Category: Uncategorized

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…

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”…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

And why not? Europe is headed for the rocks. And it appears that there is nothing that can save it. The rocks are Eastern European debt. If mishandled by the world policy establishment, this debacle is big enough to shatter the fragile banking systems of Western Europe and set off round two of our financial…

I especially liked the Bo Diddley Beat about 4 1/2 minutes in. Cross Posted at Power and Control

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 I especially liked Part 5 where one engineer describes what it is like to commit other people’s lives to one of your designs. I had that feeling a lot working in aerospace on jet aircraft. I still get that feeling when a plane goes down. Was it…

I’m visiting here and there on the ‘net and find many conservatives shocked and awed by our new President. They believed it would take Obama six months to show his level of incompetence. But two weeks? Outside the realm of calculation. Only three Years 11 months and 6 days to go. He has exceeded his…

Yes. It is true. They are hooking up their electrical grids. AREVA’s Transmission and Distribution (T&D) division has signed a multi-million Euro contract to supply H400 High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) thyristor valves to interconnect the Chinese and Russian power grids. The contract, the first of its kind awarded to AREVA T&D in China, is signed…

While running through a predominantly gay neighborbood in Los Angeles yesterday, I saw a sign which struck me as so ridiculous that I did a doubletake, and returned to take a photo of it. What that means is that residents who leave their homes and return (whether to go to local stores or whatever) more…

Obama has a plan for herding his cattle (or should that be sheeple) into cities where they will be more amenable to Democrat machine politics. That’s why I’d like to see high speed rail where it can be constructed. That’s why I would like to invest in mass transit because potentially that’s energy efficient and…