May he rest in peace, soon

Via CNN News - James Brown's burial expected in next few days

The six adult children of singer James Brown have agreed with his partner, Tomi Rae Hynie, on where the entertainer will be buried, an attorney for the woman said Tuesday.

Robert Rosen said the resting place is being kept confidential at the request of Brown's children. He said the burial may take place in the "next few days."

Brown died Christmas Day at age 73.

That was almost exactly 2 months ago! That just seems so odd. I guess one can't be buried until the burial site is chosen, but to take two whole months to decide seems excessive.

And this struck me as odd too:

He said he checked on Brown on Tuesday, opening the gold casket to view the body.

"I do that constantly," Reid said. "That's the only way I can actually check him ... go in, open the casket and close it. And he's fine."

Okay, one, a gold casket? But then again it is James Brown. And two, what does he mean "he's fine"? Yep, he's still dead. What does he expect other than that? Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I want to know. . .

Richardson as a serious candidate

Matthew Yglesias has an excellent article over at The American Prospect about Bill Richardson's lack of media attention. In the article he talks about Richardson's many qualifications for President:

as governor, Richardson "has been lauded by traditionally right-leaning publications and organizations such as Forbes Magazine and the Cato Institute for reforming New Mexico's economy," traditionally the sort of thing that would create some buzz given that we are, after all, talking about a fairly progressive Democrat.

Here's something else you might expect to garner some buzz: If that same Democrat also found some spare time in January to broker a cease-fire between the government of Sudan and some major rebel factions in Darfur. That kind of person might be someone who understands that these sort of humanitarian tragedies can't just be ended purely through righteous indignation.

But now we're getting back to the small matter of qualifications. Traditionally, Americans have turned to governors to serve as president, thinking that experience in executive office and with complicated managerial tasks outweighs the experience with federal policy issues that members of Congress can count in their favor. Happily, Richardson spent over a decade in the House of Representatives before becoming governor. In between, he was America's ambassador the United Nations, wracking up a level of national security experience that none of the other contenders can match. And did I mention he was also Secretary of Energy? Too bad nobody thinks energy independence and global climate change are important policy areas in which it would be good for the chief executive to have some knowledge. Oh, well.

The whole article is definitely work reading if you are interested in presidential candidates at this stage of the game.

He also makes a point about the media's bias coverage of candidates. They don't cover all the candidates, just the ones the media deems worthwhile. Now I don't watch news shows on television or listen to them on the radio (I get my news almost exclusively from the Internet) but my sister does and she has made a similar complaint. She feels like ever Edwards has been passed over by the media in favor of Hillary and Obama.

The media does play a very powerful role in the process by choosing who to spotlight and who to ignore, but are the other candidates doing their part to draw some attention to themselves? Maybe Richardson needs to be having living room parties in Iowa. If Richardson, or others, can take their campaign to the people and get a good showing in an early primary they can get the press's attention. It's not fair that they have to do more to get that attention, it's true. But the world is not fair. The press covers what they think the public wants to hear about. And at least right now, the public wants to hear about the superstar candidates. It's not the best way to elect a president, as Matthew Yglesias notes, but it is the system we are stuck with at the moment. If someone wants the job, they have to learn to work the system.

H/T: Matthew Yglesias via Poliblog (who at the time of my reading didn't include an actual link to the article but I'm sure will be adding one shortly).

Unconstitutional

Via the International Herald Tribune - U.S. court deals a setback to Guantánamo prisoners

The article is about the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that said detainees can no longer sue in federal courts and the appeal that is being planned. One statement in the article struck me as odd:

Attorneys argued that the detainees were not covered by that provision and that the law was unconstitutional.

"The arguments are creative but not cogent," Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote. "To accept them would be to defy the will of Congress."

What strikes me as odd is that "defy the will of Congress" statement. Isn't that what the Supreme Court is ALWAYS doing when it finds a law unconstitutional? I mean, what kind of argument is that?

It's almost like that e-bay commercial

Okay, not really.

CNN - Lost ring comes full circle 20 years later

A college ring lost more than 20 years ago by a former undercover officer for the CIA has been found in an underwater cave off the coast of Africa.

[. . .]

Lopez, a 1976 Notre Dame College graduate and former CIA undercover officer, was stationed at Port Louis, Mauritius, from 1983 to 1985. During a dive, the ring slipped from her finger.

Ruic sent Thiesen's address to Lopez. She has exchanged e-mails with Thiesen, she said Monday, and they're arranging for him to mail it.

Quite an amazing story, especially considering that the ring did not have a name on it. It's actually surprising to me that the one who found it actually made an effort to find the owner.

wireless blogging

I couldn't resist. I had to dash off a quick post wirelessly. I'm such a technology novice that it just seems cool to be blogging from a laptop at a coffee shop. And of course I had to check out the laptop before I drove all the way back to Troy with it. It would definitely take some getting used to.

Jonathan Babineaux arrested

SI.com reports - Babineaux arrested for animal abuse

Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman Jonathan Babineaux was arrested by Gwinnett County police on Monday morning and charged with one count of felony animal abuse.

[. . .]

Gwinnett County police spokesman Darren Moloney said Babineaux was arrested early Monday. Moloney said he did not know any specifics about the case and a report and details concerning the case would not be released Monday.

I was curious as to what constituted felony animal abuse in Georgia so I decided to look it up. Here is what I found (via the Humane Association of Georgia Inc's website)

Aggravated Cruelty to Animals (felony charge): A person commits the offense of aggravated cruelty to animals when he or she knowingly and maliciously causes death or physical harm to an animal by rendering a part of such animal's body useless or by seriously disfiguringsuch animal…[paraphrased] except for conduct otherwise permitted under state or federal law. O.C.G.A. §16-12-4

I wonder what they are accusing him of doing exactly.

Update: more information here.

Miraculous

BBC News - Miami baby sets premature record

Amillia Taylor is believed to be the first baby ever known to have survived after a gestation period of less than 23 weeks.

She weighed a mere 284 grams (10 ounces) at birth on 24 October.

Doctors generally consider that babies weighing less than 400g at birth are not viable.

Miraculous is the only word to describe the survival of this child. I'm sure she still has a long battle ahead of her. A friend of mine was just telling me last week that her niece's premature baby was coming from the hospital and she was born at about 25 or 27 weeks, I forget which. I though that was amazing. Modern medicine has come a long way.

Over-dramatic headline of the day

Via The New Zealand Herald - Asteroid on collision path with Earth

My sister IM'd me saying that she had heard Paul Harvey say that an asteroid was on a collision course with Earth and it was going to hit on April 13, 2036. My initial response was, "and how certain are they?"

Here's what I found:

Underscoring the peril, an asteroid named Apophis risks passing very close to Earth on 13 April, 2036.

Astronomers warn that as of now, there is a 1 in 45,000 chance of a direct hit.

Its impact would be enough to wipe out a country as large as England.

I'll admit that an asteroid big enough to wipe out England is major. There is no doubt about that. But think about it this way, if your odds of winning a million dollars was 1 in 45000 would you announce that you were winning a million dollars? Would you quit your job or buy an expensive new car banking on winning that money? I know I wouldn't.

Do I think that some serious consideration should go into a plan for dealing with such a disaster? Probably. Do I think that headline is way out of proportion? Yes.

The livingroom campaign

NYT - In Iowa, the Living Room Has Fallen Out of Favor

Iowa, with its first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, has been celebrated for 30 years for its intimate campaigns where future presidents would perch on living room couches or sit at kitchen tables and take questions from 20 or 30 people late into the night.

[. . .]

A chapter in American political history that began in 1976 when Jimmy Carter rose from obscurity by working the living rooms and kitchens of Iowa may be drawing to a end. It is, at least for this election cycle, the victim of an era of celebrity candidates tracked by busloads of reporters, and of intense interest in the 2008 race among voters, who are turning out in numbers that would fill many, many living rooms.

It seems to me that the living room campaign, invented by an obscure candidate, is best used by the obscure candidate. The living room campaign is not likely to work too well for this election. There are many big-name candidates and with the shift forward of many primary elections, they just don't have the time to sit around in people living rooms.

But I wouldn't count this method of campaigning out all together. It worked in 1976 for the little guy. The one that needed to do something special to get people's attention. If this tool stops being the norm, it can once again be the tool of the little guy who needs special attention. If the "rock star" candidates neglect the personal aspect of campaigning for several election cycles, it just might open the door for the obscure candidate to use it as something special (and nostalgic) to get the voters' attention in the future.

And on the flipside

You Are 48% Democrat

You aren't a full fledged Democrat yet, but it's likely the party that fits you best. You probably consider yourself an independent Democrat. You usually support the party, but you also think for yourself!

How Democrat Are You?

