Swerve Left

Bright minds vs. dark attitudes

2012-01-26T17:31:00.002-05:00

Some of the correlations discussed in my previous posts receive further support from a recent study by Hodson and Busseri (2012). The study suggests that people who give in to racism and prejudice may simply have low cognitive functioning. The research also finds that children with low intelligence tend to hold prejudiced views as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead

Fat, stupid, ignorant, and devout

2012-01-18T15:40:00.020-05:00

Have you ever noticed the odd correlation between conservative views and virtually every negative social trend? Here we have the 2008 electoral map: And here you have recent state comparisons of obesity. As would be expected, the correlation isn't perfect, but it's pretty close. Conservatives (especially those in the staunchly conservative bible-thumpin' south) tends to be fatter. This comes

Happy Year of the Dragon!

2012-01-05T11:44:00.001-05:00

Some reflections on Melancholia and Caprica

2011-12-13T15:20:00.002-05:00

I watched Melancholia over the weekend. For those expecting a sci-fi premise, this is likely to be disappointing, since nearly the entire film focuses on an eccentric bride-to-be's severe depression. The movie gets credit for creativity, I suppose. But I can't say that I loved it. I also recently watched the TV series Caprica on Netflix. I think this is one of the best made-for-tv sci-fi series

The Story of Broke

2011-11-22T00:06:00.002-05:00

OWS and the UC Davis Incident

2011-11-19T22:13:00.000-05:00

I saw some official telling reporters that the police pepper-sprayed the protesters because they were stuck in the circle and couldn't get out. What a bunch of BS. You see the police walking back and forth through the lines without any problem whatsoever. Why is the public being lied to?

Revision ==> That should be the 99.9%

2011-11-04T12:50:00.005-04:00

Paul Krugman recently wrote an excellent piece on income inequality titled "Oligarchy, American Style." The following is an excerpt from the last part of the article: The budget office report tells us that essentially all of the upward redistribution of income away from the bottom 80 percent has gone to the highest-income 1 percent of Americans. That is, the protesters who portray themselves as

Bringing crisis to the wealthy

2011-10-17T14:09:00.001-04:00

A rightwing family member just sent me a clip of a Lerner talk as an example of how the unions are taking over America and want to destroy the economy. (Wasn't Lerner fired from the SEIU? Anyway...) As is always the case, if something pushes buttons for those on the right, it probably has some merit. I think Lerner's on to something when he talks about creating a crisis for the rich. Much of the

50/50 and Contagion

2011-10-16T14:28:00.002-04:00

Last week, I watched 50/50 and Contagion. The two movies offer a telling contrast. With 50/50, you have a movie without high-salary mega-stars dealing with an issue (cancer) that isn't a typical part of comedic fare, but the the producers and actors pull it off brilliantly. This one is definitely worth seeing. I don't know if I would classify it as a pure comedy (in the sense of a farce) since

Zizek at Liberty Plaza

2011-10-13T12:18:00.000-04:00

Zizek showed up at the OWS protest in Liberty Plaza to give a talk. I'd recommend listening to the film clip.

Them that curse you

2011-10-04T10:26:00.001-04:00

The Occupy Wall Street protesters must be doing something right. They've been labeled as Nazi's by some of the circus clowns on the right including the greatest clowness of them all--Ann Coulter. Since the right seems to be willing to defend people's right to own and sell guns--whether or not the person is psychotic or is selling boxes of guns to drug runners--it's beyond me why a peaceful group

Wall Street Protests

2011-10-02T19:50:00.000-04:00

The Wall Street protests are exciting. This is exactly where the protests should be. The coddling of the wealthy in the U.S. is obscene. Arun Gupta's open letter: What is occurring on Wall Street right now is truly remarkable. For over 10 days, in the sanctum of the great cathedral of global capitalism, the dispossessed have liberated territory from the financial overlords and their police

