The US was the one country in the world that refused to sign a “no first strike” agreement for nuclear weapons, because back in the Soviet Union days our nuclear deterrent was what we believed kept them from overrunning Western Europe with massively superior conventional forces.

I believe we should unilaterally agree to refrain from nuclear first strikes against any country that has not developed nuclear weapons. This implicitly suggests that we will consider first strikes against any country that has developed them.

The bonus: It gives an automatic disincentive for every country considering a nuclear program.  Currently, countries like Iran or North Korea believe that holding a nuclear stockpile will help protect them from belligerent Americans.  I say we make the threat of belligerence much more severe if they have nukes than if they don’t.

Seems obvious, doesn’t it?

In my youth, I thought one dated members of the opposite sex to learn more about them, and find whether they’d be an appropriate long term mate.

When I got older (and wiser?), I realized that dating was more about learning about yourself, and one kind of person might be an appropriate mate for you.

The difference is that with the first mindset, there’s no point in going out with somebody who you can eliminate as an inappropriate match, but with the second, different kinds of people have lots of things to teach you, especially about yourself.

I guess it seemed intuitively obvious that I already knew all there was about myself.  Obvious, but wrong.

So, to the young:  Date lots of people!

Mira won her school spelling bee some weeks ago (Lyra Meadow came in third).  Now she’s passed another hurdle, advancing to the California Central Valley Championships.  If she wins that, she’ll go to DC.

She advanced by correctly spelling “waterzooi.”

It’s a really big iPhone with no camera.  Or phone. Big whoop.

That said, it looks fun. If I ever carried around a laptop, I’d be more excited about it, but I don’t.  I’m not about to give up my desktop machine, and the iPad doesn’t seem to do anything the iPhone won’t do, and the iPhone fits in my pocket.

If I were a student, it’d be pretty cool to carry around to classes and such.

I originally bought 40 shares of this company, which makes medical robots, back in November 2006 for $97.21.  I sold half In April 2008 at $359.99, and I bought them back six months later at $178.40.  Now I’m dumping all 40 shares at $321.55 — not as good a price as my first dump, but whatever. (We could’ve bought this company for $85 a share back in March 2009, lest you think I have a clue.)

I still like this company.  Revenue growth is still something like 25%, and income 40%, and in this crappy economy.  Still, even with their strong profits and growth, the growth seems to be slowing, and it’s difficult to price this stock as worth much more than $160.  And when a stock sells for double what I think it’s worth, it’s probably time to find something cheaper.

I’ll buy it again if it drops below $200.

Hey!  Your dollar coins look like quarters!  They feel like quarters. Nobody likes them.  We never have. Changing the color or putting a different person on the face doesn’t make them less like a quarter.

Every other country on the planet manages to make coins you can tell from each other.  We used to.  Remember the silver dollar?  Good coin.  Why did you stop making that, again?

I ran as fast as I could over the hills of snow. I had lost my jolly along with my corncob pipe, and my happiness had cracked in two with my button nose.  The silk hat that was necessary for life was securely glued to my head with slush.

I ran for cover, then looked up, shading my eyes made of coal from the day’s hot sun. To my right were several rice fields.  The water was covered with a thin sheet of ice, so I darted over.  When I jumped in the water, I could feel a protective shield of ice freeze over me.

I leaped out of the water and kept running.  During my travels, I had heard of a place where it was almost always cold: The North Pole.  However, I needed to get somewhere cold fast, so instead of north, I headed east to the Sierra Nevada. I hoped to find a chilly cave to live in.  However, right then, all I needed was to stay firm.

I thumpety thump thumped toward the rising sun. Someday, I would be safe.  I had to.

–Mira Williams

Sensational.  I didn’t see it in 3D, because I have weird eyesight and don’t have stereo vision.  My hunch is that makes it even more sensational.

I tried to fail to suspend my disbelief, but I never doubted the reality of the world.

Lyra Meadow had to write an essay on perseverance:

Perseverance is a quality that I admire, though I find it difficult to use.  In movies, people tend to say to never give up, even though I usually try again later.  I am actually using perseverance now, because I am growing a callus writing a paragraph I don’t even want to write.  I am wasting time I could be using reading, but I am still writing. I was not quitting. Thank you for reading this, but now my hand is too sore and my callus is too big.  My perseverance must stop.

Snarky kid.

Poovalanche — the result of a serious shit storm.

Vomirrhea — something you don’t want to smell.