Also, not too surprising. I think it is interesting that having a graduate degree is one of things that makes me more likely to be a democrat by their quiz.

How Republican are you?

You Are 4% Republican

If you have anything in common with the Republican party, it's by sheer chance. You're a staunch liberal, and nothing is going to change that!

How Republican Are You?

Hum, that's not too surprising. And that 4% was only because I mostly shop at Wal-Mart.

H/T: Thurman Munson's Brother even if he did have fun at my expense.

More Salmonella related food recalls

MSN - Tainted Cantaloupe, Baby Food Recalled

The tainted-food scare widened Saturday with the recall of fresh cantaloupe and selected jars of organic baby food.

Dole Fresh Fruit Co. recalled several thousand cartons of imported cantaloupes after the fruit tested positive for salmonella, the bacteria involved in the nationwide peanut butter recall earlier this week.

Dole late Friday said the recall covered roughly 6,104 cartons of Costa Rican cantaloupes distributed to wholesalers in the eastern United States and Quebec between Feb. 5 and Feb. 8, the Associated Press reported. There were no reports of illness.

And Salmonella is not the only contaminate causing problems these days:

Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers late Friday not to use certain jars of Earth's Best Organic 2 Apple Peach Barley Wholesome Breakfast baby food because they may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, which can cause botulism, a life-threatening illness.

So much for "organic" being safer. In reality, I've heard before that "organic" foods actually have more of a tendency to be tainted with germs because of the organic nature of the fertilizers used to grow them.

Prince Harry may be headed for Iraq

CNN - Report: Prince Harry due in Iraq

Prince Harry, a 2006 graduate of Britain's prestigious Sandhurst military academy, will soon go to Iraq with his military unit, a British military source told CNN.

The posting to Iraq, something Prince Harry has been actively seeking since being commissioned, is expected in April or May, the unidentified military source told CNN.

[. . .]

His father, Prince Charles, was a pilot with the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. Harry's grandfather, Prince Philip, had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy. Harry's uncle, Prince Andrew, was a Royal Navy pilot and served in the Falklands War against Argentina.

As the second in line to the British crown, Harry's older brother, William -- while also a military officer -- is not eligible for combat service.

People often joke, or maybe not really joke, about the fact that Bush is not willing to send his twin daughters to Iraq. Obviously the British royal tradition of military service has survived quite well.

Morphine, for a cough?

BBC News - Tests show morphine eases coughs

The patients responded quickly to the morphine treatment, which started at 5mg twice daily.

This benefit peaked after five days of treatment and continued through the remaining four weeks of the trial.

All of the patients had suffered from their persistent cough for at least three months.

[. . .]

Dr Morice explained: "Chronic cough can have a devastating effect on the quality of life of sufferers.

I'm sure that a chronic cough is miserable, but morphine seems like an awfully strong and potentially dangerous drug to prescribe for a cough. But then again, I'm no doctor.

Anna Nicole Smith's Will

BBC News - Smith left her estate to dead son

Deceased former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith left her entire estate to her dead son, excluding any other heir from inheritance, it has emerged.

[. . .]

"I have intentionally omitted to provide for my spouse and other heirs, including future spouses and children and other descendants now living and those hereafter born or adopted," Smith said in the will, under her real name of Vickie Lynn Marshall.

[. . .]

The lawyer for Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, said the will was not filed in any court, so it is not valid.

It seems odd that she would explicitly exclude all future children. I know that Dannielynn was not born yet when the will was written (2001) but still. I would think that most people would include a provision in their will to include future children, not exclude them. I know that's what my father did. (I'm actually still just "any subsequent children" in my father's will and I'm 35 years old.) It actually makes me wonder a bit about her relationship with Daniel.

I wonder how this fact will affect the paternity claims. I'm sure it will be in court for years.

Updated Address for Peanut Butter Recall

ConAgra has now updated the address for sending in lids to receive a refund from the recalled Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter. ConAgra's website reports:

If consumers have this product, they should discard it, but save the product lid. For a full refund, consumers must return the Peter Pan Peanut Butter or Great Value Peanut Butter product lid along with their name and mailing address to ConAgra Foods, P.O. Box 3768, Omaha, NE 68103.

I'm glad I didn't go ahead and mail mine yesterday.

Today I'm reminded of a poem

Today we received a phone call from my mother-in-law saying that her sister had died this morning. She had only been sick for about 2 weeks, or at least we had only known for that amount of time. She had colon cancer that had spread and there was really nothing that could be done about it at that point. She was a very nice woman and we will miss her. But upon hearing the news my husband did not cry and was more concerned about how his mother was taking the news. It reminded me of a poem by Randall Jarrell called "Losses"

I'm kinda surprised

BBC News - Libel damages for US actress Diaz

Actress Cameron Diaz has accepted "substantial" libel damages from a US tabloid over a false claim that she was having an affair with a married man.

[. . .]

The magazine has apologised to Ms Diaz and accepted the story was untrue.

I'm kinda surprised that she got any money out of them. I thought tabloids lived by made up stories and misrepresentations of photos. If they had to pay damages for every lie they told you would think they all would be out of business by now. I'm glad to see someone fight back and win, though.

Not so easy after all

Apparently things aren't so easy in the Big Easy these days. NYT - In Setback for New Orleans, Fed-Up Residents Give Up

After nearly a decade in the city of their dreams, Kasandra Larsen and her fiancé, Dylan Langlois, climbed into a rented moving truck on Marais Street last Sunday, pointed it toward New Hampshire, and said goodbye.

Not because of some great betrayal — they had, after all, come back after losing everything in Hurricane Katrina — but a series of escalating indignities: the attempted carjacking of a pregnant friend; the announced move to Nashville by Ms. Larsen’s employer; the human feces deposited on their roof by, they suspect, the contractors next door; the two burglaries in the space of a week; and, not least, the overnight wait for the police to respond.

The story does make it sound like things are pretty rough down there. The article also points out that a lot of the people leaving are well educated, higher paid citizen, while the recent influx is from a poorer demographic. Not exactly a recipe for success. I'm sure it will take many years (decades?) for the city to fully recover from the devastation it received from Katrina, but barring another complete flooding of the area, I'm sure it will eventually claw its way back. Southerners don't give up too easily. And of course there is always the irrational attachment factor

Ms. Brite said, “If a place takes you in and you take it into yourself, you don’t desert it just because it can kill you. There are some things more valuable than life.”

Moving forward or slipping back?

NYT - Russians to Vote, but Some Parties Lose in Advance

Two candidates in local elections here in March, a soccer star and figure skating champion, have no known intention of giving up sports for legislative politics. If they win, as they almost certainly will, their Kremlin-friendly parties, not the voters, will choose the candidates to fill their seats.

An opposition party was kicked off the ballot for forging signatures but given little chance to prove otherwise. Government-controlled television has effectively barred parties except those loyal to President Vladimir V. Putin from the airwaves.

The elections here on March 11, like those in 13 other regions, will preview coming national elections in which voters’ choices will be severely limited at best. “Democracy?” asked Vladimir I. Fyodorov, a leader of the Communist Party here, which faces an uphill task of winning any seats to the city’s 50-member legislature. “I would not call the process under way in our country democracy.”

Others have a different explanation for what is going on

Vadim A. Tulpanov, the incumbent chairman of St. Petersburg’s legislature, dismissed criticism of Yabloko’s registration troubles, calling them self-inflicted. He said the election simply reflected the natural evolution of Russia’s young democracy, with the old parties like Yabloko and the Communists losing their popular appeal.

“Gradually in Russia, as I understand it, a two-party system is being created, like in America,” he said.

Since I am not that familiar with how the party system in Russia has worked since the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is difficult for me to comment on which explanation is best, at this point. However, given Putin's recent return to anti-US rhetoric, I think it is something that bears watching closely.

The extremes of authoritarianism

BBC News - Chinese man to hang for ant scam

A Chinese company chairman has been sentenced to death for running a scam involving giant ants.

Wang Zhendong promised investors returns of up to 60% if they put money into the fictitious ant-breeding project, the court heard.

I guess it is a good thing for Kenneth Lay that he doesn't live in China.

Peanut butter recall update

Via the ConAgra Website - News Release: Peter Pan Peanut Butter and Great Value Peanut Butter Products Beginning with Product Code 2111 Recalled for Possible Salmonella Contamination

If consumers have this product, they should discard it, but save the product lid. For a full refund, consumers must return the Peter Pan Peanut Butter or Great Value Peanut Butter product lid along with their name and mailing address to ConAgra Foods, P.O. Box 57078, Irvine, CA 92619-7078.

Now that is what I needed to know.

Update: ConAgra has now changed the address people should send the lids to: ConAgra Foods, P.O. Box 3768, Omaha, NE 68103.

Happy Fourth!

