Inventions Wanted

We actually had one of these for Carl the Cattle Dog and Little Ann, but after a few months of hitting the lexan flap at the speed of an express train they'd pretty much reduced the mechanism to scrap.

So it ends

Not a moment too soon.

The NYPD give the final Downtwinkles to the Occupation.

The Phrase 'Rape and Pillage'

Time to wrap up the show, lads

The Occupation isn't doing too well now.  They've been pushed out of Oakland by riot police, not to mention Portland where 50 of them were arrested (three for possession of explosives) and the Seattle branch scored a beautiful own-goal by attacking their own supporters.  Though, I think that the prize must go to Occupy Harvard where no one actually showed up except two policemen and a pair of photographers.

To cap it all, comic book artist Frank Miller has a message for the Occupiers:

Occupy’ is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America. 

Wake up, pond scum. America is at war against a ruthless enemy. Maybe, between bouts of self-pity and all the other tasty tidbits of narcissism you’ve been served up in your sheltered, comfy little worlds, you’ve heard terms like al-Qaeda and Islamicism. And this enemy of mine — not of yours, apparently – must be getting a dark chuckle, if not an outright horselaugh – out of your vain, childish, self-destructive spectacle.

That would be a Down Twinkles.

Update:  Not just explosives, but explosives made into weapons banned by the Hague and Geneva conventions, which makes the Portland Three terrorists.

San Francisco to Oakland in five minutes

Why you'd want to go there at all is another matter.

Ireland: Where free men are now livestock

From the BBC:

Health Minister Edwin Poots has said he will consider banning smoking in all cars and not just those with children as passengers.

Dear God, Why don't they just drop the pretence, herd us into pens and start selective breeding?

The Master Mystery: Part 2

The enemy within

Mr David Cameron, the traitor and leader of the illegal junta that is occupying Britain, is going to destroy the British Army:

As many as 10 of the existing 36 infantry battalions and five of the 11 Royal Armoured Corps regiments could be lost as the Army cuts up to 16,500 posts in the next three years.

I was going to say "decimate", but that only means getting rid of one in ten.  This is wholesale disarmament. We have got to get shot of this villainous political class or there won't be a Britain left to save.

Go on, taste it

Nice box, though

The world's most expensive tea, at $69,000 a pound is made from the finest, hand-picked...

Panda poo.

That's a lot of money to shell out for a practical joke.

And they're ungrateful clingers, too.

Maybe they're just following His example.

Mr Barack Hussein Obama says that Americans are "lazy".

Instapundit says that Mr Soetoro turning out to be the next Jimmy Carter is the best case scenario.  Frankly, I think we're in James Buchanan territory now.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Plasma-filled bags could replace the Petri dish

The humble Petri dish may soon be a thing of the past. A team of researchers in Germany have developed a new technique for treating plastic bags with plasmas to turn them sealed, sterile containers suitable for microbiology work with much less chance of contamination than traditional containers. This holds the promise of not only decreasing the possibility of contamination in stem cell and live-cell therapy techniques, but also the potential for cultivating whole human organs for transplant surgery... Continue Reading Plasma-filled bags could replace the Petri dish

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Episode 1

Russian Mars probe trapped in orbit

Hope is fading for the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars, as the probe has been trapped in low Earth orbit since Wednesday. The 13-ton (11.8-tonne) unmanned spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 9, atop a Ukrainian Zenit-2 booster. Baikonur ground control lost track of the probe when it failed to appear in its predicted orbit. According to the Russian Space Agency, the Phobos-Grunt's engines failed to fire twice, leaving the probe in a low, rapidly decaying orbit. Despite continuing efforts, ground control has been unable to get the probe to respond to commands and can only receive telemetry data from it. If the Russians are unable to regain control, the Phobos-Grunt is expected to make an uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, along with its 8.3 tons (7.5 tonnes) of highly toxic propellant and radioactive cobalt-57... Continue Reading Russian Mars probe trapped in orbit

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Palindrome Day

11/11/11

A happy 11/11/11 to you all.

Or, if you're American, 11/11/11.

Armistice Day

The Body in Question: Part 8

SpaceX Dragon to Mars

NASA is looking into using the SpaceX Dragon for a Mars mission that could be cheaper and more efficient.

As I've said before, the real Space Age will begin the same way the Age of Exploration did; not with quirky and expensive experimental vehicles built for specific mission, but with general commercial craft that can do the job in their stride.