The movie we're all waiting to see

2011-09-18T21:46:00.004-04:00

Another hot and humid day on HD85512b

2011-09-12T18:09:00.000-04:00

We really need to get some better telescopes up in space so that we can start to see the surface of planets outside our solar system. In the latest news, astronomers have discovered a new potentially habitable planet--HD85512b, closely orbiting a star about 35 light-years from Earth in the constellation Vela. For it to be habitable, at least 60 percent of it would have to be covered in clouds (

Robert Reich's Labor Day reflections

2011-08-30T08:14:00.006-04:00

This excellent article deserves posting in its entirety. This Labor Day We Need Protest Marches Rather than Parades Labor Day is traditionally a time for picnics and parades. But this year is no picnic for American workers, and a protest march would be more appropriate than a parade. Not only are 25 million unemployed or underemployed, but American companies continue to cut wages and benefits

GOP frontrunners

2011-08-28T21:44:00.000-04:00

Stiglitz on inequality

2011-08-11T06:52:00.002-04:00

Kudos go to Jodi for posting this excerpt from Stiglitz over at I Cite. Coming from a leading economist, it's definitely worth a read: Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. So what if this person gains and that person loses? What matters, they argue, is not how the pie is divided but the size of the pie. That argument is fundamentally wrong. An economy in which

Looking out for those who count

2011-08-03T06:13:00.000-04:00

Andrew Levine has a good analysis of Obama's recent capitulation on the debt ceiling: [Excerpt] Obama surrendered for one overwhelming reason --because he wanted to; because he is not just in the game to win, but to win for Wall Street. The time is long past due for liberals to face that reality, and to deal with it not, not as Obama and his advisors expect, by acquiescing out of fear that

A war ceiling?

2011-08-02T13:32:00.001-04:00

I agree with Tom Engelhardt's recent article. Instead of a debt ceiling, we should make our first priority a war ceiling.

Debt ceiling

2011-08-01T13:06:00.002-04:00

As far as I can tell from the simple descriptions of the budget deal in media clips, the new plan represents a complete capitulation by Obama and the Democrats. There evidently won't be a single revenue enhancing measure. Tax breaks for the richest Americans--that sacred cow of the Republican party--will continue as is. Exactly how this represents a "sacrifice" or a "compromise" by the far right

Radically Simple

2011-07-15T15:55:00.001-04:00

I just listened to the documentary Radically Simple featuring Jim Merkel. I like Merkel's approach and fully agree with him that living sustainably is ultimately a deeply ethical decision. I'd recommend watching it--not for information, but rather for inspiration.

Longing for thems halcyon days of yesteryear...

2011-07-13T09:49:00.005-04:00

...when a man could earn a decent living on a few acres with a little hard work (slave labor). Bachman and Santorum recently signed a conservative pledge whose leading item was a statement that black families were stronger under slavery. We might ask why such a bizarre--and entirely anti-historical--statement was chosen to lead a pledge that was supposedly pro-family. Any analysis runs up

Ersland deserves an award, not life in prison!

2011-07-11T13:02:00.003-04:00

An Oklahoma pharmacist has been sentenced to life in prison for killing one of two people who held up his pharmacy with a gun. This makes no sense at all. When a criminal threatens someone with a gun, it should be legal to kill them. I wish I could have been on this man's jury.

Rereading 1984

2011-07-07T11:15:00.005-04:00

I've been listening to 1984. I read the book in a single evening and night in high school. It's great the second time around but needless to say, I have a slightly different impression after the passing of years. The book insightfully suggests that one of the greatest problems for the brainwashed people of 1984's dystopian society is an inability to analyze their situation. Essential context and

War is peace; freedom is slavery...

