Honduras, Iran, and Iraq

A few updates:

The situation in Honduras is still confused with some in the government still insisting that it was not a coup:

Roberto Micheletti, the veteran congressional leader who was sworn in by his fellow lawmakers on Sunday to replace Mr. Zelaya, seemed to plead with the world to understand that Mr. Zelaya’s arrest by the army [...]

Coup in Honduras

I’m with Hilzoy, I’m confused about what’s going on in Honduras:
Mr. Zelaya’s ouster capped a showdown with other branches of government over his efforts to lift presidential term limits in a referendum that was to have taken place Sunday. Critics said the vote was part of an illegal attempt by Mr. Zelaya to defy the [...]

Almost non-fiction

The person who wrote ‘Bringing Down the House’, Ben Mezrich, is now writing a book about the start of Facebook. ‘Bringing Down the House’ is a bit nototious for its ‘literary license’ with truth and it seems the new book won’t be any different. I really like the way he responded to critics:
Last year, presented [...]

Iran and Democracy

In some ways, the thing that makes what’s happening in Iran (The Lede has been a very good place to get information, but won’t put up anything new over the weekend) so bad is that Iran has more freedom than most of the countries in the Middle East. Women have many more rights and there is some democracy. That’s [...]

Enceladus, water, and a poem

It seems that a moon of Saturn has salt water in it:
For the first time, scientists working on NASA’s Cassini mission have detected sodium salts in ice grains of Saturn’s outermost ring. Detecting salty ice indicates that Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which primarily replenishes the ring with material from discharging jets, could harbor a reservoir of [...]

Ibuprofen strip search not ok

I had a post on the girl who was strip searched because it was believed that she had a prescription strength ibuprofen tablet. The case made its way to the Supreme Court who ruled today that the search was illegal but the school officials were not liable for the ensuing lawsuit (they did not rule whether the [...]

Venus and … wait look over there

I noticed I haven’t looked at Venus yet, so today I will. The first picture was taken by the Magellan probe using cloud penetrating radar (Credit: SSV, MIPL, Magellan Team, NASA):

A second picture showing the clouds of Venus (Credit: NASA):
 
and a picture with all the planets of the Solar System showing their relative size (Credit: [...]

Iran and Neo-Cons

I mostly defended my PhD dissertation yesterday, so I should now have a bit more time to post (I have to finish writing the dissertation and give a final next Tuesday, so I still don’t have much time).
And the big story is in Iran, where it seems obvious that the election was rigged and it’s [...]

Second Anniversary

I’m a day late (I blame my dissertation defense on Thursday), but I have now been blogging for two years:
I’m still in the pathetic zone in terms of hits: 50,745 in two years for an average of 69.4 per day (although I averaged 108.8 this last year);
this is my 1250th post (1.71 per day, .99 [...]

Jupiter and a poem

Today I look at Jupiter. The first picture is in pastely colors because it was taken in near-infared light. The two colored dots are the moons Io and Ganymede, while the three dark dots are their shadows (Callisto is not seen in the picture, but its shadow is–Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Karkoschka (University of [...]

Just a poem today

I’m trying to finish up my dissertation (supposedly I’m defending on June 18), so no pictures or random songs or 980 page story on the meaning of an encounter between Joe and Jane that almost caused the ant apocalypse.
Just a poem:
Pencil me in for Thursday
The time is right for fireworks
In never ascending order
Towards the rink [...]

Andrew Ross Sorkin, unions, and corporate raiders

On a panel on Morning Joe on MSNBC, Andrew Ross Sorkin asked whether anyone on the panel could name a successful company that had a union (this was in the midst of union bashing). He sent an ‘apology‘ to TPM:
“Boy did I touch the third rail! My off-handed comment was admittedly flip. I apologize for that. It was [...]

Ok, now NH will allow gay marriage

The New Hampshire legislature first passed a gay marriage bill back on April 30, but then there were a few bumps. Anyway, a gay marriage bill has now been passed by the legislature and signed by the governor.
I will again link to the Union Leader, because they again have links to the text of the [...]

Dr. Tiller murdered

I’m a day late to this but I offer my condolences to the family of Dr. Tiller, one of the very few late term abortion doctors. He was murdered on Sunday during a church service.
I actually would find the fixation on late term abortion providers by ‘pro-life’ activists a bit weird if I didn’t know [...]