Scientists have figured out how to use an exotic form of carbon to simulate very powerful electromagnetic fields. I think. There was stuff in there about electrons and chicken wire, I do know that. That's gotta be good for something, eh?

Looks like something went "boom" next to a tanker, and now the captain's going to have to call Geico. I'd like to think this was hajji using a small bomb to take out a big boat, but I tend to agree the most likely cause is a nearly-dead mine from the old Iran-Iraq war. Still, that's going to take a whole lotta bondo to fix.

Tell me I'm wrong.

Kevin gets a no-prize that'll crash a dinner party and then snarl about how the English have no balls for bringing us a first-hand account of someone who went on pilgrimage to go see Galileo. Rrrm... sort of. Being an Italian through and through, fate ensured the proper finger would be preserved. Oh don't worry, Ellen's already made similar arrangements.

Put it this way... you probably don't want to go swimming in a swamp, anyway. And dude, you definitely need a bigger boat.

Scientists are using new imaging techniques to come up with better theories of how Alzheimer's works. Which, of course, is likely to lead the way toward effective treatments. There's even some indication it may ultimately be an autoimmune disorder.

Leonard Nimoy has decided to put his other profession on exhibit. 26 photos seems to me sort of a smallish exhibit, but then again not quite half of them are life-sized. A shame they didn't put a few technical details in the article. I'd be interested to know what sort of camera he uses etc.

Don't you normally find these portraits at flea markets with tacky gold frames along with tiger blankets?

Being a bazillionaire is no defense against a pissed off civil servant. As if parking, what, half a million dollars worth of cars in front of your store isn't publicity enough. Now that I think about it, I'm calling it damned likely said "pissed off" civil servant got more than just a heads-up about this opportunity. Meh, who cares.

China has announced plans to build a Saturn V-class booster. Planning is, obviously, not the same thing as building. The F-1 engine, which was so unbelievably powerful it only took five to start my favorite rocket on its journey, is rightly considered an utter marvel of engineering, a shining example of what infinite money and infinite talent can achieve. The Chinese don't have either of those things, but they do have fifty years of technology advancement to leverage. And having, what, a quarter of the world's population means their talent pool may not be deep, but it is pretty f-ing broad. I wouldn't count them out. And what the heck is wrong with it anyway, after all?

There's advertising, and then there's advertising. I'm sure this will come as an utter shock to all of you, but sometimes the subtleties in life escape me. The fact I "got" this one means it's not all that subtle, I'm thinking.

Mike J. gets a no-prize he'll need four department stamps and six forms filled out in triplicate to receive for bringing us a brilliant example of what a progressive looks like dining on ashes. "Peak state," like its cousin peak oil, is a chimera built on the assumption that everyone else is stupid and will remain so until and unless they wake up and recognize that the elite really do know what's good for them.

That everyone else is just as damned smart as they are, and that, with the proper incentives, everyone else can come up with some damned clever ideas indeed, never once occurs to the folks on the left side of the peanut gallery. Quite the opposite, they're already sneering at this, thinking how I court destruction and chaos for even mentioning the possibility.

You know, that every one of us has the potential to succeed, and that together we can do amazing things. Yeah, that's definitely a terrible thing to talk about.

Michael Barone: "So the Republicans' current lead in the generic ballot question suggests they may be on the brink of doing better than in any election since 1946, when they won a 245-188 margin in the House -- larger than any they've held ever since." I've become such a policy wonk, I am genuinely excited about the potential for the Republicans to end up with a majority in both houses after November. I know my own party well enough to view the possibility of the Republicans ending up with veto- and filibuster-proof majorities with considerable trepidation.

That the Democrats can take mandates for hope and change and in less than two years turn them into a thumping not seen in more than half a century, I find not surprising in the least.

A new armored vehicle being built in Britain has passed yet another spectacular test. I'm reminded of those Evel Knievel toy cars that would blow apart if they hit something hard, and then just snapped back together again.

It seems a recent discovery about how magnetic fields interact with plasma may lead to a new way of protecting astronauts in space. It's been found that the way the particles interact with the field means their ability to deflect those particles much better than the simple strength of the field would predict. It's still not known if the effect will scale up enough to provide real protection to something as big as a space craft, but only time (and research) will tell.

So, is Catalonia's ban on bullfighting a stand against cruelty, or a stalking horse for independence? Dude, I think US politics is confusing, and I've lived my whole life here. Another country with a tradition of democracy less than 15% as long as ours? No way.

Jesus is coming! Quick! Look busy!

