Orthodox Jews are getting involved in the Intelligent Design debate. And in my own neighborhood.
Desperate For Attention
One of the dozen or so people to protest Tookie Williams’ execution in Denver was Ward Churchill. Which reminds me–what’s the status of the investigation into the plagiarism and other charges against him?
Hmmmm…according to Wikipedia (for whatever that’s worth), the investigation is still ongoing.
And on the subject of the late Mr. Williams, how is that the Hollywood types are so consistent at being on the wrong side of almost every issue?
[Update a few minutes later]
Ahhh…we must have done the right thing–we’ve upset the Europeans…
[Update after noon]
Iowahawk has discovered one of Tookie’s unpublished children’s stories.
Firefox Question
I like the new version 1.5 overall (particularly the feature that opens a new window when I click on a URL in Eudora, instead of changing the last window viewed, which was what it did before, and the ability to move tabs), but one thing drives me crazy about it (as it did in previous versions).
When I download a file from a site, it automatically puts it on my desktop. It doesn’t offer any other options. I think I can go in and change the default to some other location, but I don’t want a single default location–I want to specify at the time of download where I want it to go. Does anyone know if this is possible, and that there’s something I’m missing?
A Culture Of Corruption
That’s become Nancy Pelosi’s latest catch phrase about the administration and the Republicans, but Rich Lowry says it’s true.
Of course, I don’t think that it’s any worse than it was when the Dems were running the Hill. But we’ve come to (or at least we used to) expect better of Republicans. He’s right–they need to clean up their act before someone does it for them.
Oh, and while we’re on the subject, for those who nonsensically persist in thinking that I’m a conservative, or a Republican, or even a great fan of George Bush, just because I don’t believe that he’s a retarded Chimpy McHalliburton, I agree with Andrew Roth, who has a list of grievances.
The problem is, as it was in last year’s election, that as unhappy as I am with this administration and Congress, there’s no reason to think that putting Democrats in charge would improve any of the things that I’m unhappy about, and most of their rhetoric and policy statements lead me to think that it would make most of them even worse.
Happy Anniversary
It’s been two years since Saddam was pulled out of his rat hole. And the trial continues.
Questions For Neal Stephenson
From Slashdot readers. He has answers.
[Via Fred Kiesche]
[Update a couple minutes later]
I just realize in reading it that this is an old piece (from over a year ago), that I’d previously linked. Oh, well. It’s still a good read for any who haven’t read it.
To Engineer Is Human
Professor Henry Petroski has written many interesting books and essays on the art and limitations of engineering. Nick Schulz has a fascinating interview with him.
Watching COTS
In my opinion, the most important thing that NASA is doing right now, in terms of ultimately opening up space for the rest of us, is their first tentative steps toward procuring commercial orbital services. Michael Mealing seems to agree, and has set up a new blog to monitor progress, or lack of it. I’m adding it to the space blogroll.
[Update at 9:20 AM EST]
Michael Belfiore has some industry reaction to the announcement.
Short answer–t/Space is pleased.
Where Are The Anti-Nuke Protestors?
Jeff Foust notes that there’s surprisingly little opposition to the RTGs in the upcoming New Horizons Mission (with some interesting discussion in his comments section).
I think that his take is right–back in 1997, when Cassini launched, loony leftists didn’t have a lot of better things to do, but now they’re so consumed with the war and George Bush that they don’t have the time or energy to focus on non-issues like this. As I pointed out in comments over there, when even perennial loony tune Bruce Gagnon doesn’t have time to organize anything against it, no one else will, either.
[Update a few minutes later]
Thomas James (Bruce’s occasional nemesis) has more New Horizons info.
France Is Evil
Of course, by the standards described by Nick Schulz, so are many of our own government policies (such as sugar subsidies), despite platitudes to the contrary.