Heartland Institute revisionism corrected by Chinese

The Boulder Glacier retreated 450 m (1,480 ft) from 1987 to 2003. Click for more info on receding glaciers

The Boulder Glacier retreated 450 m (1,480 ft) from 1987 to 2003. Click for more info on receding glaciers

 

The Heartland Institute is a fossil-fuel front tasked with convincing as many people as possible to ignore their lying eyes. They were originally cooked up in 1984 to downplay the dangers of tobacco use. When last we heard from Heartland, they were for online theft before they were against it and comparing climate scientists to serial killers on public billboards. Recently Heartland bragged the Chinese were shying away from an environmental treaty because the science did not support global warming. This was so egregiously false the Chinese issued a stern correction reading in part: [Read more…]

Terrorism by the numbers

I came across this short piece in Reason Magazine online from several months ago which puts terrorism and counter-terrorism into context. It’s stark. The odds of being killed in a  terrorist attack are lottery odds or higher. What’s even scarier is how much we spend on this crap and how many rights we’ve forked over to unaccountable, secret organizations of government spooks and private, for profit, contractors: [Read more…]

We’re not getting smart


More hilarity, embarrassing for the powers that be, a warning of sloppy contractors and what looks like casual commercial spying gone amok for all. Not only could Snowden access all the stuff he’s handed over so far, he was able to get into the UK spy network and turn over evidence the Brits were actively spying, spoofing, and hacking their own allies at the G20 summit in 2009: [Read more…]

A temporary lapse of reason

Corporate America is stuck between a rock and a hard place. More accurately, between customer and service. Ultimately, any company that has a customer is in the customer service business. But few CEOs and other big wigs like to think of themselves that way. They like to think they’re developers or accountants or what have you. Besides, delivering service and supporting a complex product costs money, and cost is a four letter word. Solution? Hire temps! [Read more…]