Tina Fey Censored on PBS

If this gets nuked by the Sarah Palin trolls on youtube, you can see the remarks here.

16 November 2010 pm: parting shots

Rep. Charles Rangel: it is a pity as he has represented Harlem for almost my entire life. But evidently he got too full of himself and started blowing off the rules:

A House panel on Tuesday found Representative Charles B. Rangel guilty of 11 counts of ethical violations, ruling that his failure to pay taxes, improper solicitation of fund-raising donations and failure to accurately report his personal income had brought dishonor on the House.

After a public hearing on Monday that was truncated by Mr. Rangel’s walking out in protest, an adjudicatory subcommittee of the House ethics committee deliberated for four hours before finding him guilty of all but one of the 13 counts against him. (Two other counts, involving Mr. Rangel’s misuse of House franking privileges, were merged into one.)

In a somber tone, Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and the chairwoman of the panel, announced its findings just before noon. Ms. Lofgren described the contentious process as “difficult and time consuming” and said the committee hoped to decide on a punishment within days.

If a Republican had done these things, I’d scream bloody murder and think “see, that is how they are”. It is time for him to leave; in fact, past time.

News Media I like Keith Olbermann, but evidently he isn’t that easy to get along with.

Politics No: a candidate having lots of facebook friends really doesn’t mean that much. Here is the statistical evidence.
I am going to use this with my statistics class.

Republicans: No government spending, earmarks and pork…unless it is for me.

Republicans: betting that the Democrats will cave in on the tax cuts and “bundle” them (for the rich and non rich in one vote). I am sorry to say that I’ll bet on the Republicans; we are a bunch of wimps.

16 November 2010 PM workout

Workout notes I am still not feeling “right”; my eyes burn and my throat is scratchy and I feel sluggish and lethargic. BUT while this feeling is making me balk at working out, my workouts themselves aren’t that bad.

Run: 2 miles (flat, on the road to Waverly/Manor Parkway and back)
Then changed shoes:

Weights:
one legged squats: 2 sets of 10 x 45, 1 set of 10 x 95 (Smith)
Leg press: 20 x 180, 10 x 270, 10 x 360 (deeper)
Squats (no Smith): 10 x 135, 10 x 155
Rotator cuff (both arms), dumbbell, pulley
Leg extensions: 3 sets of 10
Leg curls: 3 sets of 10
toe: 3 sets of 30
glutes: 1 set of 10 each side (150)
back: 3 sets of 20 (150)
vertical leg lift: 3 sets of 20

Walk: 4 plus hill walk (Bradley Park; 4+ mile course in reverse order)

I really didn’t want to walk at first, but I had the time and the day was too pretty not to. Once I got going I enjoyed it.

Shoulders: some lingering soreness
Knee: some warmth later in the day.

New Oxford Dictionary Refutiates the Lexicographic Snobs…

Loves of the English Language, read it and weep:

And as if the ratings triumph weren’t enough, today the New Oxford American Dictionary declared “refudiate” the top word in 2010 — a verb that Palin apparently invented.

[Photos: More images of Sarah Palin]

The former governor used the word in a Twitter message last summer, calling on “peaceful Muslims” to “refudiate” a planned mosque near the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York. When critics pounced on the made-up verb, Palin deleted the Tweet and replaced it with one that called on Muslims to “refute” the site — even though that usage made no sense, either, since to refute is to prove something to be untrue.

But in a release today, the New Oxford American Dictionary defended Palin’s use of the word. “From a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts in which Palin has used ‘refudiate,’ we have concluded that neither ‘refute’ nor ‘repudiate’ seems consistently precise, and that ‘refudiate’ more or less stands on its own, suggesting a general sense of ‘reject,’ ” the New Oxford American Dictionary said in a press release.

And lest you think the New Oxford editors were only hailing “refudiate” as a publicity stunt, let the record show that Palin’s coinage was also named to the honor roll of the Global Language Monitor project — together with terms such as “spillcam” and “vuvuzela.”

This brings up another topic: no, I won’t be joining a program to boycott Discovery Channel because they are carrying Ms. Palin’s program. No, I don’t like her nor do I like her politics, and yes I find that her supporters are mostly insipid deluded mediocrities. But so what: it isn’t as if she is some sort of criminal or mass murderer. I reserve boycotting for something serious rather than a distaste for stupidity or a certain type of politics.

