Partial Zero Emission Vehicle? [Spotted on a Toyota Camry]
Ahhh:
This vehicle category was created as part of a bargain with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), so that the automobile manufacturers could postpone producing mandated zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), which will require the production of electric vehicles or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
I might have guessed it was California where words cost more and mean less than you think they do.
Genetically Modified apples that don’t brown are in the news this week. The Arctic Golden and Arctic Granny apples were created by Okanagan Specialty Fruits, a small company in Canada. The USDA approved them for U.S. consumers on Friday.
“The morons say GMO foods cause famine?” an incredulous Rufus said when we saw one on ABC News holding a sign.
Global Warming, measles, and GMO apples give us a good stepping stone to consider facts and truth and moronity.
GLOBAL WARMING
Political Assertion: “Man-made Global warming is making sea level rise.”
Fact: The Isthmus of Panama “recently” formed; that allowed armadillos to migrate from South America into North America by the early Pleistocene.
Fact: The Bering land bridge intermittently connected Asia with North America as sea levels rose and fell under the effect of ice ages; at one point that allowed early humans to migrate from South America into North America.
Truth: The climate does change over time but none of those huge changes had anything to do with humans. Only a moron could believe a politician can fix it with a tax.
MEASLES
Political Assertion: “Vaccinations cause bad shit.”
Fact: The United States eliminated measles in 2000 thanks to vaccination levels over 90% of the school-age population. China and Mexico have almost no measles infections thanks to vaccination levels over 90% of the school-age population.
Fact: Measles cases in the United States are at their highest level since 2000.
Truth: Most current infections occur in unvaccinated people, most of whom declined the injections for religious, philosophical or political reasons. Only a moron could believe that the political science of climate change is so vastly right but the real science of disease prevention is so vastly wrong.
GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS
Political Assertion: “GMO foods cause famine.”
Fact: Genetically modified wheat doubled yields in Mexico, India, and Pakistan and have saved over a billion people from starvation.
Fact: Modern corn (maize) began with a huge leap in genetic modification about 10,000 years ago when farmers in Mexico domesticated maize by choosing seeds because they came from taller plants or tasted better or were easier to grind. This selective breeding or artificial selection led directly to the corn we enjoy today. Modern genetic tools reduce the labor force needed to produce enough food for us and reduce the need for evil pesticides.
Truth: Politicians make stuff up. Morons believe them.
TRUTHS
• The solar deniers cult simply ignore the inconvenient truths that their computer models are flawed, that Michael Mann’s flawed hockey stick graph was never real science, and even that solar activity has some small teeny-tiny relationship to temperature here.
Whether climate change is man made or not has become a religious argument with the faith-based politicians who believe with all their hearts and none of their brains using the story to make money and that magic will keep their feet dry and their crops growing. The facts paint a different story.
The climate is always changing. The wise human will prepare for the change while the moron rails against the thermometer.
• The liberal left and the conservative right have joined forces under the anti-vaxer’s tinfoil hat of political science disease prevention.
Whether vaccine is good or bad has become a religious argument with the faith-based anti-vaxers political cult who believe with all their hearts and none of their brains that magic will keep them safe. The facts paint a different story.
Vaccination can prevent the once common diseases that ravaged us — polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, rubella, mumps, tetanus, rotavirus and the flu. The wise human will protect him or herself while the moron rails against the needle.
• ABC News also noted in the GMO story that 80% of the corn we eat is genetically modified. ABC News was dead wrong. 100% of the corn we eat is genetically modified.
Whether genetic mods are good or bad has become a religious argument with the faith-based politicians who believe with all their hearts and none of their brains trying ban all change and that magic will keep them fed. The facts paint a different story.
Foods evolve whether we do it in the field or the lab. The wise human will measure the impact of the change while the moron rails against the science.
So. Facts and truth and moronity.
The wise human observes a problem, gathers facts, has an idea, tests the idea, and draws a conclusion. The wise human tests that conclusion against any new data.
The moron hears a perfect idea on the Interwebs, finds a fact that confirms the idea, concludes it was a great idea and never ever needs changing, and then rails against the science that contradicts him or her.
