Deliver Us From Evil
Back in the days before political correctness, the physicist JBS Haldane said, “the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose.” Political scientists can probably say the same thing. The Washington Post reports that “tunnels between Gaza and Egypt are back in business since cease-fire”. Since an Israeli spokesman has said that future peace depends on preventing Hamas from re-supplying itself with rockets, the possibility of it re-arming may be cause for alarm. And you thought ceasefires were about “breaking the cycle of violence”.
“Our expectation of Egypt, and the rest of the international community, is to stop Hamas from rearming,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Netanyahu. “We believe they came out of this latest round significantly depleted in terms of rockets and missiles. The way to prevent a future round is to prevent their ability to rearm.”
Manwhile, the online hacker group Anonymous has announced it will release emails indicating “Iran and Syria are supplying weapons made in Ukraine and Belarus to the Palestinian group Hamas”.
On Monday at 2030 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), ‘Par:AnoIA,’ one of many Twitter accounts connected to Anonymous, stated that the group would “release a stash of Syrian Government emails in the next 24h, featuring Kofi Annan correspondence, cash & weapon deliveries.” Three hours later the same user announced a leak of “1 Gigabyte [of] internal emails from [the] Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs” onto the internet.
The first email leaked was called a “teaser”, from the Syrian embassy in Tehran on November 20, to the British embassy in Belarus. In the communique, the embassy confirms the Iranians are supplying helicopters and Ukrainian made weapons to Hamas, which operates mostly from the Gaza Strip in Palestine. “1.2D projectiles of Ukraine origin found in Egypt and Syria” are some of the weapons being sent to Palestine along with “EC725 Helicopters”.
Where the EC725 helicopters might operate from and what they might do is a mystery. We are probably too stupid to figure it out. Anonymous had previously released a leaked boast by the Syrian government boasting that they could easily dupe American audiences in an Assad interview with Barbara Walters. “The American audience doesn’t really care about reforms. They won’t understand it and they are not interested to do so…. American Psyche can be easily manipulated when they hear that there are ‘mistakes’ done and now we are ‘fixing it.’ …”
It’s too bad that the public cares so little about the workings of the world. Beneath the superficial currents of the news narrative a remarkably complex set of memes is in constant interplay. They are the spirits of the modern world. Hatreds, greeds, dreams are perhaps the real drivers of world. In days past the public called them the whispers of angels and demons. Nowadays we refer to them as ‘talking points’. But maybe they are the same thing.
The normal incuriosity of the public has been shattered by news that America is building a super-secret facility for Israel called site 911. The Washington Post muses aloud about its purpose:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to supervise construction of a five-story underground facility for an Israel Defense Forces complex, oddly named “Site 911,” at an Israeli Air Force base near Tel Aviv.
Expected to take more than two years to build, at a cost of up to $100 million, the facility is to have classrooms on Level 1, an auditorium on Level 3, a laboratory, shock-resistant doors, protection from nonionizing radiation and very tight security. Clearances will be required for all construction workers, guards will be at the fence and barriers will separate it from the rest of the base.
And then comes a moment of cognitive dissonance.
Security concerns are so great that non-Israeli employees hired by the builder can come only from “the U.S., Canada, Western Europe countries, Poland, Moldavia, Thailand, Philippines, Venezuela, Romania and China,” according to the Corps notice. “The employment of Palestinians is also forbidden,” it says.
What could be so secret that it can be remotely risked to Filipinos, Chinese and Thais, but not to Palestinians? There’s a head-scratcher for you. But if you inhabit a world where the physical is ruled by the ideational then there may be an answer.
The Corps offered a lengthy description of the mezuzas the contractor is to provide “for each door or opening exclusive of toilets or shower rooms” in the Site 911 building. A mezuza (also spelled mezuzah) is a parchment which has been inscribed with Hebrew verses from the Torah, placed in a case and attached to a door frame of a Jewish family’s house as a sign of faith. Some interpret Jewish law as requiring — as in this case — that a mezuza be attached to every door in a house. …
What’s the purpose of Site 911?
Mystery on mystery. Only the other day National Public Radio reported that North Korea had found the “unicorn’s lair”. How do they know? “A rectangular rock carved with words “Unicorn Lair” stands in front of the lair. ” Yes, “the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose.”
Belloq: You and I are very much alike. Archaeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the purer faith. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me, to push you out of the light.
Jones: Now you’re getting nasty.
Belloq: You know it’s true. How nice. Look at this. [holds out a pocket watch.] It’s worthless. Ten dollars from a vendor in the street. But I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years, it becomes priceless…like the Ark. Men will kill for it. Men like you and me.
Jones: What about your boss, der Führer? I thought he was waiting to take possession.
Belloq: All in good time. When I am finished with it. Jones, do you realize what the Ark is? It’s a transmitter. It’s a radio for speaking to God. And it’s within my reach.
