I love the title of this article: Dude, Where's My Recession?
And if that weren't enough, he throws in a Terminator analogy for good measure.
[snorfles some more]
Anyone else remember the Niven/Pournelle novel form the eighties, "Fallen Angels"?
Basically, the Earth is facing an Ice Age, while environmentalists are still going on about global warming.
Turns out it might not be so fictional after all:
Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh
I thought this was interesting:
British sense of fair play proven by science
The British sense of fair play has been scientifically proven by experiments held in 16 cities which show that, by comparison, the Russians and Greeks thirst for revenge.The idealised games held around the world have shed new light on the way in which people co-operate for the common good - and what happens when they don't.
The research published today in the journal Science shows that taking revenge is more common in relatively corrupt and undemocratic traditional societies based on authoritarian and parochial social institutions, where citizens think it is acceptable to dodge taxes or flout laws because criminal acts frequently go unpunished.
[...]
In a commentary in the journal Science, Prof Herbert Gintis of the Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico, confirms how: "Anti-social punishment was rare in the most democratic societies and very common otherwise."Using the World Democracy Audit evaluation of countries' performance in political rights, civil liberties, press freedom and corruption, the top six performers among the countries studied were also in the lowest seven for anti-social punishment. These were the USA, UK, Germany, Denmark, Australia and Switzerland."
He adds: "Their results suggest that the success of democratic market societies may depend critically upon moral virtues as well as material interests, so the depiction of civil society as the sphere of 'naked self-interest' is radically incorrect."
An excerpt:
Back in 1991, before Al Gore first shouted that the Earth was in the balance, the Danish Meteorological Institute released a study using data that went back centuries that showed that global temperatures closely tracked solar cycles.To many, those data were convincing. Now, Canadian scientists are seeking additional funding for more and better "eyes" with which to observe our sun, which has a bigger impact on Earth's climate than all the tailpipes and smokestacks on our planet combined.
And they're worried about global cooling, not warming.
Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's National Research Council, is among those looking at the sun for evidence of an increase in sunspot activity.
Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.
Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle.
This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.
University of Delaware Requires Students to Undergo Ideological Reeducation
This reads like something out of the Soviet Union! Though the university would probably consider that a compliment.
This is the sort of thing we can look forward to if Hillary gets her way.
In Olso Friday, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded to the Burmese monks whose defiance against, and brutalization at the hands of, the country's military junta in recent weeks captured the attention of the Free World.The prize was also not awarded to Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and other Zimbabwe opposition leaders who were arrested and in some cases beaten by police earlier this year while protesting peacefully against dictator Robert Mugabe.
Or to Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest in Vietnam arrested this year and sentenced to eight years in prison for helping the pro-democracy group Block 8406.
The rest here.
There were parts of this that just made me want to cry for these girls and women. Like the excerpt below:
...Irene, fifteen, hooked up with a boy for some time—"we basically became friends with benefits," she confided to a reporter for The New York Times. Unfortunately, the boy never got around to asking her out on a real date, as Irene was hoping, so she was "devastated." But she says, "Since then, I've become really good at keeping my emotions in check. I can hook up with a guy and not fall for him."
How extraordinarily sad -- and she's only fifteen!
HERETICAL THOUGHTS ABOUT SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
My first heresy says that all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated. Here I am opposing the holy brotherhood of climate model experts and the crowd of deluded citizens who believe the numbers predicted by the computer models. Of course, they say, I have no degree in meteorology and I am therefore not qualified to speak. But I have studied the climate models and I know what they can do. The models solve the equations of fluid dynamics, and they do a very good job of describing the fluid motions of the atmosphere and the oceans. They do a very poor job of describing the clouds, the dust, the chemistry and the biology of fields and farms and forests. They do not begin to describe the real world that we live in. The real world is muddy and messy and full of things that we do not yet understand. It is much easier for a scientist to sit in an air-conditioned building and run computer models, than to put on winter clothes and measure what is really happening outside in the swamps and the clouds. That is why the climate model experts end up believing their own models.
Read the whole thing. Having always been an admirer of Professor Dyson's I'm thrilled to see that his writings are on a website. Very cool!
Via LJ buddy, CaptofmyHeart.
A stark reminder from the past, especially meaningful these days, when the term 'Nazi' is tossed around frequently by the left.
The Genocide Generals: secret recordings explode the myth they knew nothing about the Holocaust
During the latter half of World War II, the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) undertook a massive clandestine operation of which the full, extraordinary details are only now coming to light.Between 1942 and 1945, a section of SIS - known as MI19 - secretly recorded no fewer than 64,427 conversations between captured German generals and other senior officers, all without their knowledge or even suspicion. The 167 most significant of these are about to be published for the first time.
Together, they provide us with a goldmine of information about what the German High Command privately thought of the war, Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and each other.
Do go read the entire article. There's also a rare colour photo of Hitler with his generals, which is very odd because I've only ever seen B&W before.
I was a fanatic...I know their thinking, says former radical Islamist
An excerpt:
When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network - a series of British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology - I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy.By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this "Blair's bombs" line did our propaganda work for us.
More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.
The attempts to cause mass destruction in London and Glasgow are so reminiscent of other recent British Islamic extremist plots that they are likely to have been carried out by my former peers.
