Steyn-a-lanche!

Steyn-a-lanche!  Debbie and I just went out to dinner.  When I came home, I had an email saying my blog traffic had increased.  I went and checked, and it was over 10 times normal traffic for the day – and virtually all of it was coming from one place and in the last hour: Mark Steyn's site, where he put a link to this post on his front page.

My poor little blog has never seen anything like this before.  I don't know how long it will stay there, but while it does, a whole bunch of people are finding out what slightly loony is all about.  Thanks for the link, Mr. Steyn - awesome!

Mark Steyn is crazy or something...

Mark Steyn is crazy or something...  You may remember the ludicrous defamation suit brought by Professor Michael “Hockey Stick” Mann brought last year against Steyn, the National Review, and sundry others.  One of the alleged defamatory writings was by Steyn, published in the National Review, and as you might expect, Steyn was being defended by the National Review's legal team.

Here's where things get a little strange.  On January 8th, Steyn severed his defense from the National Review, for reasons he briefly explains here.  Yesterday, he filed a motion – one that some quite respectable lawyers don't think too much of.  Steyn is defending himself, and he's not an attorney (though he is perhaps more familiar with the legal system than most non-lawyers).

Apart from the wisdom of his move, Steyn has set the table for something potentially very entertaining and enlightening: discovery on Mann's research.  The general wisdom seems to be that Mann is completely out of his mind for putting himself in a position where this discovery was a possibility.  Yesterday, the judge in the case denied the defendants' motion for dismissal, and he lifted the stay on discovery in the case.

Wow!  Time to stock up on popcorn, folks.  And we wish Mr. Steyn all the best on this.  While we worry about the (considerable) gamble he's taking, we can't help but admire the cojones he's putting on display...

Il Silenzio...

Il Silenzio... This song (Il Silenzio) is often mistaken as a version of Taps, but it's actually not related.  Here the trumpet part is performed by Melissa Venema (just 13 years old at the time of this 2008 performance!); the violin part is performed by André Rieu.  Via my mom...

At 13 years old, to have the ability to play music worthy of the gods – can you even imagine it?  I cannot...

Geek: pencil-and-paper strain sensor...

Geek: pencil-and-paper strain sensor...  This is very clever engineering work.  I wonder how durable such a sensor would be?  And how repeatably they could be made?  Whatever the answers, it's a fascinating insight by these students, and ingenious as hell...

Strange and provoking imagery...

Strange and provoking imagery...  By George Christakis.  The example at right is by no means representative (other than in its unconventionality) – there are all kinds of different things in this collection: some funny, some nightmare-inducing, all interesting...

A fox says “What?”

A fox says “What?”  Twisted Sifter...

Wendy Davis vs. Greg Abbot...

Wendy Davis vs. Greg Abbot...  If you're wondering what that whole story is about, you won't do better than Neo-Neocon's excellent analysis.  Her conclusion:

Davis’ supporter Matt Angle may have thought he was writing about Abbott, but he inadvertently described Davis and her entourage instead when he wrote that the “attacks are a malicious expression of fear.” Exactly. The attacks on Abbot are not just malicious and fearful: they are stupid and despicable.

One of the commenters on that post pointed me to this, from Don Surber:

Cue the Association in a re-write of "Windy."

Who's speakin' out to mock paraplegics?
Saying that one is running scared
Who gave away both of her daughters?
Everyone knows it's Wendy

Who's ripping out pages in her bio?
Lyin’ at everybody she sees
Who filibusters to capture a headline?
Everyone knows it's Wendy

And Wendy has pink tennis shoes
And speaks with the sound of lies
And Wendy married money
Then dumped her kids (then dumped her kids)
Then dumped her kids (then dumped her kids)

[Flute music interval]

Who's speakin' out to mock paraplegics?
Saying that one is running scared
Who gave away both of her daughters?
Everyone knows it's Wendy
Who's ripping out pages in her bio?
Lyin’ at everybody she sees
Who filibusters to capture a headline?
Everyone knows it's Wendy

Her actions are pretty evil, even for a lying liberal lady.

EVIL.

One gets the impression that Don is not overly impressed by liberals :)

Dogs are different than cats...

Dogs are different than cats...  And the differences are nicely summed up in this video...

Lea update...

Lea update...  She's home from surgery, and doing fine post-surgery.  Our vet (the wonderful Dr. C.) is expecting the biopsy results to show that the growth she removed was a melanoma, probably of a nasty variety.  We are steeled for bad news on this front, but hoping for better.  We won't know for sure until Friday or Saturday.  If it is melanoma, treatment would be fairly radical surgery in her mouth, and we're not sure what the chance of recurrence are.  She's an old dog, so anything “radical” is going to mean we have some very difficult choices to make...

Curiosity's tracks on Mars...

Curiosity's tracks on Mars...  In the photo at right, taken from orbit by the MRO spacecraft in orbit around Mars, shows the tracks of the Curiosity rover as it traveled from the left side (near the bottom) to the right side (near the top).  It's easier to see on the full resolution version...

California leads the way...

California leads the way ... to driving gun makers to stop selling in the state.  The new “micro-stamping” requirements for semi-automatic handguns has Smith & Wesson deciding to stop selling to the California market, joining Sturm, Ruger, and others.  The problem is that the new California requirement is tremendously expensive to manufacturers, requiring a custom part for each and every weapon.  Furthermore, the intent of the regulation (to allow every bullet casing to be unambiguously tied to the gun that fired it) is easily defeated by any bad guys.  So the net effect of this regulation is to drastically increase the cost of the weapons while having no effect on public safety.  This is almost certainly what the regulators actually intended, being progressive wackos from California...

Fireflies in the forest...

Fireflies in the forest...  Beautiful time-lapse photography by Japanese photographer Tsuneaki Hiramatsu...