Tuesday, November 25, 2003
THE ABSOLUTE NATURE OF A RELATIVE UNIVERSE
In January 1926 a young Russian born woman left her home in the budding Soviet Empire, and arrived in New York on February 19 after celebrating her 21st birthday in Berlin. In five years she became an American citizen, and five years after that she published her first novel, We the Living, in the language of her adopted home. By her death in 1982, Ayn Rand had published several more novels, written several movies, and changed the world in which we live as the founder and chief spokesman for the...
Sign in to see full entry.
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
DID YOU FIGURE IT OUT? ABOUT THE CHICKEN, I MEAN?
Let’s put things in perspective first. I started out The Puzzle Machine or What is a Chicken, Exactly? with a riddle. Here it is again: Three people go together to a prix fix restaurant. They pay $30 to the maître d’ and go to their table. But the restaurant is having a special: “Three for $25,” so the maître d’ sends a waiter to their table with five $1 bills. On the way to the table the waiter reasons that $5 would be difficult to share among three people so he pockets $2 and gives $1 to each...
Sign in to see full entry.
Monday, November 17, 2003
I WANT YOU TO GO READ: THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY BLACK DEATH SYNDROME
I was not sure whether to post this in HEALTH FROM OUTSIDE THE BOX or in THRAWN RICKLE. I ended up putting it under HEALTH, but it is important, and I want your feedback (please). THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY BLACK DEATH SYNDROME
Sign in to see full entry.
Sunday, November 16, 2003
The Puzzle Machine or What is a Chicken, Exactly?
Three people go together to a prix fix restaurant. They pay $30 to the maître d’ and go to their table. But the restaurant is having a special: “Three for $25,” so the maître d’ sends a waiter to their table with five $1 bills. On the way to the table the waiter reasons that $5 would be difficult to share among three people so he pockets $2 and gives $1 to each person. Since each person originally paid $10 and got back $1, each ultimately paid $9, totaling $27. The waiter has $2, totaling $29....
Sign in to see full entry.
Thursday, November 13, 2003
THE SPIN STOPS HERE
In these columns I have often railed against spin, which I defined as deliberately distorting facts, ideas, or opinions so that facts no longer are what they were, and ideas or opinions take on a different meaning. Usually these changes serve to enhance the point of view of the person doing the spinning. I have implied, if not stated outright, that in today’s world I see more spin coming from the political left than the right. This morning, however, I saw dramatic spin from the lips of one who...
Sign in to see full entry.
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
BRING ON THE IMMIGRANTS!
What is an immigrant? Perhaps the definition with the widest acceptance is one who leaves his or her native country in order to settle permanently elsewhere. By this definition, obviously, children of immigrants born in the new homeland are not immigrants. Nations typically establish mechanisms whereby immigrants can become citizens. In the United States, naturalized citizenship carries with it nearly all the rights and privileges of birth citizenship. The exceptions include such things as...
Sign in to see full entry.
Wednesday, November 5, 2003
CHECK OUT THE COOL VIDEO LINKED TO...
... THE MISSILE AND THE 'CHICKEN LITTLE' SYNRDOME, posted earlier today. You'll need a Real One Reader installed. Get free one here.
Sign in to see full entry.
THE MISSILE AND THE 'CHICKEN LITTLE' SYNRDOME
On Oct. 20, 2002, Brandon Mawry, who is a News Videographer for WXXA-TV in Albany, N.Y., was videotaping at the end of an Albany International Airport runway. In Mawry's own words: "I was shooting a weather shot at the Albany International Airport, and I was at the end of a runway shooting a plane taking off in front of me. Once it got directly above me, I had to adjust the camera 180 degrees to film it taking off away from me, and when I was doing that adjustment, that's when that thing flew...
Sign in to see full entry.
Sunday, November 2, 2003
SULFUR, SULFER EVERYWHERE — AND HOW THE ACID RAIN DOETH FALL
A country vocalist croons that we “burn fossil fuel and get it back as acid rain.” A popular conception is that our forests are being depleted to manufacture paper, and that the remainder is dying because of acid rain; that our lakes are becoming acid laden, killing fish and other aquatic life. This is based in large part on the mineral titration theory, which was the key to environmentalist alarms regarding the acid rain threat during the 1980s. As quoted by Chetly Zarko in a 1992 article The...
Sign in to see full entry.
Thursday, October 30, 2003
THE FINAL FRONTIER — WILL IT BE JAPANESE?
The United States commitment to space development has again been pared back. Our long-term goal still is to place a permanent human presence on the moon and on our sister planet, Mars, within the next few decades, but except for a statement of intent, we are doing precious little to make this happen. In the meantime, several other nations on this planet are surging ahead with ambitious plans to exploit this open-ended frontier. China just orbited its first person. Several other nations are...
Sign in to see full entry.