But I may well boycott New Oxford Dictionary for their “Palinization” of the English language.

16 November 2010 Politics

Will Speaker Pelosi use the suspension rules to break up the “extend the tax cuts” into two separate bills: one for most people and one for income which goes over a special threshold? Of course, both votes would require some Republican votes and they might well vote “no” on the first bill.

We’ll have to see.

16 November 2010 (AM)

I have a post nasal drip/cough and my eyes are watering. I think that this is allergies.

Science
Biodiversity: affected by geology?

The extraordinary biodiversity seen in the Amazon rainforest — one of the most species-rich ecosystems on Earth — may have evolved mainly due to the rise of the Andes, research suggests.

The Amazon, the world’s largest river basin, is home to the largest rainforest on Earth, covering about 2.58 million square miles (6.7 million square kilometers) in nine countries. This area, known as Amazonia, holds a mind-boggling array of life, harboring one in 10 known species in the world and one in five of all birds.

“Many previously unseen species are discovered and documented every year,” said John Lundberg, curator of ichthyology at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.

The origin of the amazing level of diversity seen in Amazonia has been debated for decades. It was long held that isolated patches of forest served as safe havens during cycles of aridity during the Pleistocene epoch (beginning about 2.5 million years ago and ending 12,000 years ago), refuges that served as incubators for diversity over the past 2.5 million years. However, in the 1990s, support for this idea crumbled after evidence for it was revealed to be a mistake based on how species were analyzed.

Now, recent findings regarding the timing of changes in Amazonian diversity coupled with research into the slow rise of the Andes Mountains suggests the growth of this mountain range had a profound effect on Amazonia, with the area’s diverse nature emerging well before the Pleistocene era — far earlier than previously thought.

The Andes began their rise about 34 million to 65 million years ago, when the tectonic plate diving under the Pacific edge of South America caused uplift. The rising mountains that resulted from the uplift blocked humid air from the Atlantic, eventually increasing rainfall along the eastern flank of what became the Andes. That eroded nutrient-loaded soils off the mountains. The Andes also kept water from draining into the Pacific, helping form vast wetlands about 23 million years ago that were home to a wide range of mollusks and reptiles.

Frogs New species continue to be discovered, including this one:

Are we witnessing the birth of a black hole? Possibly:

The evidence began arriving 30 years ago from a star 50 million light-years away that had imploded, setting into motion events that created a region where gravity is so great that nothing can escape, even light.

The initial 1979 observation of the exploding star was made by an amateur astronomer from Western Maryland, but the profession’s top scientists have studied it intently with increasingly sophisticated orbiting X-ray telescopes.

In announcing the discovery Monday at NASA headquarters, the researchers said that although the information they have collected is consistent with the birth of a baby black hole, they cannot rule out other possibilities. Nonetheless, they spoke enthusiastically about what they are learning and will learn about the evolution of black holes.

“We’ve never known before the exact birthday of a black hole, and now we can watch as it grows into a child and teenager,” said Kimberly Weaver, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Learning about black holes has been like solving a puzzle, and this will help us get closer to a full understanding.” [....]

If so, this is pretty cool. If it isn’t, I wonder what it is?

15 November 2010 pm

Videos
On my favorite Drunken Lady Bug: (she is called an “atheist maker”)

Yes, this is THAT Linda Blair

Richard Dawkins: answering a question about “absolute morality”

Christopher Hitchens: refuting the “Hitler was an atheist” canard.

Fox News: carrying a ridiculous “news segment”…note that Jesus had “sea blue eyes”:

Frogs
Jerry Coyne shows off the book that features the frog that was named after him.

Here is a list of the 10 “most threatened” U. S. frogs. These little guys are too cute to let die off.

