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Only government approved labs can do experiments, see?

A retired chemist has had his home lab confiscated in Maryland because a government official was scared of it. Sayeth Robert Thompson: Pamela Wilderman, the code enforcement officer for Marlboro, stated, "I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation." Allow me to translate Ms. Wilderman's words into plain English: "Mr. Deeb hasn't actually violated any law or regulation that I can find, but I don't like what he's doing because I'm ignorant and irrationally afraid of chemicals, so I'll abuse my power to steal his…

The "Party" of Fiscal "Responsibility"

It has been a party, sure enough; more like an exercise in Bacchinalian debauchery.   href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052201653.html?hpid=topnews">Changes Spurred Buying, Abuses By Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Scott Higham Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, May 23, 2007; Page A01 ...Congress created the GSA's buying program in 1949 to make it easier for the burgeoning federal bureaucracy to buy furniture, office supplies and other products. The government sought to leverage its position as the world's leading buyer to get the…

Danielle is back UPDATE

Danielle is a hurricane again. Not real well organized but showing signs of getting its act together, Danielle will likely continue to strengthen for a couple/few days, remain a hurricane for a couple of days, then start weakening in about five days. This is all going to happen out in the middle of the Atlantic, which is, of course, where Bermuda is. But, there are no coastal warnings in effect now. The other system that has been forming A number, "7", has been given to the system that has been developing in the vicinity of the Cape Verde islands is getting better organized and will…

Five Questions About Health Care Reform - with Answers

Have five minutes to spare? Then read on: If you are interested in the reform of health care funding I recommend this article by the economist Arnold Kling. I don't agree with all of his ideas, such as citizens petitioning a "compensation fund" (run by government workers, I assume - yikes!) for reimbursement of medical expenses related to what Kling calls "tragic medical conditions." As Kling writes: In determining the size of the lump-sum payment, the compensation fund would take into account the typical cost of treating such a person. However, other factors also would come into play.…

Lança-perfume (Resistoleros, Carnival, inhalants, and why your airplane glue stinks)

Inhalants are ubiquitous illegal drugs of abuse and a public health problem worldwide. Most lipophilic solvents have some kind of neurotoxicity (some gas anaesthetics, in fact, work based mainly on their lipophilicity, and are only special because of lower toxicity). Unavoidably, we find these in glue and, memorably, spray paint. As far as I know, in the States, you have to be 18 just about anywhere to buy spray paint (because of graffiti, as well as inhalant abuse) and solvent-based glues (because of inhalant abuse). One thing you'll probably cover if you ever take a business ethics class is…

The end of the deCODEme personal genomics service?

This piece in Newsweek is a neat summary of the rise and fall of Icelandic genomics giant deCODE Genetics. Regular readers of Genetic Future will be aware that the company has been steadily bleeding capital ever since its launch over a decade ago, and recently declared formal bankruptcy. Since then the company has been bought up by US-based company Saga Investments. (For an excellent analysis of the implications of this sale, see Dan Vorhaus' post on Genomics Law Report.) A reader emailed me to point out that buried towards the end of the Newsweek article is an ominous paragraph for…

The Original Jocks

by Katie the Lowly Intern You might recall this gentle soul who got her face gnawed off by a chimp in February. I won't even begin to sift through the big ball of bizarre that story is, but it does lead to an interesting discussion concerning exactly where apes get enough strength to go around mauling humans. Biologists agree that a great ape's muscle structure is better, faster, stronger than our measly muscles. However, Alan Walker, a professor of Biology at Penn State just published an article in Current Anthropology that looks at another possible contributing factor. He makes the…

Will Rock Band and Guitar Hero Foster New Musicians?