My blogfather turns 4 today. Well, actually his blog (Poliblog) does. I just wanted to say Happy Blogiversary and to wish him may more years of happy blogging.

In his "state of blog" post he notes some of the pluses he has realized through blogging. It is funny he should mention them, because I was recently thinking about some of those same things myself (although not all of the ones he mentions).

Yikes!

CNN - Salmonella outbreak linked to 2 peanut butter brands

A salmonella outbreak that has slowly grown to nearly 300 cases in 39 states since August has been linked to tainted peanut butter, federal health officials said Wednesday.

[. . .]

About 85 percent of the infected people said they ate peanut butter, CDC officials said.

How salmonella got into peanut butter is still under investigation, Lynch said.

[. . .]

The Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to eat certain jars of Peter Pan or Great Value peanut butter because of the risk of contamination.

The affected jars have a product code on the lid that begins with the number "2111." The affected jars are made by ConAgra in a single facility in Sylvester, Georgia, the FDA said.

First of all, it seems odd that salmonella would be in peanut putter. Second, it seems odd that only 85 percent of the people effected said they ate peanut butter. Third, I have a half-eaten jar of Peter Pan peanut butter with a product code beginning "2111". Since no one got sick eating the first half does that mean it is safe to finish or should I just throw it out?

UPDATE: This article at Market Watch says:

The company added that consumers should discard the affected peanut butter, but save the product lid to get a full refund.

The problem is it doesn't tell you what to do with the lid to get the refund. (Updated info here)

"Delusional"

BBC - Iraq invasion plan 'delusional'

The commanders predicted that after the fighting was over there would be a two- to three-month "stabilisation" phase, followed by an 18- to 24-month "recovery" stage.

They projected that the US forces would be almost completely "re-deployed" out of Iraq at the end of the "transition" phase - within 45 months of invasion.

"Completely unrealistic assumptions about a post-Saddam Iraq permeate these war plans," NSA executive director Thomas Blanton said in a statement posted on the organisation's website.

One has to wonder just who it was that Franks was getting his information from. I do not personally have an in depth knowledge of the region, but one of my former professors, who has studied the region in depth, seemed to realize that deposing Hussein would lead to further instability in the region and possibly civil war. It would seem that experts on the region would have been consulted on the matter and at least the possibility of such an outcome would have been suggested. It would seem to me that only an ideologue who was totally sold on the universal goodness and applicability of democracy could have come up with that time line.

This was necessary?

Like we really needed to know why - Study finds out why it's gross to kiss your sister (CNN)

The Power of Greed?

CNN - Father of Smith's baby may get less than hoped

Men are lining up to claim they are the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby. But they could be mistaken if they think paternity will automatically mean a pot of gold.

Instead, they could be stepping into a monumentally complex, multinational legal fight over the child. Moreover, it is not at all clear whether the little girl is a million-dollar baby, as some seem to think.

I feel sorry for this baby girl. She will never know her mother and now men are lining up to claim her just to get money. It is quite sad. I hope she will end up with someone who really will care about her and not just her money.

If anyone out there is thinking it's not about the money, this statement really sums it up:

"The other motive is money. You wonder if so many fathers would be coming forward if this was a child born in a tenement on the south side of Chicago."

Speaking from experience, they wouldn't.

Another step closer

I don't know if this study (BBC - Scientists expose HIV weak spot) is in any way related to the vaccine being tested in Africa, but it seems to indicate that there could be real hope of finding a vaccine for HIV at some point in the future.

Developing a vaccine for HIV has proved extremely difficult.

The virus is able to mutate rapidly to avoid detection by the immune system, and is also swathed by a near-impenetrable cloak of sugary molecules which block access by antibodies.

But certain parts of the virus must remain relatively unchanged so that it can continue to bind to and enter human cells.

A protein, gp120, that juts out from the surface of the virus and binds to receptors on host cells, is one such region, making it a target for vaccine development.

Hopefully one of these vaccine will eventually pan out.

What does this say about my family?

Tonight my middle son (15 years old) brought his girlfriend over for dinner for the first time. I have to wonder what she thought of our suppertime conversation. We ended up talking about millenarianism, how presidential primaries work, spelling skills, and The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. What does this say about me and my family?

Franken for Senate

CNN - Ex-SNL comic Al Franken running for Senate

Outspoken comedian and liberal radio host Al Franken announced Wednesday that he intends to run for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Minnesota.

On his Web site alfranken.com the NBC "Saturday Night Live" veteran said he will vie for the seat now held by Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

Franken also confirmed that he is running for Senate during his final show on the liberal Air America radio network. He announced last month that he was leaving Air America after his February 14 broadcast.

Well, it's not exactly new news at this point, but I guess this does make it official.

Franken had this to say about the battle that lies ahead of him:

"I'm not a typical politician," Franken said in an 8½ minute video message on his Web site. "I've spent my career as a comedian. Minnesotans have a right to be skeptical about whether I'm ready for this challenge, and to wonder how seriously I would take the responsibility that I'm asking you to give me."

I'm sure there will be skeptics. Going from being a comedian to a serious politicians would seem like quite a leap. I will admit, I did like his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. He does at least have some qualifications for the job

Franken is a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in government.

Addicted to Love

I guess Robert Palmer was right. According to a recent study conducted at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York being in love has the same effect as taking cocaine. CNN - Loving with all your ... brain reports:

While being scanned, the students looked at a photo of their beloved. The scientists found that the caudate area of the brain -- which is involved in cravings -- became very active. Another area that lit up: the ventral tegmental, which produces dopamine, a powerful neurotransmitter that affects pleasure and motivation.

Dr. Brown said scientists believe that when you fall in love, the ventral tegmental floods the caudate with dopamine. The caudate then sends signals for more dopamine.

"The more dopamine you get, the more of a high you feel," Dr. Brown says.

Or as her colleague, Dr. Helen Fisher put it: When you fall in love, "exactly the same system becomes active as when you take cocaine. You can feel intense elation when you're in love. You can feel intense elation when you're high on cocaine."

And if you are thinking that it is really all about the sex then think again.

The answer is: Brains in love and brains in lust don't look too much alike.

In studies when researchers showed erotic photos to people as they underwent brain scans, they found activity in the hypothalamus and amygdala areas of the brain. The hypothalamus controls drives like hunger and thirst and the amygdala handles arousal, among other things.

In the studies of people in love, "we didn't find activity in either," according to Dr. Fisher, an anthropologist and author of "Why We Love -- the Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love."

"We now have physiological data that suggests there are different brain systems for sex and love," says Dr. Fisher.

At some point, the two do become linked. People in love have elevated levels of dopamine. Lots of dopamine, in turn, triggers the production of testosterone, which is responsible for the sex drive in both men and women.

This helps explain why falling in love can make someone all of a sudden seem sexy.

"Three weeks ago he was just another nice guy in the office and now everything about him is sexual," says Dr. Fisher.

If you read the whole article, you find that rejection and losing someone's love creates an actual pain response in the brain as well. It's all quite interesting, to me anyway.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I just want to say Happy Valentine's to all. This morning has been very hectic and I'm sure the rest of the day will not be particularly conducive to blogging either. I may get in a few quick posts before lunch at 1:00, but don't expect much today. I hope everyone's Valentine's Day is happy and less hectic than mine.

As a side note, if you didn't have to clean and disinfect your kitchen counter top first thing this morning because your cat left you an unwanted Valentine's Day present, you're most likely having a better day than me already.

A note on the importance of education

Earlier today in the comment section of a post over at Poliblog I was part of a conversation dealing with the importance of students actually learning information instead of simply having access to the knowledge via some external source. In the original post, Dr. Taylor laments the inability of his students to locate Iraq on an unlabeled map.

Another reader ended his comment by saying:

Apologies for the simple rhetorical arguments, but frankly, map skills–though indeed fundamental–met their obsolescence some time ago with the marketing of affordable and clearly labeled globes.

I in turn responded with this comment:

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting really tired of the argument that people no longer need to actually learn anything, because all information is now so readily available. It is just a crutch, in my opinion. Should elementary schools stop teaching addition and multiplication because calculators are readily available? Should we not teach spelling because of dictionaries and spell-check?

I wish these people would give it a rest already!

The commenter in question then decided to continue the conversation in a comment to this post here at Irrational Woman. Since the comment was really only tangentially related to that post, I thought I would address the issue in depth in a post of its own. So here goes.

My comments about calculator and spell check were to some extent hyperbole, but they do have some relevance. The reference to spell check in particular. I'm not a good speller and I am overjoyed to have access to spell check, and a dictionary for that matter, on a regular basis. But you have to know at least generally how to spell the word before either resource can be of any assistance to you. I have been know to misspell words so badly that even spell check had no idea what I was talking about. This is relevant to the map question because if you don't have at least some idea where Iraq is, you won't even know what area of the globe to look on. Some knowledge is necessary before references can be used effectively.

