December 9, 2006
It's Cheaper to Throw Them Out
Are reusable spacecraft history? Tonight's space shuttle launch was spectacular. Watch them while you can; there are only fifteen launches left before NASA retires the shuttle, and with it the concept of reusable spacecraft. Turns out that, despite previous efforts, governments just can't make the original, common-sense idea of reusable spacecraft economically feasible. Leave it to private industry to figure out how.
State of Denial
The Denial Machine. A 40-min Canadian (CBC) documentary about the "denial industry" - think tanks, scientists, PR firms, focus groups, lawyers, etc.. the issue? Tobacco. Global Warming. It doesn't matter - different issues but the same people. How to be a professional denier and profit.
"The future, for which I have really worked, is mine."
Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste
37 years and 3 days ago, the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band played a free concert at Altamont Speedway. A second Woodstock was probably the intent, but it was not to be, and the security was provided by the Hell's Angels. During the Jefferson Airplane's set Marty Balin was punched out(youtube). As the Stones played "Under My Thumb" a fan, Meredith Hunter, 19 was killed(youtube). Widely seen as the end of the Utopian ideals of th 1960's this event has been memorialized in song and print (most memorably by Stanley Booth who witnessed the event from behind Keith Richards' amp.
What's the hardest part about being you?
the year of the truthiness
Merriam-Webster's 2006 Word of the Year is NOT in their online dictionary. Officially coined on October 17, 2005, it had already won the American Dialect Society's 2005 Award (pdf) where they claim that "other meanings of the word date as far back as 1824", and is probably a shoe-in for for the Banished Words of 2007 list.
A distant number 2 is our friend "the goog", and after that, it's all NewsFilter/PoliticsFilter/IraqFilter (with that all-time classic "war" at #4).
(From the MeFite who posted the Favorite Words of 2004 and the Banished Words List in 2003 and 2004)
A distant number 2 is our friend "the goog", and after that, it's all NewsFilter/PoliticsFilter/IraqFilter (with that all-time classic "war" at #4).
(From the MeFite who posted the Favorite Words of 2004 and the Banished Words List in 2003 and 2004)
Illegal Eagles
It's war, and young American illegally men head to Canada. From Canada they are off to join the RAF and fight the Nazis in the Battle of Britain. The U.S. had passed a series of laws during the 1930’s to keep the country from getting embroiled in the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia.... The Neutrality Acts were structured to keep the U.S. out of a possible European war. This, in effect, made it illegal for recruiters to hire Americans to go to Canada or England for enlistment purposes, or for U.S. citizens to volunteer for military service in England.... Violators of the U. S. Neutrality Acts could face stiff penalties of up to $20,000 in fines, ten years in prison, and loss of citizenship. Some F.B.I. agents were assigned to track down these evildoers, but it doesn’t appear they had much success. They became the Eagle Squadrons. A similar group, the Flying Tigers, headed to China to fight the Japanese, this one apparently with some clandestine US government sponsorship, despite the neutrality laws. Brave, effective and colorful as described in this interview.
Esperiffic!
Final Fantasy Summon Magic! Final Fantasy 7 Summons (Part One). Final Fantasy 7 Summons (Part Two). Final Fantasy 8 Summons and limit breaks. Final Fantasy 9 Summons and trances. Final Fantasy 10 Summons and limit breaks. And lastly, the DVD retrospective of Final Fantasy that shipped with the collector's edition of 12.
Homeless Prophet
Vivek Speaks - 38 minutes of a ongoing, heartfelt lecture about God, Personal power & the Truth by Vivek, a homeless guy. (YouTube)
A colourful entrance is half the work.
$0.002 != $0.00002
Math skills are not Verizon's strong point. A man tries to resolve a simple problem with Verizon for 22 minutes. Listen, and despair.
Tell us: why did you rape yourself?
Young couple arrested for having sex. In absence of "Romeo and Juliet" laws which protect young people's sexual congress depending on their age difference, children can be both charged as the perpetrator of a sex crime and protected as the victim of one.
Big riches
"There are several factors which determine the value of stone money. The first is the number of human lives that were lost on the journey to bring the stone home..." The giant stone coins of Yap were used for hundreds of years before the island experienced inflation of the most literal kind due to the entrepreneurship of a shipwrecked American fugitive. Today, the Yap islanders are trying to save their currency, as well as their caste system; while an economist at the Federal Reserve considers what Yap says about our money. [last link pdf, some html excerpts here]
My Humps, My Humps, My Feral Population Jumps
From far away they came to toil under the scorching Outback sun, and their hardy dispositions and tireless labor helped to create the central Australian railway and telegraph systems. They are the Camels [NPR story w/ audio], and today they are free (well, okay, feral), and they are many (700,000 strong, at least.) While they're no cane toads, they're becoming a bit of a pest. What to do with all those dromedaries? Well, you can race 'em, or you can eat 'em, or maybe you can even try milking 'em. Just get 'em before they get you, mate.
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