"NASA comet crash to seek building blocks of life"

I can't wait for this to happen, especially since the disappointing end to Cosmos 1, the Russian solar sail mission. I just hope we get some good pictures of the comet crash.

Finding a label?

Philip Stott's article, "On Being a Mitigated Sceptic", deals primarily with the issue of global warming and its status as a religion among those who accept it unquestioningly. Though I tend to agree with Stott on his views of global warming --

The fundamental question in relation to ''global warming'' is: "Can humans manipulate climate predictably?" Putting this more scientifically: "Will cutting carbon dioxide emissions at the margin produce a linear, predictable change in climate?"

-- I like more his concept of a "mitigated" skeptic, especially as applied to my own world view. If I must settle on a label for myself, don't call me a liberal or a conservative. Don't call me fundamentalist or atheist. Don't place me anywhere on the opposite extremes. Refer to me as a mitigated skeptic, if you must label me at all.

Crossing the channel

Nothing more than a photograph of a bridge over a ship channel.

"Female U.S. Marines Ambushed in Iraq"

This article points out the jihadists' worst characteristic -- their contempt for women. If anything, this one point should be uniting the liberals (or at least the feminists) with Bush in his pursuit of this human trash.

Female Marines are used at the checkpoints to search Muslim women "in order to be respectful of Iraqi cultural sensitivities," a military statement said. It is considered insulting for a male Marine to search a female Muslim.

But it's apparently no problem for male Muslims to shoot female Marines.

"Solar Sail Spacecraft Stops Communicating"

This is too bad. It would have been cool if the spacecraft had succeeded, but at least an attempt was made. And it was a privately-funded mission. That's what's really cool.

We need more of such missions. If we are to truly advance in space, we need to make it accessible to adventurers and tourists.

Thinking of the children

The plural of "child" is "children". If the word modifies something, it takes an apostrophe, as in "a child's life jacket".

What we see here is just plain wrong.

Unfortunately, this was painted on the wall of a ferry boat run by the Texas Department of Transportation. I can only assume the other boats have the same incorrect message.

Catching a game at the coast

The family and I went to see a Hooks game while in Corpus Christi. They lost to Frisco, but it was a great game. A perfect breeze was blowing off the bay, the stadium was crowded with fans, and I had a Whataburger in my hand. It doesn't get much better than that.

This image is a look at Whataburger Field with the harbor bridge in the background. It's a nice stadium, and I hope a team plays there for many years to come.

"First 'solar sail' prepares for launch"

I hope this thing is a success.

But, still I wonder, how do you make it stop?

"Mac OS on a Dell? Dell Favors, Apple Opposes"

In this article, Dell seems to be willing to sell machines that run on OS X as well as on Windows -- if Apple will let them, that is.

Most telling quote:

But Apple can't afford to let Mac OS X loose right now, says Roger Kay, vice president of client computing with research firm IDC. If Mac OS X could be separated from Apple's hardware, hackers would have pirated copies of the operating system out on the streets with little delay, he says. This would cause great harm to Apple's business model, which emphasizes its tight control over the entire combination of hardware and software as a premium product, he says.

At least one analyst believes that Apple is due for a day of reckoning with this strategy, especially now that it plans to move to x86 chips. Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with Insight 64 in Saratoga, California, thinks it is only a matter of time before someone in the PC industry sues Apple for "tying" its operating system to a specific type of hardware available only from Apple. [emphasis added]

Apple has always prided itself on being the anti-Microsoft, even if it means only a miniscule share of the market. If Macs get too popular, Steve Jobs's company may face the same problems as Bill Gates's company -- lawsuits and viruses.

"The slow road to Windows XP"

This article was passed on to me by a Mac-using friend, presumably to show that Microsoft continues to have problems with Windows. However, I pointed out the following pull quote:

Windows 2000 is, in some ways, also a victim of its own success.

"When Windows 2000 came out, it was [a] fantastic blend of security and user interface," [managing director of Ottawa-based AssetMetrix Steve] O'Halloran said. As a result, companies planned their whole infrastructure around it. Many of its management tools have continued to be updated, leaving companies relatively satisfied.

"I think it worked too well," he said.

Not quite what Steve Jobs -- or the cultists -- would have us believe.

Analyzing the switch

Robert X. Cringely has an interesting theory as to why Apple chose to switch to the Intel chip. He thinks it's a bid to dethrone Microsoft.

Interesting. If true, it would mean that Steve Jobs has finally given in to the motivations that drove Bill Gates -- profit and dominance.

The best quote to needle your Mac friends with:

How much would it cost Intel to buy Apple? Not much.

Heh.

"Court: Patients May Not Use Pot Legally"

OK. I get the point of this AP article, and I understand what the headline writer was trying to say regarding state statutes. But, if the federal government says you can't do something, then that act is illegal. Period.

Sloppy headline.

"Alleged thief learns that gas and lighters don't mix"

This is rather funny. At first I thought it might be an urban legend because I found several outlets carrying this story, but all the outlets repeated an Associated Press version. It wasn't until I found the Newsday.com version that I thought it was probably real.

Anyway, good cautionary tale for your slower-than-average thiefs.