April 2011
67 posts
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Project Habakkuk - Wikipedia, the free... →
Project Habakkuk or Habbakuk (spelling varies; see below) was a plan by the British in World War II to construct an aircraft carrier out of pykrete (a mixture of wood pulp and ice), for use against German U-boats in the mid-Atlantic, which were out of range of land-based planes…
Perutz, in his account, writes that he sojourned in Washington D.C. while U.S. Navy engineers evaluated...
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Shane O'Doherty →
Shane O’Doherty joined the IRA at age 15. He made a lot of bombs and wound up in England on a wild letter bomb spree. While in prison, he came to see armed conflict as harmful and futile, and began to write letters of apology to people he had harmed. (Yes, this is ironic.)
I heard about him on Snap Judgment #210: Grey Zone.
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Burke Hilsabeck on McSweeney's: "Baby Shower Games... →
Pass the Dirty Swaddling Clothes
Similar to “Hot Yams,” this “dirty” game is sure to delight nuns and midwives alike. Take a set of fresh swaddling clothes. Mix together molasses and grain cereal and put mixture in just the “right” place. Pass the “soiled” swaddling clothes while someone sings the Ave Maria. The woman left holding the clothes...
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@GeorgeTakei regarding the Tennessee State... →
In case you missed it : TN bill will prevent use of word “gay” by teachers. I’m lending my name: “It’s okay to be Takei.”
More on the Don’t Say Gay Bill.
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Obama Releases Long-Form Birth Certificate -... →
President Obama released his long-form birth certificate on Wednesday, a step that injected him directly into the simmering “birther” controversy in the hope of finally ending it, or even turning it to his advantage.
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Nelson's Weblog: life / medical-service-pricing →
I recently went to my doctor for a regular checkup. he ordered some labwork. Nothing special; basic blood and urine tests to see that I’m doing OK. Here’s the thing: the billing is entirely insane. I have individual health insurance from Anthem, and the insurance adjustments are completely incomprehensible… In no way is this free market rational pricing.
Monopsonies are...
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Cynthia Kay Monshower's Tiara Ball →
This blog is written by the midwife who helped Mom pop me out.
I have collected tiaras for 30 years and I vowed if I lived to be 60 that I would have a tiara ball. Well, I did live to 60 and with the help of many of my friends and family….we had a tiara ball. It was the ball of my dreams.
:-)
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‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill May Ban Tennessee Teachers... →
After putting on hold the anti-science “teach the controversy about evolution and global warming” bill, the Tennessee State Senate is preparing to vote on a bill forbidding the discussion of homosexuality, specifically, in elementary and middle school.
The bill supporters, including sponsor Sen. Stacey Campfield, a Republican from Knoxville who unsuccessfully pushed the same bill...
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The Ken Burns Civil War Drinking Game | Games |... →
[W]e stumbled across a simple game in college that instilled in all its players a deep-down understanding of the Civil War (and also probably the seeds of liver disease) that no amount of AP U.S. History ever did. We feel very confident in saying that if you embark on this game, you will end up with a better idea of what living through the Civil War might have been like, and you will never,...
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McSweeney's Internet Tendency: FAQ: The "Snake... →
A comprehensive FAQ on how to go through the “Snake Fight” portion of your thesis.
Q: Do I have to kill the snake?
A: University guidelines state that you have to “defeat” the snake. There are many ways to accomplish this. Lots of students choose to wrestle the snake. Some construct decoys and elaborate traps to confuse and then ensnare the snake. One student...
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Hyperbole and a Half: SURPRISE!! →
Allie captures what it was like for me to go to the dentist one time:
I was too tired because I had to get up early this morning and go to the dentist and I was crabby because the dentist was like “describe your flossing regimen…” and I was like “intermittent?” And the dentist judged me and I could tell that she was silently blaming me for my snaggle tooth when in...
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Body Ritual among the Nacirema - Wikisource →
In the article itself, which I recommend reading:
It is to be hoped that, when a thorough study of the Nacirema is made, there will be careful inquiry into the personality structure of these people. One has but to watch the gleam in the eye of a holy-mouth-man, as he jabs an awl into an exposed nerve, to suspect that a certain amount of sadism is involved. If this can be established, a very...
