News Unfit

Recliner review

2006-08-02T20:45:00.000-05:00

The most comfortable types of chairs are recliners! Now you can take a look at Bizchair and buy one for yourself. The website has a really good selection, from traditional leather loungers, to a modern two-piece swivel chair with separate ottoman, and sleek microfiber chairs in between. The pricing is excellent for the quality and luxury that you're getting, starting at $300 and ranging to in the $600's for their top-line models. And believe it or not, they come with free shipping! For something that big, that's great, you'd pay as much as for the product if you had to pay shipping. I think the most amusing chairs on there are for the Nascar fans: You can get a recliner chair upholstered in plush fabric in the colors of your favorite driver, and with his car number too. Insane! I really wish I had the space for one of these, as they look so comfy and cool for the summer. I enjoy putting my feet up, leaning back with a good book, or just curling up for a nap.

Heat wave

2006-08-02T20:41:00.000-05:00

It is really REALLY hot out here. And the first two stores I checked out, Lowes and Home Depot, were entirely out of air conditioners. I finally went to the Home Depot the next town over and found an AC - there were 4 left after me, and the woman at the checkout said they had gotten in a shipment of 300 that very day. OMG. Unfortunately, it's waaaaay too heavy for me to install myself, so I'm waiting on my landlord for help. :(

Free football schedule

2006-08-01T19:25:00.000-05:00

I may not be a sports fan, but just about everyone else I know is. And while I couldn't tell you if more people watch baseball, basketball, or football, I do know that at least once a year, right around my birthday, everyone's watching football. If you want to know when that is, check out this free College and NFL Football Schedule, shipping not included. It's 120 pages long, so it's gotta include something more than just the schedules, and lo and behold, they say it also has exclusive articies. Whee! Right? That's a good thing? I think...

Out of the loop

2006-08-01T19:10:00.000-05:00

This's been such a busy summer for me, I'm so out of the loop. Mel Gibson made racial slurs, the Middle East is falling apart (again), and the great and terrible Castro temporarily stepped down due to major surgery. I better try to catch up before school starts again in the Fall!

Solar lawn lights

2006-08-01T17:42:00.000-05:00

The product of the moment, Solar Lights, doesn't require a spin, so I get to say what I really think! And really honestly, I'm of mixed opinion on a product like this. On the one hand, I am all for solar energy (and it's at a decent cost too, at $12-$30 for a single light). We have limited resources here on the Earth, and most of the energy in the US comes from burning coal, a non-renewable fossil fuel that also adds CO_2 to the atmosphere (a major greenhouse gas, contributing to global warming). So solar lights are better than non-solar lights.

However, I'm also an astronomer, so I'm against outdoor nighttime lighting. I just spent two weeks in the middle of nowhere at an astronomy camp, including one week of New Moon, and even by just the stars and the lightpollution from the next town over, I could see well enough to avoid obstacles and recognize people by face. You really just don't need that much light. No studies have ever shown that simply increasing lighting increases safety (International Dark Sky Association), so the common belief that lighting will cut down crime isn't substantiated by facts at all.

But if you've just gotta do outdoor night lighting, here's what I suggest you get from Solar Lights: scroll down the page and you'll see a few solar lights on stakes or posts with little shields over the tops. These are your best choice: you're not adding to your electricity bill or the CO_2 in the atmosphere or depleting the fossil fuels, and with the shade on the top the majority of the light you're creating goes straight down to the ground where it's needed, and not upwards into your eyes or into the night sky. It'd be better if the shades went down even lower, but they're pretty good as is.

"Mercury rising"

2006-08-01T17:35:00.000-05:00

Oh great, nothing I like better than a news article that obliquely references astrology. The article's really about the heat wave in the Eastern US, but they have all these cheesy lines about "Mercury rising" that it just drives me nuts! I just spent two weeks at astrocamp trying to defuse crap like that! I had four arguments against astrology:

If you read your horoscope from a previous day, there's no way you can distinguish it from the 11 incorrect ones. Astrology's predictive powers aren't.

The sun wasn't actually in your constellation on your birthday. It's called precession kiddos.

The amount of time the sun spends in each constellation isn't equal. Some astrologers counter with "oh, we use houses, not constellations" but that's to ad hoc-y to me.

What about Ophiuchus?

Keep your car cool!

2006-08-01T17:24:00.000-05:00

Today I'm writing to tell you about a cool summer product, the Auto Cool Solar Car Fan! You know how when you park your car in the sun and leave the windows closed it gets really really hot throughout the day? Scientifically, that's because the energy from the sun is instead going into the motion of the air molecules trapped inside your car - that motion is what we call (in English) heat! (Of course, in physics we'd call it temperature, or maybe instead say that temperature is entropy, but that's a different issue for my other blog, Modern Science.) The Auto Cool Solar Car Fan instead takes that solar energy pouring into your car and uses it to power a fan - so it absorbs some of the energy that's being wasted on heating your car, and then uses it to keep your car cool, a double whammy. The whole concept is a lot more proactive than just putting up sunshades, and anyway in my new car (2006 Honda Civic) it's going to be hard to find sunshades big enough to fit the whole huge window. The Auto Cool Solar Car Fan is one of those "as seen on TV" items, and it looks to be a decent price at around $15, so why not give it a try?

blog status

2006-08-01T17:21:00.000-05:00

As you can see, I haven't written in this blog much at all lately. If you really want to get more news, I write in my LJ more, and you can check out what I write about news there. I may start betraying you all by selling out to the man, but it's not like there's any of you actually reading this, so it won't matter. :-P

boredom

2005-10-01T09:06:00.000-05:00

I grow bored of this blog. I'm not writing on it all that much lately, I seem to be spending more effort on Strange musings and Modern Science. heck, my own boyfriend mocks me for having multiple blogs. well, he photoblogs, so there T$! :-P Maybe I'll start throwing it all back together, or at least he infrequent news.

Blame

2005-09-14T07:58:00.000-05:00

Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. has charged Mable and Salvador Mangano Sr., St. Rita's Nursing Home, New Orleans, owners, with 34 counts of negligent homicide. The defendants claim that since they were never informed of the mandatory evacuation, they independently decided that for the safety of the frail patients, it was better not to move them. They called all the families of the patients and informed them of the nursing home's decision, and gave the families the choice to evacuate the patients themselves, which was done for six of them.

Perhaps the blame should be shifted to those families that didn't pick up the patients -- after all, the families are the legal guardians and make the decisions for them. While it is somewhat tragic, it's not overwhelmingly so to me as these are elderly people who didn't have much time left anyway. I want to see the parents of children who drowned get charged -- not that I think they need more pain in their lives, but because once in a while I like a good drama!

Meanwhile, remember that family that stayed behind b/c they couldn't bring their fourteen pets? And then the grandmother died and the wheelchair-bound mother tried to get her daughters to commit suicide with her after three days? And in the end they only saved two of the dogs, but had to leave them behind anyway? Can we bring THEM up on charges please? Negligent homicide, attempted murder (the mother of her daughters), child abuse/neglect, and cruelty to animals. If they had left, abandoning the pets, we'd only get to charge them with cruelty to animals. Man, that'd make a hilarious row on TV.

