Too Dumb Even For Environmentalists

Biofuels make little sense - who knew?

New Report Urges Western Governments to Reconsider Reliance on Biofuels

Western governments have made a wrong turn in energy policy by supporting the large-scale conversion of plants into fuel and should reconsider that strategy, according to a newreport from a prominent environmental think tank.

Turning plant matter into liquid fuel or electricity is so inefficient that the approach is unlikely ever to supply a substantial fraction of global energy demand, the report found. It added that continuing to pursue this strategy — which has already led to billions of dollars of investment — is likely to use up vast tracts of fertile land that could be devoted to helping feed the world’s growing population.

 

Comments

[Jeff Dobbs]

Can you inflate footballs with biofuels?

[Bori]

If they are gassy enough!

[henry]

Yes, use excess methane from livestock operations to inflate footballs. No one would dare let air out of one.

[Threadkiller]

With that perfectly reasonable and scientific based explanation for why footballs could lose air pressure.....ask yourself, why didn't Serious and Professional media members and pundits accept that perfectly reasonable explanation....and simply move on?

One answer could be that "deflate-gate" is just another public-relations advertising gimmick to gin up interest for the upcoming Superbowl. The NFL allows for a two week gap in between the league championship games and the Superbowl with only the extremely boring Pro-Bowl to offer to fans in the interim.

Maybe deflate-gate is just a campaign to keep fan interests peaked. Or maybe,like Robert Parry suggests here, the rot of U.S. corporate media, as evidenced in much of today's non-sports "news reporting"....has spread to sports media. Maybe the basic laziness and entitlement mentality of compromised "news journalism" has now infected corporate-sponsored sports journalism.

http://www.ohio.com/blogs/mass-destruction/blog-of-mass-destruction-1.298992/deflating-nfl-balls-1.562469

[Neo]

I fully expect that next year the NFL will require all footballs be filled with nitrogen

[henry]

which has already led to billions of dollars of investment

Finance 101 defines investment as having a return on investment. This biofuels mess is straight graft.

* since apologizing is a no no in JOM land, no apology for posting on topic will be offered.

[Jeff Dobbs]

I have been reviewing footage of the Pats - Ravens game and I am convinced that a number of Patriots were consuming dihydrogen monoxide on the sidelines. During the game!

It's like they weren't even trying to hide it.

[narciso]

speaking of the nazgul:

http://therightscoop.com/chris-kyle-is-a-dishonorable-liar-not-a-hero-says-bottom-dweller-jesse-ventura/

[NKvirusedand back]

henry-- absolutely. Greenspan/Bernanke/Hobbit should all be ashamed of themselves for the commodities bubble they created and continued with their maniacal 'anti-deflation' monetary and QE policy. That bubble was the opportunity for the 'alternative energy' grifters to get their foot in the door, and for filthy politicians to hand out subsidies as oil went from $35 to $120 barrel in 5 years. Despicable.

[narciso]

btw, the alternate WH minder, Schultz, is a former Leahy staffer, who waylaid inquiries during Fast and Furious at DOJ

[Threadkiller]

Ventura said Wednesday he won’t see the film partly because Kyle is no hero to him.

“A hero must be honorable, must have honor. And you can’t have honor if you’re a liar. There is no honor in lying,” Ventura told The Associated Press from his winter home in Baja California, Mexico. He also noted that the movie isn’t playing there.

[narciso]

Parry let me resonate some understanding, for you, was the one that got Lurch on his CIA witchhunt, and later the October Surprise and other delusions,

[Ignatz]

--I fully expect that next year the NFL will require all footballs be filled with nitrogen--

They're already 78% of the way there.

[Dave (in MA)]

Biofuels:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTbPd7c6rSg

"Rusty!"

[Danube on iPad]

At no prior point in my life have I had as strong a sense that the U.S. and the world are descending into collective madness. DOOM🏡

[Some Guy]

Wait?

You mean using 2 gallons of fuel to make 1 gallon of fuel doesn't make sense?

The devil you say.

[Danube on iPad]

(The little house with the tree is intended to represent the copyright and trademark symbols, which I don't seem to have.)

[Some Guy]

What is Ventura's real issue with Kyle?

Is Kyle the guy who beat the crap out him?