You wish.
The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99
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Do unicorns really have lairs?
Are stallions horned but not the mares?
When boarding arks, they go in pairs?
The answers are not known
Are emails secret and secure?
As secret as behind closed door?
Does anybody know for sure?
Anonymous has shown
That secrets are things of the past
When emails to the winds are cast
That everything is known real fast
And then your cover’s blown
The universe is surely queer
What e’re you say someone will hear
So whisper secrets close and near
Not email or the phone
Well, sothe ceasefire is a sham and a delusion, and Hamas is taking the opportunity to reload and get ready for the next round? Does it not seem odd that Israel is expected to basically tolerate attacks on her cities at the whim of the palestiinians and do nothing to prevent it? Why, exactly, are only Western countries expected to show restraint in response to acts of total war?
The ceasefire is only a sham and a delusion to those who do not understand what a hudna is.
Two years to build the 911 site? Does anyone else remember the US Embassy in the USSR that was loaded with spying equipment and microwave radiation devices that made everyone sick? Or perhaps the designation of 911 — one can interpret it as the call numbers for telephone emergencies or as a reference to September 11 — indicates that Israel will be in need of emergency services soon. And if the Washington Post is writing about it, how secure can it be?
I am rereading Michael Oren’s magnificent “Six Days of War.” It is convincing me that war is as close to inevitable as human events permit and that it will probably come by April.
Despite all the huffing and puffing, Iran’s nuclear capability won’t be available for a few years. The Project will beat the Iranian timetable.
Hi Wretchard! How does one get a signed copy of No Way In?
What’s the deal with the video?
I think that it’s vanishingly probable that the generals mentioned in the beginning were sending their emails/IMs/whatever over purely commercial lines. If you send your sh*t over military command links, someone had better be looking at it.
The Mezuzahs shall be proof-read by a computer at an authorized institution for Mezuzah inspection …”
God moves in mysterious but ultimately computable ways.
When the United Nincompoops (UN) agrees that a group of ‘people’ can claim a history that is provably a sham is a ‘nation’ and the Uninformed Sillys Amalgamated (USA) can ‘elect’ a person who has shown no demonstrable ablity to lead, except with his behind.
Perhaps, having the protection of a Mezuzah, is the only thing that will save us.
“Hear, O Israel, the LORD our G-d, the LORD is One”
Where Will It End
So, who cares? We have arrived at a point where having an accurate perception of the world matters not a whit. Syria and Iran are arming Hamas? Anyone who had eyes to see has either known that for years or simply does not wish to know.
Reasoned argument is no longer part of the game. The game now is simply power–what can one get away with, and for how long?
But what of Morsi’s promised $4.8 Bil negotiating payoff? I’m sure our Dear Leader will figure out an excuse to still give it to him, and mebbe a little extra for being such a good muslim.
W…
I thought it might be obvious: it’s for the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Hence, the priorities: classrooms and auditorium. The treasure vault of antiquities will lie below. Naturally, no degradation due to ‘non-ionizing radiation’ can be permitted, either.
The workforce includes every significant ex-patriot construction community that is not muslim.
It has absolutely nothing to do with Israeli national defense.
What concerns the Israelis is hazards to the these and other antiquities due to the ‘memory hole ideology’ of the Wahhabists and other Salafists.
It’s a perfect fit for an IDF airbase because it can be tucked underneath an airspace that is otherwise is un-commercial.
Base security will handle routine matters at zero incremental cost. Further, the airbase will, at all times, provide an ABM defense, again, at zero incremental cost.
It’s a perfect fit.
And, of course, the 911 reference was for American ‘consumption’ and Congressional funding.
It must be obvious that Israel is never going to permit the Dead Sea Scrolls to leave the country.
911 is but is a subliminal message: in a world where muslim atrocities against culture can happen at any time — we must save our most significant possessions.
@blert- very plausible- that’s a good thought. Keeps the DSS secure in IL where they belong, but secure from the Mohammedans’ inevitable attempt to re-write irrefutable Jewish history.
Blert # 11 Bingo !
12. Earl – Mohammedans’ inevitable attempt to re-write irrefutable Jewish history.
just one example
Grandpa Abraham HIJACKED: Protect Hebron, City of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NHONqLXwdhU
My first thought was the Ark, rumored be in Ethiopia. But then that would have turned the Belmont Club into tin foil hat site, so I suppressed it. Too ridiculous right. Since you’ve volunteered the Dead Sea Scrolls, let’s go with that.
But then what is truly crazy any more? The world may be stranger than we think.
NASA is planning more coverups tomorrow. Instead of revealing Mars’ pyramids to everyone, they are distracting people with soil discoveries. This could be related to things in the Middle East.
It seems like war is coming to a theater near you,
despite all the attempts at appeasing the ‘religion of peace™’.
