But Is It Art?
I don’t know why, but I like this. If I were independently wealthy, I could see myself doing quirky things like this.
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Back Soon From Mars
I really, really should have visited Iceland before we started writing a novel set on Mars. If Texas is like a whole other country, Iceland is like a whole other not-quite-fully-terraformed planet.
Finally back in Reykjavik after a week’s trek through the hinterlands north of Eyjafjallajokull and two weeks of camping throughout the rest of the country. I’ll have more Mars-related material over the next couple of weeks, as I sort through about 24GB of photographs and 48GB or more of HD video.
Happy Independence Day!
Better later in the day than never. Regrettably, I didn’t have much time today to do any celebrating (though I took care of that at a barbecue last night, from which we could see fireworks in several directions as if it were already The Day), being busy with deck construction and such.
And since I don’t have time for anything original today, I’ll link to a post from 2006 wherein I revisit the 1976 Bicentennial exhibitions at Kennedy Space Center…which I actually visited for real just a couple days before the Bicentennial day proper.
Pennsylvania Tax Ad Parody: Healthcare Food Police
The gals at WhoSaidYouSaid.com have turned the creepy Pennsylvania tax ad into an equally disturbing parody.
Violent, Hate-Filled, Racist Rhetoric at the Denver Tax Day Tea Party
Well, actually, at the left/”Progressive” counterprotest.
STS-131 Launch
In Florida today to watch the STS-131 launch, which went off without a hitch this morning. More later, but I need a nap, and then I have to drive back to Orlando for the return flight to Denver. Video now added below (at least, one little clip – I’ll try to add more later).
More on Eyjafjallajokull – Video of Eruption
One of the local newspapers, Morgunblaðið, has some good video of the eruption at Eyjafjallajokull, taken apparently from the nearby Fimmvörðuháls Pass.
Old Media vs. New Media
A simple illustration of the difference between old media and new media:
The camera on the left was used by C-SPAN to tape (on a separate tape deck and 8″ CRT) the appearance by Ambassador Paul Bremer at the recent Leadership Program of the Rockies annual retreat. In regular definition. For later uploading to the DC headquarters for editing and broadcast.
The camera on the right is a consumer camcorder, which we at People’s Press Collective use to broadcast events like last week’s Congressional District 4 Debate live to the internet. In high definition. And did I mention we do it live?
“Non-Smoking, Please”
I guess someone must have missed the lesson of the Hindenburg: Giant hydrogen airships could herald a new era in luxury travel
Image: Seymourpowell/PA
Set aside the obvious problems with floating bags of hydrogen large enough to lift nearly 400 tons of payload over major cities, and their obvious appeal as terrorist targets, and the fact that obtaining that much hydrogen would not be as green as the creators imagine.
I want to know how they’re packaging this monster.
The windows at the lower apex suggest most if not all of the accommodations are there…which makes sense, since you want the mass on the bottom (think Weebles). But what about the hydrogen cells? Is an octahedron with concave sides really the best way to package large volumes of gas that want to assume a spherical shape? Oh sure, the thing could be fitted with conformal cells, but how structurally efficient would all of this be compared with other, less eye-appealing shapes?
On the other hand, I do like the rendering of tethered airships against the backdrop of Hong Kong – it makes me think of the floating cities from the Ringworld books.
[hat tip: JB]
The Scott Heard Round the World
Despite my relief at the Scott Brown victory, I’m going to be a voice of sobriety here: important though it may prove to be, this is one victory.
One.
Brown’s win may or may not derail the nationalization of healthcare, depending on whether Obama, Pelosi, and Reid “double down” in an all-out push to ram through their abominable bill with procedural tricks, but it could very well do so. But keep in mind that first, it should never *ever* have gotten this close in Congress, and second, the future is still balanced on a knife’s edge, even with a 59-41 Senate.
I’ve heard today’s victory called “the Scott heard ’round the world” – but like the events of Lexington and Concord this needs to be the first step towards reining in the statists and restoring our liberty, and not mistaken by those in the grassroots who helped to make it happen as the arrival at that still-distant destination. Much work remains, what with caucuses, primaries, and midterm elections coming up, and aside from boosting the confidence of the grassroots in its efficacy in influencing major elections, this victory in Massachusetts does nothing to change that fact in other states.
Republicans, too, should avoid drawing the wrong lessons from this win – it was not an embrace of Republican policies or Republican leadership, it was for many a rejection of creeping socialism, fiscal irresponsibility, and government power-grabs in favor of liberty, and a repudiation of arrogant but clueless elitists endowed with an sense of entitlement to political office…all of which the Republicans have themselves been guilty lately. The GOP still needs to acknowledge these failings and its responsbility if it expects to rebuild the public trust, and would be wise to articulate a positive, pro-liberty platform for rolling back the nanny state rather than simply restraining the pace of its growth.
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