Fresno Famous

I just heard on the radio

I just heard on the radio that the global warming is a hoax.

So I thought I would take this opportunity to again suggest that you look at my web page www.myspace.com/marlalk because I believe all the pollution and global crap in Fresno pertain to THIS. Why? It is man created HERE. With the ringleader obsessively talking of how his project was going to have his son rolling in the money. SOLAR. All these changes throughout town are connected to something MUCH, MUCH bigger. Not for OUR benefit or the betterment of the world but for GREED. What has been done behind our backs, yet right under our noses is beyond belief. See my website, as the mystery for all my previous ramblings appears to have finally been solved.

Unfortunately, it also continues. Someone needs to step in and take over with this.

For a well thought out book look here.

http://www.crichton-official.com/fear/index.html

Just a nice read on something that goes against the idea of political science. It is topical and is all about global warming.
Things that make ya go hmmmmmmm.

We will pay for it.

Fresnans waited decades for the Feds and the State to complete our local Freeway system. The money never came until we taxed ourselves with Measure C. This local area stood up for itself and we have a great freeway system now. Please vote yes on the renewal.

(I helped write a minor local hit song about "freeways leading nowhere" with the band Folly's Pool back in 1974 Wow have my opinions changed!!)

I believe that capitalism has a feudal element. That local areas where new tech is developed become wealthy and go bust (think Silicon Valley, Seattle or Allentown PA). Globalism is fine from a marketing perspective but new ideas and new technologies created from those ideas are individual or group/community events. They will always stay local because the inventor/developer(s) have family and they all live somewhere.

Technology development is local not national, long term planning for technological needs is national.

Because their government recognizes long term needs some small city or region in China will probably be where the next energy tech breakthrough happens. That city will become rich. If we are lucky they may locate a manufacturing facility here as a token of friendship and charity.

With energy prices at an all time high, the potential profit to be made from the innovative energy solutions becomes staggering. Crude oil and AC power replaced firewood and whale oil because they became cheaper due to technological advances and whales and forests became too expensive.

I believe that because hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe we are going to discover many cheap ways to generate and store it. The only reason we haven't done it yet is because the current energy business complex has been fighting to keep their market just as the candlemakers and whale oil companies must have.

One thousand dollar a second profits sound pretty good to me too. BP, Exxon and the rest should be proud of what they have done. They are making the kind of profits over cost that drug cartels make. Oh yeah we're addicted. I suppose that makes sense.

Fuel cell technology has been around for more than a hundred years. If we had funded research at Manhattan project levels 20 years ago we probable wouldn't care about crude oil prices by now. The Brazilians don't care about crude prices as much right now because their national government funded research into ethanol and flex fuels.

Our national government can't seem to plan for anything except more of the same. Oh yeah the energy companies wrote the energy policy... I get it!

Air quality problems can only be solved by the elimination of internal combustion technology in autos and small engines. Every other cause is relatively minor.

I love Honda's concept of the solar electric roof making hydrogen for my fuel cell vehile while powering my house and feeding excess to the local grid.

Big Power and Oil companies would lose if everybody generated their own power and fuel from sunlight.

National Security would be enhanced by less dependency on a middle east oil and by a more robust localized electrical grid capable of withstanding nuclear attack. Right now a few well placed bombs would bring the entire grid down for months or years.

Mind if I rant?

I ride the bus out to Clovis and back four days a week. I've got a car but I get a chance to people watch and read and it's cheaper than driving and more relaxing. It's nice to know I'm in a less polluting vehicle.

The Rich Who Love Mass Transit

One way to get mass transit and have the rich support it , is to emphasize to the upper class that if most of the middle and poor classes are in public transit ,whether it is buses or light rail or both, then there is a lot less cars on the freeways for the rich to have to share with and less smog for the rich and their children to breath. The rich ,if they choose ,can tool around town easily and will live longer as well.

okay I'll bite.

your ideas are great, (seriously, they are.)

-but who's going to pay for it?

-solar power conversion is pretty steep, even with (any,) govt. subsidizing... you have to have the money to invest in it initially, --and the tech. is still quite pricey...

exotic fuel cars, (be they hybrids, french-fry oil, electricity, fuel cell, coal, used fuel rods from the local reactor...)same deal.

-As a former honda/acura service writer, that you have a mid 80's anything by them,
-especially in a no salt zone, means that you have a car that should last you (upwards of,) 300,000 miles with decent maint.
At 200,000 a good Honda, Yota, or Nissan is just a pup.
(They also average, depending on the model -between 25 to 40mpg, --and that's 20year old tech.
(even a little older, they went sequential injection ('si') in the early eighties, and dropped their carbs in, I think, 84 or 85.

This whole idea of 'the US,' getting pantsed by foreign companies went out the window in the 70's, if not earlier.
-It's a global world in terms of technology, in fact, just after the second world war, we were building rockets with the same scientists as the Russians, (we got some Germans, they got some Germans,)
-but for marketing reasons, it's 'US Tech.' -right.

When it comes to public funding for anything, the people who classically give more money to 'benevolent efforts,' are the 'middle and lower' class.
-Around here those classes aren't making that much above cost.

