Category Archives: Blogosphere

RVs and cold don’t mix

Now that it’s back down in the teens again tonight at the rancho, I can better identify with these RV problems in North Texas: frozen water tank, dead space heaters, and ice on the windows.

A propane heater and Weller bourbon seems to have helped, though. Here, well, EMS cataloged 233 ice incidents today, mostly traffic accidents but also some falls with broken hips and head injuries. Me? I’m curled up with a good book, Peter Hamilton’s space opera Judas Unchained.

Could Washington shut down the Internet?

You know, like the Egyptian government did during the riots? Probably, if it wanted to, but there’d be an enormous economic and political cost:

“The next few decades will likely be a contest in which the outcome depends on who is exaggerating more: those proclaiming the potential of new technologies, or those proclaiming the power of governments to constrain them.”

So said the Instapundit, in a law review paper five years ago. Worth a read. Download is free.

Plus, ways to fight back, from dial-up (shutting down the whole phone system is harder, even for a government), to shortwave radio.

Comment spam

This stuff is getting out of hand, at the rate of ten to fifteen a day around here.

In six months, since moving the Scribbler from Movable Type to WordPress, I’ve collected (and deleted) almost more than 10,000 examples. A fatal pox on all their pathetic, English-mangling houses!

Hot rain

On good old Sol, where else? It’s an impressive video of plasma on the sun.

Return of the Sandmonkey

Mahmoud Salem, aka Sandmonkey, outs himself as he returns to blogging from Cairo and on Twitter.

“Now, I am not a leader of this movement, and god knows I would be loathe to name myself as a spokesperson for the 5 million individuals nationwide who have joined these protests. If anything, I am simply a promoter and a participant who is way too proud of the fact that this is a movement with no leaders or representatives.

“In many ways this has helped the cohesion and unity of those protests: people agreed on a set of demands that promote general democracy, accountability and freedom. Demands that promote self-governing and personal rights no matter what your ideological leanings may be. We thought that was enough, and now we are thinking it might not be after all.”

Hope it works out for you, MS, and that you stay healthy.

Via Simply Jews.

Nate Hawthorne, failed humorist

Nathaniel_Hawthorne_by_Whipple_c1848

“Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Hawthorne intended The Scarlet Letter to be a work of humor, and was bitterly disappointed when no one seemed to get the joke.

“In a letter to his friend Oliver Wendell Holmes, he wrote that he would have to make the comedy much broader in his next novel, The House of the Seven Gables.”

Via Dr. Boli’s encyclopedia of misinformation.

Last chance for Egypt protestors

It looks like the end of the protest is near, though some hope to prolong it:

“I am heading to Tahrir right now with supplies for the hundreds injured, knowing that today the attacks will intensify, because they can’t allow us to stay there come Friday, which is supposed to be the game changer. We are bringing everybody out, and we will refuse to be anything else than peaceful.

“If you are in Egypt, I am calling on all of you to head down to Tahrir today and Friday. It is imperative to show them that the battle for the soul of Egypt isn’t over and done with. I am calling you to bring your friends, to bring medical supplies, to go and see what Mubarak’s gurantees look like in real life. Egypt needs you. Be Heroes.”

It does seem as if “the game is almost over.” Mubarak won, Obama, et al lost.

Via Milblogging.com

UPDATE: The third link above, in the quote from last night, is now down. The blogger, Sandmonkey’s, account has been suspended.

At guess whose instigation? PJMedia has an interview with him here as he dodges the authorities to try to avoid arrest.