Monthly Archives: August 2007

Uncategorized

German Scientists Declare Speed of Light Broken

What’s being reported here as being new is the release of a peer-reviewed paper of this research.

According to modern physics, the speed of light is a fundamental, unbreakable limit. Yet two physicists are now claiming they have done just that, and propelled a stream of photons faster than the speed of light.

Günter Nimtz and Alfons Stahlhofen of the University of Koblenz, Germany, have been researching a phenomenon known as quantum tunnelling. Two prisms are placed together. When a light is shown through the prisms, a detector picks up the light and records information about the photon. However, when the two prisms are separated, Nimtz and Stahlhofen discovered that photons would occasionally “tunnel” between the prisms — arriving at the detector sooner than should theoretically be possible.

Dr. Nimtz, and his experimental set-up was featured on a NOVA show episode a few years ago. The Chief was impressed!

However, Dr. Aephraim Steinberg, from the University of Toronto, disagrees with the findings. He says its all just a matter of interpretation. The “wave packet” of the virtual photon exceeded the speed of light, but no actual information was transmitted that fast. Therefore, according to Steinberg, Einstein’s cosmic speed limit remains safe.

This is just WRONG that no “information” was transmitted! In the above mentioned NOVA episode, Nimtz transmitted a recognizable recording of Mozart Symphony no.40 through his system. As he pointed out, in response to the argument cited by Steinberg, “It seems to me that Mozart 40 carries quite a bit of information.”

So, where does this lead us?

Being able to violate the speed of light would undermine our current understanding of space and time, and lead to a number of bizarre effects, such as being able to travel backwards in time.

The Chief was impressed with the experiment when he saw it on TV, and is still impressed. Critics can squawk all they want, but if the science works, the science works!

Uncategorized

What Goes Around, Comes Around

We’ll Sue Murtha, Chessani Lawyer Vows

If Marine Col. Jeffrey Chessani is exonerated of the charges against him he may haul Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman John Murtha, into court, suing him for libel, one of his lawyers told NewsMax.com.

As case after case clears the Marines involved in this situation, one would think that trying an officer charged with covering up something that didn’t happen is a logical, and hopefully legal absurdity.

On a personal level, with a nephew in the USMC, currently stationed at Okinawa, I hope these Marines are all vindicated of these phony charges…setting the precedent for the others.

Uncategorized

More Inconvenient Truth – for AlGore

Survey: Less Than Half of all Published Scientists Endorse Global Warming Theory
Comprehensive survey of published climate research reveals changing viewpoints

In 2004, history professor Naomi Oreskes performed a survey of research papers on climate change. Examining peer-reviewed papers published on the ISI Web of Science database from 1993 to 2003, she found a majority supported the “consensus view,” defined as humans were having at least some effect on global climate change. Oreskes’ work has been repeatedly cited, but as some of its data is now nearly 15 years old, its conclusions are becoming somewhat dated.

This is the stuff cited ad nauseum by AlGore and his ilk to justify their quasi-hysterical warnings of disaster.

Medical researcher Dr. Klaus-Martin Schulte recently updated this research. Using the same database and search terms as Oreskes, he examined all papers published from 2004 to February 2007. The results have been submitted to the journal Energy and Environment, of which DailyTech has obtained a pre-publication copy. The figures are surprising.

Only if you don’t keep up with the REAL (as opposed to junk) science.

Of 528 total papers on climate change, only 38 (7%) gave an explicit endorsement of the consensus. If one considers “implicit” endorsement (accepting the consensus without explicit statement), the figure rises to 45%. However, while only 32 papers (6%) reject the consensus outright, the largest category (48%) are neutral papers, refusing to either accept or reject the hypothesis. This is no “consensus.”

No shit, Sherlock!

The figures are even more shocking when one remembers the watered-down definition of consensus here. Not only does it not require supporting that man is the “primary” cause of warming, but it doesn’t require any belief or support for “catastrophic” global warming. In fact of all papers published in this period (2004 to February 2007), only a single one makes any reference to climate change leading to catastrophic results.(Emphasis NOT added by Chief.)

The truth is out there!

China Watch, Defense Matters!

Selling our birthright for a mess of pottage…

Genesis 25:
29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:
30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

Trinkets and treasure: China tames the US

A new version of an old story. All it takes to see this is a quick trip to the local Wal-Mart.

