Politics
gregladen | July 19, 2008Today is the day in history, in 1948, that Gus Hall was convicted of "conspiracy to teach and advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government by force and violence." Gus was a homebody (Minnesotan) and ran for President with the Communist Party for times.
I couldn't find a good picture of Gus up here at the Cabin so here's a picture of his running mate, Angela:
clock | July 19, 2008Robert Grumbine has a series of posts with thoughts about climate change and what a non-expert can do to get properly informed:
Climate is a messy business:
Climate certainly is a messy business. One of the things that makes it interesting to those of us who work on it is precisely that. Wherever you look, you find something that affects climate, regardless of whether you look at permafrost, sea ice, forests, farms, rivers, factories, sunspots, volcanoes, dust, glaciers, ...
So certainly we have a complicated science and certainly few people are going to understand enough of it to argue the…
pharyngula | July 18, 2008I'm a little bit jealous: Seed is well represented at Netroots Nation, but I couldn't swing it this year. It's just as well, as it would have been sandwiched in between a couple of other jaunts, and I'm still trying to get back on my feet after wearing myself out in Atlanta.
It would have been great, though — a group of us, including me and Michael Bérubé, had a proposed session on academic freedom/"academic bill of rights" that got turned down. If you're there, tell the organizers to bring us on next year!
drorzel | July 18, 2008Yesterday, I had an appointment at the local orthopedic associates to get my dislocated thumb looked at. The receptionist escorted me to a curtained-off corner of a big room, where I got to spend ten or fifteen minutes listening to the physician's assistant on call dealing with other patients. One of them, a women distressingly close to my own age, was all but begging for medical clearance to go back to work. The PA refused to provide it, saying that it was out of the question until next week, when she removed the stitches from the surgery the woman had just had a day or two earlier.
In…
pharyngula | July 18, 2008The Republican National Convention is being held in St Paul at the Xcel Energy Center. My fellow Minnesotans are familiar with this place — it's right across the street from the Science Museum of Minnesota. Would you believe the science museum is being closed to the public during the convention? There's a metaphor jumping up and down, screaming for attention in that.
You know, shutting down the museum is probably a more effective way of discouraging me from frightening the Republicans than posting more armed guards, as Thomas Foley wants to do.
illconsidered | July 18, 2008I'm not really a big fan of digging way into the past for embarassing or otherwise damning quotes to bring up in a present day campaign. With John McCain there really is not much need for it anyway, he is a hypocritical emarrassment (IMHO). But this really repulsive bit of history (h/t to CrooksAndLiars) does not seem like the kind of thing that you can dismiss or minimize due to unknown context or the passage of time.
According to a report (from 1986 no less! [PDF]) John McCain made the following repulsive attempt at a joke:
Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the…
pharyngula | July 18, 2008San Francisco is going to have a ballot measure to determine whether to name a sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush. I don't know about this. I understand the sentiment, that it would associate Bush's name with sewage, but sewage treatment plants are good things that take filth coming in and puts clean and pure out. Bush does the opposite.
pharyngula | July 17, 2008Because if I lived in Kansas, I could vote for Sean Tevis for State Representative, a pro-education. pro-science candidate with a sense of humor. Since I live in Minnesota, though, I'll have to settle for donating a few dollars to his campaign (you must click through to that link — you'll be missing something great if you don't.)
drorzel | July 16, 2008Just before we turn the corner, a woman goes jogging past with a Golden Retriever. As we continue on our way, I can hear the Doberman three houses up barking at them as they go past. The windows muffle the sound, but I can make out a bit of it. "Get offa my lawn! Gonna bite you! My lawn!"
When we reach the end of their driveway, Emmy immediately squats. The Doberman goes nuts. "My lawn! Kill you! Go away! My lawn! Kill you!" Emmy hackles all over, all the way down to her tail, and makes little distressed noises.
