Bleach

Well, today I picked up the third DVD of Bleach.

This series, like Van Dread, had hype around it that had been fairly off-putting, I'd gotten the impression that it was a Naruto clone and mainly a fight show...neither of which is my cup of tea.

In fact, it is a clever and engaging superhero show, which I did not really expect.

Ichigo Kurosaki would be a normal Japanese high-school student were it not for two things, he is of mixed race and has his late mothers blond hair...which served to get him beaten up throughout his childhood, but has contributed to his being extremely good at fisticuffs...oh and he sees dead people.Like the one behind him in the picture....

Yes Ichigo can see spirits, ghosts, and as he soon discovers other things that exist on the astral plane.
He lives with his 2 sisters and rather stressed out father who runs a small private medical practice. (Dad has not adjusted well to Moms death and although he is a good doctor, and basically decent sort, he is a holy terror of bizarre behavior around the house) Although a bit hotheaded, Ichigo is a remarkably decent fellow with a strong sense of ethics. In fact he is one of the more likable heroes of recent years.




Kurosaki Yuzu is one of his younger sisters.With her light colored hair and sunny demeanor, she seems to take after their late mother. She tries hard to fill in for Mom. She cooks, she cleans, and is generally domestic. She very much hopes someday to be able to see ghosts too....which she thinks would be the "coolest thing!"
Kurosaki Karin Yuzu's fraternal twin sister looks, and acts utterly different. She is fairly dour, in part because she CAN see ghosts....but she says is in denial about it...the whole thing seriously creeps her out. she wants to be normal...but thanks to circumstances, is basically a goth in spite of herself.





Kuchiki Rukia A "shinigami" currently assigned to Japan (shinigami translates as Death God...but in the
English dub it is translated , perhaps wisely, as "soul reaper" ).

She is part of an astral order that deals with problems of the spirit realm. Specifically, she helps the spirits of the dead move onto the next level, (a place called the "soul society") and fights monsters ( "hollows" ) on the astral plane that feed upon the spirits of the dead....and occasionally the living. (Note that although the soul reapers exist in another dimension/plane or whatever...they do most of their work amongst us, but in spirit form...and thus invisible to most people).
Rukia is extremely competent, professional, and dedicated.(Top of her class, all that).
She also claims to be very old and, at the beginning of the show, has the powers of a minor god. Although she does most of her work on earth in spirit form, she has the ability to interact with humans by channeling her spirit into a human looking body she keeps stashed for emergencies in her area of responsibility. (But what is the likelihood that she'd EVER have to do that? )
Rukia is really impressive and likable character. Brave, as well as practical, she is able to think on her feet and adapt to the most dangerous...and ignominious....situations.


Chad A soft spoken giant on the rare occasions he chooses to speak at all, Chad is a classmate of Ichigo...and one of a handful of people Ichigo genuinely admires. He has unbelievable physical strength. However, out of
fear of killing someone (likely well founded...he can break concrete and bend steel) he never fights back...against humans. He is remarkably tough though, as well as idealistic, and physically brave to a fault. Chad chooses to speak so little, that he has a reputation for being a bit "slow". It is a reputation quite undeserved.



Other characters are revealed as the show progresses, but their explanation involves spoilers...



...such as this, which is simply the most awesomest bird EVER!






Of course explaining superhero origins is usually going to involve episode one spoilers...

...with that in mind...

The origin and set up in episode one is as follows.

While pursuing a "hollow" Rukia, the Soul Reaper decides to take a shortcut through Ichigo's room. As she doesn't look like a spirit he decks her thinking she's a burglar. Shocked that he can see her in the spirit plane...and connect, she ties him up (power of minor god...remember) but then must engage what is an uncommonly formidable hollow. Said monstrosity is, in fact, attempting to eat Ichigo and his sisters...presumably attracted by their spectral vision powers.

Unfortunately, the fight does not go well, in part because Ichigo breaks free and attempts to fight the monster, which is far out of his league. In protecting him, Rukia is gravely wounded. Unable to fight, she offers to transfer some of her power to him via a Magical McGuffin spell...so he might have a chance at killing the horror bearing down on them. He accepts, vanquishes the beast (largely by catching it by surprise) and all should be well...

Unfortunately, the spell was botched, he now has ALL of her powers and no real idea how to use them beyond fisticuffs. She has all the arcane combat knowledge in the world....but no powers and thus no ability to get back to her plane of origin.Without her powers she must transfer to her emergency backup body...which we later learn is not a top of the line model as she never really expected to use it.
Ichigo must now fill her role in Japan until whenever, if ever, she gets her powers back. Only she has any knowledge of what our hero must face, and she also has the ability to detect nearby monsters and souls in need of cleansing...thus she naturally enrolls in his school to be near him at all times.

...at which point, things proceed to get complicated.....

The story is moving along well and the characters are quite engaging. I'm watching the dub mostly and the voice acting is above par. In particular former Power Ranger Johnny Yong Bosch who was so good as Vash in Trigun is very believable as Ichigo, and Michelle Ruff pulls off the stoic Rukia quite well.


The first 2 DVD's were quite good and I'm really liking it thus far.

At DVD2 It's 5 out of 6 bricks. :)

Update: fixed some really embarrassing syntax errors and made the post flow a bit better. After watching DVD3, Bleach is still holding steady at 5 Bricks.

Doctor Who Meets the Beatles!!

Hat Tip: Instapundit

Well This is Dumb

The Armenian Genocide was a terrible thing...but it was perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire...which was OVERTHROWN by the Turks.

So naturally...Congress is thinking about condemning Turkey for it and thereby fanning ethnic tensions in one of the more stable and forward looking Muslim nations.

The whole mess explained at Captains Quarters....where Ed Morrisey's wife has just undergone transplant surgery...please drop them some kind words.

Overview Of the Space Access Conference...

Via Rand Simberg, who's posts on the Space access conference I linked to here, comes this really comprehensive overview of the whole enchilada here.

