Nuclear Iran

Iran developing the nuclear bomb is an issue that hasn't gotten a lot of attention lately. I'm sure the Irannians appreciate this. Here's a decent article on the topic.
Given that trying to inhibit technological advance is not a strategy that's likely to be succesful in the long term, what should we do? I suggest that we need to start ramping up development on technologies to identify nuclear materials. Such technology could be put to two uses. It would be nice to be able to detect a nuclear warhead through any kind of shielding that a terrorist might employ in trying to gain entrance to the US (or other country for that matter). Also useful would be the ability to identify the origin of a warhead. It seems reasonable that any fissible material should be tracable to the plant it was produced at (possibly via unique trace impurities). Then, if a warhead was ever detected in the US (or more happily, detected as it was trying to gain entry), we could tell the source of the fissible material that they will destroy the offending plant now or we will send a gigaton of our warheads to do the job (in case it's buried under Mt. Everest). Ideally we would figure out a way to identify the warheads and characterize plants via satellite. I'm sure that's quite a bit of science fiction right now, hence the need to get hopping. While I'm making out a wish list, a neutron momentum damping field would be good to have also.

Kelo

State sanctioned thievery or the right thing for the people?
From an anonymous instapundit reader, "the three pillars of prosperity for emerging nations are free markets, rule of law, and private property rights. We just got busted down to third world status."
An NYT opinion piece. To some extent, it does look like some people are setting up a straw man. The question is, how slippery is the slope down which the straw man is being pushed? (oh yeah... tied that metaphor mix together like a boat to the pier holmes) The first answer which comes to mind; the slope is as slippery as the dirty money with which some real estate developers will grease it. Slightly less cynically, all SCOTUS did was tell the states that a commercial development can still be for the public good if it is part of a larger plan to benefit the community.
Here is the decision.
A choice quote from the SCOTUS opinion written by Justice Stevens, "Indeed, while many state courts in the mid-19th century endorsed "use by the public" as the proper definition of public use, that narrow view steadily eroded over time." Isn't it ironic... don't you think?
An interesting side note on this issue is that conservative opinion sources have been pretty consistant in their opposition to corporate interests at the expense of the rights of the people. Put that in your stereotype pipe and smoke it (unless it's medicinal pot ;) ).

Bwahahahahaha

This is sweet. The Atlas Shrugged adds a nice touch. I wonder if it will actually work?

Cryosleep, Sweet!

Slashdot links to an austrailian story about US scientists...
who in the name of awesomness froze a dog and brought it back to life with "no brain damage."
Seriously though, if this technique is perfected (it's been in the works for a while now) it would be a powerful tool in trauma medicine. ...Just got shot though the heart eh? Well if you can hold on for a couple minutes we'll get access to a major artery and freeze you, then no more damage will occur. When we get to the hospital, we'll surically repair the holes and thaw you out. Should be good as new in a few weeks.
Also, cryosleep would make manned travel to other star systems feasible. The only other technical barrier I can think of is that we don't yet AFAIK have the ability to identify a planet which could support human life. Once we found the planet and could get there alive, pioneers from 300 years ago might even be better than us at colonizing it, technology or no technology.

This is a pretty crappy way

to enter the record books. Most times hit-by-pitch!

"Rove-a-Dope"

Instapundit has a nice summary of the recent Karl Rove comment kerfuffle. It seems Karl Rove really is an evil genius. Hahahahahahahahahaha!

Seriously, this is what Rush Limbaugh does. He just tells the truth about liberals, and they get all angry about it.

Top movie quote

AFI's top 100 movie quotes lists "Gone with the Wind" quote as number one. My personal favorite from the list is #36, although as a chemical engineer I'm kinda partial to #42. Although a certain movie is conspicuously missing from the list - I guess an entire movie can't be quoted though. This is my favorite quote from that movie:

"You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair, that they made the Jews wear."