Occupy update

Steve Crowder goes under deep cover

The "Occupy" movement is looking more and more like a bowel movement every day.  Here's what they've accomplished:

• Mindless rioting pretending it's the 1926 general strike
• "Non-violent" protesters debating ad nauseum about why violence is justified
• A president who supports them, yet takes more money from Wall Street than anyone else
• People just generally getting bored with them
• Lots and lots of violence and vandalism
• A new low in civil discourse and even basic logic
• An inability to do more than ape the hippies of the 1960s
• Refining the fine art of punching out photographers
• Becoming flat-out mobs
• Anti-Semitism
• Another dead body in camp
• Another attack on journalists
• One of their founders charged with contempt of court
• Carrying water for the very people who caused the problem in the first place
• "Occupations" that could fit in a taxi
• Champions of the workers attacking street vendors
• Revealing the complicity of the MSM
• Terrorising businesses
• Making New York about as attractive to business as a battle zone
• Revealing double standards that the Left benefits from
• No bread sticks, no peace
• Electing a dog as leader
• Attacking a bank and then depositing money in it
• Did we mention the Anti-Semitism?
• Occupy Whitehorse folds up because he got cold

And on, and on.

Alcohol-free whisky

One question:

WHY?!?!?!?!

Star Cops: Other People's Secrets

LA Design Challenge 2011 competitors imagine "Hollywood's hottest new movie car"

Hollywood is not only famous for movies, but for showing us motor cars as they should be. James Bond's gadget-laden Aston Martin DB5, the magical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Bullitt's indestructible Ford Mustang, Marty McFly's time-traveling Delorean and all of the incarnations of the Batmobile - these are the cars we walk into the dealer's showroom hoping to see, but never do. They exist nowhere except on the screen or as movie props. So what will become "Hollywood's hottest new movie car"? That's the question posed to automotive designers in the 2011 L.A. Auto Show Design Challenge. Drawing on the latest technology, decades of design experience and a healthy dose of imagination, here's how designers from major car companies have met this cinematic challenge... Continue Reading LA Design Challenge 2011 competitors imagine "Hollywood's hottest new movie car"

Maybe it's time again

The Bill of Rights

Over at EU Referendum, guest poster Sandy Rham gives a potted account of the Bill of Rights that holds this interesting observation (emphasis added):

Lawyers will try and persuade you that since GB has no written Constitution it has no Constitution. This is not so, we have 'Constitutional Documents' of which by far the most important are the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Rights 1688, the result of James II demise. The reason these carry more weight is that in both cases the Rule of Law had broken down and the documents represented the conditions under which the rebels would give their Consent to the Rule of Law.

With the illegal Junta in power and her majesty unwilling to dismiss them, the rule of law has certainly been tossed out the window, so maybe it's time that those conditions be announced again.

Red Arrows death

Unfortunate accident or the result of defence cuts?

The second Red Arrows death within three months occurs at RAF Scampton when the Hawk T1 trainer's ejector seat fired on the runway.

Normally, I'm of the watch and wait mind on this sort of thing, but given the criminal (and I do mean that literally) cuts the RAF has suffered, I want the Red Arrows' maintenance budget gone over with a fine tooth comb and if there's been any skimping, then I want to see prison sentences handed out–and as high up as possible.

Burn, heretic!

Like the 10:10 video that preceded it, this one shows where the heart of Environmentalism lies–in a place that Comrade Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky would feel right at home.

Allegiance to the Welsh

The Junta robs Britain to pay Brussels

From the BBC:

The UK could potentially give up to £40bn to the IMF to help the global economy, Treasury Chief Secretary Daniel "Danny" Alexander has said.

Marvellous.  It's bad enough that the illegal junta lead by the traitor David Cameron acts like it's keeping New Labour's seat warm for them, guts the constitution on a bizarre whim, and cuts back the defence budget to the point where the seas around Britain are literally undefended; now they want to take enough money to build an entire nuclear-powered carrier group and hand the lot over the European Empire via an IMF money laundering scheme.

Now we know where their loyalties lie and it isn't with Britain.

God help us.

Decline is a choice

Proof from the Telegraph that the EU is a dead tyranny walking:

Beekeepers face being driven out of business by a European court ruling that pollen must be listed as an ingredient of honey.

No wonder the Empire has to go cap in hand to the Chicoms!

