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RIP Colette, the baby humpback

This is a truly sad story. Last week a baby humpback whale, informally dubbed "Colette," was found alone in the waters off Sydney, Australia. The baby was in desperate need of fat-rich mother's milk, nuzzling boats in its attempts to find sustenance, but no surrogate mother came to the rescue. Force-feeding the young whale was not attempted and efforts to lead it out to sea (where there would at least the chance of a mother whale passing by) failed, and Colette was euthanized on Friday. Many people were outraged, but it seems that euthanization was the only viable option. Colette was…

What is wrong with this study?

Attention span: With a daily newspaper, there is a tacit understanding: That day's paper is the latest news; yesterday's paper becomes old news -- recycling-bin fodder, fishwrap, bird-cage liner, art-project makings, whatever. ------------snip----------- The Internet is a 24/7 environment, where everything is happening all the time, right now. That's because it's a hive-mind of people spread across the planet, and something's always happening somewhere. Sinatra wanted to wake up in a city that never sleeps; the Internet is the digital-world equivalent of New York City -- only with a…

Open Source for K-12

Neil Bush's "COW" is probably the closest the Bush family ever has come to real ranching.  Now the COW may be going the way of the href="http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/expeditions/treasure_fossil/Treasures/Dodo/dodo.html?dinos" rel="tag">Dodo This may turn out to be one of the best things that could happen to public education in the USA. The COW, for those of you not familiar, is the href="http://www.ignitelearning.com/COW/index.html">Curriculum on Wheels.  It is a proprietary computer designed for instructional use.   Of course, it uses proprietary software.  The machine href…

Current/Future State of Higher Education: Week 6: Distributed Research & new models of inquiry !

Yes, I've fallen behind a bit on my MOOC due to conferences and other general insanity, but after doing the last week this week I vow to catch up a bit retroactively and do weeks 3, 4 & 5. My weeks 1 and 2 posts are here and here. Distributed Research: new models of inquiry (Nov 12- 18) Introduction - Week Six Distributed research, or more generally, open science, reflect the next logical progression of the internet’s influence on higher education. Early 2000’s saw the development of open content. Since 2008, teaching in open online courses has gained prominence. Distributed research labs…

Web, politics and everything else....

Writing actual science posts takes a lot of time, research, thinking and energy. I assembled a large pile of papers I want to comment on and I actually started writing posts about a couple of them already, but Real Life interferes...and it is so much easier and quicker to post a short opinion-post or a linkfest. Also, my mind has lately been mostly focused on Science Blogging, more Science Blogging, Open Science, Open Notebook Science, organizing the next Science Blogging Conference, Framing Science, Teaching Science and similar stuff I've been reading about a lot lately due to the…

on the failure of capitalism

I regularly get "special offers" inviting me to take up a, usually, 3 month special introductory rate for a wireless or cable or internet service. What these offers never state is what the base rate is that you default to at the end of the introductory period. When done by phone, the salesperson nevers seems to know this rate, and it is never on mail offers. It generally seems unfindable on company web sites also. It is a source of never ending surprise, to the salespeople, that I will not sign up for these offers, because, y'know, they really are bargains. They typically involved 1-2 year…

Virtual Labs

The New York Times today has a story about Web-based classes offering virtual labs, and whether they should count for AP credit: As part of a broader audit of the thousands of high school courses that display its Advanced Placement trademark, the [College Board] has recruited panels of university professors and experts in Internet-based learning to scrutinize the quality of online laboratories used in Web-based A.P. science courses. "Professors are saying that simulations can be really good, that they use them to supplement their own lab work, but that they'd be concerned about giving…

Acai Berry Scam Exposed: We Called It!

