9.09.2005

The Song Remains the Same.

Comforting somehow. Malleteers get it and the University still doesn't - MontgomeryAdvertiser.com :: University destroys students' waterfall.

9.07.2005

Back with a vengeance.

After a (still unresolved) hard drive crash imposed exile the Chronicles of Tobermory are back!

9.05.2005

Our kind of General.

"He came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving" - CNN.com - Lt. Gen. Honore

9.03.2005

One of the best stories of a bad week.

"Eighteen-year-old Jabbor Gibson jumped aboard the bus as it sat abandoned on a street in New Orleans and took control. "I just took the bus and drove all the way here...seven hours straight,' Gibson admitted. "I hadn't ever drove a bus." The teen packed it full of complete strangers and drove to Houston. He beat thousands of evacuees slated to arrive there - NEWSCHANNEL 5.

8.28.2005

A War to Be Proud Of

Christopher Hitchens is the best ex-leftie EVAR.

This one might interest Tobermory (or any other Graphic Artist freaks out there).

Desperately Wandering » Become a Photoshop Expert

Frustrated by Ignorance (what else is new?)

I hope all two of you have been entertained by my coverage of the Flying Spaghetti Monster movement - Pastafarianism. I've latched onto this because, well first because it's funny, but also because I see otherwise intelligent kids in my class every day who are being taught by their families/church that the earth is 6000 years old. I tell them that Asian hunters crossed into North America during the last Ice Age over 12,000 years ago and that the fossil rock on my desk is about 350 million years old and the kids with actual families, who feed them & take them to church, their little eyes boggle with cognitive dissonance. I explain (very briefly) the decay of Carbon 14 and how these things are determined, but I'm standing against the almighty. I wonder if the adoption of radical ideas by so many kids in college is aided by the fact that thier families fill them up with this ascientific claptrap before they get there. So useful ideas like reason, liberty, & patriotism, are tossed out when the kids reject the absurdities their parents foisted upon them. (Okay I'm definitely not getting a principal's job any time soon).

8.23.2005

Sheehan undone.

Interesting - Bush shown kissing Cindy Sheehan on cheek at first meeting - WorldNetDaily

He's out there, watching...

8.20.2005

Summer Reading

I read these this summer, all 3000 pages & now I'm at a bit of a loss. Stuart history is one of my favorite periods & Stephenson is one of my favorite writers. It will take a little while for me to go back to fiction. For now I'm reading Gladwell's The Tipping Point.



  

  

Links I'm adding:

LiveScience.com, JunkScience.com, & OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today.

Cool. But I'm not sure I could live in them.

The micro compact home and Six Houses of the Future. (from Boing Boing).

Could explain alot...

Is Your Boss a Psychopath? in Fast Company.

8.19.2005

There is a double boatload of fun on this page.

Internet phenomenon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

All Hail the Noodly Master

Coming soon to a school board near you, the Flying Spaghetti Monster (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). The latest attempt by fundamentalists to inject religion into science, this time in Kansas, has led to demands for recognition by the cult of the "Noodly Master".
The Original Open Letter
Inevitable CafePress Merchandise
99,000+ links at Google Search

8.18.2005

Evironmentalists responsible for shuttle problems.

Gotta research this. I spoke to teacher whose husband works for NASA. She said the problem with the foam coming off the tank began when they stopped techs from cleaning the fuel tanks using foam made with freon! Interesting.

Update: Here's a NewsMax article with a similar, but slightly different, take.
And JunkScience two years ago.

8.12.2005

Amazing Redneck Video

All of you must watch this video montage of great redneck photos -
set to Duelling Banjos of course - Link.

Tags:

8.04.2005

This was a Canadian worth learning about

Last Canadian Victoria Cross winner Ernest Alva (Smoky) Smith dies - "The pair were no sooner into a ditch when a Panther came toward them, firing all the way. Smith waited until the 45-tonne vehicle was less than 10 metres away before he jumped out from his cover, laid down and fired back. He scored a direct hit, disabling the tank."

Immediately, 10 German Panzergrenadier troops jumped off and charged him. "I killed four of them with my tommy gun. That scared them off. They were up close -- about 10 feet or so."
Another tank opened fire. More enemy began closing on Smith's position. Smith grabbed more magazines and "steadfastly held his position,'' said the citation.

"It was just a bunch of rocks,'' Smith said. "You're not fighting on the prairies, you know. You try and keep out of sight. You find yourself a hunk of ground you can hang on to. That's the way you win wars, I think.'' He fired another round at an approaching tank. It turned away. As each German neared him, Smith fired at them. The rest eventually turned and withdrew "in disorder,'' the citation said. "Even Germans don't like to be shot,'' Smith said.

Dead Germans lay strewn all over the road. "I don't take prisoners. Period,'' Smith said 60 years later. "I'm not paid to take prisoners. I'm paid to kill them. That's all there is to it.''

8.01.2005

Calling General Pershing.

I don't think we realize how serious the border problem is. Mexican mercenaries expand base into U.S.. Something is going to have to be done. Or the border just sort of disappears. I could see that.

