Archive for December 26, 2008

The Name of War Amazon Review

Posted: December 26, 2008 by datechguy in amazon reviews
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My review of the book The Name of War: King Philip’s War the the origins of American identity is now available at Amazon here.

The Next Doctor; my review

Posted: December 26, 2008 by datechguy in doctor who
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I managed to get a chance to watch The Next Doctor yesterday afternoon on the BBC site (via proxy).

I was pleasantly surprised at several things, I found myself guessing wrong over and over in terms of what was happening. The doctor finds himself in the mid 1800 in London (in the years before his Victorian Exile see Tooth & Claw) when he finds himself in league with a man claiming to be a time lord called “The Doctor” who is investigating several murders battling the Cybermen.

Tennant’s 10th doctor is intrigued while Morrissey’s “Doctor” doesn’t recognize “John Smith” but appears to remember him from the day the Cybermen made him regenerate.

The 10th Doctor’s initial conclusion is a regeneration crisis. Clues and adventure follows as the Cyber plot is revealed and the doctors work to foil it.

The interplay between the two actors is very fine, the Doctor’s companion Rosita (Velile Tshabalala) is an interesting character and our primary villain Miss Hartigan (Dervla Kirwan) is rather solid as the “wronged” woman using the Cybermen to avenge herself.

After watching it and the Dr. Who Confidential (one of the WORST i’ve seen) I see only one fault and that’s a scene that needed trimming. I also thought the final resolution was a bit weak, particularly considering his “outrage” at the actions of the “Blue” Doctor at the end of Journey’s End.

The Next Doctor is well worth popping over to the BBC site to watch it during the week long window when it is available. Enjoy it now since we will have to wait months for our next Time Lord fix. Except of course for the Big Finish monthly audios.

When you got them by the pocketbook their hearts and minds will follow

Posted: December 26, 2008 by datechguy in opinion/news
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Via Glenn This article should be required reading for all those who follow the religion of global warming:

A lot of scientists can tell a flaming fraud when they see one, but they are keeping their heads well down. Freeman Dyson, one of the great physicists, tells us why:

When science gets rich it becomes political.

According to Dyson, our problem is not underfunding science; it’s overfunding scientists until they become politicized

He compares the current climate models to video games

Simplistic computer models don’t work because they ignore too many factors — like atmospheric water and Mr. Sun, just to name two. In their own specialties most scientists would dismiss such simplistic models out of hand. This one they don’t dare to touch.

People get very angry if you try to kill their golden goose. More Dyson on climate models:

They do not begin to describe the real world that we live in. The real world is muddy and messy and full of things that we do not yet understand. It is much easier for a scientist to sit in an air-conditioned building and run computer models, than to put on winter clothes and measure what is really happening outside in the swamps and the clouds. That is why the climate model experts end up believing their own models.

Playing guitar hero does not make you a musician and playing medal of honor won’t make you a soldier. Read the whole thing.

Well that was anti-climatic

Posted: December 26, 2008 by datechguy in local stuff
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Well Christmas turned out to be rather odd.

We spent most of the morning preparing for our guests. As we didn’t have the ovens we swung over my mothers and used a couple of hers (she has 4).

Since we had so much to do I left the two hams cooking in two ovens, one upstairs and one in the cellar while my son took her to church and I rushed home to continue the preparation.

Unfortunately my brother showed up at the house and went in and finding both ovens on assumed my mother forgot them and shut them off.

Discovering his mistake later he turned them on but the downstairs oven was on a clock so when he finally turned it back on it still turned itself off before it was done.

That wasn’t so bad since our guests were running late so we had time to finish it, however they were delayed again and again till finally we fell asleep on the sofa and recliner waiting for them. Due to new power outages here and in surrounding towns they never made it. Kind of a letdown.

So the house is pretty clean and ready for our annual open house on the 3rd, and our beer supply is now rather large, but we have several leftover hams and food for four times our number in the fridge waiting to be warmed.

The wife was and is very disappointed but I figure those guys far away from home looking for a hot meal and a cold beer were more so. And hey there are twelve days to Christmas the dining room table is still set and sooner or later those guys gotta eat, so we’ll see.

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