…the real dreadnoughts of modern-day Chinese naval power, the huge containerized cargo ships, some Chinese, most not, full of Chinese manufactured goods, making another one of their visits to the port of Seattle, the same way they do to hundreds of other Western ports every single day….You frequently see containerized cargo ships making their way down Puget Sound to the port facilities in Seattle, completing their two-week high-seas journey from the massive Hong Kong and Shenzhen port complexes in southern China.

And the point is…

Most of the time, as they complete these voyages in from the Pacific, they ride low in the water, right down to the waterline. On these ships, the thousands of containers visible on deck, and the many more you don’t see under the decks (the largest container ship in the world, the Maersk Line’s Emma Maersk, can hold more than 14,000 individual 20-foot container units) are chock full, with TVs, washing machines and appliances, tires, toys and trinkets; the full catalogue of rapidly depreciating disposables over which North America is sacrificing its treasure.

As the containerized cargo ships leave Seattle, or San Francisco, or Long Beach, San Diego, Vancouver, all the way north to the newly bustling port of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, the ships ride a lot higher in the water. Most of the cargo containers are empty; they’re being sent back to China to be refilled. With the Chinese trade surplus with the US now running at about $150 billion a year, there’s a lot more stuff coming into the US west coast than leaving. (And much of the value of what the US does export to China comes from either Boeing jetliners or intellectual properties, such as first-run teen-slasher movies, neither of which gets much transported to China on containerized cargo ships.)

Or maybe it just seems that way. What really is being transported back to China in those empty containers is power.

The gory details of Wally-World (and others’) addiction to “Made in China” are clearly and unambiguously, and depressingly detailed., leading inevitably to this congealed lump of inconvenient truth:

China does not have to lobby US congressional representatives to look after its interests; the US industrial elite does that quite well on its own. In much the same way that Nazi Germany established Vichy France to further its interests without actually occupying the country, the US corporate elite’s desire to use China to enrich its wealth further has allowed China to create Vichy America.

That is a REALLY ugly concept to wrap one’s mind around. And to return to global realpolitik…we approach a potentially more serious consequence: Taiwan.

Here can be seen the true genius of the Chinese plan to subdue the US with trinkets and treasure. To counter the US militarily would be hugely expensive, and probably beyond China’s current technological capacity. Far better to do it the way it has, with trade. The Chinese could have America’s industrial elite, fearing a shutoff of the China wealth spigot, whisper in the ears of American policymakers that they should lay off any military countering of a Chinese move against Taiwan.

Give China 10 days to two weeks of unhindered military access to the Taiwan Strait, and it’ll put the flag of the People’s Republic of China over the Presidential Palace in Taipei. This is the classic “indirect approach” of mid-20th-century English military strategist Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart; instead of facing the US at its strongest, its technological superiority, China has attacked the US at its weakest point, its acquisitive, materialist, greedy soul.

After noting what China has done with two surplus” Soviet mini-carriers (turned them into tourist traps!) the conclusion here notes that

Real power now lies in those cargo ships forever steaming inexorably to the American heartland. In a couple of years, the United States will conclude its (by then) million-death, trillion-dollar misadventure in trying to subdue a few spits of green land between the Tigris and Euphrates. It will discover that, even if General David Petraeus’ “surge” might have won the battle of al-Anbar, back home the US ruling elite has surrendered to China in the battle for the United States, without even firing a single shot.

Someone PLEASE tell me this is all wrong?

Uncategorized

Irish Rough Justice

Tarred, feathered and tied to a lamppost

Tied to a lamppost, he stands with his head and upper body covered in tar and feathers. A makeshift placard hung around his neck with a piece of string announces the reason for his treatment. It is a very public humiliation, and a medieval one. Almost ten years since Northern Ireland’s Troubles officially ended, this remains the crude face of justice on the streets of south Belfast.

This man was subjected to the painful tarring and feathering on the Taughmonagh estate, a loyalist stronghold in the city. Locals had accused the victim, who is in his thirties, of being a drug dealer. And when police allegedly did not act, they took the law into their own hands. Two masked men tied up the accused victim, poured tar over his head and then covered him in white feathers, apparently from a pillow case.

Hmmmm. This could be a solution to the urban phenomenon of the “known crack house”, which everyone knows about, but which the authorities have somehow overlooked.

