Try using this in a sentence

 blather  2 Responses »
Jul 282008
 

Tobacco Mosaic Virus, DahlemensStrain:<>

Acetylseryltyrosylserylisoleucylthreonylserylprolylserylglutaminylphenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylserylserylvalyltryptophylalanyl<>aspartylprolylisoleucylglutamylleucylleucylasparaginylvalylcysteinylthreonylserylserylleucylglycylasparaginylglutaminylphenylalanyl<>glutaminylthreonylglutaminylglutaminylalanylarginylthreonylthreonylglutaminylvalylglutaminylglutaminylphenylalanylserylglutaminylvalyl<>tryptophyllysylprolylphenylalanylprolylglutaminylserylthreonylvalylarginylphenylalanylprolylglycylaspartylvalyltyrosyllysylvalyltyrosyl<>arginyltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleucylaspartylprolylleucylisoleucylthreonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreonylphenylalanylaspartylthreonyl<>arginylasparaginylarginylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylvalylglutamylasparaginylglutaminylglutaminylserylprolylthreonylthreonylalanylglutamyl<>threonylleucylaspartylalanylthreonylarginylarginylvalylaspartylaspartylalanylthreonylvalylalanylisoleucylarginylserylalanylasparaginylisoleucyl-<>asparaginylleucylvalylasparaginylglutamylleucylvalylarginylglycylthreonylglycylleucyltyrosylasparaginylglutaminylasparaginylthreonyl<>phenylalanylglutamylserylmethionylserylglycylleucylvalyltryptophylthreonylserylalanylprolylalanylserine

 Posted by at 1:51 pm

More bad news for “world peace.” More good news for CNN.

 news, politics  1 Response »
Jul 282008
 

Are Georgia and Russia Heading for War?

The international community has been watching with concern as tension has continued to build in Abkhazia. Although the region has been the source of dispute for several years, there are increasing concerns that recent activities imply an impending war between Georgia and Russia.

Givi Targamadze, chairman of Georgian parliament’s defense and security committee states that Russia is resorting to deliberate provocative measures to engage Georgia in an armed conflict.

Recently “the talks have concerned not only provocation, but a real threat of military aggression in the Kodori Gorge or anywhere else. In such a case, Georgia will have to respond properly,” states Targamadze.

Oy.

 Posted by at 1:48 pm

Eye jewlery? Oh, *hell* no.

 blather  No Responses »
Jul 272008
 

I’ve not much use for makeup, jewlery, fashionable clothes or other methods of trying to pretty myself up: sometimes there’s just no point in trying. Without the intervention of advanced medical techniques, midgets will never be tall, the truly stupid will never be smart, the ugly will never be attractive… and half-assed efforts to change those invariably end in laughable results.
Apart from randomly grabbing clothes and occasionally combing my hair, the one source of adornment likely to be found on my person is a pendant that was a gift from a friend. Still, somebody else wants to put on some bling, hey, great, go for it.

But there are some forms of adornment that I just don’t get. Jamming bits of metal through flesh, for instance, is something I find more creepy than anything. And just when you thought that there was nothing new left to come up with for body-decoration, this comes along:

Yes, that’s a bit of jewelry dangling from a string attached to a contact lens. No freakin’ thank you.

http://www.styledash.com/2008/07/24/fashions-from-bizarre-o-world-eye-jewelry/

 Posted by at 11:58 am

Dyna Soar Meets Mercury

 aircraft, models, projects, spacecraft  5 Responses »
Jul 262008
 

In 1959 Boeing briefly studied using the Mercury capsule or a derivative as the cockpit of the Dyna Soar. At the time, the cockpit of the Dyna Soar was intended to be ejectable in the event of an emergency, in a manner similar to the cockpit of the F-111. However, unlike the F-111 cockpit capsule, the Dyna Soar ccokpit was meant to be capable of suriving re-entry. The use of a Mercury capsule would give the Dyna Soar a cockpit with verified ability to survive re-entry… with, of course, some major concessions regarding vehicle shape, weight and growth potential.

Drawings soon.

image2a.jpg

 Posted by at 1:11 am

He ventured forth to bring light to the world

 humor, politics, religion  No Responses »
Jul 262008
 

This is definitely worth reading….

