Being an engineer and a long time amateur radio operator I have always liked seeing an interesting innovation used to fix a problem, whether the fix is temporary or permanent. I've used unorthodox fixes in both my vocation and avocation over the years. It's also fun seeing how others have dealt with solving problems with only the materials they had on hand.

That being said, I found a blog devoted entirely to showing interesting jury-rigged fixes to everyday problems.

(A big thanks to Eric the Viking)

Not at averting disaster until it's almost too late. Glib liars who would want to get in my pants if they were of the Barney Franks' persuasion.

Anybody else see the tidal wave of projected entitlement spending coming poise to swamp us? Help! SOS! Run to higher ground!

about this.

I was given some garbage political talking points by the nice young liberal male on the other end about her efforts to relieve doctors of their onerous school loan debt and to create more doctors in rural areas.

Count me as unimpressed.

HT: Hugh Hewitt

More red meat for Chan: Gerald Warner in the London Telegraph calls the establishment of a review by the United Nations-established IPCC "a whitewash," following the scandal of the released e-mails, which may have been an inside job or an outside hacker.

Instead, they [the IPCC] have opted for a very obvious whitewash, discredited from the day of its launch, that will provoke hilarity and increased skepticism when it reports. After that, there will be no road back. We should be grateful that the arrogance and over-confidence engendered by their longstanding immunity from challenge (but not any more) prompted the AGW [anthropogenic global warming] fraudsters to create so inadequate a smokescreen.

As Nixon found out, it's the cover-up that nails you to the wall.

It's been sixteen years since the publication of The Bell Curve. The evidence has only solidified in ways that was almost unthinkable back then.

The educational section in The New York Times is absolutely chock-full of IQ-related news. Parents want their children to have as high an IQ as they can produce, I guess realizing that it offers greater opportunity to be a productive citizen later on.

And most of us realize that IQ, or the idea that there's a general intelligence or g (see Arthur Jensen's g Factor) for people, is largely inherited. Not solely, but 60 percent+. I actually think the numerous, numerous studies put it closer to 80-85 percent.

If that's actually true and Darwinism continues its domination--intelligent design people are unpersuasive to me--then start having the courage and to connect the dots.

You may not realize the specific books that have done just that recently here and here.

A Wall Street Journal book review that is an excellent background is here.

Whew. Statists (a word coined by Albert Jay Nock and not Mark Levin, as I heard the latter assert one day) are attempting to win over a perpetual majority through the un-American idea that they can receive benefits without paying into the system. Skeptics might justifiably say the big increase first went into effect under Bush II. Fair enough. Another reason why "compassionate conservatism" is kaput.

Source: TaxProf Blog.  HT: Instapundit

It appears Frontier Communications has fallen further under the spell of Verizon's sales pitch, with the sale of Verizon's Oregon assets to Frontier being OK'd by Oregon's PUC.

But not everything is rosy. At least someone in one state is questioning the wisdom of the sale in light of the fate of other small rural-service telcos that bought what Verizon was selling.

The State Journal-Register newspaper in Springfield reports that [Administrative Law Judge] Lisa Tapia said in a 46-page report that allowing Frontier to purchase the Verizon lines in Illinois "will diminish Frontier's ability to perform its duties to provide adequate, reliable, efficient, safe and least-cost public utility service."

--snip--

Unfortunately for Frontier, they are caught up in the back wash of Verizon's other local exchange divestments. Both FairPoint and Hawaiian Telecom completed similar transactions, and are both now in bankruptcy.

Both FairPoint and Hawaiian Telecom paid far too much for the assets they bought.

In northern New England FairPoint bought an increasing share of a decreasing market, always a formula for disaster. Wireline customers have been shedding themselves of traditional landlines and using either cell phones or VoIP services from their local cable companies for some time, both of which have been competitively priced compared to FairPoint. FairPoint lost over 13% of their customers since they took over operations from Verizon. And because of FairPoint's financial difficulties, its promise to expand broadband service to at least 95% of its service area has fallen by the wayside.