It speaks to the heart

For the grown up eight-year old; a pocket case with a cigarette compartment, writing tablet, telescoping pencil, stamp container, five-inch rule, lighter, pocket knife and watch.

It's utterly ludicrous and impractical and I want one so bad that it hurts.

The Master Mystery: Part 1

Meanwhile, back at the lab

Swiss scientists create "cyborg" yeast.

When asked why they did it, they got a bit sulky and started mumbling that they were just "cocking about".

Eleven minutes late

Escaped lion at Shepley.

But it's the conservatives who are the mob

I love it when the camera swings and we see how tiny a collection the 99 percent are.

Let's have the run down:

• Rape shelters
• Assaulting reporters
• Attacking old women
• Going berserk at a McDonald's after demanding free food
• The one percent of the 99 percent
• Woman found dead in camp
• Rampant vandalism
• Setting up "model societies" that are exercises in anarchy with Fascism in the wings
• $10 million arson job
• Lice
• And, of course the rampage in Oakland

Bear in mind that this lot is endorsed by Mr Barack Hussein Obama and the leaders of his party and that the MSM have given them glowing coverage.  My favourite is the hoary old line that the "demonstration was peaceful until the rioting started".  That's like saying "The Luftwaffe were on a peaceful flight until they started dropping bombs on London".

The more I look at this nasty little echo of 1968, the more I believe that this is the true face of the Left* laid naked.  Hopefully, we'll be paying attention this time.

*At least, the foot soldiers that the Political Class have abandoned.

Update: Felony arrests, "Shut down Burger King"...


Update:  The MSM's double standard and the "urban Burning Man festival".

Update: Unemployed puppeeters who can't find jobs in their field.

How to Build a Nuclear Submarine

Blakes 7: Logic of Empire

The Asphyx

How to publish a fanzine

Add caption

For those of you who prefer to remain way behind the curve.

Soviet Future Past or there's a tractor in your future

Interesting, but a bit too Five Year Planny for my tastes

Faking it

How they shipped all this to Mars dominates the first third of the film.

I see that the European Space Agency's fake Mars mission is about to end.  That means it's time to dust off that screenplay I've been working on.

The premise is that just before the fake mission to Mars was about to begin, the Mars simulation gear develops a glitch that would have meant scrubbing the mission.  Fearing embarrassment and  a loss of credibility, ESA tries to cover up for the failure of the fake mission by actually sending the team to Mars to send back videos from the "fake" red planet.  Unfortunately, now that the "mission" is over, the crew knows too much and has to be shut up.  Permanently.

I think it's got box office potential.

The Body in Question: Part 7

Blackberries... of the FUTURE!

A Blackberry future without Blackberries.

I agree with a lot of Mim Bits's points.  I'd even go farther about this is another example of people stuck in offices using a supped up version of Powerpoint to distract them from the depressing fact that they're working in offices.  But I do have a few questions:

1. Why the deuce don't they think more about what people actually need?  I'd be content if windows opened up and videos played as fast and reliably as they do here.
2. Does that little, badly designed smart phone project the graphics on any surface or do I need to install "smart" furniture all over the place just to set up an interface?
3. Instead of locking out the stolen phone and wiping the memory, why doesn't it do something useful?  I'd suggest a coil of primer cord installed in the phone.  One keystroke and I'd hear a satisfying WHUMP off in the distance.

History of the Eagle Transporter

Gavin Rothery looks at the lineage of one of television's stalwart science fiction spacecraft.

Via Dark Roasted Blend.

Zaphod Beeblebrox, call your service

Extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake

Popular Science posts a map of the Universe that confirms what I've always suspected:  It revolves around me.

And I didn't have to go to the Frogstar to confirm it.

Star Cops: A Double Life

Shenzhou docking is good news for China's manned space station plans

Two unmanned Chinese spacecraft, the Shenzou 8 and the Tiangong 1, have rendezvoused and docked in low Earth orbit. With this, the People’s Republic of China took a step closer toward fulfilling its ambitions of becoming a major space-faring nation. If this mission continues to prove successful, China will be on the road toward its goal of building a manned space station by 2020. Read More

Luxury at 40,000 feet

Born Rich looks at the world's most luxurious airlines.

