perfidy

... would have been Janet Reno.

Just watched, somewhat belatedly, the Zucker political ad. Have to say, it's funny. It's a shame more political ads aren't like this. People go on about negative campaigning, but this isn't it. Negative campaigning is calling your opponent's wife a whore, or claiming (absent any chat records or the like) that your opponent is gay, or a criminal, or the like. Making fun of actual policies and actions isn't what I call negative campaigning. I mean, what's the voter going to go by, except the record of an incumbant? Pointing at that record and saying, "This sucks" is entirely reasonable. Especially if it's funny. Now there is an entirely different argument to be made on aesthetic grounds - whether something is tasteless, or such. But this ad wasn't really that.

The beauty of the internets is that Zucker gets his ad viewed - it's on Drudge now - without having to go through the wusses in the political parties or through the filter of the major media. It's a new world, baby.

[wik] It is also the nature of this new world to be ruthlessly fact checked into the boards. My confrere Patton notes that the correct spelling of our illustrious ex-Sec'y State is Albright, not Albrecht. In my defense, I offer only that five years of German sometimes causes bizarre transliteration errors. I still think, though, that Janet Reno is scarier than any foot smeller, and indeed scarier than just about anything.

Joe Katzman at Winds of Change has a interesing post on the continuing unraveling of EADS/Airbus, following BAE's divestiture of its 20% stake in the Pan-European aerospace firm. This is just part of the problem with Europe, as many have noted. It seems to me that there might be, in the relatively near future, a convergence of catastrophe for Europe. There's the looming demographic collapse, and its corollary the growth of unassimilated Islamic minorities, stultified economies, military impotence, and so on. Let us keep in mind what the traditional European response to these sorts of trouble is, and hope that they come to their senses before it gets really bad somewhere around 2020.

Senator John McCain is by most standards a major political figure. Seriously in the running for the oval office, respected by the essential middle of the electorate, a reliable source for the money quote and well liked by the media.

And now, a blogger, thanks to a guest post at the Captains Quarters.

McCain has some interesting things to say about the North Korean nuclear test - or fizzle – depending on who you talk to. Worth reading, and I recommend that you do. But what interests me at this moment is the fact of his appearance on a blog. The political world has been edging towards the blog world for some time now, though it has been a sideways crabbing motion rather than a full frontal embrace of the medium.

Blogs have certainly had their impact on politics – one need only think back to the fall from grace of Majority Leader Trent Lott, the swift boats and the blogosphere’s moment of glory, folding memogate til it was all sharp corners and inviting Dan Rather to sit on it. And politicians have made use of blogs, as well. Dean’s staff, during his presidential campaign, made notable effect of a blog both to disseminate the governor’s message and for fund raising. Hilary Clinton’s campaign in waiting has hired a blog outreach director.

But here, here we have an actual political personage making an appearance on a blog, rather than being sandbagged by one, or having staffers manage one. This is a first, and it is a significant milestone in the growth of the political blogosphere as a force that does not merely discuss politics, but changes and directs events. In the recent past, the blogs, collectively, have been the kids exiled to the kitchen table while the adults ate the sumptious Thanksgiving dinner in the dining room.

By making yelling loud enough, the kids could on occasion prod the adults into action. Their cries were viewed with the same disdain as parents often feel when judging the concerns of the young – there’s probably nothing going on here, and if we find that you’ve been fibbing, well, there’ll be trouble. For the blogs to make a case, it was uphill all the way – first to overcome the natural disdain of the elder media, and only second the facts of whatever issue they pushed.

We can look at this as either a promotion to the adult’s table. Which, really, is still a bit of a stretch. But at least one of the adults has come into the kitchen and sat down with us and treated us, for a moment at least, as one of the adults. A precedent has been set, though. McCain, and his handlers must have had a discussion about what was the proper venue for the dissemination of this message – and not some random policywonkish statement on, say, the advisability of instituting ethanol quality standards or something equally banal but a national security issue of the greatest importance – and they decided that the best place for McCain to make this statement was on a blog, as a guest poster.

The blog world is poised in the archway between the kitchen and the dining room.

Political figures will now be taking even more interest in the blogosphere. They will be making more efforts to communicate to, and through, the blogworld. Some of these efforts will be hamfisted, clumsy or even desperate, since knowledge of the blog world is vanishingly rare outside our community. There will be those that get it, or know someone who does, and their success in this medium will add to their efforts in others, and in close races, or in hotly argued debates, having this additional means of communication and rallying support will make a difference.

[wik] Linked to OTB's Linkfest.

Pettiness is not always fatal. But not always is by no means the same as never.