Photo credit: Jeff Cronin In the recent past both Travis and I have taken a jab or two at the evolving acai berry craze, whether it was making fun of celebrities (i.e. Rachael Ray) who endorse it or by critiquing weight-loss products based on the magical berry (i.e. AcaiBurn). Apparently, we were onto something.   This past Monday, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has released a consumer warning, urging consumers to not fall prey to the viral ads of countless acai berry based products for weight loss, sexual dysfunction, cancers, and other ailments. In the warning, the…

Never Say Goodbye: Red-Cockaded Woodpecker

tags: Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, Picoides borealis, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) Estimated 12,210 breeding birds. Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view]. Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals of the United States that were photographed by the talented Joel Sartore here at National Geographic online. All images appear here by permission of National Geographic…

Never Say Goodbye: Masked Bobwhite

tags: Masked Bobwhite, Colinus virginianus ridgwayi, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day Masked Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus ridgwayi) 700 (Nearly extinct in the wild, some 700 captive). Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view]. Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals of the United States that were photographed by the talented Joel Sartore here at National Geographic online. All images appear here by permission…

The Secret to Perfect Profile Pictures

tags: online advertising, Samsung, digital camera, MySpace, Facebook, blogs, profile pictures, streaming video This video clip is a hilarious ad for a Samsung digital camera that is aimed specifically at all of us online personalities. We all know the infamous "MySpace angle" of profile pictures, and who can ignore the slew of pouty-mouthed snapshots on Facebook? Well, universally flattering angle, the gig is up. Heck, even Samsung knows the tricks of the profile pic trade and calls out the most common photo maneuvers in a new ad. Quite clever, Samsung.

Politics and/of Science

The latest issue (Fall 2006) of the Social Research Journal has as its theme "Politics & Science: How their Interplay results in public policy", based on a recent conference. The table of contents looks very promising. Unfortunately, none of the articles are online (yet?), so I cannot comment on any one of them. The upcoming Winter issue also looks promising - the topic is "Politics and Science: An Historical View". I hope all the articles come online soon (with permalinks so we can link to them) so we can all read them and dissect them on our blogs.

Future of science publishing interview

A few weeks ago in Lindau, Lars Fischer (remember his guest post here?) sat me down with the digital audio recorder and conducted an interview - we talked for about an hour about Open Access, future of scientific publishing/papers/communication, etc. The article based on that interview is now online - you can read it here, but only if you can read German. Then you can tell me what is it that I actually said ;-) Update: the translation is now here. Update 2: The entire transcript is now available online/

Math 2.0 Webinar tonight

Tonight at 9:30pm, I will be the online guest of the Math 2.0 community, invited by Maria Droujkova, to talk about the organizational aspects of ScienceOnline2010 as they are interested in organizing something similar for the online math community. We'll do the webinar on Elluminate, so if you have not used it before you need to try to log in a few minutes ahead to go through all the hoops, downloads, etc. We'll be in this room - just click on the link and follow the directions. Make sure your volume is up.

OnLine Polls

tags: online poll, scienceblogs While we are talking about online polls, I'd like to point out that ScienceBlogs is conducting a poll on the right sideboard that they will use to improve the site based on reader feedback. Their poll is kinda fun and will only take about 5 minutes or so of your time to answer. Not only that, but you have the chance to win a free iPod nano in a drawing. Of course, I can't win this, because I am a SciBling, but I'd sure love it if one of my readers won!

Off-Road Velociraptor Safari Fun

tags: Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, online game Do you want to take a fun little break while you write your book report, your dissertation or even that big NSF or NIH grant? Well, now you can, by playing Off-Road Velociraptor Safari. In this online game, you are a raptor, and you drive around in a jeep, knocking over dinosaurs, smashing into stuff, and pulling off cool stunts. Seriously. Despite its technical limitations, Off-Road Velociraptor Safari is crazy enough to be fun. For raw dinosaur-based jeep-driving carnage, look no further.

How To Demolish Climate Denial

John Cook, of the University of Queensland, and his colleagues, have created a MOOC ... Massive Open Online Course ... called "Making Sense of Climate Science Denial." Why does this matter? How does it work? What can you do? All of these questions are answered here: University offering free online course to demolish climate denial. Fight sticky myths with even sticker sticklier facts. Do go check it out. See you in class! ___________________ Check out: The First Earth Day, an epoch journey into politics, explosions, folk music, and old boats floating on stinking rivers.…

Words That Make Me Cringe

Click Here for PollOnline Survey | Website Polls | Email Marketing | CrowdsourcingView MicroPoll

Of Radio Shows and Pirate Neurologists

Today I'll be talking for an hour about Soul Made Flesh on Minnesota public radio. You can listen to the broadcast live online at 11 am EST (the show will be archived). At 2 pm EST, you can listen online again when I talk on the Glen Mitchell show on Dallas public radio. Some thoughts on the intersection of evolution and global warming coming this afternoon. In the meantime, check out Pharyngula's check-box comparison of the similarities between Soul Made Flesh and Quicksilver. Damn, why did I leave out those pirate neurologists...?

