General

HTML Problems

Not here, as far as I know, but I’ve noticed over the last few weeks that some blogs are coming up totally FUBAR in Mozilla (Firebird .7), though they appear OK in Explorer. I’m not sure, but I think they’re all blogspot sites. Here’s an example (one that’s a regular read for me).

I don’t have the time or the inclination to dig through the source to figure out what the problem is, but if anyone else is interested, they might want to tell the site owners, so that they’ll be more accessible to the rest of the non-Microsoft universe. The problem seems to start right after the words “Advertise on the world’s biggest nanoblog!” which makes me suspect that there’s a blogads problem.

[Update on Wednesday morning]

I just checked Nanobot again, and it’s OK this morning.

<shrug>

Space

Avast, Me Hearties

I haven’t had time to read it, but the Cap’n of the Clueless has what looks like an interesting post on warfare in space.

I’ve always found it a little ironic that in Star Trek, and most other science fiction, the model of the interplanetary/interstellar military is the navy. That makes sense, because we generally, or at least popularly, think of spaceships rather than spaceplanes, and the relatively slow maneuvers and docking, and indeed the nature of outer space itself, make the ocean a much more apt analogy than the air.

Yet in this current time-space continuum, the Pentagon has assigned space to the Air Force, and they’ve made notably little progress with it. I suspect that once we solve the earth-to-orbit problem, and the atmosphere becomes a temporary hindrance on the way to the rest of the universe, that the naval model will in fact prevail.

Space

X-Prize Progress

Leonard David has a good roundup of X-Prize progress.

Last month, the X Prize rocketship race garnered the support and participation of the Champ Car World Series — an organization steeped in checker flag competitions of open-wheel speedsters around the globe. The seven-figure sponsorship includes having the Champ Car World Series logo placed on all X Prize vehicles. The series will also be the primary corporate sponsor of the X Prize flights…

…”I find it interesting that everyone says the X Prize expires at the end of the year when in actual fact the

Political Commentary

Too Compassionate

Glenn wonders why Bush hasn’t fired Tenet. Me, too. Of course, if I’d been president, I’d have replaced him before 911, along with a lot of other Clinton holdovers.

I think that it’s one of his weaknesses–he barely seems capable of firing anybody. The only ones that I can think of that he has are Paul O’Neill, and Jay Garner.

Anyway, if Woodward is correct on this, and Tenet really did convince Bush that Iraqi WMD was a “slam dunk,” what does that do to the credibility of the “Bush lied, people died” crowd, or those who bellow about him “betraying the country”? Not that they ever had much to begin with, of course.

War Commentary

What A Shame

Some people in Hamas think that it might be hard to carry out their blustering threats when their leaders are picked off almost as fast as they can name them.

“The Islamic and Arab world … expected the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas resistance movement combatants to take revenge for the bloodshed of martyr Sheikh Ahmed Yassin immediately,” he told the agency. “But [they] are unaware of the limitations and [the] amount of pressure imposed against the Palestinian combatants.”

Isn’t it a shame to disappoint “the Islamic and Arab world”? Not to mention their apologists in the west, who assure us daily that Israel’s tactics will just create more terrorism?

And this was interesting as well:

A leading Arab expert on Palestinian militant movements said in an interview that Hamas also might be deterred by the fear that a large-scale attack inside Israel would provoke Israel to kill Mr. Arafat

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!