Pseudo-Polymath

Good morning.

1. NSA reform suggestions.
2. Time heals all … misconceptions?
3. Fiction not stranger than … newspaper reports.
4. An unbelievable public service advert.
5. Pocket-able.
6. Built by hand.
7. Lunar cycles and Afghan violence.
8. Yikes.
9. You mean “does he have a plan” … answer: probably not.
10. Some cool bike tech.

G’day

1. Part 2 on hiding in the networked world.
2. Pharma and research/development trends.
3. Engine hybridization and tech.
4. How not to make an argument, that is start with a analogy which doesn’t reflect historically very well.
5. Superman and a review.
6. Celebrating an addiction shared by many.
7. First comment says it all. Yikes.
8. Ms Clinton does algebraic number theory? Oh wait, some other relative unknown person  … I’d have thought only Grigory would be identified by last name alone. Although I suspect “shmooze” is not a word you’d use in the context of the latter.
9. On the blowing of the whistles.
10. On the high court and the fifth Amendment.
11. In the boys + toys department.
12. Speaking of toys.
13. Loneliness.
14. There has been some pushback on GOP criticizing Mr Obama for using a water pistol, but when stuff like this done by Mr Obama’s supporters, that’s what you get.
15. Video and violence.

Good morning.

1. Meta-links. (more here)
2. For the Palin fans.
3. Europe is confused.
4. DNA and Mr Scalia …
5. A movie reviewed.
6. Verse.
7. On hiding in plain sight.
8. For when the writing on the wall is on your desk.
9. Speaking of which.
10. Lady in space.
11. Obamacare in nutshell … or a thousand words.
12. Old tech … and quothing the raven.
13. Some thoughts on faith.
14. Well, “pathological altruism” has a kinder touch than my term for the same thing, to whit “stupid or evil” (that is, you don’t realize the obvious consequences (stupid) or you do and … continue because your actual motives are evil but you can continue under the cover of a pretense of altruism) .

G’day

1. A film noted … I will be curious how my ex-gymnast daughter perceives this … as a movie to be seen or meh?
2. Do as I say not as I did, I guess … which is  not exactly convincing.
3. Luck.
4. Immigration policy and the cui bono question.
5. Suckage.
6. Middle East protest demographic noted.
7. Girls and boys are different. Someday the progressive elite will cotton that.
8. Sayings.
9. Ms Lerner and a history of misuse of agency. (HT) If that quote is accurate she should be in jail.
10. Syria working on 900 days, at 300 and counting.
11. Misunderstanding.
12. Run Koofi run.
13. The vaster left wing conspiracy.
14. Pelosi and a failed hermeneutic … what exactly does that woman mean by “sacred?”
15. Actually … Bond chapel is used on Sunday’s for Orthodox worship (St. Makarios is a mission church holding services there), for which standing is preferred and pews should be removed. So you can relax your anti-Muslim rhetoric.
16. Continuing a long line of regrettable theology.

The week progresses. Thursday already, eh? Links!

1. Popular media gets a hold of the NSA kerfuffle. Heh.
2. Sales hype.
3. Apparently “global warming threatens coral” is a real meme.
4. Myths and insurgency.
5. Consider this … from the right.
6. Of DNA tests, rape and Pakistani jurisprudence.
7. Bigger … better?
8. Gorilla’s and cars.
9. Syria and diplomacy considered.
10. Kneejerked journalists.
11. Big collider.
12. Progressivism infection.
13. Meta-data used for network analysis and method. (HT)

Whazzup?

1. Natural for a library, I guess.
2. ‘Tis the month for scandals, apparently.
3. Employment and healthcare reforms. Twas a cunning plan I suspect. (Perhaps this should be noted as a preface before the introduction of any Legislature for consideration by our August bodies of state  ”Am I jumping the gun, Baldrick, or are the words ‘I have a cunning plan’ marching with ill-deserved confidence in the direction of this conversation”).
4. Ah, if these walls could, err, blog?
5. Why “or” and not “and”.
6. Young atheists and what they say.

Well, not much garnered … I took daughter #1 to a baseball game last night … 1 hour fog delay? What’s up with that? Seriously, fog?

Good morning.

1. Of turbulence and wake.
2. A topic for these guys to look at?
3. How nice that’s settled now.
4. Two points of view of the latest meta-data government capture update, here and here.
5. And here is a roundup of quotes from the Congressional knuckleheads.
6. An epic recalled.
7. Grist for the IRS “Somebody rid me of that troublesome priest” discussion (HT).
8. Careful carver.
9. The fruits of dishonesty.
10. Yah, we know what “meta-data” means … apparently it had to be explained to someone.
11. The cold war revisited.

