I’m sorry, but some of these “superuseless superpowers”…

…are actually useful. Lukewarm touch? Molten lava. Ultra short range teleportation? That’d get you through a window without opening/breaking it, no problem at all. Complementary Chameleon? Air Search and Rescue will hire you on the spot.


Superuseless Superpowers is a pretty cool site. I look forward to seeing more of these.

Update: Professor Caleb from comments is disputing my argument on the teleportation thing, and he’s even got a diagram, so it must be Science!;

I personally think that the entire thing can be explained away mathematically if you assume that the thing being teleported is defined as being one-dimensional. Yes, yes, yes: “assume the cow is a sphere.” Clearly I need to read Fear of Physics.
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What? In what alternate universe is there a “cloud” over Rangel?

“It’s a new day, and Mr. Rangel is part of that new day,” Levin said.

The Democrats have made it clear that they don’t give a tinker’s dam about Rep Rangel’s numerous ethical lapses, as even this Politico article makes clear (via Instapundit):
Continue reading What? In what alternate universe is there a “cloud” over Rangel?

Happy not-quite-ending for war hero’s widow and son.

(H/T: Technomancy for Fun and Profit)

Quick background: last year, USMC Sgt. Michael Ferschke was killed in Iraq while conducting door-to-door searches. He left behind his Okinawan-born, pregnant wife Hotaru Ferschke, who he had married a month before by proxy; and, of course, there were problems with her visa. Wizbang wrote about it here and here; Senator Lamar Alexander‘s (R-TN) office has been working on getting this fixed from the start, of course (I understand that some other (Tennessee?) lawmakers also assisted, but I couldn’t find details); between them and the USMC, they’ve made arrangements for Mrs. Ferschke to enter the country on a temporary visa, now that her son is born (more here).
Continue reading Happy not-quite-ending for war hero’s widow and son.

So, Obama stopped by the Washington Post to reassure them.

Via Glenn, here’s their first and last paragraphs, with my executive summary in the middle:

PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama came to The Post editorial board yesterday with two messages sketchy on details yet reassuring in approach: a commitment to fiscal discipline, and a determination not to be bound by liberal, or indeed any, orthodoxy.

[snip of the President-elect not answering their questions about what he plans to do about controlling the budget, determining what financial sacrifices need to be made, when – or if – Card Check will be passed, what changes – if any – will be made to our current detainee system, and whether all of this means that he’s a centrist.]

Mr. Obama’s indications of ideological flexibility are rather abstract at this point; he has not yet been called on to make the kind of difficult choices about which he speaks so eloquently. But his transition has sounded all the right themes, and, if yesterday’s session is any guide, his presidency promises to begin on the same hopeful, pragmatic note.

For my response, here’s an Isaac Asimovquote from Foundation (pg 71).

“That,” replied Hardin, “is the interesting thing. The analysis was the most difficult of the three by all odds. When Holk, after two days of steady work, succeeded in eliminating meaningless statements, vague gibberish, useless qualifications – in short, all the goo and dribble – he found he had nothing left. Everything canceled out.

“Lord Dorwin, gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn’t say one damned thing, and said it so you never noticed. There are the assurances you had from your precious Empire.”

Further commentary unnecessary, yes?

Looking for something to read? – A maybe new feature.

(Today’s guy: Eric Flint.)

Discussion’s going on right now over at RedState about “How do you folks train/learn?” It’s a good discussion to have, but are you one of those people quietly thinking to him or herself, “Yeah. I should read all that stuff, but…”

Yeah. But.

It’s OK to find it daunting to just jump into the equivalent of 300-level college courses in history, philosophy, economics, and/or political science – although you should read at least some of that stuff, and in some cases, so should I – so if you’re looking for something that will let you gear up a little first, hey, we can do that.  Because you know where all those literary-type people who can’t abide the postmodernists and deconstructionalists and Just Plain Idiots in academia go?

Genre fiction. Continue reading Looking for something to read? – A maybe new feature.