Uncategorized

Operation Backpedal

2 Comments

Border Patrol chief apologizes for remarks

A Border Patrol chief yesterday apologized for saying the agency’s mission is stopping terrorists, not illegal aliens or drug smugglers, a stance that outraged congressional lawmakers. “It’s painfully obvious to me that I could have done a better job of articulating my talking points,” said sector Chief Carlos X. Carrillo, who made the controversial comments last week at a town hall meeting in Laredo, Texas.

Didn’t take too long for the ol’ cluebat to whop Carlos upside the head.

“As long as the resources are made available to the people who can make it happen, we will certainly do everything we can to ensure that a zero tolerance policy is brought forward. But to initiate a program like this, without the funding, would not be wise.” Rep. John Culberson, Texas Republican, was angered by Chief Carrillo’s comments and contacted him yesterday for clarification. Mr. Culberson, a member of the House Appropriations homeland security subcommittee, said the Laredo chief apologized and promised to continue strict apprehension policies along the border.

Well and good. The remaining question is why anyone in Carillo’s position could be so lacking in situational awareness as to make the initial statement at all.

Uncategorized

Movement, but not Toward Progress

Palestinians back caliphate over politics

By day, they are the middle class, putting in days as mild-mannered teachers, factory supervisors and office clerks. But by night, the growing number of supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamic fundamentalists who reject modern democracy in favour of a pan-Islamic religious caliphate, are gathering in the West Bank to recruit the thousands who have grown disillusioned with the vicious stand-off between the secular Fatah and Islamist Hamas.

ALthought the Paleswinian gangfight between Fatah Phat-a and Hesbollah Hiz-ballers in not a good thing in and of itself, thiis tilt towards a Caliphate is, at best, no improvement.

“Any person living in Palestine now realises political parties, especially the Islamic ones, have not achieved anything for the individual,” said Sheikh Abu Abdullah, a thin-framed man with a wiry beard. His is the commanding voice behind weekly Hizb lessons at the al-Faruq mosque in the middle-class suburb of Kfar Aqab, past a crowded Israeli checkpoint where east Jerusalem melds into Ramallah. About 50 men, young and old, stayed after evening prayers this week to listen to the sheikh’s lesson entreating them to follow the Koran and stop infidels from profiting at the expense of the poor – one of an estimated hundreds or thousands of mosques in the West Bank and east Jerusalem where Hizb ut-Tahrir now teaches every week.

Somehow the Chief is afraid that we’ll hear a LOT more about this in the future.

Uncategorized

For whatever it’s worth:

US ‘poised to strike Iran’

Bob Baer, the former Middle East CIA operative whose first book about his life inspired the oil-and-espionage thriller Syriana, is working on a new book on Iran, but says he was told by senior intelligence officials that he had better get it published in the next couple of months because things could be about to change. Baer, in an interview with The Weekend Australian, says his contacts in the administration suggest a strategic airstrike on Iran is a real possibility in the months ahead.

“What I’m getting is a sense that their sentiment is they are going to hit the Iranians and not just because of Israel, but due to the fact that Iran is the predominant power in the Gulf and it is hostile and its power is creeping into the Gulf at every level,” Baer says.
He says his contacts have told him of his book: “You better hurry up because the thesis is going to change. I told them submission is in January but they said, ‘You’re probably going to be too late’.”

On the other hand:

Washington’s intelligence community is abuzz about possible military action against Iran, which is being weighed at the highest levels of the Bush administration. While the guessing game has become “will they or won’t they?”, at least some experienced and trusted intelligence sources have told The Weekend Australian that the possibility of a strike in the next 12 months remains remote.

One hopes the prez will stand up to Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad Ahmadinejad, but who knows any more? Well, whatever. SOMETHING will happen, sometime.

Uncategorized

HUH?

Border Patrol chief rejects mission against aliens, drugs

This beggars the imagination. To quote Isaac Asimov: ” Such folly smacks of genius! A lesser mind would be incapable of it.”

A Border Patrol chief at one of the nation’s most dangerous Southwest border crossings says the agency’s mission doesn’t include apprehending illegal aliens or seizing narcotics — perplexing front-line agents and angering a congressional critic of illegal immigration.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,” Carlos X. Carrillo, Border Patrol chief of Laredo, Texas, told guests at a town-hall meeting Thursday. “The Border Patrol’s job is not to stop illegal immigrants. The Border Patrol’s job is not to stop narcotics. … The Border Patrol’s mission is not to stop criminals.

