02/06/2012 04:08 PM ‘Will Seaweed be the Biofuel Solution?‘ Churchville, VA - Researchers may have broken the biofuel barrier. A new biotech discovery enables ethanol to be made from a common variety of brown seaweed. This would by-pass the biggest problem with corn ethanol and biodiesel - the world’s shortage of cropland. The new ethanol process uses the familiar E coli bacterium working on kombu, a variety of edible brown kelp, which is common in the world’s seas and oceans. It has been grown and harvested commercially by such countries as China, Japan, and Korea for hundreds of years. If you like sushi, it is the brown wrapping on your favorites.  01/24/2012 06:55 PM Mitt Throws a Fit Mitt Romney is mad. - Wouldn’t you be mad if you had double digit lead in the polls in South Carolina only to squander that lead in a matter of days and then lose to Newt Gingrich by twelve points? 01/17/2012 04:48 PM ‘Can Freedom Survive or Is the Fix In?‘ The Republicans have a habit of nominating moderates who have served the Party well, or as the Soviets called them apparatchiks, or as they are called in Chicago Ward Heelers, or as they are called everywhere else Hacks.  That is how they ended up with Bob Dole and John McCain.  They had run for the nomination before and lost.  They were loyal soldiers who then went on to support the nominee.  And now, it was their turn.  That is not a very convincing campaign argument: “It’s my turn.“ 01/15/2012 03:12 PM Cut Loose at Fifty: Chapter Eleven - Telling An English Joke in Chinese The second semester got off to smooth start – a good job as well - because the first half of it proved to be a very hectic affair. 01/12/2012 03:39 PM Consideration for Cooperstown Revisited Shortly before the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) voted in Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven into the Baseball Hall of Fame last year, I wrote an article about players I believed deserved greater consideration for Cooperstown. (1) Well, the BBWAA has just voted to induct Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin. In July, Larkin will be inducted along with Chicago Cubs legend Ron Santo who was given posthumous, if not bittersweet approval by the Veterans Committee last month. So here are three more players who I think worthy of baseball immortality. 01/03/2012 04:54 PM Faith In Fairy Tales And Willful Ignorance An evolutionary psychologist asserts that evolution in the ways humans use their brains, influenced exclusively by external, materialistic conditions, has made our era the least violent period in history. 12/29/2011 03:44 PM Some stuff from the news desk Here at the world blogcast headquarters of ShadeyHill Ranch, we still do some things the old-fashion way. Take the way we cover the news, for instance. 12/29/2011 03:25 PM Owens’ Law Of Oscillating Pyramids Which explains The Cyclical Rise and Fall of Bureaucracy While at the same time answering the age-old question: “What happened to the Maya?” OR I’M NOT GIVING YOU ANYMORE CORN TO BUILD PYRAMIDS 12/27/2011 04:40 PM Imaginary benefits, extensive harm EPA mercury rules for electricity generating units are based on false science and economics - The Environmental Protection Agency clams its “final proposed” Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rules will eliminate toxic pollution from electrical generating units, bring up to $140 billion in annual health benefits, and prevent thousands of premature deaths yearly – all for “only” $11 billion a year in compliance costs. 12/22/2011 02:56 PM Thou shalt not question UN ‘experts’ Inconvenient questions will not be tolerated in Durban or other climate crisis conferences - British Viscount Christopher Monckton of Brenchley parachuted with me into Durban, South Africa, to challenge UN climate crisis claims, attracting numerous journalists and onlookers. A 20-foot banner across our press conference table gave the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow further opportunities to present realistic perspectives on the science and economics of climate change.