Shannon Love

Captain Kirk Never Wore Red

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Perhaps its just the Star Trek nerd in me but I can’t help but think that it’s a bad idea to name your insurgent army The Red Shirts.

By the way, did you know there is a Red Shirt Cologne?

The word just came across the intercom – you’re needed for the away team mission. It’s your first; you better look and smell your best. So you break out your Red Shirt Star Trek Cologne – the galaxy’s first cologne made especially for you. The first cologne made especially for all of those brave warriors who wear the color red and never return from the planet’s surface. That’s right, you’re probably toast, but at least you’ll smell good on the way out.

The things you learn from Google’s autocomplete.

When Nixon Saved China

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There is nothing new in this story that back in ’69 Nixon threatened to nuke the Soviets if they nuked the Chinese. I first read about this back in the early ’80s. It was the war prevented by an exchange of ping pong players.

The entire three-sided conflict is a fascinating example of how complex and multilayered the generic “Great Game” gets. It also serves as a demonstration of why the simplistic models that many people, especially those on the left, use to justify foreign policy stances are really just silly.

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Plastic, Is There Nothing It Can’t Do?

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Wow, cheap, low-tech water sterilizers from disposable plastic bottles.

Better yet, it was discovered by locals instead of rich Westerners riding in on their white horse to save the poor little brown people.

In case you’re wondering, no, you can’t do this with glass bottles because glass is opaque to UV light. (Which is why you can ride in a car without getting a sunburn.)

This would be a good technique to tuck away in your mental “just in case” file. If the fecal matter ever does impact the ventilation impeller, you could save lives by remembering that you can sterilize water with a transparent plastic bottle and a sheet of aluminum foil.