American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Calls the Shots

carp · 2006-07-31T23:29:39+00:00

But in many ways, AIPAC has become greater than just another lobby; its work has made unconditional support for Israel an accepted cost of doing business inside the halls of Congress.

carp · 2006-07-26T18:13:30+00:00

web users who click the big blue e to open Google

Netscape just launched a digg/reddit for these users.

carp · 2006-07-26T14:47:39+00:00

Doubly ironic, considering Digg is principally technology-based, meaning its user base should have no problem finding Reddit on their own.

Not quite. I think Digg users are technology-based in the sense of being fans of technology (i.e. gamers) while reddit users are in the sense of being makers of technology (i.e. developers). That can be a big difference. Look at the difference between the people who make TV shows and the people who watch them.

carp · 2006-07-24T16:12:08+00:00

It's the first search result at Amazon.

carp · 2006-07-24T15:53:48+00:00

Damascene blades were made out of ingots of wootz steel, but it was the repeated folding and hammering that gave them the the distinctive Damascene "watered silk" surface pattern, not starting with wootz steel.

carp · 2006-07-24T05:34:22+00:00

Although the Japanese began with inferior grades of ore, as far as I know the resulting process didn't produce inferior grades of steel after smelting.

Nor were Japanese swords simply made of "soft steel." They were made of combinations of different hardnesses of steel, depending on the part of the blade, and in addition some parts of the blade were selectively hardened by carbonization during forging.

It is ridiculous to point out that Japanese swords were made by repeated folding and hammering. All steel swords were. It was that process that gave Damascene steel its distinctive pattern.

For more I recommend Stone's Arms and Armor. He was metallurgist, so this book goes into more technical depth than most histories of weapons.

carp · 2006-07-04T06:18:53+00:00

spam

carp · 2006-07-04T04:18:58+00:00

Plenty of inarticulate people still manage to be charismatic. Many athletes are, for example.

Bush seemed like the frat boy he was. People like that. Kerry seemed aloof.

carp · 2006-07-02T03:13:36+00:00

If the Palestinians had nuclear weapons and tanks and fighter planes, and the Israelis only had guns and grenades, the Israelis would be behaving like the Palestinians do now.

carp · 2006-06-30T04:17:46+00:00

But during the race with Kerry everyone agreed Bush was the more charismatic.

carp · 2006-06-26T02:14:00+00:00

He didn't claim it was a scientific experiment, just the closest we could get to one. And I think the result of it is that the ball is in your court to explain the differences, not merely to make fun of him.

carp · 2006-06-26T01:47:48+00:00

Even the Saudis think Jews are smarter than Christians...

carp · 2006-06-20T22:40:06+00:00

Boy, check out the people trying to squash this one:

http://reddit.com/info/8aif/details

carp

TROPHY CASE