Politics
pharyngula | March 23, 2011If I were, I would say ian murphy can has congress.
I endorse Ian Murphy, because he is pissed off about the right things.
pharyngula | March 23, 2011I don't know. It's not because we're kind people who want to do good in the world, though, I know that for sure.
On this matter, I don't see any difference between Barack Obama staging a coalition to throw us into another costly war with another petty dictator, and George W. Bush staging a coalition to throw us into another costly war with a different petty dictator.
drorzel | March 22, 2011Kevin Drum re-posts a chart on wind power made by Stuart Staniford showing that the number of new wind power plants installed in 2010 was way lower than in 2009 or 2008:
This is meant as a starting point for discussion about the big economic issues that might've caused this. One of the many, many reasons I'll never make it as a political pundit, though, is that when I see a graph like this, I'm inexorably drawn to speculating about aspects of it that really have nothing to do with the intended point. In this particular case, I look at this graphic and ask myself "Why are there so many wind…
pharyngula | March 22, 2011Our awful ex-governor, Tim Pawlenty, is officially exploring a run for the presidency. Don't do it, America. He's what happens when you look behind the scenes at bad character actors from Prairie Home Companion and discover that they're actually knee-jerk Republicans with no intellectual curiosity at all and talents that are only a step above performing in a morality play in their local conservative church.
Tim Pawlenty Exploratory Committee for President of the United States Visual Announcement from Tim Pawlenty on Vimeo.
The man says Ronald Reagan personified America! So the United States…
catdynamics | March 21, 2011It will probably be some years before we get the full story of what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi reactor complex after the earthquake.
Information has not exactly been put out coherently or comprehensively, but we can make some inferences from the data that is out there.
It is likely that one or two reactor vessels were breached with release of fuel and radioactive ash into the containment vessel.
There are a lot of nuclear agencies in Japan:
the JAEA - Japan Atomic Energy Agency - whose online environmental radiation monitors are now online (Oarai is the interesting one, between…
pharyngula | March 21, 2011
Isn't this charming: Utah has officially declared the Browning model 1911 semi-automatic pistol their official state gun. How lovely! I remember when our kids were growing up in Utah, one of their school assignments was to compile all of the state symbols into an illustrated report, so I knew the Utah state bird was the California gull, and the state insect was the honey bee, and the state fossil was Allosaurus, but they weren't pasting pictures of firearms into their scrapbooks. That will all change now.
If I were helping a kid through the Utah school system, and I had to help them find…
jtoney | March 20, 2011
The cover of Time magazine heralds "Target Gaddafi." Haven't read it yet? Read on.
This Time magazine cover is from April 21, 1986, approaching 25 years ago.
What are the implications for "Operation Odyssey Dawn," launched March 19?
Comments?
Here's a sample of Time's 1986 article:
By Sunday morning they were back on station in the central Mediterranean north of Libya: the carriers America and Coral Sea, 14 escort warships and two other support vessels. Once again, as in the clashes around the Gulf of Sidra three weeks ago, the flattops were prepared to launch their 160 fighters and…
pharyngula | March 20, 2011More authoritarian bills are working their way through congress. They simply have no restraint anymore, and are rushing hell-bent to create a police state.
Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an…
stoat | March 19, 2011 Omar Khayaam, sorry I can't do the bold around "distant" in a title. I gave Hugo the popcorn on friday, but it didn't really apply until today. It looks like the Frogs win the first strike award whilst Gaddafi gets the lying scumbag award. The end result of the Gaddafi-vs-the-West military fight is in no doubt; quite where that leaves the ground war is less clear. Probably in an Afghanistan-type situation, where we (well, the US in that case) bombed the Taliban so the Northern Alliance could take over. Only lets hope this time we don't collude with the drug-dealers; as far as I can tell the…
pharyngula | March 19, 2011I concur with Ophelia Benson: "interfaith" is a code word for the religious clubhouse. It's used to exclude secularism and promote a unity of faith, any faith, where it doesn't matter what BS you believe, as long as you really, really believe. I think we ought to rename the ideology of all those people who cheerfully and indiscriminately embrace every faith without regard for content as "tinkerbellism".
