Moe Lane

Do you know what a big problem is going to be in orbital construction, once we get serious about doing it in bulk?  Inertia, in free-fall situations.  You see, while an object’s effective weight in free-fall may become nil, its inertia remains unchanged.  This means that once an object starts moving, it keeps moving – and it can only be made to stop moving by the application of sufficient force; you can’t count on gravitational pull to help do the work for you.  The end result is that you can easily be in a situation where you’ve got something with ten tons’ worth of mass moving in one direction… and eventually impacting something that can’t shrug off an impact with ten tons’ worth of mass, and will thus crumple or shatter under the strain slowly, but inexorably.  Nothing you can’t work around, but it’s something that you have to plan for.

And why am I telling you this?

Oh, no reason: (more…)

…Wait. What?

The event had people supporting the Mayors Against Illegal Guns movement, founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, reading the names of those “killed with guns” since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary outside their “No More Names” bus.

[snip]

Some of the loudest shouts came when a reader spoke the name of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects who was killed by police during a gunfight.

There are people who are UPSET that Tamerlan Tsarnaev got shot? And not because we can’t read information off of a corpse’s brain*? God, but Mike Bloomberg’s got some seriously freaky supporters. (more…)

Just to make it clear:

• I am assuming that the current farm bill is a huge pile of pigsh*t.  Only less useful as fertilizer.
• I have not researched it to determine how the current farm bill is a huge pile of pigsh*t, largely because every other farm bill in my lifetime has been a huge pile of pigsh*t and after a while in this business you learn to spot trends.
• I am also assuming that none of you need to be told that the current farm bill is a huge pile of pigsh*t.
• Do any of you have the bribe money necessary to make a viable counter-offer that would set this huge pile of pigsh*t on fire?  No?  Don’t feel bad; neither do I.
• I’ll be less mildly cynical about the situation as soon as I hear a viable plan for setting this huge pile of pigsh*t on fire that does not include the implicit step And then a miracle happens.  Which I privately anticipate will be a factor in every solution that gets proposed.

Sorry, folks. The agricultural industry has, as it has been put, “awesome iconography.” And don’t they just know it, too.

Click through: I refuse to spoil the joke.  Then again, it’s xkcd, so you’ve probably already read it. And laughed.

One Week, Barenaked Ladies

In that zone.

Grabbed Ken Hite’s The Nazi Occult (Dark) out of the mailbox, ran home, ripped it out of the box, read it in one go. Everything that I wanted it to be, and more: I hope Osprey Publishing does a lot of this sort of thing. (more…)

I believe that this was the CNN/ORC poll question that made David Plouffe freak out earlier today:

The percentage of people who think that the IRS story is very important dropped from 55% to 51% in the last month, sure – but in that same time period the reaction to it has solidified.  Half the country thinks that the IRS was ordered by the White House to target conservative groups.  And guess what?  It’s including parts of the country that the administration was kind of hoping wouldn’t be susceptible: (more…)

Contrary to popular the President’s belief:

President Obama: “If you are a U.S. person, the NSA cannot listen to your telephone calls and the NSA cannot target your emails.”

— The White House (@whitehouse) June 18, 2013

…we are not persons, we are not inhabitants, and we are emphatically not subjects. We are citizens.  (more…)

Well, this should be interesting:

Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell (R) announced Tuesday that he will officially challenge Sen. Mark Begich (D) in 2014, transitioning from an exploratory committee to a full-fledged campaign.

“This intense exploratory effort has convinced me that I have the support necessary to build a winning campaign,” Treadwell said on his Web site. “Today I’m taking the next step by announcing that I will not seek re-election as Alaska’s lieutenant governor and have begun to file documents required as a candidate for the United States Senate in 2014.”

(More via Roll Call) Lt. Governor is a good get; Treadwell was elected in 2010 and Sean Parnell isn’t going anywhere, any time soon, so this is a good lateral move for the Lt. Governor.

(more…)

I just got this passed to me:

GREEN SLIME in the Philly sewers!!!!! : http://t.co/CsJbbktBCS

— Moe Lane (@moelane) June 18, 2013

…and here’s the title song:
(more…)

In retrospect – budget cuts, or no – the Philadelphia Water Department probably shouldn’t have stolen the diamond eye of that sleeping spider-god in that ruined underground temple down at the third sub-level.  Especially while the comet was in the sky during a full moon.

RT @DRUDGE_REPORT: Green fluorescent fluid oozes out of Philly sewers… http://t.co/4S52hJ4MpF | BOLO for ninja turtles.

— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) June 18, 2013

(more…)

Well, it’s official: nobody is immune to poll rationalization.

Unskew CNN? RT @davidplouffe: Suspicion is independents in CNN poll skew too conservative too. Bad polls more frequent now. Fact of life.

— Adrian Gray (@adrian_gray) June 18, 2013

NOBODY.

Moe Lane

PS: I will admit: I thought that David Plouffe would have gotten the Unskew vaccine as a matter of course.  But it would seem that the man has a smaller skill set than two successful Presidential elections might have suggested.  Fascinating.