December 25, 2014
Look Who's Back in the News
Well, it seems that a procedural discrepancy has resulted between one (Washington Post Article) and twelve (Drudge headline) lab techs being exposed to Ebola.
This difference in numbers is not just due to link-baitery on the part of Drudge, it appears that up to a dozen people were in close proximity to an Ebola sample with at least one being closely monitored for the next 21 days.
But wait there's more
The mistake comes after a series of incidents this summer involving the mishandling of dangerous pathogens at the nation’s labs. An incident at a CDC lab in June potentially exposed dozens of employees to live anthrax because employees failed to properly inactivate the anthrax when transferring samples.
Ebola Tan sez: "You know what? I'm really starting to like those CDC guys!"
In other Ebola news:
As of December first, 1400 people were being monitored for Ebola in the US.
The Ebola Czar decided to leave his post early next year. As Professor Reynolds says "It's almost as if he was brought in as a distraction. "
Also: Sierra Leone has canceled Christmas because of the outbreak.
Despite recent improvements in treatment, the current death toll is over 7,500, out of just under 20,000 cases.
This grim number provides a useful means to test predictions against results...
A couple of months ago, there were predictions of 1.4 million infected by the end of next month. Of course there are still 36 days to catch up, but that grim forecast is unlikely to be borne out. Thus, one can take comfort from the fact that the doomsayers were sufficiently wrong as to be off by a bit under two orders of magnitude.
On the other hand, as the linked article notes, the doomsayers in question were the CDC.
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December 17, 2014
Being a Terrorist Sure Does Get Results
Cuba meanwhile, took an American hostage and got the embargo lifted as a condition of his release.
North Korea and/or affiliated individuals have gotten a film's release cancelled by making terroristic threats. Sony knuckled under and pulled The Interview after a computer hack which revealed that Sony employs a bunch of jerks was complimented with a threat to do...something September eleventhy if the company released said film as scheduled.
Wow.
Neo has thoughts on this development including why the super secret nature of the Cuba capitulation should be extremely worrying with regard to the ongoing negotiations with Iran.
However, in the larger sense, the implication that terrorism now works quite efficiently in achieving one's strategic (and artistic) goals is likely to be a much bigger issue. While there was concern about such precedents in the wake of the Bergdhal and Innocence of Muslims controversies, these two events are rather unambiguous in the total overwhelming victory achieved by the perpetrators of violence. Sony is not a government, but its actions send a message about the stomach society has for standing up for free speech. This message is unlikely to be lost upon those that would do us harm.
Of course the fruits one gets from resorting to violence needs to be assessed in comparison with how one is treated by peacefully using the political process to support one's beliefs or policy goals.
Only then is a full assessment of the messages being sent by the powers that be be able to be fully appreciated.
I fear today's double dose of Quislingisms will come back to haunt us for years to come.
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Of Course...
....sacred honor requires that Brickmuppet Blog host this trailer.
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November 23, 2014
I Have a Question
It's...political...
"Please! No! I just wanted to take the day off and not worry about anything other than bidding on a Cool Science Shirt!"
Fear not.
My question is below the fold...
more...
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November 04, 2014
Election Day
The radio this morning had caller after caller going on about the issues in Virginia Beach, where the touch screen machines have apparently become self aware...and decided that they are Democrats.
Fortunately, here in Portsmouth, we use paper ballots and thus do our bit to keep Skynet at bay.
However, this morning at my polling place there were only three other voters present and I spent less time ther than I would have if I'd stopped for gas.
Elections are decided by those who bother to vote.
If I can't persuade you of the importance of doing your civic duty, perhaps this young lady can.
Gai Rei Zero's Isayama Yomi was rendered sans text by Zhen Lin
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September 14, 2014
Understanding Modern Vocabulary
As the English language leans forward into a brave new world of byzantine nomenclature, some individuals who have not been brought up to speed on the changes in terminology might come to the conclusion that certain recent statements are actually feckless dissembling rather than enlightened and inoffensive specificity.
To address the allegations, we've tracked down one of The Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Train hopping Linguists to parse the recent statements by the State Department on current events. So, from somewhere along the Masassas Line, here is our expert on exposition.
Dude..This is a [expletive deleted] of [expletive deleted] pollyanish [expletive deleted] newspeak. You interrupted my [expletive deleted] vacation to [expletive deleted] show me the English language being [expletive deleted] up the [expletive deleted] by a bunch of [expletives deleted] incompetents using Orwellian [expletive deleted] to distract from their [expletives deleted]. This [expletive deleted] is why I TOOK the vacation in the first place. I'm gonna [ remainder of correspondence deleted after consultation with standards and practices]
Well...
I guess the rest of the post needs to go below the fold...
more...
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August 14, 2014
Poetry Corner
This evening, my friend BOB! and I were discussing...current events ...when suddenly he broke into verse (as he is occasionally wont to do). He thus summed up the situation perfectly.
"Please don't let this be about politics...or Kipling."
Fear not gentle readers....We'll put it below the fold.
more...
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August 07, 2014
I Find to my Astonishment That I Do Not Immediately Despise This Plan
The President just gave a speech.
