Month: February 2014

  • Since you were nice enough to ask…

    In a comment, Gringo asked me whether I built the “Hackintosh” over concerns about the demise of Windows XP. No. I did it because in order to get the degree I want, I have to take a listed course to demonstrate what is called “computer literacy.” Among the listed courses was Adobe Illustrator, which I…

  • You Can Be Fooled And Probably Will Be

    Pointman has a terrific piece up A climate of deception, deceit, lies and outright dishonesty. You should read the whole thing. It was prompted by this Jo Nova bit: Busted: 120 gibberish science papers withdrawn — so much for “peer review”. For those of you into electronics the IEEE published about 100 of the papers.

  • Drop magnet here

    I love this video: Is it magnetic attraction? Magnetic repulsion? Or is it something else?

  • Enter title here (Hey, that’s what it said!)

    So I am writing my first blog post in my Hackintosh computer, which was kind of a bitch to put together. But for the resources discussed in places like these (which made me think it would be easier than it was), I would never have attempted such a ridiculously nerdy thing. And nerdy it is!…

  • A stupid law, but is why is it being framed as “anti-gay”?

    Wow. Take a look at these Drudge headlines: AZ WARNED: YOU’LL LOSE SUPER BOWL… Pressure mounts over bill opposed by gays… Brewer veto drama… ‘I will do right thing’… Romney: Veto Bill… UPDATE: ‘Religious Freedom Restoration Act’… Hollywood Bar Bans Anti-Gay Lawmakers… ‘We Don’t Want Your Kind Here’… I’ve read the law in question, and…

  • Only so much time

    This blog has been getting slow and buggy in recent days, and I am trying to figure out why. In addition, we are getting a HUGE amount of comment spam, which is abnormal, and is causing some favorite commenters to be blocked. I am sorry for this, and I am trying to solve the problem.…

  • I Am Not A Climate Change Denier

    I think it is getting colder.

  • How Can You Be Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere at all

    From 1969. Firesign Theater, anticipating GPS by at least 20 years. The full album: How Can You Be Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere at all H/T Chief IO Sensitivity Training Is Evil.

  • I’ll never catch up

    It cracked me up to see Glenn Beck being told he should read up on Foucault. (Not because he should, of course.)

  • dreams

    A photo I took yesterday. And an image I created the day before.  

  • Ah. The Faith Of the Innumerate

    A friend of mine was touting the marvels of solar energy in Hawaii. So I wrote him something to try to get him back to reality. Hawaii has always had very high energy costs. They can afford the high cost of “Green”. That is mitigated to some extent by the tropical climate moderated by oceans.…

  • Lost in space

    Reading about the humongous asteroid that had a near miss. Or at least, the astronomers lost it: Last night, a giant asteroid was supposed to streak by the Earth, close enough for us to catch a glimpse as it zipped by. Except it never showed, and now astronomers say they have no idea just where…

  • What time is it?

    “They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.” If the above quote from Mark 16:18 is LITERALLY true, then I guess it means that Pastor Coots was not one of “them” (meaning, apparently, he was not enough of a believer). From the New York Daily News:…

  • Why is anyone listening to these people (much less voting for them)?

    Typical. Environmentalists have hit out at a giant new solar farm in the Mojave Desert as mounting evidence reveals birds flying through the extremely hot ‘thermal flux’ surrounding the towers are being scorched. After years of regulatory tangles around the impact on desert wildlife, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System opened on Thursday but environmental…

  • Some people cannot commit hate crimes, nor can they commit rape!

    Every feminist academician should be made to watch this video. A politically savvy female Egyptian lawyer is calmly advocating sexual harassment of Jewish women by Arab men as a tactic. (I would call her hateful, except I know that oppressed people are simply incapable of hate.) The more I think about it, the less this…

  • Practicalities

    “The practical form of a capitalist is a capitalist. The practical form of an anarchist is a terrorist. The practical form of a socialist is a thief.” – Aaron Haspel. Stolen from a Facebook friend of a friend.

  • Yeah!

    It may be February, but here’s a classic rare doowop from Little June and the Januaries, titled “Oh What A Feeling.” This is a good one. I’m amazed to find it on YouTube. They knew how to get the endorphins flowing in those days… (The comments are good too.)

  • We are ruled

    Via Reason, I found a fascinating slice of what passes for life in the modern Kafkaesque world — from the point of view of a naive leftist who got thrown into the slammer by San Francisco’s finest for being a good Samaritan. The title is “Good Samaritan Backfire or How I Ended Up in Solitary After…

  • Witch hunts are a thing of the distant past, right?

    A teenager’s life has been ruined by a sarcastic but tasteless remark on Facebook meant in humor: Approximately one hour after Justin Carter posted a sarcastic comment on a Facebook thread, his life began to ­unravel. The first reaction occurred behind the scenes, in another country. The 18-year-old Carter had no way of knowing that,…

  • A headline I found irresistible

    Guy with flower pot on head robs gas station with chainsaw No, seriously. They even have a picture: The story doesn’t say whether the chainsaw was actually running, and I don’t see evidence of exhaust in the picture. But the chainsaw was not the only thing he brandished: Police allege the man then used the…