Sun - February 5, 2006

but god forbid i offend anyone 


does anyone doubt the power of comics now?

and i ask again, as i have for four years, four months, twenty-six days: can the 7th century and the 21st century coexist on the same planet? under what circumstances will the former understand or accept that the latter isn't the byzantine empire, waiting for a conquerer and a new god? under what circumstances will the latter suddenly perceive a threat? what will happen?

steven den beste once wrote that even if europe quietly folds its hands and bows its neck to the yoke, even if america implodes or in the name of multiculturality accepts suitcase nukes in every city--still, russia, still china, still in the end japan would use whatever means they had to hand (o, and see 1945-1990 for that,) to survive, and even if they did not, there is a dark and terrible split inside of islam--sunni/shi'ite, and both of them are reaching for the nuclear gun, and hate each other nigh well as much as they hate the jew and the decadence of the west.

the world is walking along naively in the summer of 1914, and it's been a long summer . . . four years so far, and counting. gabrilo princip hesitated in an alley, rubbing his gun anxiously. an irresponsible danish paper did the same. a new world is coming, if we are not careful, and we don't know yet what it will look like.

with luck, the world will roll over and turn it all back to the cockroaches and the rats.











as e-nough says, 'wake up whenever you want, europeans.' 

Posted at 09:25 AM     Permalink     |

Sat - January 21, 2006

when south korean robots attack 



WIRED: The South Korean government has robot fever, and they're about to unleash a whole army -- literally -- of the mechanized creatures on their public. According to The Korea Times, the country will see the rollout of police and military robots within the next five years, thanks to a newly approved $33.9 million spending appropriation. Patrol bots will guard the streets at night, and even chase criminals, while horse-shaped combat bots will augment the country's fighting force. In both cases, the bots will communicate via Korea's vast mobile network.

o, how much of this is accurate? 

Posted at 07:34 AM     Permalink     |

Fri - January 20, 2006

the coming expansion of the war to iran 


winds of change has sobering analysis. his preferred option, that we obliterate iran's oil-producing distribution capacity, smacks of complete genius. you'd have $4 a gallon plus gas forever more, but the iranians, short of the russians, europeans, or chinese handing the things over, would never be able to afford nuclear weapons ever again.*

i'd drive 50% less just for that comforting thought.


__________________
*screw iranian democracy: as i've said of iraq, if they can't produce their own democracy, they deserve whatever slavery they suffer in. no one gave us george washington. he was one of us. and if our current government is unloved by us and we cannot change it, then nuts to us as well.
 

Posted at 02:21 PM     Permalink     |

Sun - January 15, 2006

Kuwait's Long-Ruling Emir, an Ally of U.S., Dies 



KUWAIT CITY, Jan. 15 -- Sheik Jabir Ahmed Sabah, the emir of Kuwait who survived an assassination attempt in the 1980s and a decade later escaped Iraqi troops invading his oil-rich Persian Gulf state, died Sunday, state television announced.
 

Posted at 06:22 AM     Permalink     |

Sat - January 14, 2006

heh 



Posted at 07:31 PM     Permalink     |

Wed - January 11, 2006

stop annoying me! 



Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.

This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.

"The use of the word 'annoy' is particularly problematic," says Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "What's annoying to one person may not be annoying to someone else."



tony, we're looking your way . . .

i would ask what planet our politicians come from, but i've caught some of the alito hearings, and i guess that should answer my question. 

Posted at 03:25 PM     Permalink     |

Tue - January 10, 2006

more good news on the avian flu front 


here, and here, and here. a whimper, not a bang, here? 

Posted at 05:41 PM     Permalink     |

Wed - January 4, 2006

looks like sharon is out of the picture 



Posted at 08:22 PM     Permalink     |

Mon - January 2, 2006

number one 



Police were called to the 1600 block of Topping Avenue about 1:30 a.m. Sunday to find a man who had been severely beaten.

The man was taken to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries and later died. Police have no other information on the case.
 

Posted at 06:00 PM     Permalink     |

tropical storm zeta 


will zeta become hurricane zeta? 

Posted at 04:36 PM     Permalink     |

Sun - January 1, 2006

so this is 2006 . . . 


huh. feels about the same to me. 

Posted at 08:03 AM     Permalink     |

Sat - December 31, 2005

hit the bricks, 2005 


it's all over for you . . . 

Posted at 11:18 PM     Permalink     |

Fri - December 30, 2005

light posting over the next 36 hours 


plus, the saturday kansas city comics update will be late saturday, not early saturday, due to press of events. 

Posted at 01:10 PM     Permalink     |

Mon - December 26, 2005

storms! storms! storms! 


there's a weak system tracking across the country that may bring light rain to the kansas city area.

but the weatherfolks refer to it as a 'storm system'.

i've noticed, these days, that any weather phenomenon is referred to as a storm, even if nothing happens. every station has its 'storm track' with big screaming letters. (tonight's horror show was courtesy of channel 41 . . . the doomsday 'storm' in question may well pass south and take its light sprinkle bransonwards.)

now, i'm no fool: it's all about ratings, and if station A is tracking that monster storm with 1/4 inch of rain in it, it makes 'sense' that every other station try to lead the population in a panic it to empty the stores and choke the outbound lanes of highways 70 and 71 . . . . but i remember when a storm was a storm, by god, and not a weak trickle. what would these knock-kneed marketeers call one storm i recall, with thunder beating on the roof of my home one summer in 1984, all night long, with inches of rain roaring down on every side. the apocalypse?


come on, people. let's try to return to reality here. 

Posted at 05:34 PM     Permalink     |

some analysis of the coming israeli attacks on iran 


like you don't expect them?

what the article doesn't mention is that the 'combat radius' of the F-15I is an obvious moot point; if need be, low-fuel israeli planes would land in iraq, and american search-and-rescue teams operating from the gulf would retrieve israeli casualties.


the potential downside, beyond the usual seething in the islamic street, is that the shi'ite iraqi south might become ungovernable. 

Posted at 04:37 PM     Permalink     |

Wed - December 21, 2005

more good news from the avian bird flu front 



Posted at 07:27 PM     Permalink     |

Fri - December 16, 2005

terrifyingly, missouri ranks well above the national average in literacy 


scary reading at infozine, no pun intended. if this state is at the top of the heap, then we are truly boned as a nation.

via tonyskansascity. 

Posted at 07:21 PM     Permalink     |

Mon - December 5, 2005

Professor Paul Mirecki assaulted 


religious studies chair paul mirecki, the professor at KU whose unfortunate email mocking intelligent design was released and resulted in the cancellation of that course, has apparently been assaulted by two men, aged 30-40, driving a pickup in a rural area outside lawrence, kansas, according to wdaf tv. (no specific link yet.) mirecki was heading for breakfast when the shocking and pointless attack came.

it is unknown whether this assault has anything to do with his statements about intelligent design and the intelligence of its adherents. but i'd be willing to put money on it's being a reeeeal long coincidence.


i'm not a fan of creationism, intelligent design, religion in school, or the dilution of education to political cheerleading for the republican-controlled congress and white house and supreme court. i am most particularly not a fan either of political discourse coming from the fist or the barrel of the gun. but it never pays to tell people to bring it on and like i said after the elections, don't try to piss off the gunrack set, please. we are all americans, after all.


UPDATE: thoughts from both tony's kansas city and thoughts from kansas. MSM coverage at lawrence 6 news (video), the lawrence journal-world (thanks heidi) and the kansas city star.

there seems to be a bit of skepticism from tony and a couple of his commenters as to whether this happened at all. tony makes a persuasive argument that no one knows hat he looks like. however, i found a picture of him quite easily with a search engine; would a pocket nazi like these two have done so, and tracked him down, and determined his movements, and run him off the road?

coulda happened quite easily. i'll assume it did. but i'll await further developments. for instance, if the men involved are caught.

UPDATE 2: thoughts from kansas lays out why this certainly occurred. i agree.

UPDATE 3: mirecki resigns as chair of the religious studies program. 

Posted at 09:46 PM     Permalink     |

Sat - December 3, 2005

good news on the avian bird flu front 


worldnetdaily:

Officials in at least two nations now suspect the avian flu bug has mutated into a virus that is being transmitted from human to human – a development world health authorities have estimated could result in the deaths of tens of millions.

Thai health officials have expressed concern that the country's two latest confirmed victims may be the beginning of the much feared human-to-human transmission.

Dr. Charoen Chuchottaworn, an avian-flu expert at the Public Health Ministry, said doctors reviewing the cases were alerted by the very mild symptoms present in both patients, neither of whom had had any recent contact with birds or poultry.

The doctors are unsure as to how either of the infected contracted the disease and have raised the possibility that the virus has traded its pathogenicity for ease of transmission.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the disease is spreading so rapidly, particularly in the capital of Jakarta, some health officials strongly suspect the long-dreaded mutation has already occurred.

"There are just too many people who have it," said one doctor. "In many cases, it is difficult to establish any contact with birds."

Another official said the flu has "spread all over the city."

The latest victim confirmed officially by the Ministry of Health is a 25-year-old woman. She was treated at Tangerang Hospital before being transferred to Sulianti Saroso. The woman had difficulty breathing and a breathing tube had to be inserted.

The World Health Organization-sanctioned laboratory in Hong Kong has so far confirmed 13 bird flu cases in humans in Indonesia, with eight people dying from the virus.

. . . . .

If the virus acquires sufficient human genes, allowing transmission from one person to another, an estimated 2 million to 7.4 million people around the world could die, the [World Health Organization] estimates.

Some health officials make even more dire predictions. They point to the great flu pandemic of 1918-1919, which killed far more people worldwide than died in World War I – an estimated 40 to 50 million people.

There are more signs the virus is spreading – outward from Asia and through Europe. Romania appears to be the hardest hit.

Three more villages in eastern Romania have been quarantined following the discovery of an H5 strain of avian influenza in poultry in one of the villages. The Romanian Ministry of Agriculture suspects the presence of bird flu in the other villages but is awaiting confirmation of test results from the United Kingdom.

. . .

In China, a team from the World Health Organization investigating the deaths from avian influenza said the extent of the problem in the country -- and elsewhere -- may be worse than initially thought.

. . . .

The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed at least 68 people in Asia since 2003.
 

Posted at 06:51 PM     Permalink     |

Fri - December 2, 2005

hurricane epsilon 



Posted at 05:16 PM     Permalink     |

i love weather news--hurricane epsilon? weakening north atlantic circulation? new storm naming systems? 

favorite headline of the day: Bush maps out Iraq war strategy 

last day of the hurricane season . . . 

tampertabs? 

NY Times: The bedbugs are back 

NT times - thieves stealing baltimore's light poles 

how do you give UFO research a bad name? 

tropical storm delta may be in the offing 

illiteracy kills 

tropical storm gamma 

heat is for sissies 

tropical depression 27 falls apart 

it's the apookalypse! 

tropical depression 27 strengthens in the caribbean 

betting on murder 

Eat, Sleep, Work, Consume, Die 

nothing to see, move along 

hummer sales drop like a rock in southern california 

see? even einstein agrees with me. 

tropical storm alpha 

let's hear it for wilma. 

the stunning failure of al qaeda in iraq 

human to human, and tamiflu resistant, baby 

more fun with--well, this is just going too far. even i don't buy this. 

these things just write themselves. 

more fun with hurricanes: the 20th named storm of the season--a record, folks 

more fun with peak oil 

more fun with massive earthquakes 

more fun with the avian flu 

suicide bombing in oklahoma 

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