Sunday, October 30, 2011
Which Talking Head is More Credible - A or B?
This “debate” on (of all places!) Anderson Cooper's show is a nice comparison between two experts: Peter Schiff, accomplished business man on one side, and Cornell West, a leading light of progressive economics. You be the judge:
Four for Four...
Debbie is running Miki in an agility competition today, downtown at the old NTC. She just called me, and you could hear the smile: Miki just finished his fourth run for the weekend (two in jumpers, two in standard). Result: three first place finishes (and one fifth), and he's now in Excellent B in both. Bonus: he earned his first 19 Mach points.
Woot woot!!!
One other interesting note. Yesterday she took Miki down by himself, and noted that he seemed a bit stressed by the end of the day. Today she took Race (who wasn't entered) down with him, to see if having his buddy along would make a difference. Debbie reports that Miki was distinctly less stressed. Having his friend along made it all easier...
Woot woot!!!
One other interesting note. Yesterday she took Miki down by himself, and noted that he seemed a bit stressed by the end of the day. Today she took Race (who wasn't entered) down with him, to see if having his buddy along would make a difference. Debbie reports that Miki was distinctly less stressed. Having his friend along made it all easier...
How to Speak Liberal...
From John Hawkins, the coffee-spurter of the day. Here are a few choice examples, but do go read the whole thing!
Compassion: Feeling good about yourself for wanting to give away money you didn’t earn to people you hope will vote for your side.Greed: Wanting to keep money you’ve earned instead of having it spent on Bridges to Nowhere and government loans to people who’ve contributed to Obama’s campaign.Guns: Vicious weapons that force people to kill each other.Minorities: People who are too dumb and incompetent to make it without liberal help.Our opponents refuse to compromise on this issue: The Republicans refuse to do everything we want.Racism: A word you cry when you’re losing an argument with a conservative.Taxes: A limitless supply of free money to be given away to liberal special interests in return for votes.Tolerance: Something that justifies going on hate-filled rants against people who don’t share your view of the world.Unfair attack: They quoted me.
Seaside Limestone...
The limestone against the quiet sea instantly recalls many such scenes I saw while exploring the islands of Estonia (primarily Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, shown in Google Maps below). It's been over five years now since my last visit to Estonia. I hope to return one of these fine days, and bring Debbie (who's never been there) with me...
View Larger Map
Expectation and Objectivity...
A short article that does a fine job of presenting the slightly subtle ways that our expectations can completely overwhelm our objectivity. One of my favorite examples of this phenomenon is used in the article: how skilled wine tasters can be (and usually are!) led astray by their expectations being driven by a host of factors that have nothing whatever to do with the wine...
Saturday, October 29, 2011
A Couple of Funnies...
At least for the geeks and math buffs amongst you.
The first is courtesy of my colleague Aleck L.:
And the next I found somewhere in the vast confines of the Inter-Tubes:
The first is courtesy of my colleague Aleck L.:
And the next I found somewhere in the vast confines of the Inter-Tubes:
USA, Inc.
Mary Meeker has an excellent, objective look at the U.S. budget issues – and she's produced a video overview of that look that's understandable by anyone. Both highly recommended. The full report is chock full of illuminating data...
USA Inc. - A Basic Summary of America's Financial Statements
Friday, October 28, 2011
Race's Little Relatives...
Double J Border Collies, the breeder from whom we got Race has a couple videos posted of her most recent batch of (adorable and awesomely cute) puppies:
These People Vote...
Peter Schiff takes on the Occupy Wall Street folks. My overwhelming reaction is sadness at the profound ignorance on display here – and its implications for the future of our country...
Via reader Doug S.:
Via reader Doug S.:
The Divider vs. the Thinker...
Peggy Noonan has another great column up, this one focused on the differences between Obama and Paul Ryan (the thinker, if it wasn't obvious). The conclusion:
Go read the whole thing...But Republicans, in their desire to defend free economic activity, shouldn't be snookered by unthinking fealty to big business. They should never defend—they should actively oppose—the kind of economic activity that has contributed so heavily to the crisis. Here Mr. Ryan slammed "corporate welfare and crony capitalism."
"Why have we extended an endless supply of taxpayer credit to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, instead of demanding that their government guarantee be wound down and their taxpayer subsidies ended?" Why are tax dollars being wasted on bankrupt, politically connected solar energy firms like Solyndra? "Why is Washington wasting your money on entrenched agribusiness?"
