Monday 31 August 2009
RIBA
How the professor got his tenure
From the annals of the That's Too Much Like Hard Work Department:
- According to Johan Moan, of the Institute of Physics at the University of Oslo, white people evolved only 5500 years ago. His argument for this remarkably recent event is that farmed food is deficient in vitamin D, which darker skin produces from sunlight less efficiently than white.
- Meanwhile, an article in Psychology Review claims that depression came about to help people concentrate.
- And Oren Hasson at Tel Aviv University asserts that people cry because it's a sign of submission or some such.
Labels:
Science
Vanishing up one's own...
Times headline:
I used to work for what was then Oxford Unit about the same time as this campsite was in operation and I find it amazing how far archaeology has fallen of the ideals of my time. Okay, those ideals revolved mostly around the pursuits lots of beer and sex (preferably in close proximity), but archaeology did get a look in.
Still, there is a ray of hope here. If we're now excavating thirty-year old campsites, why not thirty-year old excavations? I could come out of retirement and start a whole new career by digging up all the sites I dug up previously to find traces of my previous diggings. Infinitely reductive archaeology; a whole new field.
Seventies campsite in Forest of Dean excavated by Oxford archaeologistThat's campsite as in, well, a campsite. From the '70s.
I used to work for what was then Oxford Unit about the same time as this campsite was in operation and I find it amazing how far archaeology has fallen of the ideals of my time. Okay, those ideals revolved mostly around the pursuits lots of beer and sex (preferably in close proximity), but archaeology did get a look in.
Still, there is a ray of hope here. If we're now excavating thirty-year old campsites, why not thirty-year old excavations? I could come out of retirement and start a whole new career by digging up all the sites I dug up previously to find traces of my previous diggings. Infinitely reductive archaeology; a whole new field.
Labels:
Archaeology,
Britain
Not surprised
*My message was: "We are coming on with fire and sword; laying waste to all before us. Surrender, if you wish to live and we will roar with laughter at your cowardice." It didn't make the cut for some reason.
Sunday 30 August 2009
Saturday 29 August 2009
Friday 28 August 2009
Thursday 27 August 2009
Green nitpicking department
From the National Geographic:
From Slashdot:
When you have Blessed Gaia on your side, who needs fact checking?
As the Dead Sea—really a giant freshwater lake—dramatically shrinks, Palestinian, Israeli, and Jordanian environmentalists have begun to devise ways to slow the decline.Unfortunately, the Dead Sea is really a large saltwater lake that is so saline that it is, for all practical purposes, dead.
From Slashdot:
Mr_Blank writes to mention that the United States' largest business lobby is pushing for a public trial to examine the evidence of global warming and have a judge make a ruling on whether human beings are warming the planet to dangerous effect. "The goal of the chamber, which represents 3 million large and small businesses, is to fend off potential emissions regulations by undercutting the scientific consensus over climate change. If the EPA denies the request, as expected, the chamber plans to take the fight to federal court. The EPA is having none of it, calling a hearing a 'waste of time' and saying that a threatened lawsuit by the chamber would be 'frivolous.' [...] Environmentalists say the chamber's strategy is an attempt to sow political discord by challenging settled science — and note that in the famed 1925 Scopes trial, which pitted lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan in a courtroom battle over a Tennessee science teacher accused of teaching evolution illegally, the scientists won in the end.Not quite. Scope was found guilty and his conviction was later overturned because of the vagueness and constitutionality of the law involved, not the scientific validity of Darwinism.
When you have Blessed Gaia on your side, who needs fact checking?
Labels:
Environmentalism
Wednesday 26 August 2009
Brussels may I
We would be free of Europe and its bloodsucking with one easy afternoon's work if Parliament had the courage to do so, but apparently New Labour is too busy down at Minitruth.
Dutch "social workers" hate liberty
In the None Of Your Damn Business Department, Dutch jumped up little Napoleons social workers are trying to make a 13-year old girl a ward of the court in order to prevent her from sailing single-handed around the world despite the fact that she is an accomplished lifetime sailor and has her parents' blessings.
Thetin-pot Himmlers social workers say that this is in her "best interests", but given the state of the Netherlands today, I'd say that sailing a small boat to the antipodes and back is the preferable option.
