Random Thoughts #18
Steve Cole muses: Just thinking to himself.
1. I was startled by a clown when I was about eight years old and to this day just don't like them, and cannot enjoy them. I wonder how many other people bear these emotional scars? Note to clowns, stop wandering through the audience and scaring the little kids.
2. It's reached the time of the year that my metal desk is cold to the touch. The colder weather sucks the heat out of the metal via the concrete floor, and it's not even that cold, still way above freezing. When the freezing weather gets here, my metal desk becomes impossible to touch. I gotta consider putting some 2x4 boards under the desk legs as insulation.
3. The American Revolution was not a revolution, but a War for Independence. For it to be a revolution, it would have had to be an attempt to overthrow the British royal family.
4. A regulation golf ball has 336 dimples.
5. While the West Bank Palestinian leaders go through the motions of negotiating with Israel, the Palestinian media continues its barrage of "Israel has no right to exist" propaganda. I think that the US should adopt a policy of having nothing to do with the Palestinians (no aid, no pressure for talks) until they stop the Arab-language hate speech.
6. I read an article the other day proposing that the voting age be raised to 26. The point was that it was lowered from 21 to 18 because of drinking (no longer allowed at 18) and the draft (which no longer exists). People under 21 (and most of those under 26) have no idea how the world works, and tend to go for simplistic and idealistic solutions (if they vote at all). Worse, having little contact with the real world (jobs, taxes, bills) they tend to vote however their teachers tell them to vote. Science also notes that the human brain isn't fully developed until 25, particularly in areas that deal with decision making and impulse control.
7. I wonder what would have happened if smart bombs had been available in World War II? (Ok, the Germans had a small number of radio-guided bombs, but they were not in general use and nobody else had them.) Can you imagine B-17s cruising over Germany dropping individual pinpoint bombs on factories, bridges, rail yards, and so forth? You could do the job with smaller numbers of bombers, but the German fighter defenses would have still required large bomber formations. Maybe you could arm three-quarters of the bombers as "defensive" aircraft with lots of machineguns and armor and no bombs? (The US actually built such modified bombers during the war but found them ineffective when used in tiny numbers.)
8. While we're on the subject, I always wondered why the US did not put heavier (20mm) cannon in the noses of B17s to stop the German head-on attacks.
9. We are apparently raising an entire generation of people who have no idea which way "clockwise" is.
10. Did Sarah Palin cost Republicans control of the senate? Maybe. She did pick the candidates in Nevada, Colorado, and Delaware (forcing out more moderate candidates most people think would have won), and they lost. Some of her other picks (in states where no Republican could have won) also lost. She also made a mess of the Alaska election, but that didn't affect control of the senate. Sarah, like the Tea Party, is new at this, and principle got in the way of the Bill Buckley axiom of "nominate the most conservative person who can actually win the election." That, or she just misjudged the strength of the expected tidal wave.
1. I was startled by a clown when I was about eight years old and to this day just don't like them, and cannot enjoy them. I wonder how many other people bear these emotional scars? Note to clowns, stop wandering through the audience and scaring the little kids.
2. It's reached the time of the year that my metal desk is cold to the touch. The colder weather sucks the heat out of the metal via the concrete floor, and it's not even that cold, still way above freezing. When the freezing weather gets here, my metal desk becomes impossible to touch. I gotta consider putting some 2x4 boards under the desk legs as insulation.
3. The American Revolution was not a revolution, but a War for Independence. For it to be a revolution, it would have had to be an attempt to overthrow the British royal family.
4. A regulation golf ball has 336 dimples.
5. While the West Bank Palestinian leaders go through the motions of negotiating with Israel, the Palestinian media continues its barrage of "Israel has no right to exist" propaganda. I think that the US should adopt a policy of having nothing to do with the Palestinians (no aid, no pressure for talks) until they stop the Arab-language hate speech.
6. I read an article the other day proposing that the voting age be raised to 26. The point was that it was lowered from 21 to 18 because of drinking (no longer allowed at 18) and the draft (which no longer exists). People under 21 (and most of those under 26) have no idea how the world works, and tend to go for simplistic and idealistic solutions (if they vote at all). Worse, having little contact with the real world (jobs, taxes, bills) they tend to vote however their teachers tell them to vote. Science also notes that the human brain isn't fully developed until 25, particularly in areas that deal with decision making and impulse control.
7. I wonder what would have happened if smart bombs had been available in World War II? (Ok, the Germans had a small number of radio-guided bombs, but they were not in general use and nobody else had them.) Can you imagine B-17s cruising over Germany dropping individual pinpoint bombs on factories, bridges, rail yards, and so forth? You could do the job with smaller numbers of bombers, but the German fighter defenses would have still required large bomber formations. Maybe you could arm three-quarters of the bombers as "defensive" aircraft with lots of machineguns and armor and no bombs? (The US actually built such modified bombers during the war but found them ineffective when used in tiny numbers.)
8. While we're on the subject, I always wondered why the US did not put heavier (20mm) cannon in the noses of B17s to stop the German head-on attacks.
9. We are apparently raising an entire generation of people who have no idea which way "clockwise" is.
10. Did Sarah Palin cost Republicans control of the senate? Maybe. She did pick the candidates in Nevada, Colorado, and Delaware (forcing out more moderate candidates most people think would have won), and they lost. Some of her other picks (in states where no Republican could have won) also lost. She also made a mess of the Alaska election, but that didn't affect control of the senate. Sarah, like the Tea Party, is new at this, and principle got in the way of the Bill Buckley axiom of "nominate the most conservative person who can actually win the election." That, or she just misjudged the strength of the expected tidal wave.
posted by Federation Commander at 5:53 AM
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