Obama’s News Conference on the Oil Spill

Obama’s News Conference on the Oil Spill

Read this.

Posted in Hurt, Personal, Politics | Leave a comment

Obama orders same-sex hospital visits

President Obama mandated Thursday that nearly all hospitals extend visitation rights to the partners of gay men and lesbians and respect patients’ choices about who may make critical health-care decisions for them, perhaps the most significant step so far in his efforts to expand the rights of gay Americans.

Obama orders same-sex hospital visits.

Finally.  And yes, this is part of the Change I fucking well wanted.

Posted in Judiciary, Personal, Politics | 2 Comments

Truly random numbers.

And The Answer To One Of Cryptography’s Mysteries Is . . . 42 – Physics – io9.

Generating truly random numbers is notoriously difficult. But now, using a quantum system, researchers have managed to create 42 genuinely random numbers. Their discovery is a major breakthrough for cryptography, and could one day enable truly private communication online.

Posted in Math | Leave a comment

Crime Prediction Software Is Here and It’s a Very Bad Idea

Fuck you, Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice.

Fuck you.

Crime Prediction Software Is Here and It’s a Very Bad Idea .

Really? “Reliable projections”? “Action in real time”? “Preventing criminal activities”? I don’t know about how reliable your system is, IBM, but have you ever heard of the 5th, the 6th, and the 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution? What about article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? No? Let’s make this easy then: Didn’t you watch that scientology nutcase in Minority Report?

Posted in Comedy, Hurt, Judiciary, Politics, Rant | Leave a comment

Segways used for sniper target practice.

Segways used for sniper target practice | The Firearm Blog.

Right on!  A good blog, to boot.

Posted in Military | Leave a comment

Will Obama End the Nuclear Era?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “Clinging to nuclear weapons in excess of our security needs does not make the United States safer. … And the nuclear status quo is neither desirable nor sustainable.”

via Will Obama End the Nuclear Era? – Page 1 – The Daily Beast.

Yet despite this, and other treaties, such as the recent one with Russia that overwhelmingly favored the US in terms of post-treaty capability, Obama is still getting drug across the coals by Conservative and Tea Bagger and the like.  And even more insane, things like this: Obama’s disregard for media reaches new heights at nuclear summit

Disregard, or just trying to let a lot of people get the photos they need, and then get out.  You know, because there is work to be done.

Posted in Politics, Rant, Stupid | Leave a comment

“…our problems are much bigger than anything that can be cured by buying a few more ships and planes…”

“If the Department of Defense can’t figure out a way to defend the United States on a budget of more than a half a trillion dollars a year, then our problems are much bigger than anything that can be cured by buying a few more ships and planes…” -Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Required reading for Americans.

Posted in Hurt, Politics, Rant, Science, Stupid, Technology | Leave a comment

The Rage Is Not About Health Care.

Op-Ed Columnist – The Rage Is Not About Health Care – NYTimes.com.

Spot on.

Posted in Politics | Leave a comment

Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage Talk “MythBusters”

FORA.tv – Hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage Talk “MythBusters”.

Awesome panel about mythbusters, arming robots, etc.   Worth the hour if you are interested in the show.

Posted in Science, Technology, Videos | Leave a comment

An open letter to conservatives.

Dear Conservative Americans,

The years have not been kind to you. I grew up in a profoundly Republican home, so I can remember when you wore a very different face than the one we see now.  You’ve lost me and you’ve lost most of America.  Because I believe having responsible choices is important to democracy, I’d like to give you some advice and an invitation.

First, the invitation:  Come back to us.”

from An open letter to conservatives | AmericanDad’s Blog.

Posted in Politics | Leave a comment

Real patriots believe in the principles of America

Real patriots believe in the principles of America – St. Petersburg Times.

Damn straight, Robyn.

Posted in Judiciary, Politics | Leave a comment

And, that’s about it for HFCS.

Princeton University – A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain.

Can we end the American corn monoculture, as propped up by Federal subsidies now?

Posted in Biology, Gravy, Hurt, Science | Leave a comment

Fearless to the end.

Fearless to the end: Remembering Margaret Moth

.

Posted in Art, Audio, Hurt, Images, Military, Videos | Leave a comment

The Silver Fox experiment

YouTube – The Silver Fox experiment.

“What fifty generations of silver foxes being domesticated and bred against aggressive traits has revealed to us about the long history of the domestic dog and why there is such a huge variety in traits in the various dog breeds.”

I love you, crazy Russian scientist woman! :)

Posted in Biology, Science | Leave a comment

What Obama Stands For.

What Obama Stands For – by a “conservative” writing for a “liberal” rag… Still, very indicative about how those very characterizations are starting to break down.

Posted in Politics | Leave a comment

Keillor: Unreality is the current reality.

Keillor: Unreality is the current reality. Well worth the read, no matter what side of the aisle you are on.  (Which is an absurd characterization, period.)

Or should be.  Americans are increasingly treating their politics as a zero-sum game, like sports teams.

Posted in Politics | Leave a comment

Internet Spaceships Bring The Aid

“All this means that in a very real sense, the industrial barons of EVE who made their fortunes mining virtual asteroids and moons are turning their virtual wealth into physical life-saving supplies in Haiti.

Truly, we live in strange times.”

via EVE ISK for Haiti..

Posted in EVE, Economics, Gaming | Leave a comment

Post-quantum cryptography

Somebody announces that he’s built a large quantum computer. RSA is dead. DSA is dead. Elliptic curves, hyperelliptic curves, class groups, whatever, dead, dead, dead. So users are going to run around screaming and say ‘Oh my God, what do we do?’

via Introduction.

Posted in Math, Science, Technology | Leave a comment

Antarctica Yields Relics of a Dwarf Planet from Creation of Solar System

Antarctica Yields Relics of a Dwarf Planet from Creation of Solar System.

Awesome.

Posted in Science | Leave a comment

Tech Support

Tech Support.  It’s always been like this!

Posted in Comedy, Videos | Leave a comment

Nanotech May Tap Into Your Mind

Eron may actually get his lifelong dream to power my garbage disposal:   Nanotech May Tap Into Your Mind

Posted in Biology, Science, Technology | Leave a comment

And then?

Spray-on liquid glass is about to revolutionize almost everything.

Posted in Science, Technology | 1 Comment

King of the Impossible.

YouTube – Flash Gordon.  Approaching, and alive.

Posted in Movies, Videos | Leave a comment

I’ll do better…

About updating the weblog.
Really.

Posted in Personal | Leave a comment

More, better metal foam

Fantastic payoff for years of sustained research, and demonstrated excellence in the field.  Looking forward to seeing this everywhere soon.  Retrofit the R?

Rabiei’s invention isn’t the first metal foam, but she says it’s the strongest. The main weakness of existing metal foams is the varying sizes of their cells — tiny pockets of space inside the material. Instead, Rabiei used cells of standard sizes and combined them with a metallic matrix to support the cell walls.

via Foamy Invention Could Save Energy and Lives | LiveScience.

Posted in Science, Technology | Leave a comment