http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness/ quotations web site. Other topics include wine, military news, economics, history, libertarianism, and other random things which happen to strike my fancy. New posts are on the new site at http://quotulatiousness.ca/blog.]]> en-us 2009-08-20T07:23:33-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005582.html It's becoming a bit of a pain to cross-post everything between this site and the new one, so I'm moving all new postings over there (barring unforeseen issues). This site will remain for the archives, but new postings will only... Administrivia Nicholas 2009-08-20T07:23:33-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005594.html I wasn't really a TV news-watcher during his heyday (actually, it was a habit I've pretty much avoided all my life), but Jesse Walker sums up my feelings nicely here: It [Cronkite running for president] was a joke, of course.... Media Nicholas 2009-07-18T11:29:38-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005593.html Jon, my virtual landlord, has had a love-hate relationship with eBay for a while. This morning, the "love" phase seemed short and under-used: Bought a magazine yesterday. Four bucks. Seemed like a good deal. Auction notes that out-of-USA losers should... Economics Nicholas 2009-07-17T12:36:01-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005592.html Lore Sjoberg provides you with an easy checklist to discover how bad your addiction may be: If the ancient Egyptians had the internet, there would have been 11 plagues in Exodus, with “unreliable DSL” tucked in between the frogs and... Randomness Nicholas 2009-07-17T12:22:31-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005591.html Trust The Register to be on top of shocking stories like the "tattooed Swedish devil girls who jumped a cyclist": Well, by an amazing coincidence, El Reg had its roving snapper on the streets of Örebro on 8 July, and... Humour Nicholas 2009-07-17T12:19:32-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005590.html To mark Dominion Day (as you’d expect a squaresville loser like me to call it), the New York Times asked 11 Canadian expatriates to write on “what they most miss about home.” The cutting-edge funnyman Rick Moranis riffed on... Quotations Nicholas 2009-07-17T00:04:57-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005589.html Benjamin Franklin is often quoted as having said "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety". Here's a modern rephrasing, "The more you cede your own well-being to an 800-pound... Politics Nicholas 2009-07-16T10:59:18-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005588.html In spite of the absurdity, it's now apparently against the law to take photographs if you're too tall: According to his blog, our over-tall photographer Alex Turner was taking snaps in Chatham High St last Thursday, when he was approached... Britain Nicholas 2009-07-16T09:49:28-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005584.html An Iranian artist has been sentenced to a five year prison term for setting the Koran to music. I would express outrage and alarm but I am writing from Canada and am in no position to point fingers. In... Quotations Nicholas 2009-07-16T00:07:19-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005587.html United Airlines has a public image problem, and they've made it worse by their less-than-scintillating performance in response to the Sons of Maxwell video "United Breaks Guitars": Besides being genuinely funny, it's a great example of viral revenge, the flip... Technology Nicholas 2009-07-15T21:05:53-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005586.html For the sniper who has everything, a rifle-mounted cupholder: The spare-time chainsaw-style mount (last slide) looks very much like a weapon from Doom or Quake . . .... Military Nicholas 2009-07-15T13:14:23-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005585.html This should be a doddle for USians, but not so easy for those of us who always confuse those square-ish states in flyover country: Know Your States. I managed 90%, but I dropped New Jersey accidentally, which certainly messed up... Gaming Nicholas 2009-07-15T13:02:28-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005583.html On July 20th, it will have been 40 years since many of us clustered around our tiny black-and-white televisions, watching the first moon landing (or for those of you of conspiracist leanings, a really convincing sound stage in Area 51).... Space Nicholas 2009-07-15T07:50:51-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005565.html [Alan Oak]: In a correspondence with feminist scholar Sylvia Kelso, published in Women of Other Worlds (1999), you wrote: “Where has anyone experienced a matriarchy for test comparison?” you may ask. In fact, most of us have, as children.... Quotations Nicholas 2009-07-15T07:26:27-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005581.html Stepping out of the Matrix back-story and moving to replace the human soldier, the EATR: A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it... Military Nicholas 2009-07-14T12:59:04-05:00