Michael Flynn's Blog, page 66

How long do some remember historical dates?

Jan Sobieski

On September 10, 1683, the papal legate sang a great outdoor mass on the Kahlenberg, west of Vienna, for King Jan III Sobieski and his 16,000 troops.  The king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had been named commander of the field army of some 85,000 troops, including not only the Polish–Lithuanian contingent, but also troops of the  Habsburg Monarchy,  Bavaria,  Saxony, Franconia, Swabia, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and the Zaporozhian Cossacks -- collectively: the Holy Leag...

This is Kewl

Now for a word from our sponsor....

What Kind of Country is This...

....That Can Treat Muslims Like This?

Two muslims in the wilds of Montana and elsewhere....

Trying to build a mosque in Pennsylvania....

On the Hatred of the Small and Weak

Whipped to a Frenzy by... Something

Recently, the NYTimes reported on a gunman who had taken over the offices of the Discovery Channel.  They Gray Lady described the gunman's motives thusly:

Police officers shot and killed a gunman with a history of protesting against the Discovery Channel, the authorities said, ending a nearly four-hour ordeal on Wednesday at the company’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Md.

Police officials said the company had identified the gunman to them as James J. Lee. A ...

eBooks

The Forest of Time ebook will include my three poems "The Engineer Discourses on His Love""Has Poetry a Place in Science Fiction" and the classic"There's a Bimbo on the Cover of the Book."  

Because of this last poem, which is to come first in the book, the publisher proposes the following cover. 

 

 

m_francis @ 2010-09-05T17:13:00

Absence of Evidence Is Evidence of Absence

A physicist named Victor Stenger seems willing to contribute to the mounting pile of evidence that those trained in the metrical properties of physical bodies can't do metaphysics for dog barf.  We will try to accommodate him.

Yes, it's the auld God-does-not-exist-and-I-can-prove-it foolishness through *Science!* 

Believe it or don't believe it, sez I; but don't believe you don't have to believe it. 

Like many narrowly trained, he extends his...

Out on the Edge

The Adventures of Dark Energy and Lithium Abundance

Sounds like good names for a pair of super-heroes....

1. The Mystery of Dark Energy
Scientists say that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.  The evidence for this is that the most distant supernovas are dimmer (thus, farther away) than they should be, absent acceleration. 

The usual epicycle to explain this away is the mysterious Dark Energy. 

However, Dark Energy apparently violates conservation of energy, which is considered a majo...

Teethasaur

Other Teddies

I've been reading Edmund Morris' biography The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, which is very nicely written and only occasionally shows judgmentalism on the author's part.  One surprise was that the corrupt conservatives and corporations had opposed the Spanish-American War while the progressives supported it.  Teddy was responsible for so many things, from civil service reform to trust-busting to the national park system, so many of which are difficult to imagine without his energy ...

Differences

Headline of the Day

"The Difference Between a Big Mac and Marlboro Light"--headline, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Aug. 23


The floor is now open for suggestions.

The first is:
You can't put pickles on a Marlboro Light. 





Fabiesque Warning: Today's headline humor is not intended as a partisan rant