Daily Topics - Wednesday January 25th, 2012

President Obama's 3rd State of the Union address...what did you think? Thom shares his thoughts and takes your calls / Plus, Nancy Pelosi has a secret...just what does she have on Newt Gingrich that could keep him from being president...?!
Comments
RE: Steve Jobs/Apple
Let's keep in mind that while Jobs DID outsource much of his work, MANY/MOST of the components that he needed for his manufacturing proceses are no longer even manufacturered in the U.S. For example, just check out where video displays are now being made.
Just had an hilarious thought with the discussion about the Navy being given money for alternative energy: Sails on Aircraft Carriers.
N

I heard on the Stephanie Miller Show this morning that Romney doesn't even do the work of investing his own money, he has a trustee to do it for him. This makes Romney seem like the financial equivalent of a plantation owner, who owns the land but doesn't work the fields with his own hands.

You know Maxrot, there's actually been some study lately into using high-altitude sails (basically kites) on cargo ships to provide some of the propulsion. Wind is faster at higher altitudes (hence the height of wind turbines) and the heights they'd be dealing with wouldn't significantly reduce the density of the air relative to sea level, so the force of the wind can replace a lot of petroleum usage. Warships wouldn't want to depend on sails, so they might not want to have them in the first place, but the navy has tankers for refueling, and those could ironically be the ones to reduce carbon output for the navy as a whole.

Ultracrepidariously ugly? It's hard to interpret the adverbial form, but at least "ultracrepidarian" is a word I'd heard of. I guess it means a kind of ugliness beyond what has ever been encountered. That would have been appropriate for the "liberal" cat yesterday.
You'd think if they want to use alternative energy at sea, the concept of tidal engery might have promise. Basically you could put an input port at water level that could fill a water tank, then that water from the tank could have an outlet at the bottom of it that would power a turbine and dump into a secondary tank. Then you could use wind power to turn an Archimedian screw that would return the water to the top of the first tank until evaporation required you to refill the tank by opening the sea cock. It may be pie in the sky thinking, but heck, you'd always have fuel.
N
i was not at all convinced with his speech



The speech sounded it fine, but it seemed a bit hollow to me. One of the things that struck me as completely wrong was his emphasis equating community colleges as future career centers. In other words instead of community colleges being stepping stones to universities (an inexpensive way to get a lot of required general ed completed btw) now it seems he just wants them to focus on being trade schools. It bothers me that somehow it has become OK to leave unskilled labor behind, as though they either don't deserve a job or don't deserve a job with a living wage. Perhaps its because its a pet peeve of mine, or perhaps its because it seems like another way of blaming the unemployed for poor trade policies that have shipped so many well paying non-degree requiring jobs oversees.
N