obiterdicta

What McCain campaign wants you to think

2008-09-14T13:58:00.001-06:00

What McCain campaign wants you to think about:PalinLipstick on a pigFearTerrorWarCulture warsObama's funny nameBridges to nowhere (supported or otherwise)Airplanes on ebay (not personally places there or otherwise)What they don't want you to think about:The economy

Insight

2008-08-15T06:26:00.001-06:00

There was some great insight I had on waking up this morning that I cannot recall at all. It is quite funny how that happens. I am having a brilliant insight and then like it never happened - poof. Reminds me of smoking pot. Great insights - all meaningless. I know... I'm getting older (that is of course humordamnit) It's funny, I just read that the American women took the gold and silver in

Recent climate articles - may (never) read

2008-06-07T05:32:00.001-06:00

Here are a couple of potentially interesting articles. Not sure if I'll get a chance to read them anytime soon though.GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, L11701, doi:10.1029/2008GL033273, 2008 http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2008/2008GL033273.shtmlIs the observed NAO variability during the instrumental

20 Things The Millionaire Next Door Does NOT Do

2008-04-23T20:16:00.001-06:00

Stop thinking of money as stuff, as friends, as escape. Start thinking of it as storage for your future needs especially as a buffer in emergencies. clipped from www.marcandangel.comPay for Lawn ServiceGo to a Hair StylistUse Time as a Measurement for SuccessBuy Brand New CarsCarry a Monthly Credit Card

Program Yourself

2008-01-27T15:16:00.001-07:00

this is cRaZy! (in chris tucker's voice) clipped from www.youtube.com

its like a hard drive

2007-11-02T09:41:00.001-06:00

Joe: They can fail catastrophically. Bob: What can? Joe: Hard drives. Bob: Funny that. Joe: What’s that? Bob: That something called a hard drive can fail catastrophically. I mean if it’s so hard... Joe: Not surprising to me. Bob: Why is that? Joe: Well if you look in nature you will find that the more rigid something is the more likely it will fail

Subprime Meltdown

2007-10-19T15:03:00.001-06:00

Gretchen Morgenson has some interesting things to say about Greenspan. clipped from www.npr.orgFresh Air from WHYY, October 10, 2007 · Pulitzer Prize-winning business columnist Gretchen Morgenson talks about the subprime mortgage crisis and its effects on the markets and on the economy. Morgenson, an assistant

What Killed the Mammoth

2007-10-19T14:59:00.001-06:00

What led to the late Pleistocene extinction of North American Megafauna? The old theory was hunting by the newly arrived human population. But now... clipped from www.sciencefriday.comOne team of scientists thinks it knows what killed the woolly mammoth and other ice-age creatures. In a paper published this week

Winning the Cancer War

2007-10-19T14:54:00.001-06:00

clipped from www.sciencefriday.comIn this segment, Ira talks with cancer researcher Robert Weinberg about what he calls the last frontier of cancer research. Weinberg has been instrumental in studies of oncogenes, genes that can spark the rapid cell multiplication associated with cancerous tumors. Now, in two

Biotech: Printing Living Cells

2007-10-19T14:52:00.001-06:00

clipped from www.sciencefriday.comIn this segment, we'll look at new research into using inkjet technology to build artificial tissues. Writing in the journal Science, Paul Calvert describes efforts to convert the common home office technology of inkjet printing to manipulate living cells. Using printing

"God has something to say to you!"

2007-10-04T19:33:00.001-06:00

clipped from scienceblogs.comGod has something to say to you!