More on clean feed opposition

At last the MSM seem to be picking it up. A Perth newsmagazine has reported it unfavourably (although are Xenophon and Fielding really waiting for the results, given they are major motivators of the idea?), and an online opinion site suggests that the ultimate source of this stupidity is Clive Hamilton and the Australia Institute, a reactionary "think tank", back in 2003. And a NSW Parliamentary Library report has challenged Conroy's claim, previously challenged by Greens Senator Scott Ludlum, that this is something already in place in various other countries. The report is available online…

Fornvännen's Winter Issue On-Line

Fornvännen 2013:4 is now on-line on Open Access. Ulf Ragnesten on an ornate late-1st millenium BC bronze chain belt from a cremation grave in a Gothenburg suburb. Lars Larsson and Bengt Söderberg on recent excavations at the huge 1st millennium AD royal manor complex of Uppåkra, with in situ arson victims found among the building remains. (Just like what has more recently been found at Sandby fort on Öland!) Pia Bengtsson Melin on recently found Romanesque mural fragments in Marka church in Västergötland. Anders Högberg et al. on scientific characterisation of flint from Polish and South…

Friday Fun: Welcome to My Massive Open Online Cult!

McSweeny's is brilliant at skewering fads. And there is no bigger fad in higher education than Massive Open Online Courses. MOOCs, as they are known. Now I'm not quibbling with whether or not MOOCs are an interesting and potentially extremely valuable addition to the landscape of higher education, because I think they are. What I find unfortunate is how completely so many in the general public/commentariat/tech guru class seem to have so thourougly fallen under the MOOC spell, seeing all their libertarian free market dreams coming true. Almost like a cult. Without any further ado: Welcome to…

Biotech Leader Amgen Joins Festival as Proud Sponsor

Amgen, a leader in biotechnology, and the Amgen Foundation are committed to supporting science education programs and are proud to be a sponsor of the USA Science & Engineering Festival to further encourage bright young minds to explore a future in science and strengthen science literacy. Jean L. Lim, President, Amgen Foundation "Amgen applauds the Festival for bringing together leaders in science education to create an exciting educational event for students and the community," said Jean J. Lim, president of the Amgen Foundation. "The Festival can leverage the passion and expertise…

4-H Program to Wow Students With its 'National Science Experiment' at Festival

We are proud to welcome 4-H - a long-time national youth development program which engages students in science, technology and other life skill experiences through "learning by doing" - as a partner in the USA Science and Engineering Festival. As part of their commitment to STEM programs for youth, 4-H will be exhibiting at the Festival and helping us get the word out about the Expo and the Kavli Science Video Contest. In advance of the USA Science & Engineering festival, 4-H will be hosting the third annual 4-H National Youth Science Day (NYSD). This 4-H event will engage youth from…

Tweetlinks, 10-25-09

Follow me on Twitter to get these, and more, in something closer to Real Time (all my tweets are also imported into FriendFeed where they are much more easy to search and comment on, as well as into my Facebook wall where they are seen by quite a different set of people): Collaboration across news organizations: National (climate) The Climate Countdown and Local (healthcare) Madison media launch All Together Now with a collaborative reporting project on health care. How to talk about human evolution to lay audience? Dawkins and Hewitt - John is onto something there, methinks.... Bachmann…

I am curious: Genomics gets personal in Second Life

Are you curious about Second Life? Next week you can satisfy your curiosity and learn about the personal genomics frontier at the same time. Bertalan Meskó announced that Erin Davis (science writer) and Joyce Tung (human geneticist) from 23andMe will be giving a presentation next week in Second Life on personalized genetics. As travel costs rise and traveling becomes harder, I think we'll see many more things happening in alternative places like Second Life. Virtual environments like this can make on-line communication entertaining in ways that conference calls and webinars can't. I may…

Why Blog?