Yes, I do know I'm going to Hell.

New Orleans moving right along

2005-09-11T21:41:00.000-05:00

On the fourth anniversary of the WTC/Pentagon/PA attacks, NYC firemen working in New Orleans took a break for memorial services.

A bell from a neighboring church, its steeple wiped out by Katrina, was given to the New York firefighters.

(CNN)

Meanwhile, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, in the city is being trashed, as in moved to dumps.

At the city's convention center, the once chaotic site where thousands initially took refuge before being evacuated a week ago, bulldozers pushed heaps of chairs, sleeping bags and trash into giant piles to be hauled away.

Tow truck drivers started picking up scores of abandoned cars littering the streets.

(CNN)

Biggest Disaster?

2005-09-11T00:16:00.000-05:00

According to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, ""Hurricane Katrina will go down as the largest natural disaster in American history." (CNN) I wonder where he got that from. According to CNN, 2.5 million people were displaced by the Dust Bowl series of droughts and dust storms (1930-1941), while only 1.3 million lived in metro New Orleans, and adding the others would probably bring it to no more than 2.0 million. If you have a more accurate number of how many people were "internally displaced" by the hurricane, I'd be interested in hearing it.

Media vs. Gov't

2005-09-10T23:46:00.000-05:00

I don't think I'm buying the "the media's in the government's pocket" story anymore. I can still think they're voluntarily parroting what the government says because "most" of the population wants to hear that, but the feds aren't controling the media.

U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison issued a temporary restraining order Friday against a "zero access" policy announced earlier in the day by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security director.
...

"We don't have any legal recourse to do any kind of law enforcement or anything like that in our role. So the only thing we do is we can control who goes with us; on our aircraft and on our trucks and in our boats, if that applies," [said Army Lt. Col. Richard Steele].
...

CNN filed suit against Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown, arguing that the officials who announced the decision were acting on FEMA's behalf.

"For an agency to unilaterally ban all coverage of a major component of its governmental function, that is, recovery of the deceased victims of the tragedy, is unprecedented," CNN argued in its legal brief. "Instead, the agency has made a subjective, content-based determination that publicizing the operation would be 'without dignity.'"

CNN's brief argued, "It is not the place of government to replace its own internal judgment for that of a free and independent media."

Because of controversy about how FEMA and other agencies handled the disaster response, CNN lawyers argued, "it is even more vitally important for the public, Congress and the administration to have an independent view of the conduct of this important phase of the operation."

(CNN)

I guess this's why I haven't seen that many bodies in the news yet. :(

Al Gore saves 270 lives in New Orleans

2005-09-10T17:46:00.000-05:00

On September 1, three days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, [Greg Simon, president of the Washington-based activist group FasterCures,] learned that Dr. David Kline, a neurosurgeon who operated on Gore's son, Albert, after a life-threatening auto accident in 1989, was trying to get in touch with Gore. Kline was stranded with patients at Charity Hospital in New Orleans....

Gore responded immediately, telephoning Kline and agreeing to underwrite the $50,000 each for the two flights...

He also recruited two doctors, Spickard and Gore's cousin, retired Col. Dar LaFon, a specialist in internal medicine who once ran the military hospital in Baghdad.

Most critically, Gore worked to cut through government red tape, personally calling Gov. Phil Bredesen to get Tennessee's support and U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to secure landing rights in New Orleans.

(CNN)

Meanwhile, Bush was busy slowing down evacuations from the airport via Air Force One. I wonder how many empty seats there were on that plane.

Big Brit Blasts Bush Business (BBC)

2005-09-10T09:54:00.000-05:00

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has criticised the US's record on combating global warming in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans.

In a speech in Berlin, Mr Prescott took a swipe at the US government, which has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
...
"As a European negotiator at the Kyoto climate change convention, I was fully aware that climate change is changing weather patterns and raising sea levels," he said.

Some commentators have suggested Katrina is an example of the type of storms that will become more common with global warming.
...
But the US government has been reluctant to accept that human activity is to blame.

In his speech, Mr Prescott also hailed the US city mayors who had ignored their federal government's position and had taken action locally to limit carbon emissions.
...
"I'm proud that Britain has already achieved its Kyoto target on greenhouse gas emissions - six years ahead of time, with a growing economy."

(BBC)

Last one's interesting to me b/c of the argument US conservatives put forth that the country would lose money if we signed the Kyoto protocol. I guess it would affect us more than Britain since they don't actually manufacture cars as far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong), but I still think it's necessary.

Anyone else think Prescott looks scary?

Conservative Chain of Events

2005-09-07T18:33:00.000-05:00

I don't get it. Conservatives don't want people learning about condoms, then they don't want them having abortions when they get pregnant from not using condoms, and then they don't want to let loving gay parents adopt the children who weren't aborted when their teen parents didn't use condoms because they didn't know about them. Maybe they actually support baby-eating by people with extra kids, or who're starving, like those disposessed by Katrina.

13% of an Ohio HS pregnant

2005-09-02T12:07:00.000-05:00

Laws of statistics said this had to happen somewhere.

64 of Timken's 490 female students (13 percent) are pregnant. ...

Experts, parents and students themselves struggle to explain why such pockets of high teen pregancy rates appear. Are teens getting appropriate sex education? Do they have access to birth control and are they using it consistently? Has the stigma of unwed motherhood lost its edge?

"This might be a school that is forthright with its problems while others are not," said Jay Green, chairman of the Education Reform department at the University of Arkansas. "But this is a widespread issue."

Green wrote a study last year for the conservative New York-based Manhattan Institute for Policy Research that found 20 percent of urban teenagers have been pregnant, compared with 14 percent of suburban teens.

Urban teens as a whole don't use birth control as consistently or often, according to his research, and often have less to lose financially and socially than those in the suburbs. ...

Joanne Hinton, whose 16-year-old daughter, Raechel Hinton, is eight months pregnant, said she believes the school's abstinence-based sex education program isn't enough.

"It's time to take the blinders off and realize that these kids are having sex," she said. "Obviously, abstinence is not working. If we have to, just give them condoms." ...

Raechel, who plans to return to the 10th grade at Timken after delivering and completing an adoption, said many students are sexually active and need more information about birth control.

(ABC News)

Bush dropped the ball, says FEMA

2005-09-02T08:47:00.000-05:00

A December 2001 Houston Chronicle article (hosted at Louisiana State U) summarizes a list of the three likliest national disasters that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released in early 2001. In those top three, ironicially at the time, was a terrorist attack on New York City. Also up there was a hurricane hitting New Orleans. And yet, funding to shore up the levees wasn't increased, but slashed between then and the disaster we see today.

Now that two of the top three have come to pass, standing at the top is The Big One (earthquake) hitting San Francisco. To the Bush Administration: start preparing. This isn't politics, this is LIVES.