Nice if you've got the dosh (and you'd better have a heck of a lot of it to throw around), but I remember a time when I could get a third class seat and still be treated as something other than two-legged cattle.  True, I understand the economics at play, but I can't help feeling that something else has been lost by both the providers and the purchasers of today.  Airlines do everything short of putting up wooden benches and scattering straw on the deck while passengers show up dressed like sloppy children and acting like them as well.  I often wonder which is encouraging which.

oh, for a more civilised age.

Beats walkies

Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump!

Britain defenceless

Thanks to the insane budget cuts inflicted on the Royal Navy by Mr David Cameron's illegal junta, there is no longer a warship available to defend Britain's coasts.

We are right in it.

Declining respect for the elderly

Belgium surrenders to the darkness

About as useful for light as the other "alternatives"

Belgium's government announces plan to shut down the country's nuclear reactors in favour of "alternatives".  And I'm betting that they don't mean coal or gas.

The lights are going out all over Europe–metaphorically and literally.

Productivity Future Vision

"Productivity Future Vision";  winner of the creepy title of the year award

You can tell that Microsoft produced this; a collection of not very well thought out designs overloaded with features that are confusing, buggy and aim at solving non-existent problems.  The last thing I want is a kitchen counter that has to download the latest software updates before I can chop an onion.

Don't get me wrong.  I love digital gadgetry.  It's what allows me to make a living as a writer and if netbooks and wifi had been around 30 years ago, I'd have said, "Screw the PhD".   However, this is farcical overload.

Moral of the story:  iPads have their place, but I'm still tucking my Moleskine and pen in my jacket when I leave the house.

Breaking chains

Over at the Spectator, Ian Milne looks at what steps would be required for Britain to declare independence and leave the European Empire in two years' time.

Actually, two years is 729 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes too long.  All we need to do is vote to repeal the European Communities Act 1972 and we're out.  The rest is just house cleaning.

Some critics have pointed out that leaving the Empire would mean a nightmare of negotiating an avalanche of bilateral agreements to replace those with the Empire, but I prefer a simple solution to this that is also a neat little twist of the knife.  Instead of negotiating new treaties with France or Germany or Poland, Britain should take the euro-tyrants at their word about "ever closer union" and refuse to recognise the existence of any of the member states.  We could simply close our embassies in Paris, Berlin, Madrid or wherever, expand the one in Brussels and appoint a new ambassador to the Empire.

You want a meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr Sarkosy?  Sorry, he doesn't have time to chat with lowly provincial governors.

Next week: The Master Mystery

Also available as a DVD box set if you're the impatient type.

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe: Chapter 12

No ****, Sherlock

BBC headline:

Gaddafi: 'He died an angry and disappointed man'

I'm going out on a limb here, but if an angry mob dragged me out of the sewer pipe I was hiding in after my convoy was bombed and then they shot me in the head, that would put a damper on my mood as well.

Halloween bonus: Night of the Eagle

Caligula in pinstripes

Mr Cameron's role model

Mr David Cameron, traitor and leader of the junta that illegally occupies Britain, has succumbed to a brand of brand of monomania that combines delusions of grandeur with being fundamentally a wet slap.  Britain faces her worst economic crisis since the 1930s; across the Channel, democracy is suffocating under a technocratic oligarchy who have usurped all power to itself and what does the Prime Minister do?   He threatens to cut foreign aid to countries that don't subscribe to a radical homosexual rights agenda.  Not those who massacre their citizens or keep them in bondage or reduce their economies to kleptocratic hell holes, mind you, but those who think redefining marriage is a bad idea.

Needless to say, what he doesn't mean is cutting off aid to Jihadist countries that execute homosexuals as a matter of routine.  That would be crazy.

At the very least, this shows a man who has absolutely no idea of where his priorities lie.  If he had any integrity or even sanity, he would spend every waking hour reversing the "reforms" inflicted on Britain by his predecessors going back to John Major as well as repealing every bit of  legislation passed since 1997.  Instead, he indulges in fits of madness such as demanding more female executives in private firms where it's none of his damn business, crushing a non-binding bill calling for a referendum on the European Empire and then claiming that he will "claw back" power from Brussels when he has no ability whatsoever to do so and wouldn't if he did, and saying that criminals on benefits should face stiffer fines.

The last one left me, for want of a better word, gobstruck.  Stiffer fines?  Here's an idea; how about removing the criminal from the public teat and never allowing him back on?  Sorry, I'm wandering back into the realm of sanity again.  He'll be declaring war on the sea next.