Rabid Dems off the deep end

Via LGF, Dems are staging mock impeachment hearings, and the resulting chaos and random accusations (Blame the Jews!) are almost comical, until you realize that these represent the party's base. I hope average Democrats eschew this sort of behavior.

As much as I think Howard Dean is a maniacal buffoon, though, I give him credit for rejecting the anti-Semitism undercurrent that plagues his party's base, just as was illustrated in this episode.

Too legit to certify

I suppose. I actually find it kind of amusing how the AP reports this news as if it were authentic...

Iranians voted Friday in a high-stakes election

What I wonder is; this is high stakes for whom exactly? I'm sure the hand picked winner is sure sweating it out.

Triumph on Star Wars

Mmm, infotainment...
Ok, there's no info part.

More Reuters "Reporting"

LGF links to this Reuters editorial masking as "journalism". This is the wire service that used to put scare quotes around the word terrorist when used to describe captured al Qaeda operatives - just lovely.

Judicial Buggery?

The Kansas State Supreme Court doesn't think that the Kansas Legislature is following the Kansas Constitution because the legislature didn't increase school funding by enough. As such, the KSC has ordered the legislature to redo the budget. Ordered? I guess it's a matter of how the Kansas State Constitution is written as to whether the courts can order the legislature to make law a certain way. Seems unlikely though. Then again, the courts aren't really pretending that dictating law is an enumerated power for them. Based on action in other states, it looks like the courts just blackmail the legislature by threatening to order the schools not to open. Unless I'm missing something here I can't quite seem to wrap my head around the arogance.
Don't get me wrong, I think public schools need all the help they can get. I'm just not sure judicial blackmail is the right technique for helping.

Defend America, Become American

I think this idea deserves more exposure. It seems to me that there are two main arguments against the idea of non-citizens joining the US Armed Forces.
Argument one is that non-citizens won't have enough motivation to fight for our country. The first refutation of argument one is that the Army doesn't recruit based on a wish to fight for your country (now days) anyway. Recruitment advertisements tout education, training and awesomeness ("Army of One", Marine climbing cliff face). Those who want to fight for their country (and the ideals which America stands for) will enlist anyway. The rest (who enlist for other reasons) are taught the motivation that they need. Armies have been teaching motivation for a long time, they're rather good at it. The second refutation of argument one is that the non-citizens will have further personal motivation than citizen enlisties. An Army "job" may not pay near as well as a civilian job in America, but compare it to most other countries. In addition, I would expect that the recruit and his/her family would become eligible for base housing. So you get a payrate that you probably couldn't touch otherwise and safety/security for your family. Sounds like pretty good motivation for me.
Argument two is that non-citizen recruitment would make it much easier for enemy agents to infiltrate our Army. I find this argument to be the more persuasive of the two. There would no doubt have to be intense vetting and psychological evaluation of non-citizen recruits. There would have to be limits on what positions can be filled with non-citizens. Conveniently enough, the Army is really good at classifying and distributing its personnel. Maybe all non-citizens get to go through Marine bootcamp. Better yet, double length bootcamp with absolutely no outside contact. That should weed out all but the most dedicated infiltrators and give us plenty of time to evalute them. Do they keep pulling out a picture of their family for motivation? Or do they keep pulling out a picture of Osama? At the end of the day, I would be willing to trust the judgment of our military leadership (and only our military leadership) as to whether they could work out the security issues.

Legal Guide for Bloggers

Found this via the instapundit.

More Conservative Snobbery

Arrrgh. It really, really irks me when conservatives do this sort of thing. A few months ago I tagged the EO as a "conservative intellectual snob", primarily for his disdain of market-competitive conservative talk radio in favor of taxpayer-(unwillingly)funded NPR. Now, Peggy Noonan does the same, and deserves the same tag, for her column on PBS - lines like these really annoy the crap out of me:

Art and science and history. That's where PBS's programming should be. And Americans would not resent funding it. [Like hell they won't - I know I do.]

...and [PBS] should remember its reason for being: to do what the networks cannot do or will not do, and that somebody should do.

