Christmas in Japan (日本語字幕）

Ninety-Nine Percent of Texas Science Professors Don't Believe in Intelligent Design

Texas Freedom Network posted to its Web site a study conducted by Dr. Raymond Eve, a professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Texas at Arlington, titled Evolution, Creationism & Public Schools: Surveying What Texas Scientists Think about Educating Our Kids in the 21st Century.
It reveals the results of a survey sent to biology and "biological anthropology" faculty members from "all 35 public universities plus the 15 largest private institutions in Texas," in which they were asked to take the following taste test: evolution or intelligent design?

Yamaha's RMAX non-military UAV

RMAX mounted a liquid-cooled 2-stroke, 246cc, horizontally-opposed twin-cylinder, crankcase reed valve intake engine rated at 21 hp.
The absolute base-model airframe suitable for agriculture, with a single GPS and the ability to fly only within sight, and no more than five metres above the ground costs US$86,000. The Aerial Photography version can fly up to 100 metres above the ground and costs between US$150,000 and US$230,000. There's a flight research model specced for universities with manual only flight mode, which sells for US$120,000 and none of the base stations and other niceties.

Then there's the 'hamburger-with-the-lot': the fully autonomous R-Max package which includes the ground station, antennas, computers, monitors and two complete autonomous airframes and a four camera system. The price tag is US$1,000,000.00.
The completely autonomous version enables the 'pilot' to watch what's happening from all four cameras at once while the RMAX goes about the flight plan it has been programmed with from the controlling computer. If the operator sees something they want to look at closely, they can override the plan to get closer and then resume the original flight plan or program a new one.

Operating at 10% the hourly rate of a manned helicopter means a whole range of new applications can be found for this new airborne capability.

AIG Continues to Waste Money After Bailout

October 7, 2008

Less than a week after the federal government committed $85 billion to bail out AIG, executives of the giant AIG insurance company headed for a week-long retreat at a luxury resort and spa, the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California, Congressional investigators revealed today.

"Rooms at this resort can cost over $1,000 a night," Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) said this morning as his committee continued its investigation of Wall Street and its CEOs.

AIG documents obtained by Waxman's investigators show the company paid more than $440,000 for the retreat, including nearly $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 in spa charges.

A.I.G. Uses $61 Billion of Fed Loan

The American International Group said on Friday that it had already drawn down $61 billion of the $85 billion emergency bridge loan it received from the Federal Reserve two weeks ago...

Another AIG Resort "Junket": Top Execs Caught on Tape

After requesting another $40 billion dollars in loans, AIG sent top executives to a secret gathering at a luxury resort in Phoenix last week. Company officials confirmed the company spent an estimated $343,000 to sponsor the 2008 Asset Management Conference. A spokesperson said much of the cost would be recouped from product sponsors at the conference.

KMX -- AROUND THE LAKE

I really would like to get a trike. This one seems to have electric assist.

Palin on Ted Stevens: 'I have great respect for him'

Sarah Palin associated with known felon.

McCain Admits Sharing 'Common Philosophy' With Bush

So why is this gaff by John McCain not getting more airtime?

The Canidates

Educational Background:
Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A.
Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Used Dodge Sprinter Price Range

Year                                          Price
Current Sprinter            $41,337 - $46,397
2008 Dodge Sprinter     $34,605 - $38,694
2007 Dodge Sprinter     $26,323 - $29,471
2006 Dodge Sprinter     $18,203 - $21,960
2005 Dodge Sprinter     $14,376 - $17,385
2004 Dodge Sprinter     $13,031 - $15,375
2003 Dodge Sprinter     $11,537 - $13,965

Rolling Stones Magazine's Story on John McCain

The make believe Maverick.

• VIDEO: Five Myths About John McCain

• The Double-Talk Express

• Mad Dog Palin: The Full Story

• Karl Rove's A-Team

Jack Cafferty Tells Us How He Really Feels About Sarah Palin

Palin's answer makes no sense.

Gallup Poll Bush Approval Ratings

CNN Documents Sarah Palin's Truthiness Problem

Palin Lies Yet Again!

Add one more lie to the list.

Quotes

I have to steal this line.

"Whatever the source of information you're referring to, you should only find it trustworthy to the degree its claims can be independently confirmed or corroborated."

Obama for President

Check out the rest of this post for some good reasons to vote for Obama.

Obama: Actually, I Think We Can

by hilzoy
I, too, endorse Obama for President, to no one's surprise. Since Katherine has already written a lot of what I would have wanted to say about his rhetoric, and since I've already talked about one of my most important reasons for supporting him, namely the fact that he got Iraq right from the outset, I'll say something about the peculiar idea that Barack Obama is all style and no substance. ...

---

Whoopi to McCain: Do I have to worry about slavery again?

I have to say Whoopi is one of my favorite people.

Current Impeach Bush Poll

	Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment? * 716822 responses
	Yes, between the secret spying, the deceptions leading to war and more, there is plenty to justify putting him on trial. 89%
	No, like any president, he has made a few missteps, but nothing approaching "high crimes and misdemeanors." 4.2%
	No, the man has done absolutely nothing wrong. Impeachment would just be a political lynching. 4.6%
	I don't know. 2.1%

Alaska rallies against Sarah Palin

The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin’s rally that got all the national media coverage; yet I have found no coverage of this event in the national media.

John McCain's ads are LIES. Here's the video proof.

I wish more time had been spent exploring the context of each lie. Not quite enough evidence is presented within the video itself.

Bush Administration vs Clinton Administration

Clinton:
During the administration of William Jefferson Clinton, the U.S. enjoyed more peace and economic well being than at any time in its history. He was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term. He could point to the lowest unemployment rate in modern times, the lowest inflation in 30 years, the highest home ownership in the country's history, dropping crime rates in many places, and reduced welfare rolls. He proposed the first balanced budget in decades and achieved a budget surplus. As part of a plan to celebrate the millennium in 2000, Clinton called for a great national initiative to end racial discrimination. ^[2]

Bush:
* Outed an undercover CIA operative
* Lied to Congress and the American people to get into a war
* Disregarded intelligence estimates, and instead manufactured its own intelligence to support political goals
* Exerted political pressure to hide facts about climate change
* Fired U.S. Attorneys who wouldn't prosecute bogus vote fraud charges against Democrats, or who would prosecute vote fraud charges against Republicans[3]
* Tried to create a fourth branch of government, answerable to no one
* Defied Congressional subpoenas
* Destroyed documents that cannot, by law, be destroyed
* Violated its own rules on document declassification
* Authorized torture--or, as they like to call being bitten by dogs, being nearly drowned, and being sodomized and forced into homosexual acts, "aggressive interrogation"--in violation of both the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Conventions.

