Thursday, May 15, 2008
The Isley Brothers' Best Title
Why Computer Climate Models May Not Support Our Full Reliance
Sometimes the modeling mistake is 3.5 times what really happened
So of course we should believe them vis a vis the growing population of Polar Bears. No possibility of modeling overstatement there.
Labels: Global Warming; Disputed Predictions
This Day in the History of Thermonuclear Firsts

Labels: Cold War History; Nuclear tests
Thought of the Day
Horace
The merchant, fearing the Southwest wind wrestling with Icarian waves, praises retirement and rural life in his hometown, but soon he repairs his shattered boat, incapable of enduring poverty.
Labels: Horace quote
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Sometimes You Get the Bear...

Labels: Global Warming; Disputed Predictions; Polar Bears
Good News from Afghanistan

Behold the Strategy Page's take here. Money quote:
While some Taliban commanders have tried to develop new tactics to reduce casualties (smaller units of Taliban, and avoiding contact with police and troops), nothing has worked. The Afghan army is larger (76,000 troops) and better trained than last year, and there are more foreign troops. Worst of all, more tribal leaders have sided with the government this year, meaning tribal militias are also ready to fight Taliban moving through previously pro-Taliban territory.
Over half the Taliban in Afghanistan are from Pakistan, for Pete's sake.
Labels: Afghanistan; Taliban Spring Offensive
This Day in the History of Real Advances in Medicine

Labels: Edward Jenner, Inoculation
Thought of the Day
Seneca
An action will not be right unless the intention is right, for from it comes the action. Again, the intention will not be right unless the habit of thought has been right, for from it comes the intention.
Labels: Seneca quote
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The State of the Climate, Late Spring 2008

Another beautiful Spring/Autumn on our beautiful planet.
Labels: Science; Global Warming
Thought of the Day
Horace
Both my language and my thinking differ widely from theirs.
Labels: Horace quote
Monday, May 12, 2008
Good News from Iraq

Labels: Iraq Successes
Hillary's Downfall
NOT SAFE FOR WORK
But funny as heck. Like Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily? it's just an old movie with new subtitles, but what subtitles. And I liked Downfall, with Bruno Ganz's great impersonation of Hitler during the final days, down to the Parkinson's symptoms in his left hand. The movie has a lot of head shots self inflicted by high ranking Nazis, too. What's not to like? Would that Hillary stick it out to the end in some bunker in Denver.
Don't Fear the Reaper

The future of Aerial Warfare, the MQ-9 Reaper.
See the two smart bombs (GBU-12 Paveway II or GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions)? It can also carry four AGM-114 Hellfire missiles on the wings.
This will be the plane skynet uses to mop up the surviving humans after the nuke strikes.
We only have 10, so far, and they are 10 months deployed in Afghanistan.
Labels: MQ-9 Reaper
The Grandeur of Nature


Labels: Chaiten images
The Moon and Mercury

Actually, if we could see the surface details of Mercury, it would look remarkably like the Moons, without the lava flow 'seas' of course.
Funny how even the most mundane of images can be so beautiful.
Labels: Mercury and Moon
Yuto Miyazawa - 8-Year Old Japanese Guitar Phenom!
The guitar is bigger than he was. I didn't know the first and last song, but he does a pretty good version of the Clapton version of Crossroads. If his career has the normal arc of an American rock guitarist he'll be staging a comeback, after beating heroin, at age 14. Still sings like an 8 year old.
This Day in the History of Early Cold War Battles Won

