Links for 2009-10-10

"[L]ook at what [scientists] are up against: a noisy babble of morons and Luddites, the "Drill, baby, drill" crowd, the birthers, and tea-party kooks who have done their best to derail health-care reform and will do the same to any kind of energy policy. [OSTP Director John] Holdren has an undergraduate degree from MIT and a Ph.D. from Stanford; he has won countless awards for his work on nuclear proliferation, climate change, alternative energy, and population growth. But now he must sell his ideas to people who couldn't pass high-school algebra--and who believe they know more than he does."

"I've decided to play intramural basketball this year and I've assembled a team of nice, talented players. It wasn't an easy decision for me. I'm an untenured professor who should be spending his evenings slogging away at journal articles and class lectures. I'm also an aging baller with cottage cheese ankles and an ever-growing list of bodily creaks and cracks.

So why did I do it? Well, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I don't have many chances left to play competitive basketball."

"On a range of issues involving science, politics matter a lot more than religion. Before dismissing concerns about the political effects of attacking religion, let's bear in mind that politics makes a real difference to the world we all live in. Philosophical disagreements about what is or isn't compatible on some metaphysical level don't, though they might, might, point to some underlying fact about the world we have to contend with."

"All of the rings are a bit of a mystery. Are they billions of years old? Are they recent, having just arisen from a collision with a Saturnian moon? Are they as old as the Solar System itself? "

"America understands that there's one party in this country that's in favor of health care reform and one party that's against it and they know why.

They understand if Barack Obama were somehow able to cure hunger in the world, the Republicans would blame him for over-population.

They understand that if Barack obama could somehow bring about world peace, they'd blame him for destroying the defense industry.

In fact they understand that if Barack Obama has a BLT sandwich tomorrow for lunch, they will try to ban bacon."

""Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, prepare thine eyes for the most exciting line of avian wildlife in millennia," God announced as He released an estimated 14 million first-run models into the important bird markets of North America, Australia, and Eurasia. "This new bird has it all: slicker wings, a more streamlined beak, better-than-ever capacity for beautiful song. Plus, all of the grace and majesty you've come to expect from the Eternal Creator of Life Itself."

"The bird is back," God continued, His booming voice parting the very heavens. "And baby, it's never looked better." "

"While other firms have developed ways to convert waste plastic into oil, Han said, Envion uses a "far-infrared ray" technology that yields more fuel than competitors' processes.

Environmental experts didn't immediately know what to make of the company's claims. A research director with the environmental organization Greenpeace said that he hadn't heard of this particular technology but that his instinct was to remain skeptical. "

"The monkey is absolutely right. We're spending millions of dollars to blow up the moon, when there are so many things here on Earth that we haven't blown up."

"I've come to believe that every ideology is right. Liberalism is right, conservatism is right, radicalism is right, fascism is right, communism is right, Catholicism is right, Rastafarianism is right, Pastafarianism is right. Any ideology that survives more than ten minutes in the ferocious Planet Earth laboratory is right."