And as with previous terror attacks, people are again saying that violence carried out by Muslims is all to do with foreign policy.
For example, on Saturday on Radio 4's Today programme, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said: "What all our intelligence shows about the opinions of disaffected young Muslims is the main driving force is not Afghanistan, it is mainly Iraq."
I left the British Jihadi Network in February 2006 because I realised that its members had simply become mindless killers. But if I were still fighting for their cause, I'd be laughing once again.
Infanticide, Abortion Responsible for 60 Million Girls Missing in Asia
There is a little-known battle for survival going in some parts of the world. Those at risk are baby girls, and the casualties are in the millions each year. The weapons being used against them are prenatal sex selection, abortion and female infanticide — the systematic killing of girls soon after they are born.
Found this video linked on The Corner this morning.
It certainly doesn't pull any punches!
I was asked to put up a link to this survey for my readers.
Increasingly, Americans are turning to the web for news about politics. This is a survey about online news coverage of the immigration issue. We are interested in your thoughts on this important political controversy. If you decide to participate in our survey, you will start off by answering a few questions about yourself and your political attitudes. Then you will watch a short news clip of an immigration story. After the clip, we will ask you some questions about your position on immigration policy. In total, the survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. The survey is completely anonymous and you can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.Click here to take the survey:
In Saudi Arabia, a view from behind the veil
....I was ready to cope, or so I thought. I arrived with a protective smirk in tow, planning to thicken the walls around myself. I'd report a few stories, and go home. I had no inkling that Saudi Arabia, the experience of being a woman there, would stick to me, follow me home on the plane and shadow me through my days, tainting the way I perceived men and women everywhere.(emphasis mine)I'm leaving the Middle East now, closing up years spent covering the fighting and fallout that have swept the region since Sept. 11. Of all the strange, scary and joyful experiences of the past years, my time covering Saudi Arabia remains among the most jarring.
I spent my days in Saudi Arabia struggling unhappily between a lifetime of being taught to respect foreign cultures and the realization that this culture judged me a lesser being. I tried to draw parallels: If I went to South Africa during apartheid, would I feel compelled to be polite?
Thanks to KC Anathema for the link.
Excellent article: The Subjection of Islamic Women
And the fecklessness of American feminism.
The Realignment of America The native-born are leaving "hip" cities for the heartland.
Very interesting article and well worth a click through to read IMHO.
With Ith's kind permission... here is my belated guest blog post.
A couple of organizations I've never heard of, Citizens for Public Water and Monterey FLOW, assure us that a publicly-owned desalination plant is the answer to all of our water woes. In their six-page glossy full-color mailer, they claim that they are "working together to ensure that water remains affordable for all county residents."
Well... I haven't the time or the energy to dig deep and study this one, but one sentence jumps out:
Growth . . . will occur in accordance with existing and new land-use policies.
Hmm. What "new" land use policies might those turn out to be? The mailer is mysteriously silent on this point.
I confess I am torn. As a lifelong resident and survivor of several past water shortages with rationing, I do want our local water supply to be safe and plentiful. But on the other hand... if there is a new source of water brought online (i.e. a desalination plant) I suspect we will find out very quickly what those "new" land use policies would be. All together, now, one-two-three: More development! More traffic! More bodies! More McMansions! Hurrah!
Water. At what price?
Discuss amongst yourselves. I have work to do.
Cross-posted at Coffee with CrankyBeach
Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims
Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Governmentbacked study has revealed.It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.
There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades - where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem - because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques.
I should be surpised, but sadly, I'm not.
.... In the near future, you can expect restaurant-quality meals made with ventless cooking equipment; interactive concession signs and lightning-swift mobile-phone service allowing customers to reserve seats and pay for tickets.
The whole article here.
Europe Lags As U.S. Races Ahead
It's an interesting article over all, but go down to the bottom and look at the chart. The 'long-term joblessness' number is astounding.
We let hundreds of thousands of illegals pour across our borders, but if you're trying to get here legally?
The US currently limits visas for skilled foreign workers to 65,000 a year, while the number of green cards, required for permanent resident status is limited to 140,000 a year.
The whole thing here.
Very interesting article on "preferential patrilateral parallel cousin marriage" and how it relates to Islam.
.... In this first in a series of essays on Muslim cousin-marriage, I want to begin to make the case that Muslim kinship structure is an unexamined key to the war on terror. While the character of Islam itself is unquestionably one of the critical forces driving our global conflict, the nature of Islamic kinship and social structure is at least as important a factor — although this latter cluster of issues has received relatively little attention in public debate. Understanding the role of Middle Eastern kinship and social structure in driving the war not only throws light on the weaknesses of arguments like D’Souza’s, it may also help us devise a new long-term strategy for victory in the war on terror.
The whole thing here.
that they'll be offering birth control pills over the counter as well?
British Pharmacy Chain to Begin Trial to Offer Men Anti-Impotence Drug Viagra Over Counter
(Now, they may already, but BCPs aren't listed in the article as something already done OTC)
We had a huge fire downtown last night.
101 year old building and 20+ businesses. Alavarado is shut down until they can stabilize what's left of the building. And it's AT&T/Crosby Golf tourney week, so the town is packed.
