McCain

If you’re thinking about voting for McCain, you should know:

he’s as ambitious as anyone (here’s another link)
he’s for ‘letting the market work’ when it comes to healthcare:

Steve Bernard was talking about treatments for his 9-year-old son, Jake, who was born with a cleft lip and palate. Jake has already undergone numerous surgeries with more to come. [...]

William H. Stewart

I’m a little slow to post this, but I wanted to pay tribute to Mr. Stewart who was Surgeon General under President Johnson. He did two very important things in this position: he spoke out and pushed for tougher warning messages about smoking (his predecessor Luther Terry was SG when the landmark report showing the [...]

Voting and Health

Here are two separate, but, perhaps, related pieces:

the Supreme Court has ruled that Indiana’s voter ID lawis ok. Rick Hasen notes how little evidence seemed to matter in the ruling:

The controlling opinion is that of Justice Stevens, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kennedy. In a nutshell, the approach boils down to this: under [...]

Israel and Hamas

In some ways these two quotes about the killing of a family in Gaza show the reason people have a problem with the way Israel is acting:
Maj. Avital Leibovich, the Israeli military’s chief spokeswoman for the foreign press, said that while the army was still investigating, an initial inquiry into the events showed that several [...]

I Don’t Think It’s Terrible, So It’s Ok

Via TPM, not this bit from the NY Times article:
“The fact that an act is undertaken to prevent a threatened terrorist attack, rather than for the purpose of humiliation or abuse, would be relevant to a reasonable observer in measuring the outrageousness of the act,” said Brian A. Benczkowski, a deputy assistant attorney general, in [...]

Grading and Poetry

This is finals week at NU and I’m grading my finals, so jeleo alfkn braindead. Here is songs, no linking time:
Everything I Said The Cranberries
Cumberland Gap Woody Guthrie
Regina Sugarcubes
Comes A Time Neil Young
All Day And All Of The Night The Kinks
Version City The Clash
Caldonia B.B. King
Tutti Frutti Little Richard
O Tannenbaum Vince Guaraldi
Basket Case Green Day
golfpro Pajama Slave Dancers
When You Dance I Can Really Love Neil Young
 
and a [...]

Pennsylvania

Senator Clinton is predicted to win PA, but right now it’s close:
with 9%: Clinton 53%, Obama 47%
If it stays this close it won’t really help Clinton much, but wait a bit.
I will put up the numbers in the totals tomorrow morning.
Update: the percents are the same with 21% counted.
Update: with 35% counted it’s Clinton 54%, [...]

Mugabe and Zimbabwe

A recount of votes has now started in Zimbabwe. I would be very surprised if this recount doesn’t show that Mugabe’s party won a majority of seats (overturning the current results). Of course the national vote totals still have not been released.
I really like that a union in South Africa stopped an arms shipment  (a variation [...]

Free Will

Hmm, I thought I had already talked about this kind of result, but when I tried to find it after I read Amanda posted about it, I couldn’t find it.
In any case, my idea is that the conscious mind is not really in control which is why the conscious mind doesn’t know about stuff until it’s [...]

Potato Chips Never Had It This Easy

Some days seem to be hard, but then I think of the life span of a potato chip (such as it is): grow beneath the ground, washed, cut into thin slices, fried, put into vacuum sealed crowded containers, and then eaten.
Hmm, what was my point? I guess I didn’t have one, so here’s my random [...]

Edward Lorenz

Edward Lorenz died yesterday. His was a very interesting story:
His work on the theory began a decade earlier. In the winter of 1961, Dr. Lorenz was trying to determine how accurate a computer could predict long-term weather patterns. He ran one simulation with a computer model, then wanted to extend the forecast, so he added [...]

More Professor Massey

There is an article in the Northeastern News. It doesn’t have much information and the quote from President Aoun also says nothing:
“This decision was difficult to make,” President Aoun said in an open Q&A session. “I received a recommendation from the dean and the provost and there were real issues that we cannot discuss from [...]

Northeastern Finals

Finals weeks starts at the end of this week at Northeastern University and I have to write a final and answers to a couple reviews. I am also giving a talk next Tuesday which I have to prepare for.
This means I will not be posting much this or next week. In case my title guides some [...]

Umm, A Million What?

Via Sadly No!, I made my way to here and this incredible statement:
Republicans took a beating on the Social Security issue in 2005. But the issue is not going away. And Barack Obama’s solution — taxing more income for Social Security — is neither workable nor popular. Personal accounts offer hope for personal wealth to a [...]

World Stuff

First some possible good news. It seems that Cuba might be loosening some restrictions:
Raul Castro, upon taking over from his ailing brother Fidel in February as Cuba’s first new leader in almost half a century, promised to make wages better reflect one’s work, a major complaint of the population. “It is our strategic objective today [...]

Meat Eaters, Subsidized by Vegetarians

Via a commenter at Washington Monthly, here’s a chart on food subsidies:

So, vegetarians are subsidizing meat eaters and these subsidies help to drive up food prices overall (since more grain is used to get animal protein than we would use directly).
Update: The NY Times has an article on manufactured meat (with a link to the In [...]

Torture and the Bush Administration

Gee, what a surprise (via TPM), most of the leaders in the Bush administration not only approved the harsh techniques (that would be torture) in general, but continuously approved very specific instances:
The high-level discussions about these “enhanced interrogation techniques” were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed — down to [...]

Wait, Did I Mean Nevermore?

Yesterday when I was bashing my head against a wall I had a thought. I immediately forgot it, what with the head bashing thing. Anyway, here is a random duo 10:
Pleasantly Blue 4 Non Blondes
A Satisfied Mind Bob Dylan
Generator Foo Fighters
Silicone On Sapphire The Clash
Ziggy Stardust David Bowie
Behind The Sun Red Hot Chili Peppers
Lift Me Up (Mylo Mix) Moby
Hideous The Dickies
Since Supernatural Santana Feat. [...]

Viking Ship

 
When I was a kid I made a small house of popsicle sticks. This is a bit more impressive:

 

Atheist Bashing

This is amazing (via Majikthise and Pandagon):
I know from experience that many of you will side with Davis (update — apparently I was wrong! ), but I ask you to consider what the outcry would have been if a lawmaker had  launched a similar attack on the beliefs of a religious person.
Davis: I don’t know [...]