Postum hokum...

Postum hokum...  I wonder how many of my readers remember Postum, the breakfast drink?  We had it in our home when I was growing up, and my parents would allow the kids to drink it.  We were not allowed to drink coffee – they told us that coffee would “stunt our growth”, so we got Postum instead.  I don't recall either loving it or detesting it, but I did drink it occasionally.

What reminded me of such an obscure childhood thing was this article debunking the notion that coffee would stunt kids' growth.  That article mentions the role that Postum's advertising played in promoting the notion that coffee affected kids, and on further reading I discovered that Postum was a staple of Mormon culture (Mormon's don't drink coffee or tea).  Kraft foods (who had acquired the Postum brand through a chain of acquisitions) discontinued Postum in 2007, leaving a wake of disconsolate Mormons behind them (there are hundreds of articles and posts still on the web from 2007/2008 on this subject).  But in 2012, Kraft resurrected a modified version of Postum, and there are quite a few articles and posts from the Mormon community on this.

I think my dad would have been amused by the connection between Mormon culture and a practice in our own (very much not Mormon) home :)

$558 million? What?!? Where's my share???

$558 million?  What?!?  Where's my share???  This study, and especially the graph at right showing the sources of this funding, is getting a lot of press right now.  It makes the startling claim that between 2003 and 2011, $558 million dollars was distributed to “the powerful climate change countermovement” – in other words, the anthropogenic global warming skeptics.

My first thought was “Hey!  Where’s my share of that $558 million?  Nobody donated a penny to me!”

My second thought was to wonder exactly what organizations they're claiming are part of this “powerful climate change countermovement” – because intuitively that claim of over a half-billion dollars in funding is just nonsense.  The study itself (at the link above) doesn't give a precise definition, but it does discuss their methodology.  On reading that, I discovered that this study concludes that major portions of the funding for groups such as the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Cato Institute are all major players in this supposed “powerful climate change countermovement”.  Only by including their funding do they arrive at the study's figure.

I'm very familiar with the work of all three those organizations.  They are all three very general conservative think tanks, and each has occasionally done some work on the climate change question.  None of them are in any sense primarily AGW skeptics.  And yet here's an apparently serious academic, publishing a study in a peer-reviewed journal, that is making precisely that claim.  The intellectual dishonesty of that claim is breathtaking, and frightening.  It immediately brings to mind the political control mechanisms so deeply embedded in the world of 1984.  Or, for that matter, North Korea.

I cry for my country...

The sun, as imaged in various wavelengths...

The sun, as imaged in various wavelengths...  Via APOD, of course.  The colored wedges show longer-to-shorter wavelengths as you move clockwise from the 10 o'clock to the 2 o'clock wedges.  Full resolution image here.  We're starting to accumulate a rather impressive set of solar observational technology, much of it in space, but some still on Earth...

The NSA bought RSA's collusion...

The NSA bought RSA's collusion...  And for just $10 million, apparently.  From the story (which is missing much detail), it appears there may also have been some deception on the NSA's part.

Yet another thing we wouldn't have known if it weren't for Snowden...

No margin for error here...

No margin for error here...  I used to skydive (and would love to again), but I would never consider doing this...

Early photos of Japan...

Early photos of Japan...  These are hand-colored albumen prints, thought to be from the 1880s.  One example at right, ten more here.  They provide a fascinating glimpse of a long-gone Japan – though remnants (including traditional gardens basically identical to the one at right) still exist...

Merry Christmas from KHS...

Merry Christmas from KHS...

Stereotype fail...

Stereotype fail...  The young woman at right recently graduated at the top of her medical school class.  She happens to be an Arab and a devout Muslim.  The school she graduated from?  Technion, Israel's equivalent of MIT.  That's right – Israel.

The Middle East country with the most freedom, safety, and opportunity for Arabs is Israel, and that's been true for many years now.  You'll have to search hard in the lamestream media to uncover this little factoid, but it's widely known in the Middle East itself – which is why Israel has a persistent illegal immigration problem.  It's where everybody over there – including Arabs – would really like to live...

Curiosity's wheels are wearing faster than expected...

Curiosity's wheels are wearing faster than expected...  Nothing this administration does seems to work well, or as expected :)

The Age of Intolerance...

The Age of Intolerance...  Mark Steyn, describing current times.  A sample:

It is not enough to have gay marriage for gays. Everything must be gayed. There must be Five-Year Gay Plans for American bakeries, and the Christian church, and reality TV. There must be shock brigades of gay duck-hunters honking out the party line deep in the backwoods of the proletariat. Obamacare pajama models, if not yet mandatorily gay, can only be dressed in tartan onesies and accessorized with hot chocolate so as to communicate to the Republic’s maidenhood what a thankless endeavor heterosexuality is in contemporary America.

Surprised? Not me...

Surprised?  Not me...  The NSA domestic spying thwarted exactly zero terrorist attacks.  The administration's justifications for this outrageous violation of American citizen's civil rights are unraveling, and quickly.

If it wasn't for Snowden, we wouldn't know any of this...

On the other hand, we've known for ten years now that the TSA was completely ineffective (it's legions of unionized “officers” and multi-million dollar machines still have not even detected a single terrorist, much less thwarted him), and it's still there, annoying the hell out of us on every flight we take...

A Christmas Carol...

A Christmas Carol...  From Reason, by Remy...

Oh, come on – surely they're not that stupid?

Oh, come on – surely they're not that stupid?  Apparently when it comes to ObamaCare and IT, they are.  Megan McArdle agrees.  There doesn't seem to be an upper bound to the idiocy that pours forth from the ObamaCare implementation...

I wonder if I could get this engraved on my pistol?

I wonder if I could get this engraved on my pistol?  Seems like a good message to send an intruder, assuming they can read English.  Might need a localized version in these parts.  Via my mom, who has excellent taste in engravings...

WWII memorials in Yugoslavia...

WWII memorials in Yugoslavia...  Some of these are pretty darned weird...

Even more?

Even more?  Yes, it's true – a high-level administration official (Teresa Fryer, Chief Information Security Officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) told Congress that her teams are still finding high-level security risks with the federal ObamaCare web site – and that she wanted to shut the site down before it launched, but was overruled.

It's almost like they hired the DMV to run our healthcare, and then put politicians in charge!  Wait – that is what they did!

Slouching toward bankruptcy...

Slouching toward bankruptcy...  Another top-notch article in Reason by Veronique de Rugy, this time on the coming Social Security disaster.  The magazine version includes a nice graphic that's missing online for some reason...

What comes after epic?

What comes after epic?  Full-screen for this one, folks!

The Girls of Atomic City...

The Girls of Atomic City...  I meant to write about this a few days ago, and just plain forgot.  This is another great book I finished earlier this week: The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, by Denise Kiernan.  Other history books I've read had given me just a glimpse of the amazing story behind the Oak Ridge uranium and plutonium enrichment facility that played such a key role in the development of the atomic bomb.  This book filled in lots of fascinating detail about what it was actually like to be part of it.  I'd like to have seen more about the actual workings of the plant, but this book is excellent at conveying the human side of the story – mainly from the viewpoint of a number of women who actually did work there.  I was engrossed from the very first page, and when I finished, I wanted more...that's not that common an occurrence with history books :)

Need good references for a job?

Need good references for a job?  They're for sale.  Good grief!  I'll bet this sort of thing was also available before the Internet, and I just never heard of it...