Sunday, 27 December 2009

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano:
The traveling public is very, very safe in this air environment. And while we continue to investigate the source of this incident, I think the traveling public should be confident in what we are doing now...
And one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked.
Hey, if a “working†system means they’re going to leave everything up to the passengers, how about doing away with all the security theater?
Related:
Elsewhere:
DHS had no role whatsoever in assuring that this bomb didn't go off. By her logic if the bomb had gone off, the system would have “worked†since it [the DHS] has done everything right.
Rick Moran:
We apparantly have a psychotic liar working as Homeland Security Secretary.
Tom Elia:
I remember... Democratic political consultant Chris Kofinis summing up President Obama’s inaugural speech thusly: “I’m gonna tell you the truth,†and [characterizing it as] a rebuke of “the last eight years†-- of presumably “not telling us the truth.â€
Napolitano’s comment doesn't quite live up to that spirit...
Rand Simberg:[1]
Once again, airline passengers 1, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) 0.
And the response of the TSA?
To further punish the passengers, of course...
Politico: Napolitano: “The system workedâ€
Via: Sanmon, commenting at Blackfive
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Saturday, 26 December 2009

Via: KingShamus
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Somerset Daily American:
JOHNSTOWN [December 22, 2009] — U.S. Rep. John Murtha [Democrat chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee] told reporters Tuesday that he isn’t convinced al-Qaida is still a threat to national security.The country’s in the very best of hands...
...
“I don’t agree there is a threat to national security,†Murtha said, while not ruling out the possibility that he could be wrong about al-Qaida’s influence. “They keep saying they’ve defeated al-Qaida.â€
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Thursday, 24 December 2009

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"Doctor Zero,†on Avatar:
This is a suicide fantasy, exactly like those many of us indulge as teenagers: we’re so much wiser, smarter, and empathic than the bummer adults running the world around us. They don’t understand the mystic truth burning in our young hearts. They’ll be sad when we’re gone, and they’ll finally realize how righteous we were. They’ll finally understand their grim obsession with money and material goods is soul-crushing, because they’ll be standing over the pulverized dust of our radiant souls. Death and tragedy will tear the scales from their eyes.but in the comments, "Crawford†notes
The can of holistic whup-ass opened by the magical world of Pandora at the end of Avatar comes from the same grocery of doom that supplies George Monbiot and Polly Toynbee with their nightmares. ...Understand they don’t really believe those things will happen – no one is stupid enough to believe the twaddle about submerged cities dispensed by the global-warming cult. They want those things to happen. They daydream about glaciers melting and creating tidal waves that deposit soggy clumps of coral reef and rainforest in the middle of London. They shudder with orgasmic delight as they imagine drowning capitalists and politicians coughing out a spray of ice water, dodging the enraged polar bears swept into Fleet Street by the morning tide, and crying "George! Polly! You were right! You were right all along, and we were so blind… Save us!†But it will be too late, and George and Polly will only be able to fold their arms and blaze with smug satisfaction, glowing bright enough to remain clearly visible as they sink into the frigid depths.
Not suicide fantasy — genocide fantasy.The distance between Devon and Columbine is less than most people might think.
The Monbiots, Toynbees, and Camerons don’t want to die. They want those people to die — the ones who get in the way of their perfect society. They want us to die.
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Wednesday, 23 December 2009

Why let aThese people just can’t help themselves.holiday season come between the White House and making some political statements? The White House pegged controversial designer Simon Doonan to oversee the Christmas decorations for the White House. Mr. Doonan, who is creative director of Barney’s New York has often caused a stir with his design choices... For this year’s White House, he didn’t disappoint.
Of course, Mao has his place...
Via: AoSHQ, title by “Ghost of Christmas Pastâ€
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Sunday, 20 December 2009

Here’s what I’m seeing. (taken c.a. 1800 est)
UPDATED 091221 23:00: One too many </p> tags!
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Saturday, 19 December 2009

It’s Myst’s first Christmas, so she’s enjoying all the boxes...
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Friday, 18 December 2009

Copenhagen Post:
Seven metres. That is how much global water levels will rise if the ice in Greenland melts. In connection with the climate meating, sculptor Jens Galschioet has hung flashing red lights seven metres up in trees and on lamp posts throughout Copenhagen.Ummm, ’scuse me, but if the rest of the lights are “seven metres up†(as stated above), they’re wrong, too. Unless the ground level in Copenhagen = sea level. But continue, please...
The idea was to illustrate a prospective water level rise if the ice melts away in Greenland. Yet, somewhere along the line, he made a few incorrect calculations.
‘Technically and pedagogically it is a sound idea. The problem is that they are hanging at incorrect heights by the city lakes, where they currently sit at 11.34 metres’, said architect Ole Oerslev.
The city lakes are already 5.89 metres above sea level, so the flashing lights should have been put up at 69 centimetres height.
‘The rest of the lights put up around the city and out by the Bella Center are in the correct elevation.
We wanted to display something downtown as well and even though we knew that the lights should have been at 69 centimetres, we didn’t really feel it looked like much. So we cheated a bit and decided to explain if anyone found out’, explained Galschioet.Well, that explains everything.
Via: Blair
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Calculus problem: What is the ratio of the surface area of this linked cut to the surface area of the usual planar bagel slice?
Hmmm... does the solution require calculus? (Think about that over your first cup of coffee.)
Credits:
Discovered by Finestkind Clinic and fish market, and linked by C.G. Hill
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