In addition, my comment was not only directed at Jimmy's comment. Previously on Poliblog a reader had made a comment about the ready availability of information devaluing the study of history:

Now it’s too easy to find lots of stuff available about any historical subject. If I chose to, I could know more about the Christian Emperors of Constantinople than 99% of the population with only a single day’s study.

These kinds of statements irritate me. It is like saying education doesn't matter anymore. Or that the subjects that I have spent many long years studying and attempting to understand in depth can be mastered in a day. It just is not the same. The readily available information does not always tell the whole story or in some cases may not even be accurate. In the case of maps, they are probably accurate, but it was the overall attitude I was objecting to as much as anything else.

And just for the record, I did use spell check during the writing of this post, and will use it again many times in the future.

Cool Space Pic

For those of you out there that like really cool pictures from outer space, check this one out.

The dusty dead star appears as a dot in the middle of the nebula, like a red pupil in a green monster's eye.

Cool!

Romney makes it official

CNN - Romney kicks off White House bid

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney returned to his native state of Michigan on Tuesday to kick off his bid officially for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

[. . .]

For the past two years, Romney -- who was seen as a moderate when he was elected in 2002 -- has been trying to buff up his credentials with conservatives, leading some critics to accuse him of changing his positions in anticipation of a White House bid.

The article continues with several examples of this flip-flopping on important social issues. If you are interested in the subject, the article is worth reading.

Braves to be Sold

WSFA - Atlanta Braves To Be Sold

Time Warner finalized an agreement Monday to sell the Atlanta Braves to Liberty Media after more than a year of negotiations.

[. . .]

Under the agreement, Terry McGuirk will remain in charge of the team after the sale. General manager John Schuerholz and manager Bobby Cox also are expected to remain.

The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site that the deal would involve Time Warner transferring the Braves, a group of craft magazines and one billion dollars in cash to Liberty in exchange for about 60 million Time Warner shares now owned by Liberty.

Hum, the Braves and craft magazines, what an interesting combination.

US trade still in deficit

BBC News - US trade deficit hits fresh high

The US trade deficit rose 6.5% last year to hit a new record high of $763.6bn (£393bn).

Fuelled by last year's rise in global oil prices and the surge in Chinese imports, it was the fifth record annual US trade deficit in succession.

The gap with China alone was $232.5bn last year, the largest imbalance the US has ever recorded with one country.

Now I'll start by admitting that I hate IPE with a purple passion. Anyway, I've been told on multiple occasions that the fact that the US has a trade deficit only means that we have lots of money to spend so we spend it on things made in other countries. Okay, I get that, but how long can we maintain such a growing imbalance? It would seem there would have to be some outer limit or threshold.

What's on your plate?

WaPo - On Fla. Menus, a Favorite Fish Experiences Identity Theft

The alleged grouper at 17 of 24 area restaurants sampled by the investigators was actually another, less desirable species, according to a DNA analysis conducted for the state attorney general's office and released earlier this month. Asian catfish. Emperor. Painted sweetlips. And twice, types of fish that could not be identified.

I guess my grandmother should stop worrying so much about what the Chinese restaurant might be serving her and start worrying about what the seafood restaurant is serving instead.

I always thought the reason for eating seafood when in Florida was because the food would be fresher, but apparently not:

Much of the reason for the questionable grouper, red snapper and other fish stems from a simple matter of supply and demand, regulators and industry officials say.

With the popularity of grouper rising nationwide and the domestic catch at times limited by federal guidelines, restaurateurs have relied on imports to fill the gap.

If I'm not going to be served fresh seafood that is actually caught off the coast of Florida, I might as well just go to Red Lobster, or better yet, just stay home and fix something I bought frozen at the grocery store.

I don't really want to be a cynic, but I think I'm becoming one anyway. Trust no one and expect very little. Sad.

All are agreed on N. Korea disarmament

WaPo - N. Korea Agrees to Nuclear Disarmament

North Korea agreed Tuesday after arduous talks to shut down its main nuclear reactor and eventually dismantle its atomic weapons program, just four months after the communist state shocked the world by testing a nuclear bomb.

The deal marks the first concrete plan for disarmament in more than three years of six-nation negotiations, and could potentially herald a new era of cooperation in the region with the North's longtime foes _ the United States and Japan _ also agreeing to discuss normalizing relations with Pyongyang.

Under the deal, the North will receive initial aid equal to 50,000 tons heavy fuel oil within 60 days for shutting down and sealing its main nuclear reactor and related facilities at Yongbyon, north of the capital, to be confirmed by international inspectors.

For irreversibly disabling the reactor and declaring all nuclear programs, the North will eventually receive another 950,000 tons in aid.

I honestly don't know how the final agreement compares to what each side wanted in the negotiations, but it sounds like a pretty good deal to me. I don't know that the aid for N. Korea is equivalent to energy they could produce with nuclear energy, but I don't really think nuclear energy was their main goal anyway. If relations can be normalized between N. Korea and the rest of the world, however, that could ultimately equate to much better windfall than the aid upfront.

North Korea and United States also will embark on talks aimed at resolving disputes and restarting diplomatic relations, Wu said. The Korean peninsula has technically remained in a state of war for more than a half-century since the Korean War ended in a 1953 cease-fire.

The United States will begin the process of removing North Korea from its designation as a terror-sponsoring state and also on ending U.S. trade sanctions, but no deadlines was set, according to the agreement.

If the Korean conflict can finally be completely put to bed, that would be good too. Maybe (but I'm not holding my breathe) the US could actually join the agreement on removing land mines, since we would no longer have to maintain the mines along the border between North and South Korea.

To some degree I agree with John Bolton here, although I don't agree that Bush should reject the offer:

"I am very disturbed by this deal," Bolton told CNN. "It sends exactly the wrong signal to would-be proliferators around the world: 'If we hold out long enough, wear down the State Department negotiators, eventually you get rewarded,' in this case with massive shipments of heavy fuel oil for doing only partially what needs to be done."

I think that it does, to some degree, send that message, but there is really no other choice. We knew that Iraq didn't have nuclear capabilities so we took over their country in an attempt to keep them from attaining them. That hasn't worked out so well for us, now has it. Once N. Korea exhibited its nuclear power (or at least claimed that's what it was), we were much more willing to talk.

When you are only willing to talk with those who wield power, you encourage other states to seek power if they want to talk. If you attack those who don't have power, you encourage those who don't have power to seek power if they don't want to be attacked. To me the solution is not what Bolton suggests, but talking instead of bullying. Just because we have raw power doesn't necessarily mean we can use it effectively to achieve our goals.

You know a show is popular when (Heroes Edition)

You know a show is popular when they are advertising its commercials. Last night while watching Crossing Jordan, NBC advertised that a commercial for Heroes would be on during Deal or No Deal and that it would reveal a new hero. This is not the first time they have done such a thing and advertised it in advance. If the fact that a commercial for Heroes will air during Deal or No Deal is a reason to watch Deal or No Deal, then you know that Heroes must be a big deal. (Whew, did you follow that?) It doesn't work on me, because I watch CBS from 7 to 8 and then switch over for Heroes at 8, but it gets my sister to watch NBC from 7 to 8.

A Deal with N. Korea?

NYT - Tentative Deal Reached With North Korea, Envoy Says

BEIJING, Tuesday, Feb. 13 — Negotiators reached a draft agreement early this morning on a deal to begin disarming North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, the chief American negotiator to the talks said.

“We feel it’s an excellent draft,” said the American envoy, Christopher R. Hill, an assistant secretary of state.

The deal is now being reviewed by the governments of the six nations involved in the talks — the United States, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia — and could be announced as soon as late morning. Negotiators agreed to reconvene at 10:30 a.m. today in Beijing (9:30 p.m. Monday, Eastern time).

If it truly is a good deal, I hope that it will go ahead. Although I can easily understand N. Korea's desire to have nuclear weapons, I'm not actually in favor of them having them.

I'm sure there will be more news on the subject this evening.

A New Dollar Coin Series

CNN Money - Presidential dollar coin on the way

Hoping to replicate the success of the state-quarter program, the U.S. Mint tries again to make the dollar-coin work.

The U.S. Mint will issue a dollar coin featuring the likeness of George Washington this Thursday, the first in the series of presidential coin dollars.

I'm not sure that Presidential coins will have the draw that state quarters have had. It seems to me that many people that aren't normally coin collects are likely to collect quarters that represent their home state or states where they have lived, etc. But no one really has a "home president," do they? I'm not saying it won't work at all, just that I don't think it will meet with equivalent demand.

