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Showing posts from April, 2009

Update: Ultimate #4!!

Sorry for the repeated updates, but on a big news day (and it is a BIG news day) ultimate has manged to be the 4th most read article on the NYT. Granted, this is at least in part to the fact that every ultimate players across the nation is looking at it, but I am still really impressed. Hopefully this is one step towards generating more coverage of the most exciting team sport in the world = )

Chrysler Bankrupt, News Broken by Obama

As I talked about last night, it is amazing to me how interwoven Obama is with the operation and running of Chrysler. This is not the pres turning to a titan of industry and telling him to save the company, this is the pres trying to be a direct part of the leadership of private companies. Ok, all that said, here is the autoblog breakdown of what happened today for Chrysler, with my commentary. Blame it on the creditors – President Obama cited Chrysler's creditors' refusal to accept a debt-for-equity swap as the main reason filing for Chapter 11 was the only option left. (Yes - but the deal was terrible for creditors, and would have royally screwed them. The UAW had to give up some benefits, the creditors would have to have given up over 90% of their debt - I think that was the number). Chrysler divided – 55% will be owned by the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA), 10% shared proportionally between U.S. and Canadian governments, 20% owned by Fiat. (Again, true

Update: Ultimate is currently 8th most popular article on NYT

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MOST POPULAR E-Mailed Blogged Searched Personal Health: Paying a Price for Loving Red Meat Op-Ed Contributor: End the University as We Know It Olivia Judson: Guest Column: Let’s Hear It for the Bees Roger Cohen: Of Loos and Language Maureen Dowd: Vice’s Secret Vices New Works by Photography’s Old Masters It May Be Cheap, but It’s Also Tasty Fitness: Ultimate Frisbee Takes Off World Health Organization Raises Swine Flu Alert Level Op-Ed Contributor: We Didn't Have to Lose Arlen Specter Go to Complete List »

Maureen Dowd is a fool

Never really been a fan of Maureen Dowd, even when she gave the Colby commencement speech for my class. Her latest op-ed is a real class act though. She imagines what Cheney says in a closed-door meeting about the torture of prisoners. Here is her take: “Those insects weren’t even poisonous,” Cheney growled. “Facial slaps? Abdominal slaps? Throwing a naked man into a wall? Kid stuff. Those methods worked. They kept us safe for seven years. Safer than with that delicate Hawaiian orchid in the White House. America is coming across as weak and indecisive. Just when Rummy and I had stomped out that ‘Blame America First’ flower-child culture, Obama has dragged it back, apologizing profusely all over the world for the country he’s running, canoodling with greasy dictators, kissing up to those weasels in Europe, which is only free today because of our military. Friends and foes alike will be quick to take advantage if they think they’re dealing with a Creamsicle.” The best part is... I mostly

Ultimate in the NYT

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Article about women's ultimate in the NYT. Its actually pretty good, though for some reason it showed up under "Fashion & Style - Fitness" rather than "Sports." Ultimate Frisbee Takes Off Andrew Davis DISC JOCKEYING Action in the Canada-United States Ultimate Frisbee match at the world championships last August. comments (10) Sign In to E-Mail Print Reprints Share Close Linkedin Digg Facebook Mixx MySpace Yahoo! Buzz Permalink By BONNIE TSUI Published: April 29, 2009 WHEN Susan Batchelder first played Ultimate Frisbee, 11 years ago, it was with the ultimate hippies. Skip to next paragraph Related Trying to Catch a Game? (April 30, 2009) Enlarge This Image Andrew Davis Enlarge This Image Andrew Davis IN PLAY Women’s participation has helped the sport grow rapidly. Readers' Comments Share your thoughts. Post a Comment » Read All Comments