I always liked, "Jesus Saves Sinners, and Redeems Them Later for Valuable Prizes" better.

What better way to end a tough Monday than a collection of time slices? Photography became popular because it allowed the truth of what we see every day to outlast time. It has endured because it captures the strange truth of an instant.

And lets our friends show it to us the next morning. Damn, man, put some pants on!!!

It seems that the on-again, off-again idea that an impact caused the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna is off again. I'm always suspicious when a group of scientists claim they have found The Answer.

Credit at least one MSM outlet for noting John Kerry only wants to raise taxes on you. No, I don't call this a "progressives suck" issue. I call this an "elitists suck" issue. However,it does seem that most progressives and liberals I know feel government should be powerful, and the reason the government sucks is we haven't found the right people to run it yet. I maintain government attracts people who suck, and the only way to control them is to limit their power.

Vote libertarian! We want to take over the government so it will leave you alone!

MSNBC has finally noticed a trend my extended family has been taking advantage of for a few years now: express bus service between large metropolitan centers is a growing business. My bunch's favorite seems to be the Vamoose line, although that's not mentioned in the article.

Israel's effort to remove glorified bottle rockets, mortars, and artillery from Hamas's list of "toys with which I would like to play" has completed its final tests and will be deployed by November of this year. Even better, there's lots of interest in the product. My guess at a prime customer? Another small country sharing a border with a bunch of homicidal maniacs. This thing sounds small enough to purchase and deploy discreetly. All in all, a good thing.

Ganked from a Fark thread. Which will, of course, set off another round of recriminations from that weird crank who's taken permanent offense at our 403 error message. But I digress...

It is not in the nature of cats, at least in the case of the platoon of strays we have adopted in our travels around the world, to freight themselves with speculations about their fortune in finding human refuge. From the get-go, Scuzzi behaved as if he knew how blessed we — as much as he — were by his turn towards our verandah when all other hope for him was gone.

A very sweet story.

A NASA space probe launched last year is finding evidence of hundreds of planets around dozens of nearby stars. Even better, at least some of these newly discovered worlds are Earth-like, rocky, and orbiting a sane distance from their star.

Congratulations to Boeing for a remarkable showing and even more remarkable send-off of the 787 "Dreamliner" at this year's Farnborough air show. What I find most remarkable is the dihedral of those wings... it looks like the wingtips are quite a bit higher than the top of the cabin. It seems that, with the right combination, even a whale can have a specific sort of beauty.

Ever wonder just how fast a pilot can get out of a plane in trouble? Wonder no more. It'll be interesting to find out just what went wrong there. Multi-million dollar jet fighters don't just fall from the sky for no reason.

Update: the video seems to indicate he was practicing a very low-speed pass for an airshow. To my (admittedly inexpert) eye, it doesn't look like a bird strike or mechanical failure. Rather, it seems the pilot exceeded some critical threshold, either angle of attack or perhaps a control input, and over it went. I've watched F-18s do this sort of maneuver at airshows for well over a decade. I had no idea it had the potential to go this wrong.

At the Shenandoah National Park today!

Scientists have discovered evidence of a dinosaur hunting small mammals. The fossil preserves both the burrows the mammals were living in, and the claw marks of the dinosaur that (presumably) dug them out.

Now that the human genome is well and truly mapped, scientists are discovering lots of evidence for very recent evolution in our species. No wonder Chinese people have a reputation for drinking everyone else under the table!

Looks like the core technology of the PS4 is slowing making its way out of a lab. I just got a damned blu-ray player. This new tech better take its sweet time going into production.

And now, the world's strongest beer. Inside of a squirrel. Yeah, you heard me, squirrel. That would make for an interesting companion to Ellen's "vomiting frog," donchathink?

That whole, "people who want to be seen naked usually shouldn't be seen naked" thing? How about a guy has made a whole music video on just that theme. Video is SFW, but some of the pictures may have you reaching for the eye bleach.

They are named for their resemblance to architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes, which have interlocking circles on the surface of a partial sphere. Buckyballs were thought to float around in space, but had escaped detection until now.

IN...SPACE!!!

Uh...wow...

Either he fell off, or he really did end it there. Not gory, but NSFW due to the ads.

The children were enjoying Popsicles and were being bathed in vinegar, which is a common treatment for jellyfish stings. They also were given antihistamines and anti-inflammatory medications.

Really, what is this world coming too. Too many odd things going on.

2012 is only a year and a half away.