A big thanks to Clark Lindsey for putting it together.

Trust in America....Ye Gullible Fools

Murdoc posts on his tipping point.

This unspeakable sleaze is repulsive to be sure, but it should not really be in any way surprising. Given that the Dems pretty much told everyone they were going to do this, this should not be at all shocking, but in fairness to Murdoc, it still stings.

That many of us (including myself) strongly advocated (and still do) things like Porkbusters , which fed the Dems "culture of corruption" slogans, makes it all the more painful. Pointing out the failings of our own who failed to live up to their promises and ideals is one of the things that I actually like about the Republicans...we are much better at policing our own assholes. We do have standards beyond blind lust for power and given that the Republicans were elected in '94 specifically to deal with pork, sleaze and corruption, the shenanigans of a pork happy Republican Congress bloating the budget with their pet projects and nepotism quite rightly pissed off a lot of us and disillusioned the base.

We demanded that those that carry our standard live up to our standards regards smaller and cleaner government.
We did not stand in lock step with Cunningham, Abramoff, and on a far less sinister noteTubemeister Ted, the Seller of Bridges, we said " this must not stand...this is what the Dems do and we are not them and will not be represented by those who have only power as their goal".

Now, despite what my friend Bob says, this is not perfidy, this is good and proper. It is honest debate and open governance. It is what many of us on the right aspire to. It is also necessary to keep our team relatively clean and relevant...to the extent that is possible in politics. I think that keeping our own teams feat to the fire is an important thing for our side to do and if we cease to do it, then there really won't be much difference between us and the Democrats.

But, there is no doubt we got played this time.

Many of us, even those like me who gave little more than lip service and the occasional signature to the Porkbusters cause, were filled with pride when the media noticed us and began to rail against this. NZ Bear and the rest made a difference! Yay!

Of course it was a ploy.

Thanks to quite justified disgust with a Republican led congress that was presiding over discretionary spending that was swelling like a dead pig in the August sun, the base stayed home. Just enough....the '06 elections were a close run thing...just enough to tip the scales.

Actually, the sheer cynicism and arrogance of the Democrats and their media gophers is astonishing.

In 2006 the NYT was all about the evils of Republican Pork. Now of course, with a majority of congress-critters having "D" behind their name...what was pork is just "pet projects", part of the way good government works.
...earmarks, when dispensed fairly and openly, are an important way of addressing local needs...

Well...that's nice to know....

Porkbusters was able to track pork and embarrass people in part because of the Congressional research office, which for 12 years has been tracking congressional spending and making it available to the public. 12 years...yeah, that sounds like one of those Republican contract with America thingies....well, anyway, they are discontinuing the service now...no need to...the Dems are in charge.

The Democrats have bought congressional bills that are intended to undermine our troops and bring about our defeat. They've done so with with bribes that, as a result of their fiat, are now much harder to track. Of course, like wars and nation building the difference between good and bad or newsworthieness is the presence of a "D" or "R" behind ones name. Yes, Feinstein is in as deep or deeper than Cunningham was....yet hardly a peep about the culture of corruption.

So what the hell does the title of this post have to do with this rant?

Well it's not griping about being held to higher standards than the Dems, for that is as it always is and frankly is as it should be.

It's about the repercussions of what they want to do...this time in the north, where we made and broke promises before and through that realpolitick meddling and fecklessness caused terrible death and suffering.

Wretchard explains.....
If the U.S. leaves early and does not protect the Kurds, it will be the third time in a little more than three decades the ethnic group will have been betrayed by the United States, Qubad Jalal Talabany said during an afternoon sit-down interview with the Herald/Review. Earlier Thursday morning, Talabany spoke to nearly 350 people during the last day of a three-day Training and Doctrine Command Cultural Awareness Summit.

Not much to add to his pithiness...

...except these pictures from another part of the world that we broke promises to left to the tender mercies of our enemies the last time people like this got their way.



Keep in mind that for a lefty of a certain social strata and age....the protests and activism that led both directly and indirectly to the above pictures are hands down their proudest moments. Perhaps because of self image preservation they can make no connection between cause and effect...

Damned harsh, but true.

Well....That COULD Have Gone Worse

Which Middle Earth Race Are You?

Via: Colleen Doran

Well they ARE tropical fish.......

....but damn!

Goldfish living in symbiosis with and in a deep fryer....


I should go on about how this has implications for life in extreme environments, perhaps on other worlds....but mostly I'm just going to sit here with my jaw hanging open.

There's a sci-fi short story in this I'm sure.

It is Important To Remember...

....that no matter how intimidating someone is. They probably look quite silly eating ramen in their pajamas....

(This is of little consolation to those of you that watched a certain tape....but every little bit helps.)

Meanwhile, Over at Pulpjunkie....

Everyones favorite un-dead Peter Lore lookalike does anime, giving capsule reviews of portions 18 animated series and movies, mostly from Japan.

He also continues his movie review project with The Cuckoos. In which our heroic reviewer learns once again that we have indeed come a long way....in many ways.

Go check him out! :)

The Shipyard Problem...

Murdoc touches on something in this post that is extremely important.

The fact that an entity called "Northrop Grumman Newport News" even exists is maybe part of the problem in the first place, but because of the massive slowdown in shipbuilding that's where we are and we need to maintain what we have left.

One of the reasons big government is bad is that in the absence of competition things break down.

This also holds true for private enterprise. We don't have just one shipyard of course, but we have so few that fear that one will go out of business and result in near or total monopoly that there is insufficient sanction available against them for incompetence, overpricing or fraud.

According to Global Security.org ....

