Norlos

The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this awesome video of a solar flare on April 16, 2012.

That’s a quote from Tagg Romney whose mom’s blind trust gave him $10 million to start a private equity firm. So, at least one investor said that…

When I was 7 or so, my family made a pilgrimage to KCI to see the Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise so I was very excited when I heard that OV-101 was going to be flying over NYC last Monday.

A strong spring storm, however, delayed the flight and I missed the fact that it was rescheduled for today! Oh well, at least I’ll get to see it everytime I ride down the west side bike path…

1) Regarding the photographs that US soldiers took with dead Afghan insurgents, a US veteran of Afghanistan says that it’s just something that soldiers do. I’m inclined to agree, since even the greatest generation did shit like that.

2) When the Swedish Minister of Culture cut into a cake shaped like a racist caricature of a black woman, it wasn’t an “OMG! what were those Swedes thinking?” moment but a bit of brilliant social commentary through performance art.

I think that a lot of the oppositionto Obama’s healthcare plan is due to two reasons: ideology and fear of change. That’s why I’m surprised that he’s not focusing solely on repealing the health care law, but advocating for more radical change by eliminating the link between employment and health insurance.

Let me say that I don’t think that healthcare should necessarily be provided by one’s employer, but it’s preferable to finding insurance on one’s own. As an individual consumer of health care, one’s health care costs would be driven be the state of one’s health. If you get sick, then your costs are going to go up.

At least in a health care program run through one’s employer, an employee is part of a pool where the lower health care costs of healthier workers help subsidize the higher costs of the more sickly employees not to mention that the individuals running my company’s plan are much more skilled at purchasing health care insurance than I am or even care to be.

Conservative ideologues and business owners may love Romeny’s proposal, but does he really want to risk alienating the hundreds of millions of Americans who rely on their jobs for their health insurance and prefer the devil they know to the devil they don’t?

In case any of you happen to be planning on taking a tanker through the Gulf of Aden, here’s how you can pirate-proof your ship.

The Rangers have the best team in the east this year, but they waived Sean Avery earlier in the season so, if they do win the cup, we’ll never get to see what crazy shit he would do during his day with it. Even though Sean Avery isn’t spreading his brand of insanity on the ice for the Rangers any longer, it doesn’t mean that Rangers games no longer wander into the realm of the surreal.

On Saturday, the officials on the ice didn’t notice that there was a second puck in the netting of the Rangers’ goal when they put another puck into play. Naturally, hilarity ensued…

via xkcd

FYI — if you’re ever approached by a representative of FARC who wants to purchase arms from you, I would recommend thinking twice about it.

From the March 5th issue of the New Yorker:

The D.E.A. agents concocted a scheme, borrowing heavily from the scenario that had netted Kassar. Undercover operatives, posing as members of Colombia’s main rebel group, the FARC, would entice Bout, through intermediaries, with the prospect of a multimillion-dollar arms deal…[t]he undercover agents would insist on meeting Bout somewhere outside Russia, and catch him on tape discussing a shipment of surface-to-air missiles to the FARC, for the purpose of killing American troops in Colombia.

From the April 9th issue of the New Yorker:

When an F.B.I. agent named Jack Garcia posed as a representative of Colombian FARC guerrillas and asked for weapons, Horng sent him a catalogue, and Garcia ordered anti-tank missiles, grenade launchers, submachine guns, and AK-47s. To lure Horng and others to the United States for arrest, the agency staged a mock wedding for a male and a female agent involved in the sting. Horng and other guests received elegant invitations to a celebration aboard a yacht moored off Cape May, New Jersey.

The one silver lining to Mr. Guapo, Dr. No, Jebus and TSI! moving out of New York is that I’m no longer forced to be “sociable” during KU games by watching the games “with other people.”

I am now free to follow KU games where I feel most comfortable: lying curled in a fetal position on my bed and listening to the game on the radio while clutching a bottle of red wine.