Secret Killings in Iraq - Bob Woodward

This seems incredible.

Republican Small Town Values

P Z Myers' view of what Republicans really mean by "Small Town Values".

The ones the Republicans are worshipping seem to be the narrow insularity verging on xenophobia, the judgmental meddling in other people's affairs, the backward-looking reverence for the good old days (which actually weren't that good), the worship of ignorance, the easy way authority can personally intrude on people's lives without oversight, except by a coterie of good old boys. They seem to overlook the schools in neglect, the churches sprouting everywhere like poisonous mushrooms, the alcoholism, the spousal abuse, the kids who just want to get through high school and flee to a city where something is happening, the elderly piling up and outnumbering the young and being shuffled off to cheap complexes, the despair of people caught in dead-end menial jobs with few prospects for going beyond. That's also small town America, and when I hear a Republican singing the praises of small towns, I have visions of a walmartized wasteland where everyone goes to church. It's not good.

Vitamin Pill Magnate Matthias Rath Loses Case

Rath lost the libel suit he filed against UK newspaper The Guardian and Ben Goldacre.

"It’s just been publicly announced that the vitamin pill magnate Matthias Rath has pulled out of his gruelling legal case against me and the Guardian. He bought full page adverts denouncing Aids drugs while promoting his vitamin pills in South Africa, a country where hundreds of thousands die every year from Aids under an HIV denialist president and the population is ripe for miracle cures. I said his actions were highly worrying, in no uncertain terms. I believe I was right to do so.

This libel case has drawn on for over a year, with the writ hanging both in my toilet, and over my head. Although fighting it has been fascinating, and in many respects a great pleasure, it has also taken a phenomenal amount of my time, entirely unpaid, to deal with it. For the duration of the case I have also been silenced on the serious issues that Rath’s activities raise, the chapter on his work was pulled from my book, and I have been unable to comment on his further movements around the world.

This will now change, and I hope that other newspapers will have the sense to step outside of commercial allegiances and write about his activities, despite this single incident being one newspaper’s tussle. I genuinely believe that the madness of the South African government’s approach to Aids is one of the most important stories of our time."

Republicans and military men on John McCain

Well it seems they did lie.

New Ecuador constitution recognizes evolution

On September 28, the people of Ecuador will vote on a new constitution and that constitution is expected to gain easy approval. The new constitution includes a five article section granting rights to nature as a whole. The section refers to nature as Pachamama, a local pagan goddess, the equivalent to Mother Earth or Mother Nature in Anglo-American idiom. Nature has the right to "integral restoration" and people of any nationality can petition the courts in the name of nature. The government Ecuador is obligated to protect nature and prevent extinction or harmful alteration of ecosystems and natural cycles.

According to Reuters, 56 percent of Ecuadorans approve of the proposed document.

Chapter: Rights for Nature

Art. 1. Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution. Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public organisms. The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution.

Art. 2. Nature has the right to an integral restoration. This integral restoration is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify the people and the collectives that depend on the natural systems.

In the cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including the ones caused by the exploitation on non renewable natural resources, the State will establish the most efficient mechanisms for the restoration, and will adopt the adequate measures to eliminate or mitigate the harmful environmental consequences.

Art. 3. The State will motivate natural and juridical persons as well as collectives to protect nature; it will promote respect towards all the elements that form an ecosystem.

Art. 4. The State will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles.

The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that can alter in a definitive way the national genetic patrimony is prohibited.

Art. 5. The persons, people, communities and nationalities will have the right to benefit from the environment and form natural wealth that will allow wellbeing.

The environmental services are cannot be appropriated; its production, provision, use and exploitation, will be regulated by the State.

McCain Former Rebel

Seems McCain is willing to do anything to be President.

Jon Stewart on Sarah Palin

Jon makes an excellent analysis of republican hypocrisy.

Rove said Wasilla was the second largest city in Alaska, which is a lie.

1 Anchorage 278,700
2 Fairbanks 31,142
3 Juneau 30,737
4 Wasilla 9,236

Questionable Content

"Fiery, electromagnetic destroyosaurs"

You know how sometimes you can't get a song out of your mind? Well it can happen with phrases too, fortunately it just doesn't last as long.

The Sarah Palin Church Video Part One

Looks like lying is not Sarah Palins main problem, insanity is.

Sarah Palin misled Republican supporters

The Governor of Alaska gave a misleading version of events over a controversial bridge project in her home state when she made her maiden speech as the presumptive nominee.

Mrs Palin told a cheering audience in Ohio that she had turned down an offer from the US Congress to build the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere", which would have connected Gravina Island with Ketchikan International, an airport in Alaska's southeast serving just 200,000 passengers a year. Mr McCain routinely cites the £100 million project as a symbol of wasteful central government spending.

As she introduced herself to Republicans and the American public on Friday, the virtually unknown Mrs Palin said: "I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress ... 'thanks, but no thanks' on that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves."

However it emerged that in a 2006 interview with the Anchorage Daily News during her gubernatorial campaign, Mrs Palin had a different view of the bridge.

Asked "would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?" she replied: "Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now - while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."

When Congressional funding was withdrawn because of an uproar in Washington about the expense of the project, she cancelled it, but in a regretful tone.

"Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it's clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island.

Palin lied about visiting Ireland as part of her foreign policy experience

She didn't visit Ireland, which is what the McCain-Palin campaign claimed to Politico's Ben Smith on Saturday. She had a short refueling stopover, which means at best her extensive Irish diplomacy amounted to buying a sweater and a beer mug in the Shannon airport.

Why does Sarah Palin's duty-free-diplomacy matter? Because John McCain, who is 72 and has had 4 bouts of cancer, just picked Sarah Palin to replace him as commander in chief should he die or be incapacitated in office.
Sarah Palin, in an effort to bolster her non-existent national security expertise, claimed she had visited 3 countries: Germany; Kuwait; and Ireland. Now we find out that one of those three, 33% of her experience, was pretty much a lie. Did the McCain campaign know that Palin basically lied to the media and the American people? Or did this Irish blogger do the vetting that the McCain campaign couldn't be bothered to do?

McCain’s Navy Air Mishaps

...The second occurred two years later. McCain had completed flight training and was deployed to the Mediterranean. “He was flying low one day when he decided to have some fun,” Leahy wrote. He dropped so low that he knocked down power lines over southern Spain, cutting off electricity in the area. McCain later referred to his own behavior as “daredevil clowning” and said he had created “a small international incident.”

