Where science and politics intersect, a few quick hits:
1. CO2 is good for the environment.
The man behind the latest entry to the climate legislation wars is H. Leighton Steward, a veteran oil industry executive, co-author of the “Sugar Busters!” dieting books, and winner of an Environmental Protection Agency award for a report on damage being done to Mississippi wetlands. Now retired, he says he wants to “get the message out there” that carbon dioxide, which the Supreme Court has ruled a pollutant and which most scientists regard as a dangerous greenhouse gas, “is a net benefit for the planet.”
…
This week, a group of large corporations — including New Mexico utility PNM Resources, California utility PG&E, power generator Exelon and Nike — denounced the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s opposition to climate legislation.
PNM said it would let its membership in the Chamber lapse at the end of the year. “At PNM Resources, we see climate change as the most pressing environmental and economic issue of our time,” the company said in a statement.
2. All of a sudden we’re not allowed to buy ecstasy with tax money?
The peer review system requires that the project address “an important problem,” but some of the grants “do not seem to meet this standard,” the letter says. It points to four examples: one looking at whether dragon boat racing helps women who have survived cancer, and three others studying drug or alcohol abuse among sex workers in Thailand, in a Native American tribe, and at rave parties in Brazil. The congressman ask for details of peer review for the 12 grants, including scores given by individual peer reviewers, the so-called overall impact score, and the number of grants the panel reviewed. Impact scores, which reflect the overall quality of a grant, are normally known tp only NIH staff and the applicant.
3. Mouth swab…aaaaand you’re from Peoria!
The Border Agency�s DNA-testing plans would use mouth swabs for mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome testing, as well as analyses of subtle genetic variations called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). One goal of the project is to determine whether asylum-seekers claiming to be from Somalia and fleeing persecution are actually from another African country such as Kenya.
…
Although the agency hasn�t detailed the isotopes it is examining, the use of hair and nail samples suggest the tests will look at �lighter� element isotopes, such as those of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, all of which are incorporated into the keratin and other proteins as those tissues grow. Isotopes of strontium and other �heavier� elements incorporate into bones and teeth throughout life and some evidence suggests that strontium measurements can match people to geographic locales in which they were born, or at least grew up. In contrast, the lighter isotopes in tissues such as hair and nails being collected by the Border Agency are typically used to reveal recent diets and climatic conditions, not ethnicity.
Also:
�I don�t think I could tell the difference between a Kenyan and a Somalian,�
What, all brown people(‘s mtDNA) look the same to you?� Freakin’ racist.
4. The Wahhabi Institute of Technology
The multi-billion dollar project is a graduate institution with designs on crashing a list of the world’s top 20 research universities.� It’s a tall order for a school that sits on a 32 sq. km. slab of desert that hugs the Red Sea north of Jeddah, the country’s second largest city. But the 70-odd scientists that form the founding faculty�along with 400 students who began classes on 5 September�won’t be lacking for money or equipment.
The king has put his considerable power and authority behind the university, a message reinforced by holding the inaugural ceremony on the country’s National Day holiday. He’s hoping that KAUST will help to move the country from an oil-based to a knowledge-based economy, a task that the university’s president, Choon Fong Shih, expresses with a simple formula: “Hire the best minds and find practical applications for their discoveries.”
Clowns in space!
What, no giant cannon?
I can just see it … the LEM touches down on the moon … the hatch opens … and 37 clowns pile out of it and start waddling around in over-sized moon boots.
4. It will be interesting to see how many of the “best minds” they’re able to lure. I know they’re throwing a ton of money around, but committing to live in Saudi Arabia for x years is a pretty dramatic life decision.
It is, particularly if you are from a western culture and wish to raise a family. It’s not something that I would do, that’s for sure. I’ve visited the country before and without saying too much in a public forum, I don’t think I’d like to go back. There were aspects that I enjoyed (their KFC equivalent was delicious!), but many more that I didn’t (women leaving an elevator because I got on, having to accompany my mother everywhere).
I have had colleagues travel to KAUST during the planning stages and they felt…odd, to say the least, even for a short visit. Non-Saudi friends who grew up in Saudi Arabia due to ex-pat fathers didn’t particularly care for it either.
