A Tribute Worth Watching

The Corps got the loudest cheers.  It is a toss up as to whether the Air Force or the Navy got the better formation.

Carbon Dioxide May Not Have As Much Influence As Originally Thought

You don't say.

The climate may be less sensitive to carbon dioxide than we thought – and temperature rises this century could be smaller than expected. That's the surprise result of a new analysis of the last ice age. However, the finding comes from considering just one climate model, and unless it can be replicated using other models, researchers are dubious that it is genuine.

Folks, the science, she ain't settled. Ignore the charlatans masquerading as scientists that suggest otherwise.

The Museum That Belongs In A Museum

Just.....go read it.

It's easy to forget that ancient peoples also studied history - Babylonians who lived 2,500 years ago were able to look back on millennia of previous human experience. That's part of what makes the museum of Princess Ennigaldi so remarkable. Her collection contained wonders and artifacts as ancient to her as the fall of the Roman Empire is to us. But it's also a grim symbol of a dying civilization consumed by its own vast history.

Delusions

How can I possibly put a new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?

- Lifeline, by Robert Heinlein

Popular Science Fiction & Fantasy

Some time ago, I posted something on Facebook about a then current poll being conducted by NPR to determine the 100 best books in the science fiction and fantasy genre.  I let the poll fall from my concerns and moved on.

It happens.

Serendipitously, I ran across the following graphic that presents the results of the poll.

Click the link and enjoy!

There is one deceptive aspect of the poll.  Some of the books listed are really series.  Some of the series are trilogies....or longer....rather than being discrete books.

One disappointing result is that the "Fire and Ice" series came it as high as it did.  I am currently working through that series.  Mostly, because I was able to purchase the first four books as a set for about one third of the cost of buying them separately.  It isn't a bad series.  It doesn't rate to be the fifth best book/series either.

In any case, the above chart provides a good starting point for those that have not delved too deeply into the realm of science fiction and fantasy.

Don't Step In The Marketeer* Droppings

Somewhere, somehow, there is a manager at J.C. Penney's that thought reinforcing an anti-intellectual image of girls was a good idea.  Specifically, "I'm too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me."   Erg.

The good news is that J.C. Penney's is media savvy enough to understand the problem when it started.  They have pulled the t-shirt in question from their online store and are investigating the decision to add it to their product line.

Major league kudos to the horde of folks traveling the inter-tubes that spotted the shirt and began spreading the news.  Big companies are sometimes loath to make changes unless the perceive a significant downside to doing nothing.

Not only do we have a daughter, but the missus and I produced a geek daughter.  We are so proud.  Big things will happen for her soon enough.  There just simply isn't another option in her mind...or ours.

Messages that reinforce the anti-intellectual image for young women are not welcome here.

I came across this issue by reading John Scalzi's blog "Whatever".  He has a geek daughter, too.  I hope to write more about Mr. Scalzi.  In fact, the way I schedule my posts, you may have read it by now!

*The word "marketeer" was used on purpose.  It is a reference to that special little "wonderland" that many marketers inhabit that causes them to confuse using the word "quality" with actually producing products that actually have high quality, and to confuse my telephone, mailbox, and email inbox with public toilets.

Turn Left In 600 Centimeters!

Via John Scalzi...for similar reasons.

What A Tax Payer Wants

Rasmussen recently released the results of a recent poll regarding tax policy.  While I might quibble a bit with the question as to whether or not a simpler, yet still progressive tax structure is a good idea, I am willing to consider it.

Most folks I know do want a simpler tax code.  They don't want lots of deductions.  They want to pay their taxes and know what they will owe at the end of the year.

I know that I find the inability to accurately predict my tax debt to be terribly frustrating.  I don't necessarily want to get a huge refund at the end of each year.  Nor do I want to write Uncle Sam a big check.

A simpler, less intrusive system would be an improvement over the current system.

Send 'Em A Message

Via your rear window.

Ever want to send the idiot in the car behind you a message?  This is one way to do it.

Do You Know Why I Pulled You Over, Son?

I love our Constitution.  I love our Constitutionally limited republic.  It is right and just that the government should be limited to a few defined roles and that government authority should not impinge on individual liberty.

Mickey Kaus has an entry about the legally specious arguments being made in favor of the so-called "individual mandate" portion of Obamacare.

Can the government compel you to buy broccoli?  Can it ban all means of disposal other than consumption in order to force you to consume broccoli?

Well, OK then! As long as we can just leave it rotting in the fridge.** … But it’s a little suspicious–and surely not a selling point–that under Elhauge’s argument the only limits on government would be the rights — like “bodily integrity” and privacy — that liberal  lawyers have dreamed up but not the limit — i.e. whether or not something is “interstate commerce” – the Founders dreamed up.

Just what are the Constitutional limits that modern leftists would obey?

One suspects that the answer is "none", as long as they agree with the law in the first place.  Such is the seed from which the vine which will choke liberty is grown.

How Do You Do That?

How do you build a city our of rock and roll?  What about the engineers?  The skilled trades; carpenters, iron workers, electricians, plumbers?  What about the vendors that sell the stuff you actually build stuff with?  What about the finance folks that get the cash to fund the project?  What about the teachers that taught them all?