A Phenomenon Called Senator Kennedy
...... More secrets about Kennedy’s collaboration with Moscow became known after the famous defector Vasiliy Mitrokhin smuggled his invaluable archive of secret KGB documents to the West. In 2002, he publicized some of them in The KGB in Afghanistan working paper, published by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In 1980 Kennedy attacked President Carter over the latter’s tough opposition to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As Mitrokhin reveals, the senator had evidently coordinated that with Moscow several weeks before — through Tunney and Egon Bahr, West Germany’s top Social Democrat who often had secret contacts with the KGB.Then in 1983, according to the notorious KGB document quoted by Sebastian and now by Kengor, Tunney conveyed another secret message from Kennedy to the Soviet leader, communicating to Andropov the senator’s willingness, “in the interest of world peace,” to take some joint measures against “the militaristic policies of Ronald Reagan.” When the KGB received this information, they classified it at the highest possible level — not only as “top secret,” but also as “of special importance” and a “special file.” It was immediately reported to Andropov, but left him unimpressed. So the intrusive senator was rebuffed for a while.
However, Andropov died soon, followed shortly thereafter by his senile successor Chernenko. In less than two years, Gorbachev got to power. He soon reversed the previous decision on Kennedy, and agreed to see him in February 1986.
The above alone would be enough for the new general secretary to know significantly more about the senator than his family name. But the story did not end there. Below we are quoting more top-secret documents from Soviet archives (about which you can read more on in John O’Sullivan’s new book, The Pope, the President and the Prime Minister), which tell about Ted Kennedy’s further contacts with the Kremlin.
This has become a favourite blog over the last few months.
Want to know the innermost secrets of Writer Beware? Of course you do! Come and read about hunting down scam agents, and get information on writing and publishing from authors/scam hunters Victoria Strauss and A.C. Crispin. Got questions on how to avoid scams in the writing world? Ask the experts! Got questions on writing and publishing? Get the straight dope here.
They have another great post up on the perils of paying for representation and vanity publishing.
Severe climate change was the primary driver in the development of civilisation, according to new research by the University of East Anglia.The early civilisations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, South Asia, China and northern South America were founded between 6000 and 4000 years ago when global climate changes, driven by natural fluctuations in the Earth's orbit, caused a weakening of monsoon systems resulting in increasingly arid conditions. These first large urban, state-level societies emerged because diminishing resources forced previously transient people into close proximity in areas where water, pasture and productive land was still available.
In a presentation to the BA Festival of Science on September 7, Dr. Nick Brooks will challenge existing views of how and why civilisation arose. He will argue that the earliest civilisations developed largely as a by-product of adaptation to climate change and were the products of hostile environments.
"Civilisation did not arise as the result of a benign environment which allowed humanity to indulge a preference for living in complex, urban, 'civilized' societies," said Dr. Brooks.
"On the contrary, what we tend to think of today as 'civilisation' was in large part an accidental by-product of unplanned adaptation to catastrophic climate change. Civilisation was a last resort - a means of organising society and food production and distribution, in the face of deteriorating environmental conditions."
The rest here.
This happened in the town near where my family lives in Utah.
Sheriff says teen saved family by killing intruder
Parents in danger: The boy breaks free of duct tape, plunges knife five times into the man's back
In Christian-Muslim relations, peace not served by ignoring history
~ by Denver's Catholic Archbishop
And this, on a related note from the Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Al, in England: Multiculturalism is to blame for perverting young Muslims
The Christian Science Monitor is running an 11 part series written by Jill Carrol, the reporter who was kidnapped in Iraq. It's absolutely chilling.
A small example:
As we stood in the small kitchen, Abu Ali, the insurgent with the salt-and-pepper beard who had abducted me, proudly declared that his wife wanted to die."Um Ali wants to be a martyr. She wants to drive a car bomb!" he said, beaming.
Of course, she'd have to wait, since she was now four months pregnant. It is forbidden in Islam to kill a fetus at that age, he explained.
"Oh, OK, OK, oh wow," I said. I feigned confusion while I tried to think of what to say.
The chaos of dinner preparation swirled around us. The kitchen was typically Iraqi: a cramped space with thin metal countertops that have no cabinets beneath.
Someone had sewed a skirt for the countertop out of gaudy fabric, but one part had torn away. Next to the refrigerator was a giant freezer, covered all over with stickers advertising Maggi-brand soups.
Three children played around our feet - all progeny of the would-be bomber.
I was still unused to captivity, still learning the boundaries, both physical and mental, that my kidnappers had imposed. I didn't want to offend. But I was shocked at the talk of a mother's suicide; shocked that Um Ali would blush at her husband's praise of this plan.
"Oh, I didn't know women could be car bombers," was all I could muster.
Later I was told that this was the only way women could be part of the mujahideen. The men could have the glory of fighting in battle. Women got to blow themselves up.
How do you reason with such people? I honestly don't see how you can.
When a leader has to beg its people to stop murdering baby girls -- oh right, they're not actually babies, they're fetuses. My mistake.
Indian premier calls for end to killing of unborn girls
I found this article linked over on The Corner yesterday: Brilliant men always betray their wives
I found it fascinating, not to mention timely, since we were discussing something similar while waiting in line for Dead Man's Chest on Saturday.