The third came in 1965. McCain, stationed at Norfolk, flew solo in a Navy trainer plane to the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia. On the way back his engine quit. McCain ejected, landed safely and the plane crashed into a wooded area.

Leahy wrote that McCain had a “desultory performance” in the air. On the face of it, the incident in Spain stands out as an example of rash, poor judgment. The other two also raise questions. How much was a problem with the equipment, how much was pilot error? What about McCain’s responses: What do they tell us about his temperament?

Sara Palin Lies in Her First Speech as McCain's Running Mate

Sarah Palin that in her first big appearance before a national audience - her introduction as McCain’s running mate - she decided to flat out lie about her accomplishments?






Republicans have been heavily touting Sarah Palin's reformist credentials, with her supposed opposition to Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere" as Exhibit A. But how hard did she really fight the project? Not very, it seems. Here's what she told the Anchorage Daily News on October 22, 2006, during the race for the governor's seat (via Nexis):

5. Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?

Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now--while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.

So she was very much for the bridge and insisted that Alaska had to act quickly...

P.S. Here's a piece that Palin's special counsel, John Katz, wrote in March of this year for the Juneau Empire, assuring the Alaskan public that Palin was still very much in favor of earmarks, but sadly needed to scale back her requests somewhat (to "only" 31 earmarks this year—down from 54 last year) in response to "unwanted attention" from Congress and the press. 

--Bradford Plumer

On ABC’s This Week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) similarly argued that Palin is a reformer because she supposedly said, “I’m not going to build a Bridge to Nowhere.” This Week host George Stephanopoulos pointed out that Graham’s claim is false:

GRAHAM: To go in her state and say ‘I’m not going to build a bridge to nowhere’ — a $400 - $400 million appropriation that was passed by brute force in the Congress by two senior members of the congressional delegation, very powerful figures in Washington. And for her to say, ‘We’re not going to do this because its not necessary and its wasteful,’ to take on your own Republican party –

STEPHANOPOULOS: But Senator, she turned against that, only she campaigned for it in her 2006 race, and turned against it in 2007 only after it became a national joke.

The Bells of St. Mary: No 'under God' in Pledge of Allegiance

It appears that Gov. Palin does not know her history.

Headache

I have had a headache since I woke up this morning.

---

Japanese Maple

Research Japanese Maples.

---

Amish Autism Rate

The autism rate for U.S. children is 1 in 166, according to the federal
government. The autism rate for the Amish around Middlefield, Ohio, is 1 in 15,000, according to Dr. Heng Wang.

He means that literally: Of 15,000 Amish who live near Middlefield, Wang is aware of
just one who has autism. If that figure is anywhere near correct, the autism rate in that community is astonishingly low.

---

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Is a book by Jared M. Diamond, and just got on my must read list.

From Wikipedia.

"This book employs the comparative method to understand societal collapses to which environmental problems contribute"

Diamond lists eight factors which have historically contributed to the collapse of past societies:

1. Deforestation and habitat destruction
2. Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses)
3. Water management problems
4. Overhunting
5. Overfishing
6. Effects of introduced species on native species
7. Population growth
8. Increased per-capita impact of people

Further, he says four new factors may contribute to the weakening and collapse of present and future societies:

1. Human-caused climate change
2. Buildup of toxins in the environment
3. Energy shortages
4. Full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity

The root problem in all but one of Diamond's factors leading to collapse is overpopulation relative to the practicable (as opposed to the ideal theoretical) carrying capacity of the environment.

Circular Halbach using 12 rare earth magnets - from gyroscope.com

Interesting Halbach array, I did not think about such a small circular array.

Large Brass Lecture Gyroscope - gyroscope.com

Wish I could afford this, nice toy.

MYTHBUSTERS - FASCINATION WITH THE DODO BIRD Pt 10, with Adam Savage.

Is Faith Good for Us?

By Phil Zuckerman is an associate professor of sociology at College in California

Whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or Sikh, there is one common belief that all religious fundamentalists share: worship of God and obedience to his laws are essential for a peaceful, healthy society. From Orthodox rabbis in the occupied West Bank to Wahhabi sheiks in Saudi Arabia , from the pope in Vatican City to Mormons in Salt Lake City , the lament is the same: God and his will must be at the center of everyone's lives in order to ensure a moral, prosperous, safe, collective existence.

Furthermore, fundamentalists agree that, when large numbers of people in a society reject God or fail to make him the center of their lives, societal disintegration is sure to follow. Every societal ill-whether crime, poverty, poor public education, or AIDS-is thus blamed on a lack of piety. A most disconcerting example of this worldview was expressed in the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001 , when Jerry Falwell blamed the terrorists attacks on America 's "throwing God out of the public square," further adding that "when a nation deserts God and expels God from the culture . . . the result is not good."

If this often-touted religious theory were correct-that a turning away from God is at the root of all societal ills-then we would expect to find the least religious nations on earth to be bastions of crime, poverty, and disease and the most religious nations to be models of societal health. A comparison of highly irreligious countries with highly religious countries, however, reveals a very different state of affairs. In reality, the most secular countries-those with the highest proportion of atheists and agnostics-are among the most stable, peaceful, free, wealthy, and healthy societies. And the most religious nations-wherein worship of God is in abundance-are among the most unstable, violent, oppressive, poor, and destitute.

---

Windows Media Player

It won't play my playlists.

---

Religion

After denying Javon Thompson food and water for two days because he wouldn't say "Amen" after meals, the one-year-old's caretakers waited for a divine sign that their message had been heard: a resurrection.

For more than a week, police say in charging documents describing the scene, the child's lifeless body lay in the back room of an apartment. Queen Antoinette, the 40-year-old leader of a group that called itself 1 Mind Ministries, brought in her followers and told them to pray. God, she said, would raise Javon from the dead.

Instead, Javon's body began to decompose.

Treadmill

1.96 miles

---

Science and human rights

This is one of the best articles I have every read, it is not merely good, it is magnificent. Excerpts below, however please read the whole thing.

...As Alan Cromer put it in his book Uncommon Sense: the Heretical Nature of Science: "All nonscientific systems of thought accept intuition, or personal insight, as a valid source of ultimate knowledge. Indeed, the egocentric belief that we can have direct, intuitive knowledge of the external world is inherent in the human condition. Science, on the other hand, is the rejection of this belief, and its replacement with the idea that knowledge of the external world can only come from objective investigation - that is, by methods accessible to all."

