Rich Cling to Life to Beat Tax Man

Although, they have to die before 2011...

Krugman

even so, i wish obama had pushed harder for a public option. not sure he would have gotten it, but i didn't get the impression he worked for it.

I love these callers

Health care bill I guess is not "under god" and it is about genocide of seniors! Happy holidays!

And the Rest Is Just Noise

Why the health care bill is the greatest social achievement of our time.

The holiday spirit, Teabagger style

Don't know if it is a hoax or not, but if it is, it is a good one.

The Copenhagen Accord

An overview by Think Progress

The international climate change conference in Copenhagen took an important step this past weekend toward tackling the "mortal threat" of climate change. After a week of rancorous talks that descended at one point into a public row between U.S. and Chinesenegotiators and a walk-out of developing nations, major emitters reached an agreement which was grudginglyacknowledged by nearly all countries in attendance. This step was not as large or as bold as many nations, NGOs, and experts had called for. And if additional steps are not taken, the world will remain in tremendous peril as the threat of climate change grows. However, the fact that an agreement was reached with China and India and other developing countries is a significant step that potentially signifies a major structural shift in international climate change negotiations and lays the groundwork for bolder future action. After eight years of obstructing action at international negotiations by the Bush administration, the Obama administration has sought to reassert America's role as a global leader. However, while President Obama played a critical role in brokering the accord, American negotiators were hamstrung by lack of action in the Senate, which served as a major obstacle to bolder action.

Health care latest

here

Krugman on the Senate Bill

Pass the damn thing and complain later.

on the health care debate in the Senate

Five compromises beyond the public option

To really save the planet, stop going green

Instead, agitate for real change.

All who appreciate the enormity of the climate crisis still have a responsibility to make every change possible in their personal lives. I have, from the solar panels on my roof to the Prius in my driveway to my low-carbon-footprint vegetarian diet. But surveys show that very few people are willing to make significant voluntary changes, and those of us who do create the false impression of mass progress as the media hypes our actions.

Instead, most people want carbon reductions to be mandated by laws that will allow us to share both the responsibilities and the benefits of change. Ours is a nation of laws; if we want to alter our practices in a deep and lasting way, this is where we must start. After years of delay and denial and green half-measures, we must legislate a stop to the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

Of course, all this will require congressional action, and therein lies the source of Obama's Copenhagen headache. To have been in the strongest position to negotiate a binding emissions treaty with other world leaders this month, the president needed a strong carbon-cap bill out of Congress. But the House of Representatives passed only a weak bill riddled with loopholes in June, and the Senate has failed to get even that far.

So what's the problem? There's lots of blame to go around, but the distraction of the "go green" movement has played a significant role. Taking their cues from the popular media and cautious politicians, many Americans have come to believe that they are personally to blame for global warming and that they must fix it, one by one, at home. And so they either do as they're told -- a little of this, a little of that -- or they feel overwhelmed and do nothing.

We all got into this mess together. And now, with treaty talks underway internationally and Congress stalled at home, we need to act accordingly. Don't spend an hour changing your light bulbs. Don't take a day to caulk your windows. Instead, pick up a phone, open a laptop, or travel to a U.S. Senate office near you and turn the tables: "What are the 10 green statutes you're working on to save the planet, Senator?"

Ugandan 'Kill the Gays' Bill

This is totally foobar.

Born to help

What is the essence of human nature? Flawed, say many theologians. Vicious and addicted to warfare, wrote Hobbes. Selfish and in need of considerable improvement, think many parents.

But biologists are beginning to form a generally sunnier view of humankind. Their conclusions are derived in part from testing very young children, and partly from comparing human children with those of chimpanzees, hoping that the differences will point to what is distinctively human.

The somewhat surprising answer at which some biologists have arrived is that babies are innately sociable and helpful to others. Of course every animal must to some extent be selfish to survive. But the biologists also see in humans a natural willingness to help.

Apparently we unlearn it...

As children grow older, they become more selective in their helpfulness. Starting around age 3, they will share more generously with a child who was previously nice to them. Another behavior that emerges at the same age is a sense of social norms. “Most social norms are about being nice to other people,” Dr. Tomasello said in an interview, “so children learn social norms because they want to be part of the group.”

Although the following sentence makes me question this whole thing:

“Children are altruistic by nature,” he writes, and though they are also naturally selfish, all parents need do is try to tip the balance toward social behavior.

WTF? They are altruistic by nature, but also naturally selfish? Um, ok.

Chevy Volt to Go on Sale in California

General Motors says the Chevrolet Volt electric car will go on sale late next year in California.

GM said Wednesday at the Los Angeles Auto Show that it will announce other markets later.

The Volt, which is expected to cost around $40,000, can be charged in a conventional outlet and is designed to drive up to 40 miles on electricity. When its lithium-ion battery runs low, an engine kicks in to extend its driving range to more than 300 miles without refueling.

