Fuck that. We can't even kill the tall weeds around the Rio Grande that provide cover for our newest, welcomest work force ever.

The Border Patrol agreed to delay aerial spraying of the herbicide, which was set to begin Wednesday, until more talks were held with Mexican officials on the possible cross-border impact of such a project.

Israel Reyna, an attorney for the residents, said the decision to delay spraying wouldn't prevent the group from going forward with the lawsuit. "The day the court says, 'It's not going to happen,' that's when it's not going to happen," he told the newspaper.

I know in this 60-whatevereth day of the Age of Obamaness, one more straw on the camel's back just doesn't feel like much. We're weary, as ace mentioned yesterday. Goddam, we're already tired of multi-TRILLION dollar deficits and "Timmy G" private sector grabass, and what the hell else will we have to deal with before it gets hot in fucking Texas?

A lot, but perhaps not as much as we all think. Thought. Whatever. Drew, help me with the verb tense here.

I am just old enough to remember the last giddy power grab, the first hunnert or so days of Clintonia and health care. They fucked it up with arrogance, two shakes of hubris and a dollop of "we gots us a mandate here you plebes". But it took a full year to drive the stake into the heart of that one.

A year. Of digging in our heels and saying "oh, hell no".

I know I'm naive (and don't you find my naiveté refreshing?!) but at some point even the dolts say "whaaaa?".

It's a percentage thing. Closer to 50 than last time though, I'll admit as much.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:08 PM | Add Comment
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Actress, model, and all around hottie with a heart Candace Kita helped organize a warm USO send off for 300 US Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines deploying overseas this week. Ms. Kita was joined in this noble task by a bevy of fetching beauties including Jennifer Korbin, an actress on the new HBO series, Lingerie and a former Playboy model, Enya Flack, star of the Sci-Fi Network's Black Scorpion and a Deal or No Deal Model, Lena Yada, a former WWE wrestling Diva and actress, and Christa Campbell, an actress and Playboy model.
The lovely vixens signed autographs, passed out goodies, and dolled out copious amounts of affection to our brave servicemen. The Bob Hope USO Center in LA hosted the event along with the Hotties With a Heart civic organization founded by Ms Kita and good guy Douglas Stewart.
The USO serves US military personnel worldwide and depends on the generosity of regular Americans to make it all happen. Special thanks to Bob Hope USO Executive Director Michael Teilmann, actor DB Sweeney (toe pick!) and Bridie MacDonald for all the great photographs.

Left to Right: Candace Kita, Jennifer Korbin, Enya Flack, Lena Yada, and Christa Campbell pose with their favorite cards...yowsa! more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 03:35 PM | Comments (2)
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See, black absorbs more sunlight and releases it as heat, yeah? And see then the car gets hot and you have to use your air conditioner, right? And that uses more fuel and you DESTROY THE FUCKING EARTH, see?

How ridiculous.

The problem isn’t the color per se, but the reflectivity of the paint overall. And dark colors just don’t reflect well, so they are likely out. “Jet black remains an issue,” says the report.

California long enjoyed a reputation for freedom. No longer. The Environmental Goons claim that freedom can no longer be tolerated, so great is the threat to our earth.

Thanks to Demure Thoughts. Who's blogging about animals that sorta look like vaginas.

Though, really, if your vagina looks like these creatures, you might want to have that checked out. You might need a course of Bactine and linament.

Colugo Monkey?

I admit that one's fun to say.

Posted by: Ace at 02:39 PM | Comments (1)
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Damn. No mention of this site.

Rep. John P. Murtha knows something about taking enemy fire — from his two Purple Hearts in Vietnam to the recent salvos over his ties to lobbyists and defense contractors and the alleged exchange of earmarks for campaign contributions.

But heÂ’s sustaining incoming of a different sort from Uncle Jimbo, aka James Hanson, a former special forces soldier-turned-military blogger who has the Pennsylvania congressman in his cross hairs. Hanson is laying down a barrage of virtual shells, demanding MurthaÂ’s ouster and demonstrating the furor veterans groups and their websites are capable of generating online.

“Few people have turned on their former brothers in arms more egregiously than the Lummox Murtha,” Hanson wrote last year. “His behavior in throwing the Marines accused of a massacre in Haditha straight to the jackals of the press was shameful and disgraceful.”

Like many who have served in the military, Hanson’s anti-Murtha outrage grew from comments the chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee made three years ago — that Marines in Iraq had “killed innocent civilians in cold blood” during a 2005 assault in Haditha; 24 civilians, including children, were killed.

MurthaÂ’s spokesman, Matthew Mazonkey, said he wouldnÂ’t engage the blogger.

“I’m not going to go into a tit for tat with someone that goes by the screen name ‘Uncle Jimbo,’” Mazonkey said.

Um, he also goes by his real name, dude.

I wonder what screennames Matthem Mazonkey might resort to when he's online.

Posted by: Ace at 02:32 PM | Add Comment
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As our president would say, "It's like the Special Olympics or something."

A would-be suicide bomber accidentally blew himself up on Thursday, killing six other militants as he was bidding them farewell to leave for his intended target, the Interior Ministry said.

