Quick Roundup 72

It has been a way busier week than I thought it would be! I'm tired, brain-dead, and stuck at work until a few things in the lab finish up, so I'll go ahead with a link dump/news roundup.

50,000

My 50,000th site visitor arrived from Alpharetta, GA, on Wednesday, and I see that he's a fellow Linux user.

But I bet he wouldn't admit to using Tinfoil Hat Linux even if he did!

Dirka Dirka Mohammed Jihad

The Penn State Objectivist Club has a pretty good blog, which I've decided to list in my blogroll.

And I agree with Zach that the following video ought to go viral.

Be sure to listen all the way to the end. You will laugh out loud.

I can't believe this guy got in trouble for this feat of Islamic scholarship -- summing up the entirety of the actual and potential contributions of Islam to the rest of the world in only four words! Quick! Attach this man to the Chaplain Corps and send him to Quantico!

Why Submariners Are So Sarcastic

I think this post by PigBoatSailor explains it pretty well. Among other things, he notes something I occasionally still run into, believe it or not.... (Chortle.)

So that explains why we are so hard on each other. But why on other sailors, or other branches? Well, we make a game of abuse underway, when we abuse our fellows. We come to find the humor in it. So, when we are ashore, and among the more civilized members of our society, we tend to forget that our humor has a rather nasty tone to some. To us, well, it is in good fun. Even more so than usual, since exposing a sore spot on others and poking at it mercilessly does not mean we might be ruining a crewmember. So, yes, we abuse. Consider it flattery, though. We feel you, the objects of our abuse, are worth the effort -- you are enough of a brother to earn our attention, and therefore, our friendly abuse. The problems arise when others do not realize there is meant to be friendliness there.

The first time I ran into this, from a prior enlisted nuke when I entered Officer Candidate School, it was pretty hard to take. I must say that I initially thought the guy was a complete jerk!

Submarine Nicknames

Another good sea story from Bothenook! (And it has a few capital letters in there just to see if you're paying attention!)

so anyway. why did pud get called pud? he didn't start out as pud. he was FNG. for you non-military types, that would be fucking new guy.

we were scheduled to get underway at O dark early, but things didn't work out. that wasn't unusual on the ustafish. as a matter of fact, we were a couple days late getting underway.

why is that important?

the supply officer and the chief cook would draw up the menus for the coming month, and stuck to them pretty religiously. and when we got underway, they would try to keep the greasy fried foods, or really odious dishes off the menu. that works. unless you get underway 3 days late, and the menu has sliders, fried shrimp, and chili. you saw the old timers eat very sparingly at lunch. and they warned everyone else. but pud, well, that boy liked to eat. he liked to eat a lot. so he did. a lot. of everything.

i don't know how many of you have travelled out the golden gate, but there is a stretch of water known as the potato patch. it's reputedly the roughest stretch of coastal water on the western seaboard.

and it lived up to its name.

Take a guess and drop by to see whether you got it right!

Good One by Ed Cline

If you haven't read Ed Cline's take on the recent multi-billion dollar contributions to charity by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, go by Rule of Reason right now and do so.

Let us also note that, in regards to the wealth Gates will donate to the public education system, the students who will be the immediate or direct beneficiaries of that money, for as long as they are hostages of that system, will not emerge brighter students or super achievers. By all the direct evidence of plummeting test scores and the inability of increasing numbers of students and young adults to think, read, do simple math, and write, learning how to use technology or some souped-up library or data system will not turn them into independent individuals capable of emulating Gates's business success.

What Gates overlooks or is oblivious to is that the education system is committed to turning young people into selfless individuals who defer to arbitrary authority and regard themselves as mere cogs in society, some more adept or skillful than others, tolerated as long as they remain obedient ciphers.

To donate money for the sake of the alleviation of some social ill and have none of it spent on changing what causes that ill is to throw good money after bad.

Accidental Discoveries

I enjoyed this list.

Natural Antifreeze

If you liked my (really, Adrian Hester's) post about Antarctica awhile back, you'll find this interesting. The Commissar points to a story about the discovery of how fish adapted to the frigid temperatures there produce antifreeze. "[A]ntifreeze glycoproteins (AFGP) originate primarily from the exocrine pancreas and the stomach."

I can top that easily. I happen know of a higher primate which employs its brain to produce antifreeze. Interestingly enough, most of the humans familiar with this primate do not regard this process as "natural" even though there is ample evidence that the primate's brain evolved specifically to perform this and similarly sophisticated tasks. In fact, many of them doubt this primate has much of a use for its brain at all.

Crime Against Logical Thinking

I recently noted the propensity for Moslems to indulge in self-contradictory notions, only to find an even better example in a news report I learned about from Little Green Footballs.

The incitement to hatred of Islam should be considered a crime against humanity, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech before the Council of Europe in Strasbourg yesterday.

...

The Turkish prime minister called on Western countries to integrate the Muslims living among them to a much greater degree. [my bold]

How are we supposed to "integrate" a people who want special treatment?

And, oh by the way, Turkey is one of the more "secular" Moslem states, in case its Prime Minister caused anyone to forget....

-- CAV