A sure sign your professor isn’t qualified to teach the course…
This rule goes double for graduate school.
If the professor has one third or half (or more) of your grade based on your using APA format, they clearly don’t know enough about the subject to be teaching.
Actually, the odds are pretty good that there are students in their class who know about the subject than they do.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Good, The Bad, The Weird
Woot! This South Korean homage to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns is one Hell of a fun ride! It’s Manchuria in the 1930’s and everyone is after a treasure map. Really, everyone, including the Japanese army and multiple criminal gangs.
Quote of the Day
This one comes from the economics blogger keyneswasdrunk:
Tax cuts, can never add to the deficit. Tax cuts subtract from government revenue. Spending adds to the deficit. It’s very simple and why some people can’t grasp that I have no idea. The Federal Budget is called a “budget” for a reason.
He goes on further explain this simple truth:
It is theoretically possible for the US government too Tax every last cent out of it’s citizens and still run a deficit. But it’s not possible to run a deficit with zero spending no matter what the tax levels are. Deficits are a function of spending too much, not taxing too little.
To channel democrat strategist James Carville, “It’s the spending, stupid.”
China is building over 200 hundred new nuclear power plants
Given the huge number of horrifically dirty coal plans the Communist Chinese government has built, this is a good step for the environment.
What we should be doing in the US. As Dr. Pournelle pointed out:
I have to say it again: cheap energy will cause a boom. The only cheap energy I know of is nuclear. Three Hundred Billion bucks in nuclear power will do wonders for the economy. We build 100 1000 MegaWatt nuclear power plants — they will cost no more than 2 billion each and my guess is that the average cost will be closer to 1 billion each (that is the first one costs about 20 billion and the 100th costs about 800 million). The rest of the money goes to prizes and X projects to convert electricity into mobility.
It’s the Green thing to do. Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore thinks so too:
I am not alone among seasoned environmental activists in changing my mind on this subject. British atmospheric scientist James Lovelock, father of the Gaia theory, believes that nuclear energy is the only way to avoid catastrophic climate change. Stewart Brand, founder of the “Whole Earth Catalog,” says the environmental movement must embrace nuclear energy to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. On occasion, such opinions have been met with excommunication from the anti-nuclear priesthood: The late British Bishop Hugh Montefiore, founder and director of Friends of the Earth, was forced to resign from the group’s board after he wrote a pro-nuclear article in a church newsletter. … Over the past 20 years, one of the simplest tools — the machete — has been used to kill more than a million people in Africa, far more than were killed in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings combined. What are car bombs made of? Diesel oil, fertilizer and cars. If we banned everything that can be used to kill people, we would never have harnessed fire. … the 103 nuclear plants operating in the United States effectively avoid the release of 700 million tons of CO2emissions annually — the equivalent of the exhaust from more than 100 million automobiles. Imagine if the ratio of coal to nuclear were reversed so that only 20 percent of our electricity was generated from coal and 60 percent from nuclear. This would go a long way toward cleaning the air and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Every responsible environmentalist should support a move in that direction.
Let’s review that last line again.
Every responsible environmentalist should support a move in that direction.
If you find a so-called “environmentalist” who is against Nuclear Power, they are either ignorant on the subject matter or a watermelon.
Christmas Cards for Recovering American Soldiers
When filling out your Christmas cards this year, take ONE CARD and SEND it to this address:
A Recovering American Soldier c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center 6900 Georgia Avenue NW Washington, DC 20307-5001If we pass this on and everyone sends one card, think of how many cards these soldiers could get to bring up their spirits!
The left’s violent war on science continues.
According to the LA Times, a UCLA researcher isn’t letting death threats from anti-science leftist terrorists stop him from doing his work.
After the latest incident, in which he received a letter containing razor blades and threats that his throat would be cut, J. David Jentsch says he isn’t intimidated.
…
“We follow you on campus,” Jentsch recalled the note reading. “One day, when you’re walking by, we’ll come up behind you, and cut your throat.”Activists claimed the razors were tainted with AIDS, though it hasn’t been confirmed by officials. University officials have said the latest threat, confirmed by UCLA on Tuesday, is under investigation by the FBI and UCLA police.
But the 38-year-old professor has been through this before. Last year, he woke up to an orange flash and a car alarm. He ran outside to find his car had been blown up.
Twice a month, animal rights activists in ski masks gather outside his home, chanting “murder.”
These leftist terrorists disregard for science and human life is very, very chilling.
Monday Book Pick: Out of the Dark
Out of the Dark by David Weber
Weber takes a look at a near future Earth invaded by a ruthless alien species. Raw meat for Weber fans right up to the surprise ending. An ending which horked off some fans, but not me. I took at a hat tip to the late Fred Saberhagen.
I got that one right…
Back in September of 2009 I posted the following:
German voters decide to deal with their economic downturn by electing a right of center majority that plans to cut taxes in order to stimulate economic growth.
According to Bloomberg, voters rejected the plans of the “Social Democratic challenger to raise taxes on top earners.”
I’m betting that their plan will work better than our Dear Leader’s socialist fantasies.
Let’s take a look at how that actually turned out. According to the BBC:
“Germany’s economy minister Rainer Bruederle has given an upbeat assessment of his country’s recovery, including the assertion that full employment will soon be possible. He said that Germans were doing well and spending again, and that domestic consumption was strong. Data released this week showed German business confidence at a 20-year high.”
Mean while, here in the US with our Dear Leader and his democrat party running the Executive and Legislative branches of the federal government, we have had a shocking high employment rate, a lackluster recovery (and that is being generous) and continuous tax payer funded payouts to that have not been designed to spur growth, but to reward democrat supporters. We have real unemployment rate hovering around 15% and the democrat lame duck congress looking to extend unemployment benefits beyond 99 weeks. If they had actually done anything to actually boost the private sector economy, that extension wouldn’t be necessary.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
Ok, not a B-Movie per say, but one of the finest Kung Fu flicks ever to come out of Hong Kong.
No wire work and no off camera trampolines. Just some finest kind Gung Fu, including some great weapons scenes.
One of my favorites, three section staff vs. butterfly swords!