I can't wait for the Christmas honours list when Mr Cameron elevates a horse to the peerage.

What's for breakfast?

A proper breakfast

I have a joke that my family and friends sincerely wish I'd stop making while digging into leftover takeaway, but won't until I get a laugh: What's so strange about eating Chinese food for breakfast?  A billion people in China do it everyday.

Now the question of what Chinamen eat for breakfast is answered as well as for 49 other countries around the world.

However, they still fail to answer why 49 countries still refuse to tuck into a full English breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, baked beans, chips and a fried slice as God intended.

Nonne hic parco

From Yahoo news (I refuse to include the exclamation mark.  If they want a logo, let them buy an advert):

Police in Sicily issued a whopping 32,000 euros ($44,500) fine for an illegally parked car after totting up 2,000 years of interest by mistake, Italy's Repubblica newspaper said Wednesday. The interest due was calculated from the year 208 A.D. after a policeman dated the fine back to the year 208 instead of 2008.

It seems to me that the lady in question should have had the ticket revoked on the grounds that after 1803 years parked in the same spot without previous fines she's established an easement.

Perisher

Successful Progress spacecraft launch is good news for the ISS

The future of the International Space Station (ISS) became more secure today when the Russian space agency, Rosocosmos carried out a successful launch of an unmanned Progress spacecraft. The 15,718 lb (7,130 kg) cargo ship carried its three tons of supplies into orbit and successfully deployed its solar arrays without incident. This launch confirms that the Soyuz-U launch vehicle is once again safe to carry the manned spacecraft needed to ferry crews to the ISS. Read More

New paper-based explosives sensor is made with an ink jet printer

Detecting explosives is a vital task both on the battlefield and off, but it requires equipment that, if sensitive enough to detect explosives traces in small quantities, is often expensive, delicate and difficult to construct. Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute have developed a method of manufacturing highly sensitive explosives detectors incorporating RF components using Ink-jet printers. This holds the promise of producing large numbers of detectors at lower cost using local resources. Read More

Earthsearch Part 10

The Wild Geese

Prime Minister commits treason

At the Commonwealth conference in Australia, Mr David Cameron has succeeded in abolishing the principle of primogeniture and removed the ban on the monarch marrying a Roman Catholic.  The legal implications of this are unimaginable and by doing so he effectively repeals the Act of Settlement and the Bill of Rights.

It also means that he is in violation of his oath and a traitor.  More than that, by this act the government of the United Kingdom ceases to have any legitimacy and can no longer command the loyalty or obedience of any subject of the Crown.  They are no longer the Queen's ministers.  They are an illegal junta.

For me, this is the last straw.  New Labour has already shown itself to be unfit for ever under any circumstances holding power because they fomented and abetted an invasion of Britain while doing everything they could to undermine the nation and its sovereignty.  The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have now joined them in putridity.

Britain is now lumbered with something worse than a one-party state.  We have a one-policy state.  Red, blue or yellow; it doesn't matter what the rosette, they all share the same ends and the same means and all of them are opposed to Britain, her people, their history, their institutions, their monarch, and even their very civilisation.  They are the tentacle of a self-serving, self-perpetuating euro-oligarchy that covers the European Empire like a blanket and pretends to be the technocratic revival of the old continent-wide aristocracy that held sway before 1914–only shabbier, stuffed with utopian dreams like it was Socialist crab meat, and utterly oblivious to the wants or needs of the people they fatten off of.  They aren't just out of touch, they have deliberately cut themselves off behind their security doors and armoured limousines in a way that even the most insular lord never could.  They are worse than tyrannical, they are parasitic.

Now they have crossed the Rubicon.  The political class of Britain have made their governance illegitimate.  Yesterday, what I am about to say I would have qualified as hyperbole.  Today, I am serious.  If the British Army were to mutiny and send this lot to the Tower, I would support it.

As for her majesty, if she gives the royal assent to this, she should abdicate.

UR MHD

Not only is it an early take on the Hunt for Red October's caterpillar drive, but they've even have DIY instructions for building your own.

Nuclear submarine not included.

Book tour

The US economy is in tatters, the government is in debt beyond any entity in history, and Mr Barack Hussein Obama spends $38,000 handing out free copies of his memoirs to the Egyptians.

Nice one, Barry!  Does Bill Ayers get a cut for doing the ghost writing?

