Month: February 2009

  • What’s scientific about consensus?

    I’m glad to see evidence that the scientific method is alive and well, at least in Japan: Japanese scientists have made a dramatic break with the UN and Western-backed hypothesis of climate change in a new report from its Energy Commission. Three of the five researchers disagree with the UN’s IPCC view that recent warming…

  • Tea for tyranny?

    While I’m not about to go to any demonstrations (especially when it’s in the teens), I think the Tea Party movement (that Glenn Reynolds covers in a number of posts) provides a much-needed reminder of two things: 1. This country was founded in opposition to tyranny. 2. The United States government is now galloping towards…

  • How I (barely) managed to avoid tantrums

    I was quite honored to be invited to attend CPAC In Washington as a Pajamas Media blogger, but alas! The timing of my trip prevented me from attending (especially the timing of my return to Michigan, where things had piled up after a three-month absence). It was simply not logistically feasible for me to return…

  • On The Mend

    Purchasing Magazine is taking a look at leading economic indicators. And as you can see by the chart above it looks like the worst is behind us. The upswing has not yet started but the rate of fall appears to be declining. The actual turn around is likely to be about six to nine months…

  • the birds and the bats

    One of the problems I have with the fundamentalist approach to religion is the tendency to insist on the literal interpretation of written words, often without regard to context. Yet on the other hand (in a paradox that never made much sense to me), fundamentalists will often gratuitously supply context which is otherwise missing from…

  • In the privacy of your own bedroom?

    I hate to be a bore, and I have no idea whether readers enjoy reading my libertarianish, anti-government kvetchings, which tend to be endlessly expansive simply because the government bureaucracy grows endlessly more intrusive. Anyway, consider yourselves warned. The fact is, I hate government butting into people’s lives, and as long as I have this…

  • Happy Fat Tuesday!

    I went out earlier to a Mardi Gras celebration in which I was given the usual Mardi Gras beads. I’m not enough of a partier to wear such things for an entire evening. On the other hand, the beads brought out the party animal in Coco, who as you can see, has partied heavily, but…

  • TARP Funnies

    Clayton Cramer has an absolutely hilarious view of the TARP fiasco. Click on the Click here thingy. An interesting story on how that came to be where it is. My #2 son sent it in an e-mail with the subject line “This is amusing”. And I had to tell him: yes it is. So I…

  • Do I have to upgrade to the fix to the patch that’s fixing to bug my fix?

    I’ve never liked Adobe’s “free” pdf reader, as it has hung my computer more times than any other single software glitch. Many times I’ve been frozen up and had to do a hard reboot simply because I’ve tried to open pdf files which failed. I’ve been scolded repeatedly for not “upgrading” to the “latest version”…

  • Avoid Accidents – Smoke Pot

    Yeah. Of course. That is ridiculous.Except it may be true. There is sufficient and consistent evidence that alcohol use is a causal risk factor for injury. For cannabis use, however, there is conflicting evidence; a detrimental dose-response effect of cannabis use on psychomotor and other relevant skills has been found in experimental laboratory studies, while…

  • Support your local dinosaur!
    And fight the asteroid threat!

    I have long considered the daily newspaper to be one of the hallmarks of civilized society. I say this despite my innumerable disagreements and complaints about slanted stories, editorials masquerading as “news reports,” and biased or dishonest reporting (or deliberate non-reporting, which is even worse). But biased or not, daily newspapers provide at least a…

  • dodging snow and missing signs

    After carefully avoiding the snow (by taking I-70 all the way to Dayton, Ohio, then driving up I-75) I made it home last night. The biggest problem was that I nearly missed the I-75 exit because the signs had been so severely painted over by vandals as to be unreadable. In fact, almost every single…

  • Missouri break

    Today I drove from Albuquerque, NM to Joplin, MO — a distance of some 800 miles. 800 miles a day and pretty soon you’re racking up real mileage — and not just on the car. I’m simply exhausted. Closing my red, sore, eyes makes me see moving traffic. I’m still hoping against hope that the…

  • Boston Globe – End Heroin Prohibition

    Yes. You read that right. The Boston Globe says end heroin prohibition. THE OBAMA administration is committing 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. Yet as the United States works to stabilize that country, the most important decisions don’t just involve troop and funding levels. Also vital is ending the prohibition on growing opium poppies – for…

  • race is hell

    After a week spent in Los Angeles doing a very tricky wiring job (installing a large kiln), I’m finally on the road back to Ann Arbor. Today I drove from LA to Albuquerque, where I’m holed up for the night in a Motel 6 with a dog and an aquarium containing two turtles and a…

  • Music Is Going To Bits

    Tired of fighting the digital revolution the music companies appear to have finally decided to join it. After years of futile efforts to stop digital pirates from copying its music, the music business has started to copy the pirates. Online and mobile Relevant Products/Services services offering listeners unlimited, “free” access to millions of songs are…

  • Surplus

    The below video is a test firing of a surplus laser. Here is a picture of the laser: And the video of the laser firing: Fire the Laser! from famulus fusion on Vimeo. It is amazing what people are doing with industrial and government surplus these days. It is amazing what we can do with…

  • Justice American Style

    The Drug Task Forces that ran wild under the Clinton Administration were curtailed under Bush II but are set to be revived under Obama. Why? Well it will stimulate the economy. The stimulus bill includes plenty of green for those wearing blue. The compromise bill doles out more than $3.7 billion for police programs, much…

  • Constellation Program

    NASA is building a new man rated launch vehicle that is going back to the tried and tested methods of the Apollo Program. You can see more pictures and read the captions at Constellation Program Gallery. If you want to learn more about the Apollo Program this DVD from 2005 might help: Apollo 11: The…

  • The War On Gangs

    Yes. The War On Gangs is over in the US. The murder rate in the USA has been declining since 1991. We know that a real war on drug gangs (Mexico) causes an increase in dug violence. Even the FBI agrees with that point (a real drug war increases violence). So in reality drugs have…