...

What truly set Greece apart from other cultures was the respect granted the debater. Argumentative and logical skills were put on the same footing as courage and bravery in battle, and this factor stood out among ancient societies. "A debate is a competition of minds, in which contestants must counter one another with arguments designed to persuade their peers. The key words are competition, argument, persuasion, peers - all aspects of what we mean by objectivity, and, ultimately, science."(Cromer)

In science, as in debate, dissent must be met by beginning on common ground and carefully leading the critic step by step to a different conclusion - and being willing to do the same thing oneself. We're not searching for a final higher Authority above humanity, but a provisional common Consensus among equals. As Daniel Dennet might say, we're building cranes, not seeking skyhooks.

...

Under the theory of authority, rights are seen as privileges or benefits granted from a greater power to a lesser, and they're secured by an ultimate promise of force. It begins with the given that it's the right of the ruler to rule, and the duty of the inferior to obey. ...

The second way to ground an understanding of human rights is to build it up from the bottom, from a rational analysis which engenders a broad negotiated consent. ... Philosophers such as John Locke changed the way we thought, by reasoning from authority to agreement as the basis for law and obligation.

...

Science and democracy are interdependent, in that they both rely on many of the same assumptions about values and people - and thus entail the same kind of ethics. ...

First and foremost is the "habit of truth." From this comes a commitment to avoid self-deception as much as possible, and a sensitivity to how very easy it is to fool ourselves. We need checks and balances; we cannot test what is true by consulting no one but ourselves, and nothing but our own personal experiences and interpretations. Thus, a society of assumed equals is formed, bound to each other by a mutual obligation - or social contract -- to tell the truth. Peer review is not an afterthought of science, but indispensable.

As John Dewey once pointed out, science and democracy spring from the same soil. They both require open inquiry, diversity, respect for logic and evidence, and an awareness of the tentative nature of all knowledge. Both allow the empowerment and participation of ordinary people within a disciplined process; both test results by consequences, and allow for self-correction. Both rely on arguments capable of convincing their public. And both science and democracy assume a common ground of equality between their members.

Neither system can hold an authority or dogma as "sacred." Therefore, they value originality - which is a departure from most of human history, where originality was not seen as growth or improvement, but a sign of decay, or disobedience from an original perfection. Progress is a relatively new ideal. So is tolerance. Above all, both science and democracy are social systems that respect - and require -- dissent.

...

Contrary to some of the modern apologists, then, it doesn't seem to me that a real foundation for human rights can be firmly grounded in any belief system ultimately based on mysticism. Benevolence and fairness - certainly - love and kindness - sure - but a system that relies on hierarchal and elitist claims of connection to a sacred authority will end up being closed and divisive as soon as it meets with dissent. It can't place and meet its critics on an even ground, because it's modeled on higher and lower, Enlightened and Unenlightened, parent and child, king and subject, God and Man. And where there is the authority of certainty, there is no need for - or possibility of -- debate.

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Repulician War on Science

It was that the Bush Administration, in pushing its side of the debate, falsified the scientific evidence regarding the feasibility of stem cell research under the rather bizarre compromise policy it pursued (for more of the details, see Stem Cell Century by Russell Korobkin. This was, and remains, Standard Operating Procedure for Republicans on all topics - science is just another arena for political debate, in which reality is what you make it.

Science has never been more crucial to deciding the political issues facing the country. Dir: Books Yet science and scientists have less influence with the federal government than at any time since the Eisenhower administration. In the White House and Congress today, findings are reported in a politicized manner; spun or distorted to fit the speaker’s agenda; or, when they’re too inconvenient, ignored entirely. On a broad array of issues stem cell research, climate change, abstinence education, mercury pollution, and many others the Bush administration’s positions fly in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus.
In The Republican War on Science, Chris Mooney tied together the disparate strands of the attack on science into a compelling and frightening account of our government’s increasing unwillingness to distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience.

America is already known across the world for having an irrational disdain for science. Not to mention the fact that our country produces so few scientists of its own, we’ve depended on foreign-born scientists to help as along our treasured road of progress for decades. Isn’t it ironic that, despite all of the ‘progress must continue’, ‘don’t take away our technology’ anti-global warming talk, our leaders look down their noses at those who produce this technology?

The past seven and a half years under Bush have made the situation (as with many other situations – really, can we name one thing he actually improved?) much worse. The ‘war on terror’ has produced a convenient cover for the Bush administration to attack foreign-born scientists.

The Huffington Post quotes William A. Wulf, Ph.D., president of the National Academy of Engineering:

Between 1980 and 2000, the percentage of Ph.D. scientists and engineers employed in the United States who were born abroad has increased from 24% to 37%. The current percentage of Ph.D. physicists is about 45%; for engineers, the figure is over 50%. One fourth of the engineering faculty members at U.S. universities were born abroad. Between 1990 and 2004, over one third of Nobel Prizes in the United States were awarded to foreign-born scientists. One third of all U.S. Ph.D’s in science and engineering are now awarded to foreign born graduate students. We have been skimming the best and brightest minds from across the globe, and prospering because of it; we need these new Americans even more now as other countries become more technologically capable.

Dr. Moniem El-Ganayni is one of the scientists you’d think America would want to hold on to. The nuclear physicist has been an American citizen for 20 years and worked at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory – that is, until his security clearance was revoked. The reason? He’s an Egyptian-born Muslim. Dr. El-Ganayni’s efforts to get his clearance back have been fruitless, and he thinks he’ll have to move back to Egypt with his American-born wife.

The decision to revoke Dr. El-Ganayni’s clearance without holding a hearing was made by acting Deputy Secretary of Energy Jeffrey F. Kupfer, a Bush administration insider …. [who] certified that the appeals process set forth in DOE regulations “cannot be made available … without damaging the interests of national security by revealing classified information. …

Furthermore, he stated, his decision is “conclusive,” meaning the matter is officially closed.

Related Posts:

The Dumbing Down of America Under Bush
Fallujah Doctors Claim Increased Deformities in Babies After ‘Special Weaponry’ Used by US
U.S. Stops Solar Energy Projects Over ‘Environment Fears’
White House Buries Report on Possible Climate Change Death Toll
White House Suppressed EPA Report on Car Emissions


The Republican war on science is systematic and multi-faceted and very difficult to keep up with.  One episode which recently came to my attention involves my favorite technical journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), which is published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and best of all, is open access.  Now, more than ever, we need research on the risks from toxic substances in the environment, global climate change and other environmental health problems.  EHP is a high-quality provider of peer-reviewed research papers and articles for the general public on environmental health topics. Yet, the Bush Administration is trying to neuter this important source for environmental health information through privatization, outsourcing and budget cuts (the funding level is being cut to the same amount that the NIEHS director spent remodeling his office).  They don't like the news, so they're killing the messenger.

