August 2009

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The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.

-Samuel Smiles

April 22, 2009

How I wonder what you are

So astronomers see this thing 12.9 billion light years away, but they don't know what it is.

They're calling it a "blob". On the one hand, I think I hear Newton turning in his grave. Blob? Seriously? But on the other hand, I like the way that word immediately communicates to the layman (and to children) that we don't know what the hell it is. Sure, Newton is dead, but science is alive. Contrary to what some would believe, you don't have to know everything to be a scientist. We're always finding stuff we don't know. And we dig that. You can just about hear how excited Dr. Masami Ouchi of the Arnegie Institution is in this quote:

"There are two possibilities: the standard scenario of galaxy formation is wrong, or this particular object is showing something unique,"

But as is often the case, this mystery has a mundane answer. I know exactly what this "blob" is:

Posted by Wulf | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 19, 2009

Extreme Prejudice

Navy%20Sniper.jpg

Posted by Wulf | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 18, 2009

There is No Dana, only Fool

The Dana Cloud referenced here is a self-professed communist who refers to herself as an “intellectual”, as hard as that is to imagine.

After a century of communism/collectivism causing unprecedented suffering and death, it's startling to have such unabashed, modern-day, 21st century (albeit cartoonish) communists still advocating its sickness. At a state-funded university, nonetheless. As an American, who ought to know better. And in Texas, the heartbeat of rugged individualism.

I also love the way that—in this blog entry—she places the words [American] democracy and founding fathers in quotes, but fails to put historian in quotes when describing Howard Zinn. Ha!

This is also a great read: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~dcloud/academicfreedom.pdf from someone who's clearly unsure of herself:

Another problematic assumption [made by David Horowitz]: Students can’t think for themselves. Try telling my students here at the University of Texas that! They’ll tell him where to get off.

Biting retort! You really showed him! It's hard to imagine that this is an undergraduate course syllabus.

But, perhaps I'm too harsh on Ms. Cloud. She's proving an excellent argument for homeschooling and private schools.

Posted by Rammage | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 13, 2009

Saving by Spending

I can't quite figure this one out:

Transportation Department officials say that because so many contractors want a share of stimulus money, competition is driving down costs by about 15 percent to 20 percent.

So before the stimulus money, when Transportation Department money was "scarce", there wasn't competition for the money? But now that there is a lot of money available, there is competition that drives down costs?

Hrm. It sounds to me that the government should definitely spend money on infrastructure during a recession. Not because Keynes said so, but because the contractors will scramble for any job and do it on the cheap. I mean, government has to attend to infrastructure anyway, so I guess the cheapest time to do it is when workers are down and out and will do anything for a buck.

The trick to that, of course, is getting government to stop spending money when the economy is booming, because then it's expensive again.

Anybody following that logic?

Posted by Wulf | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

April 9, 2009

Is Anyone Else Hungry?

I could really go for some Cheetos or something, man.

Photo Credit: Kelly B.
Model: Ginger D.

Posted by Rammage | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)