Woo hoo, 5 days in a row.

1. Of sign and symptom.
2. Data mining has defenders … a question not asked (that I’ve seen)  is how the Feds convinced those numerous corporations to provide access … what sort of perks. IRS kid gloves or Justice Department patent war favors? Hmmm?
3. Talking legality (more here)… 51% is “reasonably sure” … Let’s see the politically neutral IRS isn’t … why are you so sure the politically neutral NSA is?
4. Putting that and drones in a larger context here.
5. Strange jewelry.
6. Exists. Hmm. Regrettable perhaps?
7. Of Scient(ology) and cinema.
8. “Government” here is not the feds … it’s your school board. If you don’t like it, gosh, you can actually do something about it (or if you do like it … you can support it).
9. The “science is settled” and some plots of those settled predictions. Sounds like settled doesn’t mean what they think it means.
10. Remember the atheist meme, “religion is the opiate of the masses” … well not so much, eh?
11. Of games and brains.
12. Of tech and terror.
13. Happiness fail.

G’day.

1. The super sekret plan revealed. (someone is slightly unimpressed)
2. A candidate.
3. A lung recipient selected. See, it is about who you know.
4. Immigration thoughts.
5. Of man and elephant.
6. Evil in our time.
7. A book noted.
8. Some IRS spending tidbits.
9. English history and HBO series ties.
10. A bike race.

Good morning. Yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah

1. More IRS tricks and missteps.
2. A 14 y/old photographer and some of his pictures.
3. Le Tour and changes in the last century.
4. Some of the  groups not audited by the IRS, ’cause they didn’t have “Constitution” in their tagline.
5. Testifying in regards to IRS investigation.
6. Zooom.
7. Game warden and his guns.
8. Modern healthcare … as we move into the “who you know” regime.
9. Hitler and language.
10. Teh race card, and an example of not getting it at all.
11. The surprise exam.
12. Mistaken notions on what constitutes war noted.

Good morning.

1. Why does Communist chic survive?
2. This is not unrelated to the prior link.
3. Feminist victory, Pyrrhic?
4. Privacy, laws broken, and consequence.
5. Money wasted is money wasted.
6. You might have a drinking problem when …
7. A “disconnect between rhetoric and reality” … when it is intentional we call that lying.
8. Food for thought (HT).
9. Tobacco, harm, and common misconceptions amongst MDs.
10. Military promotions.

Another day, another ???

1. Coming soon, to a watercooler discussion near you.
2. “much more lavish” … another plug for small businesses, which certainly have none of that lavish crap.
3. Syria and stop digging.
4. A homily … and a cherished gospel story.
5. When the proud papa is an artist.
6. A poll in the UK.
7. Economics and …, a quote.
8. Rules.
9. Your President in action … or is that inaction.
10. Of government spending and debt.
11. The left’s anointed spokesperson and his foot in mouth disease.
12. Freedom of speech in Wales.
13. That’s very funny … other funny videos by the same guy can be found as well.
14. Witness and evidence in the Pakistan.

Good morning.

1. Averages.
2. A interesting prototype for a toy.
3. A quote … which is not unlike the phrase I occasionally tell my kids when the utter the “I’m bored remark” (which oddly enough rarely comes to my ears now). My reply invariably is that “your boredom is a problem with you not the universe which you inhabit.”
4. Warming and causes … a suggestion.
5. Nuptials to remember.
6. Regarding visiting Mars.
7. Frequent visitor noted.
8. Mainstream education moving online?
9. Experts they are not.
10. Fishing the adage, “Give him a fish …” which brings to my mind the always humors Christopher Moore addition “turn him into a fish and his family eats for a week” from Lamb.
11. Mad skillz.
12. Time after time (HT).
13. Post boomer?
14. For the burn your money crowd.

Yo.