Katrinia Ideas

2005-09-01T17:55:00.000-05:00

I've been commenting a bunch on Strange Musings on small, cheap/free things you can do to help people hurt by Katrina. If you want some ideas, go look.

Renegade Bus

2005-09-01T08:35:00.000-05:00

I just like the title, "renegade bus."

The first bus -- an Orleans Parish school bus -- pulled up to the gates of the Astrodome about 10:30 p.m. (11:30 p.m. EDT) Wednesday, surprising authorities who were not expecting anyone for several more hours.

Organizers later declared it a "renegade bus," saying it was carrying people fleeing the floodwaters in New Orleans but was not part of the official caravan of commercial buses traveling from the Superdome.
...
It was not immediately clear how the 50 people on board the renegade transportation came into possession of the bus, but officials in the Astrodome said they would be allowed to stay. A 20-year-old man was behind the wheel.

(CNN)

<sarcasm>Do you think it was looted, or found? They don't say if the driver was white or black, so who knows! </sarcasm>

Reactions

2005-08-30T09:54:00.000-05:00

Children involved in the Beslan School Number One terrorist attack a year ago are still plagued by their reactions. One boy says he lost religion: "There is no God. There is only military force. I believe in Russia and in our armed forces. That's what I believed in during the terrorist attack." (BBC) On the other hand, a girl was reborn:

"I found a little cross on the gym's floor. I kept it on me for all of the three days. It helped me to survive.

"I had a dream that I was running out of the school and I saw a pram. I ran up to it and I saw myself in there. I asked my Mum what it meant, and she said 'You were reborn'.

"I understood that when I escaped from that hell, I was reborn."

(BBC)

It's really interesting to me the role that religion, or lack thereof, plays in people's lives. Two people, two CHILDREN, in the same situation will have entirely different reactions.

Staying Behind

2005-08-30T08:51:00.000-05:00

A man in Biloxi told CNN affiliate WKRG-TV he believed his wife was killed after she was ripped from his grasp when their home split in half.

"I held her hand as tight as I could," the man said. "She told me, 'You can't hold me.' She told me to take care of the kids and the grandkids ... we ain't got nowhere to go. I'm lost. That's all I had."
...
CNN's Adaora Udoji, monitoring the rescue efforts, said authorities had ferried at least 500 people from their homes, flooded with as much as six feet of water. Some residents reported water rose so fast they did not have time to grab their shoes.

(CNN)

Perhaps I'm cold hearted, but I believe that if there's a mandatory evacuation, and someone STILL doesn't leave their house, emergency crews shouldn't be oligated to rescue them. I'm not saying this out of hatred of their stupidity (though I admit it's there), but out of sheer economics and time prioritization. There are 1 million people without homes right now. The time and money spent saving the 500-odd idiots who disobeyed the evacuation order could be better spent helping the people who DID do the right thing. I hope the city/state sues those assholes for the cost of their rescue, and a little extra to start rebuilding the city.

Fragile

2005-08-28T17:03:00.000-05:00

Climate modelling now shows that a 10-30 Cº change in average surface temperature could kill 95% of marine species and 75% of land species. More accurately and less dramatically, this probably is what happened some 250 million years ago. We know for sure that many species died out, and new models show that a rise in CO₂ leading to global warming could do it.

OK Bush, try and write that one off as alarmism and say that car manufacturers don't have to do anything. Someone remind me, how much has the temperature risen this century? Since the industrial revolution? Within the last millenium? 250 million years ago vulcanism was the ultimate cause, but does it really matter WHY there's more CO₂? Once you've risen 5 Cº and killed off a tenth of the land species you'd do well to worry.

Loophole

2005-08-27T22:38:00.000-05:00

According to Dutch police,

"The law doesn't say you can't make love on the bonnet of a police car.

"But the policemen have to be available for duty. If the two lovers had left when they were told, nothing would have happened."

(Ananova)

So the couple were arrested for failing to obey police orders, and not for screwing on the hood of the cop car with the cops still in it. Or is the "boot" the trunk?

Men smarter than women; researcher disappointed

2005-08-27T19:04:00.000-05:00

Men are more intelligent than women by about five IQ points on average, making them better suited for “tasks of high complexity”, according to the authors of a paper due to be published in the British Journal of Psychology.

Genetic differences in intelligence between the sexes helped to explain why many more men than women won Nobel Prizes or became chess grandmasters, the study by Paul Irwing and Professor Richard Lynn concluded.

They showed that men outnumbered women in increasing numbers as intelligence levels rise. There were twice as many with IQ scores of 125, a level typical for people with first-class degrees.

When scores rose to 155, a level associated with genius, there were 5.5 men for every woman.

Dr Irwing, a senior lecturer in organisational psychology at Manchester University, said that he was uncomfortable with the findings. But he added that the evidence was clear despite the insistence of many academics that there were “no meaningful sex differences” in levels of intelligence.

“For personal reasons I would like to believe that men and women are equal, and broadly that’s true. But over a period of time the evidence in favour of biological factors has become stronger and stronger,” he said.

(CNN)

Who needs voting rights anyway?

2005-08-27T18:23:00.000-05:00

Georgia has signed into law, and it's been approved federally, to require photo ID at polling stations from anyone wishing to vote.

On the pro- side, this would help decrease voting fraud.

"Requiring valid, photographic identification is a common sense step to ensure voter integrity and sound elections," Gov. Sonny Perdue said Friday in a written statement. ...

Perdue, like other Republicans, has said the measure is aimed at preventing voter fraud. "It will not be a hardship on any voter," Perdue said when he signed the bill.

The new Georgia law also allows people to vote absentee without an excuse, and for a longer period. Those votes by mail would not require a picture ID.

(CNN)

On the con- side, who do you know that doesn't have a photo ID? Most likely no one. And most likely your acquaintances are young professional whites.

Most of Georgia's black lawmakers walked out at the state Capitol when it was approved.

Democrats had argued the idea was a political move by the GOP to depress voting among minorities, the elderly and the poor -- all traditional bases for Democrats.

The measure would eliminate the use of several currently accepted forms of voter identification, such as Social Security cards, birth certificates or utility bills.

... Perdue signed the measure in April, and it needed the Justice Department's approval before taking effect. Under the Voting Rights Act, Georgia and other states with a history of suppressing minority voting must get federal permission to change their voting laws.

Nineteen states require voters to show identification, but only five request photo ID's, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Those states -- Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and South Dakota -- allow voters without a photo ID to use other forms of identification or sign an affidavit of identity.

... "This decision takes us back to the dark past of literacy tests and other insidious devices that were carefully devised to hamper the participation of all of our citizens in the political process," [Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, a veteran of the civil rights movement] said.

... Political observers say Republicans tend to benefit the most from absentee balloting.

(CNN)

I never realized how political just the whole process of voting is!

Teenagers prevent morning after pill from going to market

2005-08-26T22:12:00.000-05:00

Man, I wish they'd just make up their fucking minds already!

Contraceptive advocates and doctors groups say easier access could halve the nation's 3 million annual unintended pregnancies. ...