Let’s Hope that there is enough room in the Ark for all of us, exact fare please, no Change available.
Where Will It End
Wretchard, for what it’s worth:
Graham Hancock wrote a book in 1992 called the “Sign and the Seal” in which he makes a somewhat convincing case that the Ark is housed in a Christian Church/ temple in Axum, Ethiopia. He also makes it clear that only the most pure of heart ( meaning almost no one) can approach the Ark without being obliterated, and that it is not to be trifled with at all. It is guarded according to him, ( with pictures ) by a lone, specifically selected then nearly blind priest/caretaker.
I thought that everyone’s private information was stored in Hillary’s closet.
There was a Sci Fi story, if anyone can provide particulars please enlighten us, where there were millions of surveillance cameras recording everyone and booths like photo booths in a mall scattered around that you could enter and for some nominal sum watch a random sample of the imagery connected with your file. The display was prefaced by a statement that “There is a 99.99+% probability that no human being has ever seen this imagery” or words to that effect. Confirming that the data was innocuous and had not been used was supposed to be reassuring.
The question is why make the facility accessible to a Venezuelan? Is there some special expert that is being included? Are Aussies and Japanese really excluded?
Israel needs to arrange a “special delivery,” or several that detonate inside the tunnels at the same time. Israel cannot and must not trust Obama or anything connected with him.
Slightly Off or On Topic. I just picked up at The Strand “The Great Lie: Classic and Recent Appraisals of Ideology and Totalitarianism” F. Flagg Taylor IV editor, ISI 2011.
ISBN: 978-1-935191-36-0
It looks promising. From the introduction, pg xi:
Sorry, mission failure. I just spent 3 hours and $75 on Readris attempting to make my HP scanner useful so that I could deliver one fine quote. Go look it up yourself.
Maybe the team which has been given the unofficial nod contains precisely that mix of nationalities. And they are constraining it to ensure that the team doesn’t change.
And anyway, since we are ranging into the fantastic speculation here, then let me don my tinfoil hat and speculate that whatever is to occur in Site 911 was located in an airbase so that it can be flown out and flown securely from a related 911 facility in the United States.
Of course you could argue that if it is the Ark, then in order to prevent its capture again it is located in what appears to be a last redoubt in the Negev, so there is probably a dedicated aircraft assigned to flying it out if Israel is overrun again to some remnant of the faithful in some part of the world.
And then again, the ionizing radiation is associated with changes to DNA. If you wanted to control radiation, it might be because you wanted to prevent accidental changes to something. Is there a biological research facility down there? Maybe it’s not Raiders, but the Andromeda File.
Do I really believe in any of that? Not really. But either the truth is far more prosaic than that or far more unbelievable; for it seems to have that kind of bimodalism.
And what’s wrong with tin-foil hats? As long as you don’t think they keep the UFO radiation away from your brain …
They entirely rule out workers from Barsoom, Tatooine, and Narnia?
W – maybe the Air Force is using the Super Guppy for a ‘arc du triomphe’
NASA’s Super Guppy is headed our way today
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/nasas-super-guppy-headed-special-delivery/
looks big enough to carry a whole bunch of flying squirrels, rocky.
But the real question is:
Where Will It End
p.s.
thanks for the preview function,
for those of us who are digitally challenged it avoids embarrassment.
Too bad teh other PJM blogs don’t incorporate it
“it is queerer than we can suppose.” Something like our generals taking orders from their privates.
All I know is God gave that land to the Jews and He told them to kick everybody else out of it. Don’t marry them, don’t worship their gods, bring me their foreskins and if you don’t do what I am telling you to do you are going to find yourself in a world of sh*t and I ain’t going to be happy. Ask Pharaoh how things go when I am in a bad mood. No stop screwing around and ge kill some Philistines and bring me their privates.
I am a christian. I believe in a new covenant but it is not all that clear to me that the Big Guy ever repealed the old one as far as the Jews are concerned and I am not sure screwing around negotiating with Palestinians isn’t going to just plain honk Him off. But what do I know. The world is a strange place. Heck we have a Secretary of Defense who is afraid to talk to his own troops if they are armed.
Here is my theory – the Israelis are finally going to get right with God and aren’t interested in heading to Babylon again they need someplace to store all those foreskins they need to collect.
@#19 Blast From the Past
I’m going to assume the quote you want is contained in this passage.
Probably the most important technological news is that an international team working out of Australia has finally cracked the nut on desert farming using desalinized water.
………………..
Growing food in the desert: is this the solution to the world’s food crisis?
Philipp Saumweber is creating a miracle in the barren Australian outback, growing tonnes of fresh food.