According to a post in the public health blog Effect Measure, the NIEHS originally attempted to privatize EHP and, when that move encountered strong resistance from the scientific community, has tried to outsource it's functions, and cut the journal's budget.

More of the story comes from the Society for Environmental Journalists.  In November 2006, the SEJ wrote NIEHS, expressing its disapproval of the agency's plans for the journal.  According to SEJ's newsletter:

Effect Measure picks up the story again....

According to a SEJ tip sheet published April 4, 2007, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who chairs the House Oversight Subcommittee on Domestic Policy, and full Oversight Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), have launched an investigation of the controversy over EHP.  On March 30, the committee wrote to David Schwartz, requesting by April 20, 2007 a wide range of documents related to the outsourcing of EHP and also to Schwartz's conduct as director of NIEHS. On April 9, 2007, Representatives Kucinich and Waxman wrote a letter to Dr. Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health requesting that the contracting for EHP be postponed until these irregularities have been resolved:

At the same time, budget cuts at EHP appear to be moving ahead.  According to the SEJ tip sheet Schwartz said he wanted to privatize EHP because its budget could be better spent on other things — especially research. The plan is to cut EHP's annual budget from over $3 million in 2005 down to about $500,000. That is about half of what Director Schwartz spent remodeling his office after he arrived at NIEHS — an office that had just been remodeled.

Some of the changes for EHP expected in coming months include:

• Beginning with the May issue, EHP will reduce the number of features it runs monthly from three to two.
• Schwartz will be removing his "Director's Perspective" column from the magazine and moving it to NIEHS' website. In his April column, he says the reason for doing this is to enhance the editorial independence of the magazine.
• Time available for editing articles, especially research articles, has diminished with contract support. Further reductions may show in quality of content.
• EHP is moving away from its longstanding practice of re-drawing figures submitted by research authors to make them easier to read and understand.
• EHP has ceased publishing its Student Edition in print (it has gone to the Web), and will soon stop publishing lesson plans for its student edition.
• The Chinese edition of EHP is no longer being subsidized by NIEHS. The Shanghai Center for Disease Control has paid the full cost for the last two issues, although it is not clear how long this will continue.
• The "Extramural Update" and "NIEHS News" articles will no longer be published in the print edition. They will move to the Web.
• The magazine will be cancelling free subscriptions to readers in developing countries.

In addition, staffing is being reduced, and the periodical suffers from the lack of a permanent managing editor.  The position of science editor also has been vacant for a year.


Last week, in his State of the Union address, the President pointed to scientific research as the way to "lead the world in opportunity and innovation for decades to come." Yet growing numbers of researchers, both in and out of government, say their findings--on pollution, climate change, reproductive health, stem-cell research and other areas in which science often finds itself at odds with religious, ideological or corporate interests--are being discounted, distorted or quashed by Bush Administration appointees.

Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him - New York Times

Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona’s testimony has once again highlighted the extent to which the Bush administration suppresses and manipulates science to fit their narrow ideological view. Whether it’s stem cell research, global warming, the Plan B contraceptive, or abstinence-only education, they consistently put appeasing their extremist, fringe base over the interests of the country at large. CNN’s Christine Romans details the many battles in Bush’s War on Science.

 Download | Play  Download | Play

---

Treadmill

2.56 miles

---

The Genius of Charles Darwin

Excellent Video.

---

Treadmill

2.23 miles

---

Scriptgirl

---

---

The Alaska political corruption investigation

Posted by David Hulen and Rich Mauer

Posted: July 30, 2008 - 1:12 pm

An overview of the key figures, events and players

A broad federal investigation of public
corruption has been under way in Alaska for more than four years,
although it didn’t become widely known until Aug. 31, 2006. That’s when
teams of federal agents executed search warrants at the offices of six state legislators, as well as others, in Anchorage, Juneau and elsewhere around the state.

The government has since brought indictments
against five state legislators. Three have been convicted by juries and
two are awaiting trial. Four others - two former top officials with
Veco Corp., the former chief of staff of Gov. Frank Murkowski and a
private-prison lobbyist - have entered guilty pleas and are cooperating
with the government.

The investigation continues, with grand juries hearing secret testimony in Anchorage and Washington, D.C. In July 2007, federal agents searched the Girdwood home of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, drawing national attention. Alaska's sole congressman, Don Young, is also under federal investigation.

Authorities have said very little about the
overall shape of the inquiry, where it’s headed or what’s being
investigated. Here’s some of what’s known:

The Jetpack: From Comics to a Liftoff in the Yard

Andy Manis for The New York Times

John Schwartz of The New York Times tested a jetpack with its inventor,
Glenn Martin, left, and Ray Thomsen guiding him. The device was
unveiled Tuesday at an air show in Wisconsin.

Treadmill

1.74 miles

---

Treadmill

1.58 miles

---

Review of The Fantasy Trip: In The Labyrinth

Product: The Fantasy Trip: In The Labyrinth

Author: Steve Jackson

Category: RPG

Company/Publisher: Metagaming

Line: The Fantasy Trip

Cost: $7.00

Page count: about 78

Year published: late '70s

ISBN:

SKU:

Comp copy?: no

Capsule Review by John Laviolette on 20/05/02

Genre tags: Fantasy

The Fantasy Trip (TFT) was Steve Jackson's first RPG design (based on the microgames Melee, and Wizard) the core rules consisted of three books, In The Labyrinth, Advanced Wizard, and Advanced Melee.

TFT is a fairly rules light game, with a very simple and fairly well balanced ruleset, using a d6 based roll under attribute mechanic.

There are only three attributes, ST, Dex, and IQ.

ST determines how large a weapon one can wield (damage), and how much damage one can take (hit points), as well as carry capacity and fatigue, spells are powered by the casters hit points.

DX determines how often one hits (3d6 below dex to hit), agility based saves, and many skill rolls, as well as order of attack

IQ limits talent and spell availability, and governs perceptions checks and will or intellect saves.

Generally starting characters have 32 total attribute points, distributed (within certain limits) as the player sees fit, characters are rounded out by choosing talents (for heros) and spells (for wizards). Character designis simple and allows for a fairly high degree of customization.