Those of you who think the NRA is a giant conspiracy to ensure white people stay on top are pleased to be sitting down and shutting up, now. I think the best, the best part, is that the justice who went through horrific humiliation to get his job will likely be the justice who defines liberty in the 21st century. BONUS: justifies not only the crap that makes the left squirm, but the crap that makes the right squirm, too.

He added that the agency doesn't know whether the spiders are venomous, but that the critters are in various sizes. Agriculture officials also don't know if Guam's tropical climate can allow these spiders to thrive.

Umm...where is my shoe?

Olivia is STILL in Disney till Friday! I have no idea how she is getting all of the presents back here. Grammy did not pack an extra suitcase!

It seems that, with nuclear power anyway, smaller may just very well be better. All honest players admit the only viable alternative to hydrocarbon energy is nuclear, and it's going to be that way for a very long time. Any development toward making it safer, cheaper, or easier to use is a net plus in my book.

While I've read a few first-hand accounts of what being a prison inmate is like, I've never found one quite this detailed before. Yet another reminder of why everyone should really, really avoid doing dumb stuff that will get you tossed in jail, eh?

It seems there's a really good chance a recent mudslide in Germany was caused by a long forgotten underground Nazi Zyklon-B factory. Hitler took everything good about one of the best cultures in Europe and harnessed it, then twisted it, into something so horrific it defines the term. And now it seems the very ground of Germany will not forgive them.

No, really, when vultures attack! As a cyclist who drives a bike that's mostly plastic, my greatest fear is Buffy the Cellphone Slayer talking to her friend and brushing on nail polish, wondering what that weird *thump* was when she accidentally drifted right across the shoulder of the road. I simply don't go fast enough to worry about BIRDS.

I've had an essay critiquing just why I have such a problem with what the folks on the left side of the peanut gallery are advocating for two, three years, I think. Now I don't have to write it. BONUS: Includes a riposte to various education debates I've had recently. I don't expect you to agree with it. Frankly, I'll be quite surprised if you don't run shrieking to the top of your bell tower and twirl leftward at more than mach one, ringing the bells all the while about how terrible me and mine are. It's in your nature. But this is, exactly, why I'm a libertarian.

Tempelhof airport, who's checkered past includes a monument to Nazi pomposity as well as the eastern anchor of the Berlin Airlift, has been turned into an enormous open-air park. I would think the flat, miles-long runways with their great, curved taxiways would make for some spectacular cycling opportunities. But I'm funny that way, donchaknow?

Ok, and in the, "I'll take your word for it, and no, I don't need the details of how you found that out" file, we have The Electrical Characteristics of Three Human Penises. Or should that be "Peni?" Yes, yes, ladies, I get it, ain't got nothing on what you have to go through on your yearly. That said, last I heard, electricity wasn't directly involved in your garden variety pelvic exam...

You remember that corvette the North Koreans didn't sink? That they definitely, quite positively didn't sink? That they would bump you on the chest in the playground and thump you over on your butt for implying that they may have sunk something which they didn't sink? Yeah, about that...

I would like to go on record to state there's a left-wing crazy that is so crazy even I, a card carrying member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, can't tie into something Obama is doing. And this bunch has nukes. Fizzly nukes, yes, but they also have eight-and-a-half bajillion artillery pieces within range of the car companies who make most of everyone else's wheels. I mean, dude...

Mike J. gets a no-prize that will always win "because good... is dumb." for bringing us this graphic account of just how Apple's iPhone 4 experience has gone. I'm pretty sure that's Mandarin, but you don't really need to understand the language to get a chuckle out of it. I wonder if there's an English language version out there?

No matter how you translate it, a Ferrari on fire is never a good thing. It appears nobody was hurt, so there is that. And yes, very lucky indeed that one of the passers-by was a big fire extinguisher!

I guess, in a way, this is news: a non-profit agency's effort to certify market fish are what they say they are actually works. Likely it adds to the cost as well, but most people will pay a certain premium to ensure they're getting what they're paying for.

Personally, I don't really think these things are all that beautiful. The first set of speakers looks like something Dr. Who would face off against, the last one looks like what Pixar's light would grow up into. And yes, folks, that's about how high the real high-end can get, price-wise.

Olivia is in L.A. with Grammy and Nina!

Mike J. gets a no-prize that'll go anywhere for bringing us The Tank Chair, the ultimate in handicapped mobility. If something stuck Ron in a wheelchair, it'd be all Amber could do to keep him from driving one of these around in the house.

