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November 2007 - Posts

Junk science in Texas

Friday, November 30, 2007 9:55 PM
Until recently, a woman named Chris Comer had served for nine years as the state science curriculum director for the Texas Education Agency. She was fired for forwarding an email and merely adding the phrase "FYI." Unfortunately for Ms. Comer and the
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Not supporting the troops

Thursday, November 29, 2007 9:55 PM
The Democrats in Congress might actually be growing a spine (although the jury is still out on that one). The House recently passed a $50 billion funding bill for the Iraq debacle, which the Republicans in the Senate promptly blocked because the bill
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An eclipse of the sun

Wednesday, November 28, 2007 11:02 PM
( Cross-posted here . ) The "Open" Government Study Committee was empowered by the Tennessee state Legislature to study and recommend any needed changes to Tennessee's open records law and its open meetings law. Yesterday, the committee punted on the
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Frosty keyboards

Tuesday, November 27, 2007 7:36 PM
In light of recent trends toward less privacy and more intrusive government surveillance power, it was something of a surprise to read this article : Federal prosecutors withdrew a subpoena of Amazon.com's records of customers who purchased used books
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Some things that will matter, and some things that won't

Monday, November 26, 2007 10:00 PM
Certain things in the news today probably won't amount to a hill of beans in the long run: Trent Lott resigned abruptly (although the circumstances seem a bit fishy). Bush is having a photo-op with the Israelis and Palestinians in Annapolis. Oprah is
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My Best Buy addiction

Sunday, November 25, 2007 9:33 PM
After spending most of Thanksgiving weekend doing nothing but eating, I decided to take a break on Saturday by going to Best Buy. It didn't occur to me until I pulled into the parking lot that this was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and the store was
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When jellyfish attack

Thursday, November 22, 2007 8:04 PM
This sounds like the plot of a bad 50's sci-fi movie, but it's real : Billions of jellyfish in a dense school covering 10 square miles wiped out the entire population of more than 100,000 fish at Northern Ireland's only salmon farm, the business owners
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Giving thanks

Wednesday, November 21, 2007 9:10 PM
I probably won't be blogging much over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend; instead, I'll be busy eating and visiting with family and friends, and generally having a good time. This is, of course, the time of year we're supposed to give thanks for things
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"A stunningly bad idea"

Tuesday, November 20, 2007 8:20 PM
In a perfect example of Brownian motion as a template for diplomacy and international relations, the Bush Administration has proposed the sale of $20 billion worth of satellite-guided missiles to Saudi Arabia. That would be the same Saudi Arabia from
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Applying the brakes, one way or another

Monday, November 19, 2007 10:28 PM
Within the coming years, one (or both) of the following phenomena will force us to apply the brakes to our reckless production of carbon dioxide and our insane habit of burning hydrocarbons for fuel: 1) Peak oil will limit the amount of hydrocarbons we
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An American community poisoned by depleted uranium

Sunday, November 18, 2007 10:37 AM
The Albany suburb of Colonie, New York has spent the last fifty years being slowly poisoned by a now-shuttered depleted uranium weapons plant. The residents continue to suffer the insufferable, bearing the consequences of government negligence. Ironically,
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The hidden costs of the Iraq war

Saturday, November 17, 2007 8:29 PM
Crafted as a memo to President Bush, Tyler Cowan lays out the true costs of the Iraq war , not all of them measurable in dollars: To: President George W. Bush Subject: The Hidden Costs of Iraq You may recall that you got rid of your loyal White House
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Quote of the day (on Newscoma)

Saturday, November 17, 2007 4:48 PM
From John Carney : It seems like all I've done this week is link to stuff that Newscoma has posted . I know the feeling, John. Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit
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The world progresses while the US clings to the Dark Ages

Saturday, November 17, 2007 4:35 PM
This week, the UN's Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee (the "Third Committee") approved a resolution calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty ; the resolution will go to the full General Assembly for consideration, possibly as soon
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Climate change could be "abrupt and irreversible"