Uh, Peggy, you sound exactly like a blue-state intellectual liberal snob when you make remarks like that. PBS should do what the networks won't do, but somebody "should" do? Who decides what that is? Oh, that's right, the superior intellects of eastern seaboard erudites. Can't let those backwoods hicks in Kansas decide for themselves how their money should be spent.

Skynet Coming Soon

Thanks to the stellar engineering reputation of France, the Isrealis are teaming up with the French to create a tatical drone with advanced air-to-ground missiles. In other news, the Japanese are teaming up with the French to design Son of Concorde. Son of Concorde is suppose to be capable of mach 5. The killer drone is to be displayed at this year's Paris Air Show. The mach 5 jetliner will probably take a bit, uh, longer to produce. Both stories via Gizmodo.

Good Reference Site

Since we're all engineering geeks here, this site seems to be a pretty good reference site for general information of practical engineering interest. I found it while trying to remember the relationship between bulk modulus and the speed of sound in a material.

Science of Gender and Science

This transcript of a debate is a worthy read if you're at all interested in the whole gender inequallity in top flight science and math positions thing. One of the things which makes it a great debate (although it would more accurately be described as a long discussion of one side followed by a long discussion of the other followed by a little debate) is that the participants stay entirely on topic. Pinker and Spelke appear to be friends, so there's no ad hominem tactics. On one side is the idea that more men are better at high power math because men are better at a few specific problem solving techniques (women being better at other techniques). Those techniques techniques turn out to be the ones which geniuses often use to solve really hard problems (spacial visualization and manipulation). In addition, men have more variance in their statistical distribution. The interesting evidence here was an intelligence test taken by the entire population of Scotland. The very highest scores were like 90% men. The very lowest scores were also like 90% men. The other side is that just because men are better at a few specific techniques doesn't mean that men are better at science and math in general. There is no way to tease out the cultural bias, of men being better than women at science and math, from the data of overall perfomace (as measured by career acomplishments). Therefore, you can't conclude being better at those techniques is what makes men more sucessful in science and math. The interesting study here is that academic faculty were like 4 times more likely to hire a so-so candidate, based on the candidate's c.v., if the c.v. carried a male name (I always try and keep in mind with these kinds of studies that the funding of the researcher(s) is probably dependent on them continuing to find discrimination against women (i.e. the bias of academia towards finding discimination taints a study like this in the same way that the bias of society towards a man being better at hard science taints a study which says that being good at mental spacial manipulation leads to skill in hard science (still with me?))).

Kosovo

This music video, done by some Norwegian soldiers stationed in Kosovo, is awesome. Via Tigerhawk.

Germany

An interesting article on the growing popularity of neo-Nazism amoung German youth. America may have it's problems, but the KKK is hardly on the rise. To be fair to the German government, they do recognize neo-Nazism as a problem and take steps to squish it. The NPD (party of neo-Nazis) rhetoric is tragically funny in that they have condensed a whole load of dumbness. To paraphrase, the jewish puppetmasters are causing the Euro-American imperialists to destroy third world countries. The residents of those countries then flee and threaten the identity of Europe as the "continent of the white man." I couldn't make this stuff up.

Holy Crap!

Michael Jackson is not guilty! And, I don't really give a crap! I don't watch cable news anyway!

One reason to like Live8

I'm not a big fan of rock stars engaging in moral preening, but if it allows Pink Floyd to reunite, then it might be worth it.

There is just too much

in this photo to mock.....that my brain is going into a meltdown.

Helpful British

Then again, why subject any American states to a little disintegrate the traditional family experiment when England has done it for us.
"Meanwhile, married couples with children no longer get preferential tax treatment, as Tony Blair's government has declared that no one form of "family" should have a tax advantage over another. Anything anyone chooses, however temporarily, to regard as a "family" is as good as any other."
Is one of the main arguments for preserving the traditional definition of marriage a slippery slope argument? Sure, but when you have a view of what lies farther down the slope (as well as evidence that the slope is slippery), the slippery slope case gains credibility.