Jay Leno Says Goodbye to Pontiac

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It seems that Jay and I are of a like mind on what is really of value right now from Pontiac, and what will be missed with its passing. What I did not really know (since I was not really around during the Pontiac heyday) was that it actually was an innovator at one point: Jay Leno Says Goodbye to Pontiac: A Tribute to GM’s Performance Brand If you haven't heard, Pontiac is no more . In an exclusive story for PM, Jay Leno looks back at the 83-year-old brand, focusing on Pontiac’s historic muscle cars and surprisingly innovative technology. By Jay Leno Published on: April 28, 2009 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) I was always a fan of those "Wide Track" Pontiacs of the '60s. When I was a little kid there was no sexier wheel—either in the aftermarket or in regular production—than the 8-lug Pontiac wheel. I remember first seeing them around 1962 on some of the big Bonnevilles. My mom’s Falcon had fo

Govt. Control

Reading assignment: this article from the NYT. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/business/30auto.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print It struck a cord with me as something that has gone deeply and terribly wrong. It is wrong because in the article it is clearly accepted that the US Government has just as much right to make decisions, give opinions, and decide what is best for Chrysler as the management of Chrysler does, or the bondholders do. In fact, from the tone of the article it is quite clear that the administration, and Obama himself, are closely and directly involved in the operations and details of the collapse of Chrysler. While some say this is justified because of the extraordinary circumstances, never before has the US Administration been so interwoven with the fabric of American business. We are leaning dangerously close to the authoritarian style socialist state of Atlas Shrugged: and just as in the book, it is all in the name of "the people.&qu

Twitter

I dont think Twitter has any real value. And it turns out neither do a lot of other people. 60% of those who sign up for a twitter account close it within a month. I just read an interesting article from a guy who "gets it." He started off by explaining all the things that aren't true about twitter, such as: "its a bunch of people saying mundane things about their mundane lives," and "its just for people who are full of themselves." Instead, he says, it is all about the conversation. Its a new way to have a conversation with lots of people, all at the same time. Oh, and its a great way to follow celebrities. From my perspective, that makes the whole thing totally worthless. A conversation with 100 people is not a conversation at all, it is a lot of different people saying the same shallow things, or commenting in the annoyingly assertive yet intellectually vacant way that has become the norm for any kind of online forum. IMHO I think it is annoying as

Ubuntuing

Writing from ubuntu. Desktop is up and running - though sadly the connection from up here in my room is pretty poor - most likely due to the NetGear usb thumbdrive style adapter - which I have found is pretty poor (especially compared to the Nokia 770 - which picks up more than my laptop). All that said, good to have my old comp back - and running well. Now if only Linux played windows games... = )

Crop Circles Kaleidoscope

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The post about crop circles reminded me just how cool these things are... for your viewing pleasure:

Swine Flu

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forwarded from Ranimal... someone figured out the source of the deadly swine flu...

Chrysler and the UAW - today or bust

Today is the day for UAW rank and file to vote on approving the concessions hammered out with Chrysler. Along with a number of benefit cuts, allowing suppliers to assemble in Chrysler factories, and a few other things, the new agreement also bans strikes by the UAW for a period of 3-5 years. It seems there is someone higher-up in the UAW who realizes that all the jobs will simply be lost if they dont make concessions (well... other than the fact that the socialist state of America would not let that happen, and would probably nationalize the operation.) The vote is today, and it is likely to be close.
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Most complex crop circle ever discovered in British fields http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics... "The most complex, "mind-boggling" crop circle ever to be seen in Britain has been discovered in a barley field in Wiltshire. The formation, measuring 150ft in diameter, is apparently a coded image representing the first 10 digits, 3.141592654, of pi. It is has appeared in a field near Barbury Castle, an iron-age hill fort above Wroughton, Wilts, and has been described by astrophysicists as "mind-boggling". Michael Reed, an astrophysicist, said: "The tenth digit has even been correctly rounded up. The little dot near the centre is the decimal point." My take? It was probably made by a couple of guys with some wood and string who do this for fun. Actually... hells no.

