Monthly Archives: September 2008

please continue to refrain from invading Iran

Dear Sirs,

Pursuant to the recent findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency, I respectfully request that you continue to refrain from invading the sovereign nation of Iran. I quote from a recent analysis of the Iranian situation:

All materials and centrifuges are under Agency seal and surveillance and the Agency guarantees no diversion without their knowledge. With that in place, what we have is Iran proceeding with a peaceful program, one sanctioned by the UNSC but explicitly allowed by both the IAEA charter and the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It doesn’t matter that Iran could make enough enriched uranium to redirect into bomb production in two years – no matter how much the media is trying to imply otherwise – because they simply cannot do that without enough IAEA foreknowledge to enable preventative steps to be taken. Sanctions are therefore being applied because Iran is defying a UNSC resolution which is entirely based upon Iran abrogating the voluntary additional protocol it had previously agreed to.

I understand that the expected near-term availability of upwards of five percent of the American armed forces for new combat operations may encourage you to think in terms of new acquisitions. I further understand that Iran presents the most likely target of opportunity, and also that it has long been your dream to explore and conquer this foreign land. However, I implore you to reconsider this course of action, as it may be viewed as impropriety in world social circles given an utter lack of any justification verifiable by a third party for such an action.

Yours infrequently,
Chris Radcliff

when a blast of medicament is just the thing

I’ve been getting such a kick out of the Modern Mechanix blog lately. Anything with the tag line “Yesterday’s Tomorrow Today” sounds like it would be right up my alley, of course, but something about the presentation and choices make me laugh daily.

The format is pretty simple: a segment from an old science or engineering magazine is scanned in as a large image, and then transcribed into the blog post. Snarky comments are withheld (except on rare occasion), so the article (or ad, or snippet of inexplicable something-or-other) is left to make its own case. The magazines sampled range from old-and-hilarious (like the ad at the right), or recent (as the 70s) and kinda creepy.

Mentos + Diet Coke + Zero G = Best. Experiment. Ever.

[from my GeekDad post]

Robert Woodhead, self-described Mad Overlord and all-around geek, has posted an amazing amount of detail from his recent experiment in seeing how the Diet Coke & Mentos reaction works in microgravity. It’s a modification of the now-standard geyser-producing demonstration, but with a twist: performing the trick on a Zero G flight and recording it on a high-speed camera. The Youtube video is great, but the expanded description is even better.

Continue reading “Mentos + Diet Coke + Zero G = Best. Experiment. Ever.”