Thorium as a fuel source

"If Barack Obama were to marshal America’s vast scientific and strategic resources behind a new Manhattan Project, he might reasonably hope to reinvent the global energy landscape and sketch an end to our dependence on fossil fuels within three to five years."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/7970619/Obama-could-kill-fossil-fuels-overnight-with-a-nuclear-dash-for-thorium.html

Sounds like a better use for federal funds than short term social programs.

Fiscal Conservatism

Optoon Cartoons (Click to Enlarge)




http://optoons.blogspot.com/2010/08/us-presidents-on-debt-click-image-to.html

How to look good with a bike

Try to get a bike that fits you, physically and symbolically

Commander in Chief

From Ann Althouse:

"That picture says so much: Obama is distracted by the trivial problems of taking his wife out somewhere expensive while the poor people of the Gulf are waiting and waiting for help. The disapproving glance of his wife gets more attention than the appeals of the hurricane victims. He's fortunate enough to have the kind of weather problem that can be solved by a simple umbrella, which wouldn't be any help at all in a hurricane. And yet his handling of an umbrella in a drizzle is incompetent, so how could he deal with a hurricane? The picture says: How can Obama understand/care/do anything about Katrina?"

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2010/08/drudge-is-giving-obama-hard-time-this.html

Go All Blacks

9/9/11-Start of the Rugby World Cup.

http://thebubble.msn.com/#/video/?id=606eccbd-b568-4e91-b68c-92f7034673a3

Education

I have a lot of problems with the educational system in this country. I tend to believe that teachers are overpaid (retiring with multi-million dollar pensions) and underqualified and seem to have no ability or desire to improve education. What changes have occurred in education in the last 200 years?

Bill Gates, richest man on earth, likes the FREE Khan Academy, a one man operation that places YouTube lectures on the internet for anyone, anywhere. When will educators start making use of technological advances?

Many students can be taught in self-paced computer-based learning programs, monitored by teaching aides, with some small group teacher supervised discussion groups. Perhaps guidance counselors, physical education, arts, etc, are the only teachers that we need.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/08/29/0456229/Bill-Gates-Enrolls-His-Kids-In-Khan-Academy

P.S. I am taking Yale classes through ITunes U for free. No credit but perhaps knowledge is more important than diplomas.

Oikophobia

Oikophobia is the word of the day. It is a combination of the word for home and the word for fear. It means fear of traditional values. We see examples of this constantly in media regarding the "Ground Zero Mosque", California Measure 8, Obama's comment about "clinging to guns and religion", etc.

It is one thing to seek improvement on the inherent problems with traditional values; it is another thing to simply be opposed to those values on the grounds that seems to be fear and to either be nihilistic or support a worse value system. To quote from Wikipedia: "The paradox of the oikophobe seems to be that any opposition directed at the theological and cultural tradition of the West is to be encouraged even if it is "significantly more parochial, exclusivist, patriarchal, and ethnocentric".