1. The tip/top of the iceberg.
2. Holder and the lying game … in a word, weak tea … supported here and here.
3. More on Holder here.
4. A commencement address of note without inappropriate jokes (HT: Mr Burgess-Jackson).
5. Yikes.
6. Put that same metric on Mr Obama and Mr Kerry (the last two Democrat Presidential) and they too “did nothing”.  But I doubt Mr McElwee would say they did nothing. Why might that be?
7. Brendan points out some of the real failings of consequentialism. I might add that a wise friend of mine equated asceticism with prayer.
8. The capstone of the liberal media not doing so well.
9. Coming to a zoo near you in a decade or so.
10. Fine tuning.
11. Marriage, France and a speech.
12. So will that end the homicide bombers terror trend? (woops I misread that as coverage for the terrorists not the combatants against them)
13. A lock.
14. A quote.
15. Another.
16. Twitter travels in time.
17. A short film, beware the dust in the air.
18. Academic mediocrity and our President.
19. A film noted.

Tonight I return the Internet black hole, I’m trying the third hotel (and final) in the area to see if they, unlike the others, have “high-speed” internet that is faster than dialup.

1. An ethics question.
2. “Other weapons systems” … equals drones?
3. Fur yur amoozment.
4. Not a co-conspirator.
5. Fine tuning comes to inflation.
6. 13 years ago, Honda sold a 1 liter three cylinder inline powered car … still waiting.
7. And you tell the wife, parents, and children of the dead patient you “did no harm”? This isn’t an ethical dilemma.
8. Of names and men.

OK. Remember today, first off … do no harm.

I hope everyone had a good memorable Memorial day. If you want to read something patriotic, I often recommend the first chapter or two or the Book of Ruth. Ruth’s declamatory statement to Naomi strikes me as the essence of patriotism.

1. I have to confess, unlike many readers, I find the likability of the protagonist important, for example that was a reason I couldn’t stand the Thomas Covenant series. The protagonist doesn’t have to be likable I guess, but it really really helps if there is someone who is likable.
2. Legal-like moonshine.
3. Law and drones continued.
4. Academic failings.
5. Theodicy and Presidential statements … so do you think Presidents and other politicians actually read the context of the verses they choose? Did this President do so?
6. Liberal hack and … uncivil as well? Don’t worry the liberal hack thing will keep him is moonlight job as a NYTimes pundit and liberals stapled to the cause will never believe he might say or do wrong.
7. Scandal in India.
8. Future’s so bright and all … maybe.
9. Star Trek, sliced and diced (spoilers aplenty) (HT Ms (slightly) Mad Minerva).
10. Bars of the uneven kind.
11. PEDs and a mountain.
12. So … you’re in Nashville. Where to go? What do do? How about this?
13. Benghazi the narrative in local context.
14. Not a lot of running on warships, eh?
15. A very bad day.

Busy morning for me. You?

1. If our plan holds, this is the next “family” car after the kids move out … or the equivalent in 2017.
2. A few years in the cellar.
3. “Mystical” … what does that mean to ABC I wonder.
4. The standards … they are double, eh?
5. An aesthetic is a method for evaluating art. By what aesthetic is that worth that much? Not one I might fathom.
6. Some games and a photo-essay.
7. Two very different posts on exercise, here and here.
8. While you’re thinking about the IRS.
9. Ink on skin meets religion in the Middle East.
10. OK liberals … defend this! or this.
11. School and men.
12. Frakking and the obvious.
13. He calls it “inexcusable” and is right glad his Chicago training taught him how to have no tracks back to himself on this one … at least as long as those losing their jobs keep their mouths shut.
14. And we end with a discussion of a fictional figure in popular media.

Moving on

1. Do drones work?
2. More on the same.
3. Researching for the government. Heh.
4. The liberator and open source.
5. First there was lather rinse repeat now we find eat, pray, drink.
6. Liberty. Three notions of liberty (freedom to choose, loving neighbors/community, and now … freedom to make laws). Do they differ at the core or just the edges?
7. Cheating.
8. Multi-culturalism and its claims … a test lab.
9. The last weeks scandal that was lost.  Another list. A prediction … I’m not convinced he’s lost them yet.
10. Dogs and medical methodology and recommendations.
11. “We don’t rush in half cocked” …  of course we do, if we have to. Remember McClellan  and the Civil war … responding too much to the fear of losing and the unknown leads merely to just plain losing.
12. Biden-the-knucklehead takes credit for the White House promoting fracking. Promoting fracking? What is he smoking?
13. Danger danger Will Robinson!!!