This is very true: McDonalds, when you're in a strange place, can be very calming. It's just familar, even if you're in Holland and they give you this odd whitish green substance instead of ketchup for your fries :)
Cassandra has it covered: Liberal Anti-War Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds
An excerpt from an editorial in the London Times:
.... The strength of disdain is a measure of Europes weakness. Smugness is one of Europes great contemporary exports. We may all think that we know America, its music, its culture, its self-confident exceptionalism. We tend to forget that Americans fight only with extreme reluctance. We overlook their penchant for agonised self-criticism; everything bad we know about the US, we know because Americans inexhaustibly rehearse their societys shortcomings. There has never been greater transparency, whether than on the battlefield or the boondocks, and there has never been more open debate about the countrys virtues and vices the internet has transformed the quantity and, at times, the quality of the conversation.Better than most, Muslims understand why Islamist terrorism is war at its unholiest, an existential threat to societies. Iraqis may resent occupation, but they fear a weakening of US resolve. Their fears should be ours. Were it to become politically impossible for a president to keep Americas forces engaged from its shores, then the backbone of international security would be broken. America-bashing may be a popular sport, but its adherents prefer not to contemplate its consequences.
Later: the lost link.
Saw this article linked over on The Corner this morning. It's like science fiction some days! And how they're being used in some cases makes you wonder:
Alan Moldawer's adopted twins, Matt and Andrew, had always thought of themselves as white. But when it came time for them to apply to college last year, Mr. Moldawer thought it might be worth investigating the origins of their slightly tan-tinted skin, with a new DNA kit that he had heard could determine an individual's genetic ancestry.The results, designating the boys 9 percent Native American and 11 percent northern African, arrived too late for the admissions process. But Mr. Moldawer, a business executive in Silver Spring, Md., says they could be useful in obtaining financial aid.
"Naturally when you're applying to college you're looking at how your genetic status might help you," said Mr. Moldawer, who knows that the twins' birth parents are white, but has little information about their extended family. "I have three kids going now, and you can bet that any advantage we can take we will."
Seems to me that stuff like this should be another nail in the coffin of racial quotas. One can only hope.
Gene Polymorphisms Are Associated with Creative Dance Performance
Bulgaria will allow the United States to use several military bases in the country, giving American forces a jumping-off point closer to potential hotspots in the Middle East, officials said Friday.
The rest here.
The obligation of unwanted fatherhood
If you're going to engage in adult activities, then you need to accept responsibility for adult consequences.
A whole lot of guns are lined up against the Net right now: Net neutrality/two-tiered Internet issues; increasing discomfort over the U.S. control of Internet operation; China's moves to create its own domain system (a possible prelude to a new, country-specific, alternate root system); supposition that, with Vint Cerf and a bunch of dark fiber in hand, Google might be looking to create its own Internet--and of course, there are the viruses, the spam, the scourge on young people that is MySpace, and, how could I forget...porn and pop-ups.Basically, I'm starting to wonder if the one-Internet-for-all paradigm we've enjoyed so far is about to break and if we can expect a future where we all use smaller, private, for-profit or nonprofit, corporate, and/or political Internets according to our various locations and interests. Let me put it this way: it's all too likely that George W. Bush didn't misspeak when he mentioned "the Internets." The military has probably already built an alternate Internet--if not more than one, and it's looking all too possible that the Net itself is about to fracture into a mess of cliques, privately owned networks, and glorified Usenets.
Read the whole thing here.
This is an excerpt from a larger article about "the gender gap". Makes you wonder if we women who blog on current events really are quite different then many of our counterparts in how informed we are.
Male influence. Women are significantly less likely than men to follow national and international affairs, a knowledge gap that researchers have documented for decades. In a new survey conducted for Women's Voices, Women Vote by the Democratic polling firm of GQR Research, a large majority of nonvoting single women -- 70 percent -- said they ''find politics and elections so complicated that it is hard to understand what is really going on." [emphasis mine] That helps explain why single women are much less likely to vote. It also explains why married women more often adopt their husband's political outlook -- which tends to be more conservative -- than the other way around.
Okay, the bolded bit above? That's just plain embarrassing. Geez! Too complicated? It's not like someone is asking you to build a freaking nuclear reactor! The only cheesy rationalization I can come up with is that if they asked uninformed men the same question, I can't see them using the reason 'that it's too complicated' -- even if it is. They'd come up with something a little less pathetic, like, "I'm too busy with my career to pay much attention". Of course, this probably explains why I've always gravitated to men socially as opposed to my own gender. The men at work, or some miscellaneous social gathering, were much more likely to be talking about something that interested me than the women were.
What If There Were an International IRS?
I really like the idea of this. Remember a few weeks ago, I posted about the university that wanted a written statement that same sex couples were actually having sex before they would give them benefits? That bugged me. Here in CA, a similar legal statement is required. If we're going to offer benefits to same sex couples, and cohabitating aka 'shacking up' heterosexual couples, then any two people should have that same option. The fact that Nin and I aren't lesbians disqualifies us, despite the fact we function as a couple in every other way, just annoys me no end.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A Russian astronomer has predicted that Earth will experience a "mini Ice Age" in the middle of this century, caused by low solar activity.Khabibullo Abdusamatov of the Pulkovo Astronomic Observatory in St. Petersburg said Monday that temperatures will begin falling six or seven years from now, when global warming caused by increased solar activity in the 20th century reaches its peak, RIA Novosti reported.
