21 October 2010 (PM)

Science
A galaxy that is 13 billion light years away has been detected:

Alan Boyle writes: Astronomers have confirmed that an incredibly faint galaxy in the constellation Fornax is the most distant known object in the universe, shining more than 13 billion light-years away and reflecting an era when stars were just beginning to emerge from a cosmic fog.

The galaxy, known as UDFy-38135539, is one of several super-distant objects picked out from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the most sensitive snapshot ever taken of deep space. In time, astronomers may well spot objects that are even farther away, but this particular galaxy was the first of its type to go through the arduous process of having its measurements checked.

In fact, the astronomers behind the observations say they couldn’t have seen UDFy-38135539 unless there were other, fainter galaxies nearby to help clear out the space around it. “Without this additional help, the light from the galaxy, no matter how brilliant, would have been trapped in the surrounding hydrogen fog, and we would not have been able to detect it,” Durham University’s Mark Swinbank said in a news release from the European Southern Observatory.

The ESO researchers, led by Matt Lehnert of the Observatoire de Paris, published their findings in this week’s issue of the journal Nature. Those findings shed unprecedented light (so to speak) on a mysterious period in the development of the universe, about 600 million years after its big-bang origin, when the radiation of the first stars began clearing out the neutral hydrogen that filled the infant universe. That process, known as reionization, transformed the cosmos from an opaque haze to the mostly empty space we know today.[...]

Freedom of speech: yes, someone has the freedom to have racist Halloween displays. But I have the freedom to call him a racist idiot.

Politics

Polls and momentum: Yes, polls sometimes change and a candidate sometimes gains ground. But there is scant evidence of “poll momentum”; Nate Silver shows us the data.

Creationism and politics: yes, we have a candidate for the US House and a candidate for governor who are creationists. That is just shameful.

Unfortunately, being ignorant is in, especially on the Republican side. Maureen Dowd writes:

At least, unlike Paris Hilton and her ilk, the Dumb Blonde of ’50s cinema had a firm grasp on one thing: It was cool to be smart. She aspired to read good books and be friends with intellectuals, even going so far as to marry one. But now another famous beauty with glowing skin and a powerful current, Sarah Palin, has made ignorance fashionable.

You struggle to name Supreme Court cases, newspapers you read and even founding fathers you admire? No problem. You endorse a candidate for the Pennsylvania Senate seat who is the nominee in West Virginia? Oh, well.

At least you’re not one of those “spineless” elites with an Ivy League education, like President Obama, who can’t feel anything. It’s news to Christine O’Donnell that the Constitution guarantees separation of church and state. It’s news to Joe Miller, whose guards handcuffed a journalist, and to Carl Paladino, who threatened The New York Post’s Fred Dicker, that the First Amendment exists, even in Tea Party Land. Michele Bachmann calls Smoot-Hawley Hoot-Smalley.

Sharron Angle sank to new lows of obliviousness when she told a classroom of Hispanic kids in Las Vegas: “Some of you look a little more Asian to me.”

As Palin tweeted in July about her own special language adding examples from W. and Obama: “ ‘Refudiate,’ ‘misunderestimate,’ ‘wee-wee’d up.’ English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!”

On Saturday, at a G.O.P. rally in Anaheim, Calif., Palin mockingly noted that you won’t find her invoking Mao or Saul Alinsky. She says she believes in American exceptionalism. But when it comes to the people running the country, exceptionalism is suspect; leaders should be — as Palin, O’Donnell and Angle keep saying — just like you.

So THIS is why I have such contempt for Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman and Christine O’Donnell. It isn’t because they are conservative women, even if that is what Fox News says.

So, what is going to happen in mid terms?
President Obama and President Clinton are out campaigning, albeit in different ways:

Today they are allied in an increasingly urgent battle to prevent a Republican takeover of the House and the Senate. They are crisscrossing the country on behalf of embattled Democratic candidates and, in their own ways, trying to recall and recapture some of the glories of their own best days as politicians.

Obama’s venue is the big, iconic rally that became the signature of his presidential campaign. On Sunday night, he drew a crowd of 35,000 at Ohio State University. It was almost as if the troubles of the past 20 months had never occurred.

For a few hours, it was 2008 all over again, from the recorded music loop blaring out Brooks and Dunn and Jackie Wilson to the playful banter between the president and first lady Michelle Obama to the enthusiasm of the youthful attendees.

Only when the president started to speak was it clear how the hope-and-change message of 2008 has given way to a defense of his record and a defensiveness about the fall campaign. “This is a difficult election,” he said, something rarely heard two years ago. “This is hard. And it’s hard because we’ve been through an incredibly difficult time as a nation.” [...]

On Monday night, the former president appeared in Denver on behalf of Sen. Michael Bennet (Colo.), who is in a very competitive race against Republican Ken Buck. The evening rally, which did not end until 10, drew about 2,000 people, far more than the Bennet team had anticipated. Some in the audience came simply to see Clinton. It was like seeing Mick Jagger, said one Democrat as he awaited the former president’s arrival.