[new lurker]

DoT, How old are you?

[Beasts of England]

They could easily make it up on volume, Some Guy! ;)

[Extraneus]

Dear Slur: Comcast says sorry for changing customer’s name to ‘A—hole Brown’

[henry]

Pushback stiffing spines in Madison. The poll in question shows overwhelming support for right to work in WI, with even 51% of union households in favor of it. The Senate Majority Leader is now on board (the Assembly was not in question).

[Beasts of England]

I'd like some crafty think tank to estimate the array of opportunity costs associated with the biofuel travesty. And I don't mean an output in just raw dollars, but some conversion into starving children left unfed, vaccines not administered due to misapplication of resources, et cetera. This boondoggle did serious damage to many people around the world. Make those watermelons own it.

[Threadkiller]

Ventura's issue seems to be that no one likes him. As far as Kyle is concerned he apparently slandered Ventura and a court of law agreed.

If Kyle slandered Marcus Luttrell, taking sides may be a little more challenging.

[Threadkiller]

Danube, is it magic Occam time?

:-)

[glasater]

The guy who runs Wynn Resorts Sports Book was just on CNBC's Fast Money and he said the Patriots are a 1-point favorite right now. He also said only 10% of the money is in to this point.

[Beasts of England]

Lynch said that tough on crime means tough on blacks.

[James D.]

That's great, beasts. Just the kind of thinking we ought to want in the highest law enforcement officer in the land.

[Miss Marple]

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/isis-detonates-large-parts-nineveh-historical-wall/

Not sure how accurate this is. It just popped up on my Twitter feed.

[NKvirusedand back]

BoE-- beautiful idea. Let's do it for biofuels, and the wind/solar subsidies, and DDT bans, and for coolant bans, and for the vaccination/Autism nonsense, and Alar, and AGW and every other scam the worldwide grifters have pulled off with varying damage. The Danish economist has done some of this.

[Stephanie De Nile is a river in Progtopia]

Nice of her to draw the Venn diagram for us. Geez these people really are masochists to continually and voluntarily and need we say gleefully step on their own dicks while attempting to use it as a weapon.

[Dave (in MA)]

(The little house with the tree is intended to represent the copyright and trademark symbols, which I don't seem to have.)

"™" - ™
"©" - ©
"®" - ®
"&Dana;" -

[Porchlight]

Kyle claimed in his book to have punched Ventura in a bar because Ventura said something nasty about the SEALs. As I understand it Kyle didn't outright name him, but evidently it was obvious who he was talking about. When challenged Kyle wasn't able to provide much proof that this actually happened.

So Ventura sued, and I don't know the details but Kyle was killed while the suit was pending and Ventura decided to go after the estate. He won about $1.5 million.

[Porchlight]

And I would like to say that I am very proud I didn't vote for that jerk (I was living in MN when he was elected).

[Threadkiller]

Kyle named Ventura with little prodding from BOR:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VU5MLcWXzfo

[Ignatz]

-- The poll in question shows overwhelming support for right to work--

"Right to work" is one of the few instances of the right using language and rhetoric to their advantage preemptively before the left could label them with some foul or negative misnomer.

[Porchlight]

This account from the WaPo is pretty fair:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2014/07/30/jesse-ventura-vs-chris-kyle-a-case-where-no-one-won/

[Porchlight]

Right, TK - I meant he didn't name Ventura in the book. I guess it doesn't ultimately matter.

[RickB]

Stephanie,

You pegged it. What do you suppose is going through what passes for the minds of the Fascist Senators who will vote for her as the centerpiece floating in the Department of JustUs cesspool? Visions of crumbling Blue Walls surrounding choking Blue Hells would be my bet.

[Some Guy]

Thanks, now I remember the Ventura suing widows and orphans thing.

[Beasts of England]

It's a long list, NK, and one that is ripe for some body-count shaming.

[Miss Marple]

You know, I really, really like this guy:

http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/28/walker-university-profs-need-to-work-harder/

[Appalled]

At no prior point in my life have I had as strong a sense that the U.S. and the world are descending into collective madness.

There's nothing new about collective madness, or the continuing descent into it. And somehow, we still manage to muddle along.