My dear scibling and fellow big-nose European Bora, over at the one Sblog that comes before Aard in the alphabetical list, has "tagged me with a meme". That is, he has handed me a coat of chainmail. No, he's sent me a chain letter, with a blogging assignment. I usually don't bother about these things because a) I'm afraid to scare readers away, b) I don't find them very fun to write myself. But this time, the question is one that might actually be interesting to some people, and somebody posed it to me face-to-face recently. Why do I blog? As a hint, let me first quote from The Jet's latest…

Lessons for Science from NPR/PBS' Outreach Campaign

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has launched an ambitious new public outreach campaign that echoes many of the strategies I think science organizations and institutions can use to strengthen their public ties. The campaign recognizes that while public broadcasting has a mission to inform, the institution's perceived image and value often turns on social connections. Moreover, any national campaign needs an equally strong local component. As the online mag Current reports, the various print, broadcast and online components of the new campaign will revolve around a flexible concept, My…

scio10: Protocols: Gov’t 2.0

Anil Dash (first employee at SixApart (movabletype), long time blogger). Milestone â thereâs a blog on the White House website. Made statement that federal govât interest and use of new media â most interesting startup 2009. So then he set out to make it true. Govât picks experts, brings them in, listens to them for a bit in a closed door session, and then they go home. How can this be done more transparently using online tools. Expert Labs â part of AAAS.   ends up being really Govât bureaucracy has huge impact on science and technology innovation and use. Needs to be some translation.…

Harry Potter Book Shows Up In Philadelphia

So I'm on the computer, trying to figure out how to go to the Caribbean in the winter cheaply, cursing the airline blackout dates and only half listening to the evening news when suddenly I hear something about the new Harry Potter book...hot dang! There it is! In the flesh! or would that be in the pulp? Channel 6 ABC Action News had a story about a local family who received a package in the mail. The post office called them before they had even opened the package and asked them if they had received the Harry Potter book. "I don't know" said mom. She opened the package and sure…

The first course: a repeat

I'm teaching two classes this semester: one introductory course which is a repeat from last semester and one upper-level course with laboratory, which is a new prep. The intro course: I was reasonably happy with how this course went last semester, so by-and-large my goal is to put minimal preparation effort into the course. That said, I couldn't quite manage to leave the course alone. For details, venture below the fold. Last semester, I gave both on-line (blackboard) and in-class quizzes. It was a lot for both the students and me to keep track of. Plus, while the paper quizzes provided a…

A riboswitch regulates alternative splicing in eukaryotes!

A few days ago I wrote about Ron Breaker and Riboswitches, and today I was alerted to this really neat advanced online publication by the Breaker group on how a riboswitch in Neurospera regulates alternative splicing. Wow. So what is happening? When the fungi Neurospora crassa is exposed to thiamine, it takes up this vitamin B1 precursor and phosphorylates it to form thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP). This small metabolite then binds to an RNA element found within an intron in the NMT1 pre-mRNA. These RNA folds that bind to small molecules are called aptamers and when these aptamers regulate how…

Who da man?!?!

Via grrlscientist here is my EgoSurf result: 5715. You can check me: . Since this uses google I think that explains the high showing of grrlscientist and the low rank of Glenn Reynolds. I have noticed that some blogs are high driven by referrals from other blogs and others by by search engine traffic. My non-Seed weblog has always been driven by a large percentage of search engine traffic, and links come in from diverse sources (online class syllabii for example). More political blogs might be deriving their traffic from a tighter circle of sites and so don't come up as high as they…

Fornvännen's Summer Issue On-Line

Fornvännen 2016:2 is now on-line on Open Access. Ola George reports on a Migration Period chamber grave excavated at Björkå in Överlännäs parish, Ångermanland. Peter Persson surveys chamber graves in all of Västernorrland county. Ny Björn Gustafsson on radiocarbon-dated beeswax and metalworking on Viking Period Gotland. Gunnar Andersson et al. on a recent addition to the collection of runestone fragments from the modern village next to Birka, which allowed them to stick all the fragments together into one monument. Magnus Lindberg & Maria Lingström on metal detecting in contract…