2011-06-23T09:54:00.000-04:00

...to the military industrial complex. As Rachel Maddow pointed out in her show last night, the headlines about Obama's troop "pullout" are deceptive since we're only talking about removing some of the troops added during the latest surge. We're now left with the Orwellian situation where we'll draw down to DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF TROOPS THAT WERE THERE WHEN OBAMA TOOK OFFICE. It's as if we're

Ocean's in shocking decline

2011-06-22T09:49:00.000-04:00

From an article on the sudden decline of fish in the world's oceans: the trends are such that it is likely to happen, they say - and far faster than any of the previous five. "What we're seeing at the moment is unprecedented in the fossil record - the environmental changes are much more rapid," Professor Rogers told BBC News. "We've still got most of the world's biodiversity, but the actual rate

Great synopsis of problems plaguing U.S. economy

2011-06-20T09:52:00.003-04:00

Sex, violence, and news we'll never read

2011-06-17T10:50:00.005-04:00

There's something terribly fitting about spectators coming to blows as they queue up to see a murder trail (that of Casey Anthony). In other news of the ridiculous, Weiner has slowly succumbed to the media hyenas' feeding frenzy. I can't help feeling that this is really more about image than substance. One has to wonder if Wiener would have fared better if, instead of sending pictures, he would

A few thoughts on the coming eugenics movement

2011-06-13T13:18:00.001-04:00

A recent article (Could prenatal DNA testing open Pandora's box?) expresses concern about pervasive testing of the genetics of the fetus to ensure that no undesirable traits are present. It goes without saying that there could be some real problems with this: as one geneticist recently said, we really don't know enough at this point about the contribution of combinations of genes to be

What we all now know (but shan't say) about U.S. healthcare

2011-06-11T15:15:00.001-04:00

Ezra Klein has an excellent article on healthcare summed up by the statement that the Republican plan has been shown repeatedly to not work while the Democratic plan is untried. His claim, which makes perfect sense, is that we should adopt one of the systems that has been shown to work in other advanced countries. He presents the following chart that combines both government and private costs.

Super 8: Two thumbs down

2011-06-10T18:43:00.000-04:00

I watched Super 8 today and was unimpressed. It's basically a formulaic alien monster film with poor special effects. As an avid sci-fi fan, my typical recommendation in these cases is to wait for the DVD release, but it's probably best to skip this movie altogether.

Giving people food: An offense against the state?

2011-06-07T09:13:00.000-04:00

People are being arrested for giving food to the homeless. People get worked up about guns being a sacred fundamental right. If we accept that, wouldn't giving somebody food fall in the "fundamental right" category. It seems to me that "pursuing happiness" and following personal convictions or religious beliefs might require giving food or assistance to the unfortunate. Members of Orlando Food

Ousting the potato

2011-06-06T16:29:00.000-04:00

Since my last rant on the administration's food recommendations was so negative, I s'pose I should give them some credit where due. There are evidently plans in the works to demote that sacred staple of the American diet--the potato. Based on a report from the Institute of Medicine, the USDA is considering new guidelines for school districts that would call for reducing the use of white

Enemy warned by secret horse ride...hmmm

2011-06-05T13:58:00.002-04:00

Palin now claims that she was actually correct in her famous Paul Revere gaffe. How a secret ride at night can be construed as warning the enemy is beyond me, but I guess I'm missing some cognitive module that allows for such stunning leaps of logic. Her constant emphasis on protecting gun rights is also beyond me. Were the British trying to ban guns prior to the revolution? If so, it's something

Latest food-lobby recommendations

2011-06-02T12:35:00.006-04:00

The old food pyramid has now given way to the dinner plate: As with the food pyramid, the recommendations are patently ridiculous and probably owe more to corporate lobbying than sound nutritional science. The veggies and protein are all fine, but do people need a significant amount of fruit in their diet. Maybe (assuming that we aren't talking about just bananas and oranges). And grains? For

The Ryan plan: Robin Hood for the rich

2011-05-26T10:13:00.003-04:00

This article, by Amitai Etzioni, gives a good summary of what the Ryan plan really means: At first, I was taken in myself. I heard that U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's bold attack on the deficit would reduce federal spending by some $4 trillion. It sounded like a truly new start after months of haggling about whether to reduce the budget by thirty-some billion or sixty-some billion; now we were

Fracking our food

2011-05-25T09:42:00.000-04:00

This is a good article warning about what fracking will do to our food supply. I'd also recommend, for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, the documentary Gasland.