Labels: Cold War History; Berlin Airlift
Thought of the Day
Terence
That a person should be so changed by love as not to be know again as the same person?
Labels: Terence quote
Sunday, May 11, 2008
A Disgusting Sight
It didn't end there, more's the pity.
Gross me out. Mr. Eloquence had a little trouble there identifying his 'oppressors.' Part of the true gift, no doubt.
And yet it's his off-screen performances that can get in the way of a truly gifted man, and often it's his liberal politics that make him red meat for his critics.
"They hate liberals who can throw a punch," Baldwin tells Safer.
Asked who "they" are, Baldwin says, "They, yeah, this…they. The vast right wing conspiracy that's after me."
Liberal politics has always been his passion. He grew up in a working class family on Long Island, N.Y. He has an impressive grasp of the issues, and spends a huge amount of his time and money supporting causes he believes in, like animal rights, the environment, and the arts.
The guy is a poli sci drop-out from safety school George Washington U in DC, for Pete's sake, who finished with a BA from dumb ass NYU, in drama, wow! quite a stretch for a Hollywood actor, at age 35. Impressive grasp of the issues like animal 'rights' and the 'arts'. Yeah, and he translates the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus into Middle Sanskrit for fun on weekends. 60 Minutes producers must think we'll believe anything they say. At best he's a self absorbed lefty 'thinker' with 950 SATs and a 2.5 gradepoint average, who looked pretty good in his youth and was good at the pretending.
Not through yet, over at the creaking with age CBS flagship show.
But his bare-knuckled approach to political discourse has made him an easy target for conservative junkyard dogs like Sean Hannity. (That's Morely doing the name calling).
Your eloquence, if that’s the word, can get you into deep trouble," Safer remarks.
"So I don't make the eloquent point so eloquently, is that what you're saying?" Baldwin asks.
"Or you make them perhaps excessively eloquent, as in your description of Dick Cheney, who you said was a sociopath and a terrorist. And you later apologized by just calling him a lying, thieving oil whore and a murderer of the U.S. Constitution," Safer replies.
I think I just threw up a little in my mouth. I'm OK, now. (Although Morley said it, that was Baldwin doing the neither clever or accurate name calling this time).
The real irony here is that they are taking this never was actor seriously. People in the real world think he is a joke, and a pretty sad one at that. We watch him now with the same fascination rubes watch the Geek act in sideshows--we can't believe he really bites the head off the remnants of his once promising career.
I personally can't get past that he criticizes the President and Vice President in the same way he speaks to his 12 year old daughter (or 11 years old, he seemed unsure on the phone message), whom he called a "thoughtless little pig" (et al.) What a great guy! Well worth praising far beyond his deserving on neither relevant nor cutting edge 60 Minutes. If I were an actor still trying to get work, I would move Heaven and Hell not to be so showcased there. It is the death of any vestige of cool.
Labels: Alec Baldwin; 60 Minutes
Test
Lame After the Fact Light Posting Excuse
At the range I did well (consistent, not accurate) with the Ruger 10/22 in 22 mag. I also did well, accurate OK tight grouping, with the Remington in 300 Weatherby magnum. But the beautiful gun, the thousand dollar plus Colt Saur in 300 Winchester magnum, continues to be mystery to me. I won't accuse it of a wandering zero, but it was 8 inches low at the start and the accurate group at the end at 200 yards could not have been covered with a dollar bill. I would say that's OK but for my hunting buddy Gary who gets near quarter covered groups with his 150 dollar Savage in 30.06 and with his Safari grade 2 BAR in 7 mm magnum.
Since we're reloading our ammo, we can't blame it (I can't) without damning my reloading ability.
Also, I'm heeling my pistol shooting. It might be that the Glock 19 has a trigger pull weight I'm not used to. In any event, my shooting skills are rusty at best and I need much more range time.
Labels: personal history
Friday, May 09, 2008
This Day in the History of Great Political Cartoons

Labels: American Revolution pre-history
Thought of the Day
Terence
This falls to the father, to accustom his son to do right of his own will rather than from fear of consequences.
Labels: Terence quote
Thursday, May 08, 2008
This Day in the History of Losing Battle After Battle Until the War is Won

Labels: Spotslyvania Court House; American Civil War
Thought of the Day
Horace
Anger is a brief madness; control your temper; for unless it obeys, it commands you; restrain it with bit and chain.
Labels: Horace quote