Jonathan Margolis
The Observer, Saturday 24 November 2012 16.00 EST
…………
The scrubby desert outside Port Augusta, three hours from Adelaide, is not the kind of countryside you see in Australian tourist brochures. The backdrop to an area of coal-fired power stations, lead smelting and mining, the coastal landscape is spiked with saltbush that can live on a trickle of brackish seawater seeping up through the arid soil. Poisonous king brown snakes, redback spiders, the odd kangaroo and emu are seen occasionally, flies constantly. When the local landowners who graze a few sheep here get a chance to sell some of this crummy real estate they jump at it, even for bottom dollar, because the only real natural resource in these parts is sunshine.
Which makes it all the more remarkable that a group of young brains from Europe, Asia and north America, led by a 33-year-old German former Goldman Sachs banker but inspired by a London theatre lighting engineer of 62, have bought a sizeable lump of this unpromising outback territory and built on it an experimental greenhouse which holds the seemingly realistic promise of solving the world’s food problems.
Indeed, the work that Sundrop Farms, as they call themselves, are doing in South Australia, and just starting up in Qatar, is beyond the experimental stage. They appear to have pulled off the ultimate something-from-nothing agricultural feat – using the sun to desalinate seawater for irrigation and to heat and cool greenhouses as required, and thence cheaply grow high-quality, pesticide-free vegetables year-round in commercial quantities.
So far, the company has grown tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers by the tonne, but the same, proven technology is now almost ready to be extended to magic out, as if from thin air, unlimited quantities of many more crops – and even protein foods such as fish and chicken – but still using no fresh water and close to zero fossil fuels. Salty seawater, it hardly needs explaining, is free in every way and abundant – rather too abundant these days, as our ice caps melt away.
So well has Sundrop’s 18-month project worked that investors and supermarket chains have lately been scurrying down to Port Augusta, making it hard to get a room in its few motels, or a table at the curry restaurant in the local pub. Academic agriculturalists, mainstream politicians and green activists are falling over each other to champion Sundrop. And the company’s scientists, entrepreneurs and investors are about to start building an £8m, 20-acre greenhouse – 40 times bigger than the current one – which will produce 2.8m kg of tomatoes and 1.2m kg of peppers a year for supermarkets now clamouring for an exclusive contract.
It’s an inspiring project, more important, it could be argued, than anything else going on in the world. Agriculture uses 60-80% of the planet’s scarce fresh water, so food production that uses none at all is nothing short of miraculous.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/24/growing-food-in-the-desert-crisis
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-16/solar-greenhouse-outback-desalination/3952090
Here is how Al Jazeera reports it.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/earthrise/2012/04/2012420154516315530.html
The Big Guy never did repeal the old covenant, at least according to Jesus, who was an observant Jew himself.
Favorite part of Indy’s wonderful exchange with Belloq:
Belloq: How odd that it should end this way for us after so many stimulating encounters. I almost regret it. Where shall I find a new adversary so close to my own level?
Jones: Try the local sewer.
Indiana Jones always held a dear human element, standing as he did at the interection of faith and science. He reserved a healthy amount of scepticism for both. It saved him in the end, during Raiders, when he directed Miriam to cast her eyes away from Belloq’s sham ritual. And in the Last Crusade, facing the trials of the Holy Grail, a reluctant chore, he was under intellecutal stress for the whole endeavor. At pains to make the leap of faith, successfully, he wound up saving his skin via reason in choosing the right Grail.
What a couple marvellous movies those two are, Raiders and the Last Crusade. Two of the best films Hollywood’s ever put together.
Walt@1 with apologies
Wahhabi, wasabi they both get up your nose.
Truth has become whatever we suppose.
Email and telephones can’t keep a secret.
Those dingbat devices can only leak it.
But when surveillance turns into a flood,
the final product is a bucket of mud.
A million narratives fill the air.
Each one to truth makes a brazen dare.
The way to sift narratives for sense,
is to look for empirical evidence.
Blert & others:
Non-ionizing radiation is radiation that does not have enough energy to strip electrons from atoms, i.e., everything up to the top of the visible spectrum: radio, microwave, infrared, visible light. While some of it would have some effects on humans and antiquities, “protection from nonionizing radiation” in the WaPo article most likely refers to protection against interference with/damage to electronic equipment. Indeed, the main purpose is probably to keep the place running through an EMP.
@20 Wretchard
And then again, the ionizing radiation is associated with changes to DNA.
That’s true, but you quoted the article as saying that there would be protection against non-ionizing radiation.
Those Israeli haters who know what a hudna is, proclaim it to be a cease-fire, knowing it is just a hudna. Those, ignorant of what a hudna is, proclaim it to be a cease-fire and believe that it is.
The current reality is that one can attack Israel with impunity; but Israel, if it dare defend itself, is savaged mercilessly.
As the lies grow ever fast and furiously (with the clown prince of Ankara leading the estimable pack).
The consequences of these vectors should be pretty obvious.
Keeping in mind that the worst are “full of fearful intensity” (etc.)
