Category Archives: Science/Engineering

Oprah to promote disease

Posted on May 14, 2009 | Comments Off on Oprah to promote disease

I suppose it was inevitable. She gave up any pretense to impartiality last fall when she invited Barry on her show but refused to have Sarah. Now she’s gone off the deep end by agreeing to promote dingbat Jenny McCarthy and her conspiracy theory about vaccinations and autism. Oh, goody, more dead kids and adults from preventable disease, not to mention birth defects. Oprah, you are truly pathetic.

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Posted in Library, Obamalot, Science/Engineering

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Austin Planetarium

Posted on May 11, 2009 | Comments Off on Austin Planetarium

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It’s a good year to try and raise enough to build an Austin planetarium. But the mere two thousand contributors, thus far, isn’t impressive. For that matter, planetariums aren’t that impressive. Fun to attend once in a while, if the lecturers can make it engaging. Otherwise… Even the Houston planetarium is reduced to showing stuff about the Titanic. There was a group years ago, probably not this same one, that wanted to buy an inflatable planetarium and move it around to community events. It never came off. I’ll wish this one better luck.

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Posted in Science/Engineering

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The Diamond Age

Posted on May 6, 2009 | Comments Off on The Diamond Age

This was my first Neal Stephenson novel, but it won’t be the last. I did find the ending annoying. The book just seemed to run out of ideas and collapse into an easy lust. But it’s not hard to see some of society doing just that, when everyone (including the poor) have nanotech Matter Compilers and the Feed to draw on.

The nanotech, alone, is compelling. Some of it may even come true, though not, I suppose, in my or Mr. B.’s remaining lifetimes. I especially like Stephenson’s cities, his airships and his Vickys. The multicultural phyles make sense, if present trends continue. Hero Hackworth’s primer was more interesting, though, when Dinosaur, Duck and Purple inhabited it; less so when they were gone. But I’d still take the ride all over again, and may, one of these days.

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Posted in Library, Mr. Boy, Science/Engineering, Uncategorized

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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Of Liberty And Tyranny

Posted on April 14, 2009 | Comments Off on Of Liberty And Tyranny

Mr. B.’s grandma, a rare reader who joined us at the rancho for Easter weekend, asked me if I was reading the book "everyone is reading" (meaning conservatives like us) i.e. Mark Levin’s Liberty And Tyranny. I haven’t yet, and probably won’t, until and unless I see that it is actually changing anything. Which I doubt it could.

I’ve read too many similar political polemics already. In this case I have to think it’s like that science book of physicist Stephen Hawking’s, A Brief History of Time. Millions of people climbed on its bangwagon to get a copy, but how many actually read it, or understood it? Much less did anything about it? Different horses, of course, and maybe the Tea Party movement will elevate Levin’s work to practice. The TP has lately become a Left Wing media target of ridicule, which is a start of sorts.

Via Instapundit.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering, Scribbles

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Hobby-Eberly 9.2 meter

Posted on April 13, 2009 | Comments Off on Hobby-Eberly 9.2 meter

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The HET at McDonald Observatory in West Texas didn’t make this Top Ten list, but it should have.

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space, Texana

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World’s oldest statue?

Posted on April 9, 2009 | Comments Off on World’s oldest statue?

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Seems, at twelve thousand years old, to be. So far, anyhow. But there’s more to come.

Via The Anchoress.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering

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