JamesSavik

Gay marriage in the South is as useful as a bicycle would be to a fish. What good is it when you get fired from your job and your lease is terminated? Sure you are now married but, unemployed and homeless. That's so much better! With no anti-discrimination protection, you might as well wear a t-shirt that says f*ck me over.

It's 1984. Summer. Hot as hell. It's you, me and the Z-car. It's midnight. I am the one your mother warned you about.

Please keep in mind that the Wright brothers first flight was in 1903- a little more than 100 years ago. Computers appeared in numbers in the 1950s. The Internet ~ 1990. Never say never. We humans can be remarkably dumb in some ways but, we innovate like crazy. We don't know what we will come up with in the next six months, year, 10 years, 50 years, 100 years, and so on. What we can be sure of is that there will be innovation and we have no idea what shape or form that innovation will take.

*Purrs*

Thanks guys-

The problem with wind and solar power- and any credible engineer will back me on this- is that the power produced is inconsistent. It simply can't create a reliable base line of power that you need to build a power grid when it's dark and the wind isn't blowing. Geothermal power has that potential but Obama's backers didn't invest in it so it is being overlooked. That seems to be the acid test on which alternative energy methods is getting the federal billions.

Keep in mind when they say earth-like, they mean rocky and relatively the same size. Past that point, anything goes. It could be an iceberg, another Venus or have no atmosphere at all.

The entire history of nuclear technology can be summed up into leaping before we looked. As I am an engineer, I'm much less a candidate for getting my crank yanked. I've been following the Fukashima disaster since it's very first hours. What happened was basically very simple- the power that ran the cooling system failed. The consequences were anything but simple. A more precise and detailed account of what happened would take volumes and some of it would be pure conjecture because the events were so radioactive that not even drones or remote sensors would have survived to offer readings. We can't just turn them off. We can't even figure out how to clean them up. What we have to do is find a replacement that doesn't offer the same or even worse risks and environmental costs. What has to happen is to leave Uranium behind as nuclear fuel. The best candidate replace it is Thorium. If a different set of decisions had been made in the fifties, we wouldn't have this problem now.

These mutant daisies are appearing around the wreak of the Fukashima Daiichi power station. In March 2011 Japan was struck by a massive 9.0 quake. The Fukashina (BWR) boiling water reactors survived the earthquakes- one of the most massive in world history. The reactors scrammed and shut down- everything was working as it was supposed to until a massive tsunami struck the plant and wiped out the plants emergency power supply. Without power, the reactor cooling systems failed and the radiation and temperature in the reactor cores soared. Water got so hot that the oxygen and hydrogen separated and accumulated to dangerous levels and eventually exploded. One by one reactors 1 through 4 were destroyed by run-away nuclear reactions releasing massive amounts of radiation. It's been over four years and no one, NO ONE has a clue how to clean up the site. TEPCO's plan, the operating company, most optimistic plan takes forty years and requires that new technology be developed. The Fukashima disaster is not over. It won't be for a very long time. In fact, it is constantly leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. Many people would point at Fukashima as a reason why nuclear power should go. I think this needs a qualifier: nuclear power in its current form should go. Today's nuclear plants are based on the Uranium fuel cycle. It messy, very radioactive and creates tons of highly radioactive waste that we have no idea what to do with. Why Uranium? In the 1950s when the USSR and the United States were designing the first commercial nuclear power plants there were two main directions that they could have turned: Uranium or Thorium. The reason that the decision was made to pursue Uranium based designs is that it supported the nuclear weapons arsenals that both sides in the Cold War were building. By having those reactors available, they could be modified to create the highly enriched Uranium that was required for nuclear weapons. Uranium based reactors were fairly easy to design and build. The fuel was easily refined but there were serious drawbacks. They create a lot of radioactive wastes. The early designs were dangerous. The biggest problem is that while there is a high level of safety and reliability, when things go wrong, they go wrong in a very big way. The Thorium Question? With our energy and environmental problems, nuclear power supplies 20% of the American power grid. We are not in a position where we can simply turn them off and call it a day. Nothing that we know of offers the bang for the buck and doesn't create massive amounts of CO2 emissions. We are between a rock and a hard place. We can NOT go forward with Uranium plants. They are just too dangerous. So.. we have to take a long look at Thorium based reactors. Everything about the Thorium fuel cycle is different. Thorium burns cleaner, doesn't create nearly as much waste and the reactor designs are much safer. Furthermore- Thorium can not be weaponized. Prototype Thorium reactors are operating in China, India and the United States and all signs are that over the next decade production reactors will be available to replace the aging Uranium based reactors that are being decommissioned. It won't happen overnight but expect to see our legacy of dangerous Cold War legacy reactors going the way of modems and floppy disks. We no longer need thousands of nuclear weapons, nor do we need the infrastructure to build more. It's time to put the evil genie of Uranium based nuclear power back in the bottle forever.

I flew from Portland, OR to Dallas, TX (4 1/2 hours), layover 4 hours in Texas heat, plane delayed 2 more hours, Dallas, TX to JAN 1 hour in the air. Yes. I am very funky!

You kids will grow up knowing the faces of all the planets. I had to wait

The founder of Santaria Springs is well deserving of a special salute. BTW- Todays stories at the Dog House are great. Boomer and A Funny Thing Happened are well worth the trip to the The Doghouse for a read!

