And Still I Persist

[UPDATED 03/27/08 — some additions and a few corrections]

Of course, I’m talking specifically about “anthropogenic [human-caused] global warming” (AGW), the cause célèbre of the Environmental Left.

Here’s the short answer: because I have a degree in computer science, I’ve done professional work in simulations and modeling, and I’ve had classes in numerical analysis (not to mention logic and reasoning). Also, I’ve been tracking this issue for roughly 30 years (and, I could argue, for over 40 years). Oh, and I was one of the world’s leading experts on Y2K.

The long answer — and it really is a long answer — is after the jump.

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Word from Bloomberg that Ford is likely to sell its Jaguar and Land Rover units to India’s Tata motor company:

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co. selected Tata Motors Ltd. as the preferred bidder for Jaguar and Land Rover, putting India’s largest truckmaker in a position to take over two iconic British luxury auto brands.

Buying Jaguar and Land Rover, which date back to Britain’s colonial era, would give Mumbai-based Tata a presence outside Asia and provide access to new technology. Ford, the world’s third-largest automaker, wants to sell the brands to focus on its money-losing North American business.

Tata’s bid reflects a “new guard” in automaking, said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Jaguar and Land Rover are “a signal of wealth,” he said. “Everybody is going to notice.”

Globalization is the process where local wages, skills and wealth are decimated by shipping the factories, jobs and everything with it to another country where the work can be done cheaply. It means that workers are not just competing against the folks down the road, but with workers in China, India or Vietnam.

This has been underway for at least 20 years, and have lead to many of the underlying conditions of our current financial trouble. As a result US wages have stagnated while nearly everything you can buy is now made in China.

This has been a huge disruptor in the Computer Science and IT fields in this country, as outsourcing to India is in the process of obliterating the domestic skill base. The results of this “off-shoring” has been highly variable. I have personally made several good contracts out fixing or re-building a “Bangalore Special”.

The purchase of Jaguar by Tata seems like “a bridge too far” - the sort of headline grabbing story that usually marks the inflection point in a trend. For England it is fairly clear that they continue to become a shadow of their former, imperial self. Their flagship car brands are now going to be out-sourced to India.

With wages and prices increasing in India and China, and the dollar dropping fast, the advantages to sending work overseas may draw to a close. While you will read many gloom and doom headlines about our economic condition, there are many seeds being sown that will usher in the next “golden age” for the United States.

In the end, it is typical for cheap markets; like India, China and Brazil, to burn out by pricing themselves out of the market. Expect that process to be unusually sharp and dramatic given the economic decline of the world’s foremost market.

Here and elsewhere, I have decried the deliberate or inadvertent lack of historical perspective on current problems, particularly with regard to things military, and especially among the mainstream media and the Left. I come from a family with a strong and long history of military service and am myself a student of military history. My father was personally involved in three major battles during World War II: Pearl Harbor; the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal; and the USMC Invasion of Guam. The first was a stunning defeat, lasting a few hours; the second, something of a draw, lasting a few days; the third, a victory, lasting a few weeks and gaining us control of a single island. The collective US military death toll for the three battles was over 7,000 over a grand total of less than four weeks and a net gain of controlled territory of 209 square miles (1/800th of the area of Iraq).

Rand Simberg, over at Transterrestrial Musings, has now added his own perspective, writing an article in today’s style covering the WWII Battle for the Ardennes:

WASHINGTON (Routers) With the “Allied” forces continuing to be bogged down in the Ardennes Forest, many are questioning Roosevelt administration war policies, the unreasonable length of the war, and even whether or not it can be won.

The 7th Army’s VI Corps is waging a desperate, and perhaps futile battle with German troops, surrounded on three sides in the Alsace region. A whole month after the beginning of the renewed German offensive, with almost twenty-thousand American troops dead in this battle alone, there remains no clear end in sight, or hope that the American lines can be closed.

There are serious questions about the competence of Generals Bradley and Patton, concerns that were only heightened shortly after the beginning of the battle, when two armies from Bradley’s army group were removed from his command and placed under that of the British General Montgomery. General Montgomery’s comments in a press conference a week ago have served only to buttress such legitimate doubts. He didn’t even mention their names in describing the limited efforts to recapture lost ground, that remains unsuccessful, with the Germans continuing to take the initiative.

Read the whole thing.  ..bruce w..

“Shutter”, which just opened on Friday, is an Americanized remake of a Thai horror film named “Shutter” (or whatever the equivalent is in Thai). It (the remake) stars Joshua Jackson (”Ben Shaw”) and Rachel Taylor (”Jane Shaw”) as a newlywed couple that moves from New York to Japan so that Ben can take a job as a professional photographer of Japanese fashion models. While driving (with Ben asleep) to their honeymoon cabin somewhere near Mt. Fuji, Jane hits — or think she hits — a young Japanese woman who suddenly appears in the road ahead. The car veers off the road and crashes, knocking out both Jane and Ben. When they wake up, there is no trace of the girl, even after the police arrive and search the area thoroughly. But strange streaks of light start showing up in Ben’s photographs, both personal and professional, while Jane starts hearing strange noises — and then thinks she sees the girl she hit outside a subway window while traveling from one stop to another. Jane is afraid that the ghost of the girl she hit has come back to haunt her. But the truth is more complicated than that….

I do have a few quibbles about the setting in Japan. (I’ve only been to Tokyo three times, but that’s enough to pick up on a few things at least.) All the individuals — who all live in Tokyo — have large houses/apartments. Ben and Jane’s apartment is explained as being a loft in a currently-being-renovated building; that’s somewhat plausible. But Bruno’s apartment and Adam’s house seem awfully, awfully large for being within Tokyo itself. (On the other hand, I have the same complaint about most movies and TV shows set in Manhattan.) A lot of the interior settings seem awfully dim, more dim than I remember Tokyo building interiors being. Also, Jane seems remarkable at ease using the Tokyo subway system and wandering through its streets, especially for someone who doesn’t appear to speak or read any Japanese. Finally — and I don’t want to give too much away — Ben and Jane are repeatedly involved with the police, yet the police don’t seem to regard them as persons of interest.

“Shutter” is actually not a bad film. Not great, and nowhere near the scary/creepy factor of, say, the original Japanese versions of “The Grudge” and “The Ring”. It has fewer “You idiot(s)!” moments than a lot of scary films (though it does have some; see after the jump) and has some genuine creepy/scary moments, plus a few unexpected developments. Sandra and I got to see it for free thanks to some movie ticket coupons being offered by our local Safeway for having bought a certain amount of frozen food — and that’s about right. There’s only one scene that I can think of that merits seeing the film in a real theater; frankly, you may be better off waiting for the film to come to DVD.

SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP — DON’T KEEP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW HOW THINGS END UP!

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We still have nearly eight (8) months left in this Presidential campaign. In fact, the campaign for the Democratic nomination alone is likely to go on for another five (5) months.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Hat tip to a comment posted at Pharyngula. ..bruce w..