Month: August 2015

by Ugh It seems Scott Walker is an incredibly bad candidate and all foam/no beer to boot.  We have Trump running circles around him and the rest of the, uh, distinguished gentlemen (and Ms. Fiorina) with nothing more than his hair and "BLARGH! I STRONG!" as a campaign.  Jeebus. So, despite my earlier thought that … Read more

by Doctor Science The Hugo Awards Ceremony is just starting. There’s a livestream here, they tell me — I have Flash disabled, so I can’t see it. I’m following Mur Lafferty’s twitter, Sasquan’s twitter, and the thread at File 770. The ceremony is on Pacific Time and I am on Eastern, so I am pretty … Read more

by wj OK, we need a new open thread. I get that. So here ya go. Once upon a time, I read a science fiction story which featured a group called “Control Normals”. (No, I don’t recall who the author was or what the title was. Perhaps one of the SF fans here will remember.) … Read more

by wj Last night we had the traditional annual family gathering to celebrate the birthdays of all of us born in late July and early August. (Which amounts to nearly half of us.) As always, the conversation ranged far and wide. But at one point, someone mentioned a colleague who is a conspiracy theory enthusiast. … Read more

by wj What do these two “countries” have in common? Officially, they don’t exist. In reality, of course, both control substantial swaths of territory (which used to be part of another country, which is collapsed or collapsing), are relatively well governed democracies, and have economies in far better shape than that of the country that … Read more

by russell saw this on NPR initially, now it's at Field and Stream of all places. I'm actually really curious to see how this shakes out, legally. For the record, I don't really have a problem with people blasting camera-bearing drones out of the sky if they are hovering over their property.  A 2nd Amendment solution to … Read more

by Ugh And so it begins.  Predictions?  Thoughts?  Winners/losers?  Will Donald's hairpiece walk off the stage?  Who will make the most outrageous statement?  Who helped most/least? My prediction:  Mr. Trump "wins" hands down.  Jeb Bush's popularity goes down.  Scott Walker will say the most insane thing and his popularity will soar because of it. Anyway, … Read more

by Ugh Because, gosh, there just isn't any evidence.  We're looking forward, not back.   Ex-CIA boss admits to BBC Panorama that it tortured The CIA tortured terror suspects in its programme of "enhanced interrogation", the agency's former executive director, Buzzy Krongard, has admitted to the BBC's Panorama programme. … I asked Buzzy Krongard, the … Read more