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The Cure for Bush is Obama
Presidential Fanboy
Blunderbanking: The End
Links of Interest
Crocodilians Provide for their Young
The Roots of Psychopaths
The Biggest Event
Regrowing the Optic Nerve
The Death of Phoenix and here and here and here
Flight of the Albatross
The Baghdad Commuter Rail
YouTube to post full length MGM Films.
Killing Mister HIV and here
Visual Decisions
Cormac McCarthy on Death
The Lost Bomb
Panspermia: Here. Here. Here. Here. Here.
New Worlds
Lunar Colonization Blog
Ion Shields for Spaceships
Terrific Cassini Video
Monday, November 10, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Foot Shooting
When I was starting out as a software engineer a coworker told me of the three kinds of errors. The metaphor was shooting yourself in the foot.
The most common error is to take careful aim at the foot and blow it off. The most desired error was a system in which you took careful aim at your foot and missed. The most dangerous error was a system in which you took careful aim at your foot, pulled the trigger and blew your head off.
Now we come to Israel.
I am absolutely committed to the idea that Israel exist. I am also equally committed to the idea that for Israel to exist it must be more than some other country. It must stand for something. Otherwise, what is the point of Israel existing? There is an old Talmud statement for which I do not have an immediate reference that went something like this: It is a greater sin for a Jew to cheat a non-Jew than for a Jew to cheat another Jew. In the latter example, the cheat stands for itself and is a minor sin. But in the former case, the Jew is standing as an example of the Torah to the world and therefore the sin is greater as it is against the Torah and God. As was said, God made the world for the Torah, not the Torah for the world.
An odd thing for an atheist to say, isn't it? Still, let us leave that little dichotomy for another time and place.
Given the above, it gives me great pain when the government of Israel does silly things. This weekend I got this link across my desk. It seems the Simon Wiesenthal Center, based in Los Angeles, has decided to build a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. And it seems it is building it over a parking garage that is also the Mamilla Cemetery. (See here and here.)The Wiesenthal point of view is represented here and here. It's been a parking garage for a while. It's not classified as a cemetery for "over fifty years".
That's an interesting statement to make. Do bodies disappear when a space of land is no longer used as a cemetery? We have little family cemeteries all over the place in New England. I saw them in Missouri, too. It didn't mean they were no longer revered.
The most common error is to take careful aim at the foot and blow it off. The most desired error was a system in which you took careful aim at your foot and missed. The most dangerous error was a system in which you took careful aim at your foot, pulled the trigger and blew your head off.
Now we come to Israel.
I am absolutely committed to the idea that Israel exist. I am also equally committed to the idea that for Israel to exist it must be more than some other country. It must stand for something. Otherwise, what is the point of Israel existing? There is an old Talmud statement for which I do not have an immediate reference that went something like this: It is a greater sin for a Jew to cheat a non-Jew than for a Jew to cheat another Jew. In the latter example, the cheat stands for itself and is a minor sin. But in the former case, the Jew is standing as an example of the Torah to the world and therefore the sin is greater as it is against the Torah and God. As was said, God made the world for the Torah, not the Torah for the world.
An odd thing for an atheist to say, isn't it? Still, let us leave that little dichotomy for another time and place.
Given the above, it gives me great pain when the government of Israel does silly things. This weekend I got this link across my desk. It seems the Simon Wiesenthal Center, based in Los Angeles, has decided to build a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. And it seems it is building it over a parking garage that is also the Mamilla Cemetery. (See here and here.)The Wiesenthal point of view is represented here and here. It's been a parking garage for a while. It's not classified as a cemetery for "over fifty years".
That's an interesting statement to make. Do bodies disappear when a space of land is no longer used as a cemetery? We have little family cemeteries all over the place in New England. I saw them in Missouri, too. It didn't mean they were no longer revered.
It gets even more involved, however. The cemetery fell into disuse in 1948-- when Israel was created. (See here and here) It is the Wiesenthal Center's point of view that the cemetery had been declared abandoned in 1964. Though there are those who dispute that. Regardless, as in Missouri and Massachusetts, people don't quit grieving and revering the dead just because a place is politically modified. A good essay on the subject is here. In Massachusetts there were the "lost towns of Quabbin". Towns that were leveled and destroyed to make Quabbin Reservoir that feeds water to Boston. There are still people who are ticked about it.
Now, imagine that sort of situation with a "Museum of Tolerance" with a known occupied territory in a place where both sides consider all men, women and children of the other side as essentially enemy combatants.
A better solution would have been to rebuild the Mamilla Cemetery and incorporate the Museum around it. That would have been a Museum of Tolerance worthy of its name.
"Shooting yourself in the foot" doesn't begin to cover it.
"Shooting yourself in the foot" doesn't begin to cover it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Political Links
Betta Republicans
Obameidolia
Undoing Bush
Night of the Long Knives
Wall of Idiots
Political Links
Betta Republicans
Obameidolia
Undoing Bush
Night of the Long Knives
Wall of Idiots
Operation Leper
Links of Interest
Feathered Dinosaurs and Birds
Engineering Edibacteria
Chandrayaan Orbits Moon
Carnival of Space
The Abandoned Mines of Death Valley New Cancer Treatments Plastic in the Lab Not so Great The Trials of Alternative Fuels How to Get Tickets to the Inauguration Productivity: Be Afraid
Gene Associated with Language Development and here
CO2 Rock Sponges
Eat Fertilizer!