Plus, I think, the fact that it is a dollar, not a quarter will factor in as well, for this reason:

The coins, which will be the size, weight and metal composition of the Sacagawea $1 coin will feature the portraits of U.S. presidents in the order they served.

I know that I personally don't like the fact that the current dollar coin is too close in size to the quarter. People want money that is easily distinguishable so that we don't have to think too hard when we pay for things. And nobody wants to accidentally give someone a dollar when they mean to only give them a quarter.

There were some things about the coin series that I found particularly interesting:

Gerald Ford is currently the last president on the release schedule. Under the Presidential Coin Act of 2005, none of the coins will bear the image of any living former or current President. Coins of deceased former presidents won't be made until two years following the date of death.

I assume he is the last because, although Reagan is dead, Carter, who served before him, is not. And if you are going to go in order, you can't have Reagan without Carter. And there was also this fact:

Each president will be honored with only one coin regardless of the number of consecutive terms they served. President Grover Cleveland, who served two non-consecutive terms, will be featured on two coins.

Again, if you are going to do it in order, Cleveland has to get two.

The final interesting fact in the article is this:

The Mint says that the coins are not meant to be a replacement of paper dollar bills. But there is a cost difference between paper and coin dollars, which can last longer in circulation.

A 2002 Government Accounting Office report released in 2002 concluded that if dollar coins replaced the paper dollar, the government would save $500 million annually.

My question is, why the heck not? If it would save $500 million annually, why not get rid of the paper dollar? Is the paper dollar really that important?

Lost laptops. . .and weapons!

CNN - FBI loses laptops with classified information

The FBI lost at least 10 laptop computers containing classified information during a four-year period ending in 2005, the Justice Department's inspector general has found.

The 10 were among the 160 laptops lost or stolen during a 44-month period ending September 30, 2005, Inspector General Glenn Fine reported. Along with the laptops, an equal numbers of weapons were also missing.

One's initial response might be that this sounds bad, but you haven't heard the best part yet:

The report said the number of missing items, while still a problem, represents a sharp improvement since a 2002 audit, which found more than 300 laptops and 300 weapons lost or stolen during the previous 28-month period.

Now as a percentage of the total laptops and weapons they are responsible for, this may seem small, but it still seems like it is way higher than it should be considering the sensitive nature of the items in question.

Okay. . .

BBC News - Uncircumcised pupils sent home

A Kenyan secondary school has sent home 20 boys because they were not circumcised, saying it feared they would be bullied by other students.

And this is an issue at school because??? Maybe they have communal showers, but still.

Intellectual honesty?

NYT - Believing Scripture but Playing by Science’s Rules

There is nothing much unusual about the 197-page dissertation Marcus R. Ross submitted in December to complete his doctoral degree in geosciences here at the University of Rhode Island.

His subject was the abundance and spread of mosasaurs, marine reptiles that, as he wrote, vanished at the end of the Cretaceous era about 65 million years ago. The work is “impeccable,” said David E. Fastovsky, a paleontologist and professor of geosciences at the university who was Dr. Ross’s dissertation adviser. “He was working within a strictly scientific framework, a conventional scientific framework.”

But Dr. Ross is hardly a conventional paleontologist. He is a “young earth creationist” — he believes that the Bible is a literally true account of the creation of the universe, and that the earth is at most 10,000 years old.

For him, Dr. Ross said, the methods and theories of paleontology are one “paradigm” for studying the past, and Scripture is another. In the paleontological paradigm, he said, the dates in his dissertation are entirely appropriate. The fact that as a young earth creationist he has a different view just means, he said, “that I am separating the different paradigms.”

The article continues on to discuss the use of scientific degrees by creationists to somehow validate their positions as scientific, and the ability (or lack thereof) of universities to use the religious beliefs of degree candidates as criteria for awarding or withholding degrees.

It just seems to me that student here is being intellectually dishonest. He is unwilling to be honest with himself. Either he believes what his dissertation says or he doesn't. All of this "one paradigm or another" business doesn't cut it for me in this circumstance. Now I can say "if one follows a realist paradigm" even if I'm not a realist, but I'm not going to write a dissertation arguing in favor of that paradigm.

I suppose that the universities shouldn't be able to deny people degrees based on their religious beliefs on the one hand, but if the candidates have truly steeled themselves against believing what they are being taught, it seems that they don't really deserve the degree in the first place. Ultimately, it just seems like a really odd thing to do.

Clinton reception in NH

WaPo - Clinton's Search for Common Ground Gets Mixed Reviews in N.H.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) touted the politics of the possible Sunday during her inaugural visit to New Hampshire as a presidential candidate, a message that found an energetic but not ecstatic reception in town-hall meetings and house parties across the state.

Clinton veered away from drawing simple conclusions on issues such as the war in Iraq and health care, insisting that each is a complex problem that does not lend itself to a simple solution.

It is certainly true that there is no simple solution, and I believe I've made that very point here on the blog before. However, that is not what the American people like to here. We like for things to be simple and clean cut. Don't confuse us with the facts.

This quote surprised me a bit when I read it:

Clinton is sending a message to primary voters as well as to her opponents that governing -- unlike campaigning -- is about finding common ground and forging compromise, not making difficult promises. It's a message she believes is striking fear in Republicans. "I'm the one person they are most afraid of," she said during a stop in Nashua. "Bill and I have beaten them before, and we will again."

I suppose it makes since that she would want to draw attention to her experience in the White House as first lady, but to invoke Bill in that way seemed a bit odd to me. It's almost like saying he will be helping her do the job or something. Maybe that's just me.

Geez, he even gets international attention

BBC News - Australia head slams US candidate

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has claimed US presidential hopeful Barack Obama's stance on Iraq will benefit those seeking to destroy it.

Mr Obama, currently a Democrat senator, said that US troops should withdraw from the troubled nation next year.

Mr Howard said al-Qaeda should be "praying as many times as possible" for an Obama victory in the 2008 elections.

But Mr Obama reacted by saying Australia should increase its troops in Iraq, if Mr Howard was so concerned.

I can just hear the Republican ads now:
"Obama sounds like Osama . . ."

At this stage of the game, what difference does it make to Australia what one Democratic candidate thinks about Iraq, even if he is also a Senator? I can see other countries weighing in on the campaign once we are down to the general election, but what's up with making a big deal out of it now?

I did like Obama's come back line, though. Sort of a "put up or shut up" kinda thing.

Ya think?

NYT - Troubles Grow for a University Built on Profits

The University of Phoenix became the nation’s largest private university by delivering high profits to investors and a solid, albeit low-overhead, education to midcareer workers seeking college degrees.

But its reputation is fraying as prominent educators, students and some of its own former administrators say the relentless pressure for higher profits, at a university that gets more federal student financial aid than any other, has eroded academic quality.

Imagine that, when a university focuses too much on profit academic quality decreases. Who would have guessed?

"Very dangerous"

BBC - Putin attacks 'very dangerous' US

Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticised the United States for what he said was its "almost uncontained" use of force around the world.

Washington's "very dangerous" approach to global relations was fuelling a nuclear arms race, he told a security summit in Munich.

Correspondents say the strident speech may signal a more assertive Russia.

First of all, I don't think Putin has ever been happy with Russia's diminished position in global politics since the end of the Cold War. The idea that he would like to use the current state of global public opinion about the US to his advantage should come as no surprise. It seems to me like a case of running the idea up the flagpole to see who will salute.

The article goes on to say:

And Republican Senator John McCain added: "Moscow must understand that it cannot enjoy a genuine partnership with the West so long as its actions at home and abroad conflict fundamentally with the core values of the Euro-Atlantic democracies. In today's multi-polar world there is no place for needless confrontation."

This whole quote is bothersome to me. First of all, just the idea that we are trying to force "the values of Euro-Atlantic democracies" on the rest of the world is part of our problem. I know that ideally it would be nice if everyone else held those values, but it really is not our place to force them on others, unless we are advocating an end to the sovereign state system as we know it. Second, to call our current international system "multi-polar" is something of a misnomer. I'm aware that some people view it that way, and it is to some degree true economically. However, in terms of military might we are quite close to unipolarity in the international system with the US as the single pole.

If one thinks about the poles in the international system as legs on a chair, the US, although not the only leg on the chair, is certainly the longest leg, which makes the chair very unstable. If one takes a realist view of the international system, Putin is certainly correct. Other powers will try to build their strength in an effort to balance against the strength of the US. And whether one is inclined to balance power or threat, the US has, in recent years, shown itself to be both a power and a threat. And Iranian and N. Korean desires to possess nuclear weapons can arguably be related to that threat.

As if we didn't already know

CNN - Obama declares he's running for president

Sen. Barack Obama stood before a cheering crowd at the Capitol in his home state Saturday and announced he will seek the 2008 Democratic nomination for president.

