This isn’t new, but I’d never seen it before, and figured that many of my readers hadn’t either. The world’s only rotating canal lock. There’s more info at the usual source, of course. It’s a pretty clever design.
Idiot Alert
Over at Reason, the sad tale of a free-loader wannabe:
The group was now “out of food, hadn’t slept in days and were really cold,” and decided, in a grubby version of Dunkirk, to abandon the mission and head back to England. Boyles is disappointed-but not deterred. He is, the BBC reports, planning “to walk around the coast of Britain instead, learning French as he goes, so he can try again next year.” At which point the cycle begins anew, when, upon reaching Baden-Baden, the poor lad will realize that he should have also studied German.
As Wilde said in another context, one would have to have a heart of stone to read this and not laugh out loud.
New Space Blog On The Block
I ran across Parabolic Arc the other day, and added it to the blog roll. It’s run by Doug Marsh, and he seems to post quite a bit.
Unfortunately, though, the color scheme (gray letters on black background) hurts the eyes to read it. I hope he’ll change it.
Not Part Of The Consensus
Bill Gray is predicting global cooling within the next decade. And he’s willing to put money on it.
Of course, as he notes, at his age, he may not be around to find out whether or not he won the bet.
Why We Need To Return To Federalism
Jim Manzi has some thoughts on conservatism, libertarianism, and subsidiarity.
His emphasis on federalism, despite his conservatism, was the biggest thing that I liked about Fred Thompson.
Her Next Career
Iowahawk provides a glimpse of Hillary!’s future in the restaurant business.
Describe Incident(s) (be specific, including time)
At initial clock-in at 3:55 4/21/08, Sharon says Hillary refused to change into uniform skirt, which she said was demeaning, unflattering to legs. Hillary agreed to wear skirt only after lengthy argument between Sharon and Hillary’s attorneys. After numeorous complaints from customers, Hillary allowed to wear pants.
On 4/22/08, Sharon arrived for dinner shift, found restaurant unstaffed. Entire crew was in breakroom, where they said Hillary forced them to attend something called “Sausage Pricing Taskforce.”
Disciplinary Action:
Verbal reprimand; ordered new pantsuit uniform from District 6 Supply (size 18 short)
It gets better, naturally.
Me, Too
Clark Lindsey, in response to NASA’s “rebuttal” of Ares criticism:
Still waiting for a sensible rebuttal to the rumor that the Ares I is a stupendously overpriced way to send people into space in the 21st Century.
[Update a few minutes later]
“Rocket Man” has some more thoughts:
“If we change the approach in architecture of Constellation…we simply won’t ever get off the ground,” King said. So instead of using either the Atlas V or Delta IV rockets, both of which are flying and building statistics, one of which is being man-rated commercially, King claims ARES involves less development risk (ahhhh, we think Atlas and Delta are already developed, Dave), would be about a fifth cheaper (ahhhh, buy Atlas and Delta in quantity and see what happens to the price, Dave), and twice as safe for the astronauts on board (ahhhh, paper is always safer than the real thing, Dave, you know that).
No, the reason for the dissension is not coming from the contractors who lost as the Emperor theorized and King echoed. The reason for the debate is that ARES is no longer heritage hardware being employed as designed and King’s own folks can’t see how to make it work. From the casings, to the fuel mix, to the addition of segments, to the control systems, ARES is brand new from the inside out. The upcoming ARES 1-x test flight is a hoax designed to generate momentum, not to test as-designed hardware. King’s premonition scare tactics (“If we continue to argue over how to accomplish this mission, we run the risk of losing the opportunity to do the work.”) will come to pass, not because of the arguments, but because no one stopped long enough to have the arguments in the first place.
Yup. If this program fails, it will be entirely on the heads of the people who chose this flawed architecture, not its critics.
What’s The Point?
Sarah Pullman is very unhappy with Facebook’s privacy policy.
OK, I got a Facebook account last fall, at the urging of several people, who told me that I simply had to have one (though they could never actually explain why). I’ve yet to figure it out myself. I’ve gotten no discernible benefit from it (of course, I haven’t invested much time in it, either). Can anyone explain to me what the big deal is, and what I’m missing out on if I don’t have an account, or don’t use the one I have?
[Update late morning]
While we’re on the subject, here’s an article on which is better for business: Facebook or LinkedIn?
What’s The Point?
Sarah Pullman is very unhappy with Facebook’s privacy policy.
OK, I got a Facebook account last fall, at the urging of several people, who told me that I simply had to have one (though they could never actually explain why). I’ve yet to figure it out myself. I’ve gotten no discernible benefit from it (of course, I haven’t invested much time in it, either). Can anyone explain to me what the big deal is, and what I’m missing out on if I don’t have an account, or don’t use the one I have?
[Update late morning]
While we’re on the subject, here’s an article on which is better for business: Facebook or LinkedIn?
What’s The Point?
Sarah Pullman is very unhappy with Facebook’s privacy policy.
OK, I got a Facebook account last fall, at the urging of several people, who told me that I simply had to have one (though they could never actually explain why). I’ve yet to figure it out myself. I’ve gotten no discernible benefit from it (of course, I haven’t invested much time in it, either). Can anyone explain to me what the big deal is, and what I’m missing out on if I don’t have an account, or don’t use the one I have?
[Update late morning]
While we’re on the subject, here’s an article on which is better for business: Facebook or LinkedIn?