The political theater and posing is as sickeningly shameless as it is rampant. One wonders if there will be a deus ex machina and if so, what form it might take.
We are indeed living in interesting times.
geoffb 26,
Thank you. That passage is so perfect that it might destroy this blog by concluding half of our debates. Perhaps we should refer to “Taylor IV-Kolalowski-Furet” by shorthand, as we do the “Three Conjectures.”
Charles, 27
From “The Space Merchants” by Frederik Pohl w/C.M. Kornbluth,
Building greenhouses only frustrates and humiliates the Palestinians. The UN should step in and Do Something.
The real issue of course is, when will the US stop arming its terrorist proxy, Israel?
The Times of Israel ran an interesting story last week on the construction and use of safe rooms in Israeli residences.
“As the threat of chemical warfare grew over the next 20 years, the Home Front Command switched its preference from basement bomb shelters or sealed rooms to elevated protected spaces. Each new building was required to have a safe room, or mamad, the acronym for merhav mugan dirati, built from reinforced concrete with a heavy, sealed window and steel vault-like door that can protect those inside from the blast of rockets.
Residential buildings built in the last 20 years now have either mamaks – merhav mugan komati — safe rooms for each floor, or mamads built in each apartment, usually one on top of the other, creating a core of safe rooms in the building. In older buildings, owners can create fortified rooms, reinforcing a standard room with 12 centimeters of concrete and adding a specialized steel door and window and a reinforced ceiling. Another, cheaper, option that can be built according to government code is a steel cage in an existing room, covered by another layer of cement. And for those lacking a safe room or bomb shelter, there’s always the stairwell, usually cast in concrete and surrounded by pillars that keep the building standing, making it the safest place in the building.”
I thought it was interesting that elevated spaces are preferred. Instinct is always to go to ground. Chemical weapon gas being heavier than air is the reason I suppose.
But what about nuclear fallout? What is the best floor to be on if that happens?
There was a popular poster back in the 1970s. It looked like one of the official Civil Defense notices and gave instructions on what to do in case of nuclear attack. It went something like this:
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE
———————
INSTRUCTIONS FOR CIVIL DEFENCE.
ON HEARING THE FIRST WARNING:
1. PROCEED TO THE NEAREST BUILDING.
2. STAY AWAY FROM LOOSE OBJECTS, AND DROP ALL GLASSES, BOOKS ETC. IN
YOUR HANDS.
3. REMOVE SHARP OBJECTS, SUCH AS PENCILS AND KEYS, FROM YOUR POCKETS.
4. LOOSEN YOUR NECKTIE, UNBUTTON YOUR COAT AND REMOVE RESTRICTIVE
ARTICLES OF CLOTHING.
5. REMOVE EYEGLASSES, EARRINGS, WATCHES AND OTHER JEWELRY.
6. UPON SEEING THE BRILLIANT FLASH OF A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION, BEND OVER
AND PLACE YOUR HEAD FIRMLY BETWEEN YOUR LEGS.
7. THEN KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE.
“If you wanted to control radiation, it might be because you wanted to prevent accidental changes to something.”
I’ll take tin-hat, but if they are anything like the ass-hats in DC then it is probably being designed to hold members of the Knesset during a heightened alert along with all of their favorite goodies, chattel it all with the means to take it with them. Is that cynical enough to be probable?
911 was not only a strike at the symbolism of the US, it was a strike at the heart of capitalism and a capital strike all in one. It is ironic that the crypto Muslim in the WH is finishing Bin Laden’s’ work after having eliminated him. Take down GWB for fighting back then finish off capitalism by first destroying wealth (redistributing).
All you have to do is increase spending exponentially while buying off the little voters. Marching into the glorious future of decrepit old communists.
c @ 27: Sundrop Farms
Lovely but dubious, did you read the entire article? It’s some guys building greenhouses, with some solar collectors in the system, not exactly news.
g @ 26: “This is the great cognitive triumph of totalitarianism: it
can no longer be accused of lying, because it has succeeded in abrogating
the very idea of truth.”;
That is the core of the Obamanation, they can’t even make statements that are coherent from start to end of a single paragraph, their numbers never come close to adding up, and the press is entirely fawning and credulous, the public entirely uncurious. On the other hand, the Republiclipse has completely forgotten how to argue a point (if they ever knew) other than to stand up and offer to build a bridge to the past. That doesn’t sell until things are obviously and blatantly a disaster, which apparently mere bad numbers and lies are not.
38. Josh
c @ 27: Sundrop Farms
Lovely but dubious, did you read the entire article? It’s some guys building greenhouses, with some solar collectors in the system, not exactly news.
……………
True. The news is that they have rationalized the process. Meaning they have made it economical replicable and scalable.
That’s the big thing. Same goes for Joule mentioned above. Joule is already looking for places around the world to site their tech. Any place that works for Joule will work for Sundrop. It looks like Sundrops tech will be integral to making Qatar food independent in 15 years or so.