The
Labels:
Ingsoc,
Netherlands
Tuesday 25 August 2009
The telescope: 400-years old
Today marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo unveiling his telescope in Venice.
To mark the occasion, the American Peeping Toms Society observed a minute of silence.
To mark the occasion, the American Peeping Toms Society observed a minute of silence.
Divorce: The second hand smoke of matrimony
If the health and safety Nazis are consistent, then divorce should be banned immediately as a cancer risk.
1000 CCTVs, 1 crim caught
As I've said before, what frightens me about totalitarians isn't just what they do to our liberties, but that they can't even achieve what they claimed was the reason for doing it in the first place.
Monday 24 August 2009
No longer funny
Tyrants hate proper language and prefer to obscure meaning at every turn. That's why the first books to be censored are always dictionaries.
Another nail
Courtesy of the nanny state once again sticking its oar in where it's not wanted: Good bye, the traditional pint glass; hello, plastic.
PLASTIC!?!
PLASTIC!?!
Sunday 23 August 2009
Saturday 22 August 2009
Friday 21 August 2009
Bronze age butter
A 3000-year old cask of butter is found in Ireland. Archaeologists are now combing the countryside for some 3000-year old scones.
Try the dining room of the Randolph Hotel, Oxford. I'm sure I saw some last time I was there.
Try the dining room of the Randolph Hotel, Oxford. I'm sure I saw some last time I was there.
Labels:
Archaeology,
Food,
Ireland
Robo fish farm
The latest twist in piscatorial matters is a robot fish farm designed to carry their finny charges along their natural migration routes.
Question is, why? Is it to increase yields or just to mess with their little heads?
Question is, why? Is it to increase yields or just to mess with their little heads?
Labels:
Robots
Arabian atoms
Saudi Arabia is considering building its first nuclear reactor.
So much for being able to sleep at night.
So much for being able to sleep at night.
Labels:
Nuclear,
Saudi Arabia
Thursday 20 August 2009
Wednesday 19 August 2009
Lunar reactor
Not bad, but 2.3 kilowatts is hardly going to be enough to power the death ray that will hold the world for ransom, will it?
Needs more work.
Needs more work.
Labels:
Moon,
Technology
Phantom Werks
Not bad, but I'd rather use the bar as my desk and keep this for meetings. One bad report and it's "hello, Martin Baker" time.
Now, where's my white cat?
Now, where's my white cat?
Labels:
Technology
Care for a rat?
That's going to make for some awkward parties.
Labels:
Science
Tuesday 18 August 2009
Artificial Tongue
From Wired:
A new artificial tongue is better than the real thing.I'm not touching this with a barge pole.
Labels:
Technology
Trabant nT
How to reintroduce one of Communism's most horrible cars to the 21st century? Make is an all-electric, solar-powered version.
That'll work.
That'll work.
Monday 17 August 2009
RESULT! 131 MPH on steam
The British Steam Car Challenge breaks the Mallard's steam speed record of 125.88 mph set in 1938 and Fred Mariott's 1906 speed in a Stanley Steamer of 127.659.
Well done, lads.
(And yes, my very American seven-year old daughter does know the chorus.)
Well done, lads.
(And yes, my very American seven-year old daughter does know the chorus.)
The gauntlet is thrown down
The Food Police World Cancer Research Fund demands that ham be banned from school lunchboxes.
My advice to the WCF is to quit now and just walk away clean. Go after tobacco, go after coconut oil, go after sugar, or go after transfat if you like, but go after the ham and you're unsealing a tin of whup-ass on yourself.
My advice to the WCF is to quit now and just walk away clean. Go after tobacco, go after coconut oil, go after sugar, or go after transfat if you like, but go after the ham and you're unsealing a tin of whup-ass on yourself.
Mixed war news
With so many in the West so eager to surrender I sometimes wonder why the Jihadists even bother to plant bombs any more.
Labels:
Dhimmitude,
Jihad
Sunday 16 August 2009
Saturday 15 August 2009
Thursday 13 August 2009
Hi-de-Hi to Ocean hotel
Butlins gets into the luxury hotel business.
They've come a long way from the holiday camps, Redcoats, and "chalets" that I spent my younger days avoiding like an escaped prisoner of war.
They've come a long way from the holiday camps, Redcoats, and "chalets" that I spent my younger days avoiding like an escaped prisoner of war.