Just speculating on a hypothesis

Just as we are getting more mobile access to information and communication as indivduals (with cellphones & wifi), the dueling banjos of Islamo-fascism and 'personal preference as public policy' self-righteous do-gooders seek to erode our way of life and our freedoms. Until the majority starts taking the war being waged against our system from the outside seriously and recognizes that our rights as individuals are being slowly eroded by the socialist 'love of banning things' at home, we're in trouble.

7.25.2005

The Fruits of Multiculturalism

From a column in the Australian "With hindsight, the defining encounter of the age was not between Mohammed Atta's jet and the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, but that between Mohammed Atta and Johnelle Bryant a year earlier. Bryant is an official with the US Department of Agriculture in Florida... The meeting got off to a rocky start when Atta refused to deal with Bryant because she was but a woman...When it was explained to him that, alas, he wouldn't get the 650 grand in cash that day, Atta threatened to cut Bryant's throat. He then pointed to a picture behind her desk showing an aerial view of downtown Washington - the White House, the Pentagon et al - and asked: "How would America like it if another country destroyed that city and some of the monuments in it?" - (from Instapundit). Also - FrontPageMag, ABCNEWS.

7.23.2005

Chronicles of Tobermory: "Eco-swindlers" is a perfect label

A great short read on fighting against deliberate ignorance - "How the humanity is to defend itself against eco-swindlers and believers in supernatural phenomena".

7.20.2005

Too Cool for Words

This the sort of thing the internet is made for:
a great hack for Moon Landing Day
Google Moon - Lunar Landing Sites (zoom all the way in for secret moon info).

Scotty

He taught us all the important lesson of explaining to our boss that what he wants is extremely difficult, if not impossible, and then delivering it - Scotty of 'Star Trek' Dead at 85.
Outstanding Scotty .wavs.

7.18.2005

When it happens you heard it here first:

Edith (Joy) Clement will be the President's nominee to replace Justice O'Connor on the Supreme Court - Hadley Arkes on the Supreme Court and Women on National Review Online. Update: I was ahead of the pundits, but we were both wrong - Bush Picks John G. Roberts for Supreme Court.

7.16.2005

Website/Blog for Freakanomics - I like these guys


Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

7.15.2005

Ok. I know it's loony. But I love this stuff.

The MDI Air Car - the world´s cleanest car.

In Contrast: "The End of Europe"

Column explaining exactly why Europe is in decline - too many government benefits from high taxes that slow economic growth coupled with low birth rates that aren't offset by immigration, that they don't want anyway - washingtonpost.com .

The deficit is shrinking, thanks to the Bush tax cuts.

OpinionJournal - Featured Article

7.14.2005

Camille's Smart Chicks

Camille Paglia's Top Ten Women Philosophers - Independent Online Edition

Tags:

7.10.2005

THE GREATEST THINKER IN THE WORLD EVER - DAVID HUME


  Although he lacked the soundbites
  of Marx and the attitude of Sartre,
  David Hume should be recognised as
  the finest philosopher of all time - Sunday Herald.

  Tags:

United States Radar Loop

Intellicast

7.06.2005

Prophet of the Decline of Eurabia

"Oriana Fallaci, one of the most renowned journalists of the modern era, has been indicted by a judge in her native Italy under provisions of the Italian Penal Code which proscribe the "vilipendio," or "vilification," of "any religion admitted by the state." In her case, the religion deemed vilified is Islam, and the vilification was perpetrated, apparently, in a book she wrote last year--and which has sold many more than a million copies all over Europe--called "The Force of Reason." Its astringent thesis is that the Old Continent is on the verge of becoming a dominion of Islam, and that the people of the West have surrendered themselves fecklessly to the "sons of Allah." - OpinionJournal - Citizen of the World

Solar Power & WiFi - Now we're getting somewhere.

  Be Your Own Hotspot - Popular Science

7.04.2005

Bullseye: Deep Impact Slams Into Comet

SPACE.com

More Deep Impact

  At least some part of the government
  is useful (besides the military)
  NASA - Deep Impact Images.
  I want to be an astronaut when I grow up.

The 4th

Check out some great 4th of July links over at the Chronicles of Tobermory.



The Grand Union Flag - America's first national flag.

6.28.2005

Without caffiene, life itself would not be feasible.


  A review of a new book on
  the importance of coffee
  to human advance -
  "Brain Brew" by Brendan I. Koerner.
  The information from the book is interesting,
  the review itself, not so much.

This is well worth the price of admission:

Boing Boing: Group proposes to build hotel on Justice Souter's house property

6.27.2005

Exactly what led to Tobermory's Stalin reading list.

They've got used to freedom, so why do Russians still hunger for the USSR? - Telegraph | Opinion

Catching up with the Supreme Court

SCOTUSblog

6.24.2005

Historians will know.