Invoking the memory of fellow Illinoisan and the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, the first-term senator addressed thousands packed into the Springfield, Illinois, town square on a chilly day in America's heartland.

Well, I guess it is now completely official. I still don't understand what all the hype is about. He's a first term senator, just like Edwards was last time around. Everyone acted, and still acts, like Edwards is too inexperienced and doesn't stand a chance, and yet everytime you turn on the TV someone is talking about Obama. Let's stop acting like an articulate black man is something new or special. He seems like a nice guy and he doesn't carry with him all the baggage of someone like Jesse Jackson, but that doesn't mean that he can automatically win because of it. Someone please tell me what makes this man seem so electable all of a sudden.

Great News

As an update to this post from last month, I'm thrilled to announce that my eldest son recieved notification today that he is being awarded a full scholarship to Troy University, including room and board! I'm very proud of him and I'm also happy to not have to pay tuition. Since we live here in town, room and board was only an issue if he got the scholarship to cover it. He's particularly happy that he got it.

Just say no. . .to cheerleaders?

Fox Sports - Crowe's rugby team cuts cheerleaders

Russell Crowe says his rugby league club's cheerleading squad is being cut because skimpily clad cheerleaders detract from the game and make spectators uncomfortable.

The Oscar-winning actor, who is part-owner in the South Sydney Rabbitohs club, said the club had become concerned that the cheerleaders - whose uniform includes fishnet stockings and tasseled miniskirts in the white, green and red team colors - were inappropriate entertainment.

I can't imagine that would ever happen in this country.

Who's the Daddy?

And the plot thickens over the identity of the late Anna Nicole Smith's baby daughter.

MSNBC - Zsa Zsa’s husband says he could be baby’s dad

The husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor said Friday that he had a decade-long affair with Anna Nicole Smith and may be her infant daughter’s father.

The claim by Prince Frederick von Anhalt comes amid a paternity suit over Smith’s 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn. The birth certificate lists Dannielynn’s father as attorney Howard K. Stern, but former Smith boyfriend Larry Birkhead is waging a legal challenge, saying he is the father.

“If you go back from September, she wasn’t with one of those guys, she was with me,” von Anhalt told The Associated Press in an interview Friday.

And he waits until now to mention this? I wonder if it is for real or just a publicity stunt.

Twisting the facts

BBC News - Pentagon 'twisted Iraq findings'

The Democratic chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee has suggested intelligence was twisted in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

[. . .]

Under repeated questioning by Sen Levin, Mr Gimble said the conclusions reached in reports by Mr Feith were not fully supported by the available intelligence.

'Relationship' unproven

In particular, his conclusion there was a "mature and symbiotic relationship" between Iraq and al-Qaeda could not be justified on the basis of the available intelligence.

And an alleged meeting between an Iraqi intelligence officer and a leader of the 9/11 attacks, Mohamed Atta, never took place.

This comes as no major surprise. I assumed they were twisting evidence from the beginning.

Update: After reading a post over at Poliblog on a similar article from the Washington Post, I was inspired to point out the lame excuse used in this article:

Mr Feith told the inspector general his reports never pretended to be intelligence assessments, the report's executive summary says.

Peace among Palestinians

NYT - Accord Is Signed by Palestinians to Stop Feuding

The main rival Palestinian factions agreed late Thursday to form a government of national unity aimed at ending a wave of violence between them and an international boycott.

The agreement, signed here in Islam’s holiest city under Saudi auspices, appeared likely to end, at least for now, weeks of fighting that had ravaged the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Still, it seemed to stop short of meeting the demands of the international community for resuming relations and support for the Palestinian Authority.

[. . .]

Israel and international powers have said that they would lift their boycott of the Palestinian government imposed after the victory by the militant group Hamas a year ago only if it agreed to three conditions: recognize Israel, renounce violence against Israel and abide by previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.

This would seem to be at least a step in the right direction for Palestine, if it ever hopes to gain its own state. Learning to work together and showing a respect for the opposition party are actually steps toward democratization which the rest of the international community wants to foster in Palestine.

There are still road blocks in the way however:

Hamas officials in Mecca bristled at the insistence of accepting Israel, insisting that any concessions they offered would not be enough.

“I wonder why the issue of recognizing Israel is the key to everything?” Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas government, said earlier Thursday. “We are interested to end the siege but not at any cost.”

[. . .]

Hamas rejects Israel’s very existence and calls for its destruction. Fatah, which began with that same philosophy in the late 1950s, favors a two-state solution with Israel returning to its borders from before the 1967 war and a Palestinian state built in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

This is a good illustration of what I was trying to point out before in this post. Some Palestinian groups want more than just their own state. They want Israel GONE! Period! As noted above, Hamas is one of these groups and Hamas won a majority of seats in the last election, which would seem to indicate that many Palestinians agree with them.

One of the most pressing issues at the moment, however, is whether or not this peace will even last:

Mostly, the Mecca accord promises to end the fighting that has claimed the lives of more than 90 Palestinians, with each side pledging to ease the tensions and turn a new page in their history. The two sides have signed several truces, but each one has broken down.

“These dark days will be completely gone,” Mr. Meshal announced in signing the agreement. “Our Arabic, Islamic unity has brought us together, shining again.” He added that having signed the accord in the holy city lent it greater significance.

The significance of signing the accord in Mecca occurred to me almost immediately. Hopefully Mr. Meshal is correct that it will lend the agreement enough credibility for it to hold this time.

Live fast and die young

As everyone undoubtedly already knows, Anna Nicole Smith died today. She went to all that trouble to get money and now what good is it to her? Money can buy a lot of things, but can't make you live any longer apparently. And speaking of money, CNN Money notes that Smith's death's could spell the end of the TrimSpa company that she advertised for.

Sickening

Today is just the day for sad news I guess.

CNN - Police: Dad left toddler outside to freeze to death

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- The father of a young girl who died of exposure had knocked her unconscious because he was angry, then took her outside in subfreezing temperatures and left her there, police said before the man's arraignment Thursday.

Nyia Miangel Page, who was about to turn 2, was found dead Sunday on a wooded knoll about a 10 minute walk from the family's home.

[. . .]

Page told police he woke up early Saturday and found the girl awake and playing near a mirror in the hallway, according to the criminal complaint. He said he got mad when the girl wouldn't go back to bed, so he hit her so hard she hit her head and was unconscious, the complaint said.

Page then took her outside wrapped in a blanket and left her, police said.

It just makes my heart sick to hear something like that. How could a father do that just because a two year old wouldn't stay in bed? I have to wonder if he thought he had killed her with the blow to the head and had taken her outside thinking he was hiding a dead body. It is terrible either way.

Testing an HIV vaccine

BBC News - African HIV vaccine trial launch

The first large-scale trial of an HIV vaccine is set to begin in South Africa, it has been announced.

Three thousand HIV negative men and women who are sexually active will be immunised in the four-year study.

I had no idea they had even developed a potential HIV vaccine, so I certainly had no idea it was already to the large-scale testing phase. I guess I'm behind the times.

I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of the first large-scale test being conducted in Africa. On the one hand it makes sense because HIV and AID are practically pandemic in Africa now. On the other hand, it could give the impression that American drug companies are using Africans as guinea pigs.

These statements made me feel better about the whole plan:

The test vaccine has already been through trials for safety and immune response in the Americas, Africa and Australia.

It does not contain live HIV, so cannot cause infection, but does contain copies of three HIV genes.

This just confused me a bit:

The study, jointly run by the international HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and the South African Aids Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) is also designed to show if the vaccine, which is based on the B strain of HIV, has the potential to protect against the C strain of the virus, which is the subtype prevalent in South Africa.

If the main strain in South Africa is not the one it is derived from, why do the first large-scale test there? That part seemed really odd to me.

Strange and Sad

BBC News - China bridegroom dies with guests

Li Zhimin was returning from his wedding with 31 friends and family when the small truck he was driving veered off a road and plummeted 80m (262 feet) down a cliff amid poor weather.

Sixteen other passengers are being treated in hospital for injuries, with six in a critical condition.

It is not yet known whether the bride was one of the victims.

[. . .]

"The truck was only allowed to carry four people, but the actual passenger number was eight times more," Liu Xiangdong said.

It is certainly sad to hear that anyone dies on their wedding day. It is both sad and strange, at least to me, that they don't know if the bride is alive or dead. It is even stranger that their were 32 people in a 4 passenger truck. The article end by pointing out:

China has the deadliest roads in the world, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Official estimates say 100,000 die on China's roads every year but the WHO says the road toll is double this figure.

I wonder if that statistic is truly indicative of the condition of the roads or simply a function of the sheer volume of people who are likely traveling on them.

