Monday, September 29, 2008
The Numerati
I just heard an interview on National Public Radio with Stephen Baker. He recently wrote a book titled "The Num3rati", which is about the people behind the data mining going on in today's hyper-infused technological society. The interview was very interesting, and I think I might go pick up the book.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Jews for Obama
Sarah Silverman, encouraging all Jews to go make their Grandparents in Florida vote for Obama. Incisive political punditry.
See more Sarah Silverman videos at Funny or Die
Prpoerty of the USA
http://www.mainstreet.com/article/life-stages/military/theres-law-takes-away-money-if-you-leave-us-citizenship
You're either with us or your assets are ours.....
You're either with us or your assets are ours.....
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
They're winning
From a recent video released by Osama bin Laden:
"We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said. "We, alongside the mujahedeen, bled Russia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat," bin Laden said.
"We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said. "We, alongside the mujahedeen, bled Russia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat," bin Laden said.
He also said al Qaeda has found it "easy for us to provoke and bait this administration."
"All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations," bin Laden said.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
This Debt Is Out of Hand
These are excerpts from Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback column, which often touches on much more than football (often includes some favorable pictures of cheerleaders):
The White House just asked the national debt ceiling be raised another $700 billion, for the proposed financial-sector bailout. If that happens, in 2008 alone, $1.5 trillion will have been added to the national debt: every penny borrowed from your children and their children. Stated in today's dollars, in 1979 the entire national debt was $1.5 trillion. George W. Bush and Congress have in a single year added an amount equal to the entire national debt one generation ago. And the year's not over!
The White House just asked the national debt ceiling be raised another $700 billion, for the proposed financial-sector bailout. If that happens, in 2008 alone, $1.5 trillion will have been added to the national debt: every penny borrowed from your children and their children. Stated in today's dollars, in 1979 the entire national debt was $1.5 trillion. George W. Bush and Congress have in a single year added an amount equal to the entire national debt one generation ago. And the year's not over!
It took the United States 209 years, from the founding of the republic till 1998, to compile the first $5 trillion in national debt. In the decade since, $6 trillion in debt has been added. This means the United States has borrowed more money in the past decade than in all our previous history combined. Almost all the borrowing has been under the direction of George W. Bush -- at this point Bush makes Kenneth Lay seem like a paragon of fiscal caution. Democrats deserve ample blame, too. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leaders of the Senate and House, have never met a bailout they didn't like: Harry and Nancy just can't wait to spend your children's money. Six trillion dollars borrowed in a single decade and $1.5 trillion borrowed in 2008 alone. Charles Ponzi would be embarrassed.
If you borrowed, borrowed, borrowed, you could afford to live high for a while -- then there would be a reckoning. Hmmm … that sounds a little like what many Americans did with gimmick mortgages in 2005 and 2006. They were only imitating their political leadership! Why is it both parties in Washington think the United States can borrow, borrow, borrow without a reckoning ever coming? Bush, Reid and Pelosi seem poised to transfer hundreds of billions of dollars of borrowed public money to political insiders on Wall Street and in banking, whose bonuses will now be tax-subsidized. The capitalist maxim is, "She who reaps the gains also bears the losses." Now Washington wants those who reaped the gains to shift the losses to those who lived humbly. The young will pay and pay for these cynical ploys to insure the luxury of the powerful old. Why aren't the young outraged?
And there's a lot more analysis in the rest of the column...and some good football talk.
The US & France
This satirical article comparing the United States to France is spot on. Since studying government in college, I have always been surprised at the rhetoric that comes from many about how the US is the best 'free market' in the world. Every major industry in the United States has been repeatedly propped up by taxpayer dollars since the 1930s. We've been tipping more and more towards a socialist state, but people haven't ever acknowledged it until the past week.
On the news shows the pundits are now calling this place the "People's Democratic Republic of the United States". It's too bad this set of blinders has resulted in last minute scrambles that are mere triage on catastrophic injury.
Link.
On the news shows the pundits are now calling this place the "People's Democratic Republic of the United States". It's too bad this set of blinders has resulted in last minute scrambles that are mere triage on catastrophic injury.
Link.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Japan's Space Elevator
I know we live in exciting times. Some people relate it to the turbulent 60s. I'd like to think that when we have elevators that go to space, people (as a species) will mellow out.
I can dream.
I can dream.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Weird how things happen
I started reading the sports guy and noticed a strange reference at the end. Doing what I do, I googled the last line which brought me to this obituary.
I don't know much about this guy, but after reading this commencement speech he gave I think I want to.
I don't know much about this guy, but after reading this commencement speech he gave I think I want to.