“It looks like Sundrops tech will be integral to making Qatar food independent in 15 years or so.”
That ought to save some money. 95% of people who actually work there are foreign labor. The lunch and carryout bill alone must be tremendous. Just give them some greenhouses and hire more workers to feed the workers.
I was thinking about the next time the Emir of Qatar shows up in Gaza to discuss this exciting technology.
Emir:…so you see all of the poverty issues you are facing we could help by buying these new greenhouses and you could have more than enough food.
Haniya: So the greenhouses have some sort of retractable roof so we could fire the missiles yes? Clever.
Emir: Well no they are not missile launchers exactly…
Haniya: Oh, I understand. We could use them for factories for making missiles and put around a few tomato plants to fool the Israelis.
Emir: These are just for growing food.
Haniya: I am afaraid I do not understand.
(awkward silence)
Emir: (gets out checkbook) How much did you say the missiles cost again?
40. spindok
It gets stupider. The Muslim Brotherhood was originally an organization of science professionals dedicated to bringing scientific methods to the moslem world. Instead they have become coopted by the saudi Hajji interests aka the salafits–which are mostly anti science.
A similar co-option occcured when Greenpeace was taken over by the communists.
The Israelis won’t be confused like the Gazans. If the biofuel and greenhouse model pencils as promised — the Israelis will have them on land just as they’ll have oil and gas wells at sea.
A lot of the stuff from the middle east — like the democrat party–is just conjuring. The real work takes place off stage.
Deliver Us From Evil
In thirty minutes or less,
Or your pizza is free!
Sorry, but that just keeps popping to mind on reading the title.
And it seems to fit my view of modern politics – nobody has any insight or attention span beyond the immediate, and a few basic hungers, and a greasy if briefly enjoyable solution you can put on a credit card.
c @ 39: The news is that they have rationalized the process.
Packaged, more like. As spindok says, greenhouses work in Gaza, if you’re Jewish. Then the Arabs come, do their Krystallnacht impression, and no more tomatoes, I guess the sun must stop shining or something. Greenhouses work in Baja, growing produce for Los Angeles. Anyway no reason they shouldn’t work in Port Augusta given cheap land, lots of sunshine, and free volunteer labor because it’s Green.
But what I wanted to SAY about this and keep forgetting is what I’ve posted here several times before: desalination is perhaps *the* optimal use for solar (and wind) energy as you can do a lot of it when the sun shines (wind blows) and store the product with minimal difficulty and generally back it up with a conventional system at low cost (low system cost, higher operational cost if you need to run it). Hey it’s only been the established system for life on Earth for three billion years: plants grow when the sun shines, so it’s too late to patent it.
Charles @ 27: That is an interesting article. Inspires one to think of other ways to separate the wealthy far-left Grauniad reader from his ill-gotten stash. I wonder if anyone really does market “organic Palestinian olive oil” to those Brit dopes? How about this for a marketing slogan — ‘It’s Palestinian — A Real Blast!’
But turning to the serious point of the article: “Paton accuses them of abandoning sustainability in the interests of commercial greed. He is particularly distressed by the installation of a backup gas boiler to keep the crops safe if it’s cloudy for a few days.”
Ah! The old problem of intermittency; the issue that Greenies don’t like to think about. But it is real anyway — and the basic reason why most so-called ‘renewables’ will never function effectively.
The Grauniad writer is clearly one of those Londoners who has been so beaten down by dark rainy days in a grey place that his brain cannot function properly in a cheerful sunny environment like Australia. There may indeed be unoccupied places on the coast of Australia which are close to a road (necessary to market bulky low-value per pound agricultural produce). But there is astonishingly little of the coastline of Arabia (for example) which is not already occupied in some form, if not outright urbanized. And yes, there is lots of sunshine & open space in the Sahara– but precious little freely-available salt water.
If Sundrop has a stock, short it.
Today NASA chose to behave like dumb school children by further covering up their crime of not reporting Mars facts. This, while accusing my favorite country of lying about stuff… (it’s roughly the same people).
43. Kinuachdrach
I don’t really know how the Israelis do their greenhouses–whether in Gaza, the Negev or elsewhere. My guess is that they’re using groundwater. But in the future that’s likely to change. The Israelis are at the forefront of desalination technology. But involves big industrial energy intensive technology like the plant at Askelon. There more coming on-stream like that in the future. Ten years from now most of Israeli fresh water will come from desalinized water. Greenhouses have been around forever, desalination has been around for 40-50 years, but desalting greenhouses are something new. (say 5-10 years) And they’re only starting to move out of beta.
But turning to the serious point of the article: “Paton accuses them of abandoning sustainability in the interests of commercial greed. He is particularly distressed by the installation of a backup gas boiler to keep the crops safe if it’s cloudy for a few days.”
