Month: June 2014

  • Yeah!

    Too busy, but this helps.  

  • Some Cool Music For A Hot Day

    Pianist Jack Gibbons plays Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue solo.

  • Libertarianism Is Two Year Old Stuff

    Two year olds get it – “mine, mine, mine” and “don’t hurt me”.

  • Evolution And Political Tipping Points

    Are you for change or against it? Should change be slow – evolutionary – or fast – tipping points. And how do things evolve anyway? Will destroying elements of a system destroy the system? Suppose the Republican Party was eliminated (an occasional dream of mine) would our system survive? Would it prosper? Can you rip…

  • Did Reagan really want a police state?

    Another day, another horrifying SWAT Team atrocity. The difference is that this one made me worry that by focusing on the drug war aspects, I might be losing sight of the bigger, and more ominous picture. Here’s what happened. In a 3:00 a.m. SWAT Team raid, police broke down the door of a house to…

  • Get in line, damn it!

    I have no idea whether this is true, or whether it is some kind of hoax: …Facebook data scientists tweaked the algorithm that determines which posts appear on users’ news feeds—specifically, researchers skewed the number of positive or negative terms seen by randomly selected users. Facebook then analyzed the future postings of those users over…

  • Your life is suspicious!

    While it shouldn’t surprise anyone, unless something is done to stop the data miners (like massive lawsuits), your credit card purchases are soon likely to be examined by your health care providers and insurance companies. You may soon get a call from your doctor if you’ve let your gym membership lapse, made a habit of…

  • An eyebrow-raising situation?

    No, seriously: 43 People Whose Eyebrows Are So Bad They’re Actually Works Of Art Most of the eyebrows pictures really are that bad, which is saying something. I kind of liked this pair of eyebrows, though, which stand out because they really say something. Hell, if you have a good argument, put it in writing where…

  • Breath

    The deathgod smiled. “Catch your breath quickly now, while you may,” he stated. “Breath is the least appreciated gift of the gods. None sing hymns to it, praising the good air, breathed by king and beggar, master and dog alike. But, oh to be without it! Appreciate each breath, Rild, as though it were your…

  • The world explained, whether I like it or not

    The world of course cannot be explained, but I think Burroughs came dangerously close when he divided the world into Johnsons (who mind their own business) and Shits (who do just the opposite): ‘The Johnson Family’ was a turn-of-the-century expression to designate good bums and thieves.  It was elaborated into a code of conduct.  A…

  • “the water bills must be paid.” Oh, the humanity!

    According to whoever wrote this piece for CBS Detroit, it’s a given that water is a “human right”: DETROIT (WWJ) – It’s a basic human right: water. But could the United Nations soon help the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department provide the service to struggling customers? Water department spokeswoman Curtrise Garner says it’s a possibility — but…

  • Wind Power In Germany – Running The Numbers

    TonyfromOz has run the numbers on wind power in Germany. Note also that the delivered power was below even the guaranteed minimum for 1,920 hours during the year, so it could not even generate the guaranteed minimum for 22% of the year, almost one quarter of the year. That’s not the maximum power but the…

  • “Equality” from the top down

    Earlier I pondered a remarkable idea from Arne Duncan and the Department of Education — that mentally retarded people should be attending college. Yes, the government is spending millions on this, and naturally, the mentally retarded are being dumped not into Harvard, Yale, or the nice colleges attended by the children of those who come up with these…

  • It’s Cycles All The Way Down

    The Tall Bloke is discussing the material David Evans and Jo Nova have been presenting. And while making a comment there it suddenly occurred to me. It’s Cycles All The Way Down Everything is vibrating. And no I’m not doing LSD or the like. Just looking at the evidence.

  • Let’s turn the real estate recovery around!

    Yes, the same irresponsible lending practices which led to the real estate crash are coming back. With help from the federal government, of course: The Obama administration is engaged in a broad push to make more home loans available to people with weaker credit, an effort that officials say will help power the economic recovery…

  • Incoherence

    This will not be a discussion of LED light vs solid state laser light. This is about Obama’s incoherent foreign policy. In Iraq we are on the side of the Shia regime fighting ISIS. In Syria we are de facto allies of ISIS fighting to overthrow the Shia regime. Talk about stirring the pot. Or…

  • College

    If I understand college administrators correctly, colleges are hotbeds of racism and rape that everyone should be able to attend. – Iowahawk Thanks to commenter Randy for the heads up. And thanks to Eric who’s email got me to have another look at the post where Randy’s comment was located.

  • “it is the responsibility in the case of the male”

    KC Johnson has a fascinating post about the idea that drunken sex constitutes “rape.” Excerpt: Broadening what constitutes sexual assault by redefining consent has been a principal goal of “activists”—who have worked with sympathetic faculty and (increasingly) the OCR. The McLeod case at Duke is a particular obvious example of how the new standards might…

  • Electricity Rates Would Necessarily Skyrocket

    Said Obama in March of 2009. And now we have news of the French giving up on nuclear power in favor of intermittent power from “renewables”. Here is a little lesson in grid technology with some politics thrown in: The grid does not run on average power. It runs on instantaneous power. When no one…

  • Gasoline releases CO2? So does coal, and so does breathing!

    Goofy ideas always seem to start in California, and this one is no exception. Drivers in Berkeley, California may soon get a stern warning about the impact of carbon emissions on the environment every time they fill up at the gas pump. As the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday, officials in the famously progressive city…