Well, at least Stevie Van Zandt and Britain's Youth Music seem to think so. A recent article in The Times refers to research by Youth Music indicating that the games have prompted upwards of 2.5 million children to take up musical instruments. I'm skeptical. No doubt the games are a lot of fun for people who can't play a musical instrument and they're probably preferable to your average shoot-em-up. Further, it's a decent wager that they do pique interest to the point where the kiddies bug mom and dad to buy them a guitar or a drum kit. But these games, while they mimic real instruments, are…

McCain on autism

Shorter John McCain: I'm such a great advocate for special needs kids that I think autism is the same as Down syndrome. Actual quote: "parents come with kids, children -- precious children who have autism. Sarah Palin knows about that better than most." The rest of John McCain's debate performance roughly matched that level of sensibleness. Bonus shorter McCain: Barack Obama is being disrespectful to veterans in questioning the morals of my supporters who call for Obama's political assassination. In other news, John McCain didn't have the courage to either repeat the claim that Obama pals…

A systematic approach to melanoma mutations

Metastatic melanoma tumors. Left exhibits low or absent expression of RASA2 and reduced survival, typical of about 35% of patients. The sample on the right exhibits high RASA2 expression and increased survival Rates of melanoma are increasing, even as the rates of other common cancers are decreasing. According to the Melanoma Research Alliance, it is the most common cancer diagnosis in young adults 25-29 years old in the United States, the second most common cancer in young people 15-29, and its incidence has tripled in the last 30 years. What are we doing about it? The Weizmann Institute’…

TEDxLibrariansTO Countdown Questions: Day 3: On humbleness

Following on from the last two days, here are my answers for today's TEDxLibrariansTO Coundown Questions: Question 1: How can experience of failure contribute to making an effective thought leader? Failure is useful for a thought leader in the same way that it's useful for everyone. We can learn a lot from our failures: how to dust ourselves off and start over, how to rethink what we've done before and learn from our mistakes, how to put what we do in a larger interpersonal, organizational and social context. After all, just as we rarely succeed alone, we also rarely fail alone. Sure, the…

Iranian HIV doctors victims of witch hunt

by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure Last week we alerted you to a gross miscarriage of justice involving two doctors in Iran. Many of you responded by calling the Mission of Iran at the UN and signing a petition. I wish I could report good news in this update, but so far what we have heard is not encouraging. From an email from Physicians for Human Rights USA: I wanted to send you an urgent update on the case of Drs Kamiar and Arash Alaei. We still do not have a verdict in the case, but have released a press statement this evening in response to reports out of Iran today that are very…

Geronimo's Skull & Bones

It's funny sometimes being a Yale graduate with my upbringing--a blue-collar, middle-class kid from rural America. One thing in particular I just never quite got was the whole secret society thing. As such, it's been a bit amusing to see all the attention they've gotten in the years since my graduation. The Skulls came out in 2000, trading on the name of Yale's most prominent "secret" society, Skull and Bones. A few years later, a classmate wrote Secrets of the Tomb, an exposé of Skull and Bones. And then, of course, the Skull and Bones memberships of both George W. Bush (and his…

Clifton Leaf: "a legal frenzy that's diverting scientists from doing science"

It's Sunday morning on the US East Coast and I really need to put the computer down to get out for a hike in the crisp, autumn air. Sunday morning is a great time to catch up on long-form writing but I won't be the one providing it for you. Instead, I encourage you to take 15 minutes this morning to read an "old" (2005) article in Fortune magazine entitled, The Law of Unintended Consequences, by Clifton Leaf in Fortune magazine. This article details the impact of a 1980 amendment to US patent and trademark law put forth by Senator Bob Dole and the senior Senator Bayh, Birch. The Bayh-Dole…

4S Day One

It's always strange to go to a conference outside of your own primary research area. This conference had a lot of historians and philosophers as well as social scientists in every other category including media studies and information science.  I was in a couple sessions in which the presenter read from a marked up paper, clutched in their hands in a bundle.  I understand that's the norm in some fields, but there's no way I'm going to waste my time listening to someone read aloud when I could read the article for myself in half the time. There were some real highlights of the day.  A couple…

Welcome, visitor number 13,986!

I completely missed it: a rather momentous occasion in the life of this blog. The ScienceBlogs.com version of Terra Sigillata just passed the traffic volume of the old site on Wednesday, 20 Sept at 9:14 pm EDT with a visitor from Arlington, MA, USA. Visitor 13,986 must be a regular reader because they came directly here, not even through the ScienceBlogs frontpage from which I derive almost 20% of my traffic. So, while it took just over nine months to reach almost 14,000 visitors at the old blog (although I haven't had a new post there since June), we got to 14,000 here in the new digs in…

Everything at once, or, one thing at a time?