The agency's independent scientific advisers overwhelmingly backed over-the-counter sales for everybody, not just adults, in December 2003.

FDA rejected that recommendation, citing concern about young teens' use of the pills without a doctor's guidance.

CNN

The good news? Seven states currently have legal OTC morning after pills, and Massachusetts is set to be the eighth, once the legislature overrides Romney, as usual.

Tweens increasingly into BDSM

2005-08-26T12:51:00.000-05:00

It just occurred to me while reading this installation of Seattle BDSM Misstress Matisse's column "Control Tower" that CNN's recently reported "choking game" shows that BDSM is alive and well in suburbia.

Children have likely been playing the "choking game" for a long time, Connecticut-based child psychologist Dr. Lawrence Shapiro told The Associated Press.

...Gabriel loved the sensation, his mother said.

"It was almost like a drug," she said. "They crave it; they crave the high that they get from the lack of oxygen."

(CNN)

Most types of BDSM aren’t life threatening...

But breath play—limiting or denying someone the ability to breathe, either by suffocation or strangulation—is unquestionably the type of edge play with the highest potential for harm and the lowest controllable margin of safety... Cutting off someone’s breathing can make them have a heart attack, and there is no way to really know if that’s just about to happen. Watching your partner closely, or telling them to signal you if they’re about to pass out, will not prevent a disaster.

...Pretty much everyone who does breath control mentions that it increases the intensity of their orgasm. That’s why some of those breath control deaths happen when guys (and a few women) strangle themselves while masturbating. They think they’ll be able to stop in time. But you can’t reliably know if you’re about to get into trouble, any more than a partner would. And passing out alone, with a noose around your neck? Well, I hope you checked the “organ donor” box on your driver’s license.

(Control Tower)

So, BDSM in suburban tween bedrooms? Or is it just another jump-rope game? You decide!

Fundies

2005-08-23T07:39:00.000-05:00

Eric Rudolph in 1996 bombed an Olympic stadium in Atlanta, GA. He got away with it at the time, and continued on to bombing a lesbian night club in 1997, and two abortion clinics in 1997 and 1998. "He has said he considered the bombings a 'moral duty' to stop abortions from being performed, because the U.S. government 'is no longer the protector of the innocent.'" (CNN)

And just because I'm a liberal and love to make comparisons that conservatives find bizzare but fellow liberals inherrantly agree with, anyone else feel Rudolph has similarities to militant Islamic fundamentalists? For example, killing people based upon their beliefs, in their own country, and not caring if bystanders or law enforcement officials get caught. I bet even most conservatives would agree with that much. Ok then Mr. Conservative, answer me this: Why then, do you condemn all of Islam and the Middle East based upon the actions of some terrorists, while you do not condemn all of Christianity and North America based upon Rudolph's actions? My opinion is that it's simply because you do not understand Islam and feel that the terrorists' actions are representative of all of Islam, while you yourself are a Christian living in the US of A.

States Reject Bush's "Intelligent Climate Change" Bullshit

2005-08-22T08:27:00.000-05:00

"Despite what the Bush folks say, more people are realizing that global warming is a problem that we need to begin to address," said ... Rob Sargent of the Boston-based National Association of State Public Interest Research Groups.

CNN

California currently has the toughest emission laws in the nation, and other states can choose to adopt their standards, or federal standards. Oregon and Washington State are in the process of adopting CA's; most of the North-East already did adopt a previous year's and are looking to update to this year's; and PA, IL, and NC are thinking about it. The West and East Coasts control a third of the nation's car purchasing.

(Oregon Governor Ted) Kulongoski, a Democrat, said Oregon and the other states need to act because the Bush administration has failed to take steps to curtail global warming.

"If the federal government doesn't want to move forward on global warming, then the states are going to have to do it," the governor said in an interview.

CNN

Fuel Efficiency?

2005-08-17T16:05:00.000-05:00

Like many of the fuel efficiency schemes for cars, including hydrogen fuel cells, this article on putting extra batteries in the Toyota Prius fails to acknowledge the expenditure of fossil fuels required to create the alternative energy source. For example, plugging in the Prius and using wall electricity merely moves the burning of fuels to coal in mid-west plants, rather than gas in the car's tank. Similarly, isolating the hydrogen in a fuel cell car currently takes more energy that we can produce in the fuel cells. Perhaps someday that'll be more efficient, but I'm not sure. I'm not against alternative methods of energy production, I just think we're barking up the wrong tree--cars in Europe are at least twice as fuel efficient as those in the US. Why don't we start with that?

Similar site

2005-08-17T10:21:00.000-05:00

I just discovered that Tor's Rants is linking to Strange Musings. Man, where do these people find me? ;) Tor seems to comment on the news a lot on his blog, so thought I'd throw up a link here. Thanks Tor! :)

NMSQT

2005-07-14T15:07:00.000-05:00

The University of California is rejecting the National Merit Scholarship corporation as using a racially and economically biased test - the PSAT - as their basis for college scholarships.

(UC) Faculty challenged the merit scholarships earlier this year, saying the PSAT was not designed to be used as a cutoff tool, and calling the selection process unfair to low-income students and some minorities, who on average score lower than whites on standardized tests.
...
The chancellors' decision only applies to scholarships funded directly by the University of California.

Scholarships funded by the National Merit Scholarship Corp. or by businesses will not be affected. The University of California will honor merit scholarships already awarded, including those for students entering this fall.
...
Last year, about 600 of 158,000 undergraduates won University of California-funded National Merit Scholarships, for a total of about $735,000. Asians received 45 percent of the awards; whites, about 40 percent. Hispanics accounted for 2 percent of recipients and blacks 1 percent.

(CNN)

I find this particularly interesting as the NMS is responsible for my college giving me a free education.

Bush Reserves Judgement

2005-07-14T14:29:00.000-05:00

Wilson has said the leak of his wife's name was an attempt by the administration to discredit him after he challenged its assertion that Saddam Hussein was seeking to obtain from Niger material to make nuclear weapons in Iraq.

Bush said Wednesday that he would not discuss the matter until the criminal investigation is finished.

"This is a serious investigation," the president told reporters Wednesday after a Cabinet meeting, where Rove sat near him. "And it is very important for people not to prejudge the investigation based on media reports."

(CNN)

How ... even-tempered of Bush! Maybe he's learned something from the Downing Street Memo and subsequent Iraq fiasco. I doubt it, but one can hope.

Study Shows One-Third of Studies Wrong

2005-07-14T08:14:00.000-05:00

Does that mean this study's wrong?

The sobering conclusion came in a review of major studies published in three influential medical journals between 1990 and 2003, including 45 highly publicized studies that initially claimed a drug or other treatment worked.

Subsequent research contradicted results of seven studies -- 16 percent -- and reported weaker results for seven others, an additional 16 percent.

That means nearly one-third of the original results did not hold up, according to the report in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

(CNN)

Oh whew, it's only about MEDICAL studies, not anything important!