Michael Pater, Connecticut artist, died today

He was also my husband's uncle. I only found two of his images online, the remainder are photographs of prints we have on our walls - intentionally poor quality for those. He was a member of the Lyme Art Association, so there may be more information on their site.  The Courant (Hartford, CT) had this bit about him announcing a showing: The LAA Elected Artist first studied art in Hanover, Germany, while in the Lysenko refugee camp from 1945 to 1949 with Ivan Kubarsky (Armashevsky), Vasyl Perebyinis, Volodymyr Balas, Anatol Jabonsky and others. In 1949, Pater immigrated to the United States.…

My sweet-ass new business cards have arrived

Today my sweet new business cards arrived from Moo.com - a whole 6 days ahead of schedule! I've been trying to get some made for a while, and Moo.com have a seductively simply online card creator, allowing you to upload pictures or import them from Flickr, Facebook, etc. You can even use several different images if you want. Then pick colours and card stock, add your text, and hey presto! your cards are on their way. You even receive a sweet little box, dividers, and a buzzword bingo card: Perhaps you think this is the point where I give you some product code and receive a sneaky…

Advanced Adapting In Place

As I begin the final push on _Making Home_ my book on Adapting in Place (out next spring), Aaron and I will be offering the first ever "Advanced AIP Class" running from Tuesday, September 20 to October 25th. The class will build on the basic Adapting-In-Place skills that we've been talking about all these years in my classes, the blogs, etc... - triaging your situation, thinking about scenarios, and building both personal and community resilience, but this class moves beyond the basics into the larger question of how to make a life that both provides you some insulation from tough times, but…

IPCC Report: Now with More Certainty!

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the policymakersâ summary of its 2007 report today, and it was at once a momentous occasion and nothing new. Nothing new, that is, to the people whoâve been following the science for the past few decades and had already figured out that humans are causing global warming and are going to suffer for our folly. IPCC reports have tremendous authority, because they represent the work of the worldâs leading scientists conducting the most comprehensive review of scientific research produced on climate change. Now, theyâve said that they are 90%…

North Carolina science journalism/blogging projects getting noticed

If you are interested in the topic of science journalism, how it's changing, what's new, and who's who in it, you are probably already reading Knight Science Journalism Tracker. If not, you should start now. They have recently been digging around and finding projects with which I am involved in one way or another. For example, a few days ago, they profiled science blogs in general and scienceblogs.com in particular, but mainly focused on ResearchBlogging.org which aggregates and gives a stamp of approval to blog posts covering peer-reviewed research. The aggregator is a local thing - it is a…

My Review of Nicholas Wade's Book, A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History.

I first heard about Wade's book when a colleague started talking about bits and pieces of it. He was reading it pursuant to a writing a review. I asked the publisher for a review copy, which they kindly supplied, and started tracking the pre-publication reactions. After reading the first couple of chapters, I realized that I needed to write a review of this book, but I wanted to do something a bit more than a blog post. So, I contacted American Scientist. I had reviewed two books for them earlier. American Scientist is actually my very favorite science magazine (among magazines that are…

The Need for Science Journalism in the Developing World (& Sundry Other Links)

My latest Seed column, entitled "Extremophile Journalism," is now online. It's based on my experience at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Melbourne, Australia last April, where I learned much about the plight of science reporters in developing countries and emerging economies. Here's an excerpt: ...in many cases science journalists from the developing world face a series of hurdles that I, comfortably ensconced in Washington, D.C., simply never encounter. For some of these writers, basic research resources like cheap and reliable telephone service, libraries, and even…

Science Online 2010: thoughts for librarians

Again in no particular order, some thoughts and ideas that came to mind during Science Online 2010: I did quite a bit of library advocacy during the conference, and not just during the session dedicated to it! I noticed that I had the best luck when I could define a library service in terms of outcomes that would be useful to the person I was talking to. Not "IRs are great! Open access now!" but "if your interns deposit their presentations into the IR, your program will build institutional memory, and the interns themselves will build identities as researchers." Seems obvious enough, but the…

This Just In: Scientists Discover True Nature Of Bullying!