As of 2001, there were eight active shipbuilding yards in the United States. Six of those shipyards, referred to as the Big Six, were the primary builders of large U.S. Navy and commercial vessels. Those shipyards are Avondale Industries in New Orleans, Louisiana; Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine; Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut; Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi; National Steel & Shipbuilding Company in San Diego, California; and Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia. In 1998, the Big Six accounted for two-thirds of the industry's total revenue (over $6.7 billion), and performed nearly 90 percent of all military work. Ninety-five percent of the revenues of these shipyards were defense-related. The Big Six also accounted for about 11 percent of the industry's commercial revenues from 1996 to 2000.

By 2005 two companies owned the Big Six shipyards. In 2001, Northrop Grumman purchased Newport News Shipbuilding and Litton Industries, which included the Avondale and Ingalls shipbuilding yards. General Dynamics owns Electric Boat, Bath Iron Works, and National Steel & Shipbuilding Company.

With respect to commercial vessels that must be constructed by a US shipyard under the Jones Act, there are approximately 20 private US shipyards that can accommodate the construction of vessels up to 400 feet in length. Because of the current overcapacity at US shipyards, the current small volume of commercial work available, and the fact that most contracts are awarded on the basis of competitive bidding, price competition is particularly intense. Since 1977, the number of privately owned major shipbuilding yards in the United States has fluctuated between 17 and 32. This includes combined statistics for active shipbuilders and shipyards with build positions. As of 2001 a total of 17 of the shipyards reported on had not constructed a major ocean-going vessel in the previous 2 years.

.....which is more than worrisome.

There is only ONE US shipyard that can make nuclear aircraft carriers, Newport News., which is just another feather in the cap of Northrop Grumman as a result of the massive consolidations of the early to mid 90's. There are only 2 other nuclear capable shipyards, one on each coast and I don't think Pearl Harbor has built anything in a long time.

Most of the shipbuilding capacity is held by two main companies Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics, neither has a good reputation for ethical conduct in defense contracting, partly as a result of the idiotic cost-plus procurement system which is more concerned with how much a percentage profit a company makes than the bottom line.

For example....

If a company can produce a good quality product, cheaper than anyone else and turn a 90% profit....more power to them, but the cost plus system sets a fixed profit margin....requires a legion of (expensive) lawyers and accountants that, in the big two, exceed the total employment of several of the smaller shipyards (one reason they don't do govt contracts). It gets worse. Since the profit margin is fixed this gives as the only way to increase revenues....cost overruns. It's simple math and is largely responsible for spiraling defense costs, but simple math, it seems, is beyond our legislators.

This and the near monopoly environment that has come about in all the heavy industries after the cold war has seriously undermined all aspects of our procurement, not just in shipyards but in EVERYTHING from aviation to vehicles. This is, IMHO, one of the bigger long term problems facing the US military.

Nothing short of getting rid of the idiotic cost plus system and a full on balls-out Teddy Rosevelt style "trust busting" campaign is going to resolve this. But I don't see this happening. The Dems are all about concentration of power, the Republicans did nothing about it when they were in office and the big two have been moving their assets between shipyards to ensure that most of them are fairly non-viable commercially (that is non-diverse, overspecialized)in the event they aere cut loose....this makes good business sense as it reduces redundancy...but it is also, no doubt, insurance against needed reforms.

I'm not optimistic....

Waste Storage Breakthrough?

Over at the Energy Blog there is a post on a new Israeli method of waste disposal that safely deals with radioactive waste.

I'm skeptical, I think something may have been lost in translation. Like some of the commenters there I suspect this is only for very low level waste. It might still be useful in reducing landfill usage and possibly detoxifying some toxins.

Here is the description;

...EER's waste disposal reactor does not harm the environment and leaves no surface water, groundwater, or soil pollution in its wake. The EER reactor combines three processes into one solution: it takes plasma torches to break down the waste; carbon leftovers are gasified and inorganic components are converted to solid waste. The remaining vitrified material is inert and can be cast into molds to produce tiles, blocks or plates for the construction industry.

EER then purifies the gas and with it operates turbines to generate electricity. EER produces energy - 70% of which goes back to power the reactor with a 30% excess which can be sold...

Okay, sounds reasonable except for that part about radioactivity....no plasma torch is going to get rid of that.
...The cost for treating and burying low-radioactive nuclear waste currently stands at about $30,000 per ton. The EER process will cost $3,000 per ton and produce only a 1% per volume solid byproduct....

OK, it reduces the volume significantly, that is a good thing.

Anyway I found it interesting, your milage may vary.

Yay!

The Computer Lab has unblocked Blogger!

I'm happily abusing my computer privileges.

Light Posting

I've got scads of things to do next week so Blogging will be pretty light until at least Friday. Here is a girl in a cheongsam playing pool to tide you over.
Art by Nijiro Zakura.

More on Bussards Fusion Ideas

A while back I linked to the Google video speech given by Robert Bussard regards his research into an avenue started by the UK scientist Doctor Philo Farnsworth.


Here is a good article in Defense News that explains it in layman's terms. It also explains why the project was terminated. The DOE tokamack project employs thousands of scientists and generates huge ammounts of research funding, all under the DOE umbrella. DOE is sure they can get their system to work in 20-30 years or so...so the idea that they would approve 200 million to kill their meal ticket is unlikely.

grrrrr.....

Here is Bussard's new research group, where he's trying to raise money to complete the research.

This could be the story of the century if it pans out.

If it doesn't, 200 million will have told us what doesn't work...and it's only 10 Dirskins anyway.

UPDATE: Heh, It's said that great minds think alike.....but sometimes, for reasons unclear, they think like me...
Jerry Pournelle is also looking at this, he links to this page which includes several documents that might be of interest.

On Rage

Two very good posts, one from Dean Barnett and one from Ed Morrissey on the coarsening of our discourse.


UPDATE: On a more positive note Joe Gandleman notes some touching humanity from Tony Snow. Let me say that I agree with Snow regards the awful Edwards situation.