The coldest period will occur 15 to 20 years after a major solar output decline between 2035 and 2045, Abdusamatov said.
Dramatic changes in the earth's surface temperatures are an ordinary phenomenon, not an anomaly, he said, and result from variations in the sun's energy output and ultraviolet radiation.
The Northern Hemisphere's most recent cool-down period occurred between 1645 and 1705. The resulting period, known as the Little Ice Age, left canals in the Netherlands frozen solid and forced people in Greenland to abandon their houses to glaciers, the scientist said.
Some thoughts from various TV related folk here.
Surprising Source of Chronic Pain Discovered
Some types of ongoing, inexplicable pain like arthritis are caused by intact, healthy nerve fibers rather than those that have been damaged, a new study finds.The discovery surprised researchers. It had not been made before partly because studies of chronic pain have tended to focus on the damaged nerves.
The new understanding, reported in the Jan. 25 issue of the journal Neuroscience, could help scientists develop new types of painkillers.
The evidence so far applies only to ongoing pain associated with nerve injury and inflammation, although it may turn out to be more widely applicable, said Sally Lawson, a professor of physiology at the University of Bristol in the UK.
Nice interview by Maureen Ryan with Gillian Anderson on "Lady Dedlock, Dana Scully and the influence of 'The X-Files'"
I'm looking forward to catching Bleak House at some point, and it's a plus the screenplay was adapted and written by Andrew Davies, who did the BBC "Pride & Prejudice". Should be good!
Elfman: It's Not Polite to Be Rude
The former "Dharma & Greg" star, who's in a new comedy about a single woman that will premiere on CBS this spring, says she's definitely not impressed with the attitudes of some people she sees in Hollywood."A lot of my peers that I've worked with, they're not on time," she said. "They think it's absolutely OK to have attitude and treat people like crap. And they think nothing of it. They have a sense of some sort of entitlement, where I don't know where that comes from."
Maybe it has something to do with not being brought up with much discipline, said Elfman, 34.
Several top Wall Street analysts have dismissed speculation that the Walt Disney Co. plans to buy Pixar animation and install its chairman, Steve Jobs, as chairman of Disney, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. The wire service quoted David Miller of Sanders Morris Harris as saying, "I think it's absurd. ... It would have to be an enormously compelling offer to even have Mr. Jobs stop and consider it for maybe more than five seconds. ... He looks at Pixar like you and I look at our children," Miller said. "Our children aren't for sale." Doug Mitchelson, an analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., was quoted as saying, "We reaffirm our view that a Pixar acquisition by Disney makes no sense." Most analysts continue to predict that a deal between Disney and Pixar will be consummated. The A.P. observed that "the most likely reason for the delay is that a new deal with Disney is complex."
The voice on officer May's squad car radio was unfamiliar at first. It wasn't Richard May's; he had just radioed headquarters minutes earlier to say he was trailing a suspect from a fight at a nearby taqueria..The voice was that of a kid, no older than a teenager.
``Man down!'' the voice said, a bit high, but firm. ``Man down!''
It took another instant for East Palo Alto police Sgt. Alma Zamora, the watch commander in charge late Saturday afternoon, to recognize the voice. It was that of a 16-year-old Boy Scout Explorer, who was out for a ride-along with May.
And then Zamora realized -- the boy was sitting in the front seat of May's squad car with a gunman on the loose.
``At that point, we couldn't get there fast enough,'' Zamora said in an interview Tuesday.
Zamora jumped in her patrol car and sped just one block away to University Avenue and Weeks Street. As she rounded the corner, she caught a glimpse of the boy, tall and thin, talking to a policeman who had responded to the scene.
``It was almost a relief,'' she said, ``until I saw the officer.''
May, 38, a mentor in the Explorers program , lay lifeless on the pavement. He had been shot at least twice, including once in the head, police said. The crime was caught on tape from a security camera at a nearby building.
The suspect, 22-year-old Alberto Alvarez, was caught early Sunday morning. He had a gunshot wound to the leg. He was arraigned Tuesday on a murder charge.
Police won't identify the boy, who they worry could be in danger from the suspect's fellow gang members. He is a key witness
The rest of the story here.
If you find yourself insufficiently engaged by us guest bloggers, you might like to check out Carnival of the Vanities, in its first appearance of the new year, under new management. Or not.
Gene may explain pigment variety in people
As I noted yesterday, it was St. Andrews Day. Following up on that, here's an article from the Scotsman I read today: Call for St Andrew's Day holiday stirs up the national debate
It's not really easy to excerpt, but this should get you started:
....Think like a counterintelligence analyst for once. It's an old-fashioned sting operation. You're Jacques Chirac, okay? You want to embarrass the Americans and protect your buddy Saddam Hussein, right? The Americans are running around trying to find evidence of a covert Iraqi nuclear program. So, first you feed them some crappy information along those lines, hoping that they'll buy it, and then you arrange through Rocco in Italy to have these documents surface. The documents "confirm" the disinformation and of course also what the Americans want to believe anyway. The Americans launch their accusations, then it turns out that the documents are forgeries, and bad forgeries at that, and so the Americans look like idiots and the causus belli disappears. In one move, you've helped your friend Saddam and hurt the Americans. Terrific. Chapeau, and all that.