Olivia and I got box seats to go see Mary Poppins at the Kennedy Center, courtesy of Ellen's boss, Dr. Brown. This was only the second time I'd been to the main opera house in fourteen years, and Olivia's first time. While we were waiting, I asked her to provide a bit of a tour of our digs. The show was lots of fun!

Swoozie takes french fries very seriously, and does not appreciate being offered "substitute" apple fries. AS IF!

The 15-by-49-foot billboard stands on the westbound side of the highway, facing eastbound traffic. The message went up June 28, paid for by Final Exit Network, a nationwide group that provides guidance to adults seeking to end a life of constant pain from incurable illness.

That is a billboard that you won't see every day.

From crooked teeth to straight teeth in only 60 seconds. By the hair style, it looks like she got her braces not long after I had mine removed. The ones I got had bands that wrapped around the whole tooth.

And in the "straight girls are more like straight guys than even they will admit" file, we have an example of someone taking a request for redemption just that much too far. Oh get over it guys. No matter what your fantasy is, straight chicks would react to this in likely the same way you would, if it was your bud "apologizing" like that.

Ok, so I even have an usher on the left side of the peanut gallery who will vouch for me that I thought it was ridiculous that Obama was being blamed for BP's big spill. I will now go on record that I think it's disappointing, but unsurprising, that he's now trying to take credit for them FINALLY sorting it out.

Now it seems that the Mel Gibson phone tapes may have been doctored. The things said are so ludicrously over the top, and there are so many of them, I'm beginning to think the whole thing might be a hoax. Gibson's ex, who lived nearly thirty years with him and presumably has no real incentive to cover for him, says nothing like this ever happened to her.

A new scientific theory is making the startling claim that our universe may lie inside a black hole that resides in a different universe. It definitely seems to explain some existing difficulties with older theories. Hopefully its predictions can be tested without a new gajillion-dollar bit of science gear.

Ok, folks, you can stomp the ground and cause it to shake more than this. However, since this is after all the second densest concentration of reporters in the country, the reaction was typical:

Hell, even Arkansas earthquakes top 5.0 sometimes. At least that'll knock stuff off the walls.

And in the, "I see a flaw in your cunning plan" file, we have a dude who ended up dead when his plot to gain custody of his kid on a "I got shot!" plea went all pear-shaped. Or, you know, bullet-shaped, as the case may be. No, it doesn't make any damned sense to me either, but people of high intelligence typically do not turn to a life of crime, donchaknow?

Victor Davis Hanson has a ten step solution for the Obama administration that makes way too much sense for the president to think about implementing it:

Just do not mention America in the abstract anymore. After 18 months, we know that the president simply cannot reference our founding without a “but.” He seems to have forgotten that 600,000 killed each other or died 150 years ago over slavery. The Argonne, Okinawa, and Inchon are not in his lexicon. Nor is the greatest economy and defender of freedom in civilization’s history. Edison, Bell, the Wright Brothers — they might as well be Martians. If it is a question — and it sadly always is — between evoking America as dropper of atomic bombs, genocidal hegemon, enslaver, racist, anti-Muslim, etc., and not evoking America at all, then please stay quiet. ... A simple truth that we all learned in kindergarten escaped Barack Obama: America’s sins are simply those of all humankind; but only in America is the sprit of self-critique and collective betterment such that we daily strive to address and solve our innately human shortcomings rather than accept them or give into them. Instead, Obama seems to have been taught that if America alone is not perfect, then it is essentially not very good. Millions of us wince now when the president starts in on the U.S. in the abstract, since we know anything positive will always be qualified by “nevertheless,” “however,” “yet,” and “but.”

Is it November yet?

I have not stooped this low... yet.

Exposure to the antidepressant fluoxetine causes shrimp to radically alter their behavior. While normal shrimp are more likely to avoid swimming towards light because it's often associated with prey like birds or fishermen, those exposed to fluoxetine become five times more likely to swim towards light than away from it. That change in behavior places them in harm's way, and if enough shrimp are exposed to the antidepressant the entire population could be at risk.

So much for shrimp cocktail.

And in the, "when we do it it's simple protesting but when you do it it's dangerous racism" category, we have righteous indignation that the right has stolen one of the left's most favorite memes. I thought the Bushitler stuff was ridiculous counterproductive crap, and I think this is ridiculous counterproductive crap. All three of the guys on the billboard were much more effective at being horrific bastards than any president can be. That anyone can even vaguely entertain a notion otherwise shows just how far political passion can override historical knowledge. Or, you know, common sense.