OK dipwick, just what ARE you supposed to be about?

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,” Carlos X. Carrillo, Border Patrol chief of Laredo, Texas, told guests at a town-hall meeting Thursday. “The Border Patrol’s job is not to stop illegal immigrants. The Border Patrol’s job is not to stop narcotics. … The Border Patrol’s mission is not to stop criminals.

Hmmmm. How does one detect weapons and terrs if there is no checking of who’s crossing the borders, and with what?

Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, called for Mr. Carrillo’s resignation Friday. He also questioned how the recently appointed official could tell the difference between an illegal alien and a terrorist. “If the Border Patrol has developed a new technology that can distinguish between terrorists and other illegal border crossers without first catching them and checking them out, that is good news,” said Mr. Tancredo, an outspoken critic of illegal immigration and a presidential candidate. “But if that is not the case, Mr. Carrillo’s statements are extremely irresponsible and demoralizing to officers in the field.”

“…irresponsible”? FAR too generous a description of el Señor Carillo in the Chief’s humble opinion. Put him in the pillory.

Uncategorized

UK Not Ready for National Suicide?

Brown faces Labour revolt over EU referendum

Gordon Brown faces a growing Labour insurrection over his refusal to allow a referendum on the controversial EU treaty, it has emerged. A “hard core” of at least 40 Labour MPs is poised to issue the Prime Minister with an ultimatum to re-open talks on the treaty or concede a referendum.

Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown held talks on the EU treaty before watching England take on Germany at Wembley Stadium They are preparing a 15-point plan to put to Mr Brown calling for the Brussels blueprint to be radically amended to end the need for a British referendum.

The Chief REALLY likes Britain, and has a high respect for their history, which in many ways (to the consternation of the diversity crowd) is really a significant part of our own national DNA. I hope they can muster enough of the spirit that beat down Napoleon and stood off Hitler’s Luftwaffe to maintain their unique and valuable nationality.

Uncategorized

Homeland Insecurity – It’s Real!

DHS hid data from probers

The Chief has had one of his blog categories labeled sarcastically as “Homeland Insecurity”, to tag those situations where moonbattery overcomes rationality in cases involving so-called Homeland Security.

Department of Homeland Security administrators — fearing additional scrutiny — concealed from federal investigators information-sharing breakdowns that left the U.S. vulnerable to terrorists, internal DHS memos and e-mails show. The documents obtained by The Washington Times lay out how officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) deliberated telling the Inspector General’s Office that DHS agencies failed to share data before opting to withhold their concerns.

“We better be ready to provide evidence and name names because this type of statement is the height of the post-9/11 criticisms,” former Citizenship and Immigration Services Chief Council Dea Carpenter noted in an e-mail to officials within her DHS agency last year. The e-mail preceded the removal of references to information-sharing failures in the mammoth department from the third and final draft of a memorandum Mrs. Carpenter wrote for Inspector General Richard L. Skinner. Mr. Skinner had begun a probe into USCIS information-sharing shortcomings at the request of Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, who had received numerous complaints of internal problems in the agency.

Sadly, it’s another clear case of government ‘crats doing what they do best: covering their…donkeys.

SD Politics

Senator Returns to Public Life

Johnson speech open to public
Senator to appear at Convention Center

U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota will speak Tuesday at the Sioux Falls Convention Center, his first public event since being stricken by a debilitating brain hemorrhage in December. The South Dakota Democrat will be accompanied by his wife, Barbara, three grown children and their spouses, and five grandchildren.

Best of wishes to SD’s senior Senator and his family as he returns to public activity.

That having been said, the Chief DOES reserve the right to continue to be very skeptical of the Senator’s political stance and actions.

Uncategorized

Donks Mugged by Reality in Iraq

Democrats Refocus Message on Iraq After Military Gains

It’s admittedly tough to have an idea of what you’re going to be doing…only to have the mean old real world slap you with something that is completely contrary to the situation you were expecting.

Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq’s diverse political factions.

You KNOW that if the administration was also focusing on Iraq’s internal politics that the screaming would be about “high-handed US imperialism dominating a sovereign foreign nation”.

There’s more of the Donk fecklessness in this article…check it out for yourself…or not. You can guess what it is based on the previous record.

Somehow, the Chief will be able to restrain his tears of sympathy for the Donks.