Where is Dr. Sheldon Cooper^[1] when you really need him?

^[1] Ok.  Read the link.  If the amount of information cataloged there isn't the definition of irony, then I don't know what is.

Who IS That Girl?

A couple weeks ago, Instapundit had a link to "Who is that hot ad girl?"  A site devoted to identifying notable actresses in advertisements.

Notable primarily because they are....well.....hot.

Sexist?  Probably.

Worth a look?  Definitely.

Look Out For His Right

Attempts at government control of the economy always give me reason for concern.  The record for such control is not exactly stellar.

I wonder what trouble is lurking in our future.  In a modest bit of irony, the Federal Reserve in San Francisco has a model that you can play with that suggests where things might be heading in the near future.

Everywhere you look these days, it seems that ZIRP, or the Fed's Zero Interest Rate Policy, is the panacea to all the world's problems. In fact, ask any tenured economy Ph.D. what inflation is and you will get a stare down, be told you are a moron, that banks need to print more, more, more and that we are really roiling in deflation, with some latent mumblings about buying their economics textbook for the inflationary price of $124.95. Everywhere, that is except the Fed itself. Because in an extremely ironic twist, it is none other than the San Francisco Fed, which operates the "Be Fed chairman for a day" simulation, where you try to keep both unemployment and inflation within the "price stabeeleetee" barriers, that reveals the reality of ZIRP. The laughter really begins when one recreates precisely what the Fed is doing: namely the policy of Zero Interest Rates, now well in its third year, that things take a turn for the surreal. We challenge any reader to play the Fed simulation game, and to do what Bernanke has done: namely lock the Fed Funds rate at the legal minimum: between 0.00% and 0.25%. In our personal experience, we were dismissed as Fed Chairman after annual inflation literally went off the charts and hit 38.36% following 4 years of ZIRP.

If this model published by the Fed is right, then we have some dark days coming soon.

Of course, if it is wrong, then it still leaves open the question as to whether or not the "quantitative easing" and other Federal Reserve policies are good for the long term health of our nation.  If they can't publish a reasonably accurate model, then how can we trust their other decisions?

Delinquency

"I told you that 'juvenile delinquent' is a contradiction in terms. 'Delinquent' means 'failing in duty.' But duty is an adult virtue - indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot be a 'juvenile delinquent.' But for every juvenile criminal there are always one or more adult delinquents - people of mature years who either do not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail

- Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

Criminal Occupation

Disclaimer first, opinion after...

I am certain that most of the Occupy folks are decent enough people.  It is always tempting to make the weirdos and oddballs be the mean rather than the outlier.

But still, the Tea Party folks never had weirdos and oddballs of these dimensions.  Check out the list of serious crimes that are being committed in these Obamavilles.  And those are just the ones that have been reported.

The list does not include the many crimes that the various Occupy committees have successfully hushed up.  Their official position appears to be that they are unwilling to engage local law enforcement over criminal activities.

Rape appears to be the most common crime that these "committees" have the most trouble containing.

Worth considering by but unlisted is racism/anti-Semitism.  (A prominent theme for those following the Occupy antics via Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit.)

Many of the positive changes in our society over the last 30-40 years have occurred due to an expanded sense of tolerance.  What is lacking from the Occupy folks is discernment.  Tolerance is what causes a 16 year old girl to avert her gaze to the normal nudity experience when one is preparing for a good night's sleep.  Discernment is what causes her to call the cops when she becomes the object of to public masturbation.

Sadly, she possessed more discernment than the supposed adults that are running these protests.

Never Think The Worst

I'm glad I waited for clarification before offering any commentary about this event.  This was what I was hoping had happened.

"Whoever shot at the White House is basically a terrorist," LoRusso tells CityBeat, "and I was holding a moment of silence for the White House and President Obama and everyone in the White House. I wasn't holding a moment of silence for the terrorist in any way. We're a peaceful movement, and we don't support people shooting at the White House."

Although I do wonder if Dave Maass is aware that there are leftist blowhards that do much the same to folks that are not of a leftist mindset.  Me might try reading the pages of the NYTimes, WaPo...etc...etc....

Now That Is Fast!

At least if you scale it up properly....

More info and a poll here.

Consequences Of Arabian Affluence

As anyone who has studied wealth and demographics will tell you, money changes a people.  Along with a better standard of living, wealth buys a longer lifespan, education, and thus a more fulfilling way of spending one's years than simply squatting out a football team in some muddy backwater field.

Here is one illustration of how wealth and knowledge have changed birthrates.  The focus is on the Middle East, but the lesson is useful around the world.

A View From Above

This time lapse video from the International Space Station is fantastic.  Most of the views are of the night side of earth.  I saw Michigan and the rest of the Midwestern states in several passes.  The Nile river is also clearly visible.

The natural light shows are even more impressive.  Lightning rolls through the clouds as the space station flies overhead.  Also, the aurora borealis hangs shimmering in the atmosphere.

Just beautiful.

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Miss Aurora's Long Lost Quilt

Although it was not exactly lost.  I knew where it was all the time.

What I didn't know was "when".  As is "when will I ever finish that quilt!"