Obama PLedges 3% of GDP to Science

This is a huge level of spending. It rivals the spending on defense. No idea if it will actually come to be, but the intention is impressive. I do feel as though there is a place for government leadership in certain areas of science. But I dont think that it should be spending this much. Encouraging the private sector, sure. Cutting restrictions and red-tape to make it easier for the private sector to do research, yeah. But unless there is something that cannot be achieved through the private sector, due to the nature of its payoff (human space flight is one of these), then i dont think the government should be the one doing the funding. However - in the current context, it is a lot better to spend it on this than a lot of the junk we have been throwing money at.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/apr09/8647

GM to cut 42% of dealerships: 10 ways to profit

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Waiting for a new car? Want to buy a new car for $5,000? Believe in salvaging what you can from a shipwreck? If you answered yes to any of the above, the next year will be good to you. GM is closing 42% of its dealerships. That is a lot. And of course, Saab, Hummer, Saturn and Pontiac are all getting killed off. Which means, that if you are buying one of these brands from a GM dealership which is going under, you are likely to get one hell of a deal. Norms pickins' from the wreckage: 1) Sky/Solstice. See previous post, and pic of the fresh for Feb 09 targa Solstice. Sexy. 2) Pontiac G8 - this is a hell of a car. Basically a Holden Commodore and the new generation of the old GTO - this is a great car. It was already a good deal compared to other cars, and that was at list prices. Step up tothe GXP and you have a 5-series beater. 3) Pontiac Vibe- its a basic little car, but it is essentially a Toyota - and you will be getting it dirt cheap 4) Saturn Outlook - this is one of the Lambd

Sky / Solstice

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One of the few things I care about any longer for GM is the sad demise of the Sky/Solstice twins. By far the best looking cars that GM has made this decade (and I include the Corvette - they have hardly altered its styling since 1983, though I think it looks good) are the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice. They are small, cheap, light, fun to drive, and damn good looking. Sadly they came too late in the lives of their brands (and possibly GM) and are too much of a niche product for a socialist peoples-owned Russian.. I mean American car company. RIP Sky/Solstice, two of the only good cars of GM's last 50 years.

Pontiac

Might as well add that in GM's death-throes it has confirmed that Pontiac will be killed off by the end of the year. Hopefully the other brands go with it.

Living Atlas Shrugged: The UAW's agenda

Turns out that as major contributors to the Obama administration and an important voting block, the UAW will be protected by the US Government. The latest and final plan to save GM was announced on Monday, and it will likely see GM owned by the government with UAW jobs protected by the government. This is ridiculous. Bondholders will get screwed over, the American public will get screwed over, and a bunch of lazy labor union workers will get their jobs saved: "The new GM that would emerge from the restructuring would be 89 percent-owned by the U.S. government and the UAW, provided workers and officials approve the plans. Current GM stockholders would have 1 percent." Absolutely friggin ridiculous. More and more I feel like I am stuck in Atlas Shrugged. I hope the bondholders tear GM to shreds. Before, I hoped that it survived, because it has a rich history, and for a while I thought a bright future. Now I hope it is chopped up piecemeal and sold to the highest bidder, hopeful

Obama Photo op gone wrong

This one is just so incredibly stupid, it has to be mentioned. The Obama administration set up a photo-op with a low-flying passenger aircraft (Air Force 747) and two F-16s over NYC. WSJ Video Bloomberg's comments were the best: "The good news is it was nothing more than an inconsiderate, badly conceived and insensitive photo op with the taxpayers' money," Bloomberg told reporters. "They should know how sensitive people would be if they had low-flying planes down around the World Trade Center site," said Bloomberg, adding that he was "furious."