So the riots in France continue. Gee, and here I thought France was the perfect Utopia. After all, didn't they berate us over and over again after Katrina? What a racist society we were! How much poverty and injustice! Why, nothing like that could ever happen in blessed France. Here's a mirror, France. Take a good long look. And I just have to ask: Have you looked into your hearts and asked why they hate you?
And while we're on the subject, Mark Steyn has much to say on the subject here. (link found at Instapundit)
John Derbyshire explains Guy Fawkes Day, the Gunpowder Plot, and brings the discussion to the present day.
An emailer to the Corner with a detailed reminder of the Clinton years and Operation Desert Fox.
Like CTG, I'm happy in a relieved sort of fashion, not a 'pop the champagne corks' fashion. Here's hoping that the next nominee is what the President promised initially, and one I want to fight for. But I'm a part of the extreme right wing of the party, so what do I know?
Your Brain Remembers What You Forget
I've always thought I have a lousy short term memory. Not so much in forgetting where something is, but what I was going to say. My family will stop and let me talk, because they know if they don't, I'll have forgotten by the time they finish. The excerpt below is exactly how I try and remember what I was going to say. I backtrack from what I'm thinking now, to what made me think of it, and so on and so forth. Usually works.
As you dash outdoors in the middle of winter, you might make it halfway down the block before realizing that your ears are freezing because you forgot your hat.Now, scientists have shown that even though you've had an apparent memory lapse, your brain never forgot what you should have done.
Memory works mainly by association. For example, as you try to remember where you left your keys, you might recall you last had them in the living room, which reminds you that there was a commercial for soap on television, which reminds you that you need soap, and so on. And then, as you're heading out the door to buy soap, you remember that your keys are on the kitchen counter.
Your brain knew where the keys were all along, it just took a round-about way to get there.
Interesting article here on Columbus and 'native Americans'.
At least, that's what's hot in baby food these days, according to this article.
Found this post (not to mention the actual blog) -- by a psychologist no less -- via The Corner this evening. If you're tired of only hearing about how the internet is bad, then this will be a breath of fresh air. Those of you who've hung around here for a while, or read my "all about me" page know why I think the internet can be an amazing place. Needless to say, I very much enjoyed the post.
Decades later the temperance movement is still around, just under another guise:
.... MADD has also worked to undermine the criminal protections of accused drunk drivers protections routinely granted to accused murderers, rapists and other felony crimes. MADD, for example, has pushed to impose tougher penalties on motorists who refuse to take roadside breath tests than on those who take them and fail effectively turning the Fifth Amendment on its ear. The organization also favors "administrative license revocation," which means the revocation of the driver's licenses and, in some cases, the confiscation of the vehicles, of those accused of drunken driving before they're ever given a trial.The organization is also pushing the widespread use of ignition interlock devices, in which a driver must blow into a tube to start his car, then blow again every 20 minutes or so while driving. Washington state recently passed a law allowing judges to mandate the devices in the cars of people merely accused of drunk driving, not convicted. And the states of New Mexico and New York have both considered legislation that would require the devices in every car sold in-state. The New Mexico bill is stalled in the state senate after being passed by the house. The New York bill was initially killed, but it gains more votes each time its determined sponsors reintroduce it.
MADD is also pushing its agenda onto family laws, including a zero tolerance policy for divorced parents. Under the bills MADD is trying to push through state legislatures, a parent caught consuming one beer or glass of wine before driving could face penalties that, according to MADD, "should include, but are not limited to" "incarceration," "change of primary custody," or "termination of parental rights." This means that if you take your kid to the game, have a beer in the third inning, then drive home, you could very well lose your rights as a father.
The entire article here.
More from Card on another subject. This stems from a review of the book "Princess Academy" (which he highly reccomends).
....By being so "free" these days, we have stolen romance from our children. Our daughters grow up thinking they have nothing to offer a man but their bodies; our young men grow up thinking that someone is cheating them if they can't satisfy themselves however they wish.It's sad that the gentle romance of this novel will feel like a fantasy to many young readers.
But when I was young, this was the romantic world I lived in -- where a held hand was full of daring and excitement, and it didn't occur to me for a long, long time that I could even hope for more.
Where a first kiss might not come until late in one's teens, and decent young men and women did not want to sully themselves by attempting sex outside of marriage.
Am I the only one who remembers that world? Of course many of my generation were impatient with the rules that seemed to restrict us. But it was those very rules -- the chaperones, the separation between the sexes, the "repression" of "natural desires" -- that made romance even possible.
Why couldn't we, as a generation, have had the sense, the unselfishness to give that same gift to our children? To let them chafe against the limitations that kept them from disastrous mistakes and bitter memories?
Read it all here.
Jim Geraghty muses on Firelfy and Serenity.
They're running out of names for this year's hurricanes, so the Greek alphabet is next.
Our local aquarium has taken in two otters and a passle of penguins from an aquarium wrecked by Katrina.
....The otters, Buck and Emma, could possibly end up going on display, too, but that's a much iffier proposition. For one thing, they'd have to share quarters with some of the aquarium's resident otters, who haven't been on birth control since they all happen to be females.The co-ed living arrangements might make Buck happy, but not the aquarium staff. Since the aquarium is already working overtime to return stranded sea otter pups to the wild successfully -- or to find homes for them in captivity -- it's a bit counterproductive to let one be born right under the staff's noses.