(Study author Dr. John) Ioannidis said scientists and editors should avoid "giving selective attention only to the most promising or exciting results" and should make the public more aware of the limitations of science.

"The general public should not panic" about refuted studies, he said. "We all need to start thinking more critically."

(CNN)

No shit, Sherlock.

Pediatricians Prescribe Prophylactics

2005-07-06T18:08:00.000-05:00

Even kiddie docs say teens need rubbers. The American Academy of Pediatrics' updated teen pregnancy policy removes 1998 language stating that "abstinence counseling is an important role for all pediatricians." Their stance includes ready access to birth control for both those who are already sexually active and those who are not, including emergency contraception - without a prescription!

And to think I always considered doctors stodgy old fuddy-duddies. Well, I guess I used to. Here in the Health Capital of New England, Worcester, I've met many young medical professionals, and others still in training.

Meanwhile I'm taking bets that my first flame on this post says that the medical profession is overrun by extremist liberals with a secular agenda.

Russian Astrologer Sues NASA for Comet Crash

2005-07-05T10:02:00.000-05:00

Writer Marina Bay claims that by slamming the probe into the comet, Nasa endangered the future of civilisation.

"Nobody has yet proven that this experiment was safe," says Ms Bay's lawyer Alexander Molokhov.

"This impact could have altered the orbit of the comet, so now there is a chance that the Tempel may well destroy the Earth some day!"

...

An amateur astrologist, she believes that any variation in the orbit or the composition of the Tempel comet will certainly affect her own fate.

So Ms Marina's claims to be experiencing "a moral trauma" - which only a payment of $300m (252m euros; £170m) can put right.

This is roughly what Nasa has spent on the experiment so far.

...

"The impact changed the magnetic properties of the comet, and this could have affected mobile telephony here on Earth. If your phone went down this morning, ask yourself Why? and then get in touch with us," says Mr Molokhov.

(BBC)

The comet was roughly half the size of Manhattan. The impactor was the size of a washing machine. Tell me, do YOU think it makes a fucking difference? Plus, "magnetic properties of the comet"?! If they'd found it had a magnetic field you can bet your sweet ass it would've been on the front page of the Times. Magnetic field requires either moving charges, which won't happen in a solid body such as a comet core, or magnetic materials all aligned together, which won't happen in a mostly icy body such as a comet core.

NASA's Moscow officials have wisely boycotted the courtroom, which unfortunately for the magistrate means that he's going to have to come to a decision without them.

Serial sex offender and murder's blog found

2005-07-05T08:52:00.000-05:00

From his first entry, on January 4, 2004, to his last, on May 13, 2005, Duncan's writings reveal a conflicted man battling personal "demons" and the stigma of a teenage rape conviction.

...

Throughout the 17 months he kept his blog, Duncan displays intense concern for himself whenever a child is reported missing, fearing police will automatically come calling because he is on the offender registry.

In fact, his first entry finds him trying to reconstruct what he did on a particular day in the past because he just learned a 5-year-old girl had gone missing 200 miles away on that day.

...

The post also introduced a theme common in his writings: that offenders "are victims, too" and that they often don't understand that they've hurt someone.

In his own history, he wrote, "I was molested so often and by so many different people that, up until the time of my offense, I actually thought it was normal and that everybody did it."

Although he denied he is a pedophile, Duncan defended pedophilia.
(CNN)

This is a man I feel should be pitied, and then locked away forever. He seems to be struggling to understand that what he does is wrong, but not quite able to grasp it. I don't think he'll ever understand it.

Hot Dog Eating Day

2005-07-04T16:29:00.000-05:00

What is known in one part of the world as Independence Day, and in many parts of the world as the 4^th of July, is known in ALL of the world as the International Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Day! The US title of 37 hot dogs is currently held by a woman, and last year's winner, Takeru Kobayashi, of reflux fame, retained his title and the "Coveted Mustard Yellow International Belt" with 49 in 12 minutes, though he did not beat his record from last year of 53.5. Someone tell me how they count halves.

Bush and Global Warming

2005-07-04T09:15:00.000-05:00

This is looking promising...

Bush described climate change as "a significant, long-term issue that we've got to deal with" and acknowledged that human activity is "to some extent" to blame. (CNN)

But...

President Bush says he wants to shift debate on global warming away from limits on greenhouse gas emissions to new technology that would reduce environmental harm without restricting energy use. (CNN)

In other words, he's banking on the hope that "his administration's investment of $20 billion (16.55 billion euros) in developing hydrogen-powered vehicles, zero-emission power stations and other technology" will pay out before the current day fossil fuel burning kills us all.

Deep Impact's done it!

2005-07-04T09:03:00.000-05:00

NASA's Deep Impact probe has collided with comet Tempel 1 right on time. Everyone was watching, even Hubble. What most civilians don't realize though, is that it's the spectral data (that is, the precise colors) that will give us the most information. They've confirmed the presence of the molecule CN, and are currently working in determining the isotopes present, which can tell us about the comet's age and more detailed origins.

(Reposted from Strange Musings)

No Link Required

2005-07-01T14:22:00.000-05:00

Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has announced her retirement. This makes me wonder whether the election of of President Bush, the selection of Pope Benedict XVI, or the confirmation of Justice XXX will be more influential in world politics of my generation. I'm currently leaning towards Bush b/c of the war in Iraq. The Justice will greatly influence things within this country, but his (pressumedly) influence outside our borders will be more limited. Either Bush or the Justice would affect me persnally more though, we have yet to see which.

Fastest-Growing Cities

2005-06-30T09:13:00.000-05:00

The median price for a single-family home in Gilbert is around $220,000, compared with more than $387,000 in Boston and $641,000 in San Francisco.

--CNN

And I thought Worcester was pricey! Gilbert, AZ is apparently the fastest growing city in the nation. AZ has two cities in the top ten, as does Florida, but California has three.

Gay Marriage Legalizations in the News

2005-06-30T08:49:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, Canada legalized gay marriage (CBC.ca, BBC, becoming the third country to do so after Belgium and the Netherlands. Interestingly to me, US media did not report this.

Today, Spain became the fourth country to do so (CNN, BBC). Even more interestingly, CNN did report this, but called it only the third country to do so. Now, I know the Netherlands is a made-up country, and Canada doesn't count, so shouldn't that make Spain the second country after Belgium?

Cause and Effect: Mecury-based Vaccines and Autism?

2005-06-28T19:39:00.000-05:00

Look at all the cases in which a vaccine containing mercury was followed by a child developing autism!

Her (Sykes') son was a normal, active baby. A photo shows Wesley clutching an Elmo doll, his blue eyes shining and aware. But in a later photo, taken after autism had set in, Wesley stares vacantly next to his smiling brother...

During pregnancy, Sykes had been given a shot to prevent problems from occurring because she and her baby had a mismatched blood factor. Now, she learned that the drug contained thimerosal, which is half mercury. The additive was also in most childhood vaccines, and had been used since the 1930s to prevent bacterial contamination, especially in multidose vials.

...

