Klavan Rips Apart the Lamestream Media...

An easy job, I know, but Andrew Klavan does it very convincingly in his inimitable (and very entertaining) style. Via my sister-in-law Gina P.:

Is There Anything Good About Men?

A very interesting article by Roy Baumeister, and probably not what you're expecting from the title.  Recommended.

Where the Electrons Hit the Silicon...

Via reader Doug S.:  some lucky computer science students in England are getting a chance to learn about how the guts of computers actually work.  Most modern students don't get much opportunity to learn this, as they're generally working with high-level languages on modern operating systems – and all this stuff very effectively hides how computers actually work.  This school, by deliberately putting students on quite old computer hardware (and quite incapable by today's standards), forces them to understand how the elemental bits of the computer work in order to get anything done...

First Light!

The Big Bear Solar Observatory's New Solar Telescope (with a 1.6 meter aperture and adaptive optics) has achieved first light; the image at right is one of its first.  Congratulations to the team, and we're looking forward to much more great solar science!

Banning Traditional Ammunition?

The Obama Administration's EPA is seriously considering it.

It's almost like they want to be thrown out of power...

Weird Weather...

Yesterday brought us some very odd summer weather.  First it was very hot (got up to 108°F).  Then a thunderstorm rolled overhead.  Lightning struck the hills all around us, but especially to the northeast.  The dogs went crazy with all the noise, and the cats all retreated to high perches from where they could safely watch the crazy dogs.  It rained, and for a brief time, it poured.  The temperature dropped by 30° in the space of 15 minutes, and it got seriously muggy (trust me – this is a very unusual thing to feel out here).  It didn't go on long enough to accumulate a measurable (1 mm) amount, but while it lasted we had water sluicing off our roof – which, remember, is only 1/3 covered.  Thankfully we didn't have any leaks, though I'm sure we have a lot of wet wood up there.  The wind was gusty, too, knocking things in the yard all about.

The photo at right shows the rain squall coming through our valley (taken from Lyons Peak, looking north toward Lawson Valley). You can see that this was quite an isolated cell; everything was sunny around it.