And that’s the Truth!
I’m bored.
Miz Gekko wrote about boredom and creativity but this is different.
I like working on/worrying on a problem or a process or simply an idea. I can wander around in the cellar in the back of my head, move the furniture around, blow the dust aside with the air compressor, and make connections or come up with something new. I used to do that all the time while standing in a grocery line or sitting on the toilet or commuting. Somewhere along the way, I lost some of that time.
My need to make some changes to the No Puffin Perspective™ has nothing to do with gaining time to commune with the guys in the cellar.
My need to make some changes has everything to do with what I write about.
I need to freshen my approach.
The Perspective™ has indeed exposed a number of the issues we face, from the general lies, to the Comcast lies, to the political lies in pseudoscience and finance.
Don’t worry, I’ll still point out when we need a new head for the CDC (and for the guy who appoints the CDC Director).
Today in Medicine
We need a new CDC Director.Norah O’Donnell asked the yes-or-no question on CBS Face the Nation yesterday, “Do we need to mandate the MMR vaccination?”
CDC Director Tom Frieden danced around it but never said yes.
It is a tragedy that the measles vaccine had eliminated measles from the U.S. by the year 2000. Fewer than 100 cases have been reported every year since, but 644 people became infected in 27 states in 2014. 84 cases of measles were reported in January of this year alone. Most are in California where airhead parents listening to their bubble headed, celebrity, political “scientists” have opted out of vaccinations. [<==Note Editorial Commentary]
Public schools do require kids to be vaccinated but California parents can exempt their kids simply by saying they have a “personal objection” to vaccination. Of the 6,236,672 kids enrolled in 10,366 California schools, nearly 200,000 may not be vaccinated against measles and over two million have not received all seven CDC-recommended shots. Those 200,000 put thee and me at risk. Your kids, too.
CDC Director Tom Frieden danced around the question but he never said yes.
Here’s the plan.
Week 1: Random Fancies from the “you just won’t believe this” department.
Week 2: Random Storytelling from North Puffin.
Week 3: Random Truthtelling from the topical news
Week 4: Random Storytelling from South Puffin. (We don’t call it Random Access for nothin’ you know.)
Five week months mean you get a week off. Yay!
Don’t worry, I’ll stay on top of my areas of interest and expertise, from business and marketing, and engineering and real science, to heating issues, to the National Debt, teaching, and, of course, healthcare but next week I’ll tell the story of why we had no telephones at Floodstock.
If you are an editor looking for syndication, the new schedule means you can pick up a monthly spot with light explanations of the unexpected, a twice-monthly pair of tales from the northern- and southernmost points of the Puffin range, or all four. Or any other combination.
Cheers!
The Eat-A-Puffin Day
Keys residents back in December sounded off against the genetically modified mosquitoes a British firm named Oxitec and the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District wants to release. The British company wants to beta test a gazillion genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. (Those mosquitoes carry the dengue and chikungunya viruses; the modified ones would presumably kill the breeding population by making them sterile.) We’re the beta testers.
Oxitec and the Mosquito Air Force will start releasing the skeeters next month, I think.
My friend George Poleczech “figures anything is possible from the bunch readying a batch of GMO mosquitoes to release in the Keys.” Yeppers. E.coli, e.bola, e.ink.
The Don’t Eat-A-Puffin Day
Fort Lauderdale police arrested a 90-year-old man for feeding the homeless.
Alarming Food
Some of the houses here in South Puffin are vacation rentals and Florida has very strict safety regulations for emergency lighting and exits, fire-safety, and fire more. One is the requirement for multiple smoke detectors in each building.
I don’t think the unopened Jiffy Pop pan I saw nailed to the wall in one rental quite passed muster as a fire alarm.
The Penicillin Day
Most of Florida has simple microscopic organisms that thrive in most any moist environment. Fungi. Mildew. Mold.
In addition to wooden boats, mold loves ceiling tiles, cardboard, wallpaper, carpets, drywall, fabric, plants, foods, insulation, decaying leaves and other organic materials. It surprised me to learn that mold lurves my concrete dock and seawall.
