Free kibbles

REGULATION:

Report claims IP stimulates innovation in biotech, but it seems they've discovered a correlation, not causation.

"Over the past decade, increases in patents have been matched by growth in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors in India, Brazil, Singapore and other countries with emerging economies."

I think they have it backwards.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Electrical theory of climate cycles and earthquakes.

"The possibility that something internal to the Earth affects climate was raised by Daniel Walker first in 1988 and then again in 1995 and 1999. He pointed out that increased tectonic activity (seismicity, magma upwelling and hydrothermal venting) along portions of the East Pacific Rise (EPR), precede (by up to six months) each El Niño event studied since 1964. The association was so significant that Walker called the increased seismicity along the EPR “Predictors of El Niño.”"

"“The missing link between the sunspots and earthquakes is the fact that the electric discharges to the Sun that cause sunspots can also affect the Earth’s ionosphere. The ionosphere forms one “plate” of a capacitor, while the Earth forms the other. Changes of voltage on one plate will induce movement of charge on the other. But unlike a capacitor, the Earth also has charge distributed in rock beneath the surface. And if the subsurface rock has become semi-conducting because of stress, there is an opportunity for sudden electrical breakdown to occur through that rock.

We should expect similar processes to occur underground as are found in atmospheric lightning. …in a large earthquake, the entire circuit may be involved, from below the Earth, through the atmosphere to the ionosphere.

This would explain the massive disturbance of the ionosphere over a large area accompanying a major earthquake. Subterranean lightning causes earthquakes! Seismic waves are the rumble of underground thunder.”"

Electrical phenomena in the atmosphere are frequently documented before and during earthquakes. This makes too much sense. More on the link between electricity in the solar system and earthquakes.

"The missing link between the sunspots and earthquakes is the fact that the electric discharges to the Sun that cause sunspots can also affect the Earth’s ionosphere."

But right now, solar cycle 24 continues to produce very few sunspots. However, earthquake activity is picking up, and El Nino is predicted to follow.

Eating meat has virtually no impact on global CO2 levels.

"In other words the difference between the high-meat future and the low-meat one is just 12 parts per million."

This is another example of fear-mongering to control us.

Less and less of our food comes from America thanks to government control of farms through regulation and farm "aid".

"There is one bright spot here: most of the food Americans consume is still produced here.

On the other hand, we are seeing a marked increase in imports over time. According to USDA data, from 1999 to 2010, there was a 43.25% increase in import volume (111% increase on a dollar basis). Population growth is a partial contributor, but in that same time period, the US population only increased about 10%. Obviously we’re off-loading more of our food purchases to other countries."

This is going to be a problem when the collapse hits.

EPA fines fuel producers for not putting cellulosic ethanol into fuel even though cellulosic ethanol does not exist. I don't want it in my fuel anyway.

WAR ON DRUGS:

The war on drugs is just another excuse to loot us.

"There is no question that the war on drugs is a failure. In spite of decades of prohibition laws, threats of fines and/or imprisonments, and massive propaganda campaigns, drugs are available and affordable. The Mental Health Services Administration — a government agency — has reported that marijuana, ecstasy, and methamphetamine use has recently increased. The government’s GAO has even said that the D.A.R.E. program has had “no statistically significant long-term effect on preventing youth illicit drug use.” 

There are, however, some things that the war on drugs has accomplished. It has drained $40 billion a year from the federal treasury."

In other words, it's been a smashing success for the looters.

WAR:

I'm confused by this legality of war stuff. The US Constitution says that only Congress can declare war, so if the president invades a country without approval from Congress, the war is illegal. But war is always illegal from the point of view of the country invaded, and Congressional declaration of war doesn't change that. It seems me this boils down to national self-defense. That's legal. Aggression is not.

The army is training its personnel to drive tanks through US neighborhoods, getting people used to seeing tanks on the streets. The people of St. Louis should make this stop immediately.

"Reporting that he was told by the Army not to disclose the location of where the exercise was operating out of for “security reasons,” KSDK reporter Casey Nolan downplayed the exercise as “not such a big deal.”"

But the accomplice press is there to help the government out.

You know how the media and Obama keep saying the US isn't involved in Syria? They leaked otherwise to the New York Times.

"A small number of C.I.A. officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, according to American officials and Arab intelligence officers."

And those weapons are coming from the US too, even if they're funneled through an Arab government first. Obama must have leaked this because Republicans are criticizing him for being soft on Syria.

FOREIGN POLICY:

After the US instigated a revolution in Egypt, Egyptians elected the Muslim Brotherhood candidate.

POLITICS:

Establishment Republicans pull shenanigans on Ron Paul delegates in Massachusetts.

"But earlier this month, Kenney was one of 17 delegates and alternates disqualified by a Republican committee deciding who gets to represent Massachusetts Republicans at the national convention in Tampa. Kenney and others had failed to deliver in time an affidavit swearing, under the penalty of perjury, that they would support Mitt Romney’s nomination for president.An affidavit is never mentioned in the Republican Party’s rules for selecting delegates and has never been required of delegates in the past, GOP critics say."

If nothing else, Ron Paul has exposed the awesome corruption of our political process.

Kochs oust Crane from Cato.

LOCAL:

There's optimism in Dayton because prices have supposedly bit rock bottom. They're wrong. As soon as the base funding is cut, this area is going to crash hard. It's a terrible sign of how much damage government has done to this city that they had to build a school on what should be fantastically valuable real estate along the river. It's another terrible sign that they have to spend $4 million to take out a worthless dam so people can use the river.

MISC:

Apple employee refuses to sell iPad to American girl because she spoke Farsi. The salesmen claimed selling it would violate US trade restrictions. The stupidest part of this story is that the US is restricting sales of iPads to Iranians.