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A old axiom in aircraft design is if it looks right it will fly right. Witness the Lockheed & Boeing battle with the F35 looking right and winning the contract. I must say the cars so far are a disappointment except for McLaren, it does has some style and grace. I wonder if the FIA set this up to discommode Darth Bernie as I'm sure the fans will hate how Ferrari especially looks.

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Samizdata quote of the day
via;
Brian Micklethwait (London) Civil liberty/regulation • French affairs • Historical views

I suppose it'll add some spice to history exams though. Get the wrong answer and you not only fail: you get carted off to jail as well.

- The concluding sentences of a piece by Mick Hartley criticising a new French law which, once President Sarkozy signs it, will make it a criminal offence to deny that genocide was committed by Ottoman Turks against Armenians.

Posted by: vonKrag at 11 | No Comments | Add Comment
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Today is the day that the <a href="http://www.piecouncil.org/Events/NationalPieDay/">American Pie Council</a> has declared National Pie Day. I have done my duty & made 2 Pi, key lime & mince. If you're wondering why this day was specifically chosen as National Pie Day, the APC has a predictably cute and pretty convincing answer. "It's 1/23 because celebrating the wholesome goodness of pie is as easy as 1-2-3."

Posted by: vonKrag at 19 | No Comments | Add Comment
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Just what the trick is to imbed a youtube video?

Posted by: vonKrag at 12 | No Comments | Add Comment
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My name is Bond, James Bond.

<object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VuO34MDezzU&hl=en_ US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><par

Posted by: vonKrag at 12 | No Comments | Add Comment
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1928 – Mickey Mouse’s screen debut (Steamboat Willie at Colony Theater NYC). Bugs Bunny comes along later, being much cooler kicks mousey ass!

1982 – Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons :-) and :-( on the Carnegie Mellon University Bulletin Board System.

Posted by: vonKrag at 09 | No Comments | Add Comment
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My friend Charlie Stross has a very good idea:

    I'm going to turn the TV off on September 11th. And close all the web browser tabs I have open on news sites.

    This isn't to belittle the events of ten years ago, or to show disrespect for the victims and their bereaved: rather, it's to avoid the narcissistic and indecent media feeding frenzy that battens onto popular sentiment and attempts to jerk every tear from the emotional aftermath of tragedy, the better to milk the advertising revenue stream.

    If the media really wanted to mark the occasion respectfully, they'd do so by holding a minutes' silence at 8:46am EST this Sunday.

Posted by: vonKrag at 13 | No Comments | Add Comment
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1937 – Spam, the luncheon meat, is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.

1940 – World War II: The United Kingdom and the Vichy France government break off diplomatic relations. France is in full "collaborate” mode.

1943 – Beginning of the Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world’s largest tank battle at Prokhorovka village. The Soviets lost three or four to every German, in tanks and men, but the Germans couldn’t afford those losses. The Soviets could.

1946 – The bikini is re-introduced in Paris, France (it was a Roman invention).

1951 – William Shockley invents the junction transistor. Vacuum tubes hang on, barely, in a few places. Curiously they’re popular in the fevered minds of a few deluded audiophiles. I'm one, Tubes ROCK!

Posted by: vonKrag at 11 | No Comments | Add Comment
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Every time I go to Paris (my 1st time was in 196 I go here:

Dehillerin
www.e-dehillerin.fr
Rue Coquillère 18-20
Paris (at les Halles)

Probable the best kitchen store there & a true mecca for very hard to find stuff. I think anyone who likes to cook would love a afternoon there.

Posted by: vonKrag at 00 | No Comments | Add Comment
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more...

Posted by: vonKrag at 23 | No Comments | Add Comment
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Aside from F1 I like endurance events & the 24 of The Green Hell was great this year. Look at this http://rumors.automobilemag.com/files/2011/06/2011-Porsche-911-Nurburgring-24-Winner-02-623x389.jpg and note what's keeping the right front together, all hail the Duck!

