China is trying to hang with the big boys…

China is now the world’s biggest energy consumer, knocking the U.S. off a perch it held for more than a century, according to new data from the International Energy Agency.

China devoured a total of 2,252 million tons of oil equivalent last year, or about 4% more than the U.S., which burned through 2,170 million tons of oil equivalent. The oil-equivalent metric represents all forms of energy consumed, including crude oil, nuclear, coal, natural gas and renewable sources such as hydropower.

The U.S. is still by far the biggest energy consumer per capita.

Via the WSJ alerts.

Seriously though, given the population differences I do find it surprising that the United States leads China in per capita consumption.  I know better than thinking that China is more “green” than the U.S. so I can only conclude that it’s due to the fact that we have more “free time” to fire up the computers, televisions, boats & RV’s.  And the fact that we’re America!

OK, we allow crazy people with bombs and their shoes and fireworks strapped to their crotch on planes, but we put 6 year old girls on the “Do Not Fly” list? Was she carry a knitting needle on board (which is allowable, and which I’ve seen)? Did she look at a flight attendant wrong?

The father of a 6-year-old Ohio girl who turned up on the U.S. government’s terror watch list says the worst thing his daughter has ever done is probably been mean to her sister.

But Santhosh Thomas, a doctor from Westlake, Ohio, says he’s sure that’s not enough to land his 6-year-old Alyssa on the no-fly list of suspected terrorists. “She may have threatened her sister, but I don’t think that constitutes Homeland Security triggers,” he told CNN.

Federal authorities have acknowledged that such a no-fly list exists, but as a matter of national security, they won’t comment on whose names are on it nor why. “The watch lists are an important layer of security to prevent individuals with known or suspected ties to terrorism from flying,” an unnamed spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration told Fox News.

[read the full story]

This will probably get me put on “the list” for saying this, but our government is apparently ran by complete morons.  Is it really that hard to find competent people for the  job? Boy, do I feel safer now that this 6 year old girl can’t fly.

All teachers, principals fired at poor-performing R.I. high school.

A Rhode Island school board has voted to clean house at Central Falls High School by firing the entire staff of 93, including all teachers, guidance counselors, p.e. instructors and the principal.

Education is one topic that gets me fired up, and this one takes the cake recently.  And honestly, I’ll be shocked if this improves anything and would venture to guess that things will actually get worse.

Some things to think about:

1. What about the parents/guardians? I have seen first hand that some kids just don’t care about school if they don’t have a good at home support system in place.
2. What about the kids?  While not ideal, maybe the kids are indeed below “average”. Not everyone can be in the top of the class.
3. What about the government? I don’t even have the time to properly touch that one other than to say they clearly don’t think things through a lot of the time.
4. What teachers looking for a job would be eager to jump on board after they just threw everyone else under the bus?  Given the economy I’m sure they’ll find teachers, but I can’t imagine that they’ll have the school or the kids in mind for more than a stepping stone onto a better job.

That said, yes, it could be the teachers too, but I can’t believe that it’s all of them. This just seems totally irresponsible to me.

Via Reuters:

Healthcare workers in Indiana and Tennessee will be among the first to get swine flu vaccines in the United States on Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Call me paranoid (because I probably am), but is this because Indiana and Tennessee are special or because Indiana and Tennessee are “special”.  Now that I personally know of someone who has had Swine Flu / H1N1 (a little kid of course), I’m seriously considering packing up for the winter and finding some backwoods place to hunker down for a while.  OK, only half seriously…or ¾ths…but there’s no way you’ll give me a shot for an experimental vaccination at the moment. And I don’t like the idea of normal flu shots in the first place.

Seriously, if this thing has been as horrible as the media makes it out to be during the summer time, the winter is just going to be hell here in the northern hemisphere. Maybe I could visit my friends in the land down under.

Via The Mirror…

Michael Jackson will be buried this week– without his brain. As his family tries to finalise details for the King of Pop’s funeral on Tuesday they have been told it will be held back for tests.

They faced the grim choice of waiting up to three weeks for Jackson’s brain to be returned to them or go ahead and bury him without it – which they have decided to do.

Los Angeles Coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey confirmed that neuropathology tests will be carried out to see if it holds any clues to the exact cause of his death.

But the examination cannot begin until at least two weeks after the death when the brain has hardened sufficiently to slice it open.

Is this really necessary? Yes, he’s been a bit strange in recent years, but come on. Leave the man alone already.

Via WISH TV 8…

Word of the pregnancy pact comes from the principal of Gloucester High School. Joseph Sullivan tells Time magazine in a story published this week that the girls confessed to making the pact after the school began investigating. Seventeen girls there are pregnant, and Sullivan says nearly half were involved in the pact — none more than 16 years old.

This truly bothers me on so many levels.

First, say the “pact” is true, why in the world would you think that’s a good idea?  Teenagers girls seem to have more, how to phrase it, emotional/self-esteem issues than most teenage boys do (from what you can “see”).  But come on, this is just ludicrous and I hope that it is untrue.

Second, and just as disturbing, is the mere fact of so many pregnancies in one high school.  That is just baffling.  I went to an “inner-city” (a.k.a. “urban”) high school with a few thousand students and there were only a handful each year (which is still too many IMO).

Anyway, I’m floored and am just scratching my head as this is outright crazy.  I thought that normal kids these days rebelled by piercing something, dying their hair and wearing certain clothing.  I thought that we as adults (parents, relatives, etc) were educating the younger generations about the dangers of sex, drugs, tobacco and alcohol.  But maybe I’m wrong?  I just pray that I do a half-way decent job parenting my children so that they know that dear old dad isn’t being mean or trying to thwart their fun, but to instead protect them.