Bike Tire Leasing - a new trend on craigslist:

It seems the new trend on craigslist is to lease components of bikes rather than buy them outright. For example: Trek 850 Teen or Mens Mountain Track bike - $250 (Dover Mass) Reply to: sale-dspjm-1141190786@craigslist.org [ Errors when replying to ads? ] Date: 2009-04-26, 3:41PM EDT 21 speeds, Index shifting, Quick re-lease on front and rear wheels, Quick re-lease on seat tube,

Colby College Wiki

In the aftermath of the incident on campus, I added an encyclopedic and well documented section on the event to the wikipedia page for Colby college. It has held up relatively well, but something interesting happened over the last couple days. Someone rewrote the second para from this; The school has come under criticism for the incident and subsequent administrative handling. [ 15 ] The administration has made no formal apology, nor has it suspended the officers involved. [ 16 ] The school released misleading information to the press in the aftermath of the incident. [ 17 ] For these reasons, Colby College students organized a rally on April 14th in support of the students and demanding action from the administration. [ 18 ] To this: The school has unjustly come under criticism for the incident and subsequent administrative handling. [ 14 ] The administration has made no formal apology, nor has it suspended the officers involved because they do not know all of the facts of the inc

Medvedev dismisses spy chief

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Medvedev wants to reorganize the military and cut back from 1,300,000 to about 1,000,000 serving men and women. A lot of cuts would come from the officer corps. This is basically like cutting down on middle-management and to me it seems like a good idea. His spy chief disagreed, and today was dismissed without warning and without explanation by Medvedev. Gen Korabelnikov had been the head of the GRU since 1997. The GRU is one of two main spy organizations, the other being much smaller, and no, thats not really that odd to have 2, the US has 16: # Director of National Intelligence # Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence # Air Force Intelligence # Army Intelligence # Central Intelligence Agency # Coast Guard Intelligence # Defense Intelligence Agency # Department of Energy # Department of Homeland Security # Department of State # Department of the Treasury # Drug Enforcement Administration # Federal Bureau of Investigation # Marine Corps Intelligence # National Geospatial-Intellige

Recycling for Charity.

No, I'm not going soft. And yes, my vision of "recycling" used electronics is selling them on eBay. As I have learned people will amazingly buy just about anything for a few bucks, including completely broken electronics. Why? I have no idea. But I take their money. If your feelings are less capitalistic, or you want to do a good thing, or you just want to not bother getting 30 questions a day from idiotic buyers asking you information that is listed right on the page, http://www.recyclingforcharities.com is another way to go. You get a tax deduction and all that jazz (like most of us take anything other than the standard deduction anyway), but the best part is that they pay for shipping. You weigh it, you measure it, you print off a shipping label, and you ship it to them.

Nevadans use Metallica against Mormon Crickets

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Seriously. Nevadans use Metallica against Mormon Crickets. Exactly like it sounds. From the WSJ: TUSCARORA, Nev. -- The residents of this tiny town, anticipating an imminent attack, will be ready with a perimeter defense. They'll position their best weapons at regular intervals, faced out toward the desert to repel the assault. Then they'll turn up the volume. Rock music blaring from boomboxes has proved one of the best defenses against an annual invasion of Mormon crickets. The huge flightless insects are a fearsome sight as they advance across the desert in armies of millions that march over, under or into anything in their way. Associated Press A Mormon cricket crosses a highway north of Sparks, Nev., in a recent spring. The 2-inch-long insects often carpet the arid landscape in the spring and summer, devouring vegetation and driving residents to distraction. But the crickets don't much fancy Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones, the townspeople figured out three years

Pic of the day

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This is just ridiculous... Its an Italian fighter jock in a Typhoon, and crap is he good/crazy/lucky. Copy this whole post to another site Slurp cancel select site advertising consumerist deadspin defamer fleshbot gay fleshbot gawker gizmodo idolator io9 jalopnik jezebel kotaku lifehacker valleywag artists gawkershop

Ubuntu

Despite the fact that a recent attempted installation of Ubunto Hardy Heron onto an older Win2000 machine hangs during the install every damn time.... ... I am excited about the new Jaunty Jackalop. There are no major changes other than a new file management system which should speed things up. However, as usual, Ubuntu delivers a nice user experience on top of a well build, crash-resistant, and spyware/adware/bloatware/nagware/malware free life. Of course, its easy being number 3, because the only reason Ubuntu is "safe" from all those "wares" above is becuase no one cares about writing code to attack 1% of the public. That said, I have two new hard drives on the way, and I am looking forward to getting my old desktop up and running again with some Ubuntu goodness.

