Month: February 2010

The below video explains why banks are not wiling to make a deal on foreclosed property. And also why “the less we sell it for the better” is depressing housing prices. Now this may be a good thing to get property moving again. But it means that the true market value is unknown. The good…

Phil Jones admits no statistically significant warming since 1995. Professor Jones told the BBC yesterday there was truth in the observations of colleagues that he lacked organisational skills, that his office was swamped with piles of paper and that his record keeping is ‘not as good as it should be’. The data is crucial to…

When I wrote about the used Japanese rice cooker I found at a Craigs List moving sale for nothing, the implications of this emergent “fuzzy logic” technology had not yet begun to sink in. I was not yet fully aware of how easy it had become to prepare high-quality, low-cost food, but now that it’s…

This video is by a food guy. You know the type – change what you eat because it is killing you. If it’s not one thing it’s another. About 45 seconds in he puts up an atomic bomb blast (very pretty) and then he goes on to discuss the existential threat of our time. Wait…

“Physicists dream of Nobel prizes, engineers dream of mishaps.” Hendrik Tennekes Science is in a sorry state these days. It is so bad that a Dutch scientist has resigned from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Henk Tennekes is well known to the visitors of our website. A few days ago, he told…

Self hatred has long fascinated me, because it’s one of those psychological conditions which has been transformed from a medical disorder into a political indictment. Gay conservatives, gay libertarians, and any other gays who disagree with the left have been called “self hating homosexuals” for so long and so repeatedly that it’s almost a thing…

My friend Karl has designed a new widget for your sidebar: You can go here to get the code to add to your sidebar. If you want to get a mug or a T shirt or other stuff you can get it at The Tea Party Difference. Support the artist who designed the image by…

And by the same group: Hide The Decline H/T Vanderleun at American Digest via TDPerk at Talk Polywell Cross Posted at Power and Control

It appears that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has some seriously wrong figures for the Netherlands. A United Nations report wrongly claimed that more than half of the Netherlands is currently below sea level. In fact, just 20 percent of the country consists of polders that are pumped dry, and which are at…

Eric commented on a series of e-mails between us and was wondering if the Christian Conservative wing of the Tea Party Movement was trying to lever the libertarians out of the movement by gay bashing and other culture war memes. He referenced this post on which I commented: M. Simon says: What you saw was…

The Department of Energy is giving out grants. Research grants. DOE Secretary Steven Chu recently announced recipients from across the nation will receive about $85 million in total funding for five-year research grants. Under the program, university-based researchers will receive at least $150,000 per year to cover summer salary and research expenses. Awards were given…

Just about everyone across the political spectrum has sounded off about Sarah Palin (who has predictably been praised and denounced for her appearance at the Tea Party Convention), and all the while I have remained silent. Perhaps too suspiciously silent, perhaps not. In an earlier email to M. Simon, I explained why I didn’t want…

While I enjoy history, it’s always humbling, because there’s no way to know everything about everything. The most that can be hoped for is to know a little bit about as much as you can in the time you have on this earth. But that, of course, is never “enough” for there are always countless…

Jonah Goldberg wants to play a guessing game. I’m thinking of a military leader who seized power in his country by stirring up populist rage against foreigners and foreign powers and promising a sweeping program of national-socialism. He claims that he is the true expression of the will of his people and is using every…

It looks like the Grateful Dead will live on in business schools. Oddly enough, the Dead’s influence on the business world may turn out to be a significant part of its legacy. Without intending to–while intending, in fact, to do just the opposite–the band pioneered ideas and practices that were subsequently embraced by corporate America.…

They who seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of rulers… Call this New Order, but it is not new and it is not order – FDR The irony? FDR was not going to do the job by setting taskmasters over us. At least not…

Eric S. Raymond (whom I greatly respect) took umbrage at this statement from Bill Whittle (whom I also greatly respect): Of course, the media coverage has tried very hard to portray the normal, average, every-day Americans of the Tea party rallies as dangerous and angry racists and Wal-Mart knuckle-draggers, while identifying the mass-produced signs, the…

During the 2008 Presidential Campaign there were folks out there who said: “the worse the better”. They were very unhappy with Mr. Obama. They were not thrilled by McCain and only the advent of Palin sent even a spark of joy to their political hearts. Their political theory was – if we elect some one…

While I have discussed RU-486 (mifepristone, or “miffy”) in previous posts, my thoughts turned to the drug again in light of this statistic: A medical abortion is a type of non-surgical abortion in which an abortifacient is used to induce voluntary miscarriage. Safe and effective abortifacients for use in the first trimester became available in…

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 I also like the following interview of Breitbart done by Instapundit. You can see several of the themes he presented in his speech previewed here. Part 2 And just to add to the mix, here is Bill Whittle on how Breitbart splashed on to the scene. H/T Andrew Marcus…