Monthly Archives: November 2009

Stewart: Palin is a ‘talking points machine’

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This was an amazing clip by Jon Stewart. It really grabbed me starting at about 4:25 into the segment.

Stewart shows clips of Fox News talking heads surmizing why people can’t stand Sarah Palin – reasons ranging from her looks, that she shoots things, she’s from Alaska, her pro-life stance, her ‘conservativeness’, she prays.. Take your pick.

Continue reading →

Texas accidentally banned ALL marriages

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This made me laugh out loud. That baby has been thrown out with the bathwater, as we say.

AUSTIN — Texans: Are you really married?

Maybe not.

Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general, says that a 22-word clause in a 2005 constitutional amendment designed to ban gay marriages erroneously endangers the legal status of all marriages in the state. (read whole story)

 

Ireland cheated out of World Cup!

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Can’t the FIFA ban Thierry Henry from the entire 2010 World Cup tournament? This should put an end to cheats like that! On top of that let Ireland sue him for damages. The tournament is worth millions for the teams and Ireland was definitely cheated out of the game.

Needless to say I was seething yesterday night.

Fundie “christians” use biblical verse to threaten President Obama

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Psalm 109:8 reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”  Oddly enough, Psalm 109:9 reads, “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.” Just in case the original whacked-out message wasn’t clear, huh?

Frank Schaeffer is definitely concerned in this clip, and frankly, I give his concern more weight because he’s a reformed high-ranking fundamentalist “christian” whacko.

The Secret Service must be working a hell of a lot of overtime these days.

UPDATE:  Just in case there’s any quibbling about translation, I found several of them, and — SURPRISE! — they all say the same thing.

New International Version (©1984)
May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Let his days be few; Let another take his office.

GOD’S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Let his days be few [in number]. Let someone else take his position.

King James Bible
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

American King James Version
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

American Standard Version
Let his days be few; And let another take his office.

Bible in Basic English
Let his life be short; let another take his position of authority.

Douay-Rheims Bible
May his days be few: and his bishopric let another take.

Darby Bible Translation
Let his days be few, let another take his office;

English Revised Version
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

Webster’s Bible Translation
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

World English Bible
Let his days be few. Let another take his office.

Young’s Literal Translation
His days are few, his oversight another taketh.

(Source)

The human faces of health care reform

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By Rich Stockwell, Senior producer for Countdown

It happened as I watched a 50-something woman walk out, after spending several hours being attended to by volunteer doctors. “She’s decided against treatment. A reasonable decision under the circumstances,” the doctor tells us as she heads for the next patient. The president of the board of the National Association of Free Health Clinics tells me why: “It’s stage four breast cancer, her body is filled with tumors.” I don’t know when that woman last saw a doctor. But I do know that if she had health insurance, the odds she would have seen a doctor long ago are much higher, and her chances for an earlier diagnosis and treatment would have been far greater.

Keith read Rich’s very moving blog entry in its entirety last night on Countdown. This could be any of us, at any given moment.

If Americans are worried about the possibility of “Death Panels” in the health care reform bill, never fear — they are already here.

Just ask the lady with the Stage 4 breast cancer…

Read the rest of Rich Stockwell’s excellent post here.

The Watering Hole: November 17 – Transistors

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This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments on any topic.

November 17, 1947 marks the day when current amplifying capabilities were first observed in a semiconductor.  John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at AT&T’s Bell Labs observed that when electrical contacts were applied to sweet spots on a crystal of germanium, a small current applied to the base crystal could switch currents of greater magnitude between the two contact points (Early ratios were about 20:1), much like a relay. This marked the birth of the transistor. These first transistors were called point contact devices and therein laid they’re limitatations. Because of the small contact area, the maximum current being switched was in the tens of milliamps.When these were cascaded in what was called a Darlington Pair (Explore this site, it is very informative.), the amplification by which was about the product of the amplification for each of the two devices.

While the transistor effect was first observed on November 17th, it was not until December 23rd that a first demonstration device was completed for announcement to the World.  What transpired next was beyond unbelievable.

Texas Instruments, then Geophysical Service Inc.  migrated a process for producing silicon lenses for seismic processing to producing silicon wafers for the production of semiconductors.   They also developed a doping process that eliminated the the point contacts as elements in the build process. Silicon could also operate at higher temperatures than germanium, another semiconductor.  On top of that an ultrasonic dicing process was in their portfolio.  By 1954, they had a lock on the semiconductor industry akin to Intel’s on CPUs today. Magnavox  and Heathkit each produced AM portables based on the TI transistor set. Magnavox gave the engineers from the TI team a free unit, I still have the one my dad got and it still works. It also introduced the 9 volt “transistor” battery. In 1988, what remained of GSI was sold to the Halliburton Company.

In 1957, a new hire at TI made the observation that if the dicing process could be designed to include multiple devices in a single chip, a more complex circuit could be built  in an automated process. This led to the invention of the  integrated circuit.

At that time, a 40 kilobyte magnetic core memory weighed as much as a Buick LaSabre and consumed enough energy to power four households. Today, one can carry 4 gigabytes of information on a key chain fob and think nothing of it. The bridge to that technology was complete by the early 1970′s. This will be covered in a future post when we explore storage and memory technologies. I intend to delve into the Field Effect Transistor as soon as I develop a presentation technique that can easily be understood. In actuality, that device preceded the bipolar transistor by over 20 years.

The Republican Version of the 6th Amendment

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This is the 6th Amendment to the United States Constitution, written in response to King George’s abuse of the judicial system:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

On Friday, November 13th, 2009, I received this email from Erick.Erickson@RedState.com:

Today Barack Obama is going to announce that the terrorist mastermind of September 11th, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be sent to New York City for a criminal trial in a civilian court.

In that trial, the terrorist will get all the rights afforded an American citizen in a criminal trial, including the right to a fair trial, the right to a taxpayer funded attorney, the right to review all the evidence against him, potentially including classified intelligence matters, the right to exclude evidence against him including, potentially, any confession obtained through enhanced interrogation techniques, etc.

This, then, is the Republican version of the 6th Amendment:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. the accused shall be guilty.

One important point Erik and his ilk miss: the 6th Amendment is not limited to “American citizens.” It applies to “the accused” regardless of citizenship.