Friday, September 19, 2008
A billion
I copied this from an email forward. I don't know whether it's completely true, but I heard numerous times that the amount of money the government was spending on disaster relief would be better spent just giving a check to each family that was in the area instead of on beauracracy and construction. Huge centralized government projects, bailouts and buyouts of mega-corporations, unending warfare...I don't see how this can sustain itself.
The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians spending YOUR tax money.
A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into som perspective in one of its releases.
A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.
While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division
Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D) is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans . Interesting number, what does it mean?
A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.
B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.
C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.
The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians spending YOUR tax money.
A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into som perspective in one of its releases.
A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.
While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division
Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D) is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans . Interesting number, what does it mean?
A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.
B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.
C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The difference between liberals and conservatives
Great video! And with some science to back it up. Neither side is really "right" or "wrong", but both are necessary for a living, healthy society.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Computer barges
Google has filed a patent application for an invention that will be like a barge, loaded with computer networking gear, to be anchored off the coast. They will utilize the wave action of the ocean to provide electricity and use the ocean to control heat generation. As they will be offshore, they may be able to avoid tax and legal implications with local governments.
Interesting...
Interesting...
Born to Run
Fascinating article about how some biologists are piecing together facts that indicate that people are amazing runners:
Late one night over beers in the Welsh hamlet of Llanwrtyd Wells, an innkeeper got into an argument with a foxhunter about who could run faster, man or horse. The innkeeper insisted that over many miles, a human runner would have greater stamina, and prevail. Thus was born a tradition: Every year since 1980, Llanwrtyd Wells has hosted the Man Versus Horse Marathon, which pits hundreds of runners against dozens of horses with riders. On two legs or four, contestants take on 22 miles of challenging trails laced across a dazzling green countryside. They trot through fragrant pine forests, scramble up mountainous rock-strewn sheep trails, cross rolling moorlands, and ford rivers. In June 2004, for the first time ever, the human won. The innkeeper was delighted—and so were University of Utah biologist Dennis Bramble and Harvard University paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman. That summer the two scientists were putting the finishing touches on a theory with a new view on how conditions millions of years ago molded the way humans move today. The standard explanation among physical anthropologists has long been that early hominids left life in the trees to forage on the open savanna and that walking upright was the key to surviving in that new environment. Bramble and Lieberman do not dispute this general theory, but they have identified a suite of traits in the human anatomy that add a dramatic twist to the story line.
The traits appear to be specifically adapted for running—and for jogging for long distances. So Bramble and Lieberman were not at all surprised that a man won the Man Versus Horse Marathon. It fits their hypothesis. Unlike many mammals, not to mention primates, people are astonishingly successful endurance runners, "and I don't think it's just a fluke," Lieberman says. He and Bramble argue that not only can humans outlast horses, but over long distances and under the right conditions, they can also outrun just about any other animal on the planet—including dogs, wolves, hyenas, and antelope, the other great endurance runners. From our abundant sweat glands to our Achilles tendons, from our big knee joints to our muscular glutei maximi, human bodies are beautifully tuned running machines. "We're loaded top to bottom with all these features, many of which don't have any role in walking," Lieberman says. Our anatomy suggests that running down prey was once a way of life that ensured hominid survival millions of years ago on the African savanna.
Continue here.
Late one night over beers in the Welsh hamlet of Llanwrtyd Wells, an innkeeper got into an argument with a foxhunter about who could run faster, man or horse. The innkeeper insisted that over many miles, a human runner would have greater stamina, and prevail. Thus was born a tradition: Every year since 1980, Llanwrtyd Wells has hosted the Man Versus Horse Marathon, which pits hundreds of runners against dozens of horses with riders. On two legs or four, contestants take on 22 miles of challenging trails laced across a dazzling green countryside. They trot through fragrant pine forests, scramble up mountainous rock-strewn sheep trails, cross rolling moorlands, and ford rivers. In June 2004, for the first time ever, the human won. The innkeeper was delighted—and so were University of Utah biologist Dennis Bramble and Harvard University paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman. That summer the two scientists were putting the finishing touches on a theory with a new view on how conditions millions of years ago molded the way humans move today. The standard explanation among physical anthropologists has long been that early hominids left life in the trees to forage on the open savanna and that walking upright was the key to surviving in that new environment. Bramble and Lieberman do not dispute this general theory, but they have identified a suite of traits in the human anatomy that add a dramatic twist to the story line.
The traits appear to be specifically adapted for running—and for jogging for long distances. So Bramble and Lieberman were not at all surprised that a man won the Man Versus Horse Marathon. It fits their hypothesis. Unlike many mammals, not to mention primates, people are astonishingly successful endurance runners, "and I don't think it's just a fluke," Lieberman says. He and Bramble argue that not only can humans outlast horses, but over long distances and under the right conditions, they can also outrun just about any other animal on the planet—including dogs, wolves, hyenas, and antelope, the other great endurance runners. From our abundant sweat glands to our Achilles tendons, from our big knee joints to our muscular glutei maximi, human bodies are beautifully tuned running machines. "We're loaded top to bottom with all these features, many of which don't have any role in walking," Lieberman says. Our anatomy suggests that running down prey was once a way of life that ensured hominid survival millions of years ago on the African savanna.