The best thing Illinois could do for telephone customers is to run from the Verizon-Frontier deal. In the end the only one such a deal helps is Verizon. Everyone else will be screwed. Frontier doesn't have the financial wherewithal to handle such a deal and will end up in the same situation as FairPoint and Hawaiian Telecom - in bankruptcy. That helps no one...except the lawyers.

We miss you, Duchess! The greatest dog I've ever had the privilege of knowing. You were a tremendous gift.

It may be more than you think. Here in New Hampshire with local funding doing the vast bulk of it, most of the expense is difficult to conceal. But in other places, like Washington, DC, the costs per pupil are definitely disguised. Cato or somebody looked at it and determined the per pupil spending was the highest in the country, around $25K. How 'bout $28K?

A lot of good that does.

Watch the wonderful Cato video.

Justice Louis Brandeis said, "Sunlight is the best disinfectant."

Cool.

Hellenists v. Jews.

Go Jews!

HT: Marginal Revolution

There's also Chasidim (ultra Orthodox Jews) v. Franciscans. That's a tough one.

Maybe the g-dd-mn Catholics aren't so dumb, after all.

It is quite obvious the one course University of California students protesting against tuition hikes have not taken but desperately need is Economics 101. The UC system-wide protests highlight the financial crisis facing California, a state verging on being forced into federal receivership because every effort to resolve the its financial problems has failed.

Taxes are sky high and getting higher. Revenues are falling off. Unemployment is over 12%. Taxpayers and businesses are leaving in growing numbers. Union compensation and pensions have reached unsustainable levels and are still climbing. Is it any wonder California has become a financial basket case? How can the students of the UC system expect the state to be able to fund the system when they don't have the money to do so? Do they really believe that just by making demands and throwing mass temper tantrums the state will somehow find a source of funding they haven't already taxed to death? Obviously they do. And by doing so they have displayed their economic ignorance. They don't understand: Their politicians have sold them a bill of goods and the time to 'settle up' has finally come.

Whites in Rhodesia, the bread basket of southern Africa, owned the large, productive farms. That proved unpopular. Now the country is black-controlled and -dominated, renamed Zimbabwe, and the people are starving. Whites have been kicked off the land in many places and given to people who don't know how to grow carrots or manage a hamster cage. The Economist covers it.

Yet, sadly, black Africans dance in glee at whites being persecuted. It makes for good politics to take people's eyes off their own incompetence.

Don't forget Ian Smith, one of the greatest men I've ever met. He bitterly spoke at the Heritage Foundation in August 1990 of democracy's course in Africa: "One man, one vote, one time"; then the dictator sets up shop.

I've seen Reich taken to task before by real economists. Robert Barro of Harvard just embarrassed him on the PBS NewsHour way back on September 14, 2004. Reich has a Harvard Law degree, that's it.

But this is something to remember for a long time. Ah, those moments of clarity.

But I am on the nerdy side. I mean I watched Red Dwarf in the 1980s, in addition to Dr. Who. I even like to wear nerdy-looking glasses.

Why back down from what one is? And if I were smarter I'd be an engineer like Chan.

Having said all that, I don't hesitate in saying, "Yeah, I'd like the President to comply with the Constitution by releasing a valid birth certificate." Call me names, if you want. I don't care.

But there's an awful lot about this man we don't know. It's disconcerting, really. Makes me in the mood for a movie. A 1962 movie staring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, and Janet Leigh.

Barry Farber has interesting thoughts on birtherism, as well, citing the Sherlock Holmes story "The Dog That Did Not Bark."

I feel compelled to mention that my brother, a novice diplomat with the State Department, caught some flack during his background check that his older brother had been born in West Germany while his father was stationed over there as a second lieutenant.

Notwithstanding the fact that the same older brother attended a service academy for two years, presumably proving his citizenship, repeated requests were made for a copy--a real notarized copy--of a birth certificate from the older brother.

I guess rookie diplomats have a higher bar to cross than a mere Commander in Chief.

This is gross.

One in six Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 have genital herpes and close to one in two black women are infected, new figures from the CDC reveal.

People like this deserve to be horsewhipped.

[W]hen I see a story like this, I don't want to hear about a "plea bargain." I don't want to hear about "parole." I don't want to hear about "what a good mother she is."

