“Shuttle’s Last Flight Leaves Russia With Space Monopoly”–headline, The Wall Street Journal, July 7
“USSR Wins Space Race as U.S. Shuts Down Shuttle Program”–headline, Onion, July 27
In the end, the U.S. is left to ponder an irony: It won the technological race to develop a space shuttle but lost the war. “You can argue that the Russians were on the right trajectory all along, by flying big, dumb boosters,” said Duke University space historian Alex Roland.
mia_mcdavid and I joined colgaffneyis expedition to Fort William in Thunder Bay, Ontario, for the
Celtic Festival there July 23-24. Continue reading
From
The Norway Massacre: Born of Ideology or Belief? via
From Arne Fjeldstad: Belief? Ideology? Faith?”
It is not required that you have a personal relationship with God or Jesus in order to fight for our Christian cultural heritage and the European way. In many ways, our modern societies and European secularism is a result of European Christendom and the enlightenment. It is therefore essential to understand the difference between a “Christian fundamentalist theocracy” (everything we do not want) and a secular European society based on our Christian cultural heritage (what we do want).
The European cultural heritage, our norms (moral codes and social structures included), our traditions and our modern political systems are based on Christianity – Protestantism, Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and the legacy of the European enlightenment (reason is the primary source and legitimacy for authority).
Being the Big Baboon on Campus is a Stressful Business
In the hardscrabble world of a baboon troop, being the alpha male has its perks: power, food, ample opportunities to woo the ladies. But all that status brings with it a great deal of stress, a new study shows, as the alpha male constantly scrambles to stay atop the social pyramid. The life of a second-in-command beta male — somewhat fewer perks but, the researchers found, a whole lot less stress — is starting to sound like the better deal.
Is Bachmann the media’s anti-Christ?
Yesterday, California became the first state to require gay history in public school textbooks. But Im thinking states might want to consider just focusing on basic history. Yesterdays news cycle was full of stories showing some pretty striking ignorance of the events of the 16th century.
The article links to Bachmanns Former Church says Papacy is Antichrist; Will it Matter?, which is quite entertaining.
How Frequent Fliers Exploit A Government Program To Get Free Trips (NPR)
Linked from News From The Future: Travel Hacking with Failed Government Currency (Make:)
This is perfectly legal. Note the differing titles, and the implied views of government.
Irish Class, July 11, 2011
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Privacy experts praise Google+ rollout so far via Slashdot.
Does this mean Google is “better” than Facebook. Perhaps marginally. However, the fundamentals are the same: These “free” internet services are offered by for-profit companies. Their purpose is to make money for their stockholders, and they are going to do it one way or another. As I posted in in January:
“if you’re not paying for something, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold”.
From In the Dark:
Well, Mr. Frankel, who started this program, began to suffer from the computer disease that anybody who works with computers now knows about. Its a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work The trouble with computers is you *play* with them. They are so wonderful. . Continue reading
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 