Dancing as the world ends

2011-05-19T20:31:00.000-04:00

Harold Camping, who heads 66 Christian radio stations, is telling everyone that the world will end the day after tomorrow based on calculations from biblical passages. Atheists in Seattle and elsewhere are holding "rapture parties." The reasoning goes that if the prediction's true, all the Christians will fly away so that we won't have to fret over those separation of church and state issues

Please pass the freedom whine

2011-05-18T11:15:00.003-04:00

That great bastion of rightwing media bias The New York Post recently published an article about Dominique Strauss-Kahn (the French head of the IMF) with the clever title "French whine" (please tell me we aren't going to start calling are table wine "freedom wine".) In response to DSK being forced to do a perp walk in front of cameras, the mayor remarked: "I think it is humiliating, but if you

Six cups of joe

2011-05-17T20:43:00.003-04:00

Good news for coffee-swiggin' men. We can apparently guzzle our six cups of joe a day (I probably drink more than that!) without even a smidgen of remorse. This article just came out in the JNCI: Abstract Background Coffee contains many biologically active compounds, including caffeine and phenolic acids, that have potent antioxidant activity and can affect glucose metabolism and sex hormone

Unamerican elimination of tax breaks

2011-05-15T00:45:00.000-04:00

Conoco Phillips Mulva has decried the "un-American" tax proposal that would eliminate tax breaks for big oil. In a sense, he's right--the U.S. has become a plutocracy, a system who's sole aim is to reward the wealthy and unproductive class using the hard-earned fruits of the working poor. Elimination of tax breaks for industries making record profits certainly doesn't jive well with the current

Insuring the insurer

2011-05-14T20:26:00.000-04:00

The lobbyists for the healthcare industry clearly deserve a bonus. Americans pay double what they should for healthcare and new data shows that they aren't even accessing the healthcare that they've paid for. (I guess the co-pays and hassles have finally dissuaded the poor and sick from standing in line at the doctor's office.) Of course, the insurers are still raising prices just for that rainy

The forever war continues

2011-05-12T13:05:00.000-04:00

The Detainee Security Act of 2011, introduced by Buck McKeon in the House, had a rather ominous provision allowing for: "Long-term detention without trial until the end of hostilities against the nations, organizations, and persons subject to the Authorization for Use of Military Force."The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (Section 1034) repeats this language. I rack my mind trying to

Julia Howe's first Mother's Day Proclamation

2011-05-08T12:47:00.005-04:00

The First Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870: Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts. Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: We will not have questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage, For caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach

Gun Myths

2011-05-06T14:15:00.000-04:00

This is fun: Five Ridiculous Gun Myths that Everyone Believes Because of Movies.

The One Percent

2011-05-04T11:03:00.000-04:00

Last night I watched "The One Percent," a 2006 documentary about the wealthiest Americans (The film should probably be called the "Point One Percent.") The film was created and is narrated by Jamie Johnson, an heir to the Johnson and Johnson fortune. There's much here that won't surprise you. Some of the wealthy people justify their wealth, while others say simply that they don't know what could

Happy International Workers Day!

2011-05-01T12:29:00.002-04:00

This May Day has special relevance at a time when unions and the working class are under a concerted and relentless attack. It's time to organize.

The BoA constrictor of information

2011-04-27T13:50:00.000-04:00

Bank of America must have a lot to hide. According to an article in The Tech Herald, it recently hired three data intelligence companies to outline a plan to attack Wikileaks. They are acting upon request from Hunton and Williams, a law firm working for Bank of America. The Department of Justice (yes, a government department paid by our tax dollars!) apparently recommended the law firm to Bank

World's largest economy no more

2011-04-26T18:02:00.000-04:00

The IMF says that in real terms, China's economy will overtake the U.S. in just 5 years.

