December 2009
Moon Rise at the End of the Decade
Image: Copyright by David Haworth The iconic image of the Moon as it appears in E.T. – when the wide-eyed Elliot and lovable E.T. make their flight to the forest on a bicycle – has been described as one of the most magical moments in cinema. Yet Moons as big as the one said boy and alien are silhouetted against are not only the preserve of Hollywood’s trousers. Today’s astronomer-photographers...
Incoming! Hypersonic Cruise Missiles
HypersonicsIn the Aughts: Hypersonic technology comes of age with the success of the X-51A. Next Step: Manned hypersonic flight. Launched from a B-52, the proposed X-51 hypersonic cruise missile could travel 600 miles in 10 minutes to strike elusive, fleeting targets. (Illustration by Render Room) The aughts saw the first successful demonstrations of scramjet technology, which allows...
This is a moment in history, and he's missing it.
Revolutions happen quickly. There is a moment here in which if the thugs in the street who are shooting in the crowds stop shooting, it’s over and the regime will fall. The courage of the demonstrators and their boldness isn’t only a demonstration of courage, it is an indication of the shift in the balance of power. The regime is weakening. This is a hinge of history. Everything in...
Mark Steyn
Islam is bilingualism on steroids. When the community reaches the size it’s now at in Yorkshire or Malmo or Rotterdam, it has the ability to self-segregate and you wind up on the road to “two solitudes”, parallel societies. (That partially explains the second- and third-generation disassimilation Derb references.) For example, we think of Amsterdam-to-Detroit as a flight between...
Contemporary Art and Reviving Civilisation - New...
To contrast with the Avant-garde actors of ideology there is Dali’s expressive rendition of the biblical Last Supper. He paints a three-D effect so inspiring that atheists and agnostics are moved by the depth and beauty of his technique and presentation of profound mystical insights. The transparent “stained” glass that encompasses Jesus and the apostles foreshadows the...
Saturnalia: Not really the PC way to start a new...
It was prophesied to Kronos that he would have a child that would be even greater than he was, who would overthrow him. So, each time Kronos’ wife, Rhea, got pregnant and gave birth, Kronos would take the newborn child and eat it. Hades (Pluto), Poseidon (Neptune), Demeter (Ceres), Hera (Juno), and Hestia (Vesta) were all devoured. But by time the sixth child, Zeus (Jupiter) came...
20 Secrets Your Waiter Won't Tell You
What We Lie About If you’re a vegetarian and you ask if we use vegetable stock, I’m going to say yes, even if we don’t. You’ll never know the difference.via rd.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
The Airplane Graveyard of St Augustine
To cross the threshold of this overgrown lot is trespassing – occupied houses nearby make discretion a must – yet this hasn’t deterred a flow of photographers and urban explorers. Indeed this haunting spot seems to exert a gravitational pull. The closer you get to the decrepit shells of the airplanes left to rot in this rusting cemetery, the stronger the strange spell of decaying man-made...
Yama - The Tibetan Skull Camera | Oddity Central -...
Named after Yama, the Tibetan God of Death, this bizarre camera was created using a real human skull, blessed by a Tibetan Lama. Designed and built by Wayne Martin Belger “for the study of exodus and for the research of modern incarnations of historical iconic figures”, Yama looks nothing like a photo camera, but, according to the info on Boy of Blue Industries, it actually has a film loading...
War vs. Justice
The significance of information in a wartime setting is radically different from its import in the criminal justice system. In war information is mostly used to affect events in the future. In criminal justice it is used to interpret events in the past. Treating information as intelligence or as evidence creates radically different organizational cultures and incentive structures. It also...
Amy's Purse Collection - a set on Flickr
via flickr.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
Amy's Purse Collection - a set on Flickr
via flickr.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
Little Library
Found and altered early 19th-century leather binding with fore-edge clasps. The bookshelves of the altered binding hold seventy-two blank leather- and paper-covered books which open and range in height from 1” to 1.5”. Working full time leaves only so many hours to pursue my own bindings, and I find that I normally spend several months or more completing a single full leather volume. Working on...
Choose
“The issue is now clear. It is between light and darkness, and everyone must choose his side.” — reported last words of G. K. Chestertonvia firstthings.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
Frank Woodruff Buckles: The Last Living American...
Buckles from Sean Dunne on Vimeo. via mentalfloss.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
Awww... Pink Fairy Armadillo!
(image credit: Sunday Williams) via darkroastedblend.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
Einstein's Wrist watch.
