Driving home last week, I saw birds flocking around power lines. I didn’t have my camera, but this is probably better anyway.
Beat It — Michael Jackson I went to see This Is It (the MJ documentary) last night. It was good to see him as a performer again, instead of all the weirdness that surrounded the last decade of his life.
salted brown butter crispy treats || Smitten Kitchen
But these, these I dare say are the best thing to happen to Rice Krispies Treats since Mildred Day of the home economics department at the Kellogg Company thought to apply marshmallows and melted butter to the puffed rice cereal in 1928. Oh yes, I’m enthralled enough with these to declare them that epic. Even better, they’re so freaking easy to make, only five extra minutes, tops, more than the original which is incredibly convenient if you are finding yourself a little pressed for time these days.
Major Breakthrough: Iran Experiments with Advanced Nuclear Weapon Design || Weekly Standard
IAEA seeks explanation from Iran on nuclear weapon implosion device:
The Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has requested a response from Iran in regard to evidence that the country has experimented with the creation of advanced implosion devices designed for use in nuclear weapons.
The report, which was compiled by using the data of numerous intelligence agencies over an extended period charges that Iranian scientists have been working on creating the components in a “two-point implosion” device. Such a device is used to bring about the chain reaction in a nuclear fission warhead. Furthermore, the device would be smaller than other nuclear implosion devices, which would in turn give Iran the ability to create much smaller warheads and therefore require a smaller missile system to deliver it to its target.
This is huge. Conventional wisdom was that Iran would first try to build a working bomb, then move on to more advanced designs to shrink and fit on to one of their ballistic missiles. Now we learn that Iran is skipping that step and moving directly to a compact, fully deliverable weapon.
More concerning is what comes after solving two point implosion: the Teller-Ulam bomb, more commonly known as the hydrogen bomb.
Enough to Get Away — Joseph Arthur
Jobless rate tops 10 pct. for first time since '83 || Associated Press
The unemployment rate has surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983 — and is likely to go higher.
Nearly 16 million people can’t find jobs even though the worst recession since the Great Depression has apparently ended. Many economists worry that persistently high unemployment could undermine the recovery by restraining consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy.
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Counting those who have settled for part-time jobs or stopped looking for work, the unemployment rate would be 17.5 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994.
Rampage kills 12, wounds 31 || Washington Post
An Army psychiatrist, trained to treat soldiers under stress, allegedly opened fire Thursday in a crowded medical building at Fort Hood, Tex. When the assault ended minutes later, the attack had become what is believed to be the largest mass shooting ever to occur on a U.S. military base. Twelve were killed, 31 wounded.
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Seven of the wounded were taken to nearby Metroplex Adventist Hospital, while 10 went to Scott and White Hospital about 30 miles away in Temple. Both received a huge turnout for blood donors, so many volunteers that they eventually had to close their doors and turn away hundreds. The identities of the wounded were not released.
Addressing reporters gathered outside Fort Hood, northeast of Austin, Army Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said of the incident: “It’s a terrible tragedy. It’s stunning,” adding that “soldiers and family members and many of the great civilians who work here are absolutely devastated.”
After the Soviet collapse: A globe redrawn || The Economist
Aside from raw military might, every other source of apparent Soviet strength had been hollowing out for years. Central planning worked when progress could be marked in tonnes of steel or cement, or tanks and rockets. But its perverse incentives also led to factories churning out stuff no one wanted, while shops were empty of the things they craved, from fresh meat to fridges. Subtracting value—producing goods worth less in real terms than the materials used to make them—could not go on for ever. Meanwhile, shortages created a crime-ridden black economy that, by some estimates, was worth as much as 30% of the real one, perhaps more.
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Other recently expired empires, such as the British, Dutch, French, had left some residue for locals grudgingly to admire: habits of administration, a legal system, even just a useful language. Not the Soviet one. Its traces were quickly swept away as east Europeans dashed for freedom and free markets. But with it went a pattern of global order based on competition between the Soviet Union and America, and also in part on a battle for influence with a rising China within the communist and non-aligned worlds. As the Soviet Union deserted both battlefields, no corner of the world was left unchanged.
Hold Watcha Got — the Tony Rice Unit
Winnie versus the bathrobe tie
Because it is obviously evil.
Ladies on the dance floor at Katie Cippel’s wedding, 24 October 2009
First dance at Katie Cippel’s wedding, 24 October 2009