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You’ve caught the nub the article. I wrote about Paton in 2006 in my rdwaterpower blog. His company Seawater Greenhouse provided the technological base for Sundrop Farms before breaking with them because of the intermittent power problem. Sundrop suppliments their solar with oil when the days are short and the nights are cold. Patton didn’t like the oil solution because it was too …(hmm insert a green word)”unsustainable”. The beauty of inserting a Joule biofuel plant beside a Sundrop Farm…is that it closes the intermittant/sustainable gap.
The US currently is working on tech similiar to Sundrop’s at the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility in Alamogordo, N.M. but the tech is not as far along as Sundrop Farms. (If you’ll read the article you’ll notice that they say as much.
…do you realize what the Ark is? It’s a transmitter. It’s a radio for speaking to God. And it’s within my reach.
Belloq should have gone to a Catholic/Orthodox mass. A very real, useable transmitter and available to everybody in most places everyday.
Bill Jones @35, “The real issue of course is, when will the US stop arming its terrorist proxy, Israel?”
Sort of a variation of “What if they gave a war and nobody came?” The succinct answer of course is, “The other guys would kick our butts.” The notion that conflict would cease if one side laid down its arms is as fatuous and it is unrealistic. Israel may eventually be able to get by without US arms, but we should never believe that stopping aid to Israel is the way to mideast peace.
The major problem with desalination will turn out to be pollution. No need to believe me, just ask the EPA what their stance is on CO2.
48. bob
The major problem with desalination will turn out to be pollution. No need to believe me, just ask the EPA what their stance is on CO2.
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If you’re talking about left over salt. Yeah that is a problem –especially as volumes grow. I don’t think that the solution will be more morton’s salt. People can only use so much table salt. The solution rather will be to break the salt down into its constituent parts Na Cl (along with a bunch of trace elements.) and convert those into usable products. I disucuss that in detail at http://www.rdwaterpower.com/carbon-sequestration-and-desalination/watereuse-foudation-symposium/
Spindok @36…
Perhaps the Israelis have learned from British and German experiences during WWII.
Being underground is extremely hazardous since the inevitable fires from a strike destroy any hope of ventilation.
Even the Führer bunker was modified, in the final weeks, to lift its ventilation shafts way up.
Summing up: digging deep makes for very expensive building space — with a terrible track record for survival in the modern age — whereas living in castles offers some prospect of survival.
The modern safe rooms are merely classical ‘keeps’; one prominently featured in the opening scene from “Hamlet” (1948) [Olivier and Co.]
[ A quick eye can catch Richard Burton -- standing still as furniture, up next to a column -- in the opening Court scene. He has no lines. This is his beginning with Olivier & Co. ]
Charles…
Let’s just cut to the chase: any excess brine/ salt is just going to be stacked up like spoil from a South African gold mine.
Last I looked, those piles were eleven stories tall — and covered square kilometers on end.
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Beyond the early puff-pieces, no-one has ever figured out how to scale up these wonderful projects.
For starters, if they work in truly terrible climates — then better climates make them uneconomic.
The primary ‘climate’ effect that one must consider is the political climate. That means that building any greenhouses in muslim lands is not going to scale up.
For, you not only have a shortage of IQs; you have a contra-intellectual Paleolithic morality. High policy is based upon genes, and muslim doctrine.
It’s a feral climate.
Islamism will die only by the lash. Such was the fate of Nazism, Shintoism, Stalinism, and Maoism.
There can be no ‘talking them out of it.’
Such major breaks/ re-sets require massive, bloody trauma.
The staggering blood-letting to come in Syria and Iran is, hence, a feature, a trait, an inevitability.
You can’t have a mammalian re-set without a Chicxulub meteorite impact.
51. blert
Yeah, I don’t think the middle east except for Israel and maybe Qatar is positioned to be an early adapter for this technology–that as I mentioned is only just coming out of beta. Coastal US Australia and maybe Mexico are positioned to be the best early adapters for this as well as inland areas of all three areas where there is a briny aquifer. In the USA –Arizona New Mexico and southern California have large briny aquifers. New Mexico is the test bed for Joule International biofuel reactors. They’re using brine water from the aquifers there.
Agree that currently desalination salt concentrate is considered to be waste product–and large amounts of waste will be deadly. But if you’ll consult one of the desalination I provided above — you can see that in the future salt concentrate will be turned into useful products.
imho real change in the middle east will not come until the price of oil collapses. That day is less than a decade off.
Smoker @30…
Whomever drafted the spec’s may well not be as conversant with physics as you.
I rather suspect that the reference is a stipulation to block gamma rays.
The fact that highly energetic gamma rays are ionizing — did not mean that such irradiation was considered acceptable in the design.
If this is not so, then the spec makes absolutely no sense, for any trivial material is going to stop alpha and beta rays, and visible light on down to the lower frequencies.