And when you’re seeing Elizabeth Edwards saying, I’m going to embrace life and I’m going to move forward, that is a wonderful thing, because once you decide that you’re going to embrace life, you become a much better patient. And once you decide that you proceed with a sense of hope and optimism, people are going to rally to your side, and they do- What she is going to do is going to provide a lot of encouragement and example that I think is going to help a lot of people, and that is a truly wonderful thing, and I congratulate her for it.”

Condolances to Elayne Riggs

Condolences to Elayne Riggs, the founder of one of the better ideas in the comic industry,Friends of Lulu has just lost her father to complications from a car accident.

Send condolences please.

Narcissism Disguised as Contrition...

A fantastic and thought provoking post over at Colleen Doran's Blog,
(which deserves to be checked out periodically anyway).

UK SAILORS TO BE TRIED AS SPIES

This is serious.

It is obvious now that this is no longer a trumped up border incident like happened in '04.

This is an act of war against the United Kingdom.

(Note that there are USN and USCG assets in the area doing exactly the same things the British were. Whether we were simply lucky or they specifically chose the UK forces is unknown)

Which begs the question, WTF is Iran thinking?

Some possibilities.

1:They are trying to take advantage of Blair's unpopularity to negotiate with a weak opponent, perhaps on power-sharing in Iraq or a security council vote regards their nuke program.

This strikes me as possible but unwise, I don't pretend to understand the Brits but they tend to rally around provocations like this act of piracy. Thatcher IIRC was not exactly at the top of the polls in 1982 when the Argentinians made a similar assessment of UK will. The Brits are known a stiff upper lip, but their upper cut is far worse.

2:This is actually an initiative by overzealous lower level officers.
This strikes me as unlikely but even if it is true this does not mean that this situation can be easily resolved...The Marco Polo Bridge incident of 1937 was instigated by several low level Japanese officers.....it rather escalated.

3:The Iranians are going for a straight swap for some of their terrorists our guys captured in Iraq.

4: The Iranians are trying to set themselves up at the leaders of the Muslim world. They don't feel the UK or its allies can do permanent harm to Iran given its defenses and geography, thus even if they are hit, they come out saving face and boosting themselves in the eyes of other radical Muslims.

5:They are inviting an attack on their own people. The Iranian people are actually quite pro-western but also very patriotic. The Mullahs may think that they can temper the first item if their people suffer a hail of JDAMs , Storm Shadows and Tomahawks.

Obviously, I have no idea....

Iran is a tough nut, they've gotten huge infusions of air defense missiles from Russia. An air raid on Iran would face far tougher air defenses that the USAF did over Hanoi (the last time a western air force was severely tested).

Iran has a large stock of anti-ship missiles and several very quiet submarines. Between that and mines, if they want to close the straits of Hormuz...the straits are closed, at least for a few weeks. Iran may have a rational goal in mind, but it is playing a game of brinkmanship with the worlds energy supplies and its economy that could easily set up a chain of events reminiscent of 1914.

If this isn't resolved in a week or so, I fear this could get very very bad.

Other views:

Pajamas Media has a lengthy roundup.

Capt Ed asks questions of certain people that will not get answered.

Belmont Club has some thoughts.

UPDATE: Iran wants a swap.

Michal Yon's Latest...

Michael Yon posts a long dispatch for his new readers relating how he came to be in Iraq, the mistakes he's seen, as well as the successes. If you haven't read him before start now, he is one of the absolute best reporters over there. if you have read his stuff be SURE to read this one. It is a very important post and very edifying.

Excerpting can do it no justice and only detract from the many faceted picture he paints. It also links to many of his most important articles.

Read the whole thing.

Update: Huntress reports that he's not just getting picked up by FOX news online, but by NBC as well.
Neither is paying him, he's still quite independent.

Cheap Solar Cells, Weird Space Food, Tricorders and Asteroid Missions

One of the Brickmuppet's crack team of science babes reports on a selection of science stories that is rather small, and which don't really go together all that well ,er, much like her outfit.

On the Solar Power front, Stephen Gordon over at THE SPECULIST reports that the cost of Solar Cells may be about to come way down. This is big especially for people who live in rural areas. With a backup generator and perhaps a windmill this could make off grid living quite practical (south of, say, Pennsylvania). The more people we have off the grid, the more we reduce stress on the existing power net, and the less fuel we consume. The more people we have living self sufficiently the more acceptable true self sufficiency will be and the better chance we have of getting back to the individualist ideals of the old republic...victory! :)

Over at NASA Watch there is a disturbing vision of Astronaut Food. Martha Stewart may yet save the day. (no really)

Science Daily has a story on some researchers who have developed an honest to goodness tricorder! An advanced portable and sensitive mass spectrometer, this has tremendous application in homeland security as well as industrial safety and search and rescue.

Finally, over at the New Scientist is yet more information on the recently mooted NASA plan to visit a near earth asteroid. Despite the greater distance this is in some ways easier than going to the moon because of the much lower gravity of asteroids. It has practical applications as well given the possible future need for asteroid mitigation missions.

Cruithne would seem to be a logical choice, especially if Congress balks at funding for something other than going to the moon....NASA can just go to 'the other one' and keep it legal. ;)

Sub Disaster

Via Murdoc

Thursday the Royal Navy submarine Tireless suffered an explosion of an oxygen generator killing at least two men aboard.

Domes!

I just wasted 20 minutes browsing through the website of the Monolithic Dome Institute.

But it was a cool waste of time. :)

Phil Bowmeister has....THE SECRET!

Heh.

I'm sure Schenectady is involved somehow.

Escheresque

Art to give you vertigo.

See more here.
Buy more here and here.

Hat Tip: Rand Simberg

Prescience

This poem caught my ear tonight, as my friend Bob recited a bit of it to me. I looked it up.
Who, What When?

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will bum,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return.

Answer in the comments.....

Cutting Room Floor?

Could this be missing footage from that A-Ha video from the '80s?

Perhaps not....

Space Access Conference

Rand Simberg has been live blogging the Space Access Conference.

He doesn't have categories so I linked to his posts in order.

