Month: June 2014

Did you know that the name “Willendorf Venus” is now controversial? The nickname, urging a comparison to the classical image of “Venus,” is now controversial. According to Christopher Witcombe, “the ironic identification of these figurines as ‘Venus’ pleasantly satisfied certain assumptions at the time about the primitive, about women, and about taste.” Heaven forbid that…

For the first time – a mysterious notch filter found in the climate. The EEs among us will recognize this kind of plot. In EE work it is called a Bode Plot.

This morning my dogs saved a life. This life:   That’s a photo I took just now of my large Oscar (Astronotus ocellatus) that I raised from a baby to its present size of about ten inches. I was in the bathroom early this morning when Runty (who was downstairs) let out with a huge…

Obama Compares Skepticism Towards Climate Change To Believing Moon Made Of Cheese. Yeah. Them deniers is just plain dumb. Must be all the CO2 they are exhaling. Meanwhile, The Guardian UK says the sea surface temperature data does not match the models. So scientists are looking for new data. A widely reported “pause” in global…

I’ve long been a fan of William S. Burroughs, and it was nice to read a recent Reason piece about his view of the nanny state: In July of 1957, an unknown writer named William Burroughs visited a friend in Copenhagen. After three weeks in the area, including a brief excursion to Sweden, he wrote…

In an article on why government spaceflight costs so much the author notes that a lot of it has to do with the accounting rules. Private contractors can get around the rules by offering contracts at a fixed price. Some folks in government are trying to protect their turf by forcing private contractors into government…

Low-Cost Fusion Project Steps Out of the Shadows and Looks for Money Nicholas Krall, a plasma physicist who has been working in the fusion field for more than a half-century and has been an adviser to EMC2 Fusion, was more enthusiastic. “I think this is the most exciting experimental advance that I’ve been involved in,”…

A question to ask your “green” friends: Because of the solubility of CO2 in water for every ton of CO2 in the atmosphere there are 15 tons of CO2 dissolved in water. One half the CO2 emitted by man winds up in the atmosphere. Where did the CO2 dissolved in water come from to keep…

I found this article on what the Brat win means for Jews. And especially Republican Jews (a distinct minority within a minority). I agree with some points and disagree with others. One thing the author fails to note is that America is becoming more secular. And that bodes ill for the future of the current…

All those points are important. But I especially liked #2. I intend to continue to hammer/obsess about that one until they fix it. Then I’m going to work on some of the others.

Some whiny little bitch from hell has decided that because she is offended by a vintage Rolling Stones song, Trader Joe’s should not be allowed to play it. That’s because songs like “Under My Thumb” are like, well, like that nutcase who shot people in Isla Vista. Why should I have to hear about a…

Are we having a libertarian moment in politics? And would it matter if we were? It certainly pleases a libertarian to see a politician who is willing to stand up hardcore for the principles of liberty, all the way. Likewise, it makes most libertarians a little peeved or disappointed when a politician won’t do so.…

From: NRA on Facebook Some comments I liked: Those toddlers arent gonna flashbang themselves! Law enforcement does NOT need military equipment. The job of the military is to fight the enemies of the state. The job of police is to enforce the law . When the police becomes like the military the enemies of the…

All the actions I described in My Drug War Obsession were done by Germans in war propaganda movies to make the Germans look bad. America was not like that was the undercurrent. We had the rule of law. Protection of the innocent. Innocent until proven guilty. That may have been an idealization. But being an…

In my post Eric Cantor Loses To TEA Party Libertarian a commenter notes: Your fixation on the drug issue is getting worse. You don’t object to full up Gestapo style raids with battering rams at 3AM? You don’t object to throwing thermite grenades into baby’s cribs? You don’t object to racist enforcement? You don’t object…

It’s getting so there’s almost nothing that can’t be found on Youtube, including a doowop favorite I just found. “Why Oh Why?” by the Click-ettes. It was hard to make it in those days and the group struggled. The Clickettes formed in 1958 at Yorkville Vocational High School in Manhattan. The group had variously names…

From the comments to this Reason article on Eric Cantor vs David Brat. from Brat’s c.v.: “An Analysis of the Moral Foundations in Ayn Rand” by Katy Holland and David Brat, presented and published in the proceedings of Southeast Informs, Myrtle Beach, SC, October 6, 2010 Whole thing here: http://faculty.rmc.edu/dbrat/research.html === Note: Cantor spent $5.4…

Please do me a favor and pass this on. A lot of educating needs to be done. Direct link to the video: http://youtu.be/nU2sozW46i8.

I have been a sceptical of cold fusion for a long time. this article changed my mind. The really good stuff is in the comments – including a reprise of my former scepticism. This post is a response to a comment by NikFromNYC (good job Nik) who repeated a statement from the post he was…

While the narrative promoted at the moment is that President Obama is winding down America’s wars, what is actually happening is that the machinery and war expertise are being shifted from use abroad to use domestically. Never mind the Constitution; police departments all over the country have been transformed into heavily-armed military occupation forces. …as…