[Porchlight]

On a related note, I took my older girls to the Texas State Cemetery this past Memorial Day. It was a beautiful misty morning, but the ceremony had to be moved indoors for fear of rain (lots of older veterans who needed to be seated out of the chill and rain, so I think it was a good call).

Anyway, there wasn't much room in the small space, so we along with many of the attendees decided to walk around the cemetery. Chris Kyle's grave is right there. It didn't yet have a headstone at that time, but it is very prominently placed, and was covered in flowers, photos and remembrances. There were many bowed heads in the immediate vicinity.

[Threadkiller]

Porch, IIRC the timeline suggests that until O'Reilly decided he needed to get Ventura's name out there for the folks, Kyle wasn't under serious threat of a defamation lawsuit.

Kyle claimed that Ventura said that we needed to lose some SEALs.

Again, if Kyle claimed Luttrell said we needed to lose some SEALs, we would probably be holding out on our personal feelings until the verdict came in. And then we would abide by it.

Also, we would probably be chastising reporters who felt it necessary to endlessly ask Luttrell about winning a lawsuit that he felt was necessary to persevere his honor.

[Jeff Dobbs]

new lurker:
DoT, How old are you?

If ever there was a time for a Fuddy joke . . . this is it.

[James D.]

You'd think that the success of "American Sniper" (not just the financial success, but the widespread audience reactions, all over the country) would be a tipoff to R politicians that there are a LOT of people who actually still hold pretty fundamental American beliefs, and are just waiting for something to latch on to that echoes and reinforces their beliefs and values, rather than undermining and mocking them.

The shrieking of prog critics about the movie ought to underline that, too.

[Stephanie De Nile is a river in Progtopia]

You'd think the dicks would get weary of being so abused, but seeing as dicks are the quintessential tools of the patriarchy, I find it difficult to muster any compassion under the masochists own rules.

[Stephanie De Nile is a river in Progtopia]

As for the fascist senators, masochists tend to prefer to attend the dominatrix as submissives, no?

[jimmyk]

From Miss M's 1:38 link, Rebecca Blank seems to have the Barry I/me/my disease:

UW-Madison chancellor Rebecca Blank warned in a statement that ”This is going to mean layoffs in all of my schools and colleges.”

I think Walker is basically doing the right thing by cutting the budget in exchange for more autonomy for the university. I don't think freezing tuition is necessary (low in-state tuition is subsidizing the universities), nor is commenting on things like teaching loads (that's substituting jawboning for control), but overall he's going in the right direction.

[Beasts of England]

It's painfully obvious, James D. The prog freak out is even more telling. They're scared to death about a lot of things and still stinging from the mid-terms, and realizing that Hillary! is their only option.

[henry]

Jimmy, if they cut out all the "White Privilege" conferences, they could lower tuition without cuts.

[Porchlight]

Porch, IIRC the timeline suggests that until O'Reilly decided he needed to get Ventura's name out there for the folks, Kyle wasn't under serious threat of a defamation lawsuit.

Thank you, TK - I hadn't realized that. Good points.

[Beasts of England]

Did you just get back from screening Fifty Shades of Gray, Steph? ;)

[danoso]

Lynch said that tough on crime means tough on blacks.

I couldn't agree more. I assume she has a problem with that.

[NKvirusedand back]

jimmyk/henry-- per Insty, Walker should demand Administrator cuts before faculty cuts. The Administrator count and $$$ is what exploded over the past 30 years, not tenured faculty. Adjuncts & and contract profs? THey are a profit center.

[Stephanie De Nile is a river in Progtopia]

Ha, no, but I was trolling in the feminist blogs earlier. Maybe a shower is in order... but not a steam shower.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/gwyneth-paltrow-women-steam-vaginas-article-1.2096571

Funny thing, Facebook's "related links" for this article includes a link for steaming clams. Poor Ms Paltrow.

Off to the grocery store, no mugworts or clams on my shopping list.

[henry]

NK, you have to let progs be progs and let them be autonomous in cutting value to students first. Then hammer them once the population catches on and profs are po'd at the administrators. Right now lefty profs and admins gang up on tax / tuition payers. This is step one.

[Miss Marple]

henry,

Exactly right. "Why should I have to teach more hours when you, Ms. Assistant to the Head of Grievance Administration, haven't given up ONE DIME or worked any extra hours?"

