VarLinux

I am too jet-lagged to write up my trip yet, but here are pictures from the trip. Collection one, and collection two.

Meteorologists expect that the Earth will be hit with powerful solar storms equivalent to 100 million hydrogen bombs in 2012 or 2013.

Paul Ryan, a professional policy wonk from Wisconsin, sees trouble ahead if the country stays on its present course. The cost of entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security is racing ahead, at the same time that the federal government is ladling out dollars to fight the recession and collecting less in tax revenue because of the recession. Meanwhile, he argues, we are contending with chronically high unemployment, insurmountable debt payments and a crushing tax burden that could kill U.S. competitiveness. Maybe, just maybe, those entitlements have to be redesigned. He’s not quite saying, “Stop Social Security!,” but he is getting dangerously close to the thought.

Leave aside Obama’s fanatical opposition to allowing Illinois hospitals to save the lives of babies with God-given souls inadvertently born alive during abortions. Also leave aside the fact that neither of his parents were Christians. And leave aside his current crop of “spiritual advisers,” which is a collection of Mother Earth worshippers, polytheists and other nonbelievers.

Now rest from all that “leaving aside.”

The only evidence for Obama’s Christianity is that he faithfully attended the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years.

Yes, the guy bellowing “God damn America!” is the one vouching for Obama’s Christianity. That’s like saying you got sober with the help of your A.A. sponsor Lindsay Lohan.

It is a fact that any non-retarded person (thank you, Rahm Emanuel!) sitting in the Rev. Wright’s church for 20 minutes, much less 20 years, does not believe in God. Even stepping inside Wright’s church for a moment to get out of the rain is borderline racist.

Hot water discovered around a giant carbon star requires a new theory for the chemistry around stars to be explained. The new theory could significantly alter our understanding of what materials exist in interstellar space, and where water and life could exist in the universe.

BIG BLUE IBM is claiming world record performance in its latest chip designed for its z-series processors, which it called the world’s fastest computer microprocessor and a significant advance in mainframe computing.

Fifty thousand mips.

As past statements of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf continue to surface, many Americans have concluded that the would-be builder of a mosque at Ground Zero is lying when he calls himself a “moderate” representative of his faith. The more disturbing possibility, however, is that he’s telling the truth — that Rauf is indeed the voice of mainstream Islam.

It seems strange that in the same week we celebrated the 47th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” sermon from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Presbyterian denominational officials have declared that “faith is not a political issue.”

You cannot read the Old Testament, and you cannot understand the arrest, trials and crucifixion of Jesus apart from the continual interplay of politics and faith. The God of the Bible sent His chosen people to be a light to the nations. That call has both religious and political implications.

Photography on the free software desktop has come a long way in recent years. All of the major desktop environments support camera import and provide image management and editing applications, including the all-important raw file conversion.

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Visitors to the forthcoming Texas State Fair will be able to enjoy what can rightly be described as a culinary first – deep fried Guinness.

Texan chef Mark Zable says he has wrestled for three years to encapsulate beer in a ravioliesque packet of pretzel-like dough which will survive 20 seconds in oil at 190°C. Zable explained: “Nobody has been able to fry a liquid before. It tastes like you took a bite of hot pretzel dough and then took a drink of beer.”