Elder Things, call your service

Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography claim to have found single-cell organisms on the ocean floor the size of apples and are entirely too complacent about it.

You fools!  Those are baby shoggoths!  Leave them alone or you only future is madness and, if God is merciful, death!

The Body in Question: Part 6

Vodka: So much more than a breakfast drink

Apparently, vodka makes a good chrome polish.

I'm not surprised.  I once had a bottle of "genuine Scotch whisky distilled in Bombay" (true!) that could eat the enamel off of a car bonnet in seconds flat.

Strange times

What an enlightened age we live in.  Tell people that you had the privilege of looking at the finger bone of a saint they think you're a superstitious holdover from the Dark Ages.  Tell them that you bid a small fortune for a lock of one of the guys who created Superman and no one bats an eyelash.

I'm missing something here.

Occupy then home for tea

An empty occupation

The Pay Off My Student Debt, Dad or I'll Hold My Breath Until I Turn Blue Occupy This, That and the Other protests has taken an interesting turn.

First they declared that they are "99 percent human".  Then they went about peacefully raping one another in more than one location.  After that they desperately tried to bring back the heyday of 1968,  but failed miserably. And then they adopted cartoon writer (sorry "graphic novel author") Alan Moore's dated, paranoid inversion of the world as their standard.  All good stuff.

Now they've hit as new low as infra-red video demonstrates that these stalwarts of the revolution, these defenders of the proletariat, these stickers of it to the Man, these dedicated defecators in public spaces are actually commuting to the "occupation" while leaving empty tents behind to hold their places in the off hours.

It gets cold at night, you know, and besides, they might miss Midsomer Murders.

Update: At least they're not rioting as in Oakland, California.

Slacker declares war on Oakland police!  So, what's it like on your planet?

Potholing

I've noticed a lot of stories recently about local governments being unable to find the money to fix potholes despite having bags of cash, apparently, for bike lanes, assistant deputy under secretaries of green outreach diversity communications, and general busybodydom.  It's very easy to point to massive national debts, insane "green" initiatives, and the parasitic welfare state and say that something has gone seriously wrong, but I have come to the conclusion that the lowly pothole is a much more significant indicator of how deep the rot has gone in our political classes.

We didn't get into the mess we're in because the government spent too much on fixing roads.  And it isn't even that money was spent in geneal, though that is the end result of the problem.  The real, fundamental issue of the day is pointed out by the prevalence of potholes.  There are very few things that a government must do to justify its existence.  On the local level, this can be summed up in a simple phrase: Your government exists to do mundane things like filling potholes.  

The political class has forgotten this. They have come to the conclusion that their function is to Save the Plantet^TM, usher in the secular millennium, treat the polity like children, inspect every plate of food for badness, every utterance for offence, and every thought for heresy.  They build huge, whirling monuments to themselves across the countryside and call it "alternative energy".  They "outreach", promote "diversity", "multiculturalism", "cohesion", "community" and a brand of "tolerance" of the sort that only a Commissar would appreciate.

What they don't do is fix potholes.

It is, in other words, a class that has completely inverted the priorities of the social contract that allows the state to govern the people.  Fixing roads, keeping the peace, settling disputes, defending the realm, maintaining parks; these sort of things are treated by everyone from local councils to national governments as if they were luxuries while fripperies like foreign aid, entitlements, "green" rat holes and gruesome social engineering programmes are shoved to the front of the queue with bushel baskets ready to receive the largesse of the State.

I often wonder what can be done to change this.  An electoral upheaval?  Reclaiming the institutions we've lost since that vile surrender of our culture that began in 1968?  Revolution?  No. What I recommend as a starting point is something much simpler: The pothole initiative.

The idea is very simple.  The people must become like a four-year old who wants Daddy's attention and starts prodding him in the shoulder with his finger and keeps on doing so because he knows that he's going to live longer than the Old Man, who must eventually give in or die of old age.  Instead of getting into constant, ridiculous arguments about budgets, taxes and so on, go for the most fundamental approach.  At every opportunity, through every venue, via every medium, constantly and continually remind the political class of why they are allowed to exist.  No matter what new "crisis" they bring up, no matter what new crusade they raise the banner for, no matter what makes their eyes sparkle as they hear history's bugle calling them to battle, point to the real and metaphorical potholes in the High Street and say "fix it, then we'll talk and not before".

