On my previous post about space travel and 3D printers, mention was made of the Star Trek “food replicator.” But I seemed to recall that sci-fi had imagined this device much earlier than that. Indeed, in the 1956 classic “Forbidden Planet,” starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen, there is a robot that has a sort [...]
Since we have the last installment of Clare’s report on the Mark Sanford campaign today, I thought I’d also share Robert Ariail’s take on the Sanford victory. Robert said he’d had this idea kicking around since election night, and just decided to go ahead and do it for today, before he lost the opportunity completely…
This is the third and final installment of Clare Morris’ report on her brief stint working on the Mark Sanford campaign in the 1st Congressional District special election. Here are links to Part I and Part II: How I Spent the Final Days of Mark Sanford’s Congressional Campaign – Part Three By Clare Morris Tuesday, [...]
Yesterday, Bryan complained that I didn’t put the IRS official taking the Fifth on my Virtual Front Page. I explained that that had been big news the night before, not on Wednesday. Which reminds me… There’s something else that sort of fell between the cracks — the Senate Judiciary Committee’s passage Tuesday night of the [...]
The moment I heard that Google was starting a music subscription service, I decided I would do with this one what I had not done with Pandora or Spotify: Pay for it. Well, not right away. I saw that I could get it free for a month, and then pay at the discounted rate of [...]
Quite a newsy day: Obama Set To Restart Guantanamo Transfers (WSJ) — So far, I’m only seeing this from the WSJ… Man tied to Boston suspect is killed in FBI interview (WashPost) — Another young Chechen. I’m not saying he’s right, but somewhere Vladimir Putin is saying, “I told you so…” U.S. admits to killing [...]
We don’t have flying cars yet, or time travel, but I’m encouraged to see that NASA is at least working on this… NASA can send robots to Mars, no problem. But if it’s ever going to put humans on the Red Planet, it has to figure out how to feed them over the course of [...]
Of course, in the Senate’s defense, it is merely doing what the contemptible SC House and our contemptible governor did before them: COLUMBIA, SC — The state Senate killed Medicaid expansion on Tuesday, the last hope for supporters who wanted to extend health insurance benefits to South Carolina’s working poor. The vote was 23-19, with [...]
This just moved a few minutes ago: COLUMBIA, SC — Fort Jackson’s commanding officer has been suspended following allegations of misconduct, according to a spokesman with the US Army Training and Doctrine command. Brig. Gen. Bryan T. Roberts was suspended by Gen. Robert W. Cone after learning about the allegations, which included claims of adultery [...]
The thing that strikes me about this is the bipartisan nature of it: WASHINGTON—A key Senate committee overwhelmingly approved legislation Tuesday that calls for the U.S. to provide small arms to moderate Syrian opposition groups fighting strongman Bashar al-Assad, underscoring growing sentiment among lawmakers for a change in the U.S. approach to the conflict. The [...]
We had a busy weekend — the Twins had a cello recital and a soccer game, we celebrated my Mom’s birthday at our house, and my grandson had his first birthday. I thought the above picture was pretty cool. Our little guy (on the right) is really into pointing, and apparently that’s all the rage [...]
This just in from The Washington Post: Senior White House officials, including Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough, learned last month about a review by the Treasury Department’s inspector general into whether the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, but they did not inform President Obama, the White House said Monday. The acknowledgement [...]
Just got this dialogue box a few minutes ago: Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I have NO idea what the application (which I do not recognize, by the way) proposed to do with Runtime, but apparently Runtime was deeply shocked….
Here’s the second installment of Clare Morris’ report on her brief stint working on the Mark Sanford campaign for the 1st Congressional District: How I Spent the Final Days of Mark Sanford’s Congressional Campaign – Part Two By Clare Morris Monday Evening, May 6 That Monday evening, the campaign had a volunteer-appreciation cookout behind the [...]
The Richland County Board of Elections and Voter Registration, a useless entity created by the county’s legislative delegation for its own perverse, unknowable reasons, should definitely cease to exist. The State made that case fairly thoroughly today. An excerpt: The board has failed repeatedly to act in the public’s best interest. While former director Lillian [...]
Downton Diddy from Sean Combs In providing a sneak preview of his star turn on “Downton (or as he calls it, ‘Downtown’) Abbey,” Sean “P. Diddy” Combs breaks the color barrier, the time barrier, the genre barrier and of course the comedy barrier. PBS denies that Combs has joined the cast of the wildly popular [...]
This headline on thestate.com just cracked me up: Don’t be alarmed by the helicopters, National Guard says You really need to look at the picture with it. I couldn’t help thinking of all the people who would not be reassured by those words. Starting with all those folks who thought Rand Paul’s filibuster about drone [...]
Several weeks ago, my friend Clare Morris said she planned to go down to Charleston and volunteer in Mark Sanford’s campaign sometime before the 1st Congressional District special election was over. Knowing that she went to college with the guy, and worked for him in his congressional office and later in his Commerce Department, I [...]
Yes, the Daily Mail, as in the one in London — the one in “Paperback Writer,” for my fellow Boomers. Imagine my surprise. I just this morning loaded the Daily Mail app onto my iPod, and this was one of the first stories to pop up, right there on the main U.S. news page. And [...]
Kevin Fisher is a thoughtful columnist. He called to leave a message and warn me that I’d be mentioned in his column this week, as follows: I realize that sentiment cuts to the quick of Sanford bashers, including people I like and respect. For example, former editorial page editor of The State and local blogger [...]