"The terrorist was on his way to his destination and saying good-bye to his associates and then his suicide vest exploded," a statement from the ministry said.

Seven terrorists killed. When bombmakers blow themselves up, they call it scoring an "own goal."

I think this is the world's first recorded instance of an "own touchdown." With the point after.

Parting from your limbs is such sweet sorrow.

Thanks to CAD Daddy.

Posted by: Ace at 02:29 PM | Add Comment
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The early games: 4 Xavier v. 1 Pittsburgh and 5 Purdue v. 1 Connecticut
Late games: 3 Villanova v.2 Duke and 3 Missouri v. 2 Memphis

As for the AoS pool:
1 Mike 41 of 48
1 JARED 41 of 48
1 slorts 41 of 48
4 tonightmares 40 of 48

And a bunch tied in 5th.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:55 PM | Add Comment
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Headline:

If Necessary, Strike and Destroy

North Korea Cannot Be Allowed to Test This Missile

That's not very nuanced, now is it?

They told me if George W. Bush were elected president, establishment foreign policy wonks would urge attacks on peaceful nations, and they were right!

Closing Velocity calls it must-read. So, read it.

Should the United States allow a country openly hostile to it and armed with nuclear weapons to perfect an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering nuclear weapons to U.S. soil? We believe not.

Corrected: Closing Velocity was trying to make a sneaky sort of point regarding the advice they provided in 2006 versus, I gather, their relative silence now.

I missed it completely and took it as a present-day op-ed. It's not.

Apologies for my confusion.

Posted by: Ace at 01:16 PM | Add Comment
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The last part would be a boon, because if the AK-47 can be successfully differentiated from friendly weapons, finding the bad guys is that much easier.

Very cool stuff.

Vanderbilt University's inhouse Exploration mag reported last week on the gunshot-locator net developed by the uni's Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS). It involves mounting a small electronics package on each soldier's helmet, running on four AA batteries.

In each package is a wireless network node, of a type dubbed a "smart-dust mote" for its small size and cheapness. There are also four separated microphones, for picking up the acoustic signatures of flying bullets, and a GPS satnav location system. The GPS isn't accurate enough to act as a basis for properly pinning down opposing gunmen, so the Vanderbilt boffins added a crafty radio interferometry enhancement system of their own - apparently of such cunning that it has attracted as much interest as the rest of the system on its own.

I don't like that part -- I thought that GPS was deliberately sabotaged a bit to prevent enemies from taking full advantage of it. If these smarty-pants have figured out a way to engineer and math their way around the built-in inaccuracy, that software is going to be highly sought after by enemies.

I don't like that it's possible, mind you. Not that I hold it against these guys for trying to figure a way around it.

The system works by picking up the distinctive conical shockwave trailing behind a passing supersonic bullet...

But then various special sauces developed by ISIS prof Akos Ledeczi (http://www.isis.vanderbilt.edu/akos/) and his team kick in. All the smart-dust node hats in the squad or platoon net pass their information back and forth, and a special patented filter strips out false muzzle-blast reports - the great bugbear of such technology. The supersonic bullet-booms are very distinctive, it seems, but the muzzle blasts are much harder to distinguish from random banging sounds or echoes - especially with lots of guns firing at once in a built-up area.

As every node has a good idea exactly where it is, owing to its embedded radio-interferometry-enhanced GPS, the combined reports can thus be boiled down to locate all the guns firing nearby within a metre or two - enough to pinpoint which window, corner or whatever each enemy is shooting from. Apparently it still works even in the case of crafty snipers lurking well back from windows - the usual method favoured by the pros. Nor is the system bothered by guns firing out of line of sight - hidden behind walls or buildings or whatever.

Thanks to Arthur.

Wrong: GPS No Longer Sabotaged. Yeah, that's why I said "I thought;" I thought I remembered something like this, but couldn't be sure.

When GPS was first released to the public, we got the dumbed down version. It was still an order of magnitude better than "legacy" systems like loran. But after a couple years they let the good stuff out.

I think what they are talking about hear is sort of GPS plus because despite the accuracy of GPS, and it is amazingly accurate, it still probably isn't good enough to do what they are talking about.

Correction thanks to JackStraw.

Posted by: Ace at 01:06 PM | Add Comment
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A DNS glitch caused a whole bunch of quantum weirdness around mu.nu these last few hours. Part of that weirdness being that no-one could email help@mu.nu to let me know about the problem.

I've just run around whacking every DNS server in sight with a big stick, and we should be back to normal now.

We have new servers coming soon - next week, with any luck - and that should improve things immensely.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:18 PM | Comments (2)
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Very cool...literally. Disclaimer(*)

...Scientists fired 60,000 amps through a cable during a critical test Tuesday — an electrical jolt comparable to turning on the air conditioning in 2,000 homes at the same time. It was enough juice to lift a 1,000-pound bundle of conventional cable 2 feet off the ground.

But nothing seemed to happen. No sparks, no sound, no movement.

A roomful of idiots who knew diddly squat about superconductors invited government and corporate observers waited for an explanation because they were too stupid to know what success would look like.

"Bottom line is, it worked," said Patrick Murphy, project manager for the Department of Homeland Security. The idiots guests broke into applause...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 11:44 AM | Add Comment
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