Recent Articles

Some seasonal cheer for you

Some seasonal cheer for you

| December 18, 2008 | Reply

Courtesy of The Daily Bayonet, who got it from Jammie Wearing Fool: Heh. UPDATE: And here, courtesy of Dave Barry, is striking scientific proof that white people — particularly Southern white people — are inherently rhythmically challenged: ..bruce w..

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Truth set to music

Truth set to music

| December 16, 2008 | Reply

One of the proudest accomplishments of my adult professional life is that I actually supported myself and my family for a few years solely by writing. That was back in the late 1980s, when it wasn’t quite as easy as it had been in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. However, it was much easier to […]

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The nightmare before Christmas

The nightmare before Christmas

| December 16, 2008 | Reply

No, I’m not talking about the current economic meltdown. It turns out that Bavaria has some interesting Christmas customs: The gallery of Bavarian Christmas photos explains: The troll-like Perchten or Krampus emerge when it gets dark. The gnarled and gruesome figures stomp through the Christmas markets of Bavaria, scaring children and sometimes even give women […]

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Worldwide Banking System Leverage

Worldwide Banking System Leverage

| December 14, 2008 | Reply

For those of you who missed it, in this downward spiral we are now enduring, the amount of leverage (read, debt) is directly related to how fast your bank is going to go under. Now from a blog named Infectious Greed, comes this chart extracted from a Bank of Canada report: So according to the […]

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Nuclear criticality accidents over the past 60+ years

Nuclear criticality accidents over the past 60+ years

| December 13, 2008 | 2 Replies

I’m trying to figure out where I ran across the link for this report (PDF, 3.7 MB); it was sometime in the past few weeks and was most likely from one of the science blogs I review daily, but I just can’t remember where. The report (“A Review of Criticality Accidents”) details sixty (60) criticality […]

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Ebola Reston In The Philippines

Ebola Reston In The Philippines

| December 11, 2008 | Reply

This news came as a bit of a surprise to me as I was scanning headlines tonight. First off, Ebola is a very dangerous hemorrhagic fever that is typically found in Africa. The two things that stand out about this story are that the infection is in pigs, and it’s in the Philippines. From the […]

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Christmas Blogging – Toys For Tots

Christmas Blogging – Toys For Tots

| December 11, 2008 | Reply

As a former US Marine, the “Toys For Tots” program holds a special place in my heart. In the days when I was on active duty, our squadron (yes I was in the wing), VMFP-3, put forth a huge effort to ensure that we collected more toys than any other squadron on base. For us […]

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Christmas Cookie Blogging

Christmas Cookie Blogging

| December 10, 2008 | Reply

In what has become a holiday tradition at our house, we have once again made several thousand Christmas cookies to send to friends, family and random people serving in far away lands. I come from a long line of cookie makers, with my mother and grandmother being high practitioners of the art. In years past […]

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Selecting The Best Bus For London

Selecting The Best Bus For London

| December 9, 2008 | Reply

Having spent a bit of time in the UK, I can attest that in general the programming on television is just as mindless and annoying as the US has on average. But like the US, there are some patches of real brilliance. For example the below clip from the car focused show “Top Gear” where […]

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Ugly Illinois Politics – Trouble For Obama?

Ugly Illinois Politics – Trouble For Obama?

| December 9, 2008 | Reply

I grew up in Illinois, and I have seen first hand the kind of strange deals that take place in order for things to get done. In fact my own dearly departed Grandfather was once arrested with several high profile political and sports figures for playing high stakes poker in a hotel room. Besides the […]

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