The Red Shirt Phenomenon

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

An analytics experts examine the data, and discovers that — yes, indeed — the "red shirts" on Star Trek (the poor saps who beam down to the planet with Kirk) do indeed die with more regularity than their yellow or bllue shirt counterparts. For those of you too uninterested in reading his scholarly article, perhaps you might enjoy his powerpoint … Read More

Six Years Ago Today

Ken AshfordWar on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer and the State Department’s counterterrorism chief, had written dozens of PDBs during Bush 41’s presidency.  PDBs, he said, are usually brief and dispassionate documents. But the PDB dated of Aug. 6, 2001 was a page and a half, and had a title meant to capture the president’s attention. It was "the intelligence-community equivalent of … Read More

Lost Guns

Ken AshfordIraqLeave a Comment

I mentioned it briefly last week; today it leads the Washington Post: The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq. The … Read More

Two Things I Didn’t Know About Google

Ken AshfordScience & TechnologyLeave a Comment

(1) Google search is a calculator Go to your standard google toolbar and type in: 2+2 It’s also a pretty smart calculator, able to handle variables, conversions, and understanding words. Try: (2+i)*(3+2i) Days in two fortnights Bushels in a pack Half a cup in teaspoons G 40 in hex 25.50USD in euros 96F in celsius (2)  Google makes drinks

Sur L’étang D’or [On Golden Pond]

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

Associated Press: French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday lost it with two American news photographers covering his New Hampshire vacation – jumping onto their boat and loudly berated them. The confrontation came as Sarkozy and his companions sailed along Lake Winnipesaukee. He spotted Associated Press photographer Jim Cole and freelancer Vince DeWitt aboard Cole’s boat, which was outside a buoy barrier … Read More

Tales Of Future Past

Ken AshfordHistoryLeave a Comment

Cool.  A whole website devoted to a subject I like: past depictions of the future. Below is a magazine from the 1920’s predicting what the car of 1973 would look like: Guess they got that wrong. In 1969, for only $10,000, Honeywell offered a kitchen computer, which would store recipes, tell you which dishes you can make with the ingredients … Read More

The Education of Edward Daley

Ken AshfordRight Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

Rightwing columnist Edward Daley penned a column this weekend entitled "A Few Questions For Liberals".  No doubt these questions will be as loaded as "When did you stop beating your wife?", but having nothing better to do, I am happy to answer Mr. Daley, and maybe he will learn something. 1) The modern American "peace movement" is responsible for the … Read More

New Rules

Ken AshfordWiretapping & SurveillanceLeave a Comment

Firedoglake sums up the new wiretapping law that the Democratic-controlled Congress just approved (and Bush signed): Under just some of the revisions, NSA can spy on any call you make to or receive from another country (or a place the AG reasonable believes is to/from another country), without a warrant, as long as Alberto Gonzales and the Director NSA claim … Read More

The Cunning Use Of Flags

Ken AshfordForeign AffairsLeave a Comment

So Russia has laid claim to the land underneath the North Pole by submersing themselves down there and planting a flag?  Is that how it is done?  Planting a flag?  That’s so …17th century. Right, Eddie?

One Of These Days…

Ken AshfordPopular Culture1 Comment

I’m going to do like my brother and spend a couple of weeks in Edinburgh Scotland, going to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  It’s huge.  2006’s Festival Fringe saw hundreds of groups putting on 1,867 different shows with a total of 28,014 performances in 261 venues. But setting side comedy shows, dance performances, music events, and all that, and just considering … Read More

17th’s A Charm

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

I’ve blogged about them before, so regular readers of this site might be interested to know that the Dugger couple just welcomed the birth of their 17th kid — a daughter, named Jennifer. Jennifer joins siblings Joshua, 19; John David, 17; Janna, 17; Jill, 16; Jessa, 14; Jinger, 13; Joseph, 12; Josiah, 11; Joy-Anna, 9; Jedidiah, 8; Jeremiah, 8; Jason … Read More

Disaster Porn

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

It’s rare that agree with James Lileks, but I agree with him here.  Describing a news story (available here) which lets you listen to the screams of the children on the bus in the Minneapolis bridge collapse (one of the children called her Mom and left a voice mail immediately after it happened), Lileks writes: You know what? I don’t … Read More

You Sockdologizing Old Man-trap!

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

An interest website showing English words that are no longer used.  Having taken a brief look, I can say with confidence: these words will not be missed. A sample: novaturient adj 1679 -1679 desiring changes or alterations The novel’s author rightly rejected the novaturient wishes of the screenwriters orgiophant n 1886 -1886 one who presides over orgies The orgiophant had … Read More

The Most Dangerous Bridge In North Carolina

Ken AshfordLocal InterestLeave a Comment

With the collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis, lots of people are talking about the dangerous infrastructure in their backyard. WFDD did a story on this yesterday.  Guess where the most dangerous bridge in North Carolina is located? Right here in downtown Winston-Salem, on the heavily travelled Business 40.  It’s the portion of the highway that passes over Liberty Street. … Read More