Global Warming brings record snowfall and 8 below zero

Concord NH reports December snowfall broke the record established way back in 1867. I'm about 70 miles from Concord and I got 30 inches on the ground. New Years Day dropped another 8 inches. Thermometer read 8 below zero at 8 AM this morning. Why do I think the winters are getting colder?

Kiss your old files goodby

Slashdot reports that Microsoft has announced that support for older office file formats will be removed "for security reasons". Translation. Old Word documents and Excel spreadsheets will become unreadable by Office 2007. Any one who has old stuff that they care about has to convert it to the new formats or risk losing it forever.
Thanks Microsoft. "Security reasons". Right... It improves the financial security of Microsoft to force every one to buy Office 2007, at full list price no less.
The real sin here is Microsoft's practice of allowing executable Basic programs to live inside, come to life from, and do bad things from within Word and Excel documents. Any junior hacker can write a destructive Basic program and hide it in a .doc or .xls file. The "run a Basic program from a Office document" frill only helps spammers and other low life netscum. No real user of Office ever uses that capability.

New Age at the New York Times

Maureen Dowd, the conservative's favorite punching bag, comes across as a New Age crystal worshipping kook here. They actually posted this on the NYT website. Sounds like the conservatives haven't been punching hard enough.

So who am I gonna vote for?

As a New Hamster, I gotta be responsible and set a proper example for the rest of the country. God appointed New Hampshire to lead the nation and we New Hamsters are under the gun to vote in the primary which is JUST NEXT WEEK.
I gotta stop being undecided and make up my mind real soon now.
Let's take this a step at a time. First I'm going to vote Republican, 'cause the Republicans will continue the mission in Iraq, where as the Democrats will pull out, leaving everyone at the mercy of Al Quaeda, kinda like we did to the South Vietnamese many years ago. We have put lives, money, political capital, reputations, American national unity, and six years into Iraq. We are very close to establishing a decent, liberal, democratic and Muslim government in the land of dictatorships, monarchies, and theocracies. If we can get Iraq going, and keep it going, the rest of the Middle East will follow suit, throw out the dictators, and become liberal democracies too.
They say liberal democracies don't make war on each other. A liberal democratic Iraq is a step in the right direction.
So, of the Republicans, who to go with? First scratch Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee, they are fringe nutcases. Guliani is a good man in a storm, pulled NYC together, and did a fantastic job on 9/11. But he is on the wrong side of the hot button issues (abortion and gun control) , has a messy personal life, and probably quite a bit of dirty laundry from his time in NYC. Fred Thompson is a likeable guy, right on the issues, but his poll standings are miserable. I fear a vote for Fred would be a vote wasted. Mitt Romney is hard working, good looking, smart, right on the issues now. Back when he was running for governor of MA he was on the other side of the hot button issues (pro abortion or at least not anti abortion and pro gun control). He has publically disavowed his previous stands, for which he has attracted a host of enemies who call him "flip flopper". I personally might forgive and forget his change of mind, but I fear a lot of voters won't.
That leaves McCain. Good man. I was serving in Viet Nam the year he got shot down. Real American hero. Right on most of the issues, except the McCain Finegold campaign spending law and last summer's immigration bill. A man who commands the respect of most Americans. A president McCain would be able to stand up and speak from the bully pulpit and things would happen, 'cause a lot of Americans trust him and admire him, and would go where he led.
So looks like I vote for McCain.

Fat pills might be possible

Science Digest is reporting that obesity in mice has been tracked down to a single gene.

How about CAFE for houses?

At $3 a gallon (and up) my personal energy costs are too damn high. Of my three big energy bills, two of them are in the news, becoming subject to federal law, but the third and biggest nobody talks about. We have a law requiring better gas mileage on cars. We fortunately failed to pass a law requiring electrical companies to shower cash upon the makers of solar cells and windmills. Neither of these efforts addresses my biggest energy bill, heating oil. And, there is a straight forward technological fix for heating oil use. Better house insulation will reduce heating oil use. Enough insulation and the house will stay warm without a furnace, even in New Hampshire. Enough in that case is two feet, but it can be done. I know people with houses built just that way with no furnaces, up here in northern NH where it gets really cold.
Stiffen up the building codes to require super insulation on new residential construction and the new homes won't require heating oil.
Why is the public and media attention all focused on cars and electrical generation and not home insulation? Surely even the most ignorant newsies have paid an oil bill?

Was the Bhutto assassination was an honor killing?

This blogger says yes. She feels insecure Muslim men whacked Bhutto because she was a woman getting too uppity. Maybe. But it makes more sense to think that Mrs Bhutto was killed to destabilize Pakistan, in the same way blowing up the Sammara mosque destabilized Iraq. Al Queda can convert Pakistan into a lawless failed state no man's land. All they have to do now is get rid of Musharraf.