Vermont Tiger

Happy Halloween

By Daniel Foty

Tiger vs. pumpkin:

 

 

Happy Halloween!

"Green Energy" Technology Explained

By Daniel Foty

Because for a reality check, one cartoon is worth thousands of words....

We've Moved....

.... at least according to Aer Lingus....

(H/T - An old colleague....)

Developing Story - ".... hide the decline...." (?!)

By Daniel Foty

There's a story developing today that hasn't yet been completely clarified.  However, what we already do know is both very interesting - and potentially earth-shattering.

What we do is that unknown hackers broke into the computer systems of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UK).  A great deal of information was copied away, and that information has been made available on the interwebs.

That information consists of more than 1000 e-mails and several dozen documents.

For the moment, there's no need to rush to any judgment - pending final dispositions about the veracity of the material released. 

But this is a huge story no matter what has actually transpired.

If this is a hoax, it's a hoax on a truly epic scale - one that exceeds belief.

But if this information turns out to be genuine.... this is a bombshell that clearly calls into doubt all of the "research" that's been promoting the notions of "global warming"/"climate change" - as manifestly fraudulent.

Crossing the River?

By Daniel Foty

Mark Steyn goes boldly forth, looking for "stimulus-created jobs" in non-existent New Hampshire congressional districts....

"I drive around in the forlorn hope that one day on a rutted Class VI [sic (?) - ed.] road deep in the woods, just over the washed out culvert, I'll round the bend and.... I'll be greeted by 2,873.9 gnarled old stump-toothed loggers with an average of 2.7 fingers between them, now federally retrained as green-jobs czars, NEA performance artists, end-of-life counseling coordinators, and Joe Biden speechwriters...."

Hmm.

It sounds plausible that he took this little spin during a dry spell - and that the "washed out culvert" was actually the Connecticut River....

Rhapsody in Green - The Nightmare Continues

Sometime last week, fellow Tiger Chris Campion mentioned the new report that has come out of Spain, analyzing the outcomes of that country's big "green energy" drive - a drive that is frequently held up to us as a model for emulation.

As Chris noted, the results have been - to say the least - not only disappointing, but very negative.  The salient economic highlights are findings that: 1) For every four "green" jobs created, nine other jobs were destroyed; 2) Among those "green" jobs, only 1 in 10 was a real, full-time job.  None of this is a surprise; "alternative energy" requires overly-massive use of scarce resources - resources that can only be taken away from better and more productive activities.

But rather than belabor the point, it's simply easier to point interested readers to the report itself.  You can find it here; that link takes you directly to the .pdf file to download.  The report is 51 pages long, and begins with a good executive summary - and for those of you still stranded in the world of dial-up 'net access, the file size is only 667kB, so it should download for you in two or three minutes.

But when it comes to doing a circuit of the latest goings-on in the world of The Green Nightmare.... we're just getting started.

Much more below the fold.

"Shovel-Ready?" Forget About It....

Earlier this morning, I was reading through a recent short analysis (*) of the state of the building materials industry while having my morning tea; the following paragraph jumped out for a couple of reasons:

"Investors appeared to be disappointed that of the $787 billion spending bill passed by Congress, a meager $27 billion will go directly to fund construction projects.  Too, much of those outlays will likely be pushed out a year or more from now.  In the near term, nothing will likely be done beyond filling some potholes.  In fact, the stimulus package seems more geared to hiring, or retaining, civil servants rather than construction workers."

So I guess when it comes to even fixing the roads, we're still on our own - just in a lot poorer place to make a start.

Apparently, "shovel-ready" (remember that?) has gone down the memory hole.  The goal of the "government stimulus" is to.... stimulate the government..... 

(*) - Sorry, no link; as far as I know this is available only on paper, and if there is an electronic version somewhere it's certainly behind a subscribers-only curtain.