G’day

1. Seems like a good thing.
2. Well, time is probably something they have on hand.
3. More things than are dreamed of in your books, perhaps.
4. Bravo.
5. Hey! That’s an old standard “dad” line.
6. Privacy or “market research”.
7. ad hoc gun show.
8. Number 6 is Mr Obama who appointed them, eh?
9. Alienated, young, and male.
10. To quoth the President a few days after the Benghazi incident “a shadowy figure behind the video sparked the attack” … “nothing new was learned” … yep. Nothing new, except that doesn’t mean what you think it means.
11. Mali watch.
12. Classical education and what that used to mean.

OK. Take a few

1. Colorado oversteps. Would local zoning laws do it?
2. All that sex talk makes Lucy a duller girl.
3. A set of odd wheels for bikes.
4. Devil(s) … impersonal or not?
5. Why? Maybe they were wearing swim suits not sweaters. More on that IRS thing here.
6. Touche.
7. Purple prose.
8. Great apes and swimming … and the resultant map.
9. Heh.
10. A mom reflects on mother’s day.
11. Losing the left on the Benghazi kerfuffle.
12. A good question, after all most of the research was supported by your taxes. And is arXIV sufficient to ameliorate the problem?
13. Famousness.

The White House talking point on Benghazi is that the hearings “told us nothing new”, which I think isn’t exactly what they were hoping for. You’d think that they would be wanting those hearings to exonerate them, instead of confirming what we already knew, i.e., that they were scoundrels.

G’day

1. One thing you don’t have to worry about shopping in the Midwestern ‘burbs.
2. Yah, that will work. So, does that mean the state department is completely ignorant of how difficult stopping a 2 megabyte zip file from being disseminated might be. I mean, why even bother. Setting aside the point that there is no actual reason for them to try to stop it in the first place.
3. Diversity and USC.
4. Modern atheism, likely flash in the demographic pan.
5. Modern reason takes a turn to the dark side. (in which dark implies ignorance and such)
6. Uhm, Ms Pelosi is grandstanding … let’s see “sequestration” is keeping a very very wealthy woman from “visiting the troops” … does that mean sequestration is keeping her from buying a plane ticket? Nope. Making phone calls? Nope. So how is sequestration stopping here. Answer,  Uhm, no … it’s not and … Ms Pelosi … you are flat out lying.
7. Impeachment. Although there is no reason to impeach Mr Obama … the Senate has Democratic majority, there is no point.
8. Fear the duck.
9. A danish writer of some renown compares Easter/Pascha celebrations in Rome and Greece.
10. Short answer, no.
11. A book list.
12. Used weather, dirt cheap.

Well, then …

1. A little honesty … to bad we don’t get more of that in politics.
2. Speaking about things needed in politics … we can dream, eh?
3. Space and fire.
4. About the WDML.
5. Spin backfires.
6. Actually it’s not a “game changer”. Zip guns have been around for a long time. This is just another zip gun.
7. And on that topic … you do realize there is no actual need to reinforce the notion that the left is completely ignorant when it comes to firearms.
8. Apparently Ms Clinton had an accurate accusation.
9. Fracking comes to Asia.
10. Well, duh.
11. Yikes.
12. Boots on the ground, costs, and performance … works for military performance and applies to lots of other things too.
13. A confession.

Yah, links?

1. Well, that’s to be expected. That arab “spring”  is a thing to behold.
2. Actually, I think the motive or at least the logic of “what did he want to achieve by that” is not very clear.
3. “The most callous thing” which means  Mr Biden completely lacks any imagination at all. Or has led an incredibly sheltered life to not realize that there are hundreds (thousands) of “more callous” things that man has done to man than that. (which begs one question … what do you think might actually be the “most callous thing anyone can do to another”?
4. Girlfriend?
5. Doing the treadmill right.
6. Very very pretty. This too.
7. Archaeology underwater.
8. Pesky trends for the gun control = emergency crowd.
9. Where it’s not cold when it rains.
10. Apparently the “is not welcome” at Church is a recent lefty meme, alas … not true.
11. The Paschal (Easter) 2nd homily from the Russian patriarch (the first was the original by St John Chrysostom spoken at every Orthodox Paschal celebration for many many centuries … when something is done right … why change?).

Yo.

1. Progress isn’t always.
2. Fast has multiple meanings.
3. A bishop does good.
4. Heh.
5. Logic and the not-pro-life crowd.
6. Some Irish history.
7. Sounds like …. (or of language and memory)
8. Hermeneutical fail … in that I have no idea what is meant by that reply.
9. A possible future.
10. In trying to parody (highlight?) loony remarks of the other side, the poster comes of as a, well, bigger loon. Wonder if that was the plan.
11. Healthcare and Oregon.
12. “Cleared for transfer“.

