NC 12th Congressional District

Man, do I feel sorry for Jack Brosch. I think he's going to get a rather severe beating during the upcoming election because by voters alone he's outnumbered nearly 2 to 1, and that's using math that stretches the realm of possibility awfully thin. Mel Watt is also raising over $800 for every dollar Brosch raises. If you just want to look at cash on hand for the race, Mel Watt's got him beat by just shy of three orders of magnitude! The whole race is damn near pathetic; it's going to be like watching a kindergartner flail at a sumo-wrestler. This won't so much be an election as it will be a pro-longed victory lap.

That's a shame. For starters, the NC 12th is incredibly gerrymandered, to the point where the Democratic Party advantage is something like 300% over a straight race against a Republican candidate, and I for one possess a dripping disdain for many Congressman Watt's positions. I'd dearly love for there to be more conversation about these issues, but the Congressman would be smart to not debate him because it would give Brosch the pittance of credibility he needs to be considered a throw-away candidate. It even looks like the RNC is also leaving Brosch out in the cold too, since he's fundraising is so low, and he's got zero media presence other than what is essentially free.

To be fair, Brosch is a rather lack-luster candidate. In this district, his best bet is to run as a moderate or slightly left of center Republican, but many of his positions are taken quite literally from the GOP script on their website (a point he boldly, and rather foolishly, makes all too clear). His website is also absolutely rife with spelling and grammatical errors, which a good way of convincing educated voters to steer clear of him. I'm sure a dedicated "Errorist" could find mistakes aplenty on my own blog, but even my own untrained eye takes a vicarious beating from Blosch's assault on the English language. Congressman Watts even has the guy beaten in appearance, considering that at 67 he looks a decade younger than Brosch (I can't find any hard numbers for his age, but his Facebook profile has him graduating in 1976, putting him in his mid to early 50's).

Ultimately, what Brosch fails is the quick glance take-away. He doesn't exude confidence, leadership, charm, or intellect. Don't get me wrong, Brosch may well possess many or all of these traits (I certainly do not know the man), but his machinations for getting his positions out do not assist him in conveying these traits at all. People vote on issues, but they are also looking for leadership. If Brosch can't get around these image problems, he won't get a chance to discuss his positions on the issues at all.

I C(u) what you did there

The better half is attempting a late night hack on one of the cat's food bowl. We keep a bowl on the front porch so that we can feed the cats separately, but it tends to get slugs in it, so tonight's Mcguyverism is to wrap copper around the base to deter the slimey buggers. Not sure what it's supposed to do, but it couldn't hurt.
I'll have to do some research and figure out if copper actually repels slugs, and if so why. I can kind of see the chemicals in the slug's wake interacting negatively with the copper, but I can't make that statement decisively.

Food Security in the Asian Region

Just finished reading this article while waiting for my fiancee to come and look at the cutest picture of rodent murder I've ever seen (see my last emptying pockets entry). I'm pretty concerned about how the markets will react to the drop in supply of corn state-side due to this year's drought, so hearing that China and India are expecting long-term crises in this area in the foreseeable future is alarming, to say the least.

Let's string a few concepts together; first, global warming is affecting the rates and spatiality of precipitation world wide, which is causing some glaciers to enlarge and some glaciers to shrink. Second, many of the major rivers in Central Asia are dependent on melting from the aforementioned glaciers to maintain their average discharge. Finally, the people living in these areas are dependent on a relatively stable river discharge to support not only life, but the basic infrastructure of the economy such as water for irrigation and for industrial applications.

A long-lasting drought could not only have rather severe food implications, but could lead to territorial disputes over little used water sources, and loud arguments over any water partitioning agreements laid in the past. Disputes between Pakistan and India are common for a number of reasons, water being among them.. Is it unreasonable to expect armed turmoil over water resources when economies and lives are on the line? I don't think so, rather I think it would be prudent to expect such conflict and lay the groundwork to deal with it down the line now.

Emptying Pockets

I found this article to be genuinely disturbing. The money quote being thus: "Unstopped until they walked up to a security guard's car and surrendered". Yikes. What would have happened if Nanna decided to take over a small country, or to leverage a political issue in the US with a homemade suitcase bomb? Somebody ought to fire those folks and get some real security in place. Set the motion sensors at chest height if you're so worried about wildlife!
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I halfway expected this to be part of a Mythbusters episode. I'm glad a cost-effective method of testing construction practices is in place, but the question remains; what would happen if you added C4 to the building? Anyone? 

At any rate; I'm all for building bomb-proof buildings and this would greatly reduce the lead time in waiting for feedback on reinforcement techniques.
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It's a little unfortunate that every time Michigan gets in the news, it's always bad. That is to say that government policy in Michigan seems to support poor business practices while ignoring the property rights and health of its citizens. Shame, shame, shame. And a million gallons of crude leaking into the Kalamazoo? Don't you think that could have hit the wire sooner? Speaking of which; has anyone looked at inland applications of this? Seems oil munching bacteria would be a handy thing to have around.

At any rate; certainly looks like a land grab, unless their maintenance trucks have increased in width by about 400%.
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One day our children may say that the canary in the coal mine on global warming for most people should have been the Lemmings in Greenland. An excellent study on a drop in population due to increased warming. They haven't pegged the reason for the collapse yet, but the most plausible explanation (lack of population increase due to less time in the sack underneath fallen snow) holds up to the common sense test. The scary thing about studies like this is the domino effect that drops in population in staple foods has for higher tier predators. Pretty soon the whole thing goes pear-shaped in ecosystem collapse.

Photo; Niels Schmidt

Plus, that picture makes the stoat look like one handsome bastard, right? Hey, good for him; a good hunt is everything out in the real world.

Elitist?

There's something that I've been thinking about over the past few days, and that's the gradual transition of the term elitist from an aspiration to an insult.

I was raised to think that becoming an expert in a field, or in a skill,  or even in a hobby is a good thing. To be elite, and to caport yourself only with those who are likewise also elite.. Isn't that desirable? Isn't that what people should want? I don't want the common man building space ships,  or performing surgeries.. Why would I want a layman doing anything important?

I  don't get it, folks. There is definitionally nothing good about being common. Why celebrate it? Why denigrate those who aspire to greatness?