I smell a mistrial

The Pirate Bay 4 were recently sentenced to prison by the Swedish courts. It was, in my opinion, highly dubious due to the way in which the Pirate Bay is structured - there is no way they should be in any way responsible. However.... Turns out the judge in the Pirate Bay case, who decided that the founders should go off to prison for their crimes against copyrights, is a member of copyright lobbying organizations. Amazing. Here is the article... all I can say is that the trial seems to have been a sham from the start. The best part is, there is no way the verdict will hold up, and the Pirate Bay's political party -- yes, they have one -- is now very very likely (in my opinion) of winning a EU seat in the upcoming elections - the backlash in Sweden over this latest piece of news is quite large. In the words of Sunde, and one of my favorite quotes of the year.... EPIC WINNING LOL Pirate Bay judge and pro-copyright lobbyist accused of bias Defence lawyer demands retrial By Kelly Fi

Netflix

1) I have just shut down my Netflix account. 2) I think Netflix is a good service. I was especially impressed with the instant download movies. These two go together, well, because I am forgetful and I realized I really dont watch many movies. I had netflix for just a couple months, liked it, but never really used it. This was partly because of my failure to send DVD's back, for free, in the pre-adressed envelopes. To me however, the most impressive feature, and the most important for the future of movies, was the instant streaming. Not a lot of movies are currently included compared to the total Netflix library, but there are enough that if you wanted to, you could sit down and find something good to watch. Movies pop up instantly, have a built in chaper feater, are in high-resolution, and rarely skip out. It is the best streaming service I have used, much stronger than the online offerings from the networks, or the relatively poor quality of Youtube and Hulu. So bye bye Netflix f

Norm Wants: V6 Camero

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The new Chevy Camero is here, and while the v8 versions (of course including the SS) are amazing... this is the one I really want (though not the color): It is the V6 RS, and with a manual 6spd box, and 306hp it is a recipe for a good time. It still gets 26mpg in the real world, has enough horsies to pull away from almost anything out there - heck my s4 can tear it up and it weighs only a little less but with 250hp. The RS brings stiffer suspension, and so while I doubt it would corner like the s4, it would still be a contender in the "fun to drive along Rt. 2 in western Mass at 7:00am" category. Norm wants.

T-38 shoots down F-22

Recently, in a training exercise, a T-38 trainer shot down a F-22. This is a pretty impressive occurrence. I read the story on gizmodo, and then, doing something that I usually avoid, I read some comments. And of course, one of them pissed me off enough to have to write something back. So here it is: His Comment: The US does not face any substantial threat in the air when it comes to the technological aspect of the aircraft to warrant investment in the F-22. The US avionics is miles ahead of any of its prospective rivals in the sky. In today's battle skill coupled with Avionics win. The US pilots are very well trained and are up there second maybe only to the Israelis. That coupled with the sheer number of aircraft that US can put in the air by means of its carrier fleets negates any advantage the enemy has (Except maybe China, which can also play the game of attrition). F-22 is an overkill and an extreme strain on budget. Its like you wanna race with a drag race car when the co

Obama convicted of lying like a Russian

Ok, the actual headline is "Obama Open to Inquiry in Interrogation Abuses," but if you listened to all of his rhetoric in the past, they amount to the same thing. This might have to do with his continuously dropping (though admittedly still high) approval rating?

Best Lake name ever

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Fiat to also buy Vauxhall and Opel

The latest news is that Fiat is going to, possibly, buy GM's European brands of Opel and Vauxhall as well as Chrysler. This would make Fiat the worlds second largest car company. And firmly prove that American auto manufacturing is going the way of the UK's before it...