Politics

President Obama: he has tried to live up to his campaign promise to decrease the partisanship. But that doesn’t work when your political opponents have only one agenda: obstruct:

Given the election results, the question Barack Obama has to decide for himself is whether he really wants to be president in the fullest sense. Not a moderator for earnest policy discussions. Not the national cheerleader for hope. Not the worthy visionary describing a distant future. Those qualities are elements in any successful presidency, and Obama applies them with admirable skill and seriousness.
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About the Author
William Greider
William Greider, a prominent political journalist and author, has been a reporter for more than 35 years for newspapers…
Also by The Author
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The End of Free-Trade Globalization (Economic Policy, Globalization, Outsourcing and off shoring, Economy)

To restore economic stability, the US must rethink its approach to domestic manufacturing.
William Greider
23 comments
What Obama’s Presidency Needs: A Big Reset (Barack Obama, Government, Economy)

Some free advice for President Obama: take a deep breath, admit the Democratic Party has failed to grasp the enormity of economic upheaval in this country—and start using government’s powers to create jobs, jobs, jobs.

What’s missing with this president is power—a strong grasp of the powers he possesses and the willingness to govern the country with them. During the past two years, this missing quality has been consistently obvious in his rhetoric and substantive policy positions. There is a cloying Boy Scout quality in his style of leadership—the troop leader urging boys to work together on their merit badges—and none of the pigheaded stubbornness of his “I am the decider” predecessor, nor the hard steel of Lyndon Johnson or the guile of Richard Nixon.

Obama has patience and the self-confidence not to insist that his solution is the best and only one. On many vital questions, he went so far as to not even say what his solution was. Such a governing style is too nice for real-life politics, where Boy Scouts get their heads handed to them. [....]

Perhaps because he was young and relatively inexperienced, Obama surrounded himself with savvy veterans of Washington’s inside baseball. He inherited his economic advisers from Robert Rubin, his political team from former Senate leader Tom Daschle and center-right Clintonistas like Rahm Emanuel. Together with old friends from the academy, the administration was overstaffed with intellectual abstraction and short on street-smart politicians, especially any harboring liberal instincts. That pretty much ruled out the “change” many voters had expected. It produced a tone-deaf seminar of policy thinkers in which Obama assumed he was hearing all sides.

Republicans, who are masters of deceptive marketing, seized on Obama’s most appealing qualities and turned them upside down. Their propaganda cast him not as soft but as a power-mad (black) leftist, destroying democracy with socialist schemes. The portrait was so ludicrous and mendacious, the president’s party hardly bothered to respond. Egged on by the Republican Party and Fox News, right-wing frothers conjured sicko fantasies and extreme accusations: the president is not only a black man (bad enough for the party of the white South); he is not even American. The vindictive GOP strategy is racial McCarthyism, demonizing this honorable man as an alien threat, just as cold war Republicans depicted left-liberal Democrats as commie sympathizers.

Note that many Republicans accuse him of “partisanship”…and yes, the Republican rank and file is stupid enough to buy it.

Note that the President’s approval rating is about 48 percent. But among the 50 percent that disapprove:

Check these numbers out from CNN’s latest national survey (1,014 adults, Nov. 11-14, MoE +/- 3%):

(1) Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president?
(2) (IF DISAPPROVE) Do you disapprove because you think his policies and actions since he became president have been too liberal, or because you think his policies and actions have not been liberal enough?

Approve: 48%
Disapprove, too liberal: 38%
Disapprove, not liberal enough: 9%
Disapprove, unsure: 3%

But again, the rank and file Republican will talk about his “liberal overreach”.

15 November 2010

Last night The shoulder was somewhat sore (not “wake me up” sore); I was just achy in general.
Workout; upper body plus 15 minutes of the arm bike:
rotator cuff,
arm curls (20 x 15 lb, 10 x 20 lb, 10 x 20 lb. dumbbells)
military press: (30 x 30 lb., 30 x 30 lb. dumbbells)
bench press: (30 x 35 lb., 30 x 35 lb.) the only painful part was getting into position.
pull downs: 15 x 120, 15 x 120, 15 x 120
rows: 8 x 180, 8 x 180, 9 x 180 (getting easier)
sit ups: 4 x 25 (different inclines)

I skipped running altogether today; my lower body just “isn’t right” today.

Football: I found this curious:

DENVER — Chiefs coach Todd Haley apparently refused to shake hands with Broncos coach Josh McDaniels following Denver’s 49-29 win Sunday over Kansas City. In a video of the incident, Haley is pulls his hand back as his counterpart approaches near midfield, then wags a finger in McDaniels’ face.