Untitled (Everything at once, or one thing at a time?), 2004 oil, paper, and printed matter on board Robert Van Vranken Commissioned by the National Academy of Science This is my favorite artwork at the National Academy of Science - a trompe l'oeil window of reclaimed architectural elements, peering into a scientist's study. Artist Robert Van Vranken includes books, globe, tools, diagrams, a light bulb, a comfy chair, and a panoramic view - this is a cluttered mind as much as a laboratory/studio, and to think about "everything at once or one thing at a time" is the eternal dilemma of the…

Dodgy News Limited survey

A news.com.au story asserts "Australians would re-elect Prime Minister John Howard in a landslide if votes were cast purely on policy - not personality or party loyalty - according to the first results from a "blind voting" tool developed by NEWS.com.au." Almost 35,200 of the 72,300 participants who have completed the Vote-a-matic were matched with the Coalition, compared with 28,700 participants who were identified as a fit with Kevin Rudd's Labor Party. A further 6700 participants have been matched with the Democrats, while around 1700 went to the Greens and 175 to Family First. The trends…

Maybe He Was Talking About Ducks

A mini furor erupted this weekend, when republican Senate nominee Todd Akin defended his position of denying abortions even to victims of rape, because in the case of "legitimate rape," women have biological defenses that prevent pregnancy: “First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” The liberal blogosphere went nuts, and the story was picked up by all the national media outlets, and even Mitt Romney decided…

The Vision of Scienceblogs

Did you know that Scienceblogs has a vision statement? It might be hard to find. You have to scroll alllllllll the way down to the very bottom of any page on the network, and click About Scienceblogs. Here is what it says: Science is driving our conversation unlike ever before. From climate change to intelligent design, HIV/AIDS to stem cells, science education to space exploration, science is figuring prominently in our discussions of politics, religion, philosophy, business and the arts. New insights and discoveries in neuroscience, theoretical physics and genetics are revolutionizing our…

I need a little rock help

Maybe this isn't that mysterious. However, quite some time ago my daughter found this rock in the backyard. First, you must understand that this is an odd occurrence. In this part of Louisiana, there really aren't any rocks, just dirt. When she showed it to me, I readily dismissed it as some lava rock from someone's garden. That was the end of the story until a year later when she found it again. This time, I held it and realized it was way too dense to be a a normal lava rock. Holding it up to a magnet, I found that there was some interaction. Skip forward a little bit of time. I had…

The "Last Three Books" Meme

Via Tor.com, a meme that I thought looked really interesting. What were the last three genre books that you purchased? Why did you purchase them? And do they feel comfortable together? Daniel Abraham,The Price of Spring (The Long Price Quartet): This is the conclusion to Abraham's Long Price Quartet, which is a wonderful set of novels. Each volume of the quartet is a self-contained story - but the pieces also fit together into a larger story-arc. The volumes each take place over the course of a season, and each is separated by about 20 years. It's fantasy with very rare but…

Annals of peanut butter: from Texas to Colorado

by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure The plant in Blakely, Georgia that was the apparent source of the salmonella peanut butter outbreak didn't make peanut butter for retail consumption. It made bulk peanut butter and peanut butter paste which became an ingredient in many other products. The number of products is now around 2000, the largest product recall in US history. So if you bought peanut butter retail you're safe, right? Not so fast. The Peanut Corporation of America (RIP; filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Friday) owned another plant in the Texas panhandle. Maybe you didn't know…

The Year in Music

It's that time of year again, when everybody who has the slightest interest in pop culture starts making "Year's Best" lists. I'm usually at a major disadvantage when it comes to this sort of thing, as I can never really remember when any particular album was released, and I buy a lot of stuff that isn't new, so I end up associating all sorts of songs with a given year that aren't really eligible to be the best of that particular year. Technology has come to my rescue, though, in the form of iTunes, which lets me sort songs by rating and year of release. It's not foolproof (somehow, it claims…

Global warming insurance

One of the best ways to illustrate the growing societal consensus on global warming is the reaction of businesses. An alliance of conservation groups, car makers, utilities and industrial manufacturers is backing a system of cap and trade which would reduce allowable carbon emissions over several years, and create a market in efficiency and carbon reduction. The new owners of a utility in Texas scrapped plans for new coal plants and will replace those plans with low-emissions plants which will sequester carbon dioxide and extract energy from coal more efficiently. Other Texas utilities are…