Not many people know who Gen. Bernard Schriever was - Architect of Air Force space and missile programs dies. A tribute by the current Commander of Air Force Space Command says that without Schriever, "technologically, it's accurate to say, we would be decades behind where we are now." Here is a bio at The New Mexico Museum of Space History International Space Hall of Fame -
Bernard A. Schriever.

I'm stunned by this. Is there still a Fifth Amendment?

Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes - Forbes.com.
- (from Paul and Ferlie).

More: Neal Boortz is livid and spells out the problem with this decision.

6.22.2005

Okay. This could be important.

Common virus kills cancer, study finds - Yahoo! News

One year ago today - SpaceShipOne.

You know we're space junkies around here. I can't believe it's already been a year since the first civilian space flight - SpaceShipOne. Things never go perfectly, & despite the failure of the solar sail launch (I wouldn't trust a Soviet ICBM with my spaceship), there is good space news from the Mojave - Rutan's White Knight Carries X-37 Space Plane Aloft. Data on the X-37 and a photoblog of this morning's activities.

6.21.2005

Alternate Shuttle Aces Early Test

This a new idea for launching rockets into space at high altitude. The rocket is released from the plane and falls into a vertical position before firing. Eliminating the need for wings (which are apparently more unstable), and the danger to the carrier plane that released the rocket. The SpaceShipOne guys are involved. You guys know this is one of our obsessions. The photo is a composite, showing how the rocket falls into takeoff position - Wired News.


Close friends make longer life more likely

New Scientist Breaking News

6.20.2005

Use del.icio.us

By the way, if your not using del.icio.us to keep up with bookmarks & tag them by subject, you should look into it. It plays into my collecting & organizing of info mania. Here are my links. Here's a great way to see what's new & what's popular there - Del.icio.us popular sites.

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

Cory Doctorow is an interesting character. I first learned of him while reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction. (Yes PC, a book about writing a book.) He'd published a few stories by then, but now he has several stories & three novels published. My favorite story is 0wnz0red. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He is one of the members of the net's most popular blog - BoingBoing. His novels are made freely available under the Creative Commons Liscence and his really anti-DRM, anti-restrictions on tech advances for fear of copyright violation. I exchanged e-mails with him last summer when I told him I thought that bb was too pro-Democrat instead of pro-libertarian. I was impressed that he replied. His latest book comes out today & it's more odd than usual - Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. There was a lot of action on it over at del.icio.us, which brought it to my attention.

Sometimes the NBA can be a little interesting.

I'm not a big basketball fan. I love the NCAA Tournament for the brackets. I cheer for Alabama until we get put out. I have a soft spot for the Celtics, because of Havlicek and Larry Byrd. I pull for the Mavericks, because I find Mark Cuban entertaining. And I really like Tim Duncan. He went to school all four years. He's a good guy. He's well-spoken. He's won championships. He may actually be a role model. So I pull for him. I also always look out for Robert Horry. He was at Alabama when I was finishing there the first time and we had great teams, and probably should have gone farther. He's won two champoionships with the Houston Rockets & Hakeem, during the Jordan Interegnum and he also was on the three Shaq-Kobe championship teams, making some important shots along the way. Now he's with Tim Duncan and just pulled the Spurs out of the fire in Game 5. It's great to see an old Bama guy still knocking 'em down - Horry never ceases to amaze & Big Shot Bob bags another one.

How did I not know this existed?

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database

6.15.2005

We knew Curt Schilling played Evercrack, but man he's 'beyond my comprehension'.

Everquest 2 WarCry

dooce

dooce - there is some hilarious 'parenting humor' at this website that several of my procreating friends will enjoy (it's one of the top linked blogs on the internet) - and you must read this, which I got from her - I just have to figure out how he printed this.
update:main link went dead

Picasso, I'm not.

Off to paint my classroom (school provides the paint, we provide the labor).

Christopher Hitchens is the most erudite ex-leftist alive.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - Plus, Amnesty's amnesia By Christopher Hitchens. from Chronicles of Tobermory - which is outstanding today.

6.10.2005

Getting Things Done.

I'm implementing a personal organization system
based on the book Getting Thing Done by David Allen.
I read the book & have begun to apply the concepts to my personal stuff, house stuff, and school stuff. Now that I'll be taking classes as well I'll integrate that into the system.
I'm also making a wiki, Next Action, to examine & present the material in the book in summary form, mainly for my self, but for anyone else as well (using a cool new free webtool pbWiki). I'm half way through skimming the book a second time & highlighting the pertinent lists & ideas. We'll see how it goes.

I'm a grad student again.

To those of you who were crossing fingers for me: I used my bureaucratic fast-talk skill (actually e-mail) and resolved everything to get enrolled at The University of West Alabama to start taking online classes towards a teaching MA to add to my other MA and then I'll move on to various other educational certifications. Back in the saddle.

Tenure

In case I hadn't told everyone - I got tenured. So I'll be dug in like a tick now.

6.05.2005

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

The information about the makeup of the electorate was good reading (& frustrating that Libertarians are not even part of the typology) - Link.

Penn Jillette names daughter Moxie CrimeFighter

St. Petersburg Times: Entertainment news and features