Kinder, Gentler Jesse Helms

Jesse Helms is about to publish an autobiography. I admire the old man a bit more now, especially since he is acknowledging his wrongness on AIDS. I'm not a big fan of the 'judgment of God' view on AIDS - I mean, we're Christians and we should care when others are hurting, even if they may have brought it upon themselves. That said, I think that Bush is doing plenty to fight this scourge, despite what the critics may say. If anything, AIDS probably gets disproportionate amounts of government disease research. Well, that's my feeling anyway, I should probably get solid numbers to back it up. Regardless, an AIDS prevention pill or cure will probably come from the private sector anyway.

His views on race are the most interesting. Helms was constantly tarred as an old segregationist racist by the Revuhrennnnnn and his ilk. It seems he was more of the Goldwater school of race relations, more libertarian-"government-can't-make-people-like-each-other" in his approach. I think MLK and the civil rights heroes (many of them Republicans) deserve their credit for their nonviolent approach, but using the courts to impose unconstitutional laws, such as Brown v. Board of Education, was a bad way to finish it. People will change if their consciences demand it.

The Post Techie Conservative

I'd caught the Howard Dean said all Republicans are white christians part earlier, the context makes it even more entertaining. Incidently, in his interview on the Today show this morning, Dean said that the large percentage of hispanics who voted Bush don't invalidate his point because they want the same things as the white christians.

"Many Republicans probably voted for George Bush dozens, if not hundreds, of times in 2004, according to Democrat party Chairman Howard Dean, "by taking advantage of the fact that Democrat poll workers have difficulty distinguishing individuals from among a crowd of white Christians."

"Thanks to their pale skin, round eyes and khaki trousers, Republicans just blend in," said Mr. Dean. "So they vote, get in the back of the line and vote again. And because they've never made an honest living in their lives, they could do that all day long.""

Smart Jewish People

Marginally interesting study. I mostly just like this quote:
"It would be hard to overstate how politically incorrect this paper is..."
As the quote goes on to say, the idea put forth by the study is perfectly reasonable and well explained. Yet it's "politically incorrect" because it suggests that some people groups are inherently smarter than others. So to those who don't want to believe that intelligence is (in part) genetic, which do you not believe in: that human babies have DNA from their parents? that the brain develops based on the instructions in the babie's DNA? If you believe the latter please explain where to information to construct the brain comes from.
I guess it just bugs me when people lable something which is obviously factually correct as "politically incorrect."
What would be politically incorrect is to suggest that someone's ability to contribute to society is proportionate only to their intelligence. I'd rather employ (were I in such a position) a hard working guy of average intelligence than a smart slacker. The screaming moonbats seem to be unable to make this distinction though, so they just battle against the idea that intelligence is at all genetic.

Richardson Starts Campaign

Governor Richardson continues to campaign in his bid for the White House in 2008. On a totally and completely unrelated note, Richardson's administration is buying a new $5.5 million corporate jet. I'm sure Richardson wouldn't even think of using that new jet to fly to campaign destinations. There will no doubt be a perfectly good reason (in terms of the wellbeing of the state of New Mexico) for the good governor to go to every location to which he takes the new jet. In a way that's probably even true as Richarson no doubt has political allies in NM who he would pay back if he became president. Possibly resulting in extra funds for various state p...p...p...pork, i mean projects. So maybe I shouldn't be too upset that my state taxes will help support Richardson for president.

Forrester Wins

the GOP gubernatorial primary here in Jersey. Well, I did what I could for Schundler. Boy, this race will be something to get excited about - Democrat vs. Democrat-lite! At least I can say that I voted in my first primary now.