Having said that, ex-pats who work there can often do so on compounds that require little or no interaction with Saudi culture.
My father worked briefly in Saudi Arabia (>1 year) when my sister and I were young. Rather than take us to the compound, my folks decided that mom would take us wee ones to Pakistan for the duration. Good choice; I wonder how our lives would have been different if we had all gone. Would my dad have found it more bearable with his family around and decided to stay longer? Would I in KAUST’s inaugural class?
Related story:
My father took the family on a trip to the middle east many years ago. It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, the kind of thing my dad wanted to do for years but never could for a variety of reasons. With both my sister and I planning to move out soon, my dad decided to go for it. We went to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Egypt. A great vacation, lots of really interesting and historical sites, and a religious experience for my sister and parents.
When it was over, I was glad we went, but was very anxious to get back to the US. I did learn about other cultures, and the key thing I learned was that I preferred the American style of doing…well, everything.
Our flight landed in JFK and we had to claim our bags, go through customs, and check-in for our domestic flight back to SFO. In the line in front of us was a very attractive women wearing a low-cut blouse. One of her bags was too heavy for check-in, so she was frantically tranferring stuff from one bag to the other…leaning way, way over.
Cleavage! Good gravy, I hadn’t seen cleavage like that since we left the US! Long live America! USA! USA! I had never been happier to be an American as I was at that moment.
If you have a family … yeah. I can’t imagine many professor’s wives will want to sign up for that particular adventure.
Where in Pakistan did you live?
We lived in Karachi. I was about a year old. Don’t remember a lick.
I wonder if the school working would have a liberalizing effect (students see that women DON’T need to be escorted everywhere, grow up into Saudi elite, change rules) or if that’s too much wishful thinking in a repressive non-democratic environment.
My non-informed expectation is that it’s wishful thinking. I believe that most of the political elite are from prominent families and not academic or business leaders (I could be wrong). Plus, many of the faculty will be foreign and I suspect they won’t be afforded a voice in national policy and dicourse. Finally – and I’m loathe to say this, as a frequent basher of hum
stupid FK, what kind of crappy site did you bulid nm?
…of humanities and social “sciences” – but I doubt that a bunch of MEMs research will have the same liberalizing effect of the books, novels, critical essays, op-eds, etc. that you might expect from a historian.
The kind with a bloviation blocker…
You might well be right. I just can’t imagine that, if this place has a culture similar to other elite institutions of the world that students will come out thinking that harsh repression is a good way to live.
No, but they probably will come out of the university…and leave the country.
I suppose so. Of course, in that case why establish the university in the first place?
The university, and therefore the state, will own a shit-ton of IP.
Also, education aside, you can think of it as a government research lab, like NIST/NREL/NIH/LLNL etc, where the research is used to further the national interest in energy, defense, health, etc.
Touche
That’s all my cynical opinion, of course. I could be (hope I am) wrong.
Okay, left- or right-brainers, since most of you have given-up on sex — howsabout this for an article of universal interest?
He’s gotta be in the running for “most expensive items by weight”
The headline said, “Rollins: Haters of America still out there. I excitedly clicked, expecting Jimmy Rollins. I was wrong/
and I, quite honestly, was expecting Henry, and was equally surprised.
Um…
Education: now available for right-wing douche bags!
Since you’d ruled out Jimmy I naturally assumed Henry. Also wrong.
Henry would have been even more awesome, but seemed so unlikely that it never crossed my mind.
Sonny? Henry? Oh, him.
Science news you can use.
A couple reactions:
1. I bet “curing a headache” is when they’re already in a relationship.
2. SSS on the wife wants sex but husband doesn’t poll?
3. So much for the “friend zone” analysis. That, or they’re lying.
The first 10 days of Planck data (superimposed on an image of the sky at optical wavelengths)
What does the color map represent?
Fluctuations in the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (except in the galactic plane, where the CMB is overwhelmed by dust emission).
Awesome!
Yup – especially knowing that we’ve definitely got 1 and likely 2.5 years more data to come.
4. They should have called it the Wahhabi Technology Foundation
WWF
awesome
This is better.