The afternoon after Kelly Kerns' 2-month-old daughter Kaylee got several vaccines was "living hell," with the child screaming and arching her back, her mother said...

When Kaylee was 18 months old, her white-blonde hair began falling out and she stopped talking. Meanwhile, Kerns had twin boys -- Andrew and Daniel. When they were 15 months old, they received three vaccines. A week later, they stopped talking. All three children have since been diagnosed as autistic.

--CNN

Man, that sounds convincing doesn't it? A pregnant mother or baby gets a vaccine or a treatment with mercury, and BAM! the baby develops autism! Right? Wrong.

There are scientific tests of causation: the problem appears soon after the exposure; the link makes sense biologically; the risk rises as the dose rises; the link is strong and consistent rather than weak or occasional; the problem doesn't occur without the exposure (a test rarely met). [emphasis added]

...

There's a 3 percent to 8 percent recurrence rate of autism in families and the disorder is four times more common in boys -- more suggestion of a genetic link.

Take a look at the bolded stuff. That means in order to prove that vaccines are causing it, we have to check that kids who don't get vaccines don't get autism. Well, we can't really do that in the US. So we have to check if as kids have more vaccines more of them get autism. This study hasn't been done. Nothing is proven. Not only have they NOT proven mercury's it, there's a more plausable explanation available - genetic factors - so we shouldn't resort to something we haven't yet tested.

Here's an example: say that every time you eat coconut cookies you get the runs. What's the reason? If you said coconut, you're wrong: it could also be flour, or sugar, or any of a number of other ingredients. It could be that you always eat them with milk and you're actually lactose intollerant. There's a lot of things that have to be tested before you can say anything conclusively. That's why everything in science is just a "theory," from evolution to gravity.

Woo-HOO!

2005-06-28T10:24:00.000-05:00

OTTAWA, Ontario (Reuters) -- Canada's Parliament was set Tuesday to approve legislation that will allow same-sex marriages across the country, despite fierce opposition from conservative legislators and religious groups.

A majority of parliamentarians support the legislation, which would make Canada only the third country after Belgium and the Netherlands to allow gay marriages.

--CNN

My parents once asked me why I was so strongly in support of gay marriage when I myself am straight. I replied because of them. Specifically, their marriage. Mom is Chinese while Dad is Jewish. Different races. I believe they were married in 1965 (maybe 1968 at the latest), while miscegenation was struck down in 1967. Interpretted most broadly, miscegenation laws could have prevented their marriage.

Of course, conservatives would argue that the two are not the same thing. Gay marriage is against God, and straight marriage is for the purpose of having children. Well, they used to say interracial marriage was against God too, and I don't know about your parents, but mine never took a pregnancy or fertility test before they got married. Heck, they didn't even have me until some 10-13 years after marriage. They did not marry with the purpose of having kids. And if marriage's main purpose is to have kids, why not let the gay couples adopt all the children that weren't aborted?

Hm, I wonder if Christian conservatives would also consider it a sin for single parents to adopt.

Psychiatry Pseudo-science?

2005-06-27T19:08:00.000-05:00

I may feel psychiatry is a soft-science (primarily due to the qualitative nature), but not even I go so far as to call it a pseudo-science. Tom Cruise, however, uses his pseudo-religion to justify it.

"Before I was a Scientologist, I never agreed with psychiatry," Cruise said. "And when I started studying the history of psychiatry, I understood more and more why I didn't believe in psychology. ... And I know that psychiatry is a pseudo science."

Disputing the effectiveness of antidepressants generally, Cruise said, "all it does is mask the problem." He added, "There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance."

--CNN

Pregnant cancer mother kept alive

2005-06-27T13:03:00.000-05:00

Interestingly, I support this case. I find myself dissecting my own feelings. A 26-year-old pregnant woman had terminal cancer, which caused a brain hemmorage in the last few days. She was 17 weeks pregnant, and the child must be carried to 25 weeks for the potential preemie to have a good chance to survive.

The woman, Susan Torres, is brain dead, and is only being kept alive by a ventilator. To me, she is dead. Seventeen weeks of pregnancy is around 4 months, and the embryo is not yet able to sustain itself outside the womb, even with an incubator. To me, the baby is not yet alive.

And yet...

Husband Jason Torres, 26, decided to keep his wife, with whom he has a two-year-old son, on life-support after doctors determined that she would not recover.

He said it is what his wife would have wanted. "We definitely didn't talk about this situation," he told local media.

"I just know that Susan would walk through hell and back to save her child, and give her child a chance."

-- BBC

Hubble does it again

2005-06-23T17:30:00.000-05:00

A picture of Fomalhaut's dust ring shows that it's off center by half the size of our solar system. Such a large offset means there's something else massive in the system, while anything as big as a brown dwarf or bigger would be visible to the HST. Therefore, it's a planet!

Man, I'm going to miss Hubble when she dies. We all are. We can only hope that the JWST honors her memory well.

Mainstreaming Webcomics?

2005-06-22T09:10:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post recently ran an article on webcomics!

His firm (Keenspot) grossed more than $285,000 last year, Crosby said, up from $188,475 in 2003. More than half came from advertising last year and the rest from merchandise, print comic sales and an ad-free premium version of the site. The company shares half its net revenue with artists, allocating it based on how many readers viewed their work. Crosby said the company has been profitable for several years, though it is not yet paying its four co-owners what he called a "livable wage."

--The Washington Post

So they made $285k, gave half to the artists, leaving $142.5 for operating costs and salary to the four co-owners. Doesn't seem unreasonable to me that they might have $100k for the salaries, or $25k each. Since when is that not a livable wage in South Dakota? Heck, as a grad student I lived on $14k in Massachusetts, and some international students were feeding their whole family on that. Frickin' whiners.

Solar Sails a Reality!

2005-06-21T20:10:00.000-05:00

The Planetary Society, a non-profit club with the mission statement to explore other planets, is sponsoring the first ever solar sail, and it's launching tomorrow! Much like a normal sail uses the push of the air to propel a boat, a solar sail uses the push of photons (light particles) to propel the payload (spaceship). I haven't yet heard proposals of "tacking against the solar wind"; I think the light pressure is too low to allow this, but perhaps in the future we'll figure out how. In other words, it's a one-way trip away from our sun. The payload has to be superlight, so the ship will not be carrying any fuel to return--we don't yet know how to get such ships back!

Update!
Apparently some amount of "tacking against the sun" is possible. I think the plan is to keep Cosmos 1 in orbit around the Earth, and use tacking to alter its orbit occasionally as a proof-of-concept.

BBC

Rest in Peace?

2005-06-21T08:49:00.000-05:00

TAMPA, Florida (AP) -- The cremated remains of Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman who died after her feeding tube was removed in March, were buried Monday in a Clearwater cemetery.

A marker says Terri Schiavo "departed this Earth" February 25, 1990, and that she was was "at peace" March 31, 2005.
--CNN

The Schindlers are of course pissed because they didn't get an invitation to the funeral. At least they're not bitching about her being cremated b/c they wanted a second opinion on the autopsy. Perhaps they're just using the report?

