacturing responsibilities of different parts of the systems to different E.U. countries, …

2007-10-17 | Economy - Europe | Trackback | No Comments »

Cancel the Galileo project

By: psr, 2007-10-11

The European satellite navigation system, Galileo, is suffering serious delays, and continued cost over-runs. It should be operational by 2008, but has managed to place only one satellite (of 30) in orbit, and it’s a test satellite. This week, the European Commission and European States have discussed ways to jump-start the Galileo project, with a new target date for operation in 2014 (estimated). However, some reports indicate that funding for Galileo is not really secured.

I am a European, and I almost wish the Galileo project would collapse and fail. It would be a great lesson for European companies, States and leaders. The great weakness of Europe is in its diversity: diversity of governing bodies, diversity of cultures, languages and diversity of …

2007-10-11 | Braindead - Economy - Europe | Trackback | No Comments »

Eco-hype

By: psr, 2007-10-02

Eco-friendly cars have arrived in the market with much fanfare. The global warming fashion is used as the selling point for these new cars which consume bio fuel, and produce fewer CO2 emissions than diesel or gasoline engines.

Yet, these cars are falsely eco-friendly. While their emissions may be lower, their fuel is more energy-consuming to produce than traditional diesel or gasoline.

The amount of energy required to produce 1 horsepower out of a bio-diesel car engine is greater, and more pollutant, than the energy required to produce 1 horsepower out of a regular diesel or gasoline car engine.

Bio-fuels (whether ethanol or bio-diesel) themselves require more energy to produce than the energy obtained out of them. These types of fuel are obtained from vegetable oils, …