Venn Diagrams Applied to Your Life

Who knew that charts and graphs could be so much fun?

Obama? So...January

Now here's a man who knows what to do and wastes no time in doing it. A man of action!

How to Fix the U.S. Economy? Stop Tinkering With It!

Richard W. Rahm's column in the Washington Times nails it. From creating too much easy credit to creating artificial scarcities of important commodities to over-regulation, government meddling gets it wrong all too often. It's a credit to American ingenuity and entrepreneurship that this country creates so many small businesses each year despite all of the obstacles that continue to be placed in the way.

Are there any candidates running from either major party who understand this? Doesn't seem that way, although McCain promised that he would work to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.

The Classics Lack a Certain...Something

...when voiced by the cast of...Spongebob Squarepants.

The gain in humor tops the chart.

Canada doesn't follow the script

"Sun Stays Sluggish as Weathermen Fight for Anti-Ice Age Funding," declares the headline in Popular Mechanics. What? Anti-Ice Age funding? I thought the global warming scam that is enriching ADM, GE and Al Gore, among many others, was enough. Now they want funding in order to study a possible Ice Age?

I think the Canadians are on to something. We've seen that a scientific examination of some of the underlying assumptions and methods used to establish a case for the so-called "Hockey Stick" reveals significant problems in the data, methods and assumptions. More honest, open, scientific study; less uniformed action, please. Certainly we can agree that the solutions we choose should contain as little corporate welfare as possible in order to be economically viable.

The earth may be warming, the adverse consequences of warming may be harmful to life, and there may be actions that man can take to address those actions. However, forcing developing nations into adoption of no-growth policies that essentially keep those countries depressed and under the thumbs of despots is no solution. Man has adapted to his environment for thousands and thousands of years. There is no question that we can do so again, and I bet that we can do so without causing poorer nations to suffer the consequences of tree-hugger angst and liberal guilt.

H/T: Instapundit.

Game On!

Super Bowl? Super Tuesday? No, in my opinion, the biggest clash that is well and truly engaged today is Google vs. a team of Microsofties and Yahoos.

Microsoft's press release contains a copy of the letter from Steve Ballmer to Yahoo's board. The letter contains this very interesting bit of news:

In February 2007, I received a letter from your Chairman indicating the view of the Yahoo! Board that “now is not the right time from the perspective of our shareholders to enter into discussions regarding an acquisition transaction.” According to that letter, the principal reason for this view was the Yahoo! Board’s confidence in the “potential upside” if management successfully executed on a reformulated strategy based on certain operational initiatives, such as Project Panama, and a significant organizational realignment. A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved.

We are in for a very interesting year as this proposed merger moves ahead, and a very interesting battle of the titans if the Microsofties and Yahoos are allowed to combine forces.

Das Gesundheitssystem Nicht in Ordnung!! Entweder rein oder raus!!

Betsy Newmark summarizes a story about Hillary Clinton's most "notable" qualification for the Presidency, her leadership of the failed "health care task force" during the Bill Clinton's first term. Here's the money quote: So they had a plan that they weren't quite sure would actually work but they were contemplating making personal attacks on leaders of interest groups who dared to oppose them. And Jay Rockefeller knew exactly what the relationship was between the media and the Clinton administration. The media “are anxious and willing to receive guidance (from the Clinton administration) on how to time and shape the (news) coverage.”

As the man says, read the whole thing.

The X6: Love at First Sight

Hat tip: Oliver 62 at Flickr

A unique result, guaranteed

Rick Brookhiser raises an important point in this post entitled "What Next?" at The Corner.

This election is unique; it has been many years since the nominees for both parties will not be either the incumbent President or Vice President. The country is going to take a leap of faith with little evidence as to the winner's executive skills and leadership ability, no matter who wins the election.

Accuracy of the IPCC's forecasts? Not so much

A number of scientists who question the accuracy of the models and assumptions used to project future disasters due to global warming have discussed various experimental approaches that could be used to measure the accuracy of the models used. Here's one; the results aren't favorable to the global warming alarmists.

I find your lack of faith disturbing

Space Daily reports the discovery of a "death star galaxy" that is ripping up another galaxy nearby with a powerful jet of gamma rays and X-rays. More details along with a picture of the jet in action are contained in the report.

According to the article, the "...death star galaxy was discovered through the combined efforts of both space and ground-based telescopes. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope were part of the effort. The Very Large Array telescope, Socorro, N.M., and the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) telescopes in the United Kingdom also were needed for the finding."

It's about time

As reported in The New York Times, the F.T.C. Asks if Carbon-Offset Money Is Well Spent

Instapundit forwards a link to one of the silliest articles on "global warming" ever. I especially enjoyed his assertion on the timeline of the catastrophe.

The area that will by completely inundated by the rising ocean—and not in a century but in the lifetime of my two cats—are the American southeast, including the most populated area of Texas, almost all of Florida, most of Louisiana, and half of Alabama and Mississippi, as well as goodly portions of eastern Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

It may well occur within the lifetime of his two cats, but not, perhaps, before his mother finally gives up and makes him move out of the basement.

The great Instapundit offers a story about the promise of another type of heavenly light that may bring hope to mankind:

In September, American entrepreneur Kevin Reed proposed at the 58th International Astronautical Congress in Hyderabad, India, that Palau's uninhabited Helen Island would be an ideal spot for a small demonstration project, a 260-foot-diameter "rectifying antenna," or rectenna, to take in 1 megawatt of power transmitted earthward by a satellite orbiting 300 miles above Earth.

That's enough electricity to power 1,000 homes, but on that empty island the project would "be intended to show its safety for everywhere else," Reed said in a telephone interview from California.

"The climate change implications are pretty clear. You can get basically unlimited carbon-free power from this," said Mark Hopkins, senior vice president of the National Space Society in Washington. . . . Some seem to hear the call. The European Space Agency has scheduled a conference on space-based solar power for next Feb. 29. Space Island Group, another entrepreneurial U.S. endeavor, reports "very positive" discussions with a European utility and the Indian government about buying future power from satellite systems.

I'm sure that Jerry Pournelle will be pleased. He's been an advocate of solar power from stationary satellites for years.

The Astronomy Picture of the Day site offers some of the most beautiful images available on the Internet. The photo for today, Christmas Day, 2007 is both beautiful and inspirational:




Merry Christmas to all, especially to our troops stationed around the world who are protecting our cherished freedoms.






The caption for the image explains its majesty:
Welcome to The World At Night. Sharing the night sky seen around the world, this view from Monument Valley, USA includes a picturesque foreground of famous buttes. Buttes are composed of hard volcanic rock left behind after water eroded away the surrounding soft rock. The two buttes on the image left are known as the Mittens, while Merrick Butte is on the right. Recorded just last week, planet Mars is at the left of the skyscape, a glowing beacon of orange that is the brightest object in the frame. To the right of Mars lies the constellation of Orion. Betelgeuse is the reddish star near the center and the Belt of Orion and the Orion Nebula are farther right. Finally, the bright blue star Rigel appears above Merrick Butte in this stunning view of The World At Night.

The post at Commentary magazine entitled, " Who Owns the Vietnam War? " tells some uncomfortable truths that the left doesn't want to hear.

Can it really be true? Over at the American Enterprise Institute site, Reuel Marc Gerecht explains Why the Worst Is Probably Over in Iraq.

Big Lizards describes the nihilistic malaise infecting Japan, and to a greater extent, Europe, in an excellent post that IMO applies equally to the elites in the U.S. If a nation outsources its national defenses because you don't think that anything is worth fighting for, sooner or later, those who do your fighting for you might change their minds.