Campus CCW

No, not me (at least not open carry, yet).

Here is FIRE’s latest video on the subject of helping students get their First Amendments rights restored to talk about their Second Amendment rights.

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense | Leave a comment

Bad News

In regards to this post from yesterday, I am saddened to have to announce that this is NOT the closing shot from the new sparkly vampire movie.

1277302384621.jpg

Posted in Kewel! | 2 Comments

Items Big and Bigger

Big:

“Sea Monster” fossil found in Peru desert

Researchers scanning the Peruvian desert for whale fossils have stumbled upon the remains of a “sea monster” three times the size of a modern day killer whale.

The teeth of “Leviathan Melvillei” were so large it was initially assumed they were elephant tusks.

“There were no elephants in South America before 3 million years ago, and the specimens found have an age of 12 to 15 million years, so that was impossible,” said Professor Jelle Reumer, one of the team of scientists who found the fossil in the Pisco-Ica desert in coastal Peru.

I love that they included Melville’s name into the scientific name of the animal.

And now, Bigger (though appearing small):

The first photo of a planet outside our solar system

The photo was originally taken in 2008 by David Lafreniere and collaborators working at the Gemini Observatory. Scientists weren’t sure about it being an orbiting planet until now, however. New observations have shown that the planet follows an orbit around the star 300 times larger than Earth’s orbit.

The planet has eight times the mass of Jupiter, and has a much higher temperature: 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit as opposed to the minus 166 degrees of the biggest planet in our solar system. Scientists believe this temperature is a product of the age of this star system, much younger than ours.

Since it was not mentioned in the report, I am assuming that the planet is, as yet, unnamed. Any suggestions?

Posted in Kewel! | 2 Comments

Reading your DNA like a walkman

This is cool!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Berate Bureaucrat, Get Results

One of my uncles (the one who only takes head shots when hunting, both because it wastes less meat and because he’s that good) is a bit of a character. Think John Wayne, but with the temper of Bruce Banner’s rampaging green alter ego. So we always cringe a bit when he interacts with city or county bureaucrats.

The other day he was redoing a connection to an ancient and completely un-permitted septic tank on my Grandma’s property, and she decided that they’d tempted the fates too long, so he’d better go in and pay the fine and get a permit. Shows up at the permit office at ten minutes to eight. The staff is sitting around goldbricking, but they tell him he has to wait until eight o’clock.

Well, that sets him off. “I’m here, you’re here, I just need you to give me a stinkin’ piece of paper, and you’re just sitting on your fat ass…” etc., etc. Makes the lady at the window so mad she goes and looks up Grandma’s property records just to see if she can ding him on anything.

Because he made such a fuss, the entire staff gets involved and looks over her shoulder — so when she blanches and tries to close up the books they helpfully point out that Grandma’s been paying at a higher commercial rate for decades when it should have been at residential rates. Angry Bureaucrat Lady can’t deny it — too many witnesses. So not only did my uncle get his permit, but Grandma’s getting a four-figure check from the city! Good times!

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

RNS Quote of the Day: 07/01/10

Words matter. Apparently, so does the number of them.

Pythagoras’ Theory – 24 words
Lords’ Prayer – 66 words
Archimedes Principle – 67 words
Ten Commandments – 179 words
Gettysburg Address – 267 words
US Declaration of Independence – 1,321 words
Magna Carta (including signatures) – 3,856 words
EU regulations on sale and trade of cabbages – 26,253 words

Mark Wallace of the UK Taxpayer Alliance

Found via CCinZ

Posted in Quote of the Day | 2 Comments

Why I’ll never be on the Supreme Court

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Ing dong) from Minnesota was being “cute” during the Kagan confirmation hearings yesterday, mentioning that it appeared Kagan had not spent the night waiting for the opening of the new sparkling vampire movie.

You can read the synopsis of the exchange here.

The answer I would have given is below the fold.

Continue reading

Posted in Life in the Atomic Age | 3 Comments

Logic Test

We’re in the second week of my Philosophy 106: Introduction to Logic class and we were introduced to a topic I’d never heard of until last night:

Alternative Truth-functional Operators

Despite what you might think, this is not going to be a section on the Obama Administration or their MSM minions.

Nor is it about the people who scored higher than 130 on this test Uncle found.

Anyone who scored that high apparently wants to live in a Haiti-like anarcho-paradise. The police, the courts, and the law, privatized? Really?

To them I ask, why are you wasting your time here when there is already a paradise of your choosing on the planet’s surface?

FYI: I scored a 70

Posted in Phil Goes to College | 3 Comments

Poor Mr. Dorn

His 6 figure salary is insulting to him, he wants to get paid like a Major League pitcher.  Of course, no one made him take that job, and one would hope he took it because he wants to properly & efficiently administer our schools, not because it has a sweet paycheck.

Douchenozzle

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Media: A Willing Tool for the Government

Greenwald has the details

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment