Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?

You live in Wisconsin you just miss out on some things. Like Femtroopers.





Ya, the armor isn't practical and it won't stop a blaster to the midsection. Like the male armour does ...

Update: Changed the title. That's what I meant it to be in the first place ...

A Lesson to be learned

Who wrote this?

"Today we must strive for free immigration, liberty of commerce, railroads, the navigation of our rivers, the tilling of our soil, free enterprise, not instead of our initial principles of independence and democracy, but as essential means of assuring ourselves that these will cease being mere words and will become realities. . . . Our revolutionary wars sought to establish liberty from outside oppression . . . what we now need is liberty within. . . . Our leaders want both glory and liberty, and the two are contradictory. . . . As South America has contributed nothing to world civilization except its wars and the victory in its struggle for independence, the only glory which exists among us is martial glory, and our great men are all military heroes. Not a single invention like that of Franklin, like that of Fulton, like the telegraph, and many others which the civilized world owes to North America, has been contributed by our America of the south."

Juan Bautista Alberdi - father of the Argentine constitution of 1853. Which document - according to this article, quoting from 'Argentina: 1516-1987' - was responsible for a liberal and economic bonanza in that country.

"By 1890 the British had inundated Argentina with an estimated £157 million of investment capital. The great symbol of the new British connection was a burgeoning railroad system . . . most of it in the hands of private British companies — over which were transported 10 million passengers and 5 million tons of cargo. Foreign trade similarly expanded: in 1861 total foreign trade, both imports and exports, was valued at 37 million gold pesos; by 1880 at 104 million, and at more than 250 million by 1889."

"Meanwhile, the nation's population increased from an estimated 1.1 million in 1857 to approximately 3.3 million by 1890. . . . Immigrants arrived in enormous droves: between 1871 and 1914 some 5.9 million newcomers, of whom 3.1 million stayed and settled. Altogether between 1830 and 1950 Argentina absorbed some 10 percent of the total number of immigrants from Europe to the Americas."

"By the outbreak of World War I Argentina had experienced almost twenty years of prodigal expansion. Per capita income equaled that in Germany and the Low Countries, and was higher than in Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland. Having grown at an average annual rate of 6.5 percent since 1869, Buenos Aires had become the second city of the Atlantic seaboard, after New York, and by far the largest city in Latin America. . . . Except entrepôts like Holland and Belgium, no country in the world imported more goods per capita than Argentina. By 1911, Argentina's foreign trade was larger than Canada's and a quarter of that of the United States."

The Argentineans had proven Adam Smith correct. By using their constitution to strictly limit the power of their government to interfere with their economic activities, the result was one of the most prosperous periods people had ever experienced.

There was a coup, the economic good times came to an end. Nothing lasts, it seems. Why are people so damned determined to take a working process and scrap it in return for moonbeams?

Anti-Mopery for August 30, 2006

Iranian by birth, American by the Grace of Diety and soon to be the first Iranian woman in space.

All that and she's easy on the eyes. If you still feel down in the dumps after contemplating all of this there is just no talking with you.


Update: After some minor nitpicking by Mr. Simberg the world 'muslim' has been replaced with Iranian. He's got a point - ain't no evidence she is a Muslim. Which is sad considering how fitting it would have been but so it goes

First Iranian Woman to Orbit

It's fitting that the first Iranian woman to orbit - and the first woman to make a commerical space flight - will be Anousheh Ansari.

Immigrate, graduate with honors in a tough discipline, make your fortune and fly to space. If that ain't the American Dream for the 21st century I don't know what is.

Update: After some minor nitpicking by Mr. Simberg the world 'muslim' has been replaced with Iranian. He's got a point - ain't no evidence she is a Muslim. Which is sad considering how fitting it would have been but so it goes.

Ya, it's like that

It's like finding a twenty-dollar bill under a couch cushion.

A study by the economic-consulting firm Global Insight found that from 1985 to 2004, Wal-Mart's expansion lowered the consumer price index by a cumulative 3.1 percent from what it would have been. That produced savings of $263 billion in 2004, equal to $2,329 for each U.S. household.

Via.

Katrina. Everything you know might be wrong.

I am not qualified to judge the facts in this post.

New Orleans was doomed with or without Katrina, we just didn't know it. A good high tide puts more water in the canal than this. As the video shows, the water was barely higher than normal levels. The walls could have failed on a decent high tide.

From the looks of the video the fact the wall failed when Katrina was approaching was really coincidence. Yes, Katrina was the "final straw" but so could any winds from the southeast. Or any given winter storm. (we often get winds out the south that "stack" the lake far higher than this.) Indeed these same walls held much higher surges in the past; that is, before they were undermined by seeping water for a year.

Ironically the same flawed walls are incrementally safer now. We'll never have water seeping under them for a year and nobody doing anything. The flaw(s) is still there but now we can compensate for it more effectively. The right answer, of course, is to replace them.

What I will say next will probably completely throw you. Katrina saved probably over 50,000 lives.

I just don't know. It's damned troubling.  Thanks for the link, Travis.

I have had enough of YOU!

File this under "Dubious But In A Better World It Would Be True"

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is being made to watch his appearance in cult cartoon South Park while he is behind bars.

sudo

You either get this or you don't. If you don't, no amount of explaining is going to make it funny.

Which is sad because this is pretty damn funny.

From

DriveTime: RoadTrip - Pacific Northwest

Ravi and Sonia from DriveTime came out to the Pacific Northwest for a wedding and spent a few minutes driving around Bremerton with Michael.

Ravi and Sonia continue their summer vacation and take a spin around the Bremerton, WA area with the creator of the LiftPort Group, Michael Laine, who gives an update on the development of the space elevator.

Yes -- space elevator.

The post-interview reaction is common. Before: You guys are nuts. After: Hey that is a cool idea.

Drink the Kool-Aid, Ravi and Sonia. Drink of it deeply.

JVL-CON Report

Spent the weekend at JVL-Con, a smaller con held annually in Janesville, Wisconsin. Good times were had by the family - it's nice being at one of these smaller events where you can get to know everyone; indeed many of the guests were people we'd met at a previous con in Madison.

Guy had his briefcase ripped off Saturday. Found it hours later in the dumpster.

- Comic books
- Some really keen 20-sided dice
- Props for a live-reading of  Knights of the Dinner Table

Were found next to the briefcase. That eliminated the con attendees because we would have known better than to leave the dice or the comics.

Although the con had a small attendence, it had a big feel. Lots of people playing new games and sharing great conversations and ideas. One of the highlights included a stag version of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" to a karaoke machine. The studly dude sporting a nifty black kilt made it clear to his "bitch" that he would be happier without her. His version would have rivaled any competition. Later he even shared what little men wear under the kilt. Thanks, David, but that was just a little too much 'sharing'. Really.

Even though the attendence was less than expected, the art show and auction were quite successful. Over fifty SF books from the 50's went for a pretty penny. The Liftport panel was very low key and interesting. Several people showed interest and had lots of questions about the project. It was well received and generated a sense of excitement to those attending.

Like all cons, this one was full of colorful people, pretty ladies, and macho geeks. With the lower attendence it is safe to say that may of us left with new friends and look forward to the next time we can meet, bond, and conquer the universe.

Union of Plutonic States Contests Earthlings' Demotion of its Status

Union of Plutonic States Contests Earthlings' Demotion of its Status
No Retaliation Planned, But Planned Aid May Be Delayed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - FRIGEON, August 24, 2006/Plutonic News via Deep Space Net/ -- /The High Council of the Union of Plutonic States notes with the greatest disappointment that the inhabitants of the third rock from the Sun, otherwise known as Earth, have unilaterally declared that Pluto is no longer a planet.

"It is very odd that a group of university professors a billion klurchniks from here would presume to change the status of our home planet" said High Council General Convener Blanpik Vogonj. "Nothing is any different here, in spite of their unfortunate action."

Click here for full press release

Culture

This blog sits at the is a readable blog that covers the intersection of anthropology and economics. Yes, it sounds odd but it works.

I don't usually comment on or link to it - whatever I could add would be like a chicken making note of the production network she's in. Sure, she's involved and in the loop but her comprehension of how it all ties together - eggs, farmer, market - is limited by the fact that chickens are the dumbest damn creatures God put on this earth.

Maybe that's not the best metaphor.

At any rate he snarked on the French (specifically French culture) and snark I dig the way a chicken gets scratching in the dirt; it aint' much but it's part of my repertoire.

. . . let's face it, without the intervention of studio bosses, marketers, and investors, Hollywood would not be the cultural force that it is. More particularly, most films would look like Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, by Edelstein's account an act of self indulgence the first studio wisely abandoned by Disney.

. . . with the intervention of business, the world of movie making might be a lot more like film making in Paris, and for that matter, American culture a lot more like French culture. (And one shudders, absolutely shudders, to imagine this. We would all eat, dress, and vacation much better than we do...and American culture would be a pale shadow of its present self.)

We loose Rambo and Arnold but gain Girard Depardieu and Jerry Lewis. Sacre Bleu, non!