The exchange was very brief. Haley also appeared to have a few choice words for his counterpart before abruptly walking away.

McDaniels seemed taken aback for a moment, and appeared to say something in response to the quickly departing Haley before shrugging his shoulders and hustling away in the opposite direction.

Haley was later asked about the terse postgame exchange with McDaniels. While vague in his response, he clearly didn’t like some of the things he saw on the Broncos sideline, suggesting they were acting as if the game was in the bag well before it was over.

Hmmm, it almost appears as if the Broncos took their foot off of the gas and the Chiefs didn’t like it? I’ve heard of coaches being upset when the other team ran up the score….sometimes there is just no pleasing people.

Other items
Here is another reason why I’ll fight to keep the Republicans from repealing Health Care Reform.

The downside of President Obama: he is really trying to keep his promise to work together with an opposition whose sole short term goal is to bring him down. Yeah, I think that he has to try, but it is pretty much a pointless exercise; remember that Republicans see themselves as the “true Americans” and consider others in power to be usurpers of what is rightfully theirs, no matter how many votes the winner got.

Catholicism: I really don’t miss it. Here is yet another reason why: the Bishops says that we need….more….exorcists. Just why does such woo-woo deserve respect?

Fun

Richard Dawkins interview

Spandex for Science!

Don’t mind if I do!

Note: my wife has learned to NEVER say that to me if she is truly upset with me.

14 November 2010 (AM)

Workout notes: first, I should point out that I had an achy shoulder though it didn’t hurt my sleep; driving?
I walked 13 miles on the East Peoria trail (bikepath really); the first 10 were done in 2:23; the total time was 3:09. It was chilly, windy and sunny. There were a few runners and paunchy middle aged people. But there was one spandex lady; these were the cotton tights with just a hint of granny panty “cut line” and a jiggle.

More seriously, I really didn’t walk well at all; I was out of sorts and slow. Part of it is the ongoing weight training and part of it was my not practicing faster road/track walking.

Science
About that “dark matter” photo: what you are seeing is the gravitational lens effect of the dark matter.

Politics
If you think that *I* am strident, check out this headline. I hasten to point out that I do not think that Gov. Palin has the intellect to become an effective President of the United States; in fact I feel that she would be a disaster; even worse than President Bush.

But Dr. Coyne is responding to a high “favorable” score (80 percent of Republicans view her in a favorable light) which is different than a “qualified” rating. Note here, Republicans are much more conflicted:

In the ABC/WashPost poll, Palin’s fellow Republicans are evenly divided on whether she is qualified: 47 percent say she is, 46 percent answered that she isn’t.

Of course, this is too high of a rating, but remember: these are Republicans.

What I am enjoying is the current infighting.

13 November 2010 links

Earmark reform; I’ll have to take a look at that site.

Still, the President appears to be buying into the meme that it is the budget deficit that is the problem; many feel the problem is the lack of demand. I agree with the Keynesian economists, though I admit to having no economic chops; it isn’t a subject that I have a deep understanding of.

More politics
I’m having a good old time at the Drunken Ladybug’s fan club page on facebook. (Christine O’Donnell). Remember this:

Her supporters are defending her with this link.

Researchers in California have created living mice with functioning human stem cells in their brains. [...]

Less than one-tenth of one percent of the test mice’s brain cells are human.

“When we characterized these cells two months later, we found that [they] had the [form and structure] and characteristics of mouse cells,” said Gage, co-director of the genetics laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego.

“It is truly amazing that these human stem cells, although they are very immature, can still … respond to different cues in their environment and can fit right in with their mouse neighbors.”

“This illustrates that injecting human stem cells into mouse brains doesn’t restructure the brain,” Gage added.

Somehow that became “fully functioning human brains” in the mind of the Drunken Ladybug and her supporters.

Science
Junk DNA is strong evidence for evolution though NOT for natural selection.

Neanderthals: there is some evidence that their brains developed differently than modern human brains (e. g., the juvenile Neanderthal brained matured in a different way than a homo sapien juvenile brain matures). This might account for the differences in the supposed cognitive abilities.

Cosmology/Astronomy: here is a false color photo of dark matter. Ok, it is a false photo of how we think that dark matter would look.