Outrunning the Boom

As you can probably imagine, Eric sometimes has more than a bit to put up with being married to me. One of the things that bothers him the most is that I'm absolutely no fun at movies. If you remember the show MST3K, I'm them - all the time. And just because the movie is supposed to be high art, well, that never did stop me. Early in our marriage we realized that we were both happier if we limited our joint film time to one of two categories - truly great movies, which we both enjoy, or ones bad enough that Eric doesn't mind pitching in on the commentary. There are, of course, far more…

The curious case of broccoli and health reform

by Kim Krisberg Broccoli. A nutritious green veggie of the cabbage family? Or a symbol of the federal government's over-reaching power grab? Like most things in life, it all depends on your perspective. I've been thinking about that word -- broccoli -- since last month's Supreme Court hearings on the constitutionality of provisions within the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Specifically, I've been pondering this comment from Justice Antonin Scalia during arguments on the ACA's individual insurance mandate: SCALIA: . . . could you define the market -- everybody has to buy food sooner or later, so…

AASA on Religion in Schools

The American Association of School Administrators has devoted an entire issue of The School Administrator to the issue of what is and isn't allowed in terms of religion and public schools. They've invited folks like Charles Haynes to write articles on the subject. Haynes' article contains much good advice: When school leaders ask how they should handle religion in public schools, religious liberty attorney Oliver Thomas begins his answer with this advice: "The time to buy the fire truck is before the fire." As simple as that may sound, it's actually a tough sell in many school districts…

And I, for one, welcome my new Linden overlords

It's been a few days. I was out in West Virginia last weekend watching my cousin get married. After driving back Monday, I started the new job with Linden Labs, and that has been occupying most of my focus. I've spoken at length before (in that and other posts) about why, despite how much I loved the science and the teaching, it was time for me to leave academia. I have asserted, however, that my new job isn't just "rebound" (i.e. me saying, ak! I'm sad! Find me something else!), but actually something that I'm really looking forward to. Why? (Before I go further, I should underscore what'…

Too Much Pink? or, What Should I Be Doing?

My fellow SiBling Dr. Charles has written a post about women and breast cancer that is a gift. Skip the pink ribbons and read what he's written. That dude can tell a story. Dr. Charles quotes Audre Lorde from The Cancer Journals on women with breast cancer as warriors; the patient he's examining has read Lorde and has foregone reconstructive surgery or a prosthesis after her mastectomy. The post ends this way: Regardless of whether a woman replaces that which has been taken from her or decides to go without, she is a noble warrior, tragically drafted into a bitter war. A good war, worth…

My Evolving Corner of Paradise (Values, part III)

When I last left off, I was describing the relationships between values and matter, and how they fit together to form information or a three-dimensional thing. But something seemed missing. Do we really live in something as simple as a three dimensional world? As I mentioned earlier, the string theorists don't think so, and neither do I. For one, things change. My study of Colorado history has given plenty examples of that. Look at Church Ranch, then versus now, or Lillybridge's studio, and the freeway that sits there today. What makes the difference in forms of these places? Time, naturally…

Free Energy From Air? Sorry, no.

After href="http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2008/12/the_real_bozo_attempts_to_aton.php">the fiasco that was my flame against the downwind faster than the wind vehicle, you might think that I'd be afraid of touching on more air-powered perpetual motion. You'd be wrong :-). I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself if I stand a chance of learning something in the process - and in this case, it's so obviously bogus that even if I was afraid, the sheer stupidity here would be more than enough to paper over my anxieties. Take a look at this - the good part comes towards the end. What this…

Nice Bond Rating You Have There, It Would Be a Shame If Something Happened to It: S&P Innoculates Itself Against Fraud Charges

There's been a lot of excellent posts debunking Standard & Poor's recent downgrade of U.S. debt on the merits--it is poor assessment of risk. Yes, there are substantive economic arguments against S&P's evaluation. But S&P is also fundamentally corrupt. The Coalition of the Sane must point this out too--there is an ethical dimension here, not just an economic one. The critical point is this: during the last year, every negative statement by S&P has followed action by the federal government to investigate possible fraud by S&P (and other ratings agencies) during the…