Here here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here , here, here, here, here, and his panel is blogged by Clarke Lindsay here.

This looks to have been an interesting conference focusing on actual business plans and such .

More proof that the future is here. :)

Real Life Science Babe Under Attack !

Louise Riofrio, a cosmologist, has been asked to speak at the Imperial College in London on March 29th at the Outstanding Questions for the Standard Cosmological Model conference. She has some interesting and controversial theories. Her most controversial idea seems to be the GM=tc^3 equation which...well it's way beyond my paygrade...but seems to indicate that the speed of light is slowing. Physicists are unsure of what it means but she seems to be onto something. It is at least sparking some discussion and she is rated enough to get invited to the aforementioned conference. So far so good....but wait...there is a campaign to get her uninvited.
From Miss Riofrio's Blog:

From: Don Barry [mailto:don@isc.astro.cornell.edu]
Sent: 19 March 2007 00:51
To: De Nadai-Sowrey, Graziela C
Cc: Simeon Warner
Subject: A crackpot has slipped through your screens..

Dear organizers,

I notice that you have given a slot to Louise Riofrio in one of your
oral
sessions in your upcoming conference.. She's listed in your
"Participants"
section as affiliated with James Cook University, Queensland. A simple
search
will reveal that JCU/Queensland does not list her in any capacity.

She's been a frequent crackpot pest trying to post papers on the
Cornell
Arxiv
server. If you take a look at her blog,
http://riofriospacetime.blogspot.com/,
all should become clear. It's actually rather hilarious in spots.

In any event, you may get some comic relief as people become somewhat
glass-eyed on the last day of a conference.

Cheers,

Don Barry,
Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph Team,
Cornell University

Oookay. I'm not a physicist, I'm an undergraduate oceanography major so for all I know, she might be a crackpot, but she has some interesting ideas and was invited to give her viewpoint. In the above E-mail Mr. Barry indicates that she is not affiliated a JCU Queensland at all, but according to her blog her records got hacked. She is listed as affiliated with James Cook U in this lecture program and here as well as in these two abstracts from the Harvard Website. It would seem that Mr. Barry is wrong.

Indeed, Mr. Barry, it seems is quite a piece of work, according to his astronomy dept bio...he is a Chomskyite Marxist Leninist
OTOH he does use a slide rule which is way cool.....but can't really compensate for his moonbattery.

I'm still wondering what his bio has to do with astronomy.
More on the mad on Louise Riofrio gives certain scientists here. She may well be wrong, science, especially very hard to observe things like these is a LEARNING and EXPLORING experiment but she seems to at least be asking the right questions, not trying to ignore or silence the questions of others.

*********************************************************
OK bear with me as I have a tangentially related political digression for a moment. Feel free to scroll past...

Given the observable, objective failures of large scale Leftism in bringing about prosperity since people really began experimenting with it during and after the French Revolution, why do many scientists, who are, in theory, all about observing cause and effect, still adhere to this.

In spite of all the evidence of history, the above mentioned moonbat scientist at Cornell is an adherent to a philosophy that killed a comparable number of people in the last 80 years to those that were killed by all the religious wars in Europe and the Levant in the last thousand. He extols an economic plan that has never worked absent US subsidies or huge infusions of cash from local resources (see Norway) , one that really doesn't work well at its best and is absolutely catastrophic at its worst.

He is not an aberration.
Whiskey tango foxtrot?

I dunno, I have 3 theories.
1: A university by necessity, is essentially a socialist, bureaucratic structure with a big implicitly Malthusian component (research monies). Thus to operate in that system one must understand and apreciate the system. Being totally in the system at all times doesn't help.

2:To get to the highest levels of academia often requires that one spends ones entire careerer in a university environment so there is, ironically for such learned people, a certain amount of provincialism that informs their viewpoint.

3:Peer pressure. The left is very good about punishing heretics, if one does not extol politically correct viewpoints one does not get invited to the cool parties. More importantly, one might not get tenure, so there may be an subtle but active weeding of more dynamic viewpoints.

I don't think that things are quite as bad as some suggest, but I think it it does influence scientific debate. Global warming is a case study...
Global warming is happening
There likely IS an anthropogenic component.
But given that the whole solar system is also warming should we go whole hog into Kyoto, despite the fact that it gives a pass to non western polluters (some of the worst in fact).
Kyoto is an egalitarian socialist dream, it punishes the evil west and in particular the hated USA, It uses bureaucratic machinations to put the sort of centralized planning in place that has pretty much been a bust previously, but now is presented as an emergency earth saving measure.

Now I don't want to continue the transcendentally stupid experiment of deffacating in the atmosphere with tons of pollution every year and see what new wretched things happen, but the sort of dynamic "boing boingy:)" solutions, that are more likely to generate long term solutions than a top down statist approach. In the near term, nuclear power, small scale solar where practical and biofuels to the extent they don't egregiously displace food crops perhaps assisted with gene modified crops are a good bet.

Of course the first and last of my near term items are double-plus-ungood to the left...and therein lies the rub.

The semi-religious nature of leftism is not in any way conducive to open debate and inquiry the attempt to shut up L. Rofinio is symptomatic of this. *

*********************************************************
Anyway, my own wingnuttery aside, Those of us at Brickmuppet Blog (and, of course, the Brickmuppet's Crack team of Science Babes) wish the Babe in the Universe a successful speech received in the spirit of open mindedness and intelligent discourse. In the unlikely event she is a crank utterly without merit then she will make an ass of herself as certain IDiots did and her theories can be put to rest. If upon careful analysis her theories do not quite pan out, then eliminating them or perhaps modifying them will narrow down our search for the truth in this area and thereby expand our body of knowledge. If she's right then she certainly deserves not to be silenced, not just for her career but the good of mankind.
There are no real arguments for not hearing such an august individual, save the jealous rantings and cybermischief of an angry passive aggressive quidnunc.

