Month: December 2007

What is it about the left and the refusal to learn from history? In an earlier post, I wrote about the refusal to learn about the danger of appeasement, and now I see that the movement to raise taxes on alcohol has not gone away. Far from it. A New York Times report story editorial…

Something good has come from Will Smith’s ill-thought-out Hitler remarks. Or can I say that? I sometimes worry that Godwin’s Law may be swallowing most Hitler discussions, especially for a yakker like me, because nearly everything I might say about Hitler or Nazis contains something that might be considered an analogy or a comparison. Or…

Earlier today, Coco and I saw a Christmas wreath hanging on a door. Nothing especially unusual about that, except it wasn’t a door to a type of building where people usually hang wreaths. So we stopped and posed in front of it. I don’t think Coco fully understands product placement issues, but we can’t have…

More words of wisdom from Ann Althouse: I don’t see myself as the candidate-endorsing sort of blogger. Nor do I. However, sometimes I see myself as the opposite of the candidate-endorsing sort of blogger. My problem is that I just want the Republicans to come up with someone who can beat Hillary (or, for that…

I need to get a 100ft Ethernet indoor (non-plenum) cable with connectors on both ends. I have seen such cables on the net for around $10 or much more. Are the $10 cables any good? If so where is a good place to buy?

A. Jacksonian has put up a political lexicon for this election season. My favorite? A fresh face from Illinois – An individual with Chicago Mob connections running for high office before their Mob connections come to light. Go read the whole thing. Cross Posted at Power and Control

Gotta run out, and I don’t have time for posts (or quality photography) right now. But a very Merry Christmas from Coco! (And her master, who was unable to leap into the picture in any kind of satisfactory manner.) MORE: Here’s a slightly different spin on the holiday season: UPDATE: I know it is bad…

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has been shut down. And how did I find this out? I was over at DKOS looking for a Bussard Fusion Post by Roger Fox and came across this one on the FEC. It links to a Washington Post story. The federal agency in charge of policing the torrent of…

Further information on the Toshiba mini-reactor can be found here and here… A small-scale design developed by Toshiba Corporation in cooperation with Japan’s Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) and funded by the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) is the 5 MWt, 200 kWe Rapid-L, using lithium-6 (a liquid neutron poison) as…

Dr. Helen said something with which I can readily identify: …before the internet, I could count on one hand the number of people I felt I had anything in common with. That is so true. I feel the same way. The Internet (especially the blogosphere) is great for finding kindred spirits who share similar philosophical…

If OPEC is restricting supply all the peak oil hysteria may be unfounded. What if their strategy is to keep production restricted encouraging alternatives and then open the valve wide to cause the alternatives to fail economically? I wouldn’t put it past them. Prompted by the discussion at Top Ten Oil Stories Of 2007. Cross…

There’s a bit of a back and forth going on over at Cato Unbound regarding the wisdom of pursuing radically longer lifespans. So far, not too many people have been paying attention. On the pro side we have Aubrey De Grey and Ron Bailey. Long time readers will no doubt already know that my sympathies…

First, here’s a little bit about her… Dr. Schaub earned her bachelor’s degree with highest honors from Kenyon College in 1981. Her master’s degree and doctorate are from the University of Chicago. Prior to entering academe she was assistant editor of The National Interest magazine in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the American…

I see that Glenn Reynolds has been touting S.M. Stirling’s latest novel, In The Courts Of The Crimson Kings. If you don’t feel like waiting until March eighteenth, the first six chapters are available online, for free, right here. From what I’ve read so far, I think I’ll enjoy it much more than The Sky…

In what I hope is just an isolated incident, an eleven year veteran Philadelphia police officer has been arrested after allegedly participating in a home invasion in nearby Montgomery County, then leading police on a 130 m.p.h. chase: Malik Snell, an 11-year veteran of the police department, was the alleged getaway driver after the home…

Is there any way for me to avoid having to write about Mike Huckabee? It’s one thing to contemplate an Obama versus Romney race, but Huckabee versus Obama? Right now, the polls show Obama defeating him by more than 10 points. Interestingly, he does better against Hillary (losing only a six point spread — which…

There has been a rather interesting discussion in the comment section of a recent post here about the advent of small fission reactors for local power generation. Lets start with this link to Next Energy News. First thing let me say that Next Energy news has had false reports from time to time and it…

Who is responsible for what Maureen Dowd says in her column? I’d like to give credit where credit is due, and I don’t just mean the link. While I saw it this morning, I now see that Glenn Reynolds linked it late last night. He liked the “humiliating Hillary and lighting an exploding cigar when…

Small Times is reporting the development of a solar cell that can deliver more than one electron for each photon absorbed. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), collaborating with Innovalight, Inc., say they have shown that a new and important effect called Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) occurs efficiently in…

Clayton Cramer has a good post about Homelessness, Mental Illness, & Medical Costs. While it’s well known that “homeless” is often code language for mentally ill people with bad hygiene, a lot of people don’t realize the amount of money which is wasted on people in need of longterm care, but who instead tax society’s…