I'd rather hear about to which part of the Gates of Hell she'll be chained.

From the NY Daily News:

A heartless Queens woman was arrested for crippling her 11-month-old English bulldog after witnesses caught her on video beating the pooch with a shovel, officials said.

The young bulldog, named Spike, had been abused repeatedly over the past few months.

During his short life, Spike has sustained a hip fracture, a broken leg, three broken teeth and injuries to his ears, according to ASPCA Assistant Director Joseph Pentangelo.

The pup, which is being treated at the ASPCA hospital, is also virtually blind in his right eye.

ASPCA investigators were called to Aguilar's house on Feb. 24 after witnesses reported hearing a dog crying.

One of the witnesses used a camera phone to tape the abuse, also capturing Spike's howls of pain. Aguilar is seen throwing Spike to the ground and then slamming him with a snow shovel.

[The ASPCA] discovered her husband had taken the dog to veterinarians 12 times in the past seven months for treatment.

If you get a pet, and you have no intention of treating it with kindness and getting any self-fulfillment out of it, then, WHY. GET. A. PET?

The story also includes the video of Spike being beaten by his owner.

I could not bring myself to watch it.

The thought of anyone abusing any of the feline members of this household makes me want to reach for the Mossberg 930 12-gauge Autoloader.

Here it is, week 9 of the challenge, and Skip is still ahead, though his lead is back down to 4 pounds. Here's where we are so far:


Click on image to actually be able to read it.

It's hard to believe that only a couple of weeks ago ice fishing bobhouses dotted the lake. On Saturday I saw only one between Alton Bay and Governor's Island. Today it was gone. The ice is looking mushy and dark blue here and there, a sign that the ice is thin. A view from one of our favorite hilltops showed a lot of blue ice across the lake.

Yesterday's and today's temps in the mid-50's and temps in the mid to upper 40's over the next few days or so will speed the melting and break up of the ice. If the weather holds I expect Ice Out will be declared early this year, occurring in late March or early April. (Ice Out is defined as when the M/S Mount Washington cruise vessel can make all five ports of call on the lake - Weirs Beach, Alton Bay, Wolfeboro, Center Harbor, and Meridith - which usually occurs in mid April.)

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BeezleBub was back at work at the farm for the first time since vacation, working at the farm's saw mill cutting timbers for a new pavilion at Farmer Andy's farm stand. Construction will start next month, meaning BeezleBub will then use the timbers he cut this weekend to assemble the post and beam frame of the pavilion.

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It seems the Left is trying to link just about anything bad that happens anywhere to the TEA party movement, including the Pentagon shooter, Amy Bishop, and the Chilean earthquake.

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As the saying goes when it comes to scandal or corruption, follow the money. When it comes to AGW skeptics, they receive a small fraction of the funding of the AGW faithful receive, and from the same sources.

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Speaking of following the money, we should look closely at the Tides Foundation, "which is one of the original "philanthropic" donation launderers for donors who don't want to be tied to fringe activist groups."

The list of donors and recipients is illuminating and makes one wonder how some of these organizations and businesses can support organizations that do not have our country's best interests at heart and are working to damage as much of our economy as they can, all in the name of 'fairness' and 'justice'.

(H/T Instapundit)

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A comment to neoneocon's post about whether Obama has already done irreversible damage to America brings up a point that few may have thought about.

Neo's point is valid but Obama damages us in a more insidious direct fashion. At the end of the day what constrains both foriegn and domestic policy is money. Nothing new, that goes back thousands of years.

Obama is removing future options by burning up our capital actively managing the private sector's participation in the economy and racing through our credit by ramping up the deficit.

If he wants to remove any possibility of America doing anything here or overseas all he needs to do is bankrupt the nation, and that appears where he's leading us.

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Here's yet another preview of what we can expect in the way of health care if Obama gets his way.

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The Weekly Standard has their own take on the AGW crowd being in denial about ClimateGate and the continuing disintegration of AGW theory. (I particularly like the magazine cover illustration, finding it appropriate.)

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Now I'm off to watch the Oscars.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the ice is melting away, the bobhouses are gone, and thoughts of boating now intrude.

Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute has 'em.