Besides, Murray said, the aquarium's Fish and Wildlife Service permit for handling sea otters doesn't allow for any monkey business, so to speak.
The obvious question: Is Emma, Buck's longtime significant other, on birth control? The non-obvious answer: No.
"We don't know why they haven't bred," Murray said.
But even if romance didn't have to be squelched, he added, things might not go swimmingly. "Even when we just put females together, they can bicker. And bickering otters can hurt each other."
If Buck and Emma are kept to themselves, their pool will be smaller than it was in New Orleans and they won't get to play to the crowds that they've been used to.
"So we want to provide as much stimulation as we can," Mayer said. "Toys and ice and live food... And we'll work with them on some of the behaviors they're trained to do... That's vital for these guys for maintaining their demeanor and well-being."
Tuesday, as Buck rolled around in the ice and Emma wriggled around on her "raft," their demeanors seemed playful, and their well-being seemed not to be in question.
You can find updates on the new arrivals here.
"Ill Wind May Not Blow to the Whitehouse"
As the full horror of Hurricane Katrina sinks in, thousands of desperate columnists are asking if this is the end of George Bush's presidency.The answer is almost certainly yes, provided that every copy of the US Constitution was destroyed in the storm. Otherwise President Bush will remain in office until noon on January 20th, 2009, as required by the 20th Amendment, after which he is barred from seeking a third term anyway under the 22nd Amendment.
As the full horror of this sinks in, thousands of desperate columnists are asking if the entire political agenda of George Bush's second term will not still be damaged in some terribly satisfying way.
The answer is almost certainly yes, provided that the entire political agenda of George Bush's second term consists of repealing the 22nd Amendment. Otherwise, with a clear Republican majority in both Houses of Congress, he can carry on doing pretty much whatever he likes.
As the full horror of this sinks in, thousands of desperate columnists are asking if the Republican Party itself will now suffer a setback at the congressional mid-term elections next November.
The answer is almost certainly yes, provided that people outside the disaster zone punish their local representatives for events elsewhere a year previously, both beyond their control and outside their remit, while people inside the disaster zone reward their local representatives for an ongoing calamity they were supposed to prevent. Otherwise, the Democratic Party will suffer a setback at the next congressional election
As the full horror of this sinks in, thousands of desperate columnists are asking if an official inquiry will shift the blame for poor planning and inadequate flood defences on to the White House.
The answer is almost certainly yes, provided nobody admits that emergency planning is largely the responsibility of city and state agencies, and nobody notices that the main levee which broke was the only levee recently modernised with federal funds. Otherwise, an official inquiry will pin most of the blame on the notoriously corrupt and incompetent local governments of New Orleans and Louisiana.
As the full horror of this sinks in, thousands of desperate columnists are asking if George Bush contributed to the death toll by sending so many national guard units to Iraq.
The answer is almost certainly yes, provided nobody recalls that those same columnists have spent the past two years blaming George Bush for another death toll by not sending enough national guard units to Iraq. Otherwise, people might wonder why they have never previously read a single article advocating large-scale military redeployment during the Caribbean hurricane season.
Read it all here (no registration requred for this link)
Via The Corner.
From the Sunday Times: Black poverty is the result of 30 years of misguided welfare rather than racism, says John McWhorter
Housing for Katrina Victims: Ideas from Science Fiction.
The shipping crate house is kinda kewl.
I got a personal call this morning from the chairman of the local Republican party, wondering why his e-mails to me are bouncing. (It's because my ISP has finally put in some decently aggressive anti-spam measures.) I told him I'd whitelist him, and then mentioned that one of the most recent things caught in the spam filter was the latest self-aggrandizing piece of cr*p newsletter from our local congress-moron.
He then told me the best shot at getting rid of said moron, short of death (which we most certainly do not advocate, no we do not) is to mobilize every voter in California to vote yes on Proposition 77, the re-districting initiative.
If you are on the fence about Prop 77, consider this. Often you can know someone (or something) by their enemies as well as by their friends. Need I mention that the "usual suspects" (i.e. the left-wing loonies) are the ones stepping forward to oppose 77? Who do you want to align yourself with on this one?
(Note: The above entry is cross-posted at my own blog, Coffee with CrankyBeach.)
Science fiction is coming back big. This fall will find more television shows with sci-fi/fantasy themes than audiences have seen in five years -- for reasons that may lie deeper than demographics.Emboldened by the surprise success of ``Lost'' on ABC last season and other recent successes on cable, major networks are adding new shows covering an array of fantastical themes: alien invasion (CBS's ``Threshold,'' NBC's ``Surface,'' ABC's ``Invasion''), dead people talking (CBS's ``Ghost Whisperer'') and scary creatures of the night (a remake of ``The Night Stalker'' on ABC). These shows are being given prime spots and are being backed with sizable promotional budgets.
Over the years, sci-fi has proven a durable and effective vehicle for reflecting unease and uncertainty in the world, feelings being sparked now in a post-Sept. 11 climate where invisible enemies are seen as lurking among us, striking when we least expect it out of motives we don't understand.
