tdaxp

Over at Phatic Communion, CGW discussed his reaction to Muslim anti-cartoon protests. Because Curtis's opinion was so different from Adam's, who he is normally quite similar to, I entered a conversation. Specifically, I mentioned that while many Christians were upset by a Rolling Stone cover.

Dan, please tell me how the Rolling Stone cover has lampooned Jesus. By offering a — gasp! — black Jesus?

My blog hosting service, blogspirit, is odd. It is in many ways the friendliest blog-hosting service available, and gives its bloggers a lot of very easy tools to make neat blogs. That's why I host tdaxp, Junk Politics, and NationMaster Watch here.

But Blogspirit's actions are often insensitive to the point of stupid.

In what (I guess) is an effort to stop comment spam, Blogspirit has turned of all comments on all blogs, without telling anyone, for an indeterminate about of time.

I just noticed this because I wanted to respond to Eddie's fine comment. I'll keep trying, and update this post (and the title) when comments seem to be back up.

Update 3:49 PM: Comments still down. Blogspirit's previous anti-tdaxp "fixes"

• Broken Templates


• Broken Icons

Thank you.

Twice I have relied on an "anonymous expert' here at tdaxp. Once on a discussion of visualizations for the OODA loop, another time in my post on the Magic Cloud. His insightful point on the OODA loop made Mark Safranski comment:

Your anonymous expert had a deep and incisive criticism there on more than just flowchart design.

Originally, Boyd and the fighter community defined the "state" of a fighter as its airspeed, altitude, and direction. "Maneuverability" was defined as the ability to change state, that is, airspeed, altitude, or direction in any combination. This is what E-M (energy- maneuverability) diagrams show. "Agility" was then defined as the ability to change maneuver state, which would make it the second (time) derivative of the state function. So A = d2(S)/dt2.

Noted genius Thomas P.M. Barnett isn't just an amazing author and strategist -- he's also a reader of tdaxp!

I am proud to announce that Biz and Rob will join the tdaxp fold.

Biz and Rob are co-founders of Trumpy Productions, which has specialized in digital film shorts and the occasional web side-project. Biz will specialize in the bookosphere, and is an intelligent and articulate bibliophile specializing in popular historical and scientific works. Rob is finishing up a prestigious film degree and is able to combine technical judgements with what makes a movie "fun."

Welcome aboard!

I lost a medium quality post when my computer restarted, and I'm too exhausted to rewrite it (the exhaustion was explained in the lost post, by the way), so I'll jump right to the end. tdaxp needs a new motto. So far its had "The Experience" and "Because a Great Nation Deserves Victory." A new banner will be appearing at the top of all tdaxp pages soon. What snappy expression should go along with it?

Update: The new motto is Beauty, Victory, God

The new banner, for posterity:



The photo was taken the same day as my photo series, The Twilight Demolition of the Leaning Tower of Zip in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. My previous banner, as well as the original and original prototypes, are also available.

Earlier this month tdaxp celebrated one year. Now tdaxp celebrates its first calendar year -- one very kind to this blog's readership



But much more important to me our your comments. Just going through the right-hand-side comment roll now, tdaxp readers have made me think more about

• American Grit
  
• Blog Friends
  
• China
  
• Christmas (twice!)
  
• Kurdistan
  
• Ignorance
  
• International Communities
  
• Mecca
  
• Military-Industrial Complexes
  
• Network Addresses
  
• Neural Networks

In the spirit of Embracing Defeat parts I, II, III, and IV, and of course the birth of our Lord

Christmas scene courtesy of Inatizzy
Christmas season courtesy of Christ

Sorry for the lack of posts on Sunday - an otherwise terrific day was elongated by lackadaisical service and horrible food at Bennigan's of Sioux Falls. Lady of tdaxp's Death by Chocolate was made from some form of cement, and my apple sizzler had all the ingredients -- just not mixed together. Awful.

Wonderful, however, was A South Dakota Acoustic Christmas. It's a terrific fusion of Country, Christian, Western Swing, Gaelic, and Soul. Unbelievably awesome. Plus, the wife of Kenny Putnam, a world-renowned fiddler who was performing for the last time with the band, gave us third-row seats. Wow!

The blog is having its second surge in traffic this month. Last time was a positive mention in Freakonomics, a popular blog by a New York Magazine writer and a University of Chicago economist. This time? tdaxp / babes is now a top Google Images result for "hentai," for a Japanese political cartoon. Can't be smart all the time.