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Practical examples of how much a Joule is -... →
One joule in everyday life is approximately:
the energy required to lift a small apple one metre straight up. (A mass of about 102 g = 1/9.81 kg)
the energy released when that same apple falls one metre to the ground.
the energy released as heat by a person at rest, every hundredth of a second.
the kinetic energy of a 50 kg human moving very slowly (0.2 m/s).
...
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Schneier on Security: The CIA and Assassinations →
The CIA has an assassination program. It has gotten more active since Obama took office.
The ACLU Deputy Legal Director:
[T]he CIA had sought to quash a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by arguing that national security would be harmed irreparably if the CIA were to acknowledge any detail about the targeted killing program, even the program’s mere existence.
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CIA Highlights Sustainability and Conservation... →
The Central Intelligence Agency’s practice of shredding and burning classified papers—often referred to in movies and books as “burn after reading”—is one of several ways the CIA conserves energy, reduces its impact on the environment, and lowers costs through its sustainability efforts. Exhaust from the Agency’s on-site incinerator generates steam to heat water at CIA Headquarters. In addition...
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Cathleen Falsani: Trump Presidency Doesn't Have a... →
Brody followed up with a question about Trump’s churchgoing habits. “Well, I go as much as I can,” Trump said. “Always on Christmas. Always on Easter. Always when there’s a major occasion. And during the Sundays. I’m a Sunday church person. I’ll go when I can.”
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Walmart vs. Target - Grocery Price Comparison →
Another of Rob Cockerham’s citizen-consumer-protector expeditions. Can you guess which is cheaper?
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“They say slaves are happy, because they laugh and act merry. I myself and three...”
– Found in A People’s History of the United States
Link: Slavery in America
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Chavez Says Capitalism May Have Destroyed Life On... →
I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet.
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Let Us Count The Ways - Baltimore City Paper →
I’m increasingly a fan of David Cay Johnston, the author of this piece and also Really Bad Reporting in Wisconsin: Who ‘Contributes’ to Public Workers’ Pensions? (which I linked to here). Because tax isn’t just income tax, but a lot of people seem to act like it is, there are a lot of fallacies about who really pays. Johnston here provides pithy discussion of common...
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Modem Noise: Elmore Leonard's Rules of Writing →
10 easy tips for authors. Including:
Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…
…he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances...
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Uganda's President on the Gadhafi he knows –... →
Insightful stuff on Gadhafi and factors in intervention that might not immediately occur to Westerners. If you don’t want to read all of it, skim down to the last third in which Museveni lists eleven points to consider.
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'Ghost Hunters' Enjoys Surprising 100% Success... →
At press time, despite having repeatedly resolved the most central question of human existence, the program is somehow not on the cover of every major newspaper, magazine, and scientific journal in the world.
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Antiscience bill passes Tennessee House vote | Bad... →
The Bad Astronomer quotes:
This bill prohibits the state board of education and any public elementary or secondary school governing authority, director of schools, school system administrator, or principal or administrator from prohibiting any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the...
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Perky 'Canada' Has Own Government, Laws | The... →
Like his estimated 35,000 fellow countrymen, Dorman is proud to be a “Canadian.” Located 120 miles north of Buffalo, NY, Canada is, according to Dorman, “a nation with a government and laws distinct from those of the United States.” It also has a military, a system of taxation, and periodic free elections to select political leaders. It even has its own currency, says Dorman, various...
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I write like David Foster Wallace →
Evidently, [http://iwl.me/s/d7939cdb](I write like David Foster Wallace], which doesn’t surprise me. I’ve not read Wallace, but understand that his writing consists of convoluted plot lines and excessive footnotes. I want to read his stuff, not so much because I would enjoy it as because I imagine that it’s like the sort of fiction I would write.
You can find out who you write...
The Real Housewives of Wall Street | Rolling Stone... →
Staffers in the Senate and the House, whose queries about Fed spending have been rebuffed for nearly a century, are now poring over 21,000 transactions and discovering a host of outrages and lunacies in the “other” budget. It is as though someone sat down and made a list of every individual on earth who actually did not need emergency financial assistance from the United States...
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Steve Sepp, Tasty! Tasty! : Nature →
We didn’t eat Steve on a Tuesday, which I think was one of the things that made him special.
