Death Panels? What death panels?

 dumbassery, I'm from the government, politics  13 Responses »
Sep 092009
 

Maybe this one:

‘Doctors told me it was against the rules to save my premature baby’

Doctors left a premature baby to die because he was born two days too early, his devastated mother claimed yesterday.

Sarah Capewell begged them to save her tiny son, who was born just 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy  –  almost four months early.

They ignored her pleas and allegedly told her they were following national guidelines that babies born before 22 weeks should not be given medical treatment.

Can this sort of thing happen in a privately run healthcare system? You betcha. But there’s an important difference. In a free market health care economy, if your current provider is acting like a jackass, you go somewhere else (or sue the crap out of ’em). But in a government controlled “single payer” system, you’ve got precisely one choice: take the care the bureaucrats offer, or don’t.

 Posted by at 1:38 pm

Birds on the Wires

 awesomeness  No Responses »
Sep 092009
 

Now, this is a spiffy idea:

 Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn’t the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.

birds.jpg

 Posted by at 1:23 pm

Interplanetary Tour Reservation

 blather, science fiction, spacecraft  10 Responses »
Sep 092009
 

Something I procured from eBay some years ago. In 1950 the Hayden Planetarium in New York began issuing “Interplanterary Tour Reservations,” listing as destinations the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. A print campaign apparently brought ina  vast number of respondants. The scan below is of a Reservation modified for Sweden, with a Swedish respondant (one Ake Hurtig of Malmo, Sweden… one wonders if Ake is still around and if he’s still waiting for his trip to the Moon).

interplanetary-reservation.jpg

I can’t help but think that in 1950, the Moon, Mars Jupiter and Saturn looked closer than they do in 2009. And this is sad. We seem to have given up on the future.

 Posted by at 12:18 am

Senate must raise debt ceiling above $12T

 blather, I'm from the government, Obamazombies, politics  No Responses »
Sep 082009
 

A little Hope, a little Change… pretty soon you’re talking real money.

From The Hill:

The Senate must move legislation to raise the federal debt limit beyond $12.1 trillion by mid-October, a move viewed as necessary despite protests about the record levels of red ink.

The move will highlight the nation’s record debt, which has been central to Republican attacks against Democratic congressional leaders and President Barack Obama. The year’s deficit is expected to hit a record $1.6 trillion.

Democrats in control of Congress, including then-Sen. Obama (Ill.), blasted President George W. Bush for failing to contain spending when he oversaw increased deficits and raised the debt ceiling.

“Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren,” Obama said in a 2006 floor speech that preceded a Senate vote to extend the debt limit. “America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”

hope.jpeg

 Posted by at 7:38 pm

Nozzles

 aircraft, models, projects  2 Responses »
Sep 082009
 

Progress on the multitude of individual nozzles for the Avro Ace. It’s time consuming, but I shudder to imagine what it’d be if I did this by *hand.*

nozzles.jpg

Update: HA!

nozzles2.jpg

 Posted by at 5:14 pm

First, the guns. Then Knives. Now… biscuits.

 blather, news  2 Responses »
Sep 082009
 

Oh My God, the Horror!

Biscuits injuring millions of Britons

Oh crumbs – it seems up to half of all Britons have been injured… by a humble biscuit.

Flying fragments and daredevil dunking in scalding tea have all led to millions suffering at the hands of their favourite snack, according to fun research.

Among the more unusual – and daft – injuries are a man who poked himself in the eye with a biscuit and people who have fallen off chairs while reaching for a tea-time treat.

You know what this means. New laws.

britishcookiecriminalp.jpg

 Posted by at 11:11 am

Hair power

 awesomeness, news, science  3 Responses »
Sep 082009
 

Teenager invents £23 solar panel that could be solution to developing world’s energy needs … made from human hair

Huh.

Milan Karki, 18, who comes from a village in rural Nepal, believes he has found the solution to the developing world’s energy needs.
…
The hair replaces silicon, a pricey component typically used in solar panels, and means the panels can be produced at a low cost for those with no access to power, he explained.
…
The solar panel, which produces 9 V (18 W) of energy, costs around £23 to make from raw materials.

Well, that’s… huh. How about that.

 Posted by at 10:59 am

Shuttling the Shuttle: Twin-Body 747

 aircraft, drawings, projects, spacecraft  2 Responses »
Sep 082009
 

Taken from the same brief presentation as this twin-fuselage C-5, this is a notional concept for much the same thing but using 747 components. Clearly it was not designed to any great level of detail. It would have required a vast level of redesign of the 747 as compared to the twin-C-5. Moving wings from the bottom of a fuselage to the top ain’t exactly a trivial operation.

image60.jpg

 Posted by at 9:16 am

The importance of gun control

 dumbassery, humor, weapons  1 Response »
Sep 082009
 

From the NY Post:

When Grant grabbed for it, he accidentally pulled the trigger, firing a bullet right through his penis.

Dumbass. Still, there’s an upside: while details are scant, it looks like the chances of this precious little snowflake actually reproducing his braindead genes look to be slim. We don;t need copies of someone who can’t be bothered with a proper holster.

 Posted by at 9:05 am
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