The Single April Post
You no doubt have noticed that I have not posted once in the month of April. I’m not sure why this is so, except to say that I may be becoming increasingly desensitized to events that would otherwise drive the outrage needed to write often. There is quite a lot going on that is worth talking about - consider this a re-dedication to posting.
There’s also a couple of things that I need to fix with this stupid back-end. I’m all but sick of the discrepancies between the code and the wysiwyg javascript editor that I’ve installed for making posts. This needs to be tweaked. Furthermore, the wysiwyg editor is trapping my right clicks and giving me context menus that both don’t work and don’t display properly. Furthermore, I need to streamline the use of images in these articles. I always have to upload the picture, insert, and then go edit the html code to get it to work right. I’m sick of doing that. Plus, every time I put a jump in my articles, I have to edit the html to make sure they are placed properly, because it inserts them in the wrong place relative to paragraph tags, bold tags, and pretty much any other tag that is liable to break the remainder of the homepage after I post. This is not to mention that I probably need to fix this sifr plugin that I’m using to create flash-based headlines, as they’re not working in my browser anymore. . . . And I haven’t fixed the Translate options.
All-in-all, on any given article, I spend half of my time writing and the other half doing mundane and tedious edits largely as a result of the malfunctions that I describe above. It’s time to get this site back into tip-top shape.
P.S. Submitting this article caused an extra paragraph tag with nbsp blanks to appear after every paragraph in this article, requiring me to edit it yet again.
March 25th, the Day Conservatism Died
Many will look back on this time in American history and marvel at the steady decline of traditional conservatism - the philosophy of small government and big liberty. If one had to pinpoint a defining event signaling the death of the conservative movement, it would be this very day.
With the news that Nancy Reagan is set to endorse John McCain, conservatism has been buried, doused with a bucket of water, and swirled with a stick - only to the delight of socialist left-leaners and Smokey the Bear.
Bare Stearns
Much has gone down in the financial markets over the last week. The Fed first moved to increase liquidity by injecting $200bn. worth of credit to the big banks - and allowing them to borrow for four weeks instead of the traditional overnight window. This came as good news to the Dow, which jumped 400 points in the same day. It’s been pretty much downhill from there.
One minor aspect of these loans that was paid little attention when they were announced was that they would not become available until March 27, once the auctioning begins.
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Two out of Three Americans Find Nanotechnology Morally Unacceptable
The image featured in this article may be evidence of moral turpitude. Reader discretion is advised.
The material you see to the left is the blackest material ever made - a recent accomplishment of researchers at Rice University. Due to use of carbon nanotubes, the material can absorb 99.9% of all light hitting its surface, and has various potential applications in solar energy collection, infrared detection, or practically any science requiring certain light tolerances.
Word of the Day: Hambone
Though not particularly interesting, the word came to my mind twice today. First when recalling a Jack Handey quote:
If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dolphins most? I’d say Flippy, wouldn’t you? You’d be wrong though. It’s Hambone.
Second, the word is used to describe the kind of dancing that Worf did in Hee-Haw: The Next Generation.
Hambone, n., a style of dance that involves stomping as well as slapping and patting the arms, legs, chest, and cheeks.