Continue here.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Joke from Tina
Joe has suffered from the same splitting headache for 20 years.
So, finally, Joe went to see the doctor.
The doctor said, "Joe, the good news is I can cure your headache. The bad news is that it will require castration. You have a very rare condition which causes your testicles to press on your spine, and the pressure creates a splitting headache. The only way to relieve the pressure is to remove the testicles."
Joe was shocked and depressed. He wondered if he had anything to live for. He had no choice but to go under the knife.
When he left the hospital, he was without a headache for the first time in 20 years, but he felt like he was missing an important part of himself.
As he walked down the street, he realized that he felt like a different person. He could make a new beginning and live a new life. He saw a men's clothing store and thought, "That's what I need... A new suit."
He entered the shop and told the salesman, "I'd like a new suit." The elderly tailor eyed him briefly and said, "Let's see...size 44 long." Joe laughed, "That's right, how did you know?" 'Been in the business 60 years!' the tailor said.
Joe tried on the suit; it fitted perfectly.
As Joe admired himself in the mirror, the salesman asked, "How about a new shirt?" Joe thought for a moment and then said, "Sure." The salesman eyed Joe and said, "Let's see, 34 sleeves and 16-1/2 neck." Joe was surprised, "That's right, how did you know?" "Been in the business 60 years."
Joe tried on the shirt, and it fit perfectly.
Joe walked comfortably around the shop, and the salesman asked, "How about some new underwear?" Joe thought for a moment and said, "Sure." The salesman said, "Let's see...size 36."
Joe laughed, "Ah ha! I got you, I've worn a size 34 since I was 18 years old."
The salesman shook his head, "Oh no. You can't wear a size 34. A size 34 would press your testicles up against the base of your spine and give you a splitting headache."
So, finally, Joe went to see the doctor.
The doctor said, "Joe, the good news is I can cure your headache. The bad news is that it will require castration. You have a very rare condition which causes your testicles to press on your spine, and the pressure creates a splitting headache. The only way to relieve the pressure is to remove the testicles."
Joe was shocked and depressed. He wondered if he had anything to live for. He had no choice but to go under the knife.
When he left the hospital, he was without a headache for the first time in 20 years, but he felt like he was missing an important part of himself.
As he walked down the street, he realized that he felt like a different person. He could make a new beginning and live a new life. He saw a men's clothing store and thought, "That's what I need... A new suit."
He entered the shop and told the salesman, "I'd like a new suit." The elderly tailor eyed him briefly and said, "Let's see...size 44 long." Joe laughed, "That's right, how did you know?" 'Been in the business 60 years!' the tailor said.
Joe tried on the suit; it fitted perfectly.
As Joe admired himself in the mirror, the salesman asked, "How about a new shirt?" Joe thought for a moment and then said, "Sure." The salesman eyed Joe and said, "Let's see, 34 sleeves and 16-1/2 neck." Joe was surprised, "That's right, how did you know?" "Been in the business 60 years."
Joe tried on the shirt, and it fit perfectly.
Joe walked comfortably around the shop, and the salesman asked, "How about some new underwear?" Joe thought for a moment and said, "Sure." The salesman said, "Let's see...size 36."
Joe laughed, "Ah ha! I got you, I've worn a size 34 since I was 18 years old."
The salesman shook his head, "Oh no. You can't wear a size 34. A size 34 would press your testicles up against the base of your spine and give you a splitting headache."
Monday, September 8, 2008
You can tell by the way she walks...
Paisley, Scotland – September 04, 2008 - A new study found that trained sexologists could infer a woman's history of vaginal orgasm by observing the way she walks. The study is published in the September 2008 issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, the official journal of the International Society for Sexual Medicine and the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/w-gmb090408.php
Gosh, can you imagine being the scientists writing the research grant proposal for this?
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/w-gmb090408.php
Gosh, can you imagine being the scientists writing the research grant proposal for this?
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Point to Colbert
this was colbert's response to cindy mccain's recent interview on abc where she tried to make the case that governor palin has foreign policy experience.
Cindy McCain: "Remember, Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia"
Colbert: "Yes! Not only is Alaska America's closest point to Russia, Alaska has Mount McKinley which makes it America's closest point to space... so that means she has space policy experience."
Thank you Burt!
Cindy McCain: "Remember, Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia"
Colbert: "Yes! Not only is Alaska America's closest point to Russia, Alaska has Mount McKinley which makes it America's closest point to space... so that means she has space policy experience."
Thank you Burt!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