Wisdom from a Organic Garden Supply Co-op

2011-04-26T12:24:00.001-04:00

Life is a communal activity. Mycorrhizae in the soil entwine with the roots of plants bringing water and minerals to the plants and being fed in return. The insects and worms in the soil break matter down, releasing nutrients for all to use. Bacteria and fungi colonize the roots and leaves of plants and protect them from disease, all

Ja basta! (Warning: Birther rant may be offensive to the reality-challenged.)

2011-04-22T16:06:00.005-04:00

I read today that about half of Republicans believe that Obama was born overseas. And adding insult to ignorance, we have the latest attempts to throw Obama off the ballots of various states based on various craziness about long and short forms and the ways that states choose to title birth documents. Such nonsense makes it hard to know what to think. On the one hand, I find the Democrats utterly

Where are all the great healers?

2011-04-19T12:50:00.004-04:00

I got my blood test back today. As I suspected, my cholesterol is high again. It's definitely time to get serious about shedding those extra pounds. As I listened to the doctor discuss options, I realized, as I so often do, that he's read less on the options than I have. This is pretty typical. I've had dozens of doctors in my life, but I don't get the sense that any of the people were true

Some tax season reflections

2011-04-17T21:09:00.000-04:00

Two facts to ponder: 1. The latest reduction in government spending hashed out with much fanfare is just about completely offset by growth (yes, growth!) in military spending. 2. The Internal Revenue Service tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data, was nearly $345 million. Their

Let...the sun shine

2011-04-09T01:16:00.001-04:00

The Archdruid Report has a great post lambasting Obama's latest speech on energy (as he mentions, we've been listening to this drivel since Nixon) and an excellent overview of some simple solar solutions that work.

Tough times for the highly qualified

2011-04-06T10:30:00.001-04:00

The recent employment gains are interesting. As would be expected, the older and more experienced workers suffer less unemployment, but that isn't where the gains have been recently. In fact, older workers' employment continues to decline in spite of the "recovery." One explanation for this is that companies are now hiring cheap workers--not a great sign for the shrinking middle class.

Buursma article

2011-03-31T16:31:00.000-04:00

Ray Buursma says that Americans got what they deserved: [Excerpt] Remember the Reagan standard? Are you better off today than you were a decade ago? Two decades? Three? Unless you make more than $380,000 a year, the answer is no. In fact, your standard of living over the last quarter century has actually decreased while millionaires have added 30 percent to their net wealth. Why? Two reasons.

Kobon

2011-03-31T16:19:00.002-04:00

What a language! Kobon has a little over 100 verbs that combine with nouns and phrases to describe all the specific happenings discussed in other languages. So instead of "see," "hear," or "understand," the verb just has one verb for perception. There is, however, a particular verb for calling a pig and another verb for butchering a cassowary (I, below, picture DO).

Recent flix

2011-03-28T20:39:00.002-04:00

For what it's worth, my take on recent movies: Barney's Version: A sappy crass comedy that may be worth watching eventually on Netflix if you're a bit lit up and there's really nothing more to watch. On the bright side, this time the Canadians are responsible for churning out this formulaic crapulum. Limitless: Just as everyone says, this is a lot of fun. Not a great philosophical treatise, but

Reading the alien mind

2011-02-21T21:12:00.000-05:00

The Journal of Cosmology has an erudite discussion of Stephen Hawkins' warning about contacting aliens. I guess I've been thinking more of this of late after watching V.