Google upgrades search

Google has added new features to search. You can now see search results in a timeline - useful for high school papers now that Encarta has been officially killed off by Microsoft (ok, not that anyone uses anything but Wikipedia anyway), and also a search feature for images which lets you search for "similar images". I took a quick look, and did not see either of these features. All I saw was a new search feature for images which lets you select by color and type (portrait, graphic, etc.). I only looked for 2 seconds, anyone else find these things?

Ahmadinejad = Ahmadumbass

Ahmadinejad has made a big hulabaloo at the UN Racism Conference, which, as was expected, turned out to be a forum for Arab states to mouth off at Israel. It does not matter what your stance is on Israel, the comments Ahmadinejad made were totally out of line. It is unfortunate that such a crass thug, and obvious fool, is able to project his idiocy onto the world stage. Hopefully, one day, Iran will be ruled by a legitimate regime, with the support of the people, and with the goal of improving the lives of its citizens. Sadly, because of the all-welcoming nature of the UN, Ahmadumbass gets to make a mockery of any legitimate internationalism.

Oracle to buy Sun

Oracle is snapping up Sun, in a move that will make Oracle an integrated software and hardware vendor, much more akin to IBM.

April 3rd, 2009: Robot first Knowledge

Almost missed this milestone, as it did not seem to get much attention anywhere. Turns out that April 3rd (well, results were published April 3rd) marks the first instance of first knowledge from a robot. Essentially, this was a lab bot which was programmed with an AI of the scientific method. It came up with a theory (about yeast enzymes in this case), came up with a way to test it, tested it, and proved the theory. The test was then able to be replicated by humans. This is, to me, incredibly exciting news, because it will allow humans to vastly increase the speed with which we are able to conduct new research and make new discoveries. That is, until the robots decide to take over the planet using malignant forms of yeast enzymes. But so it goes.

Samurai cuts BB pellet in flight

This is pretty impressive. Action really starts around 5:30

Cats and Dogs.

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Classic.. I love the logic..

Crimes Against Humanity

In the wake of Kim Jong-il showing up all feeble looking in front of his people a couple weeks ago, and promoting his brother-in-law to a high position inside the government, the issue of the N. Korean regime comes to light. For decades, the policies of N. Korea have been regarded as "unsustainable." Their only viable exports are nuclear technology, missiles, and counterfeit US notes. Over the past decade over 1 million N. Koreas have died of starvation. Who knows how many more have died because of poor medical care etc. It is believed that about 1million more are currently at risk of starvation. Which leads to my question: what duty does the world have to the citizens of N. Korea. Those individuals are not in any way shape or form voluntary citizens of an organized political unit: their situation is much more akin to serfs under a "divine" king of the middle ages. They have no political freedom, no ability to organize against the govt, and nothing to do but starve

Chrysler Screwed

Fiat sent a letter to the UAW saying that more concessions were needed before they would buy Chrysler. One factory responded by having a public burning of the letter outside of the factory. I have only one central question: do any of these guys have an IQ over 50? Because no Fiat means no Chrysler: there were a lot of people kind of interested, but Fiat was the only one who stepped up to plate, there was no bidding war for the sinking American car company. Its amazing to me that the UAW does not see they are taking themselves down with the ship. In the great, not PC language of Boston, they must be retahded.

Tokyo Timelapse

This video was made using a Canon 350d, a slightly better version of my camera, and cheap as dirt by today's standards. And the video is absolutely amazing (and relaxing, I think.) remanence : variance from Samuel Cockedey on Vimeo .

Quote of the Year

My vote for quote of the year so far? Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's description of Barack Obama as "my new comrade."