Uncategorized

Feds Ignore Own Regs on Illegals

Bush hit over jobs for illegal workers

If President Bush is serious about getting tough on U.S. employers who hire illegal aliens, he can start with his own administration, which employs thousands of unauthorized workers, says the top Republican on the House immigration subcommittee.

Note: “IF President Bush is serious…” Although this is worth pointing out, the Chief has absolutely zero confidence that any seriousness is present.

A 2006 audit showed federal, state and local governments are among the biggest employers of the half-million persons in the U.S. illegally using “non-work” Social Security numbers — numbers issued legally, but with specific instructions that the holders are not authorized to work in the U.S. “Let’s clean up our own house, let’s especially clean up the federal employment of all those working for the federal government,” said Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee.

Just another joke on us from the best government money can buy.

Uncategorized

French Cooking the News at A.F.P.

BANG! or not to BANG?

This is just too much for words. A.F.P. in case you are wondering stands for Agence France Presse came out with the following report and picture:

afp_iraq_bullet.jpg

Tuesday August 14, 2007: An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.

Notice anything peculiar fellow gun aficionados? Apparently AFP didn’t! HINT HINT: What’s the difference between a cartridge and a bullet?

To help them out The Dissident Frogman has thoughtfully provided a helpful training video for journalists and wannabes. It’s well worth the effort to go over there and check out.

Uncategorized

Not Many Care for CAIR These Days

CAIR blames Justice for its troubles

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) says it is suffering from a decline in membership and fundraising and blames the Justice Department for listing it as an unindicted co-conspirator in a case involving a charity accused of terrorist ties.

How typical is this? The blame is ALWAYS elsewhere, regardless of the actions that have caused the trouble. The clear record of the actions of this organization in regularly excusing Islamo militancy, and opposing effective security measures to meet its threat just COULDN’T have any effect on the popularity of CAIR, at least according to itself.

Support for charity terrorists COULDN’T be affecting this, could it? Not according to CAIR!

An antidote to their Koranic circumlocutions is a clear Biblical principle from Matthew chapter 7:

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

’nuff said.

National Insecurity

“The Company” Needs Reorganization

Tenet’s Pre-9/11 Efforts Faulted

The Chief NEVER had any faith in this holdover Clinton appointee from the get-go. After all, he was part of the same establishment as Jamie Gore-lick who was responsible for the so-called “wall of separation” between the CIA, FBI, etc. that prevented their sharing and coordinating intel/counter-intel information. I never saw that Tenet ever had any problems with this…it’s no wonder that the CIA fell off the cliff when it (attempted) its operations under these conditions.

Former central intelligence director George J. Tenet and his top lieutenants failed to marshal sufficient resources and provide the strategic planning needed to counter the threat of terrorism in the years before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to a long-secret CIA report released yesterday.

Despite promises of an all-out war against terrorism in the late 1990s, leaders of the spy agency allowed bureaucratic obstacles and budget shortfalls to blunt the agency’s efforts to find and capture al-Qaeda operatives, said the report, by the CIA’s inspector general. It also faulted agency leaders for failing to “properly share and analyze critical data.”

The executive summary of the formerly Top Secret report is available in PDF format here, direct from the CIA!

Uncategorized

Blognote

Road Trip Report

Just completed 10 day road trip – meandering across southern Indiana in search of genealogical information.

This exercise was successful, with a lot of the Chief”s ancestral information and family historical locations visited.

The emotional highlight came with a visit to a remote rural family burying ground, with the grave of (one of) my Revolutionary War ancestors, who served in the 3rd Pennsylvania infantry, and fought at Trenton and Brandywine. Also discovered another previously unknown Revolutionary vet, and a number of War of 1812-ers, and Civil War types also.

The next day, I had the chance to visit the George Rogers Clark memorial – what a job HE did, leading a 3-week forced march of about 190 men across flooded out southern Illinois in mid-winter, and then attacking, and getting the surrender of around 600 Brits in their Ft. Sackville at Vincennes, IN.

This American victory sealed the presence of the United States in the “Old Northwest” and insured that the new republic would NOT be restricted to the strip of the 13 (former) colonies along the Atlantic seaboard.

We stand on the shoulders of giants. May we be worthy of the sacrifice and accomplishments of our ancestors, and add to their edifice rather than tear it down.