A matter of perspective

2011-02-19T11:31:00.004-05:00

Egypt

2011-01-30T11:45:00.000-05:00

Juan Cole has some good commentary on the Egyptian protests. Whereas Tunisia and Yemen are interesting, a major change in Egypt could spark some major reshuffling in regional alliances, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Throwing caution to the wind

2011-01-23T17:11:00.007-05:00

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Mote the pillars fall

2011-01-17T11:26:00.000-05:00

When the revelations about banks collusion with the wealthy start coming out of Wikileaks, my guess is that all hell will break loose. These are very powerful people after all, who have the most powerful politicians in their pockets. That's precisely why we need more of this sort of thing. Rudolf M. Elmer, the former head of the Cayman Islands office of the prominent Swiss bank Julius Baer, said

Looking for common ground

2011-01-15T10:12:00.003-05:00

Vagabond Scholar has a clever series of charts examining the differences between Democrats and Republicans. As always, the chart comparing wealth in the U.S. is shocking: I wholeheartedly agree with VS's comment on the graph: "I can find common ground with people who recognize that plutocracy and democracy don't mix."

The fine art of scrambling

2011-01-10T16:21:00.015-05:00

This is from a recent game on chess.com. Yours truly, Ruzulo, has played his favorite defense, which I've dubbed the anti-castling variation of the French based on the fact that white often has a hard time castling or ends up trading off the light-squared bishop, making white's backwards pawn immediately vulnerable. Unfortunately, I get in dire trouble after the questionable knight to a6 earlier

2010-12-31T21:21:00.004-05:00

This all makes sense to me.

2010-12-19T17:14:00.001-05:00

Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001, weighs in on the stimulus and the recent tax cuts, claiming that . . . . . . the trick would be to address several key economic inefficiencies. The first is that the defense budget has ballooned, so that we are spending an enormous amount overseas—where it doesn’t do anything for our economy—and on weapons with little use. The second is

Our sicko media

2010-12-19T11:01:00.000-05:00

Michael Moore has an intertaining article about how the government put out false information trying to discredit him and the media from across the spectrum all printed it without so much as a Google search to check if it was true.

Plus c'est la même chose

2010-12-12T23:32:00.004-05:00

Bernie Sanders' clarion call

2010-12-12T15:55:00.000-05:00

If anyone needed proof that the U.S. has become a one-party plutocracy, the need look no further than the image of a lone Bernie Sanders in the middle of an empty Senate floor, opposing the bipartisan effort to provide tax-cuts to billionaires.

Reflections on bitter red pills

2010-12-08T22:40:00.003-05:00

The sudden cooperation we see among separate corporate entities, governments, and elite players from around the globe in response to Wikileaks should serve as an important lesson on the true structure of power. While it is always difficult to arrive at an accurate analysis of power--an analysis that sheds light on who is truly calling the shots--there are occasional events that provide a glimpse

Galah extraordinaire

2010-12-08T22:11:00.001-05:00

I recently read someone describe Obama has haven't successfully exceeded all non-expectations. Who would have ever dreamed that we'd see the extension of the Bush tax-cuts for the super-wealthy years after Obama took office? What a farce!

Katrin Axelsson on the Assange rape charges

2010-12-08T16:51:00.001-05:00

Katrin Axelsson talks about the dangers of using rape charges for political ends: Many women in both Sweden and Britain will wonder at the unusual zeal with which Julian Assange is being pursued for rape allegations (Report, 8 December). Women in Sweden don't fare better than we do in Britain when it comes to rape. Though Sweden has the highest per capita number of reported rapes in Europe and

Documentary

2010-12-07T22:28:00.003-05:00

Journeyman videos has a good documentary on Wikileaks.

Have the Taliban conquered Sweden?

2010-12-04T12:09:00.002-05:00

Evidently, the motivation for this international manhunt is that the condom broke when someone was having consentual sex. From the Herald Sun's online paper: APPARENTLY having consensual sex in Sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment of a minimum of two years for rape. That was the basis for a recent revival of rape allegations against Wikileaks figurehead Julian

Boycott PayPal and Amazon

2010-12-04T11:07:00.003-05:00

Amazon recently went over to the dark side. And now this: U.S.-based PayPal said in a statement that WikiLeaks, which this week released thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, had violated its policy. A posting on WikiLeaks' Twitter page tells us: "PayPal bans WikiLeaks after US government pressure." The PayPal site claims, "PayPal has permanently restricted the account used by WikiLeaks