*I don't mean to suggest in any way that Leftism is a religion:
Religion is the belief in that which cannot be proven or disproven...Leftism is the belief in the demonstrably false.

Right Way....Wrong Way

Click on mysterious Machine Gun Loli for full effect.
Thanks to the Duck Gawd of the Munuvians for the Gunslinger Girl macro.

One of THOSE Weeks...Banality Blogging follows.

UPS decided not to pay me last week.
Actually "decided" is likely too strong a word but the result was the same. I got the issue resolved today.

As it was a drill weekend I stayed at my folks house, which is walking distance from the CG base. I had one of the busiest drill weekends I've had in a long time. Between that and issues with the parents cats which managed to invert their cat box, I ended up going straight to work Monday morning and then got out of work so late I missed Japanese class.

I got called in early Tuesday...and was quite incoherent in class...and had to go to class without the benefit of a shower, so I was basically playing the role of the old retarded guy who can't bathe himself...although I have an extension on my bill 'till the end of next month, I have a lock on my account which keeps me out of the school gym.

I missed Japanese class Wednesday too for the same reason (getting out of work late).

I got my first speeding ticket in 10 years on the way to class Thursday. This means I can't fill in as a temp driver at UPS for a year.

My GI bill benefits were denied which doubles the amount I have to pay to the school that closes it's library at 5pm on Saturdays. Given that my tuition assistance was denied this does well and truly suck.

The computer lab at school blocked Blogger....but not AIM...go figure.

On the interstate, I took a rock in the windshield.

For some months now I've had a medical bill bouncing back and forth between the orthopedist and the insurance company. Tuesday, I got the statement from the insurance company....~90 dollars. No biggie, I'll pay that posthaste...of course I also got a letter from the orthopedist that they had sent it to collection.
@#$%!
If I can't work this out, this will be a problem for my credit rating which I've been trying to build back up after all the no-pay/reserve-call-up followed by 4 months with no work fiasco coupled with hellacious medical bills in '05.

The state sent me a bill for about a grand in unpaid taxes from 2005.
This is bunk as I not only paid taxes, but I owed additional taxes (which I paid). I still have the W2s, the filled out tax forms and check stub....this will be easy to resolve but is time consuming. It is also the third time this has happened. I wonder if the Dept. of Revenue isn't just trying to double dip...bastards.

Some considerate person blocked me in at school and I had to back the pickup of peril out through a mudpuddle between some construction debris, a lightpole and a fence. I snagged a protruding piece of rebar and bent my front bumper all to hell.

OTOH, given the general condition of the truck, I don't think anyone will notice.

The water at my trailer was off as of Thursday. This is not uncommon as they are replacing a lot of the waterlines in the trailer park, but it is aggravating. In related trailer news I was recently informed that the whole park is going to a month to month lease. There have been rumors that the park may be sold or eminent domained into oblivion....A nearby trailer park has already been bulldozed and turned into an office park. This as I'm just getting into the home stretch on the 2 year long repairs following the waterheater bursting.

Wednesday the book I ordered (and paid for) in January for the paper that was due at the end of February finally arrived....

Amazingly, despite only making Japanese class 3 days this week (well 2, the teacher was out today) my workload has increased as I furiously try to catch up. I have 2 papers due in Chinese History class.

The small, one serving, bags of popcorn do not require 3 minutes in my microwave. I'm not sure how long they require but 3 minutes + a small bag of Food Lion popcorn= fiery smoke alarm activating drama.

I'm at a friends comic shop doing a few chores for him and abusing his high speed speed internet.

Which is depressing right now.

There will be blogging soon, but now I've been up just over 24 hours....I'm going to sleep.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Water on Mars!

Lots of it!

If we can get past the oxidizing dust issues, Mars may well be a viable homestead! :)

HT. Instapundit

Another Long Post On Iraq

Jerry Pournelle posts on the situation in Iraq in response to an E-mail that, amongst other things brings up the silly "Bush Lied" meme...

To deal with the last paragraph first, don't be silly. Everyone thought Saddam had WMD. Even his own generals thought it. The French thought so. The Russians thought so. The CIA thought so. MI 6 thought so. Of course they could all have been that wrong. Saddam wanted them to believe it; he needed to be seen to have WMD for his own purposes.

As to why we are in Iraq, the President is a Jacobin as are most of the intellectuals in the United States. He truly believes that democracy is the only legitimate form of government, and that all people truly long for democracy and freedom. Most of the intellectuals DO NOT beleive that but they PRETEND TO BELIEVE IT and about half the time they have convinced themselves they believe it; but for the most part the neo-con chicken hawks wanted the war for a whole bunch of reasons unrelated to US interests.

Understand: if Iraq could have been converted into a reasonable democracy, or even into a simile of Jordan, it would have been good for the United States, and very good for the Middle East. A multi-cultural democracy in Mesopotamia would be a wonderful thing. That was the goal, and had we achieved that goal the President and the neo-con chicken hawks would -- rightly -- be exalted as public benefactors.

No doubt there were people in the neo-con advisory circle who had ulterior motives; but most of them, and certainly the President, really believed that we have the military power to bring about democracy in Iraq. There really were people who believed the "End of History" nonsense that floated around in academia around the time of the Gulf War. Certainly the President wanted to put right the ghastly mistake of his father: encouraging revolts against Saddam then leaving the rebels hung out to dry. Wouldn't you? And certainly our military success in the Gulf War made many think it would be a cakewalk to Baghdad -- after all, it was -- and since few intellectuals study any history why would they not believe that conquest works, and pacification works? Saddam pacified Iraq. If he could do that, why can't we?

I think you do not appreciate the ability for self-deception among the neo-con chicken hawks.

