Jim Treacher: We are the vermin we’ve been waiting for.
As far as I know, the only precedent in presidential politics is the buffoonish antics of Lyndon LaRouche followers. And I don’t think even he ever put out a “LaRouche Action Wire.” Probably because he didn’t think of it first. Not to mention that he’s never had a chance in hell of winning.
Where is the outrage?
I’ve long thought that the resolution of most digital cameras has reached the point at which it’s overkill, and there are a lot of other improvements that the camera needs. Unfortunately, the marketing people at Canon don’t agree:
Canon engineers are being held back from developing new sensor technology by marketing departments in a “race for megapixels”, claims an employee of the Japanese photography company.
The employee told Tech Digest that Canon have the technology to “blow the competition away” in terms of image sensors, but are instead being asked to focus on headline figures like the number of megapixels a camera has. When asked for his opinion on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which we covered this morning, the employee said:
“I am hugely disappointed because once again Canon engineers are dictated by their marketing department and had to keep up with the megapixel race. They have the technology to blow the competition away by adapting the new 50D sensor tech in a full frame format and just easing off a little on the megapixels. Although no formal testing has been done on the new model yet, judging by the spec and technology used, it just seems to be as good or as bad as the competition – not beating them by a mile (which we used to).”
I’d rather have more speed and better S/N ratio myself.
There’s an amusing discussion of this, and the perennial war between marketing and engineering, including examples from Dilbert, over at Free Republic.
Joe Biden says that the financial crisis was caused by the Bush tax (rate) cuts.
Does someone besides Joe Biden want to explain that one to me?
At least he didn’t blame Global Warming.
This is great. I love the accents, but I think they’re Minnesota, not Alaska (though they’re closely related).
Of course, the anonymous wanker in comments who is always crying “Pants On Fire” will take it seriously.
The McCain campaign should get with some of the Abe’s List folks in Hollywood (like Dennis Miller) and work up some material. Then get SNL to have Palin as a guest where she can do impressions of Tina Fey.
NASA Spaceflight has an interesting report on the status of the study.
It sounds about right to me. Retire Atlantis and make it a parts queen or a launch-on-need vehicle, and fly the other two vehicles once each per year. But at that low a flight rate, I wonder if the processing teams lose their “edge” and start to screw up? There’s an optimal flight rate for both cost and safety. Too fast and you make mistakes because of the rush, but too slow, and you get out of practice. And of course each flight would cost over two billion bucks, assuming that it costs four billion a year to keep the program going.
And as noted numerous times in the past, this doesn’t solve the problem of leaving US crew on the station. They still need a lifeboat of some sort. They discuss this as a “COTS-D Minus”:
…several companies have noted the ability to make available a lifeboat vehicle from 2012 (names and details currently embargoed due to ongoing discussions).
Clearly, one of those companies has to be SpaceX.
But this idea seems to never die:
‘There is some interest now in developing this (RCO) into a full mission capability, thus enabling unmanned shuttles to launch, dock to ISS, undock and land in 2011 and beyond.’
‘While that’s an interesting idea and would be a fun development project, we are working to understand the level of effort the program desires for this study.’
It’s not an “interesting idea.” It’s a monumentally dumb idea. There is little point in flying Shuttle without crew. The ability to fly crew is its primary feature. It’s far too expensive to operate to act as a cargo vehicle. If the point of the idea is to not risk crew, then we have no business in space.
That was the essence of an inadvertently hilarious (anonymous, natch) comment about Obama in this post.
To me, that’s like Helen Thomas saying “don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.”
Crude has fallen below $90/barrel. That’s from a peak of almost a hundred fifty.
Of course, this will be no surprise to regular readers.
[Afternoon update]
Apropo some of the comments, here’s a promising new technology for getting oil from shale and tar sands. I don’t see a price per barrel, though.
That’s what John McCain is. One of the reasons it’s hard to get enthused about him. I suspect that Palin might be a little better.
[Update a while later]
Both presidential candidates are completely economically incoherent.
No surprise, since they’re both economic ignorami. Though in Obama’s case it’s worse, because he thinks that he understands economics, and much of what he knows for damned sure is wrong.
This is the Beltway/MSM definition of a “compromise”: giving the Dems everything they want.
I hope that John McCain (or even Sarah Palin) urge Bush to veto the sham energy bill, and explain why.