Schneier's call to close the Washington Monument

2010-12-03T10:19:00.002-05:00

Schneier becries our irrational fear while trying to put terrorist acts in perspective in his recent article in the NY Daily News. Three excerpts from this excellent piece: Some of them call terrorism an "existential threat" against our nation. It's not. Even the events of 9/11, as horrific as they were, didn't make an existential dent in our nation. Automobile-related fatalities -- at 42,000

Palin's new sunshine (or should it be "moonshine") policy

2010-11-25T14:20:00.000-05:00

You've got give Sarah credit for holding some unique foreign policy views. Regarding the recent clash between North and South Korea, she stated: "Obviously, we gotta stand with our North Korean allies." She should know. She can probably see North Korea from her doorstep up there in Alaska.

The PhD: Less big bang for the buck

2010-11-24T08:20:00.004-05:00

With a few minor changes, the same could probably be said for a lot of majors.

Our ever-thinning slice of the banana pie

2010-11-11T10:40:00.001-05:00

Kristof has a good piece on our ever-accelerating drive to go beyond even traditional banana republics in our creation of a gigantic wealth gap.

Kermit Jagger

2010-11-09T14:03:00.002-05:00

A frog saunters into a bank and approaches the teller. He can see from her nameplate that her name is Patricia Whack. The frog croaks, "Miss Whack, I'd like to take out a $30,000 loan so that I can go on a holiday." Patty looks at the frog in disbelief and asks his name. The frog says his name is Kermit Jagger, the amphibious son of singer Mick Jagger, and he goes on to say that he knows the bank

The Human Footprint

2010-10-28T14:02:00.000-04:00

I watched The Human Footprint yesterday. It's an interesting meditation on our current industrial project. The film shows the amount of food and waste that is produced by a single person during their lifetime. Looking at the tons of stuff that it takes to keep the average American going, it's hard to imagine that we're going to recreate that lifestyle for the rest of the world.

The imminent end of an era

2010-10-18T15:33:00.000-04:00

A recent New Zealand governmental report on peak oil sounds very bleak.

I left my heart in Gliese 581g

2010-10-01T08:59:00.007-04:00

Okay, so maybe it won't make into a pop song anytime soon, but it's exciting to see that we might be locating habitable planets in my lifetime. I'm surprised to hear scientists saying that they know for certain that it's habitable. I'm having a hard time imagining what life would be like on a tidally locked planet--would you have two intelligent races-one adapted to cold and the other eternally

CO2's effects on warming and our oceans

2010-09-28T18:31:00.002-04:00

Dunbar has an excellent talk on global warming and ocean acidification--something that any remaining warming skeptics should watch.

Etzioni on yardstick for success in Afghanistan

2010-09-27T16:52:00.001-04:00

An excerpt from the article: To measure progress on this front one, would have to know, for instance, that, if following the last election, the public does feel that the Karzai government is more representative and less fraudulent? Hardly. Does the public feel that the Karzai government and its local representatives, including the police and army, are less corrupt? No indication to this effect.

Heading for the waterfall? Answer: Row faster

2010-09-23T11:15:00.003-04:00

I just skimmed through the Republicans' Pledge to America and must confess that I nodded off more than a few times. It basically calls for reducing government by cutting social programs, helping business, beefing up the trappings of the security state, and spending on defense--essentially a continuation of policies that we've been following for decades (including under Obama). So if you believe

Peak coal

2010-09-13T16:51:00.000-04:00

Could we really be at peak coal next year? It sounds audacious. But if true, it would mean a double whammy as the world comes to terms with peak oil.