Science and Nature vie for the status of top scientific journal. They each have a podcast ([Science[(http://www.sciencemag.org/site/multimedia/podcast/index.xhtml), Nature) and Nature’s is clearly better. In the Science podcast, the hosts are clearly reading from scripts. On the Nature...
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Eating Locally | The Onion - America's Finest News... →
Everyone should be a locavore. The only reason why you’re not eating food you grew yourself is because of corporations. They’re trying to kill you while robbing you blind.
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Tax Cuts for the Rich on the Backs of the Middle... →
The reason for this is always the same: the Republicans, quite smartly, recognize that there is great political hay to be made in the appearance of deficit reduction, and that white middle class voters will respond with overwhelming enthusiasm to any call for reductions in the “welfare state,” a term which said voters will instantly associate with black welfare moms and Mexicans sneaking over...
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McSweeney's: Beware of Bob →
Bob won’t ease your sense of isolation, your sense that everybody has someone except you. Bob will make you feel more isolated. Bob is really great looking, but there’s a price to pay. Bob is boring.
People say, “Do me a favor, will you? Please don’t sit me next to Bob.” They say, “I’d rather have rectal cancer than have to talk to Bob.”
...
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Car Slams Into Home Swimming Pool (Plum,... →
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The Dinosaur Casualties of World War I | Dinosaur... →
As described in a Dinosaur comics:
In regards to yesterday’s comic about pranking the future, Harold sent me this article about the Canadian merchant ship SS Mount Temple, which was captured by Germany in 1916, during the Great War. The Germans took the passengers hostage and then sunk the boat, unaware that the hold was full of dinosaur skeletons bound for England.
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The Nihilist: E-Z Money →
+MC:
This is where austerity comes in. You can’t tell people Social Security needs to be carved up if they think there is tons of money lying around. No. They need to think that we are running out of money, that the Chinese will own our children as debt-surfs, that Weimar-level inflations will have people’s savings wiped out in minutes, that the Treasury will stop printing notes...
Food: The omnivore's labyrinth : Nature : Nature... →
Despite much research over the past 40 years, it’s still not clear what to eat — or not eat —to help prevent cancer. Promising initial findings have often turned into statistical dead ends, leaving us culinarily confused.
…
Different heads of broccoli varied 20-fold in their content of glucoraphanin.
So, does chocolate cure cancer? Because I don’t want to quit smoking...
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Music Thing: Practice in front of a bush: Captain... →
DON’T WIPE THE SWEAT OFF YOUR INSTRUMENT You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.
KEEP YOUR GUITAR IN A DARK PLACE When you’re not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don’t play your guitar for more than a day, be sure to put a saucer of water in with it.
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Abortion’s Role in Budget Dispute Shows... →
The social conservatives established that they have a welcome ear in Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, who has won awards from opponents of abortion rights and during the debate over health care of provisions was a visible supporter of preventing federal money from going to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. (Federal law already prohibits the use of federal dollars for abortions.)
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Cruel and usual: US solitary confinement - Al... →
Increasingly, solitary confinement is used as torture, taken to inhumane extents:
At the all-solitary Colorado State Penitentiary, Troy Anderson has spent the last 10 years in isolation, never seeing the sun or the surrounding mountains, due to acting out on the symptoms of untreated mental illness.
Anderson has been diagnosed with ADHD, bipolar disorder, intermittent explosive disorder,...
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Why the Christian right is backing a brutal despot... →
To be clear, the problem isn’t so much the Christian right in general as The Family:
Both Gbagbos have attended the National Prayer Breakfast, a big annual Washington event run by the secretive Christian group known as the Family, or the Fellowship.
$25 Billion in Cuts, if the Math Worked -... →
Of the few specific cuts that Congressional Republicans have proposed in their promised assault on annual budget deficits, one of the biggest by far would save $25 billion over 10 years, they claim, by ending an emergency welfare fund.
The Republican Study Committee, which includes more than 100 of the most conservative House Republicans, promoted the idea in a statement this week, saying,...
Sword & Sorcery: EP →
This is the best game that I have played on iOS. I got it for iPad, it’s coming soon for iPod touch/iPhone.
I want to say more about this game later. In the meantime, I just spent the past hour trying to find Molly Whuppie, a picture book my parents read to me when I was a small child. I tried to find the edition that had the same illustrations that I remembered. It’s coming soon by...
