Month: November 2006

  • Shreddable edibles….

    Long drive to New Jersey today, so there probably won’t be much blogging. However, I’ll try to keep my eye on the signs. Like these: Coco’s thinking about suing over that last sign, as she was using shredders long before the dogs in that picture, and she suspects they’ve committed an infringement of her shredding.…

  • An infectious and addictive blogohazard!

    I don’t know how many readers know it, but Connie du Toit — a longtime favorite reader and commenter — has returned to her own blog. Hmmm… I don’t know what to call her return from anonymous blogging — “coming out of the closet” or a “resurrection”? — but seeing her back is an absolute…

  • You’ll brake for my slogan!

    Anyone seen the clever little stickers like these that activists place on stop signs? True confession: I’m feeling too lazy to run down to a nearby corner, so I borrowed the sign and photoshopped it to suit the needs of this blog post. No, I didn’t add the “EATING ANIMALS” sticker. What the sign actually…

  • The moral equivalency of fake phonies and phony fakes

    Forgive this exercise in the surreal, but that’s how I’m feeling about the apparently phony Iraqi police official called “Jamil Hussein,” who is now claimed to be real after all. I know it sounds nutty, but this whole thing had been reminding me of an old friend named “George Harleigh” until Jamil Hussein’s apparent resurrection…

  • “V” for victory of the void!

    I don’t know how many people there are who play Tetris, but I have the classic version of it on my cell phone, and as most people who play it know, it’s a game in which there really is no such thing as “winning,” because if you play, eventually you will lose. Skill at Tetris…

  • Scarred man with personal vendetta

    I find it interesting that the recent (and still very unresolved) case of a police shooting in New York has caused a mini-barrage of editorials against, well, Mayor Giuliani. Here’s El Diario: …[O]ur city is scarred by the legacy of a former mayor, now running for president. In a series of ugly police incidents that…

  • Taking Greenwaldistic Neo-Sullivanism seriously

    The Red Queen shook her head, `You may call it “nonsense” if you like,’ she said, ` but I’ve heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!’ — From Alice in Wonderland I’m no etymologist, so I always have trouble defining words, especially when they’ve been so misused as to…

  • Civil rights as a lower form of human rights?

    In light of the new information that has come to light in the police shooting of an elderly woman, I’d like to repeat my earlier concerns about the public perceptions of this case. Why is this being spun more as a civil rights issue than as a human rights issue? Might that be because black…

  • Behind the scenes look at a powerful performance!

    While visiting Rockford, Illinois over Thanksgiving, I was invited to attend the Rockford Dance Company’s production of the Nutcracker Suite at the Coronado Theater. Little did I know what a treat was in store. Not only was the performance fantastic, and the theater was unlike anything I’ve experienced, but I got to meet a longtime…

  • Reality based mugging

    My thanks to Justin for posting while I was away. (A minor administrative blog hassle seems to have temporarily messed up comments, but it’s being fixed thanks to Host Matters, and comments will probably work by the time this post goes up.) As if I needed any reminder while I was away, I see that…

  • Long Shots

    The guys at Focus Fusion have provided their take on that Robert Bussard video that’s been making the rounds. Their impression is that his approach looks promising. Their own approach is somewhat different technically, but either one, if successful, would enable the same sort of technological revolution. Boron fusion. Clean, inexpensive, inexhaustible power. UPDATE (11/27/06…

  • This Ought To Annoy Him

    James “I am not Elmer Gantry!” Kunstler is forever going on about those easy motoring, cheese doodle crunching Americans and the doom that is even now bearing down upon them. Wishing, we are told, will not change the facts of life, and Jiminy Cricket notwithstanding, we simply cannot invent our way out of the “Long…

  • Reduced To Tears By Helpless Laughter

    Given the recent events concerning my nephew and Al Gore, this item at Greenie Watch reduced me to tears. Seriously folks, I was just howling. Perhaps that’s mortifying in a man my age, but there you have it. I like to think of it as being young at heart. Besides, the story described is so…

  • More Good Fun From Greenie Watch

    My niece and nephew saw Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” the other week, and it actually managed to get to them. It seems that the science teacher had their entire class make a field trip to the theater where it was playing. He feels that the issue is far too important to leave to their parents…

  • So. Now What Do We Do?

    Forest fires can help to reduce global warming, despite generating tonnes of carbon dioxide, a study has found. Scientists looking at the effect of fires in boreal forests found that in the long term the loss of trees means that more sunlight is reflected away from the Earth. This is because more snow, which is…

  • While The Cool Cat’s Away

    The diligent rat is forced to earn his keep. Eric is trapped in the wilds of Illinois, sans connectivity. Amusingly, his hotel has nanny software that won’t allow him to access his own blog. He says “Hi everybody!”. He also says that I should crank out a few brief yet edifying posts while he’s away.…

  • HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

    I have to leave at the crack of dawn, and I’ll be gone for the holidays, so I may or may not have time for blogging. With any luck, there might be some posts, though. Happy thanksgiving! UPDATE: What the hell. I might as well leave readers with a picture, as I know I wouldn’t…

  • cause for optimism

    I enjoyed reading about the “nuclear teen“: In the basement of his parents’ Oakland Township home, tucked away in an area most aren’t privy to see, Thiago is exhausting his love of physics on a project that has taken him more than two years and 1,000 hours to research and build — a large, intricate…

  • Stereotypes. Can’t cope with ’em! Can’t cope without ’em!

    One of the reasons people hate the fact that times change is that they have to change with the times, lest they become literally crippled by past perceptions. This is particularly true when it comes to understanding why things happen the way they do. One of the ways I cope with inconveniences and things I…

  • Is religious speech more protected than free speech?

    I’m glad to see that a student whose free speech rights were trampled upon by a professor has won her case against the university: SPRINGFIELD, MO, November 14, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Emily Brooker, a student in the Missouri State University’s School of Social Work, sued the university after being punished by a professor for refusing…