“Surprisingly, chimney technology would not advance seriously for another 500 years until various 18th century philosophers, scientists, and tinkerers (Benjamin Franklin prominently among them) would finally hunker down, put pen to paper, and start to experiment with various forms of heating, ventilation, and flame ultimately resulting in the two modern forms of chimneys we have today – the brick chimney and the wood burning stove. So it wasn’t until a short 200 years ago (out of the 2 MILLION years of human existence) did we have effective and efficient chimneys.
My question was, “Why the hell did it take so damn long for humans to develop this basic and NECESSARY thing?“”
A History Lesson For Political Radicals
Next it’ll turn out to be a caucus retreat.
Liberal MP, party president joined Trudeau for his controversial Bahamas vacation with the Aga Khan.
But, “O’Regan said in a telephone interview Tuesday that no Canadian government business was discussed during his time on the island.”
How’s the sobriety going, Seamus?
Of Showers and stuff.
Instapundit has the sordid details. You can read all about it there. I’m laughing because it appears that Trump is as effective at taking over the news cycle from Obama as he was at taking it away from Clinton and in the same fashion.
Personally, I think it’s all bumpkis.
Critical Thinking From the Left?
Catherine Little has published an interesting op-ed in the Toronto Star, urging teachers and parents to encourage children how to think critically. While one has no reason to disbelieve the sincerity of this writer, the notion that one of the most Left leaning newspapers in the country supports the idea of encouraging mostly Left leaning academics to teach critical thinking is like … fill in your own joke. For years now we’ve seen countless news stories of the rampant group think in the media and in schools. Ms. Little should be applauded for trying but her message will clearly fall onto deaf ears and severely closed minds.
Reader Tips (And Blog Notes)
I’ll be hitting the road early tomorrow morning for Seattle-Portland dog shows, and will be offline for much of the next two weeks. Lance and company will hold down the fort as best they can, and I should be checking in from time to time, but expect posting to slow down.
It’s supposed to be -31C (windchill -43C) tomorrow at 4am when I finish loading up the van. I’m told we do this because it’s fun.
The selection for the evening — Life is a Highway, (Rascal Flatts version).
Other People’s Money
If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.*
Britain’s health service is engulfed in a “humanitarian crisis” that requires the support of the Red Cross to use Land Rovers to transport patients, the charity said on Saturday.
Founded in 1948, the National Health Service (NHS) is a source of huge pride for many Britons who are able to access free care from the cradle to the grave.
But tight budgets, an ageing population and increasingly complex medical needs have left many hospitals struggling during the winter season in recent years, prompting headlines about patients being left to wait on trolleys for hours or even days.
h/t Adrian
Oh, Shiny Librano!
Ethics watchdog ‘considering’ investigation into Trudeau’s vacation with Aga Khan
The Sound Of Settled Science
“Green Cheesers” still unconvinced: Study crashes main Moon-formation theory (h/t Paul)
Reader Tips
As this news come to the fore, this classic song comes to mind.
As always, your interesting & insightful tips are much appreciated!
Hollywood Hypocrisy on Display
Piers Morgan took down Meryl Streep in a scathing editorial:
Last night, Streep received a Lifetime Achievement award at the Golden Globes, and chose the moment to launch a very personal attack on Donald Trump.
She began by saying that Hollywood, foreigners and the press are ‘the most vilified segments of American society right now’.
At which point the cameras panned out to hundreds of the richest, most privileged people in American society sitting in the audience in their $10,000 tuxedos and $20,000 dresses, loudly cheering this acknowledgement of their dreadful victimhood.
She then said that if all the ‘outsiders and foreigners’ were kicked out of Hollywood, ‘you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.’
Wow.
I haven’t heard such elitist snobbery since Hillary Clinton branded Trump supporters ‘a basket of deplorables’.
So Much Winning!
Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma is meeting with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on Monday to discuss plans to create 1 million new U.S. jobs over the next five years.
The Monday meeting will focus on the Chinese e-commerce company’s U.S. expansion plans, according to spokespeople for both Alibaba and Trump.
And more.
Now, if he can just get to Inauguration Day before Obama starts WWIII.
Oh, Shiny Librano!
[Andrew Scheer, MP for Regina -Qu’Appelle] has written a letter to Mary Dawson, Parliament’s Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner asking for an investigation of Prime Minister Trudeau’s vacation on a private island in the Bahamas.