Articles & Effects: Einstein’s Wrist watch. via secretforts.blogspot.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
They warned us that if gay marriage ever went...
via pictureisunrelated.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
Let me make one thing perfectly clear...
via www2.b3ta.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
Okay. Open up your suitcase and show me what you...
via designspongeonline.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
No. No. No.
via exileinportales.blogspot.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
Fat New Endorsement Deal for Tiger Woods
ShareThis via iowntheworld.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
Fear of Fritterware: The Nightmare Before...
What Donald Wants for Christmas What I want is computer that I never have to turn on but the first time, and then never have to touch again. I want wireless, light-quick, crystal-clarity displays in any or all the rooms of my house, in all the varying sizes I might want, from iTouch sized all the way to home theater. If I want. I want a totally voice-operated OS for which a keyboard...
The Reception of Sanctuary -- What I Learned from...
Man was wiser when he knew he shared an intimacy with the stars, which he called ‘astrology.’ Man was stronger and more brave when he believed that a reward awaited he who died bravely, and well. Man was a far, far more beautiful creature when he knew the tragedy of Love was bound with the fate of a people. Today when we say words from the Bible, we sound like tepid cymbals, not...
If You Strike At the Word, Make Sure You Kill Him
If you smite a king, you’d better make sure you kill him. And if you abuse language, you’d better make certain that you kill it dead, so that it is no longer possible to even think or say truth. Only if things no longer make sense can nonsensical things be forced upon you by the left. This diabolical project is nearly complete in academia and the mass media, where the Lie reigns...
December 31, 2010: Defused Lethal Poem Released by...
“Many thought the progressive die-off of last December was the act of foreign terrorists. This was understandable in view of the devastation and elation, but wrong. On the contrary,” President-Select Sarah Palin announced today on her “That’s Mrs. President to You” Facebook page, “our investigation has discovered that all those progressives whose bodies could be identified once the Hazmat teams...
Al Gore the Clown
Al Gore is quite hilarious. Global warming! I love that. I seriously think the man had a nervous breakdown and decided to parlay it into an industry. Why go nuts for free when you can make a fortune at it? Going around in his fume-spewing jets preaching to us about our carbon footprints, he reminds me of some ancient Pope with mistresses and catamites and palaces condemning the sinfulness of...
God's Gifts
The atheists preen themselves on their realism and accuse the faithful of wishful thinking, but for me, God freed me to develop a full, honorable and tragic sense of life, to perceive both the nobility and the sinfulness of every individual, and to understand why no system will make us good or fair but that there are systems that can keep us free so that we can choose whether or not to be good or...
Islam Triumphant Will At Least Rid Us of
Academics, entertainers, wealthy elites like Michael Moore who think Islamists are going to like them, spare them and their limousines and their millions, because they’re such ever-so-good people… well, they’re like the intellectuals who lined the streets of Vienna to welcome Hitler. The next day, they were gone. via frontpagemag.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
How to Destroy a Liberal’s Worldview, Part 2 « An...
Most of the time, “Health is a right” is derived from the “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness” phrase, which, by the way, is the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, not the constitution. The Declaration of Independence is like a vision statement. The Constitution defines our government and the rights of our citizens. If it’s in the Declaration, it isn’t a right. via...
Bush Lied?
When I voted for Bush, he didn’t run on a platform of sending troops to war; he responded to an unforeseen event. When you voted for Obama, he ran on a platform of ending the wars. Bush didn’t do things he said he wouldn’t do during his campaign. Barack Obama has done things he said he wouldn’t do, and hasn’t done things he said he would do. Who’s the liar?via How to Destroy a Liberal’s...
Messiah Watch
Vlademir Carpin, a Russian Christian pilgrim, held the New Testament on Tuesday as he stood outside a cave that he turned into his temporary home, in the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem. Mr. Carpin said he decided to live in the cave to await the return of the Messiah. via blogs.wsj.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
So Long John
IMAGINING LENNON: A tourist placed a candle at the “Imagine” memorial mosaic at Strawberry Fields in New York City’s Central Park Tuesday, on the 29th anniversary of former Beatle John Lennon’s death. via blogs.wsj.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
Farewell
FALLEN COMRADES: Police officers surrounded the flag-draped caskets of fallen Lakewood, Wash., Sgt. Mark Renninger and Officers Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold, and Greg Richards during a service attended by 20,000 in Tacoma Tuesday via blogs.wsj.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
31 Very Real 911 Minutes: Homeowner shoots, kills...
CUSHING — For 10 minutes and 20 seconds, Donna Jackson remained calm as she stood in the dark pleading for help and repeatedly telling emergency dispatchers that she did not want to shoot the “crazy,” “drunk sounding” man who was yelling and determined to get inside her house early Frida via newsok.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
The Twittification of Walt Whitman
I cLebr8 myself, & wot I assume U shaL assume, 4 evry atom belonging 2 me az gud belongs 2 U.via mikechasar.blogspot.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
The "Oh Blow Me" Story of the day: Grizzlies,...
