We have the coolest military...

A heavier-than-air military transport Coded-named Walrus. Now if that doesn't look like "Thunderbird Two". And at 500-tons of payload, a squadron of these would be ideal for civil disaster-relief like NOLA, the Aceh Tsumani, or the earthquake in Kashmir.


And Transparent Aluminum? Who knew....

..."A new type of transparent armor made of aluminum could one day replace glass in military vehicles. The product is callrd aluminum oxynitride. It is being tested by the Army and the University of Dayton Research Institute in Ohio. The material is a ceramic compound with a high compressive strength and durability, according to an Army statement issued this week. It performs better than the multilayered glass products currently in use, and its about half the weight. It is virtually scratch-resistant. "The substance itself is light-years ahead of glass," said 1st Lt. Joseph La Monica, who heads the research. "

"Light years"? Montgomery Scott walks among us indeed.
And Scotty, set phasers to "Stun" ....

..." Bitar heads Indiana-based Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems Ltd., which makes small blinding lasers used in Iraq. But his real project is a nonlethal energy device called the StunStrike. Basically, it fires a bolt of lightning. It can be tuned to blow up explosives, possibly to stop vehicles and certainly to buzz people. The strike can be made to feel as gentle as "broom bristles'' or cranked up to deliver a paralyzing jolt that "takes a few minutes to wear off.''

But penance need not be paid in suffering...It can be paid in forward motion. Correcting the mistake is a positive move, a nurturing move.

- Barbara Hall, A Summons to New Orleans, 2000

Huzzah!

October 17, 2005 (AP)

HYANNIS, Mass. --U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy attempted to rescue six men who had become trapped by high tide on a jetty off Hyannisport on Sunday. The Massachusetts Democrat eventually left the rescue to Hyannis firefighters, The Cape Cod Times reported Monday. Kennedy was walking his two dogs on the shore at 11:15 a.m. when he spotted the men cut off from shore by the rising waters. They had been fishing on a jetty that begins at the tip of the Kennedy compound. Tides had risen over the patchy rocks, which made it difficult to walk back to shore. Kennedy and a friend tried to rescue the men using a 13-foot boat but rough waters forced them back. A crew from the Hyannis Fire Department picked them up. The men, in their 20s, were not identified. They were brought to Cape Cod Hospital with mild hypothermia

Perhaps we should consider this a Karmic re-balancing? And at least a partial-redemption? Going out in a 13-ft boat in rough seas requires a certain amount of balls….and grit at his age.

Bravo, Senator Kennedy!! (…And I don’t even like the old bastard.)

The name is Bond, James Bond.

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Daniel Craig. ". . . Right this way, Sir."


I hope they keep the glasses.


And keep losing the shirts....

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.

- Robert Fritz

Libertarians? Or just the Silly-Hat Party?

Bill Condon and Jeff Soyer at Alphecca both launched into the Libertarian Party over their failure to follow-through with the Free State Project.

My complaint with the "Libertarians" is that there is such a ideological and operational-gap between those who consider themselves to "be libertarian", and those who are members and leaders of the Libertarian Party. In my experience, most libertarians are progressive or conservative Republicans; while the Libertarian Party-ites are left-wing whack-jobs with no real-world credentials and pathetic, questionable backgrounds whom I would not trust over a long weekend with a cat....No less a government.

As with the Holy Roman Empire, which was neither "holy" nor "Roman"; the Libertarian Party uses the word, but not it's scope of meaning. They might as well be the Silly-Hat Party, it would coincide with their use of aluminum-foil linings.