The AetherCzar blog debuted toward the end of April, and since then we’ve had over fifty posts ranging from short reposts of other content to full original essays and reviews on topics of interest. In celebration of AetherCzar’s first month of blogging, we present the top ten posts or threads […]
Monthly Archives: May 2010
45 posts
On 30 May 1944, the 79th Division including the 313th Infantry Regiment, stationed at Garswood Park and Marbury Hall, received orders to prepare for a sudden move. 313th Infantry Regiment; 1st Battalion, Company C
Dan Danner of The Wall Street Journal takes on the 1099 mandate in a recent opinion piece: Adding insult to injury, the law also requires all businesses to issue IRS 1099 forms to document every business-to-business transaction of $600 or more. To someone who’s never run a business, this may […]
Memorial Day Weekend is a time to remember and honor all those who fought to defend our country and our freedom. We honor all, because we cannot possibly honor each. And thus the individual experiences, memories, and recollections grow dim and risk being forgotten. This Memorial Day weekend, AetherCzar undertakes […]
A few quick picks… The National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA) is welcoming public comments on dealing with contraband cell phones in prisons. Submit your comments before June 11. Hat tip: Ars Technica. Elliot revisits the cell phone ban on airplanes. Chiropractor in Frederick, MD cleanses “EMF toxins” using ancient […]
Martin Gardner died this week at the age of 95. Author of the long running Scientific American feature “Mathematical Games,” I will remember him most for his marvelous surveys of pseudoscience including Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus and Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. More from the Washington […]
Long before the sixth century B.C., trade and commerce brought about an exchange of ideas among the cultures of the Mediterranean. The ideas of the time are somewhat sketchy. We have to rely on fragmentary evidence, on quotations (perhaps taken out of context) that were preserved in the work of […]
Great history books generally fall into one of two categories. The first category is a streamlined and essentialized rocket trip straight through a subject to the heart of the matter. The second category branches out from the subject at hand to touch on the context, consider the background, describe the […]
So what happens in an emergency when you tune to local radio stations for information and all you can get are automated stations with the same pre-recorded music and off-color DJ chat? Residents of Minot, ND found out the hard way in 2002 when a train derailment released clouds of […]
Reuters summarizes sources of U.S. – China tensions: Currency and debt Trade and investment Tibet and Taiwan Diplomatic and military influence Internet freedoms See the link above for details. Hat Tip: Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds (welcome back!)
Annually FierceWireless picks its list of fifteen “Fierce” wireless start-ups. The 2010 honorees are a diverse lot, including a VC firm, suppliers of wireless applications for niche markets, and a company trying to bring comic books to smart phones. My personal favorite is an outfit called “PowerMat” which offers inductive […]
Tesla Motors – manufacturer of the Tesla Roadster – will be using a $50M investment from Toyota to buy a recently closed auto plant in Fremont, CA. Blogger turned Senate candidate Mickey Kaus wonders if the project will be doomed by UAW involvement.
The mark of a really great book is that there’s a great deal to say about it. Twice now Fergus Fleming’s Barrow’s Boys: A Stirring Story of Daring, Fortitude, and Outright Lunacy has inspired posts. This will make it three, and I’m already anticipating post number four in a few […]
Yesterday, I passed along a fascinating commentary by Arthur Brooks from the Washington Post – America’s new culture war: Free enterprise vs. government control – to my Facebook friends. The resulting discussion quickly became unwieldy as barbs and quips and talking points were thrown into the mix in a not […]
From Eric S. Raymond, an interesting discussion of how Android is displacing iPhone in the marketplace.
A few quick picks: A new radio direction finding system for deployment on Humvees was introduced last week by Southwest Research Institute. Claire Berlinski reporting in City Journal reports a surprising lack of interest in a couple of Russian exiles with copies of the Kremlin’s secret archives needing translation and […]
While I’m on the subject of antennaphobia, the following excerpt from R. N. Vyvyan’s Wireless Over Thirty Years (London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1933, pp. 19-20) may be of interest:
T-Mobile needs to add capacity to its San Fransisco Bay Area networks. The Boy Scouts have a camp on an elevated site perfect for a tower. And a little cash to keep their camp maintained wouldn’t hurt, either. T-Mobile offered to pay $2200/month for a 30-year lease to the tower […]
I first heard about the “Tin Disease” when I was reading Isaac Asimov’s science essays in junior high school. He described how the tin organ pipes in St. Petersburg mysteriously lost their shine during a cold winter and transformed into a crumbly gray powder. Thus (Asimov said), was it discovered […]
Friday, I discussed Fergus Fleming’s Barrow’s Boys: A Stiring Story of Daring, Fortitude, and Outright Lunacy. Yet another highlight of that book was its treatment of the lost Franklin Expedition. In 1845, Barrow dispatched Sir John Franklin to find the Northwest passage – the long sought northern route connecting the […]
The video of the SWAT raid from last week’s “Quick Picks” has gone viral. More from Radley Balko at Reason, who has done a great job exposing over-the-top, violent, aggressive police raids for relatively minor offenses. In this case, a misdeameanor marijuana offense was the basis for a Columbia, MO […]
The bloggers at Samizdata are singularly unimpressed with the UK’s new prime minister, Conservative David Cameron, and his middle of the road campaign. Perry de Havilland says: “It is amusing to be honest. The Tory party faces a PM with no actual mandate, who is as charismatic as a bowl […]
Not exactly… A friend of mine working in China reports his company bought ten pounds of bananas for each worker from nearby farmers. That not only helped out the farmers (who are also the company’s customers), but also provided a nice bonus for the company’s workers. The bananas appear to […]