We missed this...

We missed this ... though he must have passed right by our home (it's pretty hard to get out of Paradise without passing by our home!).  We don't know David Smith...

Moonlight in Paradise...

Moonlight in Paradise...  I woke up around 3 am this morning, and took our old field spaniel (Mo'i) outside for a walk.  We didn't need any lights this morning – the full moon was very bright.  Subjectively it was amongst the brightest moonlit nights I've ever experienced.  I could easily see the color of virtually all objects within my sight when the moon was at my back.  Certain colors (like orange) were vivid.  Others (green, blue) were unsaturated but clearly visible.  I could see, easily, Mo'i's brown fur against the green grass. 

We walked an extra couple of passes around the yard just to enjoy it...

Barn progress...

Barn progress...  Yesterday was a day of drudgery – I installed lights in Debbie's agility arena all day long.  Nine lights down, six to go – I should finish easily today...

Top 12 science April Fool's pranks from 2015...

Top 12 science April Fool's pranks from 2015...  Lots of geekly fun here!

Over 1,000 ancient stone tools found...

Over 1,000 ancient stone tools found ... just 60 miles (100 km) southwest of our home.  Awesome!

Can our politicians really be that disconnected from reality?

Can our politicians really be that disconnected from reality?  Yes.  Yes, they can.

On Thursday of this week, Senator Dianne Feinstein called for a book to be “…removed from the Internet.”  She wasn't joking, either – she actually believes that this is possible.  She also is apparently unaware that the physical book is readily available for purchase.

Senator Feinstein happens to be from California, and happens to be a Democrat – but this sort of ignorance crosses party lines and state lines.  Senator Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican, comes right to mind as an example.

In this case, we have a Senator – a person in a position of considerable political power and influence – who is demonstrating a profound ignorance of a technology area that she regulates.  It's a bit like asking a carpenter to land a modern jet airliner.  It seems like there must be a better way, though I don't know what that way might be.

I feel the doom coming on...

I stopped watching TV many years ago...

I stopped watching TV many years ago...  I count that as one of the best life decisions I've ever made.  Ace agrees...

Happy Passover to my Jewish friends...

Happy Passover to my Jewish friends...

Progressive hypocrisy on display...

Progressive hypocrisy on display...  This is like shooting fish in a barrel, to be sure, but this video documents an unusually clear example of it.  Unless you've been sealed into a catacomb over the past week or so, you've heard about the Indiana pizzeria forced out of business by the progressive outrage over the owner's declaration that if she were asked to cater pizza to a same-sex wedding, she'd refuse.  Cue the outrage: crazy homophobic Christians are on the rampage!  The press was filled with a bazillion breathless stories, all featuring OUTRAGE!  Never mind that it was all a hypothetical, that the owners had never actually refused to cater a gay wedding (because nobody ever asked them to).  All the usual suspects chimed in, and right on cue the usual brain-dead celebrities started promoting a boycott of Indiana.

Crowder (the video maker) wondered what would happen if he were to ask a Muslim-owned bakery to make a wedding cake for a gay wedding – and, presuming that he'd be refused, how the progressives and their press lapdogs would respond.  Now you can almost certainly guess what those responses would be – but its still a great illustration of the hypocrisy that pervades the progressive, multi-culti world.  The hypocrisy is strongest when two or more of their cherished beliefs collide, as here, where gay rights and Muslim rights are in strict opposition.

I revel in the display of progressive hypocrisy, but ... that doesn't necessarily mean that I disagree with their position on the Indiana pizzeria (though I most certainly do disagree with some of their methods, and I believe the outrage is entirely misplaced).  I think these are genuinely challenging issues that really don't have clear answers.  Take the Indiana pizzeria case, and modify it slightly.  Suppose the owners had been asked instead if they would cater to a hypothetical marriage of two black people, and they refused.  Would we react differently to that?  I think that today virtually everybody would agree that was inappropriate behavior, and would condemn them – but that wasn't true even as recently as my own childhood.

There's a delicate balancing act here, with at least three competing elements: personal beliefs (religious or otherwise), the rights of individuals, and societal mores.  The Indiana pizzeria owners have a belief that gay marriage is wrong – do we force them to do something in violation of their own beliefs?  The hypothetical gay groom and groom want pizzas for their wedding – do we force them to go to a different pizzeria?  On gay marriage, American society is moving from outraged rejection toward at least grudging acceptance, but there's certainly no consensus on this yet – do we shove the notion down everyone's throat?

No easy answers here.  The only thing I feel sure of is that change is in the air...

Chained libraries...

Chained libraries...  I'd seen individual books with chains on them before, in museums, but I hadn't realized that there were entire libraries filled with books on chains – and I certainly didn't know that some of those libraries survived to this day.  Why were the books chained?  Because before the invention of the printing press and moveable type, books were made by hand-copying from the original.  It took thousands of hours of tedious skilled work to make a single book, so they were very valuable.  It wasn't the calligraphy that was the rare (and expensive) skill back then: it was the ability to read and write – not that many people could!