GM also said it's teaming up with three California utilities as part of a demonstration project. Using a $30 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, the project will distribute 100 Volts to various fleets and will install 500 charging stations for residential, commercial and public use.

Breakthrough cure for MS

and it is crazy simple... I do hope he is right on this.

And this -- is totally messed up:

MS societies in Canada and the United States, however, have reacted far more cautiously to Dr. Zamboni's conclusion. “Many questions remain about how and when this phenomenon might play a role in nervous system damage seen in MS, and at the present time there is insufficient evidence to suggest that this phenomenon is the cause of MS,” said the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.

The U.S. society goes further, discouraging patients from getting tested or seeking surgical treatment. Rather, it continues to promote drug treatments used to alleviate symptoms, which include corticosteroids, chemotherapy agents and pain medication.

Don't even get tested? Why wouldn't you want to make sure, at least, that you have adequate arterial blood flow from the brain?? Uggh.

Nissan Leaf EV

 

Now, a new Nissan-produced EV has officially arrived in America. Friday, Nissan showed-off their five-passenger Leaf electric car for the first time to the American media and we were there getting the latest info on what will most-likely be the first mass-produced EV family car sold in the US.
...
The company still says Leaf will have a 100-mile range, will be recharged through 110-volt home power in eight hours, while using an optional 220-volt "fast charger" can refill the lithium-ion batteries to 80% of their capacity in ½-hour, and that a 10-minute charge at a public charging facility can add about 31 miles to the car's range.

Rupert Murdoch wants to charge for Internet content

To be totally honest, I really hope he does this, not only will set his empire back a few years, but it means he will ultimately be less influential as less people link to and read his stuff! It seems he doesn't have a clue what he is really attempting... but then again, I'd hate to underestimate him...

Health Care Saturday

[update] and it passed. Obama's statement.

Bummer was the Stupak amendment:

Democrats were forced to make major concessions on insurance coverage for abortions to attract the final votes to secure passage, a wrenching compromise for the numerous abortion-rights advocates in their ranks.

Many of them hope to make changes to the amendment during negotiations with the Senate, which will now become the main battleground in the health care fight as Democrats there ready their own bill for what is likely to be extensive floor debate.

And just a little bit of procedural fun:


The House to vote today.

You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring

The Unforgettable Commencement Address to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, by Paul Hawken

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was "direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful." No pressure there.

Let's begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper
published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don't poison the water, soil, or air, don't let the earth get overcrowded, and don't touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food ---
but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn't bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn't afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here's the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don't be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to
be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the
lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, "So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world."

There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity's willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover,
reimagine, and reconsider. "One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice," is Mary Oliver's description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and
global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown -- Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood -- and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to
help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world
of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.

The living world is not "out there" somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. We are the only species on the planet without full employment. Brilliant. Wehave an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can't print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are
inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. And dreams come true. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe, which is exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a "little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven."

So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. You can feel it. It is called life.
This is who you are. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. Our innate nature is to create the conditions that are conducive
to life. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions
overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television.

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequeathed to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn't stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn't ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn't make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

..........
Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., in May, when he delivered this superb speech. Our thanks especially to Erica Linson for her help making that moment possible.

Save Glen Beck

Jon Stewart is indeed epic in this one.

Canadians, you can get it here.

Does the Vaccine Matter?

Whether this season’s swine flu turns out to be deadly or mild, most experts agree that it’s only a matter of time before we’re hit by a truly devastating flu pandemic—one that might kill more people worldwide than have died of the plague and AIDS combined. In the U.S., the main lines of defense are pharmaceutical—vaccines and antiviral drugs to limit the spread of flu and prevent people from dying from it. Yet now some flu experts are challenging the medical orthodoxy and arguing that for those most in need of protection, flu shots and antiviral drugs may provide little to none. So where does that leave us if a bad pandemic strikes?

Smarter sleuthing can save our online privacy

Police don't need intrusive powers to tackle modern Internet crime – there's a new paradigm -- good old basic thinking and analysis...

Paying off your sleep debt

Apparently a good sleep in on the weekend doesn't quite cut it

In studies over the years, scientists have found that it can take a week or more for the cognitive and physiological consequences of poor sleep to wear off — even after increasing sleep.

In a study at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in 2003, for example, scientists examined the cognitive effects of a week of poor sleep, followed by three days of sleeping at least eight hours a night. The scientists found that the “recovery” sleep did not fully reverse declines in performance on a test of reaction times and other psychomotor tasks, especially for subjects who had been forced to sleep only three or five hours a night.

In a similar study in 2008, scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found that when subjects slept four hours a night over five days, and then “recovered” with eight hours a night over the following week, they still showed slight residual cognitive impairments a week later, even though they reported no sleepiness.