The sparse, elegant simplicity of the game, which makes it easy to learn and play, and encourages variety and balance among starting PCs, is also it’s major weakness, as long time characters tend to have high attributes in all three stats, reducing the variety among the characters as they progress.

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Fundamental Issue In DNS

CERT is issuing an advisory for a massive multivendor patch release
to resolve a major issue in DNS that could allow attackers to easily compromise any name server (it also affects clients). Dan Kaminsky discovered the flaw early this year and has been working with a large group of vendors on a coordinated patch release.

The issue is extremely serious, and all name servers should be patched as soon as possible. Updates are also being released for a variety of other platforms since this is a problem with the DNS protocol itself, not a specific implementation. The good news is this is a really strange situation where the fix does not immediately reveal the vulnerability and reverse engineering isn’t directly possible.

---

Chris Comer's Fight vs Creationism in Texas

Only in Texas could the state science director be fired for insisting on teaching only good science.

---

Standard Biological Parts

I find this site utterly amazing.

An Introduction to BioBrick™ Standard Biological Parts

BioBricks is a standard for interchangable parts, developed with a view to building biological systems in living cells. Here you'll find a brief introduction to BioBricks as well as the plasmids that contain them: A Team Experience Tutorial An Introduction to BioBricks BioBrick Part Names Part Tables An Introduction to Plasmids How to Edit and Interpret Part Features Introduction to the Abstraction Hierarchy

BioBrick™ Assembly

BioBricks have been designed to be assembled using normal cloning techniques. Find out more about the diffrent types of Assembly: Standard Assembly Parallel Assembly Automated Assembly RBS-CDS Issues BioBrick Prefix and Suffix

BioBrick™ Tools & The Registry

An overview of the Registry's computational tools and how one may go about using them as they look to design and develop parts, device and systems. Toolbox Overview Sandbox Overview Tutorial: How to add a basic BioBrick Making BioBrick DNA

At the Bench

Overview & links on how to physically assembly BioBricks How to perform a construction - A step by step tutorial detailing one method of making Biobrick assemblies Open Wetware Protocols are available for a number of biological procedures

DNA Part Repositories

Information about the 2008 Parts Kit How to send your parts to the Registry Automatic Sequencing Algorithm How to read sequence analyses How to read gel images More...

---

Blood Sugar

105

---

Treadmill

3.12 miles, 554 cal.

---

Evolution

1. The National Center for Science Education, for instance, has an excellent resources page 
2. The NCSE has a list of statements from scientific societies, all in support of evolution.
3. National Association of Biology Teachers
4. National Academies
5. Society for the Study of Evolution.
6. UC Berkeley online tutorial, Understanding Evolution
7. PBS has an evolution site that introduces you to the basics.
8. Tree of Life project is a overview of systematics and the diversity of life on earth.
9. The Talk.Origins Archive  a place where you can ask questions and get replies to major criticisms of evolutionary theory.
10. Douglas Theobald's evidence for evolution page is a thorough overview of the many different lines of evidence that support the theory of evolution.
11. Index to Creationist Claims contains rebuttals to the most common creationist canards.
12. Also check out the blogs Aetiology, Afarensis, All-Too-Common Dissent, Ask The Scientician, The Daily Transcript, De Rerum Natura, Evolgen, Evolution 101, EvolutionBlog, Evolving Thoughts, Good Math, Bad Math, The Intersection, Living the Scientific Life, The Loom, Mike the Mad Biologist, The Questionable Authority, Recursivity, The Scientific Activist, Stranger Fruit, Thoughts from Kansas, and Thoughts in a Haystack.

---

Blood Sugar

106

---

Thomas Jefferson LETTERS "JESUS, SOCRATES, AND OTHERS"

To Dr. Joseph Priestley(April 9, 1803)

• Index: Historical Writings (Jefferson)
• Home to Positive Atheism

To Dr. Joseph Priestley Washington, Apr. 9, 1803 Dear Sir, -- While on a short visit lately to Monticello, I received from you a copy of your comparative view of Socrates & Jesus, and I avail myself of the first moment of leisure after my return to acknolege the pleasure I had in the perusal of it, and the desire it excited to see you take up the subject on a more extensive scale. In consequence of some conversation with Dr. Rush, in the year 1798-99, I had promised some day to write him a letter giving him my view of the Christian system. I have reflected often on it since, & even sketched the outlines in my own mind. I should first take a general view of the moral doctrines of the most remarkable of the antient philosophers, of whose ethics we have sufficient information to make an estimate, say of Pythagoras, Epicurus, Epictetus, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, Antoninus. I should do justice to the branches of morality they have treated well; but point out the importance of those in which they are deficient. I should then take a view of the deism and ethics of the Jews, and show in what a degraded state they were, and the necessity they presented of a reformation. I should proceed to a view of the life, character, & doctrines of Jesus, who sensible of incorrectness of their ideas of the Deity, and of morality, endeavored to bring them to the principles of a pure deism, and juster notions of the attributes of God, to reform their moral doctrines to the standard of reason, justice & philanthropy, and to inculcate the belief of a future state. This view would purposely omit the question of his divinity, & even his inspiration. To do him justice, it would be necessary to remark the disadvantages his doctrines have to encounter, not having been committed to writing by himself, but by the most unlettered of men, by memory, long after they had heard them from him; when much was forgotten, much misunderstood, & presented in very paradoxical shapes. Yet such are the fragments remaining as to show a master workman, and that his system of morality was the most benevolent & sublime probably that has been ever taught, and consequently more perfect than those of any of the antient philosophers. His character & doctrines have received still greater injury from those who pretend to be his special disciples, and who have disfigured and sophisticated his actions & precepts, from views of personal interest, so as to induce the unthinking part of mankind to throw off the whole system in disgust, and to pass sentence as an impostor on the most innocent, the most benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime character that ever has been exhibited to man. This is the outline; but I have not the time, & still less the information which the subject needs. It will therefore rest with me in contemplation only. You are the person who of all others would do it best, and most promptly. You have all the materials at hand, and you put together with ease. I wish you could be induced to extend your late work to the whole subject. I have not heard particularly what is the state of your health; but as it has been equal to the journey to Philadelphia, perhaps it might encourage the curiosity you must feel to see for once this place, which nature has formed on a beautiful scale, and circumstances destine for a great one. As yet we are but a cluster of villages; we cannot offer you the learned society of Philadelphia; but you will have that of a few characters whom you esteem, & a bed & hearty welcome with one who will rejoice in every opportunity of testifying to you his high veneration & affectionate attachment.

from the Library of America edition of
Jefferson's writings

Merrill D. Peterson, editor

Treadmill

3.00 miles, 540 cal

---

Blood Sugar

124

---

Treadmill

1.38 miles

---

Chris Comer strikes back

AUSTIN – A former state science curriculum director on Wednesday sued the Texas Education Agency and Education Commissioner Robert Scott, alleging she was illegally fired for forwarding an e-mail about a lecture critical of the movement to promote intelligent design in science classes.