But that in turn reminded me a paragraph from Ralph Peters I have on my desk. Way back in 1997 - and it does seem like a longer time than a mere nine years would indicate - he wrote;

American culture is criticized for its impermanence, its "disposable" products. But therein lies its strength. All previous cultures sought ideal achievement which, once reached, might endure in static perfection. American culture is not about the end, but the means, the dynamic process that creates, destroys, and creates anew. If our works are transient, then so are life's greatest gifts--passion, beauty, the quality of light on a winter afternoon, even life itself. American culture is alive.

Bellevue High School Robotics team needs your help

Kaiwen Gu from Bellevue High School recently wrote to Liftport

My name is Kaiwen Gu, I am a member of the Bellevue High School robotics club (In Bellevue, Washington). We are a group of diverse high school students who meet multiple times a week to learn about engineering and to work on problems involving technology. One of our biggest endeavors is the FIRST Robotics Competition, at which we have six weeks to build a fully functional robot to compete against other teams in complex challenges. Last year, we were ranked 5th out of 46 teams, and received the coveted General Motors Industrial Design Award.

Currently, we are running purely on donations to support the club. We need your support to keep this club running for this year and to be able to attend the FIRST robotics competition. Without your help, we will be unable to attend this event and this would be horribly disappointing to the many students who put their hearts and souls into this organization.

They're looking for corporate donations and machine shop space (what, high schools don't have shop space?). We're not able to provide a donation, but we're spreading the good word about a good cause in our neighborhood.

Because FIRST is important. You've got to get at kids at a young age to show them that science and technology are cool and nifty. Plus it's about robots and robots are cool.

BHS Robotics Team 949
FIRST

I note that Team 949's web page lacks (to date) their contact information. I've got Kaiwen's email address if anyone wants. Or, you know, call BHS and ask for G. Kirkpatrick or J. Singh, Team 949 Advisors.

Good Heavens, Miss Sakamoto - you're beautiful!

From the Home Office at explosionland: Signs that the United States has given up on science

• Space elevator loses research funding in favor of the much less complicated space staircase.
• The particle accelerator at Brookhaven National Lab is being converted to a totally bitchin’ roller derby rink.
• Prayer-based WiFi.
• FDA approves cancer-curing mittens.
• 78% of Americans amazed to learn that there is no Nobel Prize for Wheelies.
• Tostitos Restaruant Style with a Hint of Lime presents: NASA.
• President Bush repeatedly mispronounces “scientists” as “scientits.” Nobody corrects him.
• Cancer-curing mittens recalled after people start eating them.

Propaganda

Propaganda in the modern age: what with 'many eyeballs' and experts everywhere .. it just doesn't work as well as it used to.

On the night of July 23, 2006, an Israeli aircraft intentionally fired missiles at and struck two Lebanese Red Cross ambulances performing rescue operations, causing huge explosions that injured everyone inside the vehicles. Or so says the global media, including Time magazine, the BBC, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and thousands of other outlets around the world. If true, the incident would have been an egregious and indefensible violation of the Geneva Convention, and would constitute a war crime committed by the state of Israel.

But there's one problem: It never happened.

Penn and Teller: Bullshit! Gun Control

Bullshit! Gun Control.

It's pretty good - but I'm biased. I've always liked their schtick.

Anti-Mopery for August 22, 2006

Ya, it's too soon for another Anti-Mopery.


She's worth it.

Via.

9/11 Commission Report - in comic book form

One of the oddest, yet oddly compelling, things I've seen all damned day.

The 9/11 ReportA graphic adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón.

Start at page one.

Via.

Update: Perhaps it's a generational thing; comics are just another way to transmit information. They can be for kids, or very adult. Scrooge McDuck or Miller's 'Dark Knight'.

I've read the first chapter and damned if it doesn't pack a punch in a way that mere words on paper cannot. It is not something I was, frankly, prepared for.

American Soldier - 2006

Rocking with an IPod.



He gets points for looking cool but I'd tear him a new one for driving around with his ears filled with music.

Via.

Rethinking the Fall of Easter Island

The story of Easter Island makes a really good parable for our times. Hapless natives became so busy erecting mucking big statues that they ignored the fact they were chopping down their trees will-they nill-they. The last one came down and (holy crap) they'd run out of firewood. And boat material so they were stuck there. What followed wasn't pretty.

That story might be all wrong.

When I first went to Rapa Nui to conduct archaeological research, I expected to help confirm this story. Instead, I found evidence that just didn't fit the underlying timeline. As I looked more closely at data from earlier archaeological excavations and at some similar work on other Pacific islands, I realized that much of what was claimed about Rapa Nui's prehistory was speculation. I am now convinced that self-induced environmental collapse simply does not explain the fall of the Rapanui.

Good read.