When we get clear of the Doberman's yard, and the barking subsides, she stops and…
gregladen | July 15, 2008
This is reportedly a Canadian citizen ... 16 year old Omar Khadr ... being questioned by Canadian officials regarding his involvement in the death of a US soldier in Afghanistan. Khadar is accused of throwing a greneade (in 2002) that killed the soldier. This interrogation is dated to 2003.
The footage was made public by Mr Khadr's lawyers following a Supreme Court ruling in May that the Canadian authorities had to hand over key evidence against him to allow a full defence of the charges he is facing.
One of those lawyers, Dennis Edney, told the BBC his client was seen in a distressed…
jstemwedel | July 15, 2008I have misgivings about wading into Crackergate -- indeed, even about dipping my toe into the edge of the pool (which is all I'm promising here) -- but here goes.
First, let me commend the thoughtful posts by Mark Chu-Carroll and John Wilkins on the issue. If you haven't read them yet, read them now. (If you've already read them, read them again.)
Next, let me set forth the disclaimers that I'd hope would be obvious:
Issuing death threats (or threats to do bodily harm to a person, or to his family) is wrong. It's inexcusable (and I suspect in many jurisdictions it's also illegal).…
gregladen | July 15, 2008... and raise our voices in thankful prayer to God Almighty..
Because, verily (I've been using that word a lot lately) the Everlovin' God has decided to not tell Jesse Ventura to run for Senate in Minnesota.
Praise the lord...
Link
hattip: David, whom I am trusting here. I have not listened to this yet.
jlynch | July 14, 2008Like many on the blogosphere, I've had the opportunity to view Randy Olson's latest production Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy. Billed as "an effort to understand the confusion around the global warming," the movie claims to be a "novel blend of three genres - mockumentary, documentary, and reality" and that alone illustrates the problem with the movie - it doesn't know what it's trying to be and after spending 85 minutes with it, I had no real clue what point Olson was trying to make and to whom he is making it. Indeed, it is only out of a sense of duty that I continued watching beyond the…
grrlscientist | July 14, 2008tags: poverty level, poverty threshold, federal definition of poverty, Michael Bloomberg, NYC, politics, society
Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity, nothing exceeds the criticisms made of the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.
~ Herman Melville
How do you define poverty? Do you think it is the lack of nutritious food, clean clothing, reasonable housing and adequate health care? Even though your definition of what constitutes poverty probably hasn't changed much during your lifetime, the basic financial resources necessary to keep you from being…
evolvingthoughts | July 14, 2008
Language Log has a very nice summary of the reasons why some holes are black, and some are white.
clock | July 13, 2008You know I love and often eat at Town Hall Grill in Southern Village. This is where we had our Friday Night Dinner during the last Science Blogging Conference (photographic evidence here, here, here and here) and more recently a little local meetup (see also Lenore's review of the evening, and note she was nearby recently again).
Anyway, Town Hall Grill now has a new website (with a new URL), and the chef, Chris Burgess recently completely redesigned the menu: my old favourites (lamb kebab, chopped salad, chicken-under-the-brick, filet mignon and NY strip) are still on the menu, but there…
clock | July 12, 2008Voters Care About Science!:
Scientists and Engineers for America just released the results of a poll of over 1,000 Americans on how likely they would be to support candidates based upon their positions on key science and technology issues. SEA anticipated a positive reaction to the questions, but was stunned by the overwhelmingly affirmative response. Eighty-six percent of those polled, for example, say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who is committed to preparing students with the skills they need for the 21st Century through public investments in science and technology…
drorzel | July 12, 2008A couple of links about things that have turned up in my email recently:
-- As a follow-on to yesterday's post about grad school, I got an email a little while ago about Graduate Junction, a social networking/ career building site aimed at graduate students. I'm coming up on ten years of being out of their demographic, but it looks kind of cool. If you're a grad student, you might check it out.
-- The Union of Concerned Scientists is running a cartoon contest for the best editorial cartoon about the politicization of science. They've selected a dozen finalists, and now want your vote as to…