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Archive for April 5, 2009
That is, increasing levels of CO2 actually help plants, which consume the carbon dioxide via photosynthesis and provide us with oxygen. As Don Surber points out, the atmospheric CO2 levels were 20 times higher 500 million years ago. That was during the Ordovician period, when life flourished.Of course, the Cultists of the Goracle will claim that’s irrelevant, because increasing CO2 levels lead to the dread greenhouse effect, trapping radiated heat and making life unbearable for us, regardless of the plants. (At this point they usually pull out a dog-eared copy of An Inconvenient Truth and begin a dramatic reading from it. Feel free to walk away; they’re too wrapped up in themselves to notice.)One problem, there is no greenhouse effect. And that’s an “inconvenient truth” the global-warming alarmists would prefer to ignore: the utter failure of their vaunted computer models to predict anything — for example….But never let facts interfere with Holy Writ, for Al Gore has spoken. Amen.
Public Secrets: Global warming cultists discover basic science
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Media to cover war dead; 1st time in 18 yearsFor the first time in over 18 years, the media will be permitted to cover the returning war dead following the Pentagon’s lifting of a photo ban in February.At 11 p.m. Sunday night, the remains of Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers — who was recently killed in Afghanistan — are expected to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the site where caskets first enter the United States from overseas fighting.Since the Persian Gulf War, photography has been prohibited at Dover, but President Obama asked Secretary Gates to review the ban since taking office. Myers is the first fallen soldier whose return will be covered by the press.Families have a choice of whether to allow coverage and attend the ceremony; however, the media cannot photograph or film them while covering the return of the casket.
Michael Calderone’s Blog: Media to cover war dead; 1st time in 18 years – POLITICO.com
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According to the US Northern Command, the infamous North Korean launch of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile—which went over Japan terrifying Brian Ashcraft—has been a complete failure, with its payload falling into the Pacific Ocean:
NORAD and USNORTHCOM monitor North Korean launch
April 05, 2009
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command officials acknowledged today that North Korea launched a Taepo Dong 2 missile at 10:30 p.m. EDT Saturday which passed over the Sea of Japan/East Sea and the nation of Japan.
Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan/East Sea. The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean.
No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan.
NORAD and USNORTHCOM assessed the space launch vehicle as not a threat to North America or Hawaii and took no action in response to this launch.
This is all of the information that will be provided by NORAD and USNORTHCOM pertaining to the launch.
Apparently, their rocket technology is not really there yet, and the second stage never separated or ignited, according to Defense Tech’s analysis. And that’s yet another pathetic failure by the North Korean clowns, boys and girls. Maybe Kim Yong-il and the rest of his gang should develop pork buns for their starving population, rather ICBMs. [Northern Command via Defense Tech]
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Bonnie at StarWars.com shows kids how to make this googley-eyed yoda finger puppet.
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My headline won’t put the Updike’s of the world out of business, but maybe Google’s new technique for scanning books into its ever-growing digital library will help me read more and become a better blogger.
Probably not, you’re right.
Anyway, the program, as you may know, is called Google Book Search, and it’s pretty simple: Google is right now busily scanning as many books as it can get its hands on and adding the images to a search database. It’s just another way the company is slowly taking over the world, but who cares—you can click links in the books when they mention locations and Google Maps will take you there!
But on their way to putting public libraries out of business, Google ran into a decidedly low-tech problem when scanning the physical books for uploading into their new digital medium. Basically, the character recognition software requires a relatively flat 2D image of the text to work 100% properly. The books’ bindings aren’t cooperating, however, as they cause the pages to arch upward on either side. This has made the process take far longer than our future overlords would have liked.
Luckily, Google knows a thing or two about frickin’ laser beams (but thankfully not how to attach them to the heads of sharks—yet). By casting an infrared beam over each book, the Google team can use infrared cameras to map the 3D shape and filter out the distortion with some nifty error correction software. And now the books are just flying off the shelves and into the digital ether. [New Scientist]
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Here’s an Explosive Offer–
Now you can own a signed and numbered copy of the Turban Bomb Cartoon by Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.
At the same time help the International Free Press Society raise money.
Gates of Vienna posted the purchase instructions.
Now you can own a signed and numbered copy of the Turban Bomb Cartoon by Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.
At the same time help the International Free Press Society raise money.
Gates of Vienna posted the purchase instructions.
Or, you can visit the Turban Bomb page at IFPS for more information.
There are only 1,000 of these signed copies of the controversial cartoon by cartoonist Kurt Westergaard who lives under police protection ever since its publication in the Jyllands-Posten Danish daily.
So you will have to act quick if you want to get your signed piece of history.
UPDATE: For some reason if you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer as your browser you may have problems purchasing the cartoon at the IFPS webpage. You will have no problem if you are using FireFox. I wrote them and let them know about the issue.
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Sterling James Estates 