Who Would Give Up First?

Boris Johnson says that it’s time for England to reconquer France (“reconquer”? Is he referring to Waterloo?).

A couple months ago, I’d have thought it a trivial exercise, what with the several reverse speeds on the French tanks and all, but with the wimpy performance by the Royal Navy in the Shatt al Arab and the ensuing response from Whitehall, it’s not clear who would win the rush to surrender.

A Middle Ground?

Eugene Volokh (who I’m given to understand has a pretty tight pattern at the range) asks “why not at least arm the professors who want to be“? The argument is, as usual, comprehensive.

[Update a few minutes later]

Best comment so far: “You really want to arm Ward Churchill?”

[Update at 3:45 PM EDT]

Another amusing comment:

In order to reflect the hierarchy of faculty, there would have to be stratification:

Assistant Professors get muzzle-loaders

Associate Professors get semi-automatics

Full Professors get automatics

Adjuncts get a sharp letter-opener

Chaired Professors are irrelevant, since they never come to campus

Treating Greg Olsen

Greg Olsen, the private sector’s number three astronaut gave some remarks to welcome the space investors and entrepreneurs to the Space Investment Summit along with Buzz Aldrin on Monday. He said, “I live in Princeton. Everyone knows everyone in Princeton. I went out to dinner and the owner of the restaurant said, ‘You’re that astronaut guy.’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Let me give you this bottle of wine!’ I was feeling pretty good about myself until my girl friend said, ‘If you were Buzz Aldrin, he would pay for your whole dinner.'”

Olsen was not there as an investor. His current investment fancies are energy related. We shared a cab after the event broke up. There was a bunch of road construction near the Ritz where Boeing had hosted the welcome. I asked him, “Which is rougher, a Soyuz flight or a New York City cab ride?” His answer: “Both.”

I asked him if he got a tax deduction on the flight from doing experiments. “No.”

We were both going to different Jean George’s, but Olsen tried to convince me that they had only one location in New York. It seems Olsen can still be surprised.

I explained to him that I’d spent more money than the cost a suborbital flight trying to bring space to everyone. And that Space Shot’s Latin motto, Astrae Popularetis, means, “You’ll see the Stars belong to the People.” I got off first and he said, “Don’t worry about the cab fare.” I said, “After that story you told, you have to let me pay.” I gave the cabbie $20 and said, “Driver, I want to treat this man to a cab ride!” If he was Buzz Aldrin, we would have taken a limo.

Baseball Blogging

From a world class pitcher. That’s what I call disintermediation, and it’s pretty cool, but I suspect that not all baseball players are articulate enough to do this. And as Joe Katzman points out, the jealousy of the sports writers, and this comment, are pretty amusing.

On a side note, I watched the Tigers blow a game against the Royals yesterday. They’re doing pretty well so far this year, but they can’t give up tying runs in the ninth, and then lose it in the tenth, and get back to the series. Especially against the cellar team in their division.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!