[This is a re-post of a previous entry. My power has been down for the last 24 hours due to heavy snow and so it seemed relevant.]

SNOWFLAKES are ice crystals that form around dust particles or other microscopic matter in the upper atmosphere. A typical snowflake is a conglomeration of crystals, most damaged as they fall from the heights. A hundred years ago, the science of snow was still in its infancy. Since then, the systematic study of snow has advanced rapidly with greater understanding of its properties and classification of crystals and snow packs. The measurement and management of snow are both consuming issues. Though snow is now the stuff of formal expertise, and probably makes for some tedious dissertations for the general reader, who could ever find the subject dull?

Ken Libbrecht is chairman of the physics department at California Institute of Technology and the creator of one of the more interesting natural history sites on the Internet. SnowCrystals.com presents the science of snow with an appreciation for the beauty of its subject matter. I highly recommend it.

“I feel that with over six billion people on the planet, surely a few of us can be spared to ponder the subtle mysteries of snowflakes,” writes Libbrecht, who is the author of The Secret Life of a Snowflake and other books. His website is an excellent source for homeschoolers. He offers a short summary of the major scientific discoveries, starting with Johannes Kepler. He writes:

In 1611 Johannes Kepler published a short treatise On the Six-Cornered Snowflake, [1] which was the first scientific reference to snow crystals. Kepler pondered the question of why snow crystals always exhibit a six-fold symmetry. Although he doesn’t refer to the atomistic viewpoint, Kepler does speculate that the hexagonal close-packing of spheres may have something to do with the morphology of snow crystals. Kepler was astute in recognizing that the genesis of crystalline symmetry was an interesting scientific question, and he also realized that he did not have the means to answer it. It would be 300 years before Kepler’s question could finally be answered, requiring the development of X-ray crystallography.

Below is Libbrecht’s chart of the most common types of snow crystals:

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  Is it any surprise that Lloyds Bank of Britain has announced that it will greatly increase women in its top executive positions just at a time when it is facing scandals of rigged lending rates? The presence of more women at the top gives a softer, friendlier face to the world of amoral banking. The bank says 40 percent of senior positions will go to women, which means that every female promotion will reek of affirmative action whether it's deserved or not. The British government and the European Union are pressuring companies to appoint more women managers and place more women on corporate boards. A Lloyds banking spokeswoman is quoted in The Daily Mail as saying "there is a whole body of research suggesting that where organisations have a diverse senior management team they are much more financially successful than those that do not." Given that senior management at most large corporations is predominantly male and that the most successful companies face more pressure to institute affirmative action, there could not be sufficient research to confirm this.

ADITYA B. writes:

Two oceans and three continents once separated me from America.

Like many a fool, I dreamed of America. In my dreams, America was a place where men were free to be men. It was a place where intelligent and fiercely independent minds wrestled with weighty issues and, whilst vehemently disagreeing with you, would defend to the death your right to express such disagreeable views.

After almost a decade in Aztlan-Sodom (the city formerly known as “Los Angeles”), I have concluded that, by and large, most Americans are moral fanatics. And utterly pedestrian (and provincial) moral fanatics.  They will destroy any man who does not kow-tow to the “Gods of the City” and will gleefully participate in witch-hunting and burning like their much-maligned ancestors in Salem, Massachusetts.

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  IN a recent letter to Nigerian president regarding the goverment's passage of a bill that prohibits same-sex "marriage" and promotion of homosexual behavior, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos indirectly attacked the arrogance of John Kerry, who condemned the Nigerian law, as was discussed here. As reported at Rorate Coeli, Kaigama wrote to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on behalf of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria: “Your decision and that of your administration in conjunction with the Federal Legislature, not to bow to international pressure in the promotion of unethical and immoral practices of same sex union and other related vices is indeed a courageous one and a clear indication of the ability of our great country to stand shoulders high in the protection of our Nigerian and African most valued cultures of the institution of marriage and protection of the dignity of the human person.” […] “We commend you for this courageous and wise decision and pray that God will continue to bless, guide and protect you and your administration against the conspiracy of the developed world to make our country and continent, the dumping ground for the promotion of all immoral practices, that have continued to debase the purpose of God for man in the area of creation and morality, in their own countries. Sadly, another group of African bishops, Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, condemned the law --- and its statement was reported at a Vatican news agency.