1. Sexing up college course titles.
Among them:
– The Scarlet Whore of Babylon
– Enlightenment Cliche Enemas for Political Prisoners
– Orgies, Assassinations, and Karma, Baby
2. Even if you can’t get into Stanford, you still need a degree, but you could probably do without the “experience”:
3. Cell phones + texting + driving = 2 9/11’s per year. I urge one of the Kagans to write an op-ed about this emerging threat to the homeland.
4. Somebody needs to setup a mikeA v Putin pay per view spectacular.
5. There is a lot of cruelty in the world.
I liked “Differential Equations” => “The Only Constant is Change”.
4. Are you indirectly calling for the execution of mikeA? Harsh!
5b. What’s objectionable to you: the cost-cutting move to outsource, or the “training” scheme?
The latter.
set SalsComment = replace(SalsComment, ‘training scheme’, ‘lying disrespectful bullshit’)
Both when the cost-cutting really translates to “fails to provide a living wage and sustainable working conditions” and hence “profiteers by throwing a significant fraction of employees basic living costs onto state and federal programs, because they’re obliged to give a damn”.
Einstein v. Oppenheimer: Oppenheimer’s lawyer suggested that he present this game to the HUAC as proof that he was not in league with the reds, but pride fucked with him…
Oh, they’re all ludicrous, aren’t they?
You want science policy? Howzabout $5B for medical research?
I read that.
Hopefully, the NIH will see fit to give the money to, oh, me and not to study drug abuse among Brazilian ravers.
No, it’s stimulus funding — I think that means it’s going to go toward studies of meth addicts.
Who knew that Jan Wahl was a Wockies fan?
“(mysterious)”?
Amazing dinner out last night. JP’s first fine-dining experience.
That place is pretty darn good, although I’ll admit I prefer Allegro Romano.
I’d been wanting to go there for years — been by it dozens of times, and we live just over the hill from it. The service was very good, too — they helped handle JP and his/our needs with aplomb.
Everything was excellent, but the lamb was preposterously good.
My wife and I had the nine course tasting menu here last week, celebrating our eleventh anniversary. Best meal I’ve ever had…by far.
That just went on my list.
More science policy: PG&E and two other utils quit the US Chamber of Commerce over USCC global-warming obstructionism/bamboozlement, Nike and J&J possibly to follow
Dude, did you even read my DLD?
No. Was I supposed to?
I think FK doesn’t talk enough about rape.
So, I know nothing but whisperings of gossip (“He’s out of the country and cannot return because he had sex with a minor.”–he’s obviously a child molester) and what I’ve just read in that article right there.
So, FK, should we have arrested him and be threatening to bring him back here for trial?
I vote yes.
The competition is strong to be sure, but the opening paragraph in Bruce Jenkins’ article on the Warriors today may just be the most moronic words he’s ever penned.
“Mix the inept with the selfish and the immature, and you have Monday’s media day for the Warriors – a day that effectively ended the season. We’re accustomed to preseason doubts surrounding this club, but this is the first 82-game grind to end in September.”
Yes, Golden State is irrevocably doomed because Jackson wonders about playing someone else, and Ellis wonders about their starting lineup. Sell, sell, sell!
In effectively crushing Stephen Curry’s spirit, Monta Ellis showed he’s about as capable of leading a team as a squirrel.
I don’t get that. Are squirrels notoriously bad leaders? Raccoons seem a lot more contentious. As do cats and rats and seagulls, for that matter.
There are other possible interpretations. For instance, he could be talking about Ellis’ ability to lead squirrels. Or his ability to lead the team if he adopted the persona of a squirrel.
I haven’t RTFA (and don’t follow basketball), but what FSU quotes sounds like garden-variety hyperbole to me, which makes it nowhere near the stupidest thing Jenkins has written in his long career of assbackwardness.
The idea of deeming the season doomed based solely on the pre-season media day struck me as especially outrageous.
For my money, it’s hard to beat
It’s hyperbolic, but for Warriors fans who are righteously pissed off at Jackson and Ellis, it was medicine.
And I understand that some people aren’t pissed off at them at all; Tim Kawakami is arguing that they are truth-tellers no less willing to die for the truth than DFA and PT.