General Colin Powell tried to warn them. He believe the intelligence reports of WMD -- Saddam was damned good at that deception -- but even then he had misgivings about regime change. He understood how brutal one must be to govern without the consent of the governed, and as an American of African origin he understood better than most just how difficult multi-cultural democracies are to establish. Powell, I am sure, went along with the invasion somewhat reluctantly because he feared Saddam with WMD. He had his misgivings about it, but he was on the team.

I understand his dilemma. Like Powell I was opposed to the invasion of Iraq for reasons I gave at the time, and those included my conviction that we could win the war but not the peace: but once we sent in the troops, what could we do but stay out of the way? It was the wrong war for the wrong objectives begun on the wrong theory and in disregard of history. But if it failed, Powell was damned if the failure would be his fault. So was I. What other course could an honorable man take?....snip

Emphasis mine:
Unlike Dr. Pournelle, I did not oppose the war and still think that an good ethical and strategic argument can certainly be made for it, both on humanitarian grounds as well as the realpolitick reasons I chose to embolden in the quote. Given what was known at the time the argument IMHO was stronger still.

Dr. Pournelle's warnings were, however, certainly prescient as were those of Secretary Powell and many other conservatives (and let us be quite clear, despite the Orwellian rantings of David Frum Pournelle IS a conservative....and hell of a lot more credentialed one than Frum himself ).

In fact the only people who were right about the aftermath were conservatives...the left opposed the war for reasons mainly revolving around the "R" behind the Presidents name and was quite inconsistent with their worldview as their enthusiasm for getting us involved in a petrodollar financed race war in the Sudan shows.

That the warnings of Pournelle and others were not heeded and acted upon because of faulty intelligence or poor preparation is a tragedy, but it is also water under the bridge. We cannot change the past but must deal with it's consequences...the current mess in the middle east is largely a result of the machinations of France and Britain after World War One, with the complicity of witless Wilson.

We did not start this fire but it will likely burn us if we don't take steps to put it out. In Iraq we are trying to fight fire with fire.

I don't think that the aftermath of war is yet lost, though the perception of its hopelessness may yet prove self fulfilling and that would be a great tragedy, for if we can make Iraq in to any sort of bulwark against the retrograde pathologies that are currently such a strong force in the Muslim world we will have done not only a useful and strategically sound thing, but a damned good thing.

The troops who continue to re-enlist there certainly think we can and must pursue this, for one of the results of this situation is that we have befriended and made promises to people...people who are fighting some of the most malignant evils on the planet and people who will come to a VERY bad end should we abandon them.

...and despite their fitful and infuriating starts in trying to get things going, despite the setbacks and the calls by many to just let them sink or swim as they are so "obviously" not trying and not worth our time....They are taking steps that many of their detractors here would balk at.

In this country there are people who take umbrage at being asked to show ID to prove they are not voting twice.
Over there, despite the fact that the jihadists target those who move beyond the 8th century, people went out and dipped their fingers in ink to identify themselves as having voted. This made then targets . Women voted to stave off the 8th century forces that would reduce them to chattle. Those on the Left who crow loudest for us to abandon these people like to sneer at any in this country that are lockstep with their world view. They look down on those of us in flyover country with the utter disdain of those who smugly consider themselves to be the true humanist progressives and friends of women's rights. If they cannot bring themselves draw a line here, against this they are neither, just cynical opportunists, or perhaps Chambelainesque cowards.
These are people we have made a promise to, people who we pulled the rug out from under once. This war is neither lost nor won. It is in the balance and it is going to be a close run thing for a very long time. There were many principled reasons to avoid this war. As we are there, those reasons are moot. The Libertarian right were right about the cost in blood and treasure, but to cut our losses now and abandon these brave people to this wicked evil after we propped them up and gave them hope is one of the cruelest and most vile pranks imaginable, almost sociopathic in its callousness, and would seem to affirm the worst, over the top, stereoptypes of the Randian Libertarian smugly looking down his nose at the flood victim who didn't have the good sense to put his house on stilts or be somewhere else. If this Libertarians have done anything it has been to convince me I'm not a Libertarian....( Hamilton was more my cup of tea anyway) . As long as the men and women on the ground believe there is a chance to win this fight we are morally and ethically obligated to try. To leave now would be well and truly wrong.
Here Via Defense Tech is an interesting interview with Pamela Hess on what she saw. No water carrier for the administration she gives 9 minutes of perspective on what we are fighting.



Greyhawk says it well here.

I do not suggest we fight all the worlds demons. If blood and treasure do not, the world wide "gratitude" we have reaped from our efforts in Mesapotamia should remind us of that folly, which in the long term is likely a healthy lesson to learn.

However, promises must be kept.

This long war is being fought on many fronts. Iraq is the most visible of them. To stop the spreading malignancy so entrenched in that part of the world requires our being seen as a strong horse and not a bug light. If we can make Iraq safe from becoming another Afghanistan, we will have done ourselves and the world a tremendous service...and dealt the forces of 8th century jihad a severe blow. We will also have kept our promises and saved many people we swore to protect from hell on earth.

To walk away now would be the a great crime in and of itself..

The Miracle of Voice Activated Vista

Hah!

Thanks Astro!

NASCAR on Ice....

Via Murdoc via Michiblogger comes this cool video of a race between an iceboat and a Chevy on Lake St Clair in the '30s. :)

In Defense of Catgirls

A message to Francis Fukyama....


When you oppose genetic research, chimeric investigations and human cloning you are trying to prevent catgirls from even being born.


Dude...you suck!

ahem....
Catgirls aside, this luddism is terribly counterproductive and antihumanistic...and I say this as someone who has reservations about utterly unfettered abortions. The reason those leave me uneasy is a concern for the life involved.....I have equal concern for those suffering from debilitating diseases, some of whom are friends of mine. Opposing this sort of research seriously stymies attempts to improve the quality and length of peoples lives. It is utterly incompatible with a concern for human rights and defining human life broadly and valuing it as much as possible. It is also not in keeping with a conservative interpretation of the Constitution, which is, in theory, is one of the 3 raison d'etres of the conservative movement...though many of the confused Johnny come latelies to our side of the aisle seem to be quite unclear on this point.

