Random Fate

Solar technology appears to be maturing

Jack Grant — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:11:37 +0000

Here are some solar panels that are designed to be easy to install using materials that are familiar to non-specialists: Lumeta’s “peel & stick” solar panels can blanket a roof in under 35 minutes

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No more needs to be said…

Jack Grant — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:48:25 +0000

…to those who invoke the “ticking bomb” scenario when trying to justify torture approved and perpitrated by our government: No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency. -Theodore Roosevelt

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Trying to get by

Jack Grant — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:15:35 +0000

I’m trying to take an online defensive driving course because I got a speeding ticket a while back. Unfortunately, I’m having problems with the streaming video, and I’ve had to watch the majority of a ridiculous teaching movie four times now. They used “teenagers”‘ and “with it” music video stylizing that is annoying [...]

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The recruits of the past seven years, what might they think?

Jack Grant — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:57:35 +0000

A relatively brief but compelling prediction of the predilections of the current generation of members of our armed forces by Ray Kimball can be found at The Huffington Post.

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Clearing out the tabs

Jack Grant — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:44:34 +0000

Some of the things I’ve been reading lately: This one is disturbing - UK photographer chased down and detained for taking pix at fun fair 60 essayists analyze future problems and prospects in 50-year forecast More disturbing reading Top Bush Advisors Approved ‘Enhanced Interrogation’ Manacled, starved, beaten: a rendition victim’s story Things have changed in the past 7 years, and not [...]

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Just wrong…

Jack Grant — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:14:58 +0000

Can you spot the many ways this is just simply wrong? Not-so-intelligent design there, methinks… Thanks to Stephen at The Politburo Diktat for “pointing out” the photo.

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Test post

Jack Grant — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:44:09 +0000

I’m at a lacrosse game today, watching my son play. My wife and daughter are out of town at a dance competition. It’s been a busy weekend, so I’m taking this opportunity to see how effective posting from my iPhone is. I don’t know how well I can compose without a full-sized keyboard. Of [...]

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Hofstadter’s Law

Jack Grant — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:00:31 +0000

It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take Hofstadter’s Law into account. -Douglas Hofstadter

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Weblog maintenance

Jack Grant — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:07:27 +0000

I’ve updated to WordPress version 2.5, and eventually I hope to change over to a three column format, but don’t expect that any time soon. Given I can’t even work up the energy to make time to write coherent posts, reconfiguring the format is beyond what I can do for now, I suspect. Let me [...]

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What’s in a name?

Jack Grant — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:48:13 +0000

Recently, I was reading something on the web that mocked the marketing of policies with the statement, “we are engaged in a ‘war on (insert threatening noun here)’”. The target of the mocking was the utterly misnamed “war on terror”, the naming of which follows a dubious legacy left by the “war on drugs” [...]

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Sound and fury signifying nothing is the rule

Jack Grant — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:56:26 +0000

Never confuse motion with action. -Benjamin Franklin

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Clearing out the Firefox tabs

Jack Grant — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:09:23 +0000

Stolen from Neil Gaiman’s Journal, clearing out the tabs: New book: Were Iraqi defectors coached to embellish? Why your food is costing more money Paul Krugman, Master Of The Space Lanes Credit Scores 102: A Crisis, and Some Changes Obama’s racial problems transcend Wright Firefox 3 goes on a diet, eats less memory than IE and Opera

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Interesting contrast

Jack Grant — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:42:29 +0000

The word “nigger” is bleeped out in television broadcasts (at least it was in a clip shown on a cable news show I saw the other day). The word “bitch” is used routinely in television shows now, often as a laugh line. Not meaning to pull a Ferraro, but does this reflect something about our culture that [...]

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Some days I hate reading the news

Jack Grant — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:14:32 +0000

It’s a sick world when this is a headline: Severed fingers raise hope for abductees

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The forgotten cost of freedom

Jack Grant — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:15:41 +0000

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -H. L. Mencken

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Why we are having a “debate” over the use of torture…

Jack Grant — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:15:08 +0000

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity. -Robertson Davies

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The wisdom of crowds?

Jack Grant — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:15:45 +0000

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time. -E. B. White

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Hmmmm…

Jack Grant — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:15:29 +0000

Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn’t seem to be working. -Anonymous

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A thought to keep in mind during this election cycle

Jack Grant — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:00:39 +0000

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. -Douglas Adams

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The feel-good story teaches nothing

Jack Grant — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:30:38 +0000

The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it. -Frank Herbert

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