An Australian biologist says climate change is speeding up the creation of new species through the merging of habitats. Scientists in the United States are trying to find more examples of a hybrid “grolar bear” - a wild animal that was discovered in 2006 and found to have genetic material from both polar and grizzly bears.via abc.net.au Posted via web from...
Who's driving this clown car?
Obama is one bow and one apology away from a circus. The world can understand a kowtow gaffe to some Saudi royals, but not as part of a deliberate pattern. Ditto the mea culpas. Much of diplomacy rests on public perceptions, however trivial. We are now in a great waiting game, as regional hegemons, wishing to redraw the existing landscape — whether China, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan,...
More Respect for Plants: The Ultimate Solar Cells
These green blobs are chloroplasts - in this instance packed inside the cells of a moss leaf and magnified around 400 times - upon which our collective future depends. Using only energy from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, they produce the oxygen we breathe, control the climate by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and, directly or indirectly via plants and...
What it means to become a citizen of the United...
Maria Anne Pilgrim, originally from Canada, cried as she takes the Oath of Allegiance from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to become an American citizen at New York’s Ellis Island Friday. Ms. Pilgrim served in the U.S. Army. via blogs.wsj.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
When Putin met Reagan « Iconic Photos
In May 1988, President Ronald Reagan travelled to Moscow for his 4th summit with Mikhail Gorbachev. The Soviets prepared a grand welcome; buildings across from the Kremlin were repainted, streets repaved and trees and flowers planted along the boulevards. The president’s schedule included attending the Bolshoi Ballet, speaking to students at Moscow’s State University and visiting Danilov...
D'OH THE HUMANITY! Yeah Right, I Remember When...
ShareThis via iowntheworld.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
Lampshade FLOTUS: Kennedy Center: Doo Wa’s and...
For the occasion, Lady M pulled out all the stops. We’re making progress: no more gowns reminiscent of WH draperies. We’ve moved on to lampshades.(and how do you like the handiwork of my newly installed wasp-waist drivers?) via michellesmirror.com Posted via web from Kaching! | Comment »
Daphne "shares" on Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods deserves the asshat of the year award. Come on, we weren’t surprised to learn he was creeping on the wife, all of the sports gods do, it’s part of that high testosterone, multimillionaire package. These guys get more prime tang than ninety percent of the entire male population combined and I’m slightly surprised that the rest of y’all men haven’t taken up the collective nine iron to...
Free of the G & D Men
I think their type is not confined to left, though it has a disproportionately large share of them. I think you will find the G & D type in radical Islam, the environmental movement, and in any of the varieties of fanatical belief across the whole political spectrum. My advice to all who are threatened with the “Big Cutoff” is to go buy yourself a bottle of champagne. You’ve made it. You’re...
The G & D Men
How is it possible for a group of smart people to write over 1,000 e-mails over the course of a decade without a single shred of wit or humor in any of them? There isn’t the tiniest hint anywhere that any of these guys ever grin. It jives with my experience of environmentalists for 20 years now that they are the single most humorless slice of humanity on the planet. (My favorite: I had a top...
Best Blog by a Pilot on the Web -- Flight Level...
At five miles and 1500 feet, Fi-Fi is descending about 700 feet per minute at 160 mph (140 knots). There is a canopy of palm trees and thick vegetation beneath us. Mentally, I recite the Get out of Dodge procedure: Pitch the nose up toward 18 degrees and thrust levers to go-around thrust, raise the flaps to the first notch, raise the landing gear, fly a heading toward the beach. More...
Jail Time for Climategate Morons
How even more deliciously ironic would it be if, in their lustful, Dr. Hendronsian2 self-aggrandizing rush to be the first to save the planet from the Neomalthusian horrors of free market economies, Phil Jones and Keith Briffa have stunted the world into inaction and indecision by disastrously overplaying their hand and, in the unlikely event that the Earth’s climate is in fact...
“The Saudi Arabia of carbon credits.”
The Investors Business Daily says that this vast pile of computational credits would make Russia “the Saudi Arabia of carbon credits.” “Russia’s greenhouse gas emissions plunged in the 1990s as its economy collapsed. Moscow now sits on a potential treasure trove of unused carbon emission permits it could sell to other countries.” Where on earth is the poor Western taxpayer going to get the money...
The Fraud: Understanding Climategate's Hidden...
And what I uncovered in the source code told the tale why. While Mann used multiple proxy sources, Briffa’s reconstructions were based solely on a property of annual tree ring growth known as maximum latewood density (MXD). And the MXD-only-driven plots began to diverge from actual temperatures as early as 1960. In fact, while many of CRU’s programs are designed to exclude all data after 1960...