But I am pissed off at them, at Jackson in particular. This, from the transcript of the press conference AT MEDIA DAY;
Sure! You’re not stupid. But when athletes sign contracts, isn’t there an implied commitment not only to the management of the franchise, but to the fans of that franchise? I suppose there isn’t, but there should be, and I think we as fans all appreciate players who do respect the bonds they make with the fans of the franchises they play for, and we boo the players who don’t respect those bonds. (We feel the same way about management–thus, the A’s low attendance since the let’s-get-the-hell-out-of-here marketing plan went into effect.)
I suppose that series win over Dallas pulled me into liking these guys more than I’d realized … I only truly realize it now, when I see how disappointed-as-hell I am to see them acting out this badly. Bruce’s hyperbole goes to show that he’s disappointed too; he’s my shoulder to cry on.
P.S. Ratto weighs in (ha ha) on cbssports.com; the A’s make a cameo appearance.
Signing Jackson to an extension was really stupid.
1) He’s not that good.
2) The odds were ~100% that bs like this would happen.
Everything I Know, I Learned From a Squirrel
I’m getting tonto flashbacks.
me wampum big smoke to Warriors game?
I am not good at internet, anyone know when A Serious Man is coming to theaters in norcal?
I think it opens everywhere Friday, no?
Wikipedia says limited release.
bastards. Hmmm….looks like NYC, LA and…Minneapolis. Fucking Coen Brothers.
no. NY and LA; the internet doesn’t know when it will go elsewhere…
stupid internet.
MB, are you perpetually wearing a dunce hat or holding a koosh ball?
I’m not sure if this has been posted yet…
Blowers amazes with uncanny prediction
Mariners broadcaster calls Tuiasosopo’s first home run
The Raiders back-up QB from the early part of this decade hit a home run?
His little brother.
is it really? I was just being smarmy.
Lyes and the lyeing lyers …
I always like to picture Rove torso-deep in a garbage can, which is where the lutefisk usually ends up after holiday gatherings of my extended family.
I’m adding “flooding McHenry’s district with manpower” to the euphemism directory.
Nothing is different! Everything is the same!
Shut up, asshole!
Why does this make me laugh?
Taking from the platelet-rich to give to the platelet-poor
And from each according to his projectability, to each according to his knees.
Just because.
I was just schooled by PT.
(sigh)
needs moar moat
Well, that’s what you get for recklessly undermining the optimal truth-seeking climate (monkeyball’s “TWSS” comment definitely qualifies as a breach of analytical thread decorum as well).
First, your history is off— castles were very rarely attacked, because they were semi-impregnable during the Middle Ages.
I can’t stop laughing …
Analytical thread decorum was very rarely breached, because it was semi-impregnable.
There’s no such thing as semi-impregnant.
But there is such thing as …
I almost jumped on that one, then decided to let it go. I clearly foresaw the battle over the definition of “attacked” that would ensue.
Science Wednesday: In former Soviet Union, DNA continuously repairs you
Related — LB, you and I are going to live forever:
Clearly, those
DominicanCincinattian middle infielders are tipping pitches for Griffey.I thought MaEl was from North Dakota?
This may be sappy, but I just want to throw out that I’m glad FK has turned into what it is. 100 comments a day is nice, and we’ve got a good group (also: clowns).
And midnight commenters!
This only has 99 comments.
Oh, wait.
Needs more vitriol. Dick.
I’ll do an email search; I’ll bet I can find some.
Oh, fer fuck’s sake. Hard drive on my antique secondhand Pismo macbook just died. Eh, guess I got my money’s worth.
Those who are interested in reading the script … this will push things back.
1. I am interested.
2. This is a shamefully transparent stalling tactic.
3. Do you use Final Draft, or just format it manually?
1. Can I have $5?
2. Actually, it was supposed to be a shamefully transparent bleg
3. Word, and format using styles; I’m a big fan of Word
I know a guy… who knows a guy…. who lives in Concord… and charges a lot of money….
You’ve vastly misunderstood Pismo macbooks. They’re semi-impregnable.
So we don’t have to worry about monkey-Pismo chimeras?
not unless they’re immune to +3 weapons and below. Then, we’re screwed. But we would’ve been anyways.
Nor about monkey-A’sfaninPismoBeach chimeras
You mean I shouldn’t have thrown it in the moat?