Steve Jobs, in Cartoons...

Via my mom, a half dozen tributes to Steve Jobs by cartoonists...

Generation Y...

Via reader Simi L.:

People born before 1946 are called – The Silent Generation.

People born between 1946 and 1964 are called – The Baby Boomers.

People born between 1965 and 1979 are called – Generation X.

And people born between 1980 and 2010 are called - Generation Y.

Why do we call the last group “Generation Y”?

Y should I get a job?

Y should I leave home and find my own place?

Y should I get a car when I can borrow yours?

Y should I clean my room?

Y should I wash and iron my own clothes?

Y should I buy any food?

But a cartoonist explained it very eloquently at right...

Quote of the Day...

From, of all people, Christine “Mad Dog” O'Donnell:

“Right now a lawn gnome could beat Obama in 2012...”

Sure hope she's right, 'cause the way things are going the Republicans might end up ahead of the game if they fielded a lawn gnome...

Mark Steyn on American Education...

Mr. Steyn, opining on one of my favorite topics: the utter disaster that is American public education.  An excerpt:

Don't worry, it's a book with a happy ending! U.S. government spending is sustainable as long as by 2020 the rest of the planet is willing to sink 19 percent of its GDP into U.S. Treasury debt. And why wouldn't they? After all, if you're a Chinese politburo member or a Saudi prince or a Russian kleptocrat or a Somali pirate, and you switched on CNN International and chanced to catch Joe Biden's Fourth Grade Economics class, why wouldn't you cheerily dump a fifth of your GDP into a business model with such a bright future?

Since 1970, public school employment has increased 10 times faster than public school enrollment. In 2008, the United States spent more per student on K-12 education than any other developed nation except Switzerland – and at least the Swiss have something to show for it. In 2008, York City School District spent $12,691 per pupil – or about a third more than the Swiss. Slovakia's total per student cost is less than York City's current per student deficit – and the Slovak kids beat the United States at mathematics, which may explain why their budget arithmetic still has a passing acquaintanceship with reality. As in so many other areas of American life, the problem is not the lack of money but the fact that so much of the money is utterly wasted.

But that's no reason not to waste even more! So the President spent last week touring around in his weaponized Canadian bus telling Americans that Republicans were blocking plans to "put teachers back in the classroom." Well, where are they now? Not every schoolmarm is down at the Occupy Wall Street drum circle, is she? No, indeed. And, in that respect, York City is a most instructive example: Five years ago (the most recent breakdown I have), the district had 440 teachers but 295 administrative and support staff. If you're thinking that sounds a little out of whack, that just shows what a dummy you are: For every three teachers we "put back in the classroom," we need to hire two bureaucrats to put back in the bureaucracy to fill in the paperwork to access the federal funds to put teachers back in the classroom. One day it will be three educrats for every two teachers, and the system will operate even more effectively.

If you have even a passing interest in this topic, you'll want to read the whole thing...

Seen at the Akron, Ohio Air Show...

Oh, Crap...

Via reader Dave H.:

Easy Corn on the Cob...

I haven't tried this yet, but it sure looks easy!

Al Gore's Science: Fake!

Come on, now, admit it.  You're not really all that surprised by this, are you?

Sibyl...

Remember Sibyl, she of the prototypical Multiple Personality Disorder?  Fraud.

Secret Service Treatment...

I've seen reports like this in writing from various sources, but I've never been able to really nail down an authoritative source. These assertions sound completely plausible to me, but I can't prove them. So, for what it's worth:

No Mercy...

The comedians have dropped their protective shield around Obama.  This can't be good for him :-)

You're Welcome...

The old saying goes “Sir, you're welcome to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.”  The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) crowd would like their own facts.  This survey is quite depressing, but not really all that surprising.  Take a look (graph at right) at how the OWS folks think the federal government allocates money.  Click here to see much more...

Quote of the Day...

Courtesy of Rick Perry, in Tuesday's debates:

I want to make the tax code so simple that even Timothy Geithner can file his taxes on time.

Ha!

Word Association...

I'm not entirely sure what to read into these results, but they sure are interesting.  A pollster asked a sample population what single word came to mind when they thought of a particular candidate.  Here are the top 5 words that those polled came up with:

Herman Cain:   9-9-9, Businessman, Interesting, Good, Pizza
Rick Perry:       Texas, No, Idiot, Conservative, Governor
Mitt Romney:   Mormon, Healthcare, Flip-Flop, Good, No

Fascinating...

Very Cool Physics Demo...

Applying for a Job at the FBI...

I just left my parents home a couple hours ago, and I'm sitting in the Richmond, Virginia airport using their free WiFi.  Via my mom:

The FBI had an opening for an assassin.

After all the background checks, interviews and testing were done, there were 3 finalists; two men and a woman.

For the final test, the FBI agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

"We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill her!"

The man said, "You can't be serious. I could never kill my wife."

The agent said, "Then you're not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home."

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for 5 minutes.

The man came out with tears in his eyes, "I tried, but I can't kill my wife." The agent said, "You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."

Finally, it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instructions - to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, 15 in all. But then they heard screaming, crashing and banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman, wiping the sweat from her brow.

"This gun was loaded with blanks" she said. "I had to beat him to death with the chair."

Women are crazy. Don't mess with them!

No man I've shared this with is even slightly surprised...

Light Blogging Alert...

I'll be on the road for the next few days, visiting with my folks in Virginia.  I will have Internet access, so there may be the occasional post nonetheless...

Dennis Ritchie, RIP...

Any serious programmer, and certainly any programmer who worked in the '80s or before, will know who Dennis Ritchie was.  Amongst his many accomplishments: co-creator of UNIX, co-creator of the programming language “C”, and co-author of widely read and influential books.  I never met Dennis, but I count him as one of the teachers who most impacted me.

Ritchie died this past weekend, after a long illness.  Rob Pike, Ritchie's long-time friend made the announcement last night...

Welfare Dogs...

Via reader Dave H.:

This morning I went to sign my dogs up for welfare. At first the lady said, "Dogs are not eligible to draw welfare." So I explained to her that my dogs are mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can't speak English and have no frigging clue who their Daddys are. They expect me to feed them, provide them with housing and medical care. So she looked in her policy book to see what it takes to qualify. My dogs get their first checks Friday.

Damn, this is a great country.

Smooth Atacama Boulders...

In the extreme dryness of the Atacama desert in Chile, there are large fields of boulders on the flat desert floor.  The midsections of these boulders are worn smooth.  Such smoothing is normally caused by erosion involving water, but this desert has virtually none.  So why are those boulders smooth?  In a word: earthquakes.