Labels:
Britain
Semi-hiatus
Family matters are going to be absorbing a lot of my time over the next month. Posting will be light, but I'll try to front load some special items, so keep checking back.
Labels:
Chez Szondy
Wednesday 12 August 2009
Ha har!
You cares about modern piracy? After all, it's just something that happens in faraway places like...
Uh, oh.
Uh, oh.
The new "N" word
Do you think that Barack Hussein Obama is a Socialist?
Then you, my friend, are a racist.
Update: and another code word.
Then you, my friend, are a racist.
Update: and another code word.
Labels:
Obama,
United States
Jimmy Carter in spandex
Cranmer discovers The Elders of the Earth, where self-regard meets senility.
I like the name, though. Didn't Stan Lee write the first issues?
I like the name, though. Didn't Stan Lee write the first issues?
Labels:
Insanity
It'll all end in tears, I know it
Labels:
Robots
Tuesday 11 August 2009
Things you should never say
Hillary Clinton:
My husband is not the Secretary of State, I am.Translation:
My husband is the Secretary of State, not me.
Labels:
United States
The Ballad of G I Joe
Sometimes you just need to put down the laser rifle and kick back.
Labels:
Humour
Monday 10 August 2009
An elephant handgun
One round, but one should be enough.
If it isn't, you're in deep doo doo.
Labels:
United States,
Weapons
Wile E Coyote, call your service
I love this idea; use sheets of cloth to detonate anti-tank rounds before they reach the armour. Brilliant.
I'm certain that the inventor was a bird-obsessed carnivore who tried to stop a train from hitting him by pulling down a window blind.
I'm certain that the inventor was a bird-obsessed carnivore who tried to stop a train from hitting him by pulling down a window blind.
Labels:
Britain,
Technology,
Weapons
Gaius Julius Obama
I've characterised Barrack Hussein Obama's governing style as a man who'd rather be king, but I never felt that it really fit because feudalism implies not only reciprocal obligation, but right of birth–neither of which apply. Instapundit, however has the word that I was grasping for and hoped I'd never see raised in an anglophone democracy:
Caesar.
Thank God he has no legions.
Caesar.
Thank God he has no legions.
Labels:
Obama,
United States
Another nail
According to The Times, walking backwards in the presence of the Queen has been abolished on the grounds of (all together now!) health and safety.
In other news, the various health and safety busybodies have been abolished due to softening of the brain.
In other news, the various health and safety busybodies have been abolished due to softening of the brain.
Labels:
Britain,
Royal Family
James May in space
This is the sort of documentary I like; not a load of talking heads, generic music, and fake drama, but someone who loves his subject and has the ability to convey that love.
And yes, I hate his guts, the lucky bastard.
Labels:
BBC,
Britain,
Space,
United States
Sunday 9 August 2009
Saturday 8 August 2009
Friday 7 August 2009
Woman marries rollercoaster
When you start redefining marriage, why stop with gender? Or reality?
And I thought I was "out there" when I brought up cheese sandwiches.
And I thought I was "out there" when I brought up cheese sandwiches.
What Jihad?
God help us all.
Labels:
Jihad,
United States
Why so Socialist?
This is insulting, racist, treasonous, hate speech, and utterly beyond the pale.
This is artistic, political satire, protected by the first amendment, and entirely proper.
Yeah. Right.
Update: Unfair to the Joker!
Labels:
Obama,
United States
Thursday 6 August 2009
Thick or what?
Ron Liddle in The Spectator asks whether our Harriet is criminally disingenuous or just plain thick?
Along with Mr Liddle I suspect the latter, but my real question about our Harriet is how decadent has British politics become when the "Equality Minister" (may that post vanish after the next election) is tipped to become the next leader of New Labour while the Defence Minister is an ineffectual nobody who is forever apologising for his inadequacies.
Asylums and inmates, I suppose.
Along with Mr Liddle I suspect the latter, but my real question about our Harriet is how decadent has British politics become when the "Equality Minister" (may that post vanish after the next election) is tipped to become the next leader of New Labour while the Defence Minister is an ineffectual nobody who is forever apologising for his inadequacies.
Asylums and inmates, I suppose.
Labels:
Britain,
New Labour
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