Bonus: Public school teachers realize they work longer hours for less money and do not get any of the free football tickets or reduced tuition!

"Here I am teaching 5 classes every day in inner-city Milwaukee and you cannot teach one more course in Comparative Gender Studies in Latin American Literature?"

[NKvirusedand back]

henry/MissM-- boy, Machiavelli has nothing on you guys in the cold blooded tactics business. Tu salud.

[Miss Marple]

NK,

Older women are very ruthless.

Also, I have seen enough of "unintended consequences" that whenever anything is proposed, I always start thinking "What is the most likely result of this?"

This is why I really think Lizzie Warren should be asked to justify her $300,000 salary for teaching ONE course at Harvard.
When she took that job she wasn't famous to add to the prestige of the university. She didn't have any unusual legal expertise. Judging from her speeches, she's not a particularly fascinating lecturer, either.

So just what was it that made her more valuable than the average pediatrician, critical care nurse, or plumber?

[henry]

NK, neither NYC nor Chicago has anything on the software business.

[MarkO]

DOOM™®

Our country is governed by a nasty, uneducated, fatuous narcissist. What could go wrong?

[Miss Marple]

I should add that my admiration of Walker stems from my belief that he actually DOES think about results of his actions.

This statement got his name out there again and a lot of people will be looking at professor salaries vs. work they do. And the administrators will come under scrutiny as well.

On the other hand, Pence has killed his JustIN news agency. (Another laff riot was that people who used the #JustIN tag on Twitter got a bunch of posts about Justin Bieber! Bwahahaha!)

And get this: Pence says he doesn't know WHO generated the memo about the JustIN web site and the comments about making news and such.

This was after 36 hours of the controversy, which tells me either he is lying or his staff is lying to him, neither of which makes him a good candidate.

[Danube on iPad]

NL: 74 in a couple of weeks.

TK: the issue has disappeared so quickly and completely that I've decided to let Occam's Razor slumber peacefully.

[Captain Hate]

This is why I really think Lizzie Warren should be asked to justify her $300,000 salary for teaching ONE course at Harvard.

Top Men get nervous about those types of questions because they don't fall within the Amy Vanderbilt/Emily Post guidelines for gracious interrogating. There are other reasons too.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

Ongoing corruption with Podesta and the monied elite, and a major headache for Alaska and the Western states.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/29/obama-adviser-podesta-caught-green-handed-in-major-ethics-violation/

[Miss Marple]

Captain Hate,

I normally don't care what anyone else makes, being as how envy is a sin and it's non of my business, anyway.

However, when someone spends a lot of time bemoaning how the middle class is sinking and they have to take out loans to educate their kids, and one of the CAUSES of the loans is excessive salaries in universities, and when such a person is acting like she was a hardscrabble bootstraps type of person, well then:

The question must be asked!

[narciso]

Ventura really believes the US govt took down the towers, really is it that much of a stretch that he would go after 'the tip of the sword' that are the Seals,

the fact that he would continue to go after the widow with two kids, doesn't that say everything about that feral creature?

[Threadkiller]

It was too much for the court to believe, narciso.

[Threadkiller]

Let sleeping balls lie, Danube.

:-)

[narciso]

it's come to this:

http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2015/01/29/no-conservatives-arent-really-turning-on-sarah-palin/

[jimmyk on iPhone]

"The question must be asked!"

Especially if the recipient is, or will be, in politics, since the income then is mostly a bribe. Hence all those six figure speaking fees for Hillary.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

"The Administrator count and $$$ is what exploded over the past 30 years, not tenured faculty."

True. To be fair, some of the administrative bloat is in response to government intrusions. For example, when I questioned why my institution has an Office of Sustainability, I was told that it pays for itself with Federal grants. HR is bloated by compliance reqs, there are all sorts of people who have to help with all the hoop jumping for accreditation, and so on. Get the Feds out of it and some of the problems solve themselves.

[AliceH]

Appalled@1:39 --There's nothing new about collective madness, or the continuing descent into it. And somehow, we still manage to muddle along.--

True. Until we don't. U.S. now 12th freeest economy

[jorod]

An outbreak of common sense. Go figure.