That our government is embracing all faiths is just as much a violation of the separation of church and state as if they were to declare Episcopalianism as the state religion…its only…
pharyngula | March 18, 2011Minnesota is leading the way. Our Rethuglicans have figured out how to end poverty: by making it illegal to have money if you're poor? Wait, that makes no sense.
Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month.
Lest you think our most contemptible lawmakers have no heart at all, consider that this is the generous version of their earlier plan.
This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all.
I'm not sure what they're…
pharyngula | March 17, 2011Texas, you are a wonder. You don't have any protections against workplace discrimination on the basis of sex or gender — that might hurt bidness, you know — but you're considering a bill to protect creationists from discrimination.
HB 2454
Sec.A51.979.A A PROHIBITION OF DISCRIMINATION BASED ON RESEARCH RELATED TO INTELLIGENT DESIGN. An institution of higher education may not discriminate against or penalize in any manner, especially with regard to employment or academic support, a faculty member or student based on the faculty member's or student's conduct of research relating to the theory…
catdynamics | March 16, 2011The Japanese Atomic Energy Authority has online environmental radiation monitors.
The list of stations is here.
View Larger Map
The monitoring station at O-arai is the one between Fukushima and Tokyo.
Ambient radiation levels there are 30-40 nGy per hour.
Current levels are around 300 nGy/h - ten times normal.
Acute radiation effects are seen around a dosage of a Gy,
so long way to go - currently getting close to μGy/h.
Things get serious around milliGy/h.
7 day graph is here
Watch that curve.
pharyngula | March 16, 2011Today is my wedding anniversary. I've been married to the same woman for 31 years, without ever straying. Newt Gingrich has been married 3 times, divorced one wife while she was recovering from surgery, and has had extra-marital affairs.
Guess who is considered the defender of traditional sexual morality?
It's a strange situation where the political party with more ex-wives than candidates, that houses and defends a disturbingly amoral network of fundamentalist operators is regarded as the protector of the sanctity of the family. They're anything but.
I think I understand, though — it doesn't…
catdynamics | March 15, 2011there are a number of questions that need answer regarding the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor, aka Fuk-D.
As a starting point, here is an amateur online feed of radiation in Tokyo (Park18).
It is a geiger-counter, the normal count rate is 10-20 cpm, around noon on march 15th the count rate peaked at about 120 cpm, the counts then dropped before there was another broad rise on march 16th to about 40 cpm.
The first question is: why am I having to link to an amateur with a geiger counter?
The Japanese Atomic Energy Authority has four online environmental radiation monitors.…
catdynamics | March 15, 2011On may way to the office this morning, the young man striding off to class in front of me, was in animated discussion on his phone about the desirability of getting a "tactical sight" for his handgun, and the need to pick up some more bullets.
Beretta tactical sight - for speed of acquisition!
In the wake of recent incidents, including some verbal threats made not a million miles from my office, and in anticipation of some revised legal considerations, namely that students carrying guns openly will likely be permitted on a number of campuses, we have been offered appropriate training:
"The…
catdynamics | March 13, 2011there are two questions denizens of academia ought to always ask themselves:
could your children attend your own institution of higher education?
even if they did not get the insider's discount?
and,
could you, if you were in school now, with the circumstances of your childhood, attend your own institution of higher education?
even if you did not get an academic scholarship?
Well, could you?
I could not have.
pharyngula | March 13, 2011Minnesota's own pious Republican idiot (uh-oh, I repeated myself three times) has chastised Obama for his wickedness in a recent letter. His crimes are many. In a recent speech in Indonesia, he 1) referred to our national motto as E pluribus unum, not "In god we trust", 2) quoted a small part of the Declaration of Independence that did not include the word "Creator", and 3) mentioned that the US is unified under one flag without saying the magic phrase, "under god". Now I know that Bachmann is an amazing expert in American history, so I think Obama should give this letter all the attention it…
pharyngula | March 12, 2011Jane Cunningham, a Rethuglican (of course), has sponsored a bill in the Missouri congress that will disillusion you a little further today. Behold, SB 222!
This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel,…