No matter what they say in reply, no matter what excuse, if they reach for the public purse while a core duty remains neglected, while a pothole remains unfilled, demand that they "fix it" before anything else is considered.

It's not the solution to this mess, I'll grant you, but it's a start.

Star Cops: In Warm Blood

True3D Head Up Display keeps drivers focused on the road

Developed by the California-based company Making Virtual Solid, True3D is billed as "an augmented reality navigational display engine designed to provide non-distracting, translucent location guidance." That's another way of saying that True3D takes the head-up display (HUD) to its logical conclusion - it uses a 3D projector to beam the display across the entire front window of the car, therefore keeping the driver's eyes on the road by unobtrusively blending in with the real world beyond the windscreen. Read More

Future Travel: 1965

Paleo Future looks at 1955's vision of travel in 1965.

A little optimistic, but who wouldn't want a car with afterburners?

Music to sooth

According to this report, this is the most relaxing tune in the world.

Asking Inappropriate Questions

Bike Wars

Seattle's answer to the Golden Calf

The mayor of Seattle, who believes that it is his right and duty to tell the citizenry what to do instead of the other way 'round, hopes to "de-escalate" the war between motor cars and cyclists.

Given his honour's policies, it seems that his idea of de-escalation is to demand that motorists agree to unconditional surrender.  Even the Leftist Seattle Times (what's left of it since the print edition went south) calls it "a recipe for disaster".  Actually, it's more  prescription for economic suicide as families and businesses flee the city.  But what can you expect from a city where the mayor dreams of building 118 miles of bike trails and making the metropolis "carbon neutral" but can't be bothered fix the potholes?

This is why I don't go near the place unless I absolutely have to.

Airborne Metro

How to solve the problem of airport congestion?  By building giant nuclear-powered aeroplanes that can act as flying airports.

Unfortunately, that just imposes the problem of giant nuclear-powered aeroplane airport congestion.

If

Kipling's poem that got me through the darkest hour of my life.

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe: Part 11

Leduc 0.22

Pull the ejector seat release and get sucked straight into the intake.
Learn how the pigeons live.

I found this on Dark Roasted Blend, who'd posted it for the the joy of it.  You have to love the Leduc 0.22; not so much an aircraft as a ramjet with a cockpit stuck inside it.

A recipe for failure

Not buying it, Barry.

Mr Barack Hussein Obama declares victory and announces the complete withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq.

I have seen a lot of tin-eared, cack-handed moves, but even for Mr Soetoro this takes the biscuit.  He's desperately trying to spin this as a triumph and the Guardian is boasting that this puts paid to the Neocon strategy, but that will only work if Mr Dunham and company have total control of the media, which they don't.   The fact is that the US commanders asked to keep at least 14,000 troops in the country and that any withdrawal would be offset by maintaining US bases in country.  However, an inexperienced US president and his inexperienced Secretary of State executed negotiations with the Iraqi government that were so inept that the Americans were lucky not to lose the homeland in the bargain and were asked to leave in toto.

None of this is surprising.  In fact, it's quite to form for Mr Obama.  He's already played the same song in Libya.  Look at his record: Refusing the go after Colonel Khadaffi, then trying to hide behind the pack, violating US law by refusing to seek congressional approval, failing to provide any US interest to justify his actions, claiming that it was purely a humanitarian mission and that removing Khadaffi was never the goal except that it turns out that it was, having "days, not weeks" become eight months, and then ending up with NATO acting as the air support for a load of rebels we know nothing about–except that they've just adopted Sharia as the law of the land.  Now that Khadaffi ends up with the 9 mm pension and Iran has the Best Christmas Present Ever to look forward to, The One has the gall to strut about with his a tinfoil sword and a cocked hat three times too large as if he was the Duke of Wellington.  More than that, his supporters have abandoned any pretence of legality and declare that Might Makes Right.

I was never too fond of Mr George Bush's penchant for nation building.  I thought it was an unnecessary  distraction from the more vital task of destroying the enemy.  It would have been far better if the Coalition had appointed military governors, gone after Iran and Syria in force, and told the Iraqis and Afghans in private that, as with the Germans and Japanese, they'll get self rule when we're convinced they can be trusted and not before.  For all that, Mr Obama makes Bush's strategy look Churchillian by comparison.  If I was this lot, I would stay very quiet because this is all going to come back to bite Barry very hard in some place very soft and sensitive.

Update:  Smart diplomacy reaps its dividends.