Monthly Archives: April 2009

Now they tell us

Posted on April 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Now they tell us

Seems the Norks are not only a nuclear power, but they have successfully miniaturized nuclear warheads for delivery by medium-range missiles capable of hitting Japan and South Korea. Proliferation, here we come. Quick, dispatch Barry to shake Dear Leader’s palsied hand. Or would a deep, Saudi-style bow work better?

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Posted in Obamalot

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Swine flu

Posted on April 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Swine flu

This seems really overblown to me. So far. But Drudge is on top of it. So we’ll just keep up with him.

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Posted in South of the Border

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A simple cure for global warming

Posted on April 24, 2009 | 6 comments

Even if you don’t believe the globe is warming, painting roofs and roads white, or some other light color, would sure cut air-conditioning bills and go far in eliminating the heat-island effect. Not that I want the rancho’s roof white. But I don’t have to worry. Simple solutions never appeal to big government. They don’t produce new jobs for the bureaucracy or more tax money for pet projects. Still… Painting roofs and roads white. What a concept.

Via Instapundit.

6 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Science/Engineering, Scribbles, Weather/Climate

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Let the show trials begin?

Posted on April 24, 2009 | Comments Off on Let the show trials begin?

Well, maybe. With Barry, it’s hard to know. VDH says Barry usually does what he says he won’t and seldom does what he says he will. But that seems much too simple. One thing is for sure. The trials they could get sticky. And if he doesn’t keep his own nose clean, he could find himself in the retribution dock someday.

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Posted in Obamalot

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Photojournalism 101

Posted on April 23, 2009 | Comments Off on Photojournalism 101

B_Image_101

I’ve seen more than one photojournalist rearrange a fire or flood scene to make his photo more poignant. So I had to chuckle when I saw this accusation. In my experience, teddy bears are, by far, the preference, but a doll will do. Helps, though, to choose one that’s a bit more charred than this, possibly, throw-down one from some clicker’s car trunk.

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Posted in Scribbles

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Daemon, the novel

Posted on April 23, 2009 | Comments Off on Daemon, the novel

I enjoyed Daniel Suarez’s new book Daemon, a novel, though I’m glad I checked it out of the library rather than buying it. It’s a trifle far-fetched, this takeover of the corporate world by distributed computing via the Internet, facilitated by automated automobiles and online gamers with a hunger to pull real triggers for a change. It seems to have become something of a cult book with techies, and, indeed, I first heard about it from a programmer friend.

Still… It ends, after a wild series of car chases, with the bad guys winning and the promise in the back pages of a sequel out next year. There’s already a Web site. Something tells me it will become a movie/television series. It has plenty of tough talk, kinky sex and gory violence, layered around the techy chatter, some of which goes on for page after page. Most of the tech is admirably explained, but doesn’t seem quite real. The government’s usual ineptness isn’t surprising, but the corporate greed is overdone. Only the little guys seem to have any principles, but, naturally, they’re on the run.

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Posted in Library

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John Kerry to the rescue

Posted on April 22, 2009 | Comments Off on John Kerry to the rescue

Politics and crime have always been the mainstays of American newspaper journalism. The latter is easy to report on since (even if the cops refuse to cooperate) the relevant documents generally are considered public information, and the former fulfills the newspaper’s alleged role of watchdog–although the ink pols generate isn’t very often of the watchdog variety. So it’s no surprise that congressmen like Kerry want to save the industry from itself. I mean get this:

"Lawmakers are witnessing the crisis firsthand. Press watchdogs who once prowled Capitol Hill are disappearing, replaced by special-interest publications and foreign news organizations."

If they were really watchdogs, i.e. thorns in the politicians’ sides, why would the lawmakers care about losing them? In any case, not even newspaper executives think public financing will stave off bankruptcy for long. Nationalizing them, like some talk of doing for the big, insolvent banks? That might only accelerate their demise, since their role as government mouthpiece would be obvious.

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Posted in Scribbles

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