I’m sure Paul Newman had his flaws — we all do — but for someone to be successful in at least three different endeavors — acting, racing, and raising $175 million for charity — and to always keep a normal-sized head (Newman refused to sign autographs, not out of ego but because signing autographs seemed […]
When I first saw this graph in the sidebar of an article over at CNN Money, I kept looking for the United States and couldn’t find it. Then I looked a few inches above the rest of the countries. Ouch. Here’s what the article has to say: The dangers of leverage in a market where […]
OK, I really don’t care about the political preferences of the people how made this — it’s just brilliantly done: And where’d they get the high-quality capture of The Dark Knight? Hat tip to 2008 Central. ..bruce w..
The following news item from the Long War Journal reads like the start of a Tom Clancy novel. It talks about an Iranian cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates. And then the pirates start dying (emphasis mine): The MV Iran Deyanat was brought to Eyl, a sleepy fishing village in northeastern Somalia, and was secured […]
With all the high-level talks going on in Washington right now about the great economic crisis and the planned bailout, I found that the following passage from The Lord of the Rings came to mind: So great was the power that Saruman exerted in this last effort that none that stood within hearing were unmoved. […]
I think it’s hard to imagine the scope of what is being considered. The total cost so far of the bailout, if they throw in the other $700B will be 1.2 TRILLION dollars. You have to wonder, what else could we do with that money…. Lets have a look! You could give every person in […]
Word comes today that we have the start of another bank run. This one is hitting the Hong Kong based “Bank of East Asia”. According to the BBC: The Bank of East Asia has denied rumours that it is in financial trouble, after thousands of customers queued to withdraw their savings. After weeks of global […]
The first column, “Second Class Software Quality for Major IT Projects”, talks about the curious fact that organizations are willing to spend millions, tens of millions, even hundred of millions of dollars on major IT project and yet still nickle-and-dime their software quality assurance (SQA) effort. It doesn’t help that SQA personnel are pretty much […]
From Military.com (emphasis mine): A Virginia-based company is hoping to test-fly a vertical take-off and landing drone before the end of this year that, ultimately, could do triple duty as strike vehicle, medevac or special ops insertion/extraction plane. The Excalibur is currently being developed as an armed, tactical unmanned aerial vehicle by Aurora Flight Sciences […]
The Gods of the Copybook Headings
Jerry Pournelle over at his blog has linked to the Rudyard Kipling classic. Written nearly 90 years ago, it is remarkably apt right now, as our financial system threatens to melt down over human greed and stupidity: As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my proper prostrations to the […]
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