Clinton delivered not a rousing pep talk but a learned lecture on the economy, the competing positions of Bennet and Buck, why he thinks Republicans are wrong and, repeatedly, what went right when he was president. [...]

One thing: we are going to have to call out the Republicans who voted “no” on the stimulus bill but yet took credit for it or asked for it:

If the White House wanted to make a real fight of it, President Obama would spend the next two weeks reading aloud from the official correspondence of GOP congressional leaders. But has he got the necessary will?

Take Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota, for example. Campaigning for reelection, the photogenic Tea Party heroine postures boldly against taxes and government spending. A bitter critic of the Obama administration’s efforts to improve the economy, she specifically and repeatedly derides “the failed Pelosi trillion-dollar stimulus.”

Somewhat less publicly, Bachmann has taken a different position. Researchers for the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity released a bunch of letters she wrote to various federal agencies seeking stimulus grants for her district. Perhaps the most telling is one she sent to the Transportation Department seeking money for a bridge over the St. Croix River. [...]

21 October 2010 Rehabilitation

Sleep: went fine.

PT: mostly good, but we’ve discovered my bicep head is very, very sore. This hurts when I do bench presses with a narrow grip or do dips or when I rotate my arm out. The rotator cuff is better.

Knee: my knee got painful at times due to a tight quad. Stretching it really,really helped. But I can’t get full extension easily; I am going to have to stay diligent on my stretching.

Workout notes:
Squats (smith): one leg: 10 x 45, 10 x 95, two leg: 10 x 135, 5 x 185 (less depth)
Presses: 30 x 180, 30 x 270, 30 x 360
Sit ups: 100 (4 sets on different inclines)
curls: 20 x 15 pounds, 10 x 20, 10 x 20 (dumbbell)
pull downs: 3 sets of 10 x 120
rows: 3 sets of 10 of 80 pounds each arm (160 total)
leg extensions: 3 sets of 10
leg curls: 3 sets of 10
toe: 3 sets of 30
back: 3 sets of 10
vertical leg lifts: 3 sets of 20
military press (machine): 2 sets of 20 with 70
military press dumbbell: 1 set of 30 with 20 pounds
bench press dumbbell: 1 set of 30 with 30 pounds
Arm bike: 15 minutes (4.35 miles; 13:45 at 4 miles)

20 October 2010 Rehabilitation

Shoulder: slept well; lowered my Naproxen dose to 1 tablet (down from 2)
Knee: somewhat sore; I’ve been slacking on my stretches again.

I rested this morning and worked out briefly after lunch:
15 minute arm bike
41 minute treadmill walk (varied incline to 4 (for mile 2) then lowered it gradually; 14 minutes at mile 1, just under 28 for 2.
rotator cuff exercises.

That isn’t much, but I need to recover from this cold prior to the 30′th of October.

20 October 2010 (pm)

Friendly Atheist: posts this humorous “free market-ish” attack on woo:

Politics: do people vote against their own economic interests? (hat tip: Mano Singham)

Probably not; the poor tend to vote Democratic and the rich tend to vote Republican:

The 2004 election:

2008 Election
From here

(more analysis here)

There are more “demographics/state maps” here.

My point: I don’t think that most of the tea party push-back is from the poor; in fact a New York Times/CBS survey said that they were more affluent than average.

Some Science Links

Do you want to see how scientific positions are challenged? Here is an article on a paper that talks about the “fine structure” constant and claims that it might vary by position in the universe:

A few weeks ago there was a bit of media excitement about a somewhat surprising experimental result. Observations of quasar spectra indicated that the fine structure constant, the parameter in physics that describes the strength of electromagnetism, seems to be slightly different on one side of the universe than on the other. The preprint is here.

Remarkable, if true. The fine structure constant, usually denoted α, is one of the most basic parameters in all of physics, and it’s a big deal if it’s not really constant. But how likely is it to be true? This is the right place to trot out the old “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” chestnut. It’s certainly an extraordinary claim, but the evidence doesn’t really live up to that standard. Maybe further observations will reveal truly extraordinary evidence, but there’s no reason to get excited quite yet.

Chad Orzel does a great job of explaining why an experimentalist should be skeptical of this result. [...]

Surf to the link to read more.

More: here is a spectacular display in a pinwheel galaxy; the false color shows where star formation is going on.

Space Travel: will human travel to Mars be one way (e. g., in the same way Europeans came to the “New” World)

Biology/Zoology/Evolution

Why did leopards evolve spots? Why didn’t all big cats? Why do some big cats come in different patterns? Note: it has to do with the following: leopards live in different kinds of areas; cheetahs not so much.

How do some snakes eat eggs (those who don’t have teeth; what do they do with the shells?) Surf here to find out.