Christina Comer, who lost her job at the TEA last fall, said in a suit filed in federal court in Austin that she was terminated for contravening an "unconstitutional" policy at the agency. The policy required employees to be neutral on the subject of creationism – the biblical interpretation of the origin of humans, she said.

The policy was in force, according to the suit, even though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that teaching creationism as science in public schools is illegal.

"The agency's 'neutrality' policy has the purpose or effect of endorsing religion, and thus violates the Establishment Clause" of the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit said.

Blood Sugar

105

---

Treadmill

3.05 miles, raised the incline, also did 1.00 miles this morning.

---

Flashlight Runtime Test

Flashlight finally started to dim.

---

Blood Sugar

86

---

Treadmill

3.10 miles

---

Sunlight Foundation

"The Sunlight Foundation is committed to helping citizens, bloggers and journalists be their own best congressional watchdogs, by improving access to existing information and digitizing new information, and by creating new tools and Web sites to enable all of us to collaborate in fostering greater transparency."

This looks to be an amazing website.

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Blood Sugar

97

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Blood Sugar

116

---

Treadmill

3.00 miles

---

Definition and the Consequences of Evolution

evolution - any change in a population's allele frequencies over time

Mars Discoveries: Liquid Water and Impact Craters

---

Heinz’s pulled this funny ad because of Christian fundamentalists bitching; and has caused me to have bought my last Heinz product.

---

Time Waner Usenet Down

No access.

---

Judge Sanctions Lawyer for Issuing Subpoena to Blogger Kathleen Seidel

Posted June 23rd, 2008 by David Ardia

A federal magistrate judge in New Hampshire has sanctioned Clifford Shoemaker, a Virginia attorney, for abusing the legal process by issuing a subpoena to Kathleen Seidel. Seidel publishes the blog Neurodiversity, where she writes about autism issues. In February 2008, she wrote about a lawsuit against various vaccine manufacturers, Sykes v. Bayer, in which the plaintiffs Lisa and Seth Sykes sought to link exposure to mercury to their son's autism. (For more on her statements about the lawsuit, see my previous post: Blogger Kathleen Seidel Fights Subpoena Seeking Information About Vaccine Litigation.)

On March 24, 2008, Shoemaker, an attorney for the Sykes, served Seidel with a subpoena in connection with the Sykes v. Bayer lawsuit. The subpoena demanded that Seidel appear for a deposition on April 30, 2008, and that she produce a shockingly broad collection of information, including her bank statements, tax returns, communications with religious organizations, and personal correspondence with other bloggers.
Other Info:

1. Seidel's motion to quash
2. sanctioned under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11
3. Shoemaker's filed opposition to potential sanctions
4. Seidel filed response

Blood Sugar

92

---

Bush: I Gave Up Golf For The Troops

President Bush said with a straight face this week that he gave up golf in honor of the fallen soldiers in Iraq, claiming that he quit after the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003:

Actually, it is far more likely that Bush quit playing golf because he was suffering from knee problems throughout the latter half of 2003. See CBS News article

Flashlight Runtime Test cont.

14 Days and still going.

---

Blood Sugar

139. Not too bad considering I forgot to take my medication this morning.

---

Blood Sugar

109

---

Blood Sugar

112

---

Treadmill

2.66 miles

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed, again.

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Blood Sugar

118

---

Blood Sugar

111

---

Blood Sugar

126. I have taken my medicine, and not eaten; it still went up?

---

Blood Sugar

122

---

Blood Sugar

101

---

Blood Sugar

125

---

Blood Sugar

172

---

The Origin of Life - Abiogenesis

Nice, liked the music.

Blood Sugar

128

---

Beverly Hills Chihuahua Trailer

I have to show this to my sister, she has two Chihuahua's.

Treadmill

1.30 miles

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Vista Problem

Vista just installed a media player update, now my recorded shows will not play. I really hate Vista.

---

Flashlight Runtime Test cont.

The light is still running and seems just as bright, (not very) as at the beginning, (June 08, 2008 at 1:37PM).

---

Blood Sugar

129

---

Dennis Kucinich Moves for Impeachment of Bush

Former Democratic presidential contender, Dennis Kucinich, has called for
the impeachment of George W Bush claiming that the president set out to
deceive the nation, and violated his oath of office with the Iraq war.

The Ohio representative yesterday introduced 35 articles of impeachment
against Bush on the floor of the US House of Representatives.

Kucinich unveiled a list of alleged illegal and improper acts by Bush,
including war crimes.

He accused Bush executing a "calculated and wide-ranging strategy"
to deceive citizens and Congress into believing that Iraq posed an imminent
threat to the United States.

He went on to say that Bush and Cheney lied to Congress and the American
public about the reasons for invading Iraq in 2003 and abused their offices
in order to conduct the "War on Terror" following the 9/11 attacks.

Blood Sugar

129

---

Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab

A major evolutionary innovation has unfurled right in front of researchers' eyes. It's the first time evolution has been caught in the act of making such a rare and complex new trait.

And because the species in question is a bacterium, scientists have been able to replay history to show how this evolutionary novelty grew from the accumulation of unpredictable, chance events.

Twenty years ago, evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski of Michigan State University in East Lansing, US, took a single Escherichia coli bacterium and used its descendants to found 12 laboratory populations.

The 12 have been growing ever since, gradually accumulating mutations and evolving for more than 44,000 generations, while Lenski watches what happens.
Profound change

Mostly, the patterns Lenski saw were similar in each separate population. All 12 evolved larger cells, for example, as well as faster growth rates on the glucose they were fed, and lower peak population densities.

But sometime around the 31,500th generation, something dramatic happened in just one of the populations – the bacteria suddenly acquired the ability to metabolise citrate, a second nutrient in their culture medium that E. coli normally cannot use.

Indeed, the inability to use citrate is one of the traits by which bacteriologists distinguish E. coli from other species. The citrate-using mutants increased in population size and diversity.

"It's the most profound change we have seen during the experiment. This was clearly something quite different for them, and it's outside what was normally considered the bounds of E. coli as a species, which makes it especially interesting," says Lenski.