On a tangentially related note, this article in National Geographic reinforces the utter wrongness of Fukyama's argument, but something about it is bothering me. It postulates that interspecies trysts are more important to evolution than previously thought. I don't recommend actively testing this hypothesis though there are certainly furverts and Washingtonians who are trying...in vain I might add....as no amount of doing it with a horse is going to produce a centaur.

The article is interesting but I'm not sure about it's nomenclature...
If two "species" interbreed and produce a true breeding offspring (as opposed to a mule) then, as I understand it, they aren't actually separate species. For example, the Red Wolf is apparently a true breeding hybrid of the Grey Wolf and Coyote...but dogs are...DOGS and can pretty much interbreed with all dogs (mechanical difficulties between mastiffs and chihuahuas notwithstanding). The recent discovery of the Pizzly Bear is another case in point....though it's unclear if that animal was a mule or not.

This seems to be talking about combining genes from divergent points on the bell curve of a species genetic drift...or am I missing some secret thing that is kept from us lowly undergraduates?

Note:Here at Brickmuppet Blog we have nothing at all against miscegenation and indeed heartily endorse it.

Deceivingly cute .gif is from the ethically dubious UFO Princess Valkyrie which is seriously not my cup of tea...but which you can purchase here if you so desire.

Light Posting

A few posts in draft form need polishing but this is a tough week at school as I have a report and a drill weeekend upcoming. I set up another blog with which to embarass myself fiddling with Japanese here. Anyway, look at the pretty Angel. Will be back ASAP.

If anyone know the source or artist of my screensaver....please post it in the comments.

Regards Last Weeks Battlestar Galactica...

テスト （Test)

私はブロガに日本語でかきます。

Kolchack, Chicken Eating Cows and Serbian Vampires....

...all tied together nicely in this Reason post.

Waaugh!!

Via E-mail I received this link.....

Yes...a Hello Kitty Airline!

Some quick Googling revealed that Rojacks is in fact correct, EVA air is a Taiwanese airline affiliated with Evergreen lines. In fact their new Hello Kitty look just won them a "Best Livery" award.

I don't even want to think of how uncomfortable an Eva version of Hello Kitty makes me.

When I get on an airplane the last thing I want is a Gainax ending....

US Army Issues PDW Requirement

Anthony Williams reports here (in his forum)that the US Army has issued a requirement for a new personal defense weapon.

A report in today's Jane's Defence Weekly quotes Brigadier General Mark Brown, the head of the US Army's 'Programme Exectuve Office - Soldier' and commanding general of the Natick Soldier Centre in Massachusetts, as saying that the US Army is looking to acquire a new personal defence weapon: a compact, medium-powered firearm for issue to vehicle crews.

He stated that the new weapon will be "larger than a pistol and smaller than a carbine" and would be employed by personnel not primarily engaged in infantry combat. He said: "When you get all your soldiers geared up in an uparmoured Humvee, there's not a lot of room".


As Mr. Williams says..."This one should be interesting".

A Bushmaster Armpistol would, in theory, seem to fit the bill fine. This weapon always intrigued me with its interesting solution to the ambidexterity problem. In the forum however several points against it are brought up. I think the sighting issue could be dealt with by an ACOG or SuSAT type sight, but the weirdness might be a hindrance.
On to more conventional solutions....all hypothetical as I have NO idea what the army is going to get...
There was a 6mm round and associated weapon discussed over at ACE a while back. Here is the companies ad brochure.
...and a write-up at Security Arms...

...which also mentions the SAAB PDW, another interesting weapon given its 6.5mm round. Which can, with a barrel swap fire 9x19mm NATO as well.
Given the short ranges involved and the need for the rather elusive quality of "stopping power", might a PDW be effective if chambered for one of the more powerful pistol rounds? There have been instances of the M1 Carbine chambered for .44 Magnum or .45 Win-mag. I wonder how practical a Hezi chambered for that or .357mag rather than .30 carbine would be?

I could speculate for pages, but someone named "thatguy96" on the above linked forum just posted this helpful link of PDW Pr0n. :)

UPDATE:Welcome Murdoc Online, Airborne Combat Engineer, and Defense Tech readers!
I've added a link to Mr. Williams actual post on this subject, as the link originally just went to his home page. I've looked for a second source on this hopefully with more info, but only the dead tree issue of Jane's Defense Weekly quoted above has turned up thus far.

Regards the rather scatter-shot selection of PDW's and ideas in this post, I don't have any idea what characteristics the US Army is looking at. For instance, if they want something easily carried in a holster then something like the MP7 rather than the P90 would be in the cards. ACE likes the idea of a 5.56 pistol, several of which are on the civilian market including the Kel-Tec model he mentions , which has a good reputation. I'm skeptical that the 5.56 round, which already has lethality issues when fired from short length carbines would really work, though, it WOULD simplify logistics to use the same round. Such a solution, however, might not be any worse than the .22 and .17 caliber rounds in the Belgian and German weapons.Both these rounds, despite their iffy stopping power, DO have very good penetration which is likely to be quite important as body armor increases in distribution....already an issue in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 6mm from Knights Armament looks good but has performance perhaps too close to a 5.56 NATO to warrant adopting a new round....it is also too long to fit in a pistol grip I believe.


Of the alternatives alrady in full production, the P-90 and MP7 would seem most likely. The P-90 is in service with several armies and police forces and FN has a good relationship...perhaps too good....with US Army ordinance. It's 5.7mm round has gotten mixed reviews but seems to have done well if fired against an armored foe. I don't know anything about the MP7 round except that it fires a 4.6mm (~17 caliber)bullet. I also do not know if the MP7 could be re-chambered for the more powerful and more common FN 5.7 round of the P90, though in the comments to this post Pete Zaitcev says that it is likely adaptable to other calibers due to its gas operation.