“The Prime Minister of Canada must be held to the highest standard, which is why I have called for this investigation,” said Scheer. “As a former Speaker of the House of Commons, I take the rules that MPs must follow very seriously. We need to know if it is appropriate for Trudeau to accept gifts from someone whose foundation receives funds from the Government of Canada.”
Prime Minister Trudeau accepted a gift from His Royal Highness the Aga Khan of a vacation for his whole family on the privately-owned Bell Island. The Aga Khan Foundation, has been the beneficiary of tens of millions of dollars in government contributions to international development projects, in addition to 30 million dollars from the Government of Canada for the Foundation’s Ottawa headquarters.
Section 14.1 of the Conflict of Interest Act is very clear. “Neither a Member nor any member of a Member’s family shall accept, directly or indirectly, any gift or other benefit, except compensation authorized by law, that might reasonably be seen to have been given to influence the Member in the exercise of a duty or function of his or her office.”
A reader emails;
It turns out this isn’t the first conflict of interest controversy involving the Aga Khan and his private island. In 2010, the Bahamas Environment Minister was accused of conflict of interest for accepting a couple of rides on the Aga Khan’s private helicopter at the same time that he was considering giving the Aga Khan an environmental permit to dredge the harbour at the island deeper so he could dock his enormous yacht there.
This was a big political and environmental controversy at the time. The Environment Minister eventually tendered his resignation, but the Prime Minister did not accept it, probably because, as it turns out, he had also taken a few helicopter rides out to the private island to hang out with the Aga Khan.
Here are a few stories about it. There are dozens more if your google it. I just thought you might enjoy the irony of Trudeau improperly accepting a free vacation from a guy who was in a previous conflict scandal involving his alleged destruction of the environment.
It’s not irony. It’s how Political Royals do business.
Wynneing!
It cannot have escaped the attention of many that Ontario is most unsettled these days. That its industries are anxious, its debt colossal, its citizens not in a pleasant mood. Ontario is in a lot of pain. But let me assure readers outside Ontario that it has not all been for nothing. There are rewards. They are subtle, intangible, but they are real. Let me explain….
h/t nold
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
REPORT LIKE IT’S 1999: A CBS Radio News report on the video of four young Chicago people torturing a mentally disabled man falsely implied that the victim was black and his attackers were white…
“I Did Not Have Classified Relations With That Woman, Mrs Clinton”
Released late on a Sunday night.
NEW: 299 pages of FBI's email investigation into Hillary Clinton (PDF) https://t.co/Lh0Cxjgx5d
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 9, 2017
Probably nothing there.
Reader Tips
Take a low level flight in an Apache helicopter. Tips thread is open.
Dead Rose Country
We're headed for -50c Arctic temperatures. The NDP message: walk or take the bus & pay ~30% more for home heating. https://t.co/uqjgHO7fHJ
— Jason Kenney (@jkenney) January 8, 2017
Dr. Judith Curry Speaks Out
As a follow-up to Judith Curry’s resignation, here’s an interesting interview with her:
Russian Hacking: No New Proof yet the Narrative Continues
Search for “Russian hacking” and you’ll see a multitude of talking heads yammering on about the “terrible” Russians. Yet what precisely is the proof? According to this new article in Wired magazine, there’s nothing:
In terms of proving the core claim that Russia hacked American political targets, though, Friday’s report is sure to leave any skeptic not privy to classified briefings briefings unconvinced: It fails to include even the already public evidence visible to the cybersecurity community over the last six months, which drew a thick dotted line from the DNC hack to the Kremlin. A hacker calling himself Guccifer 2.0, for instance, in June claimed to be a lone Romanian hacker responsible for the breach. But the stolen DNC files he published on the web–and also said he’d leaked to WikiLeaks–contained telltale Russian-language error messages. A piece of malware known as X-Agent was used in both the DNC hack and previous attacks long believed to be Russian intelligence operations. And an analysis of the URL shortening service used by the hacker who stole the Gmail password of Clinton staffer John Podesta shows that the same account was used to target more than 5,000 other Gmail accounts, including Russia-focused journalists and authors, and the spouses of American military officials.
Related: John Batchelor and Stephen F. Cohen have an ongoing discussion about all things Russian. Here’s a transcript of the latest segment.
Update: Well worth a watch:
h/t Alan