Uncategorized

GlowBull Warming Update

Report from the Global Warming Battlefield

In case you hadn’t noticed, the global warming debate has now escalated from a minor skirmish to an all-out war. Although we who are skeptical of the claim that global warming is mostly manmade have become accustomed to being the ones that take on casualties, last week was particularly brutal for those who say we have only 8 years and 5 months left to turn things around, greenhouse gas emissions-wise. I’m talking about the other side – the global warming alarmists.

Check it out for some REAL inconvenient truths.

Uncategorized

Bureaucratic Malfeasance in Office:

U.S. agents accused of aiding Islamist scheme

A criminal investigations report says several U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees are accused of aiding Islamic extremists with identification fraud and of exploiting the visa system for personal gain.

What’s that bit about “aid and comfort to the enemy…”?

The confidential 2006 USCIS report said that despite the severity of the potential security breaches, most are not investigated “due to lack of resources” in the agency’s internal affairs department.

The Chief would recommend revival of the pillory in the case of those ‘crats eho couldn’t be bothered to crack down.

Uncategorized

“Don’t Get Fooled Again!”

Chávez to Propose Removing His Term Limits

President Hugo Chávez will unveil a project to change the Constitution on Wednesday that is expected to allow him to be re-elected indefinitely, a move that would enhance his authority to accelerate a socialist-inspired transformation of Venezuelan society.

Juan Barreto/Agence France-Presse – Getty Images

The removal of term limits for Mr. Chávez, which is at the heart of the proposal, is expected to be accompanied by measures circumscribing the authority of elected governors and mayors, who would be prevented from staying in power indefinitely, according to versions of the project leaked in recent weeks.

Hmmmmm. Let’s see…hasn’t that pattern been tried before in Latin America?

“Here comes the old boss, same as the new boss.”

Uncategorized

Cold Case File: Missing Lakota Warrior

Could building site be burial ground of the lost warrior from Buffalo Bill’s show?

This is a rather curious situation in the UK with a clear South Dakota connection,

At 6ft 7 inches tall, the imposing sight of the Sioux warrior on the battlefield would have been enough to instil the enemy with fear. In 19th Century Salford, the towering warrior with his solemn name Surrounded By The Enemy was a source of fascination and mystery.

Surrounded, as he was better known, succumbed to a chest infection in his teepee on the chilly Salford Quays in 1887 and died. His body was taken to Hope Hospital, where it promptly vanished. There was no official burial, there is no record of it being moved, and nobody admitted to taking it.

Now, 120 years later the mystery may yet be solved, with the start of excavations on the site that experts hope might just uncover the once impressive warrior’s final resting place.

The Chief has to hope that if Surrounded is found, that he might be returned to the plains where he lived most of his days. It would be fitting,

Uncategorized

Can you get with the program?

The Chief posts these items for you possible mental exercise..as the saying goes, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the management.

First this one from the NYT no less:
Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch

Until I talked to Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford University, it never occurred to me that our universe might be somebody else’s hobby. I hadn’t imagined that the omniscient, omnipotent creator of the heavens and earth could be an advanced version of a guy who spends his weekends building model railroads or overseeing video-game worlds like the Sims. But now it seems quite possible. In fact, if you accept a pretty reasonable assumption of Dr. Bostrom’s, it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else’s computer simulation.

You too can be a set of bytes…IF you accept the assumption,,,

Even if Life Is a Computer Simulation…

…we still have some real questions to consider. Nick Bostrom’s argument that we could be living in a simulation, the topic of my Findings column, is a clever new twist on the old life-is-but-a-dream notions of Western philosophers (like the idealist George Berkeley), Eastern religions and science-fiction writers everywhere (cf. “The Matrix,” “The Truman Show,” and the “holodeck” in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”). A few of the questions:
1) How likely is it that we’re living in a computer simulation run by intelligent posthuman beings?
2) Would you consider it ethical for any intelligent beings to run such a simulation?
3) What’s the best way to live and survive in a computer simulation?

Finally, the blogosphere logs in on this one, and comments to the point, that often make more sense than the original proposition.

If We’re All Living In the Sims…

H/T to Instapundit.

Uncategorized

Straight from the Horse’s Mouth…or is it the other end?!

President: Rule of Islam Only Way fro Salvation of Mankind

Here’s the latter-day Hitler of Iran giving his own view in plain language on his own official news service. How much more direct do you need it?

