Archive for ◊ August, 2006 ◊

An Inconvenient Scientist
Thursday, August 31st, 2006 | Author: dzsokol

There’s a recent article in the Boston Globe about how opposing views on global warming are being squashed at — of all places — MIT.  

MIT’s Alfred P. Sloan professor of meteorology Richard Lindzen recently complained about the “shrill alarmism” of Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” Lindzen acknowledges that global warming is real, and he acknowledges that increased carbon emissions might be causing the warming — but they also might not.

“We do not understand the natural internal variability of climate change” is one of Lindzen’s many “heresies”, along with such zingers as “the Arctic was as warm or warmer in 1940″, “the evidence so far suggests that the Greenland ice sheet is actually growing on average”, and “Alpine glaciers have been retreating since the early 19th century, and were advancing for several centuries before that. Since about 1970, many of the glaciers have stopped retreating and some are now advancing again. And, frankly, we don’t know why.”

Terrorist in San Francisco
Wednesday, August 30th, 2006 | Author: dzsokol

You may have noticed in the news that a San Francisco resident by the name of Omeed Aziz Popal went on a murderous hit-and-run spree that killed one person and injured a dozen others.  His drive culminated in front of San Francisco’s Jewish Community Center.   You may not realize that Popal is a native of Afghanistan… hmm.  Could this be another case of Sudden Jihad Syndrome?

Category: Politics  | Leave a Comment
Hillary for President?
Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 | Author: dzsokol

This is probably reflective of popular opinion…

hillaryforprez.jpg

Category: Politics  | Leave a Comment
Insulting Comments about Famous Athletes
Monday, August 28th, 2006 | Author: dzsokol

Another good set of quotes from StrangeCosmos.com

“McEnroe was as charming as always, which means that he was as charming as a dead mouse in a loaf of bread.” – Clive James (about John McEnroe)

“Beyond the hair, tattoos and earrings, he’s just like you and me.” – Bob Hill (about Dennis Rodman)

“Dennis has become like a prostitute, but now it’s gotten ridiculous, to the point where he will do anything humanly possible to make money.” – Charles Barkley (about Dennis Rodman)

“He has so many fish hooks in his nose, he looks like a piece of bait.” – Bob Costas (about Dennis Rodman)

Category: Sports  | Leave a Comment
Barry Starts Collge at IU
Sunday, August 27th, 2006 | Author: dzsokol

Well, the momentous day has come and gone… we moved son Barry into his dorm in Bloomington, Indiana and he has officially started college and his adult life.  Since he has a compatible roommate with Jordan Cohen, it has made his transition much easier…  I think that momma Miss is going to have the hardest adjustments to make.

Category: General  | 3 Comments
Fox Newsmen – Ransom
Sunday, August 27th, 2006 | Author: dzsokol

You may have heard or read that the two kidnapped Fox newsmen were released by the Palestinian Hamas… You may not know that they were released based on a convoluted deal which entailed their public conversion to Islam, the newsmen making anti-American statements on video, and the British paying a six-figure cash ransom.

Category: Politics  | Leave a Comment
Russian Solves Historic Math Problem – Update
Saturday, August 26th, 2006 | Author: dzsokol

According to an article in CNN, a reclusive 40-year-old Russian scholar has won the math world’s version of the Nobel Prize for solving a very difficult math problem… Perhaps more interesting is that Grigory Perelman shunned the Fields Medal and the associated monetary rewards because he is disillusioned with academia (now he and I have something in common).

Thanks to Konstantin for pointing me to this story…  As I expected, Perelman is a MOT.

The New Yorker has an interesting article on the recent proof of the Poincaré conjecture and the controversy surrounding it.  It provides additional insigts into the work of Perelman…

Category: Engineering  | Leave a Comment
The Changing Face of Warfare
Friday, August 25th, 2006 | Author: dzsokol

Daniel Pipes writes an interesting summary with links to articles on the subject:

“Warfare in recent decades has turned historic assumptions upside down. Countries used to be the enemy; now regimes are the enemy, while their subject peoples are our friend. Battlefield superiority used to be the goal, now it is assumed before a shot is fired. Victory used to be the goal, now it’s peace. Promoting one’s own interests was the exclusive goal, now helping the defeated is no less important. Victors used to plunder the vanquished; now victors fund the defeated. Rooting for one’s own side was once assumed, while helping the enemy was treasonous; now, allegiance has become a legitimately open question.”

Category: Politics  | Leave a Comment
Glaciers Have Been Shrinking for 100 Years
Thursday, August 24th, 2006 | Author: dzsokol

A recent article in Breitbart describes how the glaciers in Greenland have been melting for over 100 years.  The study from Danish researchers notes, “70 percent of the glaciers have been shrinking regularly since the end of the 1880s at a rate of around eight meters per year.”

 Hmm, I wonder what Al Gore has to say about that…

Category: Engineering  | Leave a Comment
How to Negotiate with Terrorists
Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 | Author: dzsokol

This is a good one from Hurricane Harry that I’ve included in its entirety:

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of a line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker introduces himself. The terrorist kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker asks, “why did you kill my friend?” The terrorist kills him and rapes his wife.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker says, “Stop that!” The terrorist kills him, rapes his daughter and kills his wife.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker says, “I’ll pay you $1000 if you stop attacking us.” The terrorist agrees to the deal, takes the $1000, and kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker appeals to the United Nations. The United Nations says the peacemaker is at fault. The terrorist kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker now has a gun, and threatens to use it. Other peacemakers start chanting the old 60′s whine, “Can’t we all just get along?” The peacemaker hesitates. The terrorist kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker tries to convince his peacemaker friends that the terrorists aren’t going to respond to negotiations, but they insist that if he kills the terrorist it’ll just make the other terrorists mad. The peacemaker reluctantly agrees to try negotiating again. The terrorist kills him., his entire family, and his neighbor’s family.

A heated debate now ensues between the peacemakers who want to be nice to the terrorists and the peacemakers who believe that there can never be peace until the terrorists are all dead. While they are debating, the terrorists kill 15 more peacemakers.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker asks himself, “Which is more important: being liked by everyone, or protecting my family?” The terrorist pulls a knife to kill the peacemaker, but the peacemaker pulls a gun and kills the terrorist first. The United Nations condemns the peacemaker’s use of unproportional force. Many of his peacemaker friends turn against him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker apologizes for what his friend did to the other terrorist. The terrorist kills him, his entire family and his neighbors, and threatens to destroy the city as soon as they develop a bigger weapon.

A peacemaker refuses to meet at the line because every time a peacemaker goes to the line the terrorist kills him. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line and fires rockets into the peacemaker’s town. The United Nations condemns the way the peacemaker provoked the terrorist by refusing to come to the line and meet with him.

Generations pass and not much changes until one day when the son of a peacemaker decides that the old strategy simply won’t work. He walks up to the left side of the line a little early. As the terrorist approaches the right side of the line the peacemaker shoots him. Another terrorist approaches to replace the first, and the peacemaker shoots him too. This scene plays out several more times. Then a terrorist approaches carrying a white flag, but he also has weapons. The peacemaker shoots him. A terrorist next approaches with a ceasefire resolution from the U.N. The peacemaker shoots him also. A large group of terrorists approach and the peacemaker shoots them all and drops a nuclear bomb on the city they came from. The peacemaker continues killing the terrorists until the terrorists are all dead.

There is finally peace on earth and the United Nations takes the credit.

Category: General  | 2 Comments