Rather than raise taxes on individuals, we should "lower the amount of government spending the wealthy now receive." The "true sources of inequity in this country," he continued, are policies "that enriches the powerful, and empty promises that betray the powerless." The real class warfare that threatens us is "a class of bureaucrats and connected crony capitalists trying to rise above the rest of us, call the shots, rig the rules, and preserve their place atop society."
If more Republicans thought—and spoke—like this, the party would flourish. People would be less fearful for the future. And Mr. Obama wouldn't be seeing his numbers go up.
Starry Morning...
I got up a little early this morning, around 2. Out with the dogs before 2:30, out into a gorgeous dark night sky. My old friend Orion was high and clear in the east, the Pleiades almost straight overhead, and a very bright Jupiter a bit to the southwest of it. So many stars were visible that some constellations were hard to pick out of the clutter. Just beautiful...
The dogs, of course, completely ignored all the beauty. Racer was all about the pine cones, as usual. The three brown dogs got all focused on one square inch of dirt, down near our gate. I let them stay as long as they wanted to, and for about two minutes they were continuously deeply inhaling whatever scent it was that was fascinating them. Their tails were going a mile a minute, and their body language said “We're delighted with something!” Sure wish they could tell me what it was...
On the walk back up our driveway and back into the house, I got to noticing the artificial lights around our property. There are quite a few of them, more than I'd have expected. Before leaving the house, I turned off all the interior lights – at least, I turned off the things we normally think of as lights. But outside I saw our solar-powered gazebo lights (white LEDs that are quite bright) and a teensy little orange LED high on a mast anchored to the west end of our house. This was a power light on the radio tranceiver that connects our little place to the Internet, via a repeater on the hill high above me. Then through our home's windows, I could see a myriad of little lights, every one of them an LED. There were chargers, switch illuminators, front panels of audio/video gear, our wine cork remover, and on and on. I counted 25 such lights before I gave it up.
What do you suppose someone from, say, the 1700s would have made of all these lights?
The dogs, of course, completely ignored all the beauty. Racer was all about the pine cones, as usual. The three brown dogs got all focused on one square inch of dirt, down near our gate. I let them stay as long as they wanted to, and for about two minutes they were continuously deeply inhaling whatever scent it was that was fascinating them. Their tails were going a mile a minute, and their body language said “We're delighted with something!” Sure wish they could tell me what it was...
On the walk back up our driveway and back into the house, I got to noticing the artificial lights around our property. There are quite a few of them, more than I'd have expected. Before leaving the house, I turned off all the interior lights – at least, I turned off the things we normally think of as lights. But outside I saw our solar-powered gazebo lights (white LEDs that are quite bright) and a teensy little orange LED high on a mast anchored to the west end of our house. This was a power light on the radio tranceiver that connects our little place to the Internet, via a repeater on the hill high above me. Then through our home's windows, I could see a myriad of little lights, every one of them an LED. There were chargers, switch illuminators, front panels of audio/video gear, our wine cork remover, and on and on. I counted 25 such lights before I gave it up.
What do you suppose someone from, say, the 1700s would have made of all these lights?
Disturbing, Not Particularly Surprising...
James O'Keefe did it again, catching another set of liberals in the act of being arrogant snobs who are absolutely positive they know better than the rest of us. They are the elites, after all. On the video below, they actually call themselves that.
What is most disturbing to me in this video is the confirmation of what I have long believed to be true: that the liberal media (in this case, the New York Times) has a deliberate agenda of promoting progressive/liberal causes and politicians. Insiders in this video, unaware that they are being recorded, are quite frank and open about exactly such an active and deliberate agenda. It's clear that they see themselves as having a duty to pull the wool over the eyes of all us mouth-breathers...
See for yourself – and remember when you vote a year from now...
What is most disturbing to me in this video is the confirmation of what I have long believed to be true: that the liberal media (in this case, the New York Times) has a deliberate agenda of promoting progressive/liberal causes and politicians. Insiders in this video, unaware that they are being recorded, are quite frank and open about exactly such an active and deliberate agenda. It's clear that they see themselves as having a duty to pull the wool over the eyes of all us mouth-breathers...
See for yourself – and remember when you vote a year from now...
Thursday, October 27, 2011
China...
Via my colleague Aleck L., a ten minute video about China. It's full of interesting facts about modern China, some of which were new to me...
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