Duke of Data Blog: 07/15/2007

Saturday, July 21, 2007

New Tallest Building: Dubai Tower Becomes Building In the World

In 1996 this resulted in the completion of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. From that moment on a sort of media clash was unleashed. All over the world people debated about the question wich one was the tallest; Sears or Petronas. Now the answer to this question seems so easy. Just measure both buildings from bottom to top, and the tallest one gets the title. Question answered, case closed, no more debate needed? Forget it! As usual, life is not that simple. One could consider how to measure these buildings. For example, do we take in account spires and antennas? To end this discussion, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat made a compromise. They defined 4 categories for measuring tall buildings;

- Height to the structural or architectural top.
- Height to the highest occupied floor.
- Height to the top of the roof.
- Height to the top of antenna.

Their War: Less than 1 percent of the U.S. population serves in our military. In a time of war, what should that mean to the rest of us?

Friday, July 20, 2007

Huge Dust Plumes From China Cause Changes in Climate

Courtesy SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and ORBIMAGE

A satellite view from 2001 shows dust arriving in California from Asian deserts. Concentrations of dust are visible to the south, near the coastline (lower right); To the west the dust is mixed with clouds over open ocean. This dust event caused a persistent haze in places like Death Valley, California, where skies are usually crystal clear.

Does It Matter What Others Think?

Abortion: You Desire and Do Not Have, So You Kill

Three questions with regard to abortion:

What is happening?
Why is it happening?
What should our response be?

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Terror Estimate: Safer than we were, but not safe yet.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

John Piper's "Romans Audio

John Piper packs 35 of his Romans sermons into about 6 hours in these audio messages that we've recently posted. They're from a four-part lecture series that he did on Romans 9-11 which also included some Q & A.

Towards the beginning of session 3 he unpacks the main argument of his book The Justification of God, giving us approximately "250 pages in five minutes" as he describes it.

Listen here:

Al Qaeda’s Iranian Connection

Bush Would Rather Fight Than Switch: The president stands by the surge.

The Iran-Contra Minority Redux

N A RECENT New York Times op-ed, "Mr. Cheney's Minority Report" (July 19), historian Sean Wilentz claimed that there was a direct connection between Oliver North, the Iran-Contra Committee's Republican minority led by then-Rep. Richard B. Cheney, and the current Administration's view of executive power. Wilentz correctly named me as principal drafter of the 1987 committee's minority report. Unfortunately, that's about all he got right.

Keep on Surgin': Bush is beating them back.

Leadership: A Biblical Approach to the Military Officer's Core Skill

by VADM John Scott Redd, US Navy, Retired
available in PDF format
VECTOR = Vision, Excellence, Character, Teamwork, Organization, Respect

Monday, July 16, 2007

Cheney Speaks: On Clinton's pardons, 9/11 as seen from the White House bunker, mistakes made in Iraq, and more.

Buy Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President, by Stephen F. Hayes.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

When it comes to gays, 'What would Luther do?'

Given the way he dealt with issues of his day, the father of the Protestant Reformation very well may have seen the same-sex arguments in a more accepting light.

Jesus Is 'Like an Energy': An Interview with Sinead O'Connor

Most people remember Sinéad O'Connor one of two ways: as that angelic, lovelorn figure in the video of her smash "Nothing Compares 2 U," or for tearing up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live. Her 20-year career has been marked with pop stardom and accolades, but also with controversy and misunderstanding. Even as she takes the stage at Joe's Pub in New York, one can sense the polarity. The venue only seats 150, enough to house a handful of fans and some of the biggest papers in town. But O'Connor, 40, isn't there to impress anyone. Her priority is her new album Theology (Koch), a two-disc set inspired by the Old Testament—and a project that is, interestingly, being pitched to the Christian market by publicists (one of whom arranged this interview). At the show, O'Connor plays none of her hits; it's just her and another guitarist, performing Theology in its entirety. In a flowing red dress, O'Connor looks almost motherly—serene, radiant, self-assured. Her voice is still powerful, and, combined with the ancient text, it's nearly prophetic. But just as the audience begins to heed her admonition, O'Connor, between songs, makes a crude joke about the female anatomy. By show's end and a few f-bombs later, we're all convinced: old Sinéad hasn't gone anywhere.

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