Interview with Michael Nielsen, author of Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science

Welcome to the latest installment in my very occasional series of interviews with people in the scitech world. This time around the subject is Michael Nielsen, author of the recently published Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science and prolific speaker on the Open Science lecture circuit. A recent example of his public speaking is his TEDxWaterloo talk on Open Science. You can follow his blog here and read his recent Wall Street Journal article, The New Einsteins Will Be Scientists Who Share. I'd like to thank Michael for his provocative and insightful responses. Enjoy…

The consequences of blogging under one's own name

Sadly, a crank has silenced another skeptic. Many of you may know EpiRen, which is the Twitter and blog handle (and sometimes commenting handle here) of René Najera. René is an epidemiologist employed by the state public health department of health of an East Coast state and has been a force for reality- and science-based discussions of medicine, in particular vaccines. In fact, he's come out as a strong defender of vaccines against anti-vaccine lies. Unfortunately, EpiRen is no more, at least online; that is, if he wants to keep his job. As related to my by Liz Ditz, A Public Servant,…

Download Counts Predict Future Impact of Scientific Papers

The gold standard for measuring the impact of a scientific paper is counting the number of other papers that cite that paper. However, due to the drawn-out nature of the scientific publication process, there is a lag of at least a year or so after a paper is published before citations to it even begin to appear in the literature, and at least a few years are generally needed to get an accurate measure of how heavily cited an article will actually be. It's reasonable to ask, then, if there exists a mechanism to judge the impact of a paper much earlier in its lifetime. Several analyses now…

WIC, Formula and Nursing

I opened my talk at the Community Action Partnership annual conference this year with the observation that like that weird looking guy from the old "Hair Club for Men" commercials, I'm not just a spokesperson, I'm also a client.  All foster children under 5 years receive WIC, the US program that provides SUPPLEMENTAL (this word will be important in a moment) food for pregnant and nursing women, and babies and children under five.  We haven't always used WIC for our foster children - a lot of the food it provides is industrial and not something we eat a lot of, but Baby Z. is formula fed, and…

Birds in the News 175

tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter Boreal or Tengmalm's Owl, Aegolius funereus. Boreal Owls are circumpolar, occupying subalpine and northern, or boreal, forests around the globe. These seasonally monogamous birds nest in small cavities; woodpecker holes, other natural tree cavities, or man-made nest boxes. These small owls occasionally irrupt from their northerly homes in search of food. Image: orphaned [larger view]. This edition of Birds in the News is dedicated to Snowflake and Biosparite, and to Miriam, whose $upport was inspired by Birds in the…

Hey, You Can't Say That! Or can you?

I have received, from a friend, a draft of an intra-institutional guideline for employee blogging and online behavior. The employer has been anonymized. The document has been written by non-scientist non-bloggers at the institution and is making the rounds prior to formal review and approval. We have talked about this at ScienceOnline'09 in the session Hey, You Can't Say That!. Here are some of the bloggy responses to that session to get you up to speed: Deep Thoughts and Silliness: Semi-live Blogging Scienceonline09: Day 2 Highly Allochthonous: ScienceOnline Day 2: generalised ramblings…

We Are Living Below Our Means, Not Above Them

A constant refrain one hears when the deficit hawks let loose their piteous cries is that we are living beyond our means. Surely, our budget deficit and national debt are signs of that. Lord, for the sins which we have committed before thee... Or not so much. As I've discussed before, public debt can lead to inflation when resources, human or physical, are limiting. And when resources are limiting, public deficit spending can also lead to misallocation of resources. But when they're not, we are simply holding ourselves back for want of currency. Millions of people are un- and…

Once in a lifetime opportunity to profit from bird flu in Indonesia

Indonesia and Nigeria have a couple of things in common. One is bird flu. So far, both countries have a stubborn endemic infestation of the virus in their poultry, and neither has been successful in bringing it under control. Indonesia also has the distinction of more human fatalities from bird flu than any other nation, by far: 57 deaths. The closest runner-up is Vietnam with 42. Not to worry. Indonesia will have this dire situation under control by this time next year: Indonesia, which has the world's highest bird flu death toll, plans to ramp up its fight against the virus and hopes to…

