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H&I* Fires, 11 FEB 2008

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...

Time to add a new caveat, because from email it's not clear to some folks (mind you, if you don't read this it won't matter...) Being an open post, people (collectively, the Denizens) other than I post in the H&I. They sign their work (most of the time) - keep that in mind when you want to flame someone in email please - if it doesn't say "The Armorer" or "John" then I didn't write it! And honestly - if you don't like something said or posted... leave a comment, and hash it out (within the context of The Rulez which are clearly posted on the comment form, I would add).

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Attack of the Killer Spider! A new flick brought to you by... NASA. -the Armorer

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That's a nice, round number. Of course, according to the server... the leading digit should be 4.9. -the Armorer

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Well, looky here... Mark Steyn from the NRO blog, The Corner:

The Book of the Year [Mark Steyn]


I'll be flying down to New York later today for the first Powerline Book of the Year gala. This year it's going to World War IV by Norman Podhoretz, who makes a better case for the Bush Doctrine than Bush's foreign policy team is prepared to do these days. It's apparently a bigger cash prize than the Pulitzers, but it goes to charity - in this case, Soldiers' Angels. Norman, Henry Kissinger, the Powerline lads, and I will be chewing over the book's thesis, which not everyone at NR (from Jonah to Derb to WFB himself) is on board with. Nonetheless, it attempts, as almost no other book does, to grapple with both the scale of the present struggle and its relationship to 20th century history - and to ask, as The New York Sun notes, the key questions. I hope amidst all the singing and dancing and Sally Fieldian acceptance speeches we'll have a chance to get to the real meat of the questions raised by Norman.

Emphasis mine. -the Armorer

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Hey, Brainiacs! Whatcha think?

California is moving towards a mandate for zero net energy for residential new construction by 2020. Zero net energy means the home cannot consume more net energy than it generates.

Generates?

Yup. California homes are going to have to generate as much energy as they consume by 2020. The next question is, how?

Read the whole bit here. -the Armorer

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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.

Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

*Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone."

11 Comments

So, California houses must, by effect, live "off-the-grid". Well, there are two ways to for that to happen. Either they must become their own electrical stations or they can become like your recent 1850's Kansas 'Living History' homes": They just have no electricity at all. The builders certainly know which is cheaper to make.
 
easy: cold fusion. next question?
 
Better tell my Luditte Factor to start practicing bottling her **er** FRATS, in advance to our move to the Left Coast.
 
Build a two story house and park the farm animals on the ground floor. The heat rises and helps maintain the heat in the living quarters. They could use the fertilizer for growing food and improving their lawns. Water tanks on the top of the house that are heated by the sun. Lots of windows for natural sun light. You know, why don't they just look up some ancient Romans and learn some real energy efficient engineering?
 
Congratulations!!! Was it me?
 
Considering the vast amount of horsesh*t coming from the Berserkley City Council these days, they could build a methane co-generation plant big enough to power everything west of Denver...
 
Thank you Maggie! You may assume so!
 
This reminds me of the news story I saw on Fox News this morning about the CA man who's been ordered to cut down (yes, CUT DOWN) some redwood trees he planted about 10 years ago because they are now shading his neighbor's solar panels ... which were installed AFTER the trees were planted. They apparently have a law for this. LOL
 
Thank you all for reminding me why I retired on the right coast!
 
. Just another reason this 4th Generation Californian is looking to get the hell out of this Cloud-Kukoo land.
 
I'm with Bill. They've been spewing enough methane to fuel the entire west coast and part of Mexico. btw... 3 Mill, eh? KEWL!!!