There’s a huge underground lake of brackish water in the Western Negev by the Egyptian border near Nitzana.
It’s used to grow vegetables. Turns out that it makes some of the tastiest cherry tomatoes you’d ever want to eat.
@53. blert
Whomever drafted the spec’s may well not be as conversant with physics as you. I rather suspect that the reference is a stipulation to block gamma rays.
I don’t think it’s very likely that the person who drafted the spec made such a gross error. I’ve seen errors in technical specs, but I can’t say I recall seeing a truly gross blunder.
The fact that highly energetic gamma rays are ionizing — did not mean that such irradiation was considered acceptable in the design.
That’s true, but the gamma threat to life and artifacts is removed simply by being far enough underground and/or having material of sufficient density overhead (trade-off between thickness and density), while the EMP effect can be carried through by electrically conducting pathways (artificial or natural) from the surface. With an EMP from a nuke at high altitude, not even the electrical effects on the surface are the direct result of gamma radiation. With a nuke at low-altitude, you need a bunch of nukes to get a widespread EMP.
If this is not so, then the spec makes absolutely no sense, for any trivial material is going to stop alpha and beta rays, and visible light on down to the lower frequencies.
Not any trivial material is going to stop induced electrical currents.
I won’t swear I’m right in the entirety. I’m just pointing out some considerations that you may have missed.
Smoker…
In all ordinary circumstances, a Faraday shield would be enough to block EMP.
The original shocking discovery of the EMP effect occurred at a time and place that used old style phone lines and Edison fuses for home electric power over-current protection.
Today, the typical circuit is protected by breakers. The distribution breakers have automatic re-closers. ( Tab through the Sandy footage. You’ll see high power circuit breakers opening and re-closing three cycles. Finally, they hang open. ) This is why tree limbs falling on the typical overhead power line don’t stay tripped out. Most clear because the branch burnt up or blew away.
These provisions did not exist in the Hawaiian Islands, fifty-years ago.
So, instead of re-setting breakers at a home panel, the entire neighborhood had to head off to the store to buy out all of the spare Edison fuses. ( Remember the fuses that screw in like light bulbs? )
In contrast, for Site 911, a metallic roof — well grounded — should utterly block EMP.
This effect was first discovered by Faraday, centuries ago.
[ BTW, all precision test equipment is calibrated and re-calibrated inside special Faraday cages. Honolulu only had one non-military one in the late 1970s. It's a pricey item. Its owner had a lock on all of the DoD contracts WRT such test instruments. Typically, they had to be re-calibrated at least once a year -- and even more often if mission critical. Such gear is accurate out to 5 decimals. -- Touchy stuff. ]
EMP does NOT leak down through the wiring like dripping rain — IF you’ve established a Faraday roof/ cage.
Feel free to Google around WRT Faraday cages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage
Re 7. Josh
The Mezuzahs shall be proof-read by a computer at an authorized institution for Mezuzah inspection …”
God moves in mysterious but ultimately computable ways.
It is very common for the scrolls to be checked by computer and double checked by a person. Once the computer knows what to look for it can reliably find errors.
Re 15. wretchard
The real Ark was hidden over 2500 years ago under the Temple Mount (or in a cave elsewhere) before the Babylonians could get to it. We will know if the Palestinians dig it up because we will see souls flying around screaming and the trespassers decomposing and melting.
The ark depicted on the Arch of Titus being taken by the Romans appears to be the secondary Ark, which was taken out to war while the other Ark stayed in the Temple. [For those who read the Hebrew, see Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki on Dvarim 10:1]. I don’t know where the Romans and their successors stashed it, so it could certainly be in Ethiopia or a nondescript US warehouse.
Re 25. Joe Hill
Well, there was no expiration date stamped on the first covenant…
Come to think of it, who would want to have a relationship with any sort of a deity that would make an eternal covenant with you, and then revoke it and pick a new partner? That’s not the kind of thing you look for in a deity.
Just to point out, the Jews were allowed to let foreigners stay in Israel if they would make peace and renounce idolatry. So when the Israelis say all the Palestinians have to do to live with us here peacefully is to stop trying to murder us, that is accurate. Just give up the jihad death cult and they can live together, and the Jews will buy them a coke too.
They are already circumcised, so no need for foreskin storage. Besides, those things have stem cells that could be used for medical research.
Re 50. blert
Having been in Israel somewhat recently, you can tell how old the buildings are by the location of the bomb shelter/safe room. If there is a big bomb shelter in the basement it was built 40+ years ago, since the dangers then were bombs and shelling. Bomb shelter with air tight doors more recent, dating to when Syrian got chemical weapons. Older apartments have bomb shelters, but when people renovate they retrofit safe rooms in. New apartments have safe rooms seamlessly built in. You can’t tell it’s a safe room until you go to close the door and realize how heavy it is.