Archive: October 21, 2004

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Hi from Virgin Galactic

Thursday,  10/21/04  05:29 PM

Here's an email you don't get every day:

Is this a great time to be alive, or what?

 

Thursday,  10/21/04  10:11 PM

One of the really feel-good stories that came out in the past couple of weeks was the elections in Afghanistan.  As Scott Norville reported, it was Just a Success Story  [ via Citizen Smash ]  Democracy is the best hope we have of defusing radical Islam.  Cox & Forkum captured this perfectly in "Casting": 

A classic Kerryism.  "Talking about education yesterday, Mr. Kerry also told the largely black crowd at the day care center that there are more blacks in prison than in college.  'That's unacceptable,' he said.  'But it's not their fault.'  Rather than the inmates, the former Boston prosecutor blamed poverty, poor schools, a dearth of after-school programs and 'all of us as adults not doing what we need to do'."  Classic victimology.  I sure hope this pendulum of political correctness starts swinging back.  People have to be held responsible for their own actions. 

Related, Philip Greenspun: The Bell Curve Revisited.  I still think it is a great and important book, and I defy anyone who has actually read it to brand it "racist".  There are important problems in our society, and we must face the truth to solve them. 

Kip Esquire: How Evolution is like Economics.  Interesting commentary on the Wired Magazine article about "Intelligent Design", a creationist plot against evolution.  "Almost every college student takes at least one basic economics course, yet when economic policies are debated the most basic economic principles seem to get drowned out in the din of a handful of crackpots who posture themselves as having equal standing when in fact they don't.

The Motley Fool looks at The eBay Way.  eBay just announced their quarterly earnings, and knocked the ball out of the park again.  "I would love to lead this story by pointing out how eBay trounced Wall Street's targets this past quarter and is raising its guidance for the next year, but would that even be newsworthy?

The Antikythera Computer, 56 B.C.  "In 1900, sponge divers discovered a shipwreck in 200 feet of water.  Among the historical curiosities to be excavated from the wreck was the earliest geared computer.  About the size of a shoebox, the unit was a working computer which could calculate the positions of the moon and the five planets known in 56 BC.  From this one device we learn that the Greeks had clock-making capabilities equaling that of 16th-century Europe.

Weirdly, my ancient Tyranny of Email article continues to get linked, and hit; today I had over 50,000 hits again.  Aside from the ego gratification, the best thing about this is seeing all the great sites linking me in the referral logs. 

One of them was a post by "Nik" to the Brosenbex forums, using this really cool animated avatar...  (Reminds me of David Roy's "wood that works" sculptures :)

This is so I can find it later, and in case you need it; a great survey article about glue.  If you ever need to stick something to something else, bookmark this page.  [ via Gizmodo ] 

Finally, here we haveJaws for Bunnies.
I am not making this up. 
[ via BigWig

 

 

 
 

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