Advice Please

I'm planning to get my oldest son a laptop computer for a combination birthday and graduation present, and I'm not sure what I need to get. Any advice on brands and processors would be greatly appreciated. I want this to be something good that will hopefully get him through 4 years of college without needing to be replaced during that time frame.

To each his own

His own interpretation that is.

CNN - Ancient boy's skeleton sparks evolution debate

"I did not evolve from Turkana Boy or anything like it," says Bishop Boniface Adoyo, head of Kenya's 35 evangelical denominations, which he claims have 10 million followers. "These sorts of silly views are killing our faith."
[. . .]
Against him is one of the planet's best-known fossil hunters, Richard Leakey, whose team unearthed the bones at Nariokotome in West Turkana, in the desolate, far northern reaches of Kenya in 1984.

"Whether the bishop likes it or not, Turkana Boy is a distant relation of his," Leakey, who founded the museum's prehistory department, told The Associated Press. "The bishop is descended from the apes and these fossils tell how he evolved."
[. . .]
Followers of creationism believe in the literal truth of the Genesis account in the Bible that God created the world in six days. Bishop Adoyo believes the world was created 12,000 years ago, with man appearing 6,000 years later. He says each biblical day was equivalent to 1,000 Earth years.

What neither one of these men are willing to acknowledge is that they are both engaging in interpretation. They are both taking information and understanding it in the way that makes the most sense to them. Neither one is dealing with indisputable, empirical fact. This is not 2+2=4. There are missing links in anthropology. It is an interpretation to say that one biblical day in the creation story is 1000 years. We don't know. We all put our faith in something, even if that faith is in science, it is still, to some degree, an act of faith.

The DNA trail

BBC News - DNA clue to presidential puzzle

DNA tests carried out on two British men have shed light on a mystery surrounding the ancestry of Thomas Jefferson, America's third president.

In the 1990s, DNA was taken from male relatives of Jefferson to see if he fathered a son with one of his slaves.

They found the president had a rare genetic signature found mainly in the Middle East and Africa, calling into question his claim of Welsh ancestry.

Okay, I was familiar with the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemings story and I knew that DNA evidence had confirmed that her children were Jefferson's, either by Thomas or one of his male relatives.

I was not, however, familiar with the other part of the story. I did not realize that the testing had suggested that Jefferson himself could be of African or Middle Eastern descent. So I guess I'm a step behind. However, this new evidence seems to indicate that he was Welsh after all. It's kind of a shame really. I think it would have been good for us as a nation if he had been otherwise.

Edwards on Health Care

Washington Post - Edwards Introduces Plan For Health-Care Coverage

The plan would require employers to provide health insurance for employees or pay a portion of their payroll into a fund that would help individuals buy their own insurance. Edwards said the plan would demand that people take responsibility for obtaining insurance, either from employers or on their own.

The federal government would provide tax credits to help underwrite the cost of insurance and, through the states, would establish state or regional health-care markets, or purchasing pools, that would offer competing health plans to individuals.

I don't know if that is specific enough and different enough to get anyone's attention or not. But at least he's trying.

Officer to stand trial

NYT - Trial Starts for Officer Who Refused to Go to Iraq

A court-martial started here on Monday against an Army officer who refused to serve in Iraq last summer because, he has said, the war is illegal.
[. . .]
Lieutenant Watada has said the Bush administration has falsely used the 9/11 attacks to justify the war. He has said that the war has been proved unjust because unconventional weapons have not been found in Iraq and that American soldiers have mistreated the Iraqis.
[. . .]
His prospects appear uncertain. The judge, Lt. Col. John Head, reinforced on Monday an earlier ruling that Lieutenant Watada could not base his defense on his contention that the war is illegal.
[. . .]
“From what I understand, that under military law those in the military are allowed to refuse — in fact, have the right to refuse unlawful orders — a duty to refuse,” Lieutenant Watada said last month at a forum featuring war opponents, according to a transcript distributed on Monday by Zoltan Grossman, a professor at Evergreen State College who helped organize the forum.

In the transcript, Lieutenant Watada said being denied the chance to argue the legality of the war in his court-martial was “a violation of our most sacred premises of due process and, indeed, is un-American.”

This is beginning to sound like a draft war. It is understandable to have conscientious objectors during a draft, but it seems a little odd with a volunteer military. The article notes that Watada is the first officer to object to service in Iraq but that many enlisted soldiers have objected. Does this represent some major milestone in the war, or is it just an isolated incident? I suppose only time will tell.

The Super Bowl Proposal that wasn't

For those of you out there wondering what happened to that guy that was going to propose during the Super Bowl, here's the story: SUPER BOWL LEFTOVERS: WHAT ABOUT THAT PROPOSAL?

Everyone wants to know what happened with the man who was going to propose marriage in a SuperBowl ad. MSNBC.com's Allison Linn talked to the groom-to-be and got the latest. No, he didn't propose during the game, since an ad cost $2 million and his online pledge campaign only reached $75,000. But he's planning to give it a shot during Tuesday's "Veronica Mars" episode. He's keeping his hometown a secret for now, so most of us are unlikely to see it. You can follow his quest at MySuperProposal.com.

Oh well, love may conquer all, but money makes the world go around.

Aside: The funny thing about this post is that I was just talking to my sister on the phone and she was saying she never did hear anything about the proposal when I noticed that someone doing a yahoo search had found my site looking for that very information. At that point, I hadn't found the answer or blogged about it yet, but I was the #1 result on the search. Search engines are so screwy.

Just like I thought (Heroes Edition)

When I heard from my sister, via TV Guide, that Claire's father was going to be someone we already knew, I thought it was going to be Nathan. When they showed the scene at the end of last week's episode I was even more convinced it was going to be Nathan. (The shirt was a dead give away.) And what do you know, I was right. I only wished I had blogged about my suspicion at the time. . .

Another hat in the ring

BBC News - Giuliani joins race for president

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has officially joined the running for the Republican nomination for the 2008 US presidential election.

The Federal Election Commission said Mr Giuliani had filed a "statement of candidacy" - a one-page form outlining a candidate's wish to seek office.

Mr Giuliani was widely praised for his response to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001.

He has remained in the public eye and is known as a moderate Republican.

[. . .]

However, his relatively moderate views may make it difficult for him to persuade mainstream Republicans that he should be their presidential candidate.

His support for same-sex civil unions and embryonic stem cell research would put him to the left of most of his party members.

Giuliani considered running in 2004 but opted out for "health reasons," if I recall correctly. I think there was also some scandal at the time, but my memory fails at the moment. I'll be curious to see how he fairs.

Edwards changes his approach a bit

NYT - Familiar Face, but a New Tone to the Message

Faced with what he always knew would be a tough race against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination and now the challenge of convincing his party that he is also a better alternative than Senator Barack Obama, Mr. Edwards is trying to muscle his way past them and the rest of the field, in part by staking out early and provocative positions on the big issues.

[. . .]

Mr. Edwards, his party’s nominee for vice president in 2004, has taken on a sharper tone since that campaign ended in defeat.

He is campaigning as a harder-edged economic populist now, which he says represents more a change in tone than in substance. He says he is both more electable and more authentic than Mrs. Clinton, and more experienced than Mr. Obama.

[. . .]

He is offering proposals on the war, health care and the environment that are more audacious and more specific than those of his rivals.

Although the little bit I have seen of Edwards since his campaign began has not impressed me as positively as he did in 2004, I wouldn't count him out of this race yet. If he can truly show himself to be an alternative to the status quo and offer real and viable alternatives to the current path, both in Iraq and at home, he might have a chance.

And I really don't yet understand what all the hype is over Obama. I know he became very popular after his speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention, but he's really just as new and inexperienced as Edwards, isn't he? What makes him so much more special?

No simple matter

NYT - Iraqis Fault Pace of U.S. Plan in Attack

A growing number of Iraqis blamed the United States on Sunday for creating conditions that led to the worst single suicide bombing in the war, which devastated a Shiite market in Baghdad the day before. They argued that the Americans had been slow in completing the vaunted new American security plan, making Shiite neighborhoods much more vulnerable to such horrific attacks.

The critics said the new plan, which the Americans have started to execute, had emasculated the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia that is considered responsible for many attacks on Sunnis, but that many Shiites say had been the only effective deterrent against sectarian reprisal attacks in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhoods. Even some Iraqi supporters of the plan, like Hoshyar Zebari, the foreign minister who is a Kurd, said delays in carrying it out had caused great disappointment.

The Iraqis are suggesting that by implementing the first part of the plan, getting rid of the Mahdi Army, without implementing the second part of the plan, adding new troops, has made the situation worse instead of better.

It is such a complex situation that we are dealing with. The Iraqi government is not currently capable of protecting its citizens. In such a situation, people can become dependent on local militias like the Mahdi Army. It may or may not be their first choice, but it also may be the only protection they have.

