The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. – Ayn Rand
Quote of the… Decade?
I hate the dentist. My teeth are like little vaginas.
SayUncle (attributed with his permission, even.)
First runner up, Rob Allen from Sharp as a Marble:
Rob: Do they have anti-gun conventions?
Me: No. They can’t get enough people to show up.
Rob: What would they do? “Here’s the anti-gunrange…”
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I guess you had to be there.
My Boss Has a Sense of Humor
You’ve got to read this post.
Heh. Indeed. (Always wanted to say that.)
Here’s One I Hadn’t Heard Before.
Via email from a family friend:
A stranger was seated next to a little girl on the airplane when the stranger turned to her and said, ‘Let’s talk. I’ve heard that flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.’
The little girl, who had just opened her book, closed it slowly and said to the stranger, ‘What would you like to talk about?’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said the stranger. ‘How about nuclear power?’ and he smiles.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff – grass – yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is?’
The stranger, visibly surprised by the little girl’s intelligence, thinks about it and says, ‘Hmmm, I have no idea.’
To which the little girl replies, ‘Do you really feel qualified to discuss nuclear power when you don’t know shit?’
Another Pulitzer!.
Michael Ramirez is my favorite political cartoonist. I’ve featured his pieces on here numerous times. Back in November of 2005 I was disappointed to learn that the LA Dog Trainer Times had let Ramirez go, Mike being the only good thing about that paper. He was rapidly snapped up, however, by Investor’s Business Daily where he’s been working ever since.
Mike won his first Pulitzer in 1994. This years award was not for a particular cartoon, but:
For a distinguished cartoon or portfolio of cartoons published during the year, characterized by originality, editorial effectiveness, quality of drawing and pictorial effect, in print or in print and online
A sample of last year’s work is here, or you can peruse his stuff at CagleCartoons.
Given the recent post on Hollywood, here are two of his that I really like:
The ratio of lefty political cartoonists to righty ones is probably greater than 100:1. It’s nice to see one of the very best in the minority get some well-deserved recognition.
(H/t to Mostly Cajun for the pointer.)
That Was Quick.
I’m now legal to carry a concealed weapon in 30 of the 50 states.
But I still can’t print out an airline boarding pass at home.
So… the FBI is fine with me carrying a concealed weapon, but the TSA thinks I should check in at the airline counter so I can get on a plane – unarmed.
Does this make any sense?
Save us, Obama! Save us!
I have “The Knack.”
OMG.and WTF, Over?
I’m amazed these dogs don’t maul their owners in their sleep, and Rachel Lucas has nothing to fear from Sunny. Here’s a sample of what how some people abuse their pets. Click on the photo for the whole sordid tale.
Something tells me that these people need a life.
Plinking with 105’s.
Some people have all the fun. Mostly Cajun relates a story from his career as a tank wrangler.
It Ain’t Mr. Fusion, But It’ll Do For Now
I know what I want for Christmas! Instapundit links to a story about a new Toshiba MicroNuclear power plant, and backs up the news release with several versions of a story about Toshiba offering to provide a mini-nuke to Galena, Alaska. What he doesn’t seem to realize is that they’re talking about two entirely different units. The Galena unit is described as a 10MW liquid-sodium cooled reactor, about 50-60 feet tall and eight feet in diameter. This doesn’t include the heat exchanger, steam turbine and other ancillary equipment. This would appear to be similar technology to that being used on nuclear submarines. There are no moving parts in the reactor itself except for the coolant flowing in the piping.
The story initially linked by Glenn refers to a 200kW reactor, about 20 feet by six feet (again, sans heat exchanger, turbine and ancillary equipment, I’d imagine) that uses liquid lithium as its coolant. Ten megawatts is about 13,400Hp. Two hundred kilowatts is about 270Hp. A 200kW generator can produce about 800 amps at 240VAC, enough to power about 6-8 large homes. This thing is tiny. A 10MW plant would run a nuke sub well. A 200kW plant would run a fairly small pleasure boat, except the plant would be bigger than the boat.
The only problem I’ve got with either is the extreme reactivity of the coolants. Both sodium and lithium are extremely reactive, and burn violently when exposed to water. They’re also solids at “room temperature,” so I wonder about the warm-up process. The story says that the micro-reactor should be good for 40 years before needing refueling, and it should produce power at about 5ยข/kWH – I’d assume that’s the operating cost, not the amortized capital cost. No mention of a price tag is given, and there is nothing about the unit on Toshiba’s Nuclear Power business unit web page.
Still, I think it’d be cool to have one. Just the thing to power up the backyard synchrotron!