Health: Reduce High-glycaemic food intake

2007-09-21T05:31:00.001-06:00

clipped from news.bbc.co.ukA diet rich in potatoes, white bread and white rice may be contributing to a "silent epidemic" of a dangerous liver condition."High-glycaemic" foods - rapidly digested by the body - could be causing "fatty liver", increasing the risk of serious illness.The study, carried out at Boston

NASA: Near Earth Object Program

2007-09-15T14:42:00.001-06:00

clipped from neo.jpl.nasa.govThe following table lists potential future Earth impact events thatthe JPL Sentry System has detected based on currently availableobservations. Click on the object designation to go to apage with full details on that object.Recently Observed Objects(within past 60 days)Object

Greenspan: Clinton Good, Bush Bad

2007-09-15T06:49:00.001-06:00

clipped from www.washingtonpost.comAlan Greenspan, who served as Federal Reserve chairman for 18 years and was the leading Republican economist for the past three decades, levels unusually harsh criticism at President Bush and the Republican Party in his new book, arguing that Bush abandoned the central

NYC: Scooters a congestion solution?

2007-08-26T04:40:00.001-06:00

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Scooter riders say the small but sometimes noisy vehicles are the best answer to a dreary subway commute or, even better, to the traffic congestion that chokes New York streets."But it's fun, I'm outside, it's great and quicker than being stuck in a traffic jam.""Think of the money I'm

China: Environmental Cost of Rapid Growth

2007-08-26T04:27:00.001-06:00

Grim.Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.Environmental woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun;

Drop Foreseen in Median Price of U.S. Homes

2007-08-26T04:15:00.001-06:00

clipped from www.nytimes.comThe median price of American homes is expected to fall this year for the first time since federal housing agencies began keeping statistics in 1950.

Getting Shrill?

2007-08-05T15:01:00.001-06:00

Clinton? Obama? Edwards?Nope, Newt Gingrich clipped from talkingpointsmemo.com"We're about to enter the seventh year of this phony war...and we're losing.""How can we tolerate systems more likely to send young Americans to prison than college?""Republicans have this maniacally dumb idea of Red versus Blue. They

Failed Bridges & Failed Presidents

2007-08-03T10:54:00.001-06:00

What link is there between the two bridges in the pictures above? The one on the top is the bridge that crosses the Mississippi in Minneapolis that suddenly collapsed, the other is a bridge that crosses the Tigris in Baghdad. What is the link you ask? Failure of leadership is the link. Our government is going heavily into debt yet that debt isn't even being spent on "capital", on the

Raw Material

2007-07-18T11:37:00.000-06:00

Ah the raw material. The blank page. I can create a universe here! One where I get to be king (if I were so ego inclined that is.) But what is wrong with the ego? One issue with the ego-centric world is the approach to nature and the environment. With ego-centrism one builds an internal me versus the world structure of thinking. From that structure follows an “us versus nature” battle.

Taking sides as a team

2007-06-08T15:57:00.000-06:00

I remember walking down the curved street DC on my way to work. I remember during the election of 1984 how I used to put up Reagan stickers and some other person kept replacing them with Mondale stickers. I would in turn replace them with Reagan stickers. I also remember how I used to think it was funny the way that the Mondale stickers, when exposed to sunlight, would turn red. But what I

WikiMindMap

2007-06-05T12:59:00.001-06:00

An actual, useful web2.0 tool. Imagine that. clipped from communicationnation.blogspot.com WikiMindMap 1. It's a mind map program2. It's 100% online3. It searches any term on Wikipedia and automatically creates a mindmapYes it's true and it's very cool. Check it out. clipped from www.wikimindmap.orgclipped from www.edge.orgSATURN BACKLIT BY THE SUNSteven Pinker One of these days, Edge may want to run this photo, which planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, leader of the Imaging Team for the Cassini mission to Saturn, showed us

Criminal Animal-Rights Activists: Terrorists?

2007-05-23T12:25:00.001-06:00

If the action of the person was driven by the desire to intimidate others with the threat of physical harm, is that not terrorism? Yet, not one of these actions have resulted in the physical harm of anybody. Yet. clipped from www.nature.comEquating animal-rights activism with terrorism increases the penalties for

Darwin Sceptic: 'views cost tenure'

2007-05-23T12:17:00.001-06:00

clipped from www.nature.comHe's a young astronomer with dozens of articles in top journals; he has made an important discovery in the field of extrasolar planets; and he is a proponent of intelligent design, the idea that an intelligent force has shaped the Universe. It's that last fact that Guillermo Gonzalez