Tag Archives: news

Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Safety Net: The Dumbest Thing I Have Ever Heard Of

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Just when I thought the powers that be in San Francisco could not get any better at wasting taxpayer dollars,  I learned that the Board of Directors for the Golden Gate Bridge today voted 14 to 1 in favor of installing 3.4 miles of netting beneath the deck of the famous bridge in order to break the fall of individuals attempting suicide.

At a cost of $50 million this now wears the crown as the single most idiotic idea to ever emerge from the city of San Francisco.

Consider that 15% of those who attempt suicide and fail will only try again within the first six months.  Now consider that this announcement is being trumpeted across the city so anyone who wants to die will only do so by another means.

So anyone who actually does jump off of the bridge now knows the net is there.  Which means of course, the volume of jumpers will now only increase as stunt jockeys and losers in general jump off the bridge in an attempt to gain attention to themselves.

This also means, of course, rescue workers will be forced to endanger themselves to untangle and retrieve these idiots from the net.  This to me represents even more wasted money and also a needless risk to some good people who are NOT trying to kill themselves.

If you really want to deter suicide, then attack the cause (like needlessly high city taxes).  There are plenty of other ways to kill oneself and we can prevent those for less than $50 million.

~Man Overboard

Nuclear Energy and the 2008 Presidential Election

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By now I’m sure we have all heard the election year colloquialisms: energy independence, climate change, renewable energy, drill here drill now, environmental stewardship, etc.

One campaign promise from one candidate leaps out at me as a sure fire way to accomplish or negate all of these.  That is the pledge made by John McCain to build 45 nuclear power plants over the next 20 years.

Now, as both a Republican and a young nuclear professional I am obviously in favor of this pledge.  But all my feelings aside, I can honestly say that this is the one pledge that actually has the potential to accomplish all of those popular colloquialisms at once.

The new Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) from General Electric has the capacity to produce 1,500 Megawatts of electricity.  Multiply this capacity by the 45 plants McCain proposes and we are looking at 67,500 Megawatts of new generating capacity in the US!

Contrary to what interveners will tell you, nuclear power is safe. Even the worst nuclear accident in United States history at Three Mile Island did not result in one single human death!  This statistic coupled with the advances in safety technology incorporated in the ESBWR makes nuclear one of the safest means of power generation available.

Also consider the fact that nuclear power is a zero-carbon energy supply.  Regardless of your stance on global warming, there can be no doubt that zero-carbon is the preferable means of generation.  Couple this with the magnitude of electrical generation that nuclear has the capacity for and you quite simply have both energy independence and environmental stewardship all in one package.

It is widely believed that Hydrogen Fuel Cells hold the key to transportation energy.  The biggest hurdle to this of course is where do we get Hydrogen?  With electricity prices so high, electrolysis from water (H2O) is not practical and hence removing the Hydrogen from Natural Gas (C2H5) is the only alternative.  The down side to this of course is your byproduct from natural gas is CO2 instead of just the pure O2 that electrolysis produces.  Nuclear generated electricity would be cheap enough to allow electrolysis to produce enough hydrogen to power the nation’s vehicles.  Not only that, but the only byproducts would be the O2 produced by the process and the steam (H2O) from the car’s exhaust.  Yet another CO2 reduction!

But what about that growing mountain of highly radioactive, long lived nuclear waste?

Mr. McCain has also pledged to both open the Yucca Mountain repository and pursue spent fuel recycling. Currently, spent nuclear fuel is stored at the plant that produced the waste.  The Yucca Mountain Repository is a multi billion-dollar project that has been long-delayed by political maneuvering and is yet to open.

Spent fuel recycling will not only provide additional energy to the cycle without further mining, but it will also reduce the burden placed on Yucca Mountain by slowing the rate at which the waste is produced.

The media has referred to Barack Obama as “lukewarm on nuclear.”  Sadly, this is a fallacy.  By refusing to open Yucca Mountain, refusing to allow spent fuel recycling, and failing to support new plant construction Mr. Obama is, by definition, anti-nuclear.  With Obama’s lack of support for each of the three issues that would allow nuclear to fulfill the nations energy demands his policy might better be described as “ice cold on nuclear.”  Obama cannot come out publicly and say this of course, for fear of exposing his inability to go against radical leftists.

Energy is at the core of nearly every major issue today.  The economy, national security, the environment: all are contingent upon meeting our growing energy demands.  Nuclear can meet those needs if our government would only allow it.

John McCain will allow it.  Barack Obama will not.  Consider this in November.

~Man Overboard

The Taliban Seek Peace Through Saudi Diplomacy

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Say what you will about negotiation with terrorists, but it appears that diplomacy is finally yielding a breakthrough in the War on Terror.

The News

According to a CNN report, on September 24-27, the final days of Ramadan, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia held talks with 11 Taliban delegates, two Afghan government officials, a representative of former mujahadeen commander and U.S. foe Gulbadin Hekmatyar, and three others.

The purpose of these talks was to come to some sort of negotiation about how best to end the current conflict in Afghanistan.  Both parties agreed that continued violence would not yield peace any time soon. Rather, the Taliban admitted that they cannot match the U.S. led coalition.

During the meetings the Taliban emphasized the fact that they have severed ties with al Qaeda.

How does this change the game?

These are only the first of many scheduled talks between Saudi Arabia and the Taliban. The information that is already being revealed from these meetings seems to suggest that Iran is playing the role of instigator.

Several Afghan sources familiar with Iranian activities in Afghanistan have said Iranian officials and diplomats who are investing in business and building education facilities are lobbying politicians in Kabul. Coalition commanders regularly accuse Iran of arming the Taliban, and Western diplomats privately suggest that Iran is working against U.S. interests in Afghanistan, making it harder to bring peace. (CNN)

If what the Taliban say about al Qaeda is true, and if these talks are any indication that an Arab coalition may be forming that will help the US achieve its military goals, then it is clear that a confrontation with Iran is inevitable.

The Key to Ending the War on Terror

Al Qaeda, the embodiment of Radical Islam, is the door.  What lies beyond the door is a fruitful alliegiance between the West and the Middle East.  The door is currently locked.  The lock is a unified Arab Coalition.  The key is Iran.

By defining Iran as the key, we are faced with a dilemma.  We can either approach Iran as an enemy that needs to be forced out of the way, or we can approach Iran as a future-friend who has yet to understand how cooperation would be to their advantage.

In my opinion, diplomacy is the only choice.  If we continue acting from the belief that Iran is an “axis of evil” and destined to be a force of destruction in the Middle East, then we close ourselves off from any possibility of a unified Arab Coalition.  Likewise, we also close ourselves into an inevitable conflict with Iran.

Without cooperation from Iran,  peace in Afghanistan will take that much longer.  And the longer it takes to achieve peace, the longer it takes to bring our troops home.