Not to throw stones at the well to do, but they tend to hang on to their sheckels.
Guys like Bill Gates, -and this other guy giving away their fortunes is a relatively rare thing...
Another problem is, the people who have the money, -aren't interested in mass transit. (It would be nice if they were, maybe as investors or folks who think in those terms, and I hope they do so.)

-But seriously,
Think...
You have a buttload of cash.
-Do you go buy a Hummer, or some other SUV?
Maybe a nice lexus, how about a Beemer, a Benz, or a Volvo?
---or do you ride the bus.
(maybe we should have put that one against Santa Clause as a poll.)
A housecat can answer that one correctly.

It may be a blanket Statement, -but when folks have the dough, they go for convenience,
-and in this town, that does not mean mass transit.

The average schlub, is going to pattern after the upper class... (There really is no 'middle class,')
-Middle Class is a transient phase of people trying to go from a lower class to an upper class, and that means that they never 'arrive,' financially, are usually living on credit, and even then are severely budgeted...

-Poor folks?
They can barely afford to pay attention,, (sometiemes that's all that they can pay for.)

So unless you have a major influx of either government funds that is earmarked for unreal (as in 'oh my god, I've died and gone to heaven, look at these prices, thank you Uncle Sam for providing me with this new tech.')

-the only way you are going to make folks go for something like the advancements that you are speaking of,
-is to madate them,
(which sucks,
-but like SMOG, it forces people to polute less.)

Monorail by 2050.
-How about we go with what the place was laid out for, Light Rail. (look up J.Patrick, he and Manning on the Hub... there are historic battle royals about what the future is...
Where to
and where from is always a question nobody really wants to answer.)

So, in the end, it's money.
And here, if you have the money, you don't give it to the public need,
-you hang on to it,
-maybe set your kids up,
-or simply get something nicer...
Not to be Machiavellian, but altruism goes out the door, when there is lettuce involved...

(thinking of Wash Hogwollup, in 'O Brother Where Art Thou?'
'-sorry cousin, but you see, they gots this depression on, and I gots to look out for me and mine...')

Dress for the weather...

We should be wearing long robes that fan our bodies as we walk around with loose hoods to shade our necks from the intense Arabian, uhh, Central Valley sun. Or maybe something a little more.. Tropical?

But seriously folks...

Humans are certainly causing air and water pollution and other degredation of the biosphere.

Whether we're causing global warming or not doesn't matter. We can only do what is possible. So much more is possible.

1) We need solar electricity, hydrogen, distributed generation and a local power utility like SMUD to help manage it all. It is tragic that our elderly have been dying of the heat when megawatts fall daily on this town in the form of sunlight. What if the old lady's house had a solar roof running her AC? Or what if everyone else had a solar roof too? and they were tied to our locally owned power utility. PG&E's monopoly should be broken. I am tired of their near century of exploitation.

2) Autos with hybrid gas electric, flex fuel, clean diesel and/or fuel cells. I looked at a electric vehicle on Blackstone (the Boulevard of Dreams!!) just this evening at the ZAP dealership. ZAP is importing electric vehicles from China and soon flex fuel vehicles from Brazil.
I am tired of the incredibly bad contingency planning on the part of American Automakers GM and Ford. They were completely blindsided by this current energy situation and are having to buy tech off the shelf from the Japanese just to appear to be keeping up. PS I've had less trouble with a 20 year old Honda than my 10 year old Saturn.

3) High speed statewide rail transit LA to SF first (through Fresno, of course) then lines south to OC and SD and north to Portland and Seattle. Anyone else tired of highway hypnosis?

4) Local mass transit (when and where higher population densities allow it.. think downtown high rise housing and a monorail by 2050),

but the biggest problem facing this area is water management and conservation.

Historically, humans caused the destruction of many watersheds and pristine agricultural land through the over use of artifical irrigation. Salt accumulation at Kesterson is nothing new. If we can engineer a solution to this problem we will be the first society in history to do so.

um, yeah, just one more thing

(...for that previous caller who had that Hulk-Thor concern: I've found Gold Bond Medicated powder can be quite effective,,, looser undergarments also help on those really hot days, ...hey, if a fellow FresFam writer won't tell you, who will?...)

ach, oy, da air schmutz is da ting

"um, yeah, hi, thanks for taking the call
...I think there are two things (right off the top of the knoggin',) that would help.

-First...
well, it's kind of like being good little scouts...
We do what we can do...
-Keep cars tuned, make a conscious(sp?) effort to not pollute wtih chemicals, smoke, convert things over to belching less yuck into the atmosphere.
---the whole idea being, nothing too radical, -just sensible... (This means different things for different people,
-the 'green at all cost 'rainbow warrior' who can afford to buy an electric car... hey, go for it.
-the humble Bob Cratchet, who can only afford a primered Escort, -well, keep it tuned, consolidate your trips,
-and the urban primitive??? -I dunno burn a tire in protest maybe once a month instead of each weekend.
-but the whole idea would be, be comfortable about it, and, as you change your ways, (in a sane fashion,) you will watch those air particulate-pounds just melt away.
(Doing it comfortably helps folks not to freak out over it.)