Clarence Thomas

is the most principled originalist on the Supreme Court (via Instapundit). With the talk of Rehnquists' eventual retirement, I had favored Scalia for Chief Justice, primarily because I knew a lot about him and knew him to be an extremely witty originalist. However, he sacrifices his principles in this case and the dissenting Thomas does not. When Rehnquist retires, Pres. Bush should nominate Clarence Thomas to be Chief Justice.
Update: Even Kos agrees with this analysis (well, except for the whole elevate Thomas to Chief part, I'm sure). I'm sad to say, Scalia certainly does look like a partisan hack on this issue - although I'll have to read his opinion to make that statement with certainty.

Soutwest Airlines supports gay marriage?

Not really. That's just what I was afraid I was going to find when I saw this on their frontpage:
"Help repeal the Wright Amendment and Set Love Free! Visit setlovefree.com for more details. "
Not that I know of any marriage amendment called the Wright Amendment, but I thought maybe I'd just not been paying attention.

Where's the UN?

A Kofi Annan interview by Katie Couric was on Today (not GMA, disregard my misnaming of morning TV shows) this morning. Why didn't she ask him about a UN response to this? Oh yeah, the UN can't even keep it's own "peacekeepers" from raping the populace.
It really makes me sick to see just how much the rest of the world doesn't care.
Incidently, Kofi's goal for his reign as Secretary-General is that the UN will be a little better than when he got there. Cough. Cough.

Enemies abound

"[The Grey Lady] revealed the use of aircraft charter companies by the CIA and other intelligence agencies, together with specific aircraft markings, bases, routes, and other information helpful to identification of such flights."
"If the authors were just publishing their article to get a chance at a Pulitzer, I really have no moral quarrel with them at all, any more than I would have with a crocodile that eats a child or a raccoon that raids my larder. However, if they do have a moral identity as human beings, they should know that, if a certain civilian plane comes down over an unnamed Middle Eastern country, and all the US personnel aboard are killed, there is one compatriot who will regard them as murderers. May they think of this as they look in the mirror."

Just thought I would point this issue out. The quoted article can be found on the website who's name Jonah doesn't care for and where the Instapundit occasionally contributes. I don't intend to make it any easier to find the actual info which could get Americans killed. Yes, yes, I know that this blog is unlikely to be read by any badguys. But just in case.

Bwahahahahaha

was my reaction to this story - seems that Bush actually had a higher average than Kerry at Yale! He actually only got one D during his college years, while Kerry got five. But the funniest thing about this story is the Lurch-like photo of Kerry. Also funny: one of his highest freshman grades came in French class.

Update: Evidently the blogosphere was waaaaay ahead on this story.

Worse than Watergate

With the media waxing nostalgic on their bringing down a popular president (because of the recent revelation of Deep Throat's identity) NRO posts a column noting LBJ's far greater abuses of power that somehow the media failed to report on.

I've never been a huge fan of Nixon, who based on my knowledge ran a pretty liberal administration, but I think he's gotten a bad rap in history based on Watergate. Ben Stein's column defending Nixon I think goes a bit over the top - he makes valid points, but saying Nixon lied for peace is a bit of a stretch. I think Nixon lied to preserve his hide more than anything, which is exactly the same crime a certain recent president (who his hypocritical cronies in Congress helped to preserve) committed.

One more quick historical fact - remember the real reason that Nixon was brought down in Watergate. He was an unapologetic anticommunist, defeating House and Senate candidates from the Democratic party by exposing their Commie sympathies. His ultimate crime, however, was his dogged pursuit of the case against Alger Hiss, everyone's favorite Commie spy. Read Whittaker Chamber's Witness for a gripping narrative of this account. Nixon, Chambers, and all who participated in this case were ultimately vindicated by the Venona cables which unbelievably some idiotic leftists still refuse to believe provides sufficient proof.

