Monthly Archives: September 2007

My Daddy Is Bigger Than Your Momma

This entry was posted in Government russia US Foreign Policy War World Affairs on by

The russians continue their recent saber waving with the announcement of a new bomb:

russiasbigdaddy.jpg
THE Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world’s most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia’s state television reported on Tuesday.
…
“The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability,” said Colonel General Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, in televised remarks.
Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn’t hurt the environment, he added.

Right, that little bit of show and tell in the above picture goes off and nothing happens except:

The Russian weapon’s blast radius is 990 feet, twice as big as that of the US design, the report said. Like its US predecessor, first tested in 2003, the Russian bomb is a “thermobaric” weapon that explodes in an intense fireball combined with a devastating blast.
It explodes in a terrifying nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and wreaks destruction through a massive shock wave created by the air burst and high temperature.

But, you know, no environmental damage…

The paranoid amongst us might even think that w and p are in cahoots with the military-industrial complex to turn up the heat so that they can create even more demand for military spending.

Friday Ark #155

This entry was posted in Bird Blogging Cat Blogging Dog Blogging Friday Ark Invertebrate Blogging Pet Blogging Pets Weekend Cat Blogging Weekend Dog Blogging on by

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

ALERT 8:52 CDT: We are headed up to the mountains. No net access again until Sunday afternoon. Any queued borders will ship at then.

Cats

Invertebrates

Other Vertebrates

Dogs

Birds

In Memoriam

Didn’t Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

  • x

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey’s Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 180th edition, 9/3, is up at This Blog Is Full of Crap . The 181st edition will be hosted on 9/9 by Mind of Mog. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #118 hosted on 9/8-9 by What Did You Eat?. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 57th edition is up and hosted by A DC Birding Blog. The 58th edition will be hosted on 9/20 by The Nightjar.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 24th edition is up and hosted by Naturalist Notebook. The 25th edition will be hosted at the end of September by The annotated budak.

For other current carnivals check out The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Life is Good!

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by

Aren’t the internets wonderful!
Why just this evening I received an email notifying me that, well, read for yourself:

In conjunction with the ECOWAS, UNO and the EU, We are giving out a yearly donation of US$850,000.00 (Eight hundred and Fifty thousand United states dollars only) each to 100 lucky recipients. These specific Donations/Grants will be awarded to 100 lucky international recipients worldwide, in different categories.
Based on the random selection exercise of internet websites and millions of supermarket cash invoices worldwide, you were selected amongst the lucky recipients to receive the award sum of US$850,000.00 as charity donations/aid.

I’m so happy!!
Please don’t tell the irs….

party Power

This entry was posted in Democrats Republicans on by

So, you think the various political parties have your interests at heart? Think again.
Jonathon Schwartz explains why you shouldn’t

… expect too much from political parties, and certainly don’t expect them to change much in less than a generation.

The Iron Law:

…the people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself.

And they sure don’t care about you beyond how they can use you to help maintain their power.
Schwartz does provide some thoughts on what it might take to change the democratic party* but does not explain why a changed party (pick your vision) would not still be subject to the Iron Law and all the other issues surrounding the corrosive nature of power.
Via Scats at American Coprophagia who notes:

The Iron Law also explains in part why republican government is at its core a fundamentally undemocratic sham.

All more good reasons to disintermediate coercive government as quickly as possible.
*NB: Same for those of you with utopian visions of the republican, green, libertarian, communist, etc., parties.