Flashlight Test

Duration test. On now, running on two freshly charged 7000 mah Nimh cells.

---

Blood Sugar

119

---

Blood Sugar

166

---

Billie Piper

Isn't this a great photo, wish I could find a higher res version.
I lost the source, to link back to, the image info does not help. I think it was on flicker somewhere.

Super-paper

The fibres join together into networks held by hydrogen bonds, forming flat sheets of "nanopaper".

Mechanical testing shows it has a tensile strength of 214 megapascals, making it stronger than cast iron (130 MPa) and almost as strong as structural steel (250 MPa).

Normal paper has a tensile strength less than 1 MPa.

Blood Sugar

124

---

Treadmill

3.00 miles

---

Nanoscope peers beyond the limits of light

---

Blood Sugar

113

---

Treadmill

1.11 miles

---

Quotes

'Faith is believing what you know ain't so' Mark Twain

Blood Sugar

112

---

Real Time Quotes from Google

6/02/2008 07:22:00 AM

Posted by Matthew Simmons, Market Data Gnome, and Katie Jacobs Stanton, Principal, New Business Development

We're very excited to tell you that real-time quotes on NASDAQ securities are now available on Google Finance. This is an important (and way overdue)
development for everyone who consumes financial information.
Historically, real-time stock data was not freely and widely
accessible. Either buried behind subscription walls or brokerage sites,
consumers typically had to live with 15 or 20 minute price delays. In
the world of finance, time is indeed money, and it's critical to have
timely and accurate data.

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Vista Crash

I had a complete system lockup, I thought I was going to have to do a hard boot, but it came back right before I pushed the button. Then windows explorer crashed and locked things up again.

---

Blood Sugar

107

---

Treadmill

2.51 miles, and what did we learn today? Don't do the treadmill without eating something, I am totally bonked.

---

Treadmill

2.64 miles

---

Blood Sugar

111

---

Treadmill

2.38 miles

---

Treadmill

1.09 miles

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed, it was slow coming back.

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Treadmill

1.76 miles

---

Fire Don McLeroy

Don McLeroy is the deranged creationist dentist who was appointed to the chairmanship of the Texas State Board of Education, and who is responsible for the recent purge and intimidation of people who support good biology — he's trouble all the way through. Take a look at his latest stunt.

McLeroy's stupidity is causing damage to our children that will last throughout their careers, damaging our state economy, and the nation.

Projects from the Art Center Pasadena

Motorcycles have been around for more than 100 years, more than cars, and evoke very primitive and essential emotions in their riders. “If you get down to basics”, says Lim, “a motorcycle is a sign of freedom! We ride because we like the open air feeling, the raw power, and the freedom of movement!” However, there are obvious limitations in terms of what the user can do with a motorcycle. You cannot carry more than 2 people, you cannot take excessive luggage, you might drop a bike, and its overall image is that it is dangerous. So, Lim told his students ‘what if!’, what if you can change these negative points and emphasize the good ones with green technology. What Lim wanted his students to do was to consider the fact that by reconfiguring and rethinking the motorcycle with green technology they could, as designers, propose vehicles never seen before.

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Treadmill

1.02 miles

---

Philip Pemberton's Home page, some interesting stuff. I liked his spot wielder project.

• Home page
• Electronics
• Code
• Miscellaneous
• Blog
• Photography

Hospital Stay

I just got out of the hospital today. I went in yesterday for chest pain. Turns out I had pericarditus. They did an exercise stress test with ultrasound, and my results were negative for any heart disease. Still hurts though, I am to take naproxsom sodium for relief of my symptoms, its caused by a virus so thats all they can do.

Tell you what though I am going to spend more time on the treadmill.

Treadmill

.85 miles, not feeling well.

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

---

Vista Crash

I had a very server windows crash, system was down all night.

Also for some reason Vista is no longer telling me when the mouse batteries need to be replaced. Its annoying.

---

Love this H.L. Mencken quote

"Morality is doing what's right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what's right."

Blood Sugar

121

---

Blood Sugar

137

---

Vista Crash

Complete system lockup, it took over 3 hours and a system restore to get back in.

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Blood Sugar

106

---

Blood Sugar

67

---

Blood Sugar

129

---

Creationism Disproved

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Treadmill

2.10 miles

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Treadmill

2.03 miles

---

---

Blood Sugar

95

---

Blood Sugar

154

---

Treadmill

1.77 miles

---

Treadmill

1.07 miles

---

Texas Attorney General's Office

I was just on the Attorney General's website trying to contact them. It does not look like contact info. is available on their website.

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed which is weird since I did not have it open. This time it took much longer than usual to come back.

---

The case of the missing e-mail

A federal magistrate judge on Thursday chastised the Bush administration for failing to fully answer questions related to a long-running dispute over missing White House emails. The White House is facing lawsuits from two public interest groups, Citizens for Responsibilty and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive at George Washington University, demanding that the White House restore the missing e-mails and put in place systems to prevent further e-mail losses. Administration officials were ordered to provide detailed information about the burdens involved in taking immediate actions to preserve copies of hard drive, tapes, and other media that may contain copies of the missing e-mails.

The ongoing dispute spotlights a part of the executive branch that doesn't often get much attention: its e-mail system. Two laws govern the retention of executive branch documents. The Federal Record Act requires the head of each federal agency to ensure that documents related to that agency's official business be preserved for federal archives. The Watergate-era Presidential Records Act augmented the FRA framework by specifically requiring the president to preserve documents related to the performance of his official duties. A 1993 court decision held that these laws applied to electronic records, including e-mails, which means that the president has an obligation to ensure that the e-mails of senior executive branch officials are preserved.

In 1994, the Clinton administration reacted to the previous year's court decision by rolling out an automated e-mail-archiving system to work with the Lotus-Notes-based e-mail software that was in use at the time. The system automatically categorized e-mails based on the requirements of the FRA and PRA, and it included safeguards to ensure that e-mails were not deliberately or unintentionally altered or deleted.

The Bush White House "upgrades" the e-mail system

When the Bush administration took office, it decided to replace the Lotus Notes-based e-mail system used under the Clinton Administration with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange. The transition broke compatibility with the old archiving system, and the White House IT shop did not immediately have a new one to put in its place.

Instead, the White House has instituted a comically primitive system called "journaling," in which (to quote from a recent Congressional report) "a White House staffer or contractor would collect from a 'journal' e-mail folder in the Microsoft Exchange system copies of e-mails sent and received by White House employees." These would be manually named and saved as ".pst" files on White House servers.