Military Recruiting and NCLB

2005-06-18T13:19:00.000-05:00

Among all the other fervor and complaints over No Child Left Behind, one that's been overlooked until now is that schools are required to give students' information to military recruiting agents.

A provision of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act requires school districts to provide military recruiters with student phone numbers and addresses or risk losing millions in federal education funding. Parents or students 18 and over can "opt out" by submitting a written request to keep the information private.
--CNN

The main objections are regarding the aggressive and sometimes deceitful recruiting practices of the military, and the probability that recruiters will target people of color and low income districts as said students are less likely to attend college after high school. The ACLU is suing the Albuquerque (NM) public schools for not informing the parents of the opt-out.

My concern is regarding privacy, and more specifically, how do the schools confirm the identity of the recruiter before releasing the students' sensitive identifying information? What if a serial pedophile decided to try some more flavors and dropped by an army surplus store on his way to an area high school? Or what if an identity thief wanted to open some new credit card accounts? If I had kids, I'd opt them out and grill the principal on how s/he releases the information on top of that!

Evangelicals Gone Wild!!!

2005-06-17T17:43:00.000-05:00

It intrigues me that we don't report this in the American media, but the BBC does.

Apparently there is strong religious intolerance, bullying and discrimination at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado being performed by Evangelicals against people of ANY other religion or denomination.

Mr Weinstein said 117 people had given him examples of abuse. Only eight of them were Jewish, he said - the rest were Catholics, Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian and Methodist.
--BBC

"Ted Haggard, president of the 30-million-member National Association of Evangelicals," whose headquarters is practically across the street from the Academy, counters that the Evangelicals are just expressing their freedom of speech. I'm sure if Jehova's Witnesses started knocking on his door every day he'd be picking different words to describe it.

Spanish Civil Marriage Laws Revamped

2005-06-17T17:23:00.000-05:00

MPs in Spain have drawn up a marriage contract for use in civil ceremonies which obliges men to share household chores and the care of children and elderly family members.
--BBC

Unfortunately, I think the BBC's usually good, in-depth, reporting has been somewhat marred by this one. What they missed is the opportunity to comment on the fact that this law only affects CIVIL marriages. Spain is a predominantly Catholic country--80%, according to Wikipedia--meaning that I expect at least 80% of the marriages in the country to be religious ceremonies, and therefore not bound by a civil marriage contract. 93.4% follow some religion, leaving only some 6.6% likely to have civil marriages.

Two other comments: I hope that standing civil marriages are grandfathered in, because some people might have chosen NOT to marry if that were the requirement. And I wonder if the law obliges women to take 50% of the house chores? That'd be a bummer for me. :-P

Skeptical Science?

2005-06-17T09:15:00.000-05:00

And here's another article about her (Schiavo's) skeptical parents. I can't help but apply the criteria of science to their claims, the one of choice being falsafiability: they need to identify a condition under which they'd realize they were wrong. I guess they never orginally agreed to accept the autopsy report, so at least they haven't blatently changed their minds.

Denial of Science

2005-06-16T18:45:00.000-05:00

The collective brain of Americans is rapidly atrophying, much as Terri Schiavo's did after her collapse circa 1990.

An autopsy on Terri Schiavo backed her husband’s contention that she was in a persistent vegetative state, finding that she had massive and irreversible brain damage and was blind, the medical examiner’s office said Wednesday. It also found no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused.

Regardless of the autopsy findings, the Schindlers continue to believe their daughter was not in a persistent vegetative state, their lawyer, David Gibbs III, said after Thogmartin’s report was issued. He said they plan to discuss the autopsy with other medical experts and may take some unspecified legal action.

--MSNBC (pointed out to me by Unofischal)

Might as well believe the Earth is 6,000 years old while you're at it. I understand her parents' grief may lead to denial for a period of time, but it's been 15 years. Next thing you know they'll be saying that God made it appear that her brain had shrunk to test unbelievers.

Half a Mind

2005-06-16T00:20:00.000-05:00

I find it fascinating that with a brain mass half that of a normal adult human, Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegitative state and blind. My pet cockatiel, Peeper, has a brain way less than one tenth the size of a human, and yet she has decent vision, definitely responds to stimuli (though more often with a yell than a smile), and can feed herself (as long as I provide the food or she finds it on the floor), though I wouldn't say she can improve any with therapy. Humans supposedly only use one tenth of their brain capability, and yet reducing the size to half the norm renders us incapable of function. This probably means that the "tenth" we use is evenly distributed throughout the brain, and it's not that we can isolate the parts that are useful.

This is all, of course, no evidence either way whether cessation of life support was justified. The parents' (the Schindlers') main argument that she responded to them and could improve with treatment is definitely undermined, but the science behind Schiavo's atrophied brain says nothing about morality--science is not equipped to make value judgements.

I read in a BBC article quite some time ago about the feeding tube. While I usually think of it as being something that snakes down the patient's throat (nasal or nasogastric feeding tube--it actually goes in through the nose), in Schiavo's case they actually poked a hole into her stomach and "fed" her directly like that.

Pope John Paul II had a nasal feeding tube inserted three days prior to his death (NPR timeline). The Roman Catholic church's stance is that food is a basic right that should not be denied to anyone. Refusing to feed someone (Terri Schiavo) is murder. Refusing food for yourself is suicide.

An NPR article I heard (I can't find the link, but these two are related:NPR1 and NPR2) argued that the "food" inserted into feeding tubes is a carefully formulated blend that has more in common with medicine than things "normal" people eat.

Interesting, it appears that the church's stance on medicine is different than that on food. Medicine is a mercy, but not a requirement. If you don't administer medicine, you're cruel and evil, but not a murderer. If you refuse medicine for yourself, it is not suicide, just refusal of extraordinary measures which could very well be against the will of God anyway. Also on NPR (can't find a reference for it--let me know if you have one), I heard that prior to his death Pope John Paul II refused kidney dialysis treatment. I do have a reference for the fact that two days before his death, when running a high fever, he "was neither rushed to the hospital, nor offered life support, apparently in accordance with his wishes to die in the Vatican" (BBC).

Ponder that for a while.

Chances are...

2005-06-14T15:56:00.000-05:00

Someone needs to explain to the Pennsylvania Lottery that this woman's chance of winning the lottery the first time also depended upon how many tickets she bought in a year, and not just the second time.

31-year-old poses as teenager

2005-06-13T10:01:00.000-05:00

Bourdin was jailed in the US in 1997 for posing as a couple's long-lost son.

The Texas couple's 14-year-old blue-eyed son had disappeared three years earlier and they travelled to the US embassy in Spain to meet "Nicholas Barclay".

Bourdin convinced them that he was their son, despite his brown eyes and strong French accent.
--CNN

Is Bourdin just that good, or are Texans just that stupid? You decide!

