Month: May 2008

Hey, I almost forgot that this blog is five years old today. Here’s what it looked like in the early days on blogspot. And here it is in July of 2003, right after I moved it to HostMatters with a cool redesign by Little Green Footballs: And in June of 2004, the blog was redesigned…

While I like to think that I pay attention to so-called “wedge issues,” it appears that I missed one. According to WaPo’s Harold Meyerson, John McCain is trying to make “America” itself a wedge issue, by means of identity politics: McCain’s first post-primary ad proclaimed him “the American president Americans have been waiting for.” Not…

In Picture Of WB-7 Bussard Fusion Test Reactor Available I reported that there was a picture of the WB-7 Fusion Test Reactor available. (Well duh). I must sadly report that it is no longer available. Instead EMC2 Fusion has replaced it with a picture of a plasma test of the fusion reactor using Helium gas.…

Human Events and WorldNetDaily have teamed up in the form of this editorial from WND editor Joseph Farah: …John McCain won’t get any help from me. He won’t get my vote. In fact, to be honest, if the Republican Party is ever going to recover itself and become the party it was under Ronald Reagan,…

In what may be the silliest post I’ve written in some time, I’m going to try to make sense of Sean Penn’s recent political analysis, delivered at the Cannes Film Festival: At a press conference beforehand, the actor, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration, offered his views on the Democratic nomination race. Asked if…

Crystal Dixon, an associate vice president of human resources at the University of Toledo, has been essentially fired (she refused to accept a demotion with a pay cut) for writing in a newspaper that homosexuality is wrong, and not the equivalent of race: Dixon was placed on paid administrative leave after a column she wrote…

Here’s a treat for all aging hippies, hippie lovers, hippie haters, culture war buffs, and dog lovers everywhere. Stephen Gaskin on Cesar Millan (aka the Dog Whisperer).

A tireless regular reader of this blog who will remain nameless has emailed me a link to the Oxford Reference Online’s Fact of the Day which was headlined “How is the nine-banded armadillo able to traverse water?” The answer to the question is that it self-inflates, and holds its breath: The nine-banded armadillo, unlike the…

Aside from the fact that I’m not a Clinton supporter, two things bother me about the news of Hillary Clinton’s 2-1 victory in West Virginia last night. One is the fact that while the story was reported, it was treated as a non-event, and buried on page A-4 of the Inquirer. This is part of…

Here’s something Coco is not happy about. A student teacher in St. Cloud who had a service dog was harrassed by a Muslim student who threatened to kill his dog — apparently because they thought the animal was “unclean.” (According to the article, “the Muslim faith, which is the dominant faith of Somali immigrants, forbids…

In my recent post Starting A Fusion Program In Your Home Town I talked about expanding the fusion design and testing environment to increase the rate of progress in the development of a power producing reactor. The lead Bussard Fusion Reactor (BFR) experimenter, rnebel, has read that article and has chimed in here with his…

I’ve been slow on the uptake lately. I try to follow alternative news sources, and so yesterday when I was at the supermarket I saw a tantalizing article in Globe — headlined “Obama Caught Up in Gay Murder Scandal.” Excerpt: So far, the Chicago cops’ investigation into the murder of Trinity United Methodist Church’s gay…

Barry Rubin has an article out at Gloria Center about the destruction of Lebanon. In it he says: The goal of Hizballah, and its Syrian and Iranian backers at present is not the full conquest of Lebanon–something beyond their means–but to control the government so it does nothing they dislike: no strong relations with the…

Except If that hope is succeeding with the mission in Iraq. Althouse reads a letter from Obama. Very good. I ♥ Althouse.

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Did you know that earthquakes can be caused by anthropogenic global warming? No, really. That’s what a “number” of geologists have been saying: A number of geologists say glacial melting due to climate change will unleash pent-up pressures in the Earth’s crust, causing extreme geological events such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. A cubic…

After Erick’s Post of the Austrian Corporal’s ranting (funny) I thought it would be good to lighten the atmosphere with a different kind of military man. This is Lieutenant Kije by Prokofiev, Suite op. 60 mov. 4 done by the Robert’s College Community Orchestra.

While I don’t like (most) Hitler comparisons, I thought the “Hillary’s Downfall” video was hilarious. By the way, this particular video (a clip from Der Untergang) has the uncanny ability to adapt itself to whatever downfall theme is plugged in; not long ago it was the downfall of the Cowboys, then later the the Patriots’…

While writing a post this morning, the power failed and the battery backup unit didn’t seem to work properly, so I lost a post. But then when I tried to power up the computer after the electricity returned on, nada. My main computer failed to power on. I suspect I fried the mother board, because…

Today is Mother’s Day, and as my mother died in 1999, all I can really do is remember her, and miss her. Of course, if your mother is alive, you can do more. While Mothers Day kind of artificially forces the issue (and it is commercialized), it’s nonetheless a reminder not to take mothers for…