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.

Get Government Out of Space!

Looks like the Obama administration is doing exactly what they said (while campaigning) they would never do: gut the space science program to fund the manned space program.  I'm beginning to think the Glenn Reynolds is right: if you want to know what the Obama administration is going to do, just assume it's the opposite of what they say.

From an article by Lou Friedman (for 30 years the director of the Planetary Society):

We’re in a similar situation today. Behind closed doors, the administration is deciding on NASA budget cuts that may not be in the best interest of either the agency or the American people. Having caved in to Congressional special interests on the Space Launch System (SLS), the administration is now prepared to sacrifice science and exploration programs in order to prematurely start its development, with requirements that will neither be met nor needed for more than a decade.

Imagine a NASA that for ten years (say, 2015 to 2025) ceases to explore the solar system and stops looking deep into the universe. Already, the administration has said that flagship missions to explore the outer planets will cease. Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini will be followed by nothing. Already, the administration has deeply cut the Mars program, reducing American plans to support a 2016 European mission and taking away funds that were to be used for a 2018 follow-on to Mars Science Laboratory, leading to Mars sample return.

Now, news reports and reliable sources are saying that the administration (in the form of OMB) may refuse to allow NASA to proceed with any joint Mars exploration plan with Europe. This decision would destroy the whole NASA/ESA Mars collaboration that has been built in the past several years. The collaborative plan was to have the US provide an Atlas launch of a European Trace Gas Orbiter mission (with several US instruments) in 2016, and then NASA and ESA would jointly develop a sophisticated astrobiology and sample cache rover mission in 2018. OMB seems to be cutting out the American role in the 2016 mission and refusing to let NASA commit to the 2018 collaboration. (ESA has sent a letter to NASA saying that ESA has committed about $1 billion to the joint NASA-ESA mission, but that financial commitment depends on the US formally committing to its role in the mission. We hear that OMB has refused, thus far, to let NASA respond positively).

The administration has also punted the James Webb Space Telescope. The current plan states that they will support JWST, but they do not specify either a budget or where the money will come from. Are they going to leave that to Congressional special interests too?

Moonlit Morning Walk...

I got up a little early this morning, about 2:15 am, and took the dogs out for their morning constitutional.  The moon was high in the southern sky, and nearly perfectly full.  There was virtually no haze, so it was unusually bright outside.  I could clearly see colors around the yard, and could easily make out the mountains on the other side of our valley, about two miles away.  The dogs behaved as if it was daylight, especially Race – he scampered all about, chasing a pine cone. 

I heard the rustling of something largish uphill from us, and after some searching I found a pair of eyes looking at me: a coyote, about 100 feet away, on the other side of our yard's hurricane fence.  My dogs never knew he was there.  The coyote and I watched each other as we finished our walk and went back inside.  I wonder what went through his mind as he watched us?

The Comedians are Merciless...

Some political humor, via reader Simi L:

The liberals are asking us to give Obama time.  We agree...and think 25 to life would be appropriate.
--Jay Leno

America needs Obama-care like Nancy Pelosi needs a Halloween mask.
--Jay Leno

Q: Have you heard about McDonald's' new Obama Value Meal?
A: Order anything you like and the guy behind you has to pay for it.
--Conan O'Brien

Q: What does Barack Obama call lunch with a convicted felon?
A: A fund raiser.
--Jay Leno

Q: What's the difference between Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary?
A: One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers, and threats to society.  The other is for housing prisoners.
--David Letterman

Q: If Nancy Pelosi and Obama were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and it started to sink, who would be saved?
A: America!
--Jimmy Fallon

Q: What's the difference between Obama and his dog, Bo?
A: Bo has papers.
--Jimmy Kimmel

Q: What was the most positive result of the "Cash for Clunkers" program?
A: It took 95% of the Obama bumper stickers off the road.
--David Letterman

People Flows...

Ever wonder how many people immigrate into, or emigrate out of, any particular country?  Here's a cool web site that lets you investigate exactly these questions.  For example, here's emigration from Mexico – and there were some surprises on this for me...