Michael Flynn's Blog, page 83

Over Hill, Over Dale

Nephew Takes the Plunge

One of my nephews took the oath today. That's him on the left.

Today's Headlines

This Could Get Ugly, Really, Really Ugly
"New Mexico Dairy Pollution Sparks 'Manure War' "--headline, NPR.org, Dec. 9

News of the Tautological
"Missing Man Sought by Gatineau Police"--headline, CBC.ca, Dec. 9

A Great Thinker Thinks Out Loud

Quote of the Day

"The promotion of human rights cannot be about exhortation alone. At times, it must be coupled with painstaking diplomacy." -- Barack Hussein Obama, Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

Tis the Season

Yes, Virginia, There Was a Santa Claus

Santa Claus is dead. And we have his skull.

In May 1087 (21 years after the Normal Conquest of England, and 33 years after the schism between Constantinople and Rome), Italian mercenaries and sailors entered Myra on the South coast of Turkey to retrieve the relics of Saint Nicholas. The stolen remains were then taken to the Basilica di San Nicola, Bari, Italy, where they remain to this day. (N.b.: please see the references below for the resting places o...

It's a Big Spiral Arm

In the Lion's Mouth

The following scene is offered for subtle amusement. There has been a formal dual between two agents of the Confederation, known as "shadows," in the course of which the one shadow vanished in plain sight of the spectators. The event is being discussed by four women: Ravn Olafsdottr, one of the spectators to the fight; Bridget ban, a Hound of the Ardry; Mearana Harper, her daughter; and Graceful Bintsaif, a junior Hound.

“Inattentive blindness,” she...

Folk Music

Hey, This Tune is Familiar

Sunny News

Sun Remains Down in the Dumps
These came from a site called Dalton_Minimum_Returns
As of the end of November, the cumulative number of spotless days (days without sunspots) in the transition into solar cycle 24 now stands at 761.

For 11 months, from November 2008 to September 2009, the Ap index had been hovering near rock bottom with reading of 4’s and 5’s. But the last two months, October and November, broke through the glass floor and spawned the lowest AP monthly index value in the past 77...

Headline of the Day

Wait, Isn't That How He Got the Head Injury in the First Place?
"Crackdown Urged on Head Injuries"--headline, Toronto Star, Dec. 8

Global Control Panel

Let's see if this works. If it does, it should change from time to time when it is updated. I don't know how to paste it into the sidebar.

Quote of the Day

Today's Quote

Say the only conversations we ever heard were through radio. There really could be, in such a world, an analysis of conversation in terms of diode activity and the relative motions of speaker-cones. We might give an account of wave motion and diode activity in conversation that dazzled with its precision, complexity, and predictive power. Isn’t it true that every word will have its own unique way of moving the speaker cone or lighting the diodes? But imagine showing the...