And the right shall reign supreme

A Wired article and Instapundit entry about the idea that the Information Age has been driven by left brain skills (add, subtract) while the coming Conceptual Age will be driven by right brain skills (art, come up with new proof method). The basic premise is that all the left brain stuff will either be outsourced or done by machines. I don't think things are quite as cut and dry as the book (idea is from this book) presents. I would suggest that America has risen in the Information Age because of a combination of left brain technical ability and right brain type innovation. I don't think we are going to see a wholesale paradigm shift away from the Information Age anytime soon. If those who care about such things decide to lable a new age, it will probably be the Nano Age or the Bio Age.
Maybe this book is just a bit ahead of it's time. Once we can make anything we want via molecular assembly, be anything we want via bioengineering, and solve any problem with quantum computers, then maybe productive humanity will start to shift more toward touchy feely right brain stuff. Until then, there's a whole lot more information to be extracted from the Information Age.

It's True

the rumors are true about Apple-Intel. Sorry Vetes, looks like IBM's down. At least my coworkers will hopefully getting a little boost in their stock (currently down). I wonder how long it will be until Bill Gates absorbs Apple completely into the Wintel Leviathan?

Sheets may be gone

Michelle Malkin links to some folks buzzing about a close race in '06 that may remove "Sheets" Byrd from office. I'm torn! I love having this embarrassment to the Democrats around (do you realize how much fun it is to tell my lib friends that their party has the only former Klan member in Congress?) but I would sooooooooo love to see this loony old racist be sent "gently into that good night". Plus it would give us one more senator to break the filibuster.

Our legislature at work

It seems that the Real ID Act was attached to an emergency military spending bill. So we now have federally mandated national ID cards (within three years). Note that you won't actually have to carry a new card becasue each states' drivers license will have to meet the new standard. Also, all the states' databases will be linked together.

There are good arguments for the national ID card and national database. There are also good arguments against the card and database. Had there been a seperate congressional vote on the topic, these pros and cons could have been debated.

Zimbabwe

More analysis on why thugocracies are bad. Money quote:
"Mugabe is the poor man's Pol Pot. And like Pol Pot, he is getting help and support from people in the West who will later pretend not to know what was going on."

I'm not sure whether I agree with Glenn's solution or not. I can't think of any better solution at this point. It's just that there is something unsettling about the sequence. Western world withdraws "benevolent" rule of country. Thugocracy takes over and burnonates the countryside. Western world gives guns to locals in hopes they will solve their own problems.

I've only thought a little about the problem, but I don't think just airdropping Glocks is the best solutions. I'm thinking that if we're going to do anything of the sort, we should give the people guns, training in use of the guns, and as much if not more training in classically liberal ideology. The hope being that if the people do get control of their country, they will be able to do something useful with it. Also, they would hopefully be less likely to later try and kill us with the skills we gave them.

The Mighty Weasel Bus is Delayed

The gargantuan A380 weasel-transport-device is being delayed - the problem is with a weasel factory in Germany. This is all they can come up with to compete with us? This and the floating display of weasel might? Really, do we have anything to worry about?

Finally

Microsoft to get rid of "My" prefix. I used to rename My Computer to Computer on any PC I regularly used. The "My" always seemed overly cute and dumb. I would also either deleted the My Documents shortcut from the desktop or at least move it from its topmost rightmost throne of positional importance. It just seemed dumb that we should have one directory where all personal files should go no matter what type they are or what program they're from.

Vive le France

On the heels of the French 'non' vote comes the Dutch vote, and it looks like the Dutch will reject the constitution as well, according to this story from the London Times. However, what I found most interesting in this story is this, regarding the new French PM:

M de Villepin, whose heroes are Napoleon and Charles de Gaulle, is a staunch nationalist whose views are mostly anathema to Britain.

As Foreign Minister, he fought passionately to stop Britain and the US going to war in Iraq. He champions the state-led French social model over “Anglo-Saxon” economics.

So, a "staunch nationalist" who champions the "state-led French social model"? Sounds like someone familiar in history, who rose to power sometime in the '30s......oh yeah, except he was a staunch nationalist who championed the state-led German social model.

New Member of Krugman Truth Squad

Paul Krugman is getting ripped by the departing Public Editor of the NYT. Sweet! I haven't run across Prof. Krugman on campus yet, but if I ever do, it may be difficult to keep from heckling.