Here is a newly discovered species of snailfish (cool photo)

How did morality evolve? Here is a NY Times article that I am about to read.

Frog Fun….

19 October 2010 PM posts (mostly political ads)

First, a bit of science: see evolution in action. A mutation has been traced back to 100 million years ago that lead to one species becoming two:

The findings – published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Online Early Edition – provide a perfect example of how diversity stems from such genetic ‘mistakes’. The research also opens the door to further investigation into how plants make flowers – the origins of the seeds and fruits that we eat.

In a number of plants, the gene involved in making male and female organs has duplicated to create two, very similar, copies. In rockcress (Arabidopsis), one copy still makes male and female parts, but the other copy has taken on a completely new role: it makes seed pods shatter open. In snapdragons (Antirrhinum), both genes are still linked to sex organs, but one copy makes mainly female parts, while still retaining a small role in male organs – but the other copy can only make male.

“Snapdragons are on the cusp of splitting the job of making male and female organs between these two genes, a key moment in the evolutionary process,” says lead researcher Professor of Plant Development, Brendan Davies, from Leeds’ Faculty of Biological Sciences. “More genes with different roles gives an organism added complexity and opens the door to diversification and the creation of new species.”

By tracing back through the evolutionary ‘tree’ for flowering plants, the researchers calculate the gene duplication took place around 120 million years ago. But the mutation which separates how snapdragons and rock cress use this extra gene happened around 20 million years later. [...]

Now for some politics: yep, I have a slew of political ads and other short videos. I tend to do this when I get a stuffy head and can’t concentrate.

Christine O’Donnell displays her ignorance proudly:

Now for ads (see more of these here)

Republicans hope that Nevada Latinos don’t vote:

The Spanish version

The English version

Here is a California ad; it is emotionally effective…provided you don’t think too hard. If you snip generic sound bites, you could make any two candidates sound alike:

Michigan ad; actually I like it even though it is for a Republican. Were he running in Illinois instead of Brady, I might give him a look:

On the opposite scale: someone accepting evolution and rejecting Biblical literacy is used as a negative! Yeah, I’ve posted this before:

Here is a “gather your arms” ad:

Funny

Oh noes! Here is the attack of the 50 foot Pelosi!

The Florida Whig Party attacks Rubio

Neener-neener: You once cooperated with Barack Obama:

An old repost: Pamela Gormon is hated by liberals because she is a fundie, pretty and loves guns:

Now watch Angle (Nevada R-Senate candidate) getting attacked in her primary race (that she won, obviously)

Repeal the 17′th Amendment?

19 October 2010 rehabilitation

Head cold…light workout today: 3 mile easy walk in the sunshine, then rotator cuff exercises. No pain while sleeping but my Nyquil put me out like a light.

Hot Political Ads of the Week – CBS News Video

CBS News: Hot Political Ads of the Week – John Dickerson talks to Jill Jackson and Rob Hendin as they discuss the top political ads from the week by Senatorial candidates Joe Manchin, Ike Skelton, Jack Conway, and Harry Reid.

Hot Political Ads of the Week – CBS News Video, posted with vodpod

More ads:

(this one got blistered)

DSCC ad for the Pennsylvania Senate Race

Sestak’s ad:

Hickenlooper’s Colorado Governor’s ad:

A database of old ads (by year, category, etc.)

19 October 2010 (AM)

Head cold edition; my cold is nothing remarkable except that for about a week, I dismissed it as “allergies”. Hence I probably passed it on to others.

That is the frustrating part; I do get allergy attacks (mild ones) and I can’t withdraw every time I have a sniffle or a scratchy throat. I wonder what the balance is?

My workout will be light (say, 2-3 miles of easy, get in the sunshine walking, arm bike, rotator cuff) and I’ll grade, make up exams, etc.

Topics
Here are some videos I found to be interesting:

From Russia: a policeman ducks into a car to avoid a wolf pack. The title says that the wolf pack “attacked” that policeman but it appears that the pack was trying to get from “here to there” and not much else:

Relationships In an intellectual debate on c-span, a conservative goes after his former girlfriend:

Economy

This jobs loss/gain chart corresponds to a derivative of total jobs; unemployment lingers because new jobs are not being created at a fast enough rate to handle all of the growing job seeking population. I’ve written about this type of graph here.

Politics: Reid vs. Angle:

A couple of political ads:
Republican Senate Primary in California
The so-called Demon Sheep ad:

South Carolina Senate Ad:

Hilarious Mock Campaign Ad Boasts Platform Of ‘Willful Ignorance’ (VIDEO)

From UCB Comedy comes this hilarious mock campaign ad for Michael Sharp, a “candidate” for U.S. Senate with one of the most original campaign strategies we’ve ever heard. Running on a platform of willful ignorance may seem like a bad idea, but based on what some of the other 2010 midterm election candidates have been saying, it’s not so far off base.

Hilarious Mock Campaign Ad Boasts Platform Of ‘…, posted with vodpod