Good Bacteria vs. Bad Bacteria
See the GOODS and here
Octopus Redecoration
Retail: The Comic
Octopus Evolution
How Spam Works
Links of Interest
Feathered Dinosaurs and Birds
Engineering Edibacteria
Chandrayaan Orbits Moon
Carnival of Space
The Abandoned Mines of Death Valley New Cancer Treatments Plastic in the Lab Not so Great The Trials of Alternative Fuels How to Get Tickets to the Inauguration Productivity: Be Afraid
Gene Associated with Language Development and here
CO2 Rock Sponges
Eat Fertilizer!
Good Bacteria vs. Bad Bacteria
See the GOODS and here
Octopus Redecoration
Retail: The Comic
Octopus Evolution
How Spam Works
The Blessed GOP Meltdown
I have to say, it's been entertaining reading the right wing pundits try to make sense of the election. It would be difficult for them to say "Gee. Our ideas didn't really set well with the public after being in place for thirty years. Guess we gave them a chance and they didn't work so well." That would be like Rush Limbaugh deciding that drug rehabilitation was good for anybody (except himself.)
So, we have Windmill Annie. Ann Coulter spins around so fast in pointing blame in this week's column that she's in serious danger of becoming airborne. As usual, Coulter's column is content free. That is unless you consider bashing liberals to a beat content. There are some particularly nasty quotes to be gotten there.
Like this one: "Apparently Florida voters didn't mind Obama's palling around with Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, either. There must be a whole bunch of retired Pennsylvania Jews down there."
Or this one: "This was such an enormous Democratic year that even John Murtha won his congressional seat in Pennsylvania after calling his constituents racists. It turns out they're not racists -- they're retards."
And, lest you think that Windmill Annie doesn't make a profit on this sort of thing. We have her advice on Obamaproofing your portfolio. This shows that whether or not she is able to put a coherent thought together in an article, she's still able to make money on it. Of course, somebody out there has to actually pay her. One wonders who would even consider her advice useful, much less profitable.
Michael Reagan wasn't a lot better. He and Coulter both think McCain and Bush walked away from basic Republican ideals. After all, military spending, abrogation of human rights and saving corporations from their own blunders isn't a hallmark of the Republican Party, is it? Is it? Really? Hm, well now. After all, this was "not a referendum on Ronald Reagan." Who says saints are only found in the Catholic Church?
Oliver North, that bastion of integrity, considers how the GOP ought to be rebuilt. You remeber Ollie, don't you? He's the soldier who turned his back on his oath, his country and his personal honor to help Ronnie the Robot skunk the Constitution. Then he made money on it. Nice to know who Annie's friends are. He thinks moving Mike Pence (R-Ind) into a position of leadership shows "the rapidity of conservatives’ resurgence after the McCain loss Tuesday". Pence is Human Event's 2005 Man of the Year-- as grisly an endorsement as I can imagine.
Patrick Buchanan, who thinks Palin is the best thing since sliced bread, thinks the defeat was "unnecessary". It's the Mainstream Media. McCain gave it away. Barack had nothing to do with it except for "locking up black America." Nice to know where you stand, Pat. Buchanan is good with epitaphs: "These are the twin causes of death of the Reagan coalition, and as long as the Republican Party is hooked on K Street cash, it will not address either, and thus pass, blissfully addicted, from this earth."
Say it's so, Pat. Please, say it's so.
-----------------------------------------------------
Political Links
Ballot Initiative Analysis. Mostly Crying in the Beer, here.
Ted Talk, Morality: Conservatives vs. Liberals
2008 Fact Check Awards
That Damned Liberal Media
Secretary McCain
Threats to Political Muslims
Palin Supporters
Obama and the White Vote
Race and the Executive
Joe Lieberman faces the music and here and here
Obama, McCain, Palin Dancing
Links of Interest
Giant Omelette Celebration
Volcano Slideshow
Social Network for Scientists
LHC Fears
Centauri B Planets Unlikely
Alternative Gun Cultures
Cephalopod Tricks
Kew-el Buildings
Green Spaces Reduce Health Gap
So, we have Windmill Annie. Ann Coulter spins around so fast in pointing blame in this week's column that she's in serious danger of becoming airborne. As usual, Coulter's column is content free. That is unless you consider bashing liberals to a beat content. There are some particularly nasty quotes to be gotten there.
Like this one: "Apparently Florida voters didn't mind Obama's palling around with Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, either. There must be a whole bunch of retired Pennsylvania Jews down there."
Or this one: "This was such an enormous Democratic year that even John Murtha won his congressional seat in Pennsylvania after calling his constituents racists. It turns out they're not racists -- they're retards."