Friday, November 16, 2007 2:12 PM
The IPCC is about to release an updated summary report on the looming consequences of climate change : Climate change may bring "abrupt and irreversible" impacts, the UN's climate advisory panel is set to announce. [...] Among its top-line conclusions
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The ongoing environmental impact of Katrina and Rita

Thursday, November 15, 2007 9:17 PM
This is astonishing : New satellite imaging has revealed that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced the largest single forestry disaster on record in America -- an essentially unreported ecological catastrophe that killed or severely damaged some 320 million
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Sunshine is a disinfectant

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 11:33 PM
So, let me see if I have this correct: Knox County Commission flagrantly, obscenely, and blatantly violates the Open Meetings Law, thumbing their collective noses at the people who elected them. They get smacked down by a jury for doing so, and the judge
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Tennessee primaries

Tuesday, November 13, 2007 6:30 PM
( Cross-posted here .) Greg Mackay, the Knox County Administrator of Elections , sent out an email this afternoon asking folks to help explain Tennessee's primaries and how they work. Here's the body of Greg's email (which I'm posting with his permission).
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Changing definitions

Monday, November 12, 2007 9:48 PM
In 1999, Scott McNealy, the notoriously arrogant and self-absorbed chairman of Sun Microsystems, said , "You have no privacy. Get over it." His profits come first. Your privacy is a remotely distant second. His greed trumps your rights; after all, he
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The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month

Sunday, November 11, 2007 11:00 AM
Almost all of modern history has transpired as the result of a single gunshot fired in Sarajevo in 1914. When the Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Hapsburg Archduke Ferdinand, Bismarck's famous prediction came true: that a catastrophic
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Thompson's plan to gut Social Security

Saturday, November 10, 2007 5:40 PM
Not surprisingly, Republican Fred Thompson wants to do away with Social Security and replace it with a privatized system which would benefit those in the upper income brackets and penalize the poor and middle class : Thompson's plan draws on ideas favored
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More testimony that waterboarding is torture

Friday, November 09, 2007 3:24 PM
Although the President and the new Attorney General don't seem to think waterboarding constitutes torture, they've never experienced it themselves and therefore can't say for sure. However, the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony yesterday from
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Global warming will be worse than previously thought

Thursday, November 08, 2007 9:04 PM
The IPCC report released earlier this year was unrealistic, according to the IEA : Emissions of greenhouse gases will rise by 57 percent by 2030 compared to current levels, leading to a rise in Earth's surface temperature of at least three degrees Celsius
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The money behind California's electoral shenanigans

Wednesday, November 07, 2007 9:09 PM
A referendum movement is currently afoot in California which would apportion that state's electoral votes on a district-by-district basis, instead of the current winner-take-all method. If this idea were to become law, at least some of California's electoral
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"A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan"

Tuesday, November 06, 2007 9:42 PM
This is why Mitt Romney will never be President : "A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan," [televangelist Bill] Keller declared in his daily e-mail devotional last May. His reasoning went like this: Romney's election would serve as a giant advertisement
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The Chinese beating us at our own game

Monday, November 05, 2007 9:07 PM
China's state-owned oil company, PetroChina, held its IPO today on the Shanghai stock market. The debut raised $9 billion in one day; since this offering was only a tiny fraction of PetroChina's total stock, the company ended the trading day with a market
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The dark side of capitalism in "Michael Clayton" and "American Gangster"

Sunday, November 04, 2007 9:36 PM
I saw two great movies at the theater this week: " Michael Clayton " and " American Gangster ." Although I felt "Michael Clayton" was the better overall film in terms of structure, pace, writing, and direction, "American Gangster" allows Denzel Washington
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Consumer safety sold down the river

Friday, November 02, 2007 8:25 PM
A couple of days ago , I blogged about Nancy Nord, the head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, coming out against full funding of the agency as proposed by Congress. Her opposition to consumer safety is a slap in the face to all of us. Now, the
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Another study shows US health care inadequate

Thursday, November 01, 2007 9:25 PM
Yet another study comparing health care in the US to that of the civilized world shows the stark reality of our system's inadequacy; its inefficiency and defects stand in blinding contrast to countries with universal coverage: Americans spend double what
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