September 2008
2 tags
Gates Criticizes Conventional Focus At Start of... →
While having a military skilled in fighting major conventional ground wars is essential, Gates said, such a war is unlikely in the near future. Yet the Pentagon has placed comparatively too much emphasis on developing high-technology weapon systems aimed at potential state adversaries such as China or Russia that take years to develop, he said, noting that the 2009 budget contains more than $180...
3 tags
Global Seed Vault Now Accepting Seeds --... →
Although about 1,400 seed banks exist worldwide, this one, in Norway’s Svalbard islands, dwarfs them all and aims to safeguard duplicates of the seeds. Stored seeds are frequently lost because of natural disasters, war and warm temperatures, so Svalbard was built to withstand these challenges.
…
Svalbard wasn’t built because the end is nigh but to enhance the earth’s sustainability....
2 tags
SpaceX Did It -- Falcon 1 Made it to Space | Wired →
SpaceX has made history. Its privately developed rocket has made it into space.
After three failed launches, the company founded by Elon Musk worked all of the bugs out of their Falcon 1 launch vehicles.
The entire spectacle was broadcast live from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. Cameras mounted on the spacecraft showed our planet shrinking in the distance and the empty first stage engine...
2 tags
2 tags
2 tags
2 tags
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending -... →
Causes of the current crisis, 30 September 1999.
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the...
2 tags
Survival of the fittest | North Korean society is... →
[A] new picture is emerging that shows a protean society in flux, one that in the face of harsh realities is adopting an improvisatory approach to survival, and some people are thriving.
The roots of this change lie with the famine of 1995-98 that killed up to 1m people, or over 4% of the population, and brought outsiders—aid agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)—to North Korea.
…
...
3 tags
2 tags
3 tags
2 tags
White House Opposes Expanded DOJ Copyright... →
The Justice Department said the private sector should remain responsible for enforcing its copyrights in federal civil lawsuits.
“Civil copyright enforcement has always been the responsibility and prerogative of private copyright holders, and U.S. law already provides them with effective legal tools to protect their rights,” the Justice Department and Commerce Department wrote.
...
2 tags
4 tags
2 tags
2 tags
1 tag
Apple Dumplings
6 medium apples 2 cups all purpose flour 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup shortening (butter, etc) 1/2 cup milk 3/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Pare and core apples, leaving whole (or, cut in half to core, and place back together later).
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in shortening until particles are about the size of small peas (or, use food...
1 tag
3 tags
2 tags
Flyby Anomalies Explained? -- Universe Today →
Several different spacecraft have exhibited unexplained changes in speed during gravity assists when flying by Earth. First there was Galileo in 1990 and 1992, NEAR, which flew by Earth in January 1998, and then Cassini in August of 1999. Rosetta — the ESA spacecraft that recently flew by an asteroid – swung by the home planet in March 2005, followed by MESSENGER in August of the same year. All...
2 tags
Citing Grave Financial Threats, Officials Ready... →
The Bush administration is urgently preparing a massive intervention to revive the U.S. financial system, including a plan to sweep away the unpaid loans that are choking banks and blocking the flow of money to borrowers.
Congressional leaders gave bipartisan support to the administration’s efforts after a meeting last night with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve...
1 tag
2 tags
Lehman bankruptcy: In capitalism, failure is not a... →
Business failure is not only a permissible outcome of capitalism, it’s a necessary one. As the great economist Joseph Schumpeter has written, the process of “creative destruction” is essential for the market to function. For innovation to flourish and the standard of living of the populace to improve, the market must be free to reward success and punish failure.
And yet, newspapers today are...
3 tags
3 tags
3 tags
4 tags
5 tags
4 tags
1 tag
Apples and Nostalgia
Today there was apple picking. Then baking with apples (apple cake, apple dumplings).
Also, nostalgia via Red Dawn. Wolverines fight off the commie invaders! Exciting.
Rain, rain, go away.
Come again another day.
A day when I’m not driving up to Philadelphia.
3 tags
2 tags
Out of retirement, Armstrong eyes 8th Tour de... →
Damn you, Lance. Just when I thought I’d gotten out of the cycling-watching habit.
[Velo News] said the 36-year-old would race with the Astana team, taking no salary or bonuses, and post results of all anti-doping blood tests online in an effort to “prove he is a clean athlete.”
Johan Bruyneel, now with team Astana, is Armstrong’s friend and longtime team director.
2 tags
Large Hadron Collider switched on -- CNN →
While observers were left nonplussed by the anticlimactic flashing dots on a TV screen that signalled the machine’s successful test run, among teams of scientists involved around the world there were jubilant celebrations and popping champagne corks.
In the coming months, the collider is expected to begin smashing particles into each other by sending two beams of protons around the tunnel...
3 tags
1 tag
Walking to the Park
Kirby took Teddy and I over to the park this evening. It’s been undergoing reconstruction, to make it more like the Civil War battlefield it once was, before townhouses and condos overran the landscape. Lisa took Teddy on a long walk through the entire park on Friday, and she told me about it while Kirby was in earshot. Well. He must have heard her disparaging his 15 year-old hips,...
4 tags
4 tags
3 tags
4 tags
3 tags
3 tags
4 tags
1 tag
4 tags
4 tags
4 tags
1 tag
The Spring Standards — Little Bug
3 tags