Point number B.
-(Patrick, I'm sure you're lurking around here somewhere, if not Dennis will feel his ears burning...)
Mass Transit.
(I know, I know.)
-but since we're about to have, what, additional dinner guests that are going to quintuple the current population,
-the whole thing of Light Rail, as well as better bussing, (starting with a lot of 'pronounced and well promoted,'enhancements for the snooty from home to where they work, (so they'll want to fund for the average schlub,)
-and then use part of the orig. seed money -as well as the results of seat sales, -to enhance secondary, and 'recreational routes.'
(The whole time, develop the services where folks are just scraping by, and rely heavily on mass transit.)

At the current time, (despite some cool aspects of how the busses run,) mass transit isn't worth the hassle of waiting forever. Why sit on a bench forever when I can drive out, do my business, and be back in the amount of time it would take for the bus to arrive.
Fix that, make it pretty, and I think it will result in less road traffic.

-Um, one more point, and I'll take your comment 'off-air.'

I think Bicycles in this town are excellent...
Folks may want to consider them for transpo, -but on hot days, we can see where pedal power also is a great way to meet mobile medical teams, -or one's maker...

Thanks,,, and I love your show..."

*click*

Hulk vs. Thor

I like onomuse's remark about there being too much arguing over ideological stances; if it's warming, what do we doooo about it?
BUT, if one side says "Mother Nature's doing it", and the other side says "Mankind's Speedin' it up", then it seems we might have differing versions as to how to solve the problem.
Or, do we just accept it---like a guilt-free divorce, and try to alleviate the damage warming could cause?
Ach, but if Mankind is part of the problem, it does seem we have some responsibility to try and blunt our contributions.

oy, is it hot

...okay, Jarah's little vote thing is a bit (well,) innacurate
Santa Clause does (did,) exist.
There were at least (2) historic figures called St. Nicholas or St. Nichlaus.... (so, yeah, we have documented proof and records that the guy lived, did his thing, and then bought the big one..)

Global warming,
-not sure where it is at on the foodchain of science thought,,,, not a model, probably more than a theory, --but not all the horses are burned up yet, (um,) in yet...
-I'd be inclined to go with the weather twits when it comes to tracking trends... and if this is part of the cycle,,, okay, that's not so bad.

What I think is worse, (however,) would be air quality... (What is it, one in six kids from the valley has asthma?)
--And the really sad thing is, even if we go massive hybrid overnight... it's the bad air that blows in from other areas, and settles here too...
That's not good, that'll cause you to buy the farm a lot quicker than global warming...

oh... the Easter Bunny? -now HE's fake.
Great pumpkin -true.
-and both Elvis and Morrison are still alive, (thankyou, thankyouverymuch...)

Ice Age

I remember a documentary that came out in the early 1990's that was about a coming Ice Age ... it did talk about warming up before it Freezes. I can remember the name of the documentary. ... I do remember a british Sci-Fi film called "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" it came out in 1961 the plot was the US and Soviet Union simultaneously detonate nuclear devices and have caused the earth's axis to shift it's tilt and the orbit of the Earth to alter, sending it closer to the sun. It's a Global Warming film years before 'The Day After Tomorrow'

Global warming: Natural cycle VS human causation

I read an article at a science news web site that said that the Antarctic Ice Sheet has melted down between each of the previous ice ages. This means that the earth usually warms up a lot more before it freezes up again. (Think geological time).

It really doesn't matter if we are accelerating a natural process or creating a new problem. In either case the only solution is to depopulated the coastlines and develop better and cheaper ways to produce and store energy.

There is way too much emphasis on ideological positions and who is right or wrong about global warming.
There is not enough thinking, debate and planning on how to survive it.

If what I read is correct, the entire debate is completely useless since the global warming at some rate is inevitable.

i take that back

it seems like angelo stalis doesn't think we humans contribute to global warming. or, at least when i reread his quote is seems that way.

don't miss the point

neither of these meterologists deny global warming. but, they do say that to attribute this particular heat spell to global warming would be presumptive. they can accurately point out times in local history of extreme heat. this doesn't disprove or prove global warming. it does show that this heat can't be pinned down just to global warming. however, the increased frequency of these record temperature summers should give credence to the effects of global warming on our lives.

i believe in global warming, and am trying to change things in my life that contribute to it. i hope that every one who claims to believe in global warming is willing to do the same.

Global Warming

Learning is difficult for all us peoples.

People having the exact same experience at the exact same time seem to extract only the information that support what they *already* believe.

Thus, we turn to scientists, who, by their training, are expected to look without prejudice at the data and let us know what's up.

Unfortunately we have a president who seems to put the squash on any scientists who come out with anything that contradicts his already freeze-dried schema.

Learning is hard. This makes having discussions difficult. It makes 'throwing rocks' at the folks who don't see things the way we do the norm.

How many people have you heard say this on the first cold day of winter: "So this is global warming?"

and then there's denial....

Yeah, well, OK.
These guys are obviously very well informed on the human race's impact on this planet. What do you think?

I'm gonna go pray to Santa for snow now.