  LT. Col. Jackie Parker was the first woman pilot to become combat qualified in the F-16 and became the first woman to attend U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California in 1988. Parker is considered a hero of women's aviation. In the 1990s, she was a minor celebrity, praised by Hillary Clinton, and was considered the avant grade of a new generation of women combat pilots. But everything you would expect to happen when a woman enters the masculine world of fighter pilots in an age of mandatory integration happened in Parker's case.  A story in The Los Angeles Times from 1998 gives the details of her experience training with the New York Air National Guard, which the newspaper called "one of the most destructive explosions of gender conflict since the integration of women in the military began." Parker left a number of derailed careers in her wake and allegedly had a romantic relationship with the unit's operations chief: One year after Maj. Jacquelyn S. Parker began training to become the Air Guard's first female F-16 pilot, her fighter career was over, two superiors had been ousted in disgrace and the 174th Fighter Wing was on its way to a top-to-bottom reorganization. Here are details in The New York Times of October, 22, 1995 about the sex discrimination case that resulted from Parker's experience: On Friday, the commander of the 174th Wing, Col. David Hamlin, was relieved of command, denied the chance…

AT Ladies Against Feminism, Marzina Reich wrote an excellent essay in 2004 of growing up in Poland under Communism, which encouraged a mass exodus of women from the home. She wrote:

All those ladies, overworked past exhaustion, were always complaining that husbands and children were not cooperative enough, did not help out enough, and really no one appreciated fully the load they were carrying. They all believed a strange theory that the way to balance their job and their home was through the children taking over the housework. (more…)

ANTI-GLOBALIST EXPATRIATE writes:

Ann Coulter writes that Asians support big government, gun control, and ‘affirmative action.’

Asians support big government because their culture places hierarchy above all, and because in their native countries, government is seen as the top of the hierarchy, and they themselves as subjects and clients of government. The concept of ‘citizen’ in the Western sense has no analogue in Asian culture.

They support ‘affirmative action’ because all Asian societies are tribal- and clan-based in nature, with extreme xenophobia present between tribes and clans, much less evinced towards those of other races and nationalities.  Asians are so ‘racist’ that they make the KKK look like the NAACP; every single Asian I talked to about the election of 2008 was astonished that the U.S. would elect a black man as President, since in their view, blacks are subhuman.

Race-based preferences are endemic in all Asian societies, and always have been. All Asian countries reserve certain occupational specialities for natives, with additional considerations of patronage network membership, bribery, graft, and corruption.

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BOB L. writes:

The House Republican leadership yesterday came out with their hilariously-titled ‘principles’ for immigration reform. They are principles in the same sense that the defeated French generals established principles for their negotiations with the Wehrmacht in Compiegne.

Knowing that amnesty and the immigration surge was a clunker with the base, some 2016 “frontrunners” like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul shrewdly cast a meaningless, symbolic vote against the Schumer-Rubio bill and said a few critical words, while continuing to support the nonsensical idea that virtually unlimited immigration is a moral and economic good, just as long as it’s legal. Their disagreement with the Democrat desire to fundamentally transform the nation is as deep as a puddle. (more…)

HENRY McCULLOCH, a former Marine and Air Force Reserve fighter pilot, writes:

The Fools of Fox have no more sense about women in the armed forces than Barack Hussein Obama. Here’s Shep Smith last month introducing new Fox reporter Lea Gabrielle, a former Navy fighter pilot.

“Female fighter pilot” is an oxymoron on par with “Gay Marriage.”  ‘Nuff said. Except that if you want to know what sort of lethal chicanery the U.S. Navy engaged in to get its precious “female fighter pilots,” simply google the names Kara Hultgreen (R.I.P.) and Carey Lohrenz, and if you want to know how force-feeding an unqualified woman pilot into a fighter squadron effectively destroyed a U.S. Air Force fighter wing, google the name Jackie Parker.  As for what a success women in command at sea has been, please google the name Holly Graf.

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ED H. writes:

My, my the world is turning, isn’t it? Ann Coulter is now saying the same things that Lawrence Auster said for years.  His views and opinions earned him derision and dismissal from all the best people in society. Now the same insights  are being declaimed in the mainstream media by a national columnist with mass approval and recognition.

From Coulter’s piece:

As House Republicans prepare to sell out the country on immigration this week, Phyllis Schlafly has produced a stunning report on how immigration is changing the country. The report is still embargoed, but someone slipped me a copy, and it’s too important to wait.

Leave aside the harm cheap labor being dumped on the country does to the millions of unemployed Americans. What does it mean for the Republican Party?

