A British View of Islam

mean time to Fatwa: 1 week

ISO 3103, A Standard for Brewing Tea

Also in the "they must be kidding" category Dr. Nick has found the ultimate tea-brewing standard.

ISO 3103From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
ISO 3103 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (commonly referred to as ISO). It specifies a standardized method for brewing tea, originally laid down in 1980 as BS 6008:1980[1]. It was produced by ISO Technical Committee 34 (Food products), Sub-Committee 8 (Tea).

I Honestly Thought He was Kidding

In chatting with an old friend from Certco, he mentioned he was heading to the cape this weekend for a little R&R. I mentioned how remote we are here in Russian River Valley, and he responded with a joke about having a "gas-powered blender" for making mudslides and daiquiris. I laughed

but he wasn't kidding

I know what I want for Father's Day now...

Everything Bigger than 200 Miles

This awesome image of everything in the Solar System larger than 200 miles in diameter!

Not as many, numerically, as I would have guessed.

Also, they missed my ego

Like Robinson Caruso, It's as Primative as Can Be

I am currently in the Russian River Valley, taking a sort vacation and a few wine tours. It's nice and all, and the trees are ... well, wild! Huge, skyscraper trees, hoooooom hooooooom.

Anyway, it turns out, I have gone to the first place in America I have been to since ... ... 1998, that doesn't have wireless phone service! None, nada, zip!

This is a Bad Thing, since my boss' boss (Brian) wants to talk to me about my boss(who is temporary) getting to keep his job. Not surprisingly, I have a fully thought out opinion on this subject, but may not get to deliver it because my fucking phone wont work!!!!!!

Dammit!

and, perversely, I have decent internet access. If only there was some way to get phone service over the internet (there's a business plan!).

We Lose Yet Another Atheist to Religion

and, truthfully, I could see myself making a similar, deathbed conversion.


Dear Friends and Family;
I know that all of you have been concerned about my emotional and spiritual welfare, especially since the stroke. I know I have lacked direction, conviction, and integrity. I am writing to tell you that I have admitted to the error of my ways and have reached a turning point in my life.

Many of you feel that my lack of faith is the root of my problems and you were right. But I have been saved and want to spread the word; I hope that you can share in the blissful savior I have found. I love all of you so much, I want you to benefit from my new faith.
So, please take a moment to share in my redemption and go to the website below and rejoice in the truth.
http://www.venganza.org/
Peace and noodles,
Laurie

Mortal by birth, Pastafarian by choice.

Creationist Museum Opens in Kentucky

here

PETERSBURG, Ky. — The entrance gates here are topped with metallic Stegosauruses. The grounds include a giant tyrannosaur standing amid the trees, and a stone-lined lobby sports varied sauropods. It could be like any other natural history museum, luring families with the promise of immense fossils and dinosaur adventures.

But step a little farther into the entrance hall, and you come upon a pastoral scene undreamt of by any natural history museum. Two prehistoric children play near a burbling waterfall, thoroughly at home in the natural world. Dinosaurs cavort nearby, their animatronic mechanisms turning them into alluring companions, their gaping mouths seeming not threatening, but almost welcoming, as an Apatosaurus munches on leaves a few yards away.


What is this, then? A reproduction of a childhood fantasy in which dinosaurs are friends of inquisitive youngsters?


Yes! That's exactly what it is!

This is what happens when you let folks without a Fungineering Degree design rides...

This Looks Like a Job for... The Comma Police!

From the NYT:

When the attack began, it was Dec. 7 at Pearl Harbor but Dec. 8 in Japan. The book is subtly subtitled “A Novel of December 8th” to signal its attention to the Japanese point of view. On the basis of that detail, you might expect a high level of fastidiousness from “Pearl Harbor.”

And you would be spectacularly wrong. Because you would find phrases like “to withdraw backward was impossible,” sounds like “wretching noises” to accompany vomiting, or constructions like “incredulous as it seemed, America had not reacted.” Although the book has two authors, it could have used a third assigned to cleanup patrol.

This is not a matter of isolated typographical errors. It is a serious case for the comma police, since the book’s war on punctuation is almost as heated as the air assaults it describes. “One would have to be dead, very stupid Fuchida thought,” the book says about the fighter pilot Mitsuo Fuchida, “not to realize they were sallying forth to war.” Evidence notwithstanding, the authors do not mean to insult the fighter pilot’s intelligence — or, presumably, the reader’s.

Historian Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) is one of the authors. If you like grammar humor (and I do!), read the rest of it, it's jaw-droppingly bad.

Where Did This Man Go?

It was a shameful thing to ask men to suffer and die, to persevere through god-awful afflictions and heartache, to endure the dehumanizing experiences that are unavoidable in combat, for a cause that the country wouldn’t support over time and that our leaders so wrongly believed could be achieved at a smaller cost than our enemy was prepared to make us pay. No other national endeavor requires as much unshakable resolve as war. If the nation and the government lack that resolve, it is criminal to expect men in the field to carry it alone.

John McCain, Forward to The Best and The Brightest

As readers know, I was never convinved that the Iraq part of the war was the Right Thing to Do and opposed it (as opposed to the Afgahn part which I did and still support), largely because the evidence seemed to suggest we'd be where we are today.

I'd happily vote for the John McCain who wrote that quote. I wonder if we'll ever see him again.

I Can't Decide

Parody or Not?

At first I thought, "well done! very funny!", but looking through the rest of the blog..... I dunno... It's a lot of work to go through just to lampoon Brownback. I'm not ruling it out, but I am beginning to fear these folks are serious.

Fat people more religious than skinny people

Passed along without comment except to say that Half Sigma often claims strong conclusions from incomplete data.

Presidential Candidate Pros and Cons

From McSweeney:

HILLARY CLINTON
Pro: Known commodity; strong fundraiser.
Con: Polarizing; unlikely to woo those already opposed to her.

JOE BIDEN
Pro: Technically still running for president.
Con: Dude. Come on.

DICK CHENEYIN AN ELABORATE LATEX DISGUISETHAT TAKES FIVE HOURS TO APPLY
Pro: Trojan horse, my friend. Trojan fucking horse.
Con: Ruse would be so exciting that he would surely drop dead of a massive stroke about a month before Iowa.

WALTER MONDALE
Pro: Has spent last 22 years going over tape, reviewing mistakes, plotting, scheming, waiting, watching, preparing to pounce like a 79-year-old Minnesotan panther.
Con: None.

SAM BROWNBACK
Pro: Serves as a positive role model for ethnic brownbacks all over the country.
Con: Such an ethnicity does not technically exist; lacks the pen-gripping power of Kansas Senate predecessor Bob Dole.

NEWT GINGRICH
Pro: Well known.
Con: See above.

El Dice Mis Mentiras de la Vigine

And other movie titles from Jay Pinkerton