Posted by: vonKrag at 10 | No Comments | Add Comment
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Joel Rosenberg – husband, father, mensch
Posted by SWMBO on June 3, 2011

On Wednesday afternoon, June 1, 2011, Joel had a respiratory depression that caused a heart attack, anoxic brain damage and major organ failure. Despite the very best efforts of the paramedics and the team at Hennepin County Medical Center, Joel was pronounced brain dead at around 5:37pm Thursday June 2nd, In accordance with his wishes, he shared the gift of life through organ and tissue donation.

He is survived by his daughters, Judith Eleanor and Rachel Hannah, and his wife, Felicia Herman. Today, June 3rd would have been his 32nd wedding anniversary.

Felicia

He was my friend and I will miss him greatly...

Posted by: vonKrag at 14 | No Comments | Add Comment
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Samizdata quote of the day
Johnathan Pearce (London)  Opinions on liberty •

"The serf first obtained chattels and then land in property; on them he won his first power, and that meant his first liberty – meaning thereby his personal liberty. His title to these things, that is, his right to appropriate them to his own exclusive use and enjoyment, and to be sustained by the power of the state in so doing, was his first step in civil liberty. It was by this movement that he ceased to be a serf. This movement has produced the great middle class of modern times; and the elements in it have been property, science and liberty. The first and chief of these, however, is property; there is no liberty without property, because there is nothing else without property on this earth.”

- The Essential Essays of William Graham Sumner, "On Liberty, Society and Politics”, (Edited by Robert C. Bannister), page 247.

Posted by: vonKrag at 10 | No Comments | Add Comment
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I use one of these at home to do a lot of small jobs like making mayo etc. , Kaloric Sunny Morning Stick Blender.

I HATE the color stuff the designers added in to make it more "friendly", IMO that just distracts from doing the job right.

Posted by: vonKrag at 10 | No Comments | Add Comment
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Samizdata.net quote of the day
via Samizdata Illuminatus (Arkham, Massachusetts)  

There seem to me to be very few facts, at least ascertainable facts, in politics.

- Robert Peel

Posted by: vonKrag at 15 | No Comments | Add Comment
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PRIVACY ALERT: Spokeo.com is a new online USA phone book w/personal information: everything from pics you've posted on FB or web, your approx credit score, home value, income, age, etc. You can remove yourself by first searching for yourself on their site to find the URL of your page, then going to the Privacy link on the bottom of their page (copy & repost so people are aware).

Posted by: vonKrag at 00 | No Comments | Add Comment
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The WSJ has nice write-up on a St Paul theater group doing a Klingon version of a Christmas Carol. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703395904576025760797375264.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_lifeStyle#articleTabs%3Darticle

Posted by: vonKrag at 09 | No Comments | Add Comment
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My last post was on snow &, well, so's this one. I measured this morning... 14 1/2 inches in the level. This is downtown Minneapolis where the heat island is, down Metro south it's over 20". Yeah this is the worst since Halloween '91 & I was here for that too. Despite the hassle, it still beats a hurricane, I tell you Cherri`.

Posted by: vonKrag at 11 | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've been needing new tires & got them yesterday... just in time for a nice lil snow storm. It dumped depending on where you are in Mipple City 5 to 9 inches (10-20cm) of snow, what's worse is I'm now plowed in where I park. Bother! Oh BTW <lj user="autopope"> it's -10ºc and really very nice outside, I expect to be rather warm afters I get unstuck.

I thought very hard last night on the MinStf today. There are people I'd like to see but still that dog got woke & I DO value things enough not to inflict them on them that don't. Bother!

The "What's for Dinner, Tony?" show got stuck last night with a homemade pizza, the Horror of HAVING to eat like that. Anyway I have to get to the meat market I go to, beef tenderloin @ 4.99 a pound already pealed today only. I think I'll get 10# and freeze 9 in 8oz portions.

PS: My friend over at www.mostlycajun.com said this “I plan on doing darned near nothing this weekend.”, I concur.

Posted by: vonKrag at 09 | No Comments | Add Comment
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