NASA has officially retired its very first data relay satellite. Launched in 1983, the TDSR-1 (tidsir?) dutifully relayed signals from shuttles, space stations, and various space probes throughout its long career. Its orbital altitude is such that it seems destined not to burn up in the atmosphere, but instead to while away the years parked twenty-two thousand miles up in the sky.

The Obama administration in general and the president in particular have come to the startling conclusion that Al Qaeda hates black people. No, really! This is important! Stop laughing! Don't you realize they lack cultural sensitivity? That they engage in hate speech against poor minorities? Ok, the laughing was bad enough. I will not abide you rolling on the ground and gasping for air.

A federal agency has determined nearly all "sudden acceleration" accidents have been the fault of the driver, not the car. No, this is not 1989 all over again. Or is it?

No one believed me when I passed this place on the way to Atlantic City last year. I got lost and the next thing I saw was a GIANT cowboy and a general store. I felt MUCH better when one of my assistants told me he LIVED in that area and it is COWTOWN, the best flea market in the area. Rudy no longer works with me, but he still sends me text photos of COWTOWN!

He’ll roll a 160-pound barrel — like the one he uses in the rodeo arena to fend off dangerous brahma bulls — 130 miles from Washington, D.C., to Cowtown to confront his largest opponents ever, bullying.

“I once heard something, that bullies are people who try to make their light shine brighter by putting your light out,” said Nash, known as “Starvin’ Marvin,” a nearly 40-year rodeo veteran.

The goal of Nash’s barrel roll is to bring attention to bullying and the effects it can have on the lives of school children, their families and others.

Something you just have to see in person.

Now, I'm pretty sure about half of these are fake, but I can't quite tell which half, and that means the other half are totally frikken awesome! One of Ellen's enduring memories of middle-o'-nowhere Arkansas remains all the goofy signs we saw on the roadside. Landscape-wise, Rural New York is so much like Northwest Arkansas it's scary, but they take themselves so seriously it's nowhere near as much fun as the Ozarks.

An oil executive appears to have been targeted by a bomber. Everyone is constantly reminded by the MSM how dangerous potential right-wing violence is. The actuality, the real and constant actuality, of left-wing violence is, and sadly forever will be, given a gloss by progressives of most stripes.

By using Arctic bacteria, scientists have come up with vaccines which trigger an immune reaction, but don't survive long enough to do harm in a warm mammal body. Well, a warm mouse body, at any rate. Mice are not people, but this approach seems general enough to perhaps work on just about any of us glorified moles.

And in the, "f-ing Californians need to get better hobbies" category we have the BBC reporting on the 30 year-old tradition of Cali's finest mooning Amtrak trains. The article includes a fine example of, "people who want to be seen naked generally shouldn't be seen naked," but otherwise SFW pictures.

Poor progressives. They thought they were catching a rising star, when in fact they were getting well and truly hoisted on a petard of "hope and change." How they realize it, and rationalize it, is really quite a site to behold. I let my subscription to The Washington Post lapse precisely because of the descent described in the article. I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who noticed.

Via Instapundit.

Since it'd just stopped raining, temperatures were "only" in the mid-70s. Cold enough to wear my jacket, according to Olivia.

Tool use: it's not just for humans, you know. If he had an ink pot, I would not be at all surprised if he started writing with it.

"Insourcing," the practice of intentional locating support businesses in low-cost areas of the US, was first noted here a full six years ago. Now it seems it is both successful and growing. What I said then still holds true today:

None of this would be possible without free markets and free trade. The rich upper-middle-class "haves" would ensure no government program would ever threaten their cushy jobs, no matter how many "have-not" lower-class single mothers would be helped out of trailer parks half way across the country. Companies having no incentive to take the risk or pay the expense of training a new work force would never even dream of moving anywhere else. Without the ability to charge a price she considered fair Ms. White would have no reason to even think of a program like this, and no government official in Washington DC could ever hope to determine that price for her.

Being right is more than just a direction, you know...

Paul the psychic octopus has picked Spain to win the world cup final. Yes, I said psychic octopus. Dude, you think I'm clever enough to make that up? Nice.

Sometimes there's just no avoiding a crash. This stuff happens in all forms of racing. It just tends to be a lot nastier with the 2-wheeled variety.

Scientists have discovered a small black hole blowing great big bubbles. Yeah, I know, but that's what they're saying. The observations show that (per usual) black holes are still not behaving exactly as current physics predict they should.

Power to weight, for the win!!! That russkie was one cross-breeze away from a Martin-Baker test flight.