Minesweeper, the movie.
[Via Geekpress]
News That’s Not News
At least at the New York Times. Or if it was “fit to print,” they buried it pretty well.
“US Military Deaths In Iraq Lowest In Fourteen Months.”
Guess it doesn’t fit the template. Or help the Defeatocrats.
[Update in the afternoon]
It’s not just the military deaths that are dropping.
I should note, for anti-war loons. I don’t actually put that much stock in these kinds of statistics, for reasons I mentioned in comments–they don’t actually necessarily presage the future. I simply point them out to those who are so eager to leap on them when they think that they tell the false narrative that they want told.
[Update in mid afternoon]
For those who are into this kind of numerology, here is a lot more analysis by John Wixted.
News That’s Not News
At least at the New York Times. Or if it was “fit to print,” they buried it pretty well.
“US Military Deaths In Iraq Lowest In Fourteen Months.”
Guess it doesn’t fit the template. Or help the Defeatocrats.
[Update in the afternoon]
It’s not just the military deaths that are dropping.
I should note, for anti-war loons. I don’t actually put that much stock in these kinds of statistics, for reasons I mentioned in comments–they don’t actually necessarily presage the future. I simply point them out to those who are so eager to leap on them when they think that they tell the false narrative that they want told.
[Update in mid afternoon]
For those who are into this kind of numerology, here is a lot more analysis by John Wixted.
News That’s Not News
At least at the New York Times. Or if it was “fit to print,” they buried it pretty well.
“US Military Deaths In Iraq Lowest In Fourteen Months.”
Guess it doesn’t fit the template. Or help the Defeatocrats.
[Update in the afternoon]
It’s not just the military deaths that are dropping.
I should note, for anti-war loons. I don’t actually put that much stock in these kinds of statistics, for reasons I mentioned in comments–they don’t actually necessarily presage the future. I simply point them out to those who are so eager to leap on them when they think that they tell the false narrative that they want told.
[Update in mid afternoon]
For those who are into this kind of numerology, here is a lot more analysis by John Wixted.
Not “Fear,” But Anger
I agree with Ron Rosenbaum:
I just don
Not “Fear,” But Anger
I agree with Ron Rosenbaum:
I just don
Not “Fear,” But Anger
I agree with Ron Rosenbaum:
I just don
Killing The Planet
By driving a Prius.
Boy, these indulgences just aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
Another Reason To Like Fred
He’s mentioning the unmentionable, and questioning the notion of citizenship as a birthright.
I think that this is a long overdue discussion (and I’ve thought that for decades, long before the immigration controversy heated up). But in order to discuss it, we have to have a discussion about what citizenship means.
In my opinion, citizenship of this nation is something that should have to be earned, even for those born here (I think that Heinlein was on to something with Starship Troopers, though I don’t necessarily agree that only military service would convey the privilege). But I won’t make the opponents of illegal immigration happy when I also state that I don’t think that one should have to be a citizen to live and work here (and for those born to American citizens, there would be no obvious place to which to deport them, even if they don’t earn citizenship). I think that non-citizens on US soil should enjoy most of the constitutional rights currently accruing to citizens.
Here’s what I don’t think they should get. They shouldn’t be able to vote. They shouldn’t be entitled to welfare benefits. They shouldn’t be entitled to public schooling (though, of course, I don’t think that that’s something that should be inflicted on citizens, either). They could live, and work, and spend their entire lives here, and even bear children, but they shouldn’t be allowed a franchise to be a parasite on the rest of society. And if they work hard, and pay taxes, and/or volunteer for public service of some kind, they should be granted a route to citizenship.
I in fact would rather have as a citizen someone who was willing to walk across miles of desert to be here, than someone born here who thinks that the world owes him a living as a result of that accident of fate.
Note, while I haven’t fleshed this out completely, it’s quite conceivable that I might come up with criteria by which I myself wouldn’t currently be eligible for citizenship. If so, though, because I consider my American citizenship of great value, if that were the case, I would do what I could personally to rectify the situation as soon as possible.
Talking Turkey About Human Spaceflight
On Friday, Russell Prechtl and George Whitesides respond to Steven Weinberg’s dissing of spaceflight in pursuit of science.
To sum up: Space settlement for species preservation, spinoffs, human spirit and human nature.
What are these worth? Depending on how long before the extinction event it could be anywhere from all of Earth’s discounted GDP to nearly nothing for species preservation assurance. If an extinction event is 1 in 26 million per year we can take our chances and still have an expectation of 99.99999% of our GDP next year. Spinoffs is weak. Human spirit is hard to quantify. How is ISS doing more for human spirit than Skylab or Mir? Human nature is more of a restatement of the human spirit argument that it is human nature to seek to raise the human spirit. But how? It’s not enough when someone says “ISS is worthless” to say “but if we don’t learn to live in space we’ll die!” We can learn to live in space with or without the ISS; what’s the difference?
I’m planning to take Steven Weinberg to lunch and see what he says to these arguments later this week. Let me know if there’s anything else I should ask him.