Jeter Sucks - According to Science

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Article from PopSci. Short version is, according to a new statistical methodology which much more accurately analyzes a players ability to field and handle the ball, Jeter is the worst shortstop in MLB. Don't you just love the progression of science? A-Rod and Jeter: Once upon a time, the only fielding statistic listed on the back of baseball cards was fielding percentage, a simple calculation of the number of assists and putouts a player records divided by total chances. But this only tells you how well players handled the balls that they were able to put a glove on, giving pretty much zero insight into how much ground a player covers at his position and, ultimately, his impact on the outcome of the game. Enter Spatial Aggregate Fielding Evaluation, or SAFE, a new yard stick for fielding developed by professor Shane Jensen and his stat-junkie colleagues at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and presented today at the AAAS Meeting

Twitter

It seemed to me that in Mach, everyone was suddenly talking about Twitter. Every website had a signup page, every celebrity was Twittering, and all of a sudden, it was a household word. I am not sure exactly why, but it does seem as though there was a legitimate point of critical mass: Twitter's web hits jumped %131 between February and March. Thats pretty incredible. Personally, I think it is pretty stupid, because I have no desire to know when every one of my friends is tired, hungry, sad, happy, or had a bowel movement.

Seriously Cool Picture

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This is the USS Annapolis (SSN 760) on the surface of the Arctic Ocean, after breaking through the ice.

Taiwan to build its own subs

After rejecting the offer of 8 refurbed Italian Sauro boats, and the continued stalling of the US offer to build an updated Skipjack class for them, Taiwan is expected to announce that they will build their own boats. Of course, without US/other nations assistance, these will be no match for the relatively modern fleet of Chinese subs. Did I mention that China wants to have 80 modern attack subs by 2030? Scary..

TJ Quotes

Thomas Jefferson: The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. * Thomas Jefferson: It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. * Thomas Jefferson: I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. * Thomas Jefferson: My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. * Thomas Jefferson: The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. * Thomas Jefferson: To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Texas may Seceed, Chuck Norris to be President

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I am not even joking. Mostly, this is just political rhetoric, but the Texas governor stated at the "Texas Tea Party" that it may be time for Texas to start thinking about being its own country again. This is because of inept fiscal policies of the federal government. The best part is that Chuck Norris stepped up and publicly stated that he would run for President of Texas. I am not kidding. Seriously. This is true: From CNN “I may run for president of Texas,” Norris wrote in a column posted at WorldNetDaily. “That need may be a reality sooner than we think. If not me, someone someday may again be running for president of the Lone Star state, if the state of the union continues to turn into the enemy of the state.” Of course, it is really just political posturing, but it must be understood that Texas still feels itself very far removed from Washington, and with the big W out of the White House, it feels completely left out with the current Harvard-professor leaning, liberal m

US Astronauts to hitch rides... with China..

Presidential science adviser John Holdren, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology, has floated the proposal that in the 5 year projected gap of 2010-2015 when the Space Shuttle is retired but Orion is not ready to go, the US could hitch rides with China. In the words of Jeremy Clarkson, I would rather have bird flu. The fact is, however you look at it, space is still an incredibly nationalistic endeavor. That is the whole point of manned space programs these days - to prove that your nation can do it. China, especially, has been incredibly loud and proud over its ability to photocopy the Soyuz and put a couple people in space - which is actually impressive, even with copying the tech from Russia. From a nationalistic point of view, the fact that we are considering flying with China, the same China which is building up its military with the very specific purpose of defeating the US in a confrontation over Taiwan, is a huge mistake. I would rather spend billions develo

My Letter to Colby Security

Mr. Chenevert is the head of Colby security. The backstory is that about a year and a half ago I was back on campus as an alumni, and when they came to break up a dorm party, they kicked me off campus for no good reason. When I returned to campus, they agressively manhandled me, told me I would be charged with trespassing etc. Obviously, it was just one in what is likely many incidents where Colby security has been overly agressive with the students. Obviously, this most recent case went far far further, where racist Colby security guards and racist Waterville and other local cops (and yes, a large percentage of that area of Maine is heavily racist, especially the cops, so I am not just inferrign from the incident), teamed up to completely violoate the rights of Colby students. I can only hope that this is one case where the truth gets out, as usually security forces cover each others asses, perjur the hell out of themselves, and get the benefit of the doubt in court. Mr. Chenevert, Yo