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

jokerclapping.gif

 Posted by at 1:01 am

Catholic League president Bill Donohue chooses poorly

 blather, humor, politics, religion, science  5 Responses »
Jul 262008
 

In case you’ve missed it, there is an ongoing battle between PZ Myers, biology prof at U Minn, and, well, the Catholic world. Very, very briefly, someone decided to walk off with a communion wafer during a Catholic mass; some Catholics got upset and went as far as death threats. yeah, doesn’t make sense to me, either. Anyway, Myers, a vocal opponant of Creationism, posted on his blog about the situation and called the wafers “crackers.” At which point some more Catholics went buggo and sent nastygrams. Myers, being a professional shit-stirrer, stepped it up a notch and threatened to desecrate a consecrated wafer. More nastygrams including threats. Wafer was then desecrated, along with pages from the Koran and Richard Dawkins “The God Delusion” (Myers being an equal-opportunity offender). Description of the desecration here.

Predictably, the people who were angered by the threats of desecration were incensed by the actual deed. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, and professional whiner and victim, has been trying to get Myers fired. His latest posting, where he complains that U. Minn. won’t fire Myers due to academic freedom issues, uses just about the worst arguement possible:

“Academic freedom is not the issue: academic malpractice is. For example, Section 10.21 (b) of UMN’s Tenure Code explicitly says that a tenured faculty member can be terminated or suspended for ‘unprofessional conduct which severely impairs a faculty member’s fitness in a professional capacity.’

“In 2001, this part of the Tenure Code was invoked against a professor at UMN because he had images of child porn on his computer. It should now be invoked against Myers, and that is why we will appeal to UMN’s Board of Regents to do just that. It strains credulity to maintain that Christian students can expect fair treatment by a faculty member who has publicly shown nothing but contempt for their religion.

 

Really? Child porn? That’s what you decide to compare tossing a wafer in the trash to? This arguement would be bad enough coming from most anybody, but from a defender of the Catholic Church, it just sounds kinda creepy.


I’ve nothing against the Catholic Church or Catholics, but people going insane over wafers is simply inconceivable to me. Of course, I also didn’t see what the big fricken’ deal was with cartoons about Mohammad, either.

 Posted by at 12:27 am

DDG-1000 Zumwalt class destroyers cancelled

 blather, news, politics  No Responses »
Jul 242008
 

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3639737&c=AME&s=SEA

<> The long, proud tradition of spending billions on a technology development program and then cancelling it at the last minute continues.  In this case, it’s amazing that two whole ships of this class might actually get finished; someone must have slipped up. The way this is supposed to work is that the program gets cancelled just as soon as metal starts getting bent and thousands of technicians, engineers and manufacturers uproot their familes and relocate.  See: Dyna Soar, SST, X-30, X-33, DC-X, Comanche, Cheyenne, B-70. Coming soon: Orion, Ares.  To actually allow a few examples to enter service is just poor form.

 Posted by at 2:03 pm

Visions of the future based on Dyna Soar

 aircraft, drawings, projects, spacecraft, weapons  1 Response »
Jul 242008
 

Circa 1960, these graphics show a number of payloads that Boeing was projecting for the future. Notice how many of them are Dyna Soar related or derived, including ICGMs (Inter Continental Glide Missiles), orbital bombs, orbital recon systems and most impressively, lunar landers (this was before the idea of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous took hold). Also of note are some non-Dyna Soar payloads, such as satelite inteceptors, recon systems and a 5,000 ton Orion vehicle.

image108a.gif

image107a.gif

 Posted by at 1:19 pm

Hugo Chavez to buy $4billion worth of Russian targets

 aircraft, news, politics  1 Response »
Jul 242008
 

http://en.rian.ru/world/20080723/114739388.html

MOSCOW, July 23 (RIA Novosti) – Venezuela may purchase weaponry from Russia worth $5 billion over the next 10 years, a Russian political analyst said on Wednesday.

During his official visit to Russia on Tuesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Russian leadership reaffirmed their mutual drive to strengthen bilateral defense cooperation.

“Regardless of the situation on global arms markets, Venezuela under Hugo Chavez will continue to buy Russian weaponry, and may spend $5 billion or more over the next 10 years on imports of Russian military equipment,” said Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.

In 2005-2006, Venezuela bought over 50 combat helicopters, 24 Su-30MK2 fighters, 12 Tor-M1 air defense missile systems and 100,000 AK-103 rifles from Russia. Current contracts are worth about $4 billion, according to various sources.

Pukhov said Russia is the only country supplying a wide range of weaponry to Venezuela.

Russian mob-boss Putin would like to thank Hugo for his contributions, and wishes him well in his attempts to torpedo his own nation. Sadly, it looks as if the US is not currently in the market for an invasion, so Hugo will probably be forced to play cops-and-commies with his neighbors.

 Posted by at 12:58 pm
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