It was rather more direct than usual.
First some background.
ISIS (or ISIL) has been slaughtering, crucifying and otherwise creatively exterminating Christians for some time now. However, they have taken as their latest project the complete extermination of the Yazidi, an ancient community in Ninevah whose faith is an offshoot of Zoroastrianism,. The Yadzidi survivors have fled in an attempt to make for Baghdad but are now besieged and surrounded on a mountain in the desert where starvation and thirst are beginning to take their toll. Thus we are on the verge of a near total genocide.
ISIL has also taken the dam overlooking Baghdad which means they control vast amounts of electrical power a good percentage of the capitals water and can, should they blow the dam, drown thousands of civilians.
Elsewhere, the Kurds are on the ropes and the whole region is becoming an abattoir. Finally, ISIL, has put their territorial gains and the months they have been largely unmolested to good use, having grown from around 10,000 troops to well over 50,000.
The President is in a difficult position and none of the options before him are desirable. This evening he announced that US forces have begin air dropping aid to the Yadzidi and he has authorized what he describes as "targeted strikes" to defend them and a US consulate being menaced by ISIL troops.
As many of you know, I am not in agreement with our President on most maters, but tonight he is faced with a selection of wretched options and he chose what he believes is the least dreadful amongst them. There will be a lot of second guessing on this and in the weeks and months to come erudite and voluminous critiques of the minutia of his decision will be made and judgements will be passed with the profound wisdom and knowledge that comes from hindsight.
But for right now, Barak Obama, our president, has decided to attempt to stop a genocide. There is much to warrant concern, but I for one do not immediately despise this plan.
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June 14, 2014
An IT Question for Pixy (and any other IT professionals) UPDATED
In 1973 revelations that 18 and a half minutes of a recording on a reel-to-reel tape recorder had been erased dealt the death blow to an already struggling administration. In 2014 the revelation about the loss of every single E-mail pertinent to the investigations into the IRS political targeting of American citizens is being described as 'just one of those things'.
Pixy, as an IT professional, does the total credulity expressed by so many regards this data loss indicate that the powers that be actually have proof of the existence of a population of Magical Malevolent Data Eating Bunyips whose grazing range extends throughout the tubes of the internet?
I'm thinking that this hypothesis is the only way to square that circle.
Also: Assuming they are out there, can we coax these beasts into feeding instead on anything involving Air Jordan Snakeskins and their Dadaist proponents?
UPDATE: I mean seriously, ruling out bunyip involvement would have such implications as to open a can of yowies.
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June 10, 2014
OH WOW
There is a bit of political news from my home state that is worthy of comment.
Oh NO! Not NOW! Not politics! I just submitted a techno-yaoi manuscript to Bantam and now I'm gonna get frickking blacklisted!
You should have tried Baen, but fear not! We put the politics below the fold.
more...
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May 20, 2014
Thoughts on Tyson's Dismissal of Philosophy
While I share some of the frustrations Neil DeGrasse Tyson has with those who endlessly debate inane philosophical points, l a bit am wary of those dismiss all philosophical inquiry or ethical questions as pointless inhibitions on the road to progress. Such admonitions bring to mind the utopian efforts of the eugenicists, a group who surely were not questioned enough about the details and implications of their premises, objectives and methods. Those involved in the experiments upon Albert Stevens and others could have benefitted from "asking deep questions". Elsewhere, similar avenues of research, divorced from any inhibiting tendencies that philosophical reflection and debate might have produced, resulted in Buchenwald.
Thus, as much awesome as he exudes in popularizing science, Tyson's statement that students should actively avoid any philosophy courses and that any questions along philosophical lines are a waste of time is rather worrisome. His argument is superficially utilitarian...the irony of which is no doubt lost on Dr Tyson, but somewhere David Hume and Jeremy Bentham are amused....but unimpressed.
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March 24, 2014
Suddenly
....Venice just voted to secede from Italy.
It's not just one very wet town either, it's a chunk of northern Italy that includes cities as big as Trieste and Trento.
The referendum was non binding, and is being dismissed by the Italian government, but 89% is a big enough share of the vote that the issue is not going away.
We in the US might arguably loose our status as the oldest existing republic...Venice was once an independent republic and was at one time an economic powerhouse that contributed greatly to the Renaissance. Its system of government was referenced in debates on the US constitution.Venice was probably the longest lived Republic in history, lasting 1100 years. The 200 odd years since its destruction by the Jacobins spans less than a tenth of the time it existed. In fact after the Napoleonic Wars the region fought for and eventually gained their independence from Austria Hungary and re-established the republic (as San Marco) for 17 months only to have the area reconquered and later annexed by Italy.
Now the people of Northeastern Italy, fed up with Italian corruption and high taxes have held a referendum with 89% of the vote in favor of secession. The area has always been somewhat culturally distinct from the rest of Italy since its absorption.
Elsewhere in Italy, Sardinia is also looking to secede but is going about it differently. They are not just attempting to leave Italy, they are petitioning to accede into Switzerland, pointing out that the 8 new cantons would bring with them BEACHES, which Switzerland rather lacks at the moment.
