Ultrafast laser pulse makes desktop black hole glow
If you're like me and only have one science degree you won't understand all the science here. However, any article that mentions an artificial "desktop black hole" is too cool not to share.
The beginning of the end of mini-med and limited-benefit plans
McDonald's looking for a waiver or else it might have to drop its health plan for almost 30,000 hourly worker. Ultimately up to 1.4 million Americans could be affected by something the Wall Street Journal is referring to as "the U.S. health overhaul.'
We're not familiar with this overhaul nor why it may impel companies and colleges to alter or drop health insurance coverage.
Does anyone know what the WSJ is talking about?
Congress should look into this. It's never good when Federal legislation has such profoundly negative effects on people's lives.
Disgraceful vandalism of sunken U.S. ship
This is terrible. Sixty sailors went down with this ship. And where is a person going to sell something looted from this ship?
Why people like the new stars
70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain should be seen as one of the 10 pivotal military contests of the last 1,000 years.
The 1969 movie about the battle, excerpted above, still pops up on TV occasionally in the US. When it does it should be watched, at least by those who haven't seen it before. From the standpoint of art, I don't even know if it's possible in 2010 to stage aerial photography like this anymore. So that's something that should be experienced. The scenes are somehow more gripping, direct and human than CGI. The ending shot of the German bomber being splashed into the Channel is of course meant to symbolize the entire course of the months-long contest.
Of course, the real value of the film is to remind us of the importance of the battle and to tell us that, however trite it may sound, sometimes civilization literally does hang in the balance. What would have happened if Britain had been successfully invaded or had made terms with Hitler? It is almost too terrible to contemplate.
Churchill of course gave in this period the classic example of leadership inspiring by its sheer resolution. This he was able to transmit down the line, as seen in this quote in which a British diplomat defies a German ultimatum:
"We're not easily frightened. Also we know how hard it is for an army to cross the Channel — the last little corporal to try it came a cropper. So don't threaten or dictate to us until you're marching up Whitehall! ...and even then we won't listen!"
This spirit is sorely needed in defending our civilization - but we face a harder challenge in many ways than the West did in 1940, for we must first convince ourselves that our civilization ought to be defended.
The moral collapse of the West - and its perverse child, the assertion of a moral equivalence between the Western systems based on Christian values and all other systems of thought and governance - have doomed us unless there is, in the most old-fashioned sense, true repentance.
70 years on, be inspired by the few who risked and gave all to defend their nation from what seemed to be an unstoppable tyranny.
Cuba cutting one million public sector jobs
Uh oh. This should get interesting. As America goes more in the direction of socialism, Raul Castro says, "We have to end forever the notion that Cuba is the only country in the world where you can live without working." Well, Mr. Castro, that sort of thing happens when people work without living.
I also find amusing the tone of the BBC article which speaks about the thriving "black economy" and the many trades people who work "independently without proper permission from the state."
I guess British Socialists, like their Cuban counterparts, find it reactionary or at least gauche that people would work in a profession of their choosing without "proper permission."
Also, can we soon expect another unofficial and yet officially pushed migration to the US?