And, lest you think that Windmill Annie doesn't make a profit on this sort of thing. We have her advice on Obamaproofing your portfolio. This shows that whether or not she is able to put a coherent thought together in an article, she's still able to make money on it. Of course, somebody out there has to actually pay her. One wonders who would even consider her advice useful, much less profitable.
Michael Reagan wasn't a lot better. He and Coulter both think McCain and Bush walked away from basic Republican ideals. After all, military spending, abrogation of human rights and saving corporations from their own blunders isn't a hallmark of the Republican Party, is it? Is it? Really? Hm, well now. After all, this was "not a referendum on Ronald Reagan." Who says saints are only found in the Catholic Church?
Oliver North, that bastion of integrity, considers how the GOP ought to be rebuilt. You remeber Ollie, don't you? He's the soldier who turned his back on his oath, his country and his personal honor to help Ronnie the Robot skunk the Constitution. Then he made money on it. Nice to know who Annie's friends are. He thinks moving Mike Pence (R-Ind) into a position of leadership shows "the rapidity of conservatives’ resurgence after the McCain loss Tuesday". Pence is Human Event's 2005 Man of the Year-- as grisly an endorsement as I can imagine.
Patrick Buchanan, who thinks Palin is the best thing since sliced bread, thinks the defeat was "unnecessary". It's the Mainstream Media. McCain gave it away. Barack had nothing to do with it except for "locking up black America." Nice to know where you stand, Pat. Buchanan is good with epitaphs: "These are the twin causes of death of the Reagan coalition, and as long as the Republican Party is hooked on K Street cash, it will not address either, and thus pass, blissfully addicted, from this earth."
Say it's so, Pat. Please, say it's so.
-----------------------------------------------------
Political Links
Ballot Initiative Analysis. Mostly Crying in the Beer, here.
Ted Talk, Morality: Conservatives vs. Liberals
2008 Fact Check Awards
That Damned Liberal Media
Secretary McCain
Threats to Political Muslims
Palin Supporters
Obama and the White Vote
Race and the Executive
Joe Lieberman faces the music and here and here
Obama, McCain, Palin Dancing
Links of Interest
Giant Omelette Celebration
Volcano Slideshow
Social Network for Scientists
LHC Fears
Centauri B Planets Unlikely
Alternative Gun Cultures
Cephalopod Tricks
Kew-el Buildings
Green Spaces Reduce Health Gap
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Links of Interest
Political Links
Election Analysis: Here. Here. Here. Here. Here.
Salvaging from Bush: Here. Here.
Alien Weeps for McCain's Loss
The Monster Years
Obama and Science
Links of Interest
AuroraCam
New Millennium Paper Airplane Contest and here, here, here, here and here
Best Animal Photos of 2008
Alternative Energy Overview
Inside the Viet Nam War
Visual Development
Lunar Microbes
Nanobama
Immune Differences between Chimps and Humans
Cancer Genetic Blueprint
DNA Wires
Cougars are BIG
Grasshopper on Vacation
Dark Flow
Good Bugs, Bad Bugs
Election Analysis: Here. Here. Here. Here. Here.
Salvaging from Bush: Here. Here.
Alien Weeps for McCain's Loss
The Monster Years
Obama and Science
Links of Interest
AuroraCam
New Millennium Paper Airplane Contest and here, here, here, here and here
Best Animal Photos of 2008
Alternative Energy Overview
Inside the Viet Nam War
Visual Development
Lunar Microbes
Nanobama
Immune Differences between Chimps and Humans
Cancer Genetic Blueprint
DNA Wires
Cougars are BIG
Grasshopper on Vacation
Dark Flow
Good Bugs, Bad Bugs
Monday, November 3, 2008
Links of Interest
Political Links
Pre-emption
Social Progress
Einstein + Obama = Sharpton
Election Analysis and here
Links of Interest
Bye Bye Bluefin
The End of Phoenix
The Oldest Hebrew Text
Melamine Dawns over China
Why do we Forget?
Protecting Astronauts and here
Drugs from China
Self Organizing Optics
Regrowing extinct animals
Saving Orcas through Salmon
Pre-emption
Social Progress
Einstein + Obama = Sharpton
Election Analysis and here
Links of Interest
Bye Bye Bluefin
The End of Phoenix
The Oldest Hebrew Text
Melamine Dawns over China
Why do we Forget?
Protecting Astronauts and here
Drugs from China
Self Organizing Optics
Regrowing extinct animals
Saving Orcas through Salmon
Friday, October 31, 2008
Links of Interest
I'm usually ticked off in some way when I write in this. But the election has just made me sad, depressed and tired.
---------------------------------------------------------
Political Links
Joe the Plumber
More Whoppers of 2008
E-Voting
Rich vs. Poor
Slime Dog Awards 2008
Politi"fact": Note that a nasty right wing ad often shows at the top
Barack Rap
Links of Interest
White Nose Syndrome Fungus Identified and here
More on Hubble
Orion Capsule
Time for the Ray Gun
Spider God
Mud Eruption Caused by Drilling
Jonestown
Heron Eats Rabbit
Sisyphus takes a Beach Vacation
Pig Fights Lion
How to catch an escaped Rhino
The Dresden Codak Show
Links of Interest: Halloween Special
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