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THE Rolling Stone, once the flagship of really cool people, weighs in with the latest liberal puff piece on “Pope” Francis. The magazine that loves Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd pays Francis the ultimate compliment, comparing him more than once to that other spiritual leader of the Western world, Bill Clinton. According to writer Mark Binelli, who considers people like Newt Gingrich and Cardinal Timothy Dolan to be theological hard-liners, the homophobic, patriarchal, medieval organization that is the Catholic Church is finally seeing — a little bit — the error of its ways. Having put aside the “staunch traditionalist” Pope Benedict XVI, it has elected a hippy pontiff. Binelli understands the “pope” better than many supposed Catholics, who say Francis is constantly misinterpreted and didn’t really say what he just said.

Stay tuned. The Rolling Stone will soon be unveiling its translation of the New Testament on mobile app. Hear the good news about climate change, women’s ordination and transgender redemption. Learn how to be Catholic while hating everything the Church stands for.

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IF YOU are under 30 and would like to buy a heath insurance policy (pre-existing conditions allowed) then I strongly recommend last night’s State of the Union address by President Barack Hussein Obama. He will lay out a few of the terms on a terrific policy. If, on the other hand, you are in the mood for a good cry about how wonderful America is because the average American will be getting a job soon (courtesy of the Republican Party) and the best and brightest from around the world will be getting jobs soon (courtesy of the Republican Party), I recommend Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers’s speech in response.

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 AT Crisis Magazine, there is a review by William Kirkpatrick of the movie Philomena. The movie, which I have not seen, is about an unwed teenager who gave birth to a boy in a Catholic convent in Ireland in the 1950s. The boy is later put up for adoption by the nuns. Kirkpatrick says the message of the film is out-of-date. The comment after the review by a reader named John O’Neill is worth noting (though I don’t agree with the last line):

The Irish past has become a whipping post for the modern American democrat/liberal; it is the example of the terrible conditions that the Church forced on the unsuspecting Irish. Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes became a best seller among Americans especially Irish Americans because it dwelt on the horrible living conditions inflicted on the poor suffering Irish by the Catholic Church. Irish Americans love this version of their narrative history. In fact Ireland in 1955 was a very poor country and the parents of a pregnant teenage girl had no means to support her and the baby because in many cases they still had babies at home of their own. (more…)

N.W. writes:

I thought this quote from a man whose daughter was seriously injured while skydiving, perfectly captures all that is wrong with the American father in our feminized society.

The girl’s parents agreed to let her perform the jump, but her father now says the skydiving company shouldn’t have allowed it.

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  TIBERGE at Galliawatch has numerous posts on Sunday's Jour de Colère, or Day of Anger, in Paris, a march by various traditionalist groups protesting the government of François Hollande. The organizers estimated a crowd of 160,000 people. However, the mainstream media contends there were about 17,000. Tiberge writes: If you are interested in the left-wing point of view of the demonstration that regards all the protesters as one form or another of Nazi degenerate, I suggest this article posted at NouvelObs, by journalist Giuseppe Di Bella, whose schadenfreude is surpassed only by his gloating: (…) A few thousand persons hit the Parisian sidewalks, Sunday afternoon from the place de la Bastille to the place Vauban, under high police protection. A veritable fiasco for an event carried by much of the media that turned out to be a pathetic parade by a not-very-illustrious representative sampling of a France that stinks of Pétainism and that brings shame to the Republic and its values.

A READER writes:

I don’t know if your readership is aware but recent trends in the last few years has been for old video games to be reworked in a new “refreshing” feminist style.  Old games that featured the “evil” concept of a masculine hero rescuing the damsel in distress are now routinely hacked or modded to reverse gender roles.  Take for example the following articles from kotaku, a standard bearer for gaming culture. (more…)

  IN an interesting post at The Orthosphere, Kristor explores the meaning of one of the familiar titles for Our Lord Jesus Christ. He writes: Jesus refers to himself often as the Son of Man (using the definite article). This title had always confused me. I thought that what distinguishes him from me and you – each of us likewise a child of men (note the indefinite article) – is that he is the son of God, and that this unique status formed the basis on which his ministry, his crucifixion, his Atonement for our sins, and so our redemption and salvation, all rested. Why would Jesus characterize himself as the Son of Man? I mean, sure, everyone in Palestine back then knew exactly what he meant in doing so. “Son of Man” was in the symbolic language of Israel another way of saying “Son of God.” But then, why should that have been so? See Kristor's illuminating comment at the end of the post about the masculinity of God.