``Science fiction had a big resurgence in the 1950s, the era of potential nuclear war, the Cold War and the Red Scare,'' said Rockne O'Bannon, a veteran of such sci-fi series as ``Farscape'' and the creator of a new miniseries, ``Triangle,'' set in the Bermuda Triangle, the Atlantic Ocean region where ships and planes have been reputed to have disappeared mysteriously.
``Here we are facing the same kind of questions and the same kind of uncertainties about how safe we are, how safe our children are going to be and what world is going to be like. It's something we haven't had to face in the post-Vietnam generation,'' O'Bannon said.
[....]
But it's about more than big numbers. NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly says that in choosing new shows for the fall, the network keenly was aware that ``these are paranoid times.''``Look at what just happened in London and what's going on in Iraq and the West Bank,'' said David Goyer, who wrote ``Batman Begins'' and is executive producer of ``Threshold.'' ``People are scared.''
``Who's friend? Who's foe?,'' Reilly continued. ``What's in our interest in national security? You don't want to literally go at those themes because they make you uncomfortable. You want to kind of bring them out and manifest them in other ways, give us a way to work them out.''
Which means if viewers want to find larger, real-life meaning behind the ideas expressed in the new series, they will have to recognize the allegorical references.
``In science fiction, historically, you're telling allegorical tales,'' Goyer said. ``You're shining a light back on society -- what's happening now. It's a way to talk about what's going on, but from a sideways angle.''
RightGirl has a first hand report on the lecture she recently attended given by two very brave Muslim women.
She finishes her report with this:
And what of that woman, and those guards, and that potential for anything? Our politicians and protectors denounce the threat level in this country like it is a racist construct; they pooh-pooh our fears and concerns, and they assure us that nothing bad could ever happen in Canada. After all, there are no bad people here.So why did this lovely, intelligent women need fifteen armed guards in a country that purportedly has no terrorists? Something tells me that someone is deluded, and it's not Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
The hearing was last night, so I guess we just wait and see. Considering we never really recovered from Fort Ord being shut down, if we lost two bases at the same time now, I can't see how there's anyway to put a good spin on it. I'd be interested to know if any other community our size has taken not one, not two, but potentially three base closures. On the TV news they said that the two remaining bases account for 20% of the school district's students.
Officials make case for keeping schools
The hearing at the Monterey Conference Center opened with video testimony from U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and segued to statements by Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel and former Democratic Congressman Leon Panetta, before moving on to a detailed presentation by Monterey City Manager Fred Meurer. All made basically the same points.The arguments against moving the two military schools centered on their vital roles in the war on terror. The speakers stressed that the two institutions would take years to rebuild elsewhere and that their work can't be "privatized" at civilian universities.
"It would be a huge mistake to lose these two tremendous assets," Feinstein said. "We're in the middle of a war."
Citing the Navy school's pioneering work in developing a homeland security studies curriculum and DLI's instruction in "the world's most difficult languages," Boxer said. "It is essential that no action be taken to disrupt the work of the Defense Language Institute or the Naval Postgraduate School."
The language institute, she noted, graduates 25 times the number of Arabic linguists of all other universities in the United States combined, and teaches all of the nation's Persian Farsi linguists.
A report prepared by Meurer showed that 26 students received degrees in Arabic at other universities around the United States compared to 521 graduates of DLI's Arabic course.
In addition to the military-specific subjects taught, the two schools are able to change gears to meet changing needs, said Terry Tamminen, cabinet secretary to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
DLI "shifted faster than any college could have done after 9/11'' to meet the military's sudden surge in demand for linguists who spoke Arabic, Pushtu, Farsi and other Central Asian languages, Tamminen said, and the Navy school, "unlike any other graduate university," applies the fruits of its research directly to military needs. He cited, for example, its work with unmanned aerial surveillance drones that became invaluable intelligence-gathering tools in Afghanistan.
NPS combines technical research capabilities with access to nearby training ranges with good weather year-round at Camp Roberts and Fort Hunter Liggett, and open air spaces over the Santa Lucia Mountains, to test concepts as they are developed, he said.
Moving either the language institute or the Navy school is "a misnomer," Farr said. "What we'd be doing is dismantling and reconstructing, and find that not all the pieces are there" after such a move.
[....]
.... Panetta, who serves as co-chairman of the California Council appointed by Schwarzenegger to prepare arguments against further military base closures in the state, reminded the commission that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had initially recommended against moving the two schools.
"It is our view that there is no credible evidence that moving or outsourcing these functions will result in an equivalent product on behalf of our national security," Panetta said, and "there is no credible evidence that there are cost efficiencies to be achieved through realignment. To rebuild this capacity elsewhere would not only be extremely expensive, it would be risky to our defense preparedness."
DLI's language teaching is duplicated nowhere else, he said, and NPS research projects and studies are "focused on nothing else but winning the war on terrorism."
Panetta also cited endorsements of the two institutions by Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, and Gordon England, acting deputy secretary of defense and Navy secretary.
The two schools are targeted repeatedly for closure, he said, because the military "tends to look at educational facilities and their missions as second-class citizens" and because there is a misconception that their functions can be privatized.
"The reality is that these assets don't exist in the private sector."
When I first read this headline, "The next gold mine: Moblogs", my first thought was mobsters with blogs. Turns out that isn't quite what it means.