Missed you guy. Good to see you back Eric. I know what you mean about dealing with government idjits. There must be an IQ limit on some goverenment jobs.

Might as well get the right jam for this post.

Yo! Darned if I know where he'll fit.

GayAuthors is a GLOBAL web site. There are people here from everywhere, except for Antarctica. Who knows- we might even have a penguin or two. We literally have people from New York and New Delhi. Philly and the Philippines. Mississippi and Manitoba. Alberta and Albuquerque. I could go on but my onomatopoeia/geography skills only go so far. It would be an absolute miracle if we didn't have any culture clashes. I know that I've been guilty of that myself from time to time. Anyone that has been here for a while has seen me mellow out from a hot-headed red-neck to... just a red neck. Please practice tolerance. I know it's easy to get mad and fly off the handle. Goodness knows I'm as guilty of that as the next guy. We've got a pretty special community here. It's another not-so-small miracle that we get along as well as we do. Young, old, whatever race, whatever country- we all have a lot more in common than we have differences. There are more than enough people that will go out of their way to be unkind to us. It benefits us all to be good to each other. Look past those differences because we need that community. For many isolated GLBTi people in unfriendly places, it is their lifeline. It is their view of a larger more inclusive world. [this post copied to blog to keep it from aging off]

GayAuthors is a GLOBAL web site. There are people here from everywhere, except for Antarctica. Who knows- we might even have a penguin or two. We literally have people from New York and New Delhi. Philly and the Philippines. Mississippi and Manitoba. Alberta and Albuquerque. I could go on but my onomatopoeia/geography skills only go so far. It would be an absolute miracle if we didn't have any culture clashes. I know that I've been guilty of that myself from time to time. Anyone that has been here for a while has seen me mellow out from a hot-headed red-neck to... just a red neck. Please practice tolerance. I know it's easy to get mad and fly off the handle. Goodness knows I'm as guilty of that as the next guy. We've got a pretty special community here. It's another not-so-small miracle that we get along as well as we do. Young, old, whatever race, whatever country- we all have a lot more in common than we have differences. There are more than enough people that will go out of their way to be unkind to us. It benefits us all to be good to each other. Look past those differences because we need that community. For many isolated GLBTi people in unfriendly places, it is their lifeline. It is their view of a larger more inclusive world.

One of my cats hopped in my lap... and barfed. Lap barfing is pretty bad but regurgitated deer crap- that's pretty epic. It would be pretty hard to beat blake_logan

Happy birthday Billy! Can't wait for more of Sammy Day and The Field of Love!

Hate it. It has it's origins in prison. It refers to a small inmate who is terrified and used for sex by other inmates. In society it is like calling someone a little faggit whore.

Please note who didn't pile on and urged others to be nice.

Spring Break 1983 Three college kids facing serious drug charges have a chance to clear their records. All they have to do is drive to Houston, pick up a load of drugs from some serious bad boys and, deliver them to the #1 guy in their college town. Sounds simple. Living through it might get complicated. Drive fast, run smart or die badly. Staring: JD Chris & Cole "Black Beauty" Coming to GA August 2015.

This is General Robert E. Lee. He was the South's top General and had a brilliant record on the battlefield. Lee was a gentleman. He was quite civilized and not to leave a trail of horrible battlefield atrocities. He was well thought of on both sides of the lines. He actually went to West Point with many of the Northern generals and considered them friends. Recently when the furor over the state flags that took some of the symbols of confederate flags, I decided to read up on Robert E. Lee. Unfortunately many people have taken the position that anyone that had anything to do with the Confederacy was a monster or just plain evil by default. I would like to remind these people that it was a very different time. Slavery was a institution that was very literally biblical. Very few people saw the citizens of other countries as equals, much less members of other races. To judge them by current attitudes and prejudices is just plain ignorant. It may be how the half-wit academicians in your college teach history but, I would submit that they have their head up their ass. Let's consider the end of the Civil War. The South, once rich and fertile, was devastated. Cities and farms were burned. Railroads destroyed, bridges down and ferries burned. Generations of work were destroyed. In Mississippi 1/5th of the 1st budget for the reorganized state went to purchase artificial limbs for maimed soldiers. The complete disruption and displacement of people caused by the war killed 40% of the entire states population. Starvation and disease was rampant. There were people that wanted to continue the fight. They wanted to resist the occupation and make it a ongoing, bloody quagmire. General Lee went on a tour of the South where he was a strong and consistent voice for reconciliation despite the North's humiliating occupation. These are some of the things he said to the crowds of people who were begging him to lead them to freedom: Madam, don't bring up your sons to detest the United States government. Recollect that we form one country now. Abandon all these local animosities, and make your sons Americans. We must forgive our enemies. I can truly say that not a day has passed since the war began that I have not prayed for them. I think it wisest not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the example of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered. When asked by a woman on what she should do with a Confederate flag after the end of the American Civil War, he said quite simply: Fold it up and put it away. When you study people with an open mind, they will astonish you. Lee is not politically correct or considered a great man outside the South. In fact he is probably a great American hero. Had he been a different person, he could have easily turned the South into a long bloody quagmire of occupation. Our history may have been very different had this man and others not taken up the banner of national reconciliation. From what I've learned and, being a person of good conscious I have changed my mind on the confederate flag. Perhaps it is time as Lee suggested to Fold it up and put it away.

Justice Scalia delivers his dissent to the landmark ruling on Gay Marriage.