It's not just one very wet town either, it's a chunk of northern Italy that includes cities as big as Trieste and Trento.
The referendum was non binding, and is being dismissed by the Italian government, but 89% is a big enough share of the vote that the issue is not going away.
We in the US might arguably loose our status as the oldest existing republic...Venice was once an independent republic and was at one time an economic powerhouse that contributed greatly to the Renaissance. Its system of government was referenced in debates on the US constitution.Venice was probably the longest lived Republic in history, lasting 1100 years. The 200 odd years since its destruction by the Jacobins spans less than a tenth of the time it existed. In fact after the Napoleonic Wars the region fought for and eventually gained their independence from Austria Hungary and re-established the republic (as San Marco) for 17 months only to have the area reconquered and later annexed by Italy.
Now the people of Northeastern Italy, fed up with Italian corruption and high taxes have held a referendum with 89% of the vote in favor of secession. The area has always been somewhat culturally distinct from the rest of Italy since its absorption.
Elsewhere in Italy, Sardinia is also looking to secede but is going about it differently. They are not just attempting to leave Italy, they are petitioning to accede into Switzerland, pointing out that the 8 new cantons would bring with them BEACHES, which Switzerland rather lacks at the moment.
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February 17, 2014
Happy Presidents Day
In compliance with FCC requirements that a certain percentage of our content be educational, we feel we should point to this...
...and take time to educate our readers about the fact that the United States played no part in Gallipoli or the Battle of Verdun, both of which took place before the US declared war in 1917.
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January 19, 2014
Perspectives
I've never really groked Touhou. Then I blundered across this primer which explains everything...
I...still don't get it.
more...
I...still don't get it.
more...
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January 16, 2014
Corrected For Mercator
This is interesting.
We've discussed amusing Mercator follies before, but this really drives home just how freaking huge Africa really is. As it straddles the equator, Africa (like South America) tends to receive maximal Mercator minimization.
Note that there is still space left over... I'm sure that one could squeeze Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and some of the Balkans in there at least.
The map is nicked from this article which touches on the rather surprising great game pantomime between China and Japan in Africa.
Interestingly, while it does note that they are "playing different games", with Japan looking to open new markets and China focused on 'soft power', China's goal is expressed mainly in obtaining African support for Chinesse policies in the United Nations.
However, China's big goal seems to be resource utilization. Of course Africa is exceedingly rich in minerals and China's buying up mines is fairly well known, however there is a more basic resource that China is very interested in that Africa can provide....food.
China has been buying up arable land in Africa to compensate for their lack of such back home and setting up plantations. More on that here, here and here. This is all going on with little notice due to the unfortunate tendency to ignore the vast and underdeveloped continent.
more...
We've discussed amusing Mercator follies before, but this really drives home just how freaking huge Africa really is. As it straddles the equator, Africa (like South America) tends to receive maximal Mercator minimization.
Note that there is still space left over... I'm sure that one could squeeze Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and some of the Balkans in there at least.
The map is nicked from this article which touches on the rather surprising great game pantomime between China and Japan in Africa.
Interestingly, while it does note that they are "playing different games", with Japan looking to open new markets and China focused on 'soft power', China's goal is expressed mainly in obtaining African support for Chinesse policies in the United Nations.
However, China's big goal seems to be resource utilization. Of course Africa is exceedingly rich in minerals and China's buying up mines is fairly well known, however there is a more basic resource that China is very interested in that Africa can provide....food.
China has been buying up arable land in Africa to compensate for their lack of such back home and setting up plantations. More on that here, here and here. This is all going on with little notice due to the unfortunate tendency to ignore the vast and underdeveloped continent.
more...
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January 05, 2014
If, Today, You Read Just One
...disquisition on Edmund Burke's views on morality and how it ties into traffic safety and the philosophy of John Ford, let this be it.
Even Yakui gives this one her seal of approval.
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October 31, 2013
BECAUSE YOU ARE ALL STUPID....STUPID!! STOOOPID!!
Ace has thoughts on the alpha intellects who struggle mightily with the Sisyphean task of dragging us ungrateful fools kicking and screaming into the future of blissful yet responsible nirvana that they have so benevolently chosen to bestow upon those of us, who, due to our profound ignorance, are unaware that we are part of the unworthy, ungrateful and barely sentient hoi polloi, and who, without our better's magnanimous guidance would have long since perished by aspirating our own foetid benightedness.
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October 24, 2013
Don't Run With Scissors!
more...
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October 21, 2013
Time is Fleeting
Many however, don't want to believe this.
For them we provide a comforting lie:
"That asshsat that Buzz Aldrin punched didn't know the HALF of it!"
For everyone else, the politics is below the fold...
more...
For them we provide a comforting lie:
"That asshsat that Buzz Aldrin punched didn't know the HALF of it!"
Super secret fresnel tech by S. Zenith Lee
For everyone else, the politics is below the fold...
more...
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October 06, 2013
A Certain Pithiness
I've been struggling for some time with a couple of half written posts. However, while there is grist aplenty for them, words are failing me...there is just so much to address.
Don however, has summed it all up in one sentence.
Don however, has summed it all up in one sentence.
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