Good morning.

1. The gun/girl culture.
2. Mr Obama’s buddy defends his bombings … unsuccessfully it seems.
3. Hmm.
4. Even handed remarks from the left, or not.
5. And in that vein … yikes.
6. Culture.
7. Statistics and risk.
8. From the weekend, (Christ is risen).
9. Mental health and guns.
10. Book burning and the interwebs.
11. Well, did that just end the gun control debate?
12. Happiness metric.
13. Perhaps more than just cultural pressures?

Holy week (for the Eastern Orthodox) is a busy week. Two bridegroom matins services the last two nights (of particular note is the liturgical poem from last night attributed to Saint Kassia).

1. One way you might never expect the “you neve know when you’ll need a …” sentence to complete.
2. Somebody lives in a world in which passwords and networks are secure.
3. One way past the depth of field focus problem.
4. Somebody searches for a clue … and figures the whole pending demographic problem is a mirage. What I find interesting is the people who believe in global warming is human caused “cause most scientists” do reject both demographic social scientists as not having a clue and at the same time fail to find as relevant lots of factoids like entire small towns and cities in the former East Germany whose primary industry is reclaiming abandoned buildings because the population has disappeared due to lack of kids over few generations.
5. On the other hand, maybe we should ignore social scientists … or begin to suspect the publish/perish model of academia.
6. How liberals (not of the classical sort) enforce uniformity.
7. So is getting incensed valid?
8. Not, oddly enough, fetal stem cells.
9. A quote for the ordinary Christian.
10. Heh.
11. Grist for the abortion/chastity debates.
12. For the Ms Palin fans.
13. Perhaps not why the cock crowed three times.
14. Palms.

Good morning.

1. Let’s start with some doodles, of a non-graphical sort.
2. If you believe a thing to be true, it’s not lying … if you publish it in a paper however, it means your editor is sleeping on the job.
3. Racial blinders. It’s not race, it’s culture, btw.
4. Oh go ahead, be happy.
5. Looking at the prospect of naval warfare and situational/geographical tactics.
6. Are we really talking about Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread?
7. Coloration.
8. Considering the Boston brothers with bombs.
9. And something more to be said on that front.
10. Rolling back the clock, is it possible?
11. Heh.
12. The trials and tribulations of covering the military.
13. In need of financial advice.
14. Mad skillz.

On to the business at hand …

1. Your tax dollars at work … OK. probably not your tax dollars but somebodies. Golly, gubmit sure is silly.
2. Ooh, surprise, taxes going up is the “hidden” plan.
3. Better than raising taxes any day of the week.
4. Which is another reason why not to do this.
5. A prediction made.
6. Another.
7. Hollywood and the musical.
8. Remember this.
9. Not alone in that confusion.
10. Despicable? or just ordinary ho hum?
11. What if you didn’t kill him, just put a round in a lung?  That’ll usually take the vim and vigor out of a guy.

This week has been crazy. The hotel web site crawls (which I can access at night). I’m with only sketchy phone service, no data, and no network all day. Odd doing that during a non-vacation day.

Ok. Link?

1. Pressure and the working world.
2. Syria and a prayer request.
3. Bike tech of a different sort.
4. Going way past the feed the beast notion.
5. Shale.
6. Not wrong. Christian. Jesus pointed out evil men love those who love them, love the man that hates you .. that’s a little more difficult.
7. Jane Austen and game theory.
8. Stupidity in schooling.
9. This is strange. On a Christian group conversation blog, a fellow “can’t imagine a leader not hung up on power” … Uhm, there was this Galilean fellow, you might call him the  leader of a movement, some time back …

izzat ’nuff?

Woo.

1. Yikes.
2. Keep on training.
3. Poetry so bad it has to be read to believed. (refer also to prior feed the beast suggestions).
4. Repugnance.
5. Women and the Greatest Generation (of).
6. Immigration and a 1k mile border fence … but not in the US.
7. Geesh. Please, can we stop listening to/hearing from this moron.
8. I was once in that place.
9. Russian Roulette considered.
10. Uhm. Wrong answer. Sex is determined by XX or XY pairings in chromosomes … you are not “neither” or “both” but one or the other, if you’re human.
11. Hey! Notice. The first quote is by one speaker. The second by others. People of the same party can have different notions and expressing different ideas is not a 180 shift of a viewpoint.
12. Love and the ordinary Puritan.