Jun. 28, 2010 10:45 PM ET SB COMMUNITY DEEMS PSEUDONYMOUS SOCKPUPPETERS ACCEPTABLE TARGETS FOR MOCKERY, DERISION Douchey McDoucherson, ScienceBlogs Writers ANYWHERE (SB) Scientists have recently discovered that popular bloggers can taunt and gloat over the downfall of unpopular bloggers, and bask in the warm glow of widespread support - but only if proper precautions are taken while engaging in this dangerous enterprise. Most of the relevant research was published in a leading online linguistics journal. Noted meangirl, petulant whiner, and internet gadfly Zuskaids was quick to critcize the…

Occupational injuries and illnesses in low-wage workers cost the US $39 billion in 2010

Celeste wrote earlier this year about a study by health J. Paul Leigh of University of California Davis (published in the Milbank Quarterly) that calculated the economic of work-related injuries and illnesses in the US: $250 billion in 2007 alone. Celeste and I requested that he return to the data behind that estimate and calculate the medical and productivity costs of injuries to the low-wage US workforce. With funding from the Public Welfare Foundation, he produced the white paper Numbers and Costs of Occupational Injury and Illness in Low-Wage Occupations, estimating that injuries and…

There is real money in alternative medicine

I sometimes get grief from my colleagues about subscribing to the Wall Street Journal, but it is worth every penny. Some of the best stories on health and drug development appear in the WSJ. Beyond its outstanding health reporting, even basic news articles will appear in the WSJ and get picked up, literally, three or four days later by CNN as though they were news. Contrary to other opinions, the WSJ is not a shill for the neoconservative movement - only its editorial page wields a heavy conservative hand which, I find, is fun to read just the same. I pay the extra $39 a year and have my…

ScienceOnline2010 - interview with DeLene Beeland

Continuing with the tradition from last two years, I will occasionally post interviews with some of the participants of the ScienceOnline2010 conference that was held in the Research Triangle Park, NC back in January. See all the interviews in this series here. You can check out previous years' interviews as well: 2008 and 2009. Today, I asked T. DeLene Beeland to answer a few questions. Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and philosophically)? What is your (scientific)…

Podcastercon2006 - the Teaching Session

Brian Russell is organizing the 2007 Podcastercon. Let me show you how much fun the last year's Podacstercon was by reposting this January 16, 2006 post (also cross-posted on Science And Politics) about the exciting education session led by David Warlick of 2 Cents Worth blog: Sorry for three days of absence from this blog. I needed some time to recuperate after the Podacstercon which I attended last Saturday. It was a marvelous experience. For more information check out the Podcastercon blog, the wiki, a nice article in News and Observer, the blog reports via Technorati tags, Technorati…

Non-Science Friday: Annie get your metal hat! edition

Meathead of the Week: Bonds. Destroyed his moment in the sun years ago when he started doping. Enough said. Bonus Meatheads: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who have been assuring everyone that the subprime mess has been contained. Oh, except for like our banks, and, like, the banks of Europe, um and like every entity that relies on the availability of credit to function. Whoops! Now this is Customer Service. I know this is going to sound familiar to you. I think we've all been there. This is a online chat transcript from Verizon customer service (…

Encephalon.... the late prize winning February edition

In preparing for this issue of Encephalon I got access to the submission email account and realized that I had won 500,000.00 euro! I am in no way going to share this wealth with anyone else since it is my turn to do Encephalon. Here's the proof: Dear Email ID Owner, This is to notify you that you have won 500,000.00 euro in our online email Promo Draw in which email ID´s are picked randomly by computerized balloting, Your email address was amongst those chosen for this period. contact: Dr. Mike Mejia, Accu Online Promotion. !#$%!#$%@I'mnottellingyousinceIwon.com…

Preparing for Thanksgiving Obamacare discussions

Wonkblog's Sarah Kliff has helpfully compiled "A guide to surviving Obamacare debates at Thanksgiving," and it starts off with a good one: "Your mom wants to know whether Obamacare is a total disaster." Kliff's response focuses on the disastrous rollout of Healthcare.gov, the online marketplace that was supposed to allow for easy health-insurance enrollment for people who need to get coverage. With the website improving but by no means problem-free, the enrollment numbers so far are dismally low. Kliff points out that some states that built their own online marketplaces have successfully…