There has been of late a continual trickle of developments in the field of nanotechnology. Some we have covered here at Perfidy - such as the liquid armor developed at the University of Delaware. For a long time, nanotech was pipe dream, or at best the limited product of extreme efforts at the edge of laboratory experimentation. We seem to be reaching a turning point, though, where the techniques of manipulating matter at its smallest, along with ever increasing computer power is leaving the labs and becoming well, not industrialized, but certainly within the reach of more than few dozen scientists. The latest is the invention of a new material that can clot blood almost instantaneously. This substance

Their work exploits the way certain peptide sequences can be made to self-assemble into mesh-like sheets of "nanofibres" when immersed in salt solutions.

In the course of that research they discovered one material's dramatic ability to stop bleeding in the brain and began testing it on a variety of other organs and tissues. When applied to a wound, the peptides form a gel that seals over the wound, without causing harm to any nearby cells.

Rather miraculous. A magical fluid that when applied to a wound, instantly seals it.

And that is the thing about nanotechnology. It seems magical in its effects, though we know that very practical and sober minded scientists have used logic and research at every stage in the development, and that it obeys all known natural laws. We will, I think be confronted by this effect more and more, and much sooner than we think. These things that we are seeing now - potions of healing and +5 magical armor - are just scratching the surface of the potential of nanotechnology. These materials, while wonderful and amazing in their innate capabilities, are nevertheless still ordinary matter - just very cleverly arranged ordinary matter. When we get to the point where we can truly begin to add intelligence to matter - nanotech computers embedded in materials that can respond to commands issued by those computers - we will have smart materials that will dwarf the seemingly magical abilities we've seen so far.

I hope, though, that we don't see a trend of naming new nanotechnological wonders after D&D magic items. Even though I do want a vorpal sword.

In another development in the emerging science of hooking brains up to machinery, scientists at the Washington University of St. Louis have wired a spas up to Space Invaders. While this experiment is of little practical value, researchers soon expect to be able to hook paraplegics up to Asteroids, and - if all goes well, they hope that one day normal people may be able to play Tempest with nothing more than a twitch of grey matter.

Naturally, fantasists and dreamers hailed this development as a prelude to the imminent arrival of bionic limbs, and the revival of the Six Million Dollar Man on the big screen. One may hope that this will be the outcome, though of course the Ministry fears that these scientists are skirting along the precipice of species treason. Today, sure, it's a human. But what happens when it's disembodied rat brains hooked up to something like, say, this:

Well, as you're running for cover in the smoking ruins of your town, well then you won't think those researchers were all that cool after all.

[wik] The article, strangely, did not list the kid's score.

[alsø wik] Even more strangely, the author of the article felt that it was necessary to describe how the game Space Invaders works. Isn't Space Invaders more or less part of the collective cultural Weltanschauung, and thus not in need of explication?

Apparently, there is a company that specializes in creating or...preparing...animal bits for musuem and classroom use.

Skulls Unlimited has a spiffy online catalog with photos and prices of all their wares, from aardvark to wombat; chimpan-A to chimpanzee. It's alot more interesting than you think, and not nearly as creepy as you, also, probably think. Well, unless you personally need a creature processed, and we then get into their tremendously detailed and helpful directions for Fedex-ing a head:

1. Raw heads need to be drained of excess moisture.
2. Freeze heads prior to shipping.
3. Wrap heads in newspapers to absorb excess moisture.
4. Tie heads in multiple plastic bags to prevent excess moisture seeping out and ruining shipping box.

Did we mention the excess moisture? Did you infer that that's bad? OK then. Just so you know. No excess moisture though, OK?

The site includes an online store for t-shirts, most of which I found surprisingly lame for such an astonishingly weird and cool line of business. Being the thrifty sort, I made a beeline for the slightly damaged wares, the factory seconds, if you will, of the boiled and dissolved-in-acid taxidermy world. I found pirhannas with broken fins and pigs with missing teeth at quite reasonable prices. Also saw a pig skull with a hole in its forehead; probably don't need CSI to solve that puzzle.

I was more interested though in the creatures with horns, as they make the most striking display. They have your steer, your ram, your wildebeest, and about a dozen other horned beasts I've never even heard of but that have just great skulls. For some reason I found the critter heads interesting, too- raccoons, cats and the like.

It's also a terrific place to shop for the upcoming holiday season, for the man who has everything. Buckethead's fantasy present below the fold:

Florida manatee skull. Note the outsized molars for crushing the bones of humans engaged in aquafrolic.

Ministry Crony and knitter Mapgirl has been interviewed. Go, and listen as Mapgirl opines on the war on terror, re-gifting, the little nubbly things that appear on sweaters, spiders, and the plight of the nearly extinct tawny-beaked mudnesting terflickewee bird.

Is up here. This week's theme is easy and great weeknight dinners for the colder months. Check it out!!

Razorbacks Spoil Auburn's Dreams of Perfect Season

Then-unranked Arkansas smoked then-#2 Auburn this past weekend.

As happens so often in life, the Onion provides a clue as to the reason.

If I wasn't a Big Ten follower and actually cared what happened in the SEC, this would have been comforting.