The hazards of chicken off the bone

If you've ever boned a chicken (and who hasn't, right?) you know it isn't easy. It's hard on the hands and dangerous if you are doing it fast, with sharp knives. How fast? Say, a few thousand chicken breasts a day? Every day. Day after day. And doing it for chicken feed (metaphorically speaking), so you can't afford health insurance. But at least you get some medical care if you're hurt at work. From the company: Mike Flowers is a powerful gatekeeper. He often decides whether to send poultry workers to a doctor when they get hurt on the job or complain of chronic pain. "I think we do a pretty…

More reasons to oppose the latest awful iteration of GOPcare

Many of us were cheered by Senator John McCain’s announcement of his opposition to the horrible Graham-Cassidy bill that would gut Medicaid and wreck the individual insurance market. But Senate Republicans could still pass this bill, and will keep trying until the clock runs out at midnight September 30th. Last week I explained why the bill is so damaging to public health, and Kim Krisberg rounded up opposition statements from major organizations that work on healthcare. Two items that have come out since then are also worth considering. Senate Republicans are rushing to vote before the…

The Next Big Science Revolution

SETIcon feels like a curious mix of an AAS annual meeting and a science fiction WorldCon. Unfortunately, this extends to the concept of the parallel session. So, it is necessary to pick and choose. So, "Asteroids: Junkpiles or Resources?" - Yes. "Hubble 3D" - I really want to see Frank Summers' rendition, but I'll get another chance. And, while I do want to know "When I can buy a ticket to the Moon", I got the rah-rah spiel on the impressive progress in commercial space already. Hence the panel on: "The Next Big Science Revolution" - I gots to know. As apparently does everyone else. Another "…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Biological Basis For The Eight-hour Workday?: The circadian clock coordinates physiological and behavioral processes on a 24-hour rhythm, allowing animals to anticipate changes in their environment and prepare accordingly. Scientists already know that some genes are controlled by the clock and are turned on only one time during each 24-hour cycle. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found that some genes are switched on once every 12 or 8 hours, indicating that shorter cycles of the circadian rhythm are also…

Allergic To Domestic Life

Have any of you started a project that you thought would take ten minutes to complete, only to find that the project has morphed into a huge and tangled event that has taken over your entire life? I am trapped in the middle of such a project right now. [Image source: Half the deck]. This project started when I decided to buy one sheet rock screw so I could rehang the little metal shelf in my bathroom above the toilet (after the ceiling caved in a few months ago, I had to remove everything from the bathroom, and this little shelf was one of those items. In the process, one of the screws was…

Birdbooker Report 74

tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books "How does one distinguish a truly civilized nation from an aggregation of barbarians? That is easy. A civilized country produces much good bird literature." ~ Edgar Kincaid The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of a wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that currently are, or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is edited by me and published here for your information and…

November Pieces Of My Mind #3

There was a major 19th century arts magazine titled Glissons, n'appuyons pas. This means "Let's glide, not support", that is, "Let's live an easy life without having to support ourselves". Opera reviews were a big thing in the mag. Private parking is "idiot parking" in Greek, because here the word idiot means "private person". Our sense of the word comes from the ancient distinction between a skilled person who could take part in public affairs and an untrained one who was just himself, an idiot. The Greek word for the mentally challenged, meanwhile, is vlakas. I saw an old high-wheel…

Independent Scotland doesn't seem like a good idea to me

Yes, Stoat, the pundit you've all been waiting for. Well, at least one person asked. Coming back from hols I misread a headline on my phone (I don't have data roaming so gloriously missed everything while I was away) that suggested that Scotland had voted for independence. "Good for them" I thought, though I was surprised they'd been that brave. Then I realised I'd misread it. Anyway, the point is that whilst my overall opinion is that the Scots should vote against independence, my view isn't very strong, and I do at least feel emotionally in favour of independence. But as an exercise I'll…

More Moon Deceit

I found this post on Blogesque through John Gorenfeld's site. It details how the Rev. Moon's speeches are often sanitized when translated into English. His translators take out some of the nuttier things he says in order to make them more palatable to non-Moonies. Specifically, he provides a more accurate translation of Moon's speech before the American Clergy Leadership Conference in October of last year and points out that nearly half the speech was redacted in the version that appeared on the Moon website. Among the crazy or creepy things left out: I am the founder of [the] Washington…