Shout, shout, let it all out

2010-09-06T11:01:00.001-04:00

Now here's a disturbing thought: people will tend to believe more in an assertion simply because they here it repeated. This was originally discussed in a paper by Hasher, Goldstein, and Toppino (1977). A more recent discussion can be found in this 1997 paper. This helps explain why repeated canards (like the "Obama's a muslim" meme) eventually results in vast swaths of the population reporting

Paul Roberts on the state of the economy

2010-09-01T22:21:00.000-04:00

Paul Roberts has a good discussion of the U.S. economy over at Counterpunch. I especially like the following two excerpts: If one overlooks the real world and the need of life for sustenance, one can become engrossed in this debate. However, the minute one looks out the window upon the world, one realizes that cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and housing subsidies when

Fantasies of upper mobility

2010-08-31T19:20:00.003-04:00

This is one of the best articles on the economy that I've seen recently: The Fantasy of the Vast Upper Middle ClassAmong the many theories exposed as fallacies by the Great Recession is the idea of the mass upper middle class. During the years of the American bubble economy, progressives and conservatives alike lauded the graduation of most citizens from the working class to a new elite that

Agora and Mao's Last Dancer

2010-08-28T10:04:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I went on a sort of movie marathon and watched both Agora and Mao's Last Dancer. Agora is based on the story of Hypatia of Alexandria, an atheist philosophy professor who struggled against religious ignorance as Christianity took power in Egypt (then part of the dying Roman Empire). In addition to some very impressive visuals of the great library of Alexandria, the movie offers an

Do not pass go

2010-08-25T11:04:00.000-04:00

Zach Carter has some very apropos comments on a recent NPR segment: Roberts is arguing that the basic goals of real, living human beings are essentially the same as those of a Monopoly player. A Monopoly player wins by pushing everyone else into total poverty in order to control all resources and establish complete economic domination over his peers. People in the real world who are fueled by

About advising and assisting

2010-08-24T10:34:00.001-04:00

It's a sign of our Orwellian times that the U.S. be described as having pulled out of Iraq while 50,000 troops remain. My guess is that the plan is to keep a 50,000-strong occupation force there indefinitely (or more accurately, until the oil dries up). The Army Times reported on Saturday that the US still has seven combat brigades inside Iraq, but they have been renamed "advise and assist

Ron Paul on the mosque controversy

2010-08-23T13:36:00.000-04:00

Congressman Ron Paul today released the following statement on the controversy concerning the construction of an Islamic Center and Mosque in New York City: Is the controversy over building a mosque near ground zero a grand distraction or a grand opportunity? Or is it, once again, grandiose demagoguery? It has been said, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.” Are we not overly preoccupied with this

Pro deo et patria

2010-08-21T11:21:00.000-04:00

Recently, 80 soldiers were punished for not attending a Christian concert. This is pretty typical. A more subtle form of this proselytizing occurs when Christian chaplains take part in military events and everyone is forced to remain in formation for the reading of some long prayer. It makes me wonder if there's anywhere in the services where these prayers are Buddhist or Islamic (In the latter

Sharing the Pain

2010-08-18T12:14:00.004-04:00

Now here's a good idea from across the pond: How can the sixth richest nation in the world be contemplating cuts in school meals services and regressive forms of taxation? In the political and media commentaries on the national crisis and the need for cuts, there has been very little discussion on how much wealth there is and why "we" as a nation are apparently so poor. Actually the economy

Econopocalypse: Reaganite Blames Republicans

2010-08-13T10:18:00.002-04:00

David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under Reagan, now blames the economic downturn on Republican policies during the last four decades. From a MarketWatch article: Stockman sees a class-rebellion, a new revolution, a war against greed and the wealthy. Soon. The trigger will be the growing gap between economic classes: No wonder "that during the last bubble (from

The American dream

2010-08-08T19:33:00.002-04:00

Collapse (documentary)

2010-08-07T11:59:00.002-04:00

I watched Ruppert's documentary Collapse (consisting almost entirely of him sitting in a dark room talking). Those who have seen The End of Suburbia or other pieces on peak oil probably don't want to see the film as it doesn't offer much new except for some discussion of Ruppert's life. Michael Ruppert was a police officer who became an independent reporter who was initially interested in