Whacko of the Month

Barack Obama: Gulf of Mexico oil spill an ‘environmental 9/11’

Link

He’s going to milk this to try to push through a carbon cap and trade bill that will cripple American industry and businesses, reduce standards of living for American people, and export jobs in ever larger numbers to China, India and other places that are rubbing their hands in glee at the arrant stupidity of Western politicians.

Short story, “Coming up for Air.”

Once under the water she always tried to reach the grill at the bottom of the deep end before completing the length – without coming up for air. The dive had taken her right down through the chlorinated water which stung her eyes and reflected blue from the cracked ancient tiles until she nearly reached the bottom. Two deliberate kicks and she propelled herself further down. Continue reading “Short story, “Coming up for Air.””

We never had Internet Privacy

Australia is considering following the lead of Britain and other European nations in demanding that Internet Providers maintain a record of all their customers activities for a period of up to 10 years.

In Britain the law demands that Internet Providers maintain records for a period of 6 years, other nations demand records from between 6 months and 2 years. To them the issue of retrieving those records is as simple as a warrant. the user need not be informed that he/she is been looked at.

I think this is a serious breach of our privacy and that it runs along the lines of a government demanding to know what books we read.

What do you guys think of this?

Counter-factual History.

What might have been had the Romans developed the steam engine? By the late 3rd century AD, all of the essential elements for constructing a steam engine were known to Roman engineers: steam power – Hero’s aeolipile, the crank and connecting rod mechanism in the sawmills and marble quarries, the cylinder and piston in metal force pumps, non-return valves in water pumps and gearing in water mills and clocks. Suppose that the Roman Empire emerged, as it did, from the crisis of the third century with all its administrative and military institutions changed, bureaucratic, rigid, and constantly geared for war, with its capital no longer in Rome but in Constantinople – and with steam power. (Such a development might have occurred not in Italy, but in the Eastern Empire – the stirrup was first put into wide use there, and reserves of coal and other minerals are available without deep mining in, for example, Dacia, Moesia and Thracia – present-day Romania and Bulgaria.)

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What might have been