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Tuesday that rule of Islam on mankind is the only way for salvation of human beings. “There is no truth on earth but monotheism and following tenets of Islam and there is no way for salvation of mankind but rule of Islam over mankind,” said Ahmadinejad in a meeting with Afghan Sunni and Shiite ulama at Iranian Embassy in Kabul.

Of course this will be studiously ignored by the politically correct/anti-war lefty moonbats who will continue to demand that we negotiate. WHAT’S TO NEGOTIATE? How soon we surrender and convert? There’s no compromise position…you’re either with them…or not. If not, you’re a target.

Capice?

Space Patrol

Forward, Into the Past!

1 Comment

Time travel could be possible … in the future

It may take more than a nuclear-powered De Lorean or a spinning police box, but time travel could actually be a possibility for future generations, according to an eminent professor of physics. Prof Amos Ori has set out a theoretical model of a time machine which would allow people to travel back in time to explore the past.

…Doctor Who?

The way the machine would work rests on Einstein’s theory of general relativity, a theory of gravity that shows how time can be warped by the gravitational pull of objects. Bend time enough and you can create a loop and the possibility of temporal travel.

Prof Ori’s theory, set out in the prestigious science journal Physical Review, rests on a set of mathematical equations describing hypothetical conditions that, if established, could lead to the formation of a time machine, technically known as “closed time-like curves.” In the blends of space and time, or spacetime, in his equations, time would be able to curve back on itself, so that a person travelling around the loop might be able to go further back in time with each lap.

In the blends of space and time, or spacetime, in his equations, time would be able to curve back on itself, so that a person travelling around the loop might be able to go further back in time with each lap. In the past, one of the major challenges has been the alleged need for an exotic material with strange properties – what physicists call negative density – to create these time loops.

“This is no longer an issue,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “You can construct a time machine without exotic matter,” he said. It is now possible to use any material, even dust, so long as there is enough of it to bend spacetime into a loop. Even though Prof Ori, of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, believes his new work strengthens the possibility of a real Tardis, he would not speculate on when a time machine would be built, or even if it would ever be possible.

This is way cool.

Uncategorized

More Border Problems – with Islamoterrs!

1 Comment

More Trouble on the Rio Grande

Terrorists teaming with drug cartels

This is definitely a DUH moment. Given the state of the alleged border, the only surprise to the Chief is that this hasn’t turned up sooner than this.

Islamic extremists embedded in the United States — posing as Hispanic nationals — are partnering with violent Mexican drug gangs to finance terror networks in the Middle East, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report. “Since drug traffickers and terrorists operate in a clandestine environment, both groups utilize similar methodologies to function … all lend themselves to facilitation and are among the essential elements that may contribute to the successful conclusion of a catastrophic event by terrorists,” said the confidential report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.

The 2005 report outlines an ongoing scheme in which multiple Middle Eastern drug-trafficking and terrorist cells operating in the U.S. fund terror networks overseas, aided by established Mexican cartels with highly sophisticated trafficking routes. These terrorist groups, or sleeper cells, include people who speak Arabic, Spanish and Hebrew and, for the most part, arouse no suspicion in their communities.

Unfortunately, there are more gory details in the article. Fortunately, this report is not passing completely without notice.

Hearings urged on DEA report

A Texas congressman today demanded a hearing based on recent reports that Islamic terrorists embedded in the United States are teaming with Mexican drug cartels to fund terror networks overseas. Rep. John Culberson, Texas Republican, said the Drug Enforcement Agency document — first reported in today’s editions of The Washington Times — revealed startling evidence that Islamic radicals are camouflaging themselves as Hispanic persons while conducting business with violent drug-trafficking organizations.

“I have been ringing the bell about this serious threat of Islamic individuals changing their surnames to Hispanic surnames for three to four years,” Mr. Culberson said. “Unfortunately, Homeland Security’s highest priority is to hide the truth from Congress and the public. I just hope we’re not closing the barn door after terrorists have already made their way in.”

It couldn’t hurt, and could even help.

Uncategorized

RINO Wants Revival of Amnesty Bill

1 Comment

Republicans pan Specter immigration alternative

Here we go again – but at least the BS detectors are activated:

Some Republican leaders say they smell a rat in Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter’s compromise proposal to get an immigration-reform bill through the Senate this year. Mr. Specter now suggests the 12 million illegal aliens he says are already here should be given the equivalent of “green card” status but “without the automatic path to citizenship” that critics labeled “amnesty.”

Nah – don’t think so Arlen.