I watched a man down the street pressure washing a tile roof this morning. I could smell the bleach.
Now that’s a great idea.
Speaking of Bleach
Cops arrested a naked man after he broke into two homes, raided the liquor cabinets, and used a hot tub at one of them.
Speaking of Nudity Again
Three naked men were caught breaking into a Bonita Springs restaurant. They stole 60 hamburgers, three pounds of bacon, three red peppers, and a paddle board.
A paddle board?
[Ed. Note: As of this writing, they are still on the lam(b).]
Whine in the Air
The Mosquito Air Force has started training with drones to find the mosquitoes’ breeding areas. With a camera mounted to the bottom of their quad-rotor drones, field agents will have “a bird’s eye view of mosquito breeding grounds and better range at killing disease-carrying insects.” And my naked furry white butt in my back yard.
Wine on the Ground
Friends from up north are serious wine peeps. They’re renting a house here for a month. I think they brought seven cases of wine with them. Perhaps South Puffin doesn’t have any wine emporia. They don’t buy cheap wine.
That was on my mind at the Circle K when I was paying for my gas last night. $2.159/gallon for anyone who needs to know. The man ahead of me bought two bottles of some kind of shiraz for $5/bottle so he’s “not out of wine anymore.” Yellowtail.
“It’s not bad for cheap wine. It’ll do in a pinch. Ditto Cupcake,” Liz Arden said.
I much prefer cupcakes to shiraz.
He told me he’s drinking it with bourbon and pomegranate juice mixed in.
“Okay, you just made me throw up a little in my mouth,” Liz said.
My work here is done.
New York City has banned yet another common product. First it was the trans fats when the City worried about gangs greasing up the subway tracks. Then the red Solo™ cup of soda. Next it was selfies with kittens.
Now, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that the largest city in the U.S. will ban polystyrene foam, effective July 1. No more packing peanuts. No more takeout coffee cups. No more Rigid Foam insulation.
Actually I’m good with losing packing peanuts. They are such a PITA to store in my barn.
And I don’t drink coffee.
More than 75 cities and counties in California have banned polystyrene food and beverage containers and more. Brookline, Massachusetts, did the same in 2013. And now NYC.
Did the U.S. suddenly suffer a cranio-rectal inversion? Did the science-denying State of California suddenly end up on the East Coast?
There is, as usual, pretty good (read “scientific”) evidence that plastic is better than paper. It seems that science is anathema to the Far Green.
Let’s spend a minute with the real science instead of the political science.
Study after study has compared “styrofoam” cups side by each with paper cups to find that
• Polystyrene is derived from petroleum and natural-gas. It takes 4,748 gallons of water to make 10,000 Polystyrene cups. The 5.4 million BTUs needed to make 10,000 16-ounce polystyrene cups is about the same as burning 450 pounds of coal. Most important, it takes gallons of water.
• In addition to the renewable twenty million trees, most paper cups are coated with polyethylene, derived from petroleum and natural-gas. It takes 8,095 gallons of water to make 10,000 LDPE-coated paper cups with sleeves. The 6.5 million BTUs needed for 10,000 polyethylene-coated paper cups is equivalent to 542 pounds of coal. (The “greener” polylactide-coated paper cups require even more water and energy.)
Huh.
The average 16-ounce polystyrene cup uses a third less energy, produces half the solid waste by volume, releases a third less of the so-called greenhouse gases, and uses 40-percent less water than does the “green” 16-ounce paper cup with a sleeve.
[Editor’s note: the next wars will be fought over water.]
I know! I know! We’ll ban the plastic cup because it’s bad and promote the paper cup because it’s so much better for the environment.
We haven’t even gotten to life cycles.
Polystyrene is easy peasy to grind up and put through the process again and again and again so that marvelous, mailable cooler your steaks came in could have a new life as a high dollar coffee cup if the Far Green weren’t determined to cut down our forests.
Do you really want to save the environment? Carry your own mug. Don’t litter on my beach. Learn science.