It ultimately boils down to the fact that we started something that we don't know how to finish. We thought we could fight them over there to keep from fighting them at home and in that reguard, we have succeeded. But we have made the situation over there so much worse than before, it is hard to believe that the supposed benefits outweigh the costs. There simply is no good answer at this point, just a short list of bad options.

Addicted to Decaf?

Via RealAge.com - Addicted to Decaf?

Few decafs are 100 percent caffeine-free. Many brewed varieties contain up to 7 mg of caffeine per 8-ounce serving; a 1-ounce serving of decaf espresso can have up to 16 mg.

That may not seem like a lot when you consider the caffeine content of other beverages (90-135 mg for 8 ounces of caffeinated coffee; 35-50 mg for an ounce of espresso; 40-60 mg for a 12-ounce cola; 15-50 mg for 8 ounces of tea), but caffeine is a powerful -- and legal -- psychostimulant, which means that even small amounts may affect you.

Caffeine acts like an all-around upper. It decreases fatigue, increases alertness, and gives you a mood boost. But it has a dark side, too. Consuming too much can make you anxious and send your heart rate and blood pressure soaring.

Just a little note for all you coffee addicts out there. Use the info however you see fit.

Colts beat the Bears

When the game first started, the Colts didn't look too promising, but they pulled it out just like last time. I really didn't like that last call just before the Colts got their final possession. The pass was complete and the tackle forced the fumble, but it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things I guess. Oh well, the Colts won it 29 to 17 anyway.

Bush's budget proposal

CNN - Budget's ups and downs leave big chunk for war

The Pentagon is the big winner in President Bush's proposed budget for next year, while domestic items such as aid to schools and grants to local governments will get slight increases.

Medicare and Medicaid, the health program for the poor and disabled, would shoulder modest but politically difficult cost curbs in the budget the White House is submitting to Congress on Monday.

It is important to remember, when you hear about the President's budget proposal, that it is only a proposal. The actual budget comes from the Congress. The President can propose whatever he wants but that doesn't mean it will pass Congress. And, of course, the President knows this.

"There's this continuing deception about our real fiscal condition," the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee said in an interview Saturday. "Over and over again we see things left out of his budget that we know are going to have to be dealt with," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota.

It is easy for the President to publicly present a budget that claims to full fill the promise of moving toward a balanced budget, even if he knows that the proposal in untenable. Then he can claim that he tried, but the fiscally irresponsible Democrats kept his budget from passing.

An early spring

Well, the critters seem to think that spring is near. Today, Punxsutawney Phil indicated that we would have an early spring. Yesterday, I saw yards FILLED with robins. It doesn't feel much like spring around here, but all the season-change-indicating fauna are heralding its immanent arrival. I sure hope they are right.

Sea level rising

Via Guardian Unlimited - World's sea levels rising at accelerating rate

Sea levels are rising even faster than scientists predicted, according to a global analysis of data from tide gauges and satellites.

The researchers say the study puts to bed claims that climate scientists have exaggerated the consequences of global warming. And because the study shows that sea level is responding even faster than expected, the work suggests governments have even less time to act in order to combat climate change.

The report was published in the journal Science ahead of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) report, published today, which brings together the last three years of research on global warming. The heavily trailed tome will say that it is "highly unlikely (less than 5%)" that observed warming and ice loss are due to natural factors.

[. . .]

If the climate follows this upper sea level prediction we will experience an 88cm rise in sea levels by the end of the century - much higher than the 14 - 43cm rise predicted under the IPCC's most likely climate scenario.

A sea level rise of 88cm is a far cry from the 20 feet my sister tells me that National Geographic Channel is suggesting (episode airing again Saturday, Feb. 3 at 4pm EST), but it is very significant. And if it continues to double, as it obviously did since the last prediction, that 20 feet might not be out of the question. However, the end of the century is still a long was off.

A paper trail in Florida

NYT - Florida Shifting to Voting System With Paper Trail

Gov. Charlie Crist announced plans on Thursday to abandon the touch-screen voting machines that many of Florida’s counties installed after the disputed 2000 presidential election. The state will instead adopt a system of casting paper ballots counted by scanning machines in time for the 2008 presidential election.

I'm glad to hear it. The system that they had in 2000 was inexcusable, but going from hanging chads to paperless touch-screens was a step too far in my opinion. Technology is a good thing, but it can never be trusted completely with something so important as vote counts. There needs to be some paper involved. And this is not just my opinion.

Election experts estimate that paperless electronic machines were used by about 30 percent of voters nationwide in 2006. But their reliability has increasingly come under scrutiny, as has the difficulty of doing recounts without a paper trail. Federal technology experts concluded late last year that paperless touch-screen machines could not be secured from tampering.

As I was reading the article, I knew the issue of the price of the endeavor would come up eventually, and it did. I was very happy with the response because it was exactly what I was thinking.

Asked how he felt about discarding tens of millions of dollars worth of touch-screen machines just years after they were acquired, Mr. Crist said, “The price of freedom is not cheap. The importance of a democratic system of voting that we can trust, that we can have confidence in, is incredibly important.”

Hopefully Florida will be on track for a smooth election in 2008, but adjusting to new technology just before a big election is probably going to cause some confusion. Let's just hope they get it all done in time.

Sitemeter amusement

I like to periodically look at sitemeter and see how people are finding my site. The funniest referral recently was a google search for "experiences with taking off a hairpiece" (but not in quotation marks). Oddly enough, I was actually the 6th result on said google search. Who knows, thanks to this post, I might actually move up the list on that search.

The most common search that got people to my site was "fun words to say" thanks to this post.

Speaking of Harry Potter. . .

From the AP (via Yahoo News) - Final Harry Potter book due out in July

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the last of seven installments of the boy wizard's adventures, will be published July 21, author J.K. Rowling said Thursday.

I must confess, I've never read any of the Harry Potter books, but my kids have read all of them. They are very anxious to see how she ends it and they hope that she doesn't kill off Harry. I'll guess we'll be finding out soon.

H/T: PoliSciFi

A New Album from the Eagles

CNN - Report: Henley says Eagles album almost done

After nearly 30 years, California's classic rock group the Eagles may soon release their first album of all-new music.

Founding member Don Henley said during a private weekend concert that the band was nearing completion on an album of all-new material, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on Tuesday.

"It's coming out in 60 to 90 days, if we don't kill each other first," Henley, 59, told the crowd Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

I always have loved the Eagles. I hope it's good. They've made us wait almost 30 years, it better be good.

He's got Hogwarts on his Voldemort

CNN - 'Potter' star Radcliffe stirs storm with naked pics

"Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe, who strips for his new role in London's West End revival of the play "Equus," has ignited a bit of a media firestorm by posing for racy promotional photos for the production.

The Tony-Award-winning drama tells the story of a stable-hand who has an erotic fixation with horses. In one photo, Radcliffe, 17, dares to bare it all alongside a white horse; in another, he is pictured with a naked Joanna Christie, the actress who portrays his girlfriend.

[. . .]

Part of me wants to shake up people's perception of me, just shove me in a blender," Radcliffe said in a recent interview with Newsweek magazine.

"It's a really challenging play, and if I can pull it off -- we don't know if I can yet -- I hope people will stop and think, 'Maybe he can do something other than Harry,' " he said.

I know it is always challenging for young actors to break out of the "child star" mold. It can also be difficult for actors who are closely associated with a character with a cult following to lose that image. It is a fine line though. One doesn't want to end up a major joke like Britney Spears.

Yesterday, on the John Boy and Billy radio show they made a joke about Daniel Radcliffe and his promotional photos for the play. That is where the post's title comes from.

Open Mouth - Insert Foot

NYT - Biden Unwraps ‘08 Bid With an Oops!

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, who announced his candidacy on Wednesday with the hope that he could ride his foreign policy expertise into contention for the Democratic nomination, instead spent the day struggling to explain his description of Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat running for president, as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

I'm not about to apologize for Senator Biden, but it is hard to imagine that when he used the word "clean" that he was actually talking about personal hygiene:

Mr. Sharpton said that when Mr. Biden called him to apologize, Mr. Sharpton started off the conversation reassuring Mr. Biden about his hygienic practices. “I told him I take a bath every day,” Mr. Sharpton said.

No stranger to electoral intrigue, Mr. Sharpton was quick to offer a political motive: That Mr. Biden was drawing distinctions between Mr. Obama and African-American leaders like Mr. Sharpton and Mr. Jackson, to “discredit Mr. Obama with his base.”

I would hope that Biden was making reference to the "clean slate" aspect of Obama that many have suggested. If he was referring to personal hygiene, then he is a bigger idiot than I would have thought possible for a senior Senator from Delaware. But I'm not ruling out that possibility that he's a complete idiot.