Poems for Memorizing
Here is a list of 20 poems put together by John Derbyshire of NRO to memorize when you’re bored.
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Quiet Supersonic Platform
This modified F-5E breaks the sound barrier quietly.
Northrop Grumman Corporation’s (NYSE:NOC) Integrated Systems sector, in cooperation with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA, has made aviation history by demonstrating a method to reduce the bone-jarring impact of sonic booms, a technology that could usher in a new era of supersonic flight.
Photos accompanying this release are available at: http://media.primezone.com/noc/
In flights conducted Aug. 27 on the same supersonic test range where Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier nearly 56 years ago, the government/industry team showed that modifying an aircraft’s shape can reduce the intensity of its sonic boom. This theory had never been demonstrated in actual flight.
The technology, being developed as part of DARPA’s Quiet Supersonic Platform (QSP) program, could eventually lead to unrestricted supersonic flight over land.
Excellent. The quicker the flight the better! In my opinion they are years behind on this. They are also years behind on civilian space travel. I should be able to take my kid on a recreational trip to the moon by now. I blame the lame baby boomer generation…their parents made it to the moon…they’ve been in orbit in the stupid space shuttle for 25 years.
I’ll probably do a post on why I think NASA should be abolished sometime soon.
Why Iraq?
I’ve bad-mouthed Thomas Friedman in the past on this site but I really agree with this recent column in the NYTimes. He is right about everything except his whining about SUV’s and crying about tax cuts in the last couple sentences.
Movie Physics
Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics is the perfect website for a nerd who loves movies (me). It debunks lots of the stuff that regularly happens in the movies…like the exploding car…heros who can jump through plate glass windows without a scratch…explosions in space…and much more.
The Anti-Nannies
“My client couldn’t resist your delicious cookies!!!”
Check out this new TV commercial about PETA and this one about the people who are trying to litigate against food companies for making food to fattening. (If you have a dial-up connection it might take a little while for the commercials to download.)
It is good that we have people like those at The Center For Consumer Freedom who are willing and able to wage the war against those would would try to be our nannies.
(Links and photo courtesy Free-Market.net)
The Only Milk On My Desktop
(The following is an unpaid advertisement)
I bought the milk in the picture about a week and a half ago. I usually don’t do the whole organic thing because I usually can’t taste a difference in the organic product and the supposedly inferior product. This case is an exception. The only grocery store in the area of my work is a hoity toity fancy store called Harris Teeter. They have high quality food and a good organic selection but they are more expensive than a regular grocer. I was there and found this milk that was “ultra pasteurized”. I liked that it wasn’t going to expire for over a month and a half (I don’t driink milk that fast here at work) so I decided to try it. It is the best milk i’ve ever had.
If you like milk but always find that it expires before you finish it give this stuff a try. It is awesome.
(End unpaid ad)
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My Shortest Haircut Ever!!!
Here is a picture of my EXCELLENT new haircut. I’ve finally given up hope that I’ll ever have nice hair again before the resurrection. Now it is time to just enjoy the benefits of baldness. Namely:
I don’t have to do anything to my hair after I get out of the shower.
I never have to worry about hat head
It feels dang good to have a breeze blow over your bald head. (I learned this on Saturday after I got this most recent shortest ever haircut…then bought a new bike…more on that later)
In case anyone wants to emulate this stylish doo of mine here are the instructions I gave the barber:
Use a #2 clipper attachment and shave my head…then taper the sides and back
Simple and effective!!!
Free Tech Books
I’m not big on the development aspect of computers but for those who are here is a cool site:
http://www.tcfb.com/freetechbooks/index.html
All online computer books listed in this site are available for free, as they are hosted on websites that belong to the authors or the publishers. You are welcome to view, download and print the books for your own private use at no charge.
(link courtesy Lockergnome Bits and Bytes Newsletter)
The Face Of The Utah Republican Party
Enid Greene
Here is a story from the Deseret News about the recent Utah Republican convention. It sounds like the good old boys carried the day. Not much of a surprise there. The Cannon brothers still run things and the more intelligent crew that actually has a political ideology has been put down.
Frank Guliuzza, one of my professors when I was at Weber State, was voted down as the party Vice-Chair. He was replaced by Enid Greene. Dr. Guliuzza is extremely intelligent and an extremely effective speaker. He has clearly explained political beliefs and he is an effective promoter of those ideals. Enid Greene is a vapid ditz as she and her ex-husband proved a few years ago. She believes in self-promotion…and is effective at staying bland enough to get the support of the limp-wristed Utah Republican party. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with these yahoos…but it is sad to see that they are running a state that I love.
My favorite paragraph from this story is the last one. It has a quote from a delegate at the convention who is supporting the open Republican primary in Utah. This current procedure allows anyone to vote in the Republican primary regardless of their political affiliation. This dilutes what the party stands for and contributes to the staid one party government that exists in Utah. Here’s the quote:
Delegate Lynn Price pleaded with fellow delegates not to require that all party nominees be picked in the state convention, thus ending GOP primary elections. Some LDS Church leaders couldn’t vote in a closed GOP primary, she said, because they would have to register as Republicans to do so, and in their positions they can’t. “Can you imagine what it would mean (to GOP candidates) if President Gordon B. Hinckley registered as a Democrat?” she asked. “It would have a powerful impact.”
What a bunch of pantywaists. Here is what Ms. Price is saying, “Lets not have a real political ideology because a church leader might not agree with it and we might lose our political monopoly.”
Asinine.
Lawrence Summers
First he was Secretary of the Treasury under Clinton, now he’s president of Harvard. This detailed look at Lawrence Summers is very fun to read. I didn’t know much about the guy before I saw this and now I am a pretty big fan. He is very politically incorrect…and a super genius. A great combination. Check out the above linked story from Sunday’s New York Times.
(Link courtesy Instapundit)
More On The Death Cultists
The Israelis have done some pretty bad stuff to the Palestinians…I certainly have a hard time thinking of the Israeli government as the good guys. That said…there is no question who the bad guys are.
(images of Hamas thugs courtesy Yahoo.com…I found them at www.littlegreenfootballs.com)
Why We Fight (See Also Previous Post)
Here is Victor Davis Hanson at NRO on what all of this fighting is about:
…the past week in Afghanistan, in Baghdad, and in Jerusalem they have once more embraced the tactics of the bomb-laden truck and suicide belt to demoralize civil society and to win the only way they can — as was true in Beirut and Mogadishu — by eroding public support for the continuance of war. Otherwise, they will lose and the virus of reform and legality will only spread.
Either the Middle East will be a breeding ground for terrorists and rogue regimes that threaten sober nations and peoples the world over, from Manhattan to Jerusalem, or it will desist and join the rest of the world. It really is as simple as that.
We have to either change the barbarians minds and hearts or destroy them. Modern Western Civilization and their culture can’t co-exist.
—Standard Disclaimer: Of course whenever I talk about “barbarians” I’m talking about extremists who think it normal and OK to advance their religious goals by violence against others. These could be Christian, Muslim or Jew and have been at different times in history. The current batch just happen to be Wahabbist muslims. It is sad when honest and peaceful Muslims get lumped in with the garbage. Mormons had an extremist group at one time too that perpetrated a disgusting slaughter…I hope it never happens again.
What Fascists In Thrall To A Death God Have Done
Read this post at Lileks about the recent bus bombing in Israel and the casualties.
The last link opens up a picture of his 3 year old daughter. I completely understand where he’s coming from.