US Army News

2005-06-09T10:44:00.000-05:00

It's intriguing what makes news in the US (via CNN) vs in Britain (via the BBC). A frontpage CNN article today talked about the horror of not making recruiting goals. Yesterday, the BBC ran an article that not only covered that in detail, but more importantly pointed out the rising divorce rate among army officers especially.

I was tempted to comment on the BBC article yesterday, but CNN ignoring that fact cinched the deal. Interesting that the conservatives are up in arms about how Massachusetts gays are going to destabilize marriage, while their own actions are doing a fine job of it on their own--WITH the statistics to back me up, which they don't have about gay marriage.

In the year to September 2002, 1.9% of percent of married Army officers got divorced, along with 3.1% of married enlisted soldiers, according to Pentagon figures cited by Reuters.

In 2003, when the Iraq war began, the figure for officers rose to 3.3% while for enlisted soldiers it fell to 2.8%.

The following year, the figures were 6% and 3.5% respectively.

The military said time spent away from a family, the strains of warfare, and problems readjusting to home life were all factors in the marriage break-ups.
--BBC

It's raining body parts!

2005-06-08T11:22:00.000-05:00

The totally blase attitude of the cops, airline, and woman whose back yard the arm fell into are what makes this article so eerie.

More human remains were found in the aircraft's wheel-well, which is not heated or pressurised, so chances of surviving a long flight are negligible...

It appears the body was crushed by the wheel mechanism as it opened its gears...

SAA say the return flight to Dakar and Johannesburg has been delayed in order to repair the minor damage to the aircraft.

Supersize Me!

2005-06-08T11:12:00.000-05:00

McDonald's is giving Ronnie a make-over. He's actually being put on a diet, believe it or not. The BBC article also has a nice related slideshow "McDonald's at 50."

And in case you don't get the title of this post, even after viewing the BBC slideshow, check out the movie's IMDB listing and then go rent it. It's pretty freaky.

Murderer Enters US with Bloody Chainsaw

2005-06-08T09:11:00.000-05:00

Well, technically he hasn't gone to trial yet, so he's still just a suspect.

On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood...

The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres' hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on Fulton's kitchen floor. His head was in a pillowcase under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom.

Despres, 22, immediately became a suspect because of a history of violence between him and his neighbors, and he was arrested April 27 after police in Massachusetts saw him wandering down a highway in a sweat shirt with red and brown stains. He is now in jail in Massachusetts on murder charges, awaiting an extradition hearing next month.

He claims to work for NASA, too.

Life

2005-06-08T09:01:00.000-05:00

Why is it ok to tamper with God's will when He doesn't want people to have children, but not ok when He does?

Stephanie Yarber, 25, gave birth Monday night to a 7 pound, 15 ounce girl named Anna, said her sister, Melanie Morgan. It was the sister who donated the ovarian tissue that made Yarber fertile.

"It's a wonderful thing," Morgan said Tuesday, characterizing the successful procedure as a "partnership with God, my sister and me."

--CNN

Maybe in both cases the person is ignoring God's will, but abortion is worse because it's ending a life, "thou shalt not murder," and all that.

Bush and Kerry's College Grades

2005-06-07T19:43:00.000-05:00

Although CNN tells us the GPAs of both Bush and Kerry while contemporaries at Yale University, and describes in detail how the grading system changed after Kerry graduated, between Bush's junior and senior years, the article neglects to mention what their majors were. At Alfred, it was a cliche that the validictorians and salutatorians always came from one of two majors: Ceramic Engieers (because they worked their asses off to get perfect 4.0s), or Business students (because the courses were just that easy).

I'd really like to compare the full transcripts of both Bush and Kerry, as well as receiving letters of reference and a statement of their philosophy of politics. --oh wait... this isn't the faculty search committee I'm currently on...

Death Row Scholarship

2005-06-07T19:36:00.000-05:00

CNN reports that the brother of a child rape/murder victim has received a five thousand dollar college scholarship from Catholic fund-raising death row inmates. The student, Zach Osborne, plans to become a police officer, has forgiven his sister's rapist/killer, and thinks that the death penalty is a just punishment for him.

Among the others who have received a scholarship is Brandon Biggs, whose father was hit by a car in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2001. His father was stuck in the windshield, and left to die despite his pleas for help.

How bizzare...

Dolphins learn to use tools

2005-06-06T19:08:00.000-05:00

Anyone remember what the name of the organization was in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series that advocated for intelligent creatures that don't have hands?

A group of dolphins living off the coast of Australia apparently teach their offspring to protect their snouts with sponges while foraging for food in the sea floor. ...
"Cultural evolution, including tool use, is not only found in humans and our closest relatives, the primates, but also in animals that are evolutionally quite distant from us. This convergent evolution is what is so fascinating," said ... Michael Kruetzen, lead author of a report on the dolphins in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

I don't know if I'm more impressed at the tool-use, or the teaching.

Indulging Your Fantasies

2005-06-05T19:05:00.000-05:00

Indulging your fantasies can be dangerous. Many would say that S&M is one of those fantasies. However, the BDSM (bondage & discipline / dominance & submission / sadism & masochism) community would argue that for a well-trained and respectful pair, the worst threat is interference from the cops.

(German) Police stopped the car after a concerned caller told them he had seen a woman locking someone in the trunk. However, on opening it, they were greeted by the sight of the 39-year-old man wearing nothing but a leather thong and a collar. ...

Deciding the rear of the car was not safe for the man, officers told him to sit inside the car and sent the pair on their way.

Man, German cops're so much more progressive than their American counterparts. Keep in mind, that Germany is also where a man took out an online ad and successfully found another man to chop off his penis, cook, and eat it, and the defense's argument that the "victim" was in his right mind so it was legal assisted suicide resulted in a verdict of only manslaughter. They're planning to appeal.

Save Our Ship!

2005-05-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

Human trafficers abandoned a ship full of teenagers, mothers, and children in the ocean off of Costa Rica. Amazingly, their message in a bottle was intercepted and emergency supplies and personel have been dispatched to help them.

The migrants are now on the island and awaiting the arrival of a ship with food and medical supplies. ... A doctor and an immigration official are also being sent to the island.

I liked the implicit statement that beaureaucrats are essential to a competent rescue operation.

Where do you want your ass-rape?

2005-05-31T10:49:00.000-05:00

A Kentucky judge is giving repeat drug and alcohol offenders the choice to attend "worship services" instead of rehab. Can I worship my bottle?

CNN Article

News Unfit: All the news that's unfit to print!

2005-05-25T21:43:00.000-05:00

I comment so often on stupid news stories, that I figured I'd launch a separate blog just for them. To start off, here's a post I just put over at Strange Musings, my main blog. From now on, I'll separate them out to here only.

All the time we read bizzare articles, such as the 21-year-old drunk driver who struck his passenger's head off on a telephone pole, didn't notice, continued to drive home, passed out on his parents' couch, and the next morning was rudely awoken from his hangover by a neighbor who discovered his best friend's headless body in the truck. Only rarely do we hear about the sentencing: vehicular homicide resulting in 5 years in prison. I wonder if they revoked his license.