Interestingly, you can save up -- I didn't know about this:

But in another study, also at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, scientists found that people recovered much more quickly from a week of poor sleep when it was preceded by a “banking” week that included nights with 10 hours of shuteye. In other words, if you know you have a week of little sleep ahead of you, try loading up on sleep beforehand, not simply afterward..

nook

these e-readers are getting closer and closer to what I am looking for... The nook is a new one with wi-fi, a touch screen, allows the uploading and reading of pdfs, the ability to annotate notes, is built on open source android technology, and most importantly, the ability to share documents... although with limitations, of course. Almost there...

The English Pamplona

Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling

Up is down

McCain introduces bill to block Net neutrality

According to a report at NetworkWorld, McCain "called the proposed Net neutrality rules a 'government takeover' of the Internet that will stifle innovation and depress an 'already anemic' job market in the US."

Only the GOP could call net neutrality a government takeover of the Internet.

The paradox of development

it’s the study of how to get rich without knowing how

so argues Easterly. PPT here.

Moscow Mayor promises no snow this winter

Pigs still can't fly, but this winter, the mayor of Moscow promises to keep it from snowing. For just a few million dollars, the mayor's office will hire the Russian Air Force to spray a fine chemical mist over the clouds before they reach the capital, forcing them to dump their snow outside the city. Authorities say this will be a boon for Moscow, which is typically covered with a blanket of snow from November to March. Road crews won't need to constantly clear the streets, and traffic — and quality of life — will undoubtedly improve.

This is one of those things that on the surface seems to make sense, but ends up having strange unintended consequences.

obama hates black people

Against transparency

Well, not really, more like "the pitfalls of transparency"

A great read, I'm a big fan of Lessig... and there is a great proposal for some transparency research in there.

The Networked Evolution of Economies and Its Implications for International Development Research

Stuart Kauffman spoke at the IDRC

Scientific American article here.

Evloving web of the future

The web of connections among goods and services in an economy may be the long-missing key to understanding how novel innovations and new wealth arise

Feeling anxious?

then read this!

Confessions of a late night comic

State 2.0: a new front end?

Just as old media has learned to use the fluid networks of Web 2.0, so old politics can fuse incrementally with the State 2.0

Secret Service Probes Facebook Poll That Asked About Obama Assassination

I got a feelin'

That Crazy ol Man Sanders

Technology fun

Google has two new things coming out that I will probably use, a lot.

Google Voice



I'm going to ditch my cell-phone, get an ipod touch and use it as a phone (through wi-fi). So easy, even a child can do it! Oh my goodness, indeed.



and Google Wave

The market has spoken

Diebold Exits US Voting-Machine Busines

Diebold Inc. (DBD) has sold its money-losing U.S. election-systems business, just seven years after acquiring it amid hopes of rising demand for voting technology upgrades in the wake of the 2000 presidential election fiasco.

Diebold, whose main business is making automated teller machines, said Thursday it sold the voting-machine unit to privately held Election Systems & Software Inc. for $5 million, about one-fifth of what it paid in 2002.

title bar

found by entering cache:www.allthingsglobal.blogspot.com in google.

Brainwashing our kids

Somethign I'll be watching

Communication and Human Development: The Freedom Connection?

Amartya Sen, Michael Spence, Yochai Benkler, Clotilde Fonseca

Wednesday, September 23, 7:00 pm
Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School (map)
Free and open to the public; live video and audio-only streams will also be available.
Optional RSVP via Facebook or Upcoming

Maybe those located in Boston should be there...

the way-back clock

Enivornmentalism

The real Barack

Deep down I have thought that this was there plan all along -- I just hope it was. Anyway, if I can think of it, they certainly can too, so ergo they are doing it or they think it was a bad idea. We'll see.

Scraping by

In the first of a series by the filmmaker Stewart Thorndike on life during the economic crisis, a tent city in Redmond, Wash., is filling up with the newly homeless who are forming a makeshift community.

Only a mile from Microsoft HQ

Siftables

a break from the healthcare madness....

Siftables

the coolest thing i've seen in years.

BHO spells it out

finally, bho spells it out in plain language. unfortunately, 99.99% of americans wont read this, but hopefully the points will trickle down to the cable network in easy to read and understand points.

i saw a commercial as well put-out by some interest group spelling out the need for healthcare reform. i was glad to finally see some countering to the rabid barking of the town hall protestors (i'm still trying to figure out exactly what their upset out, other than generalities about how the country is changing).

Grassroots!

He's got a bone to pick

Lawrence O'Donnell actually uses the L word.

Tuning up buildings

Save the environment and money

A different logic

This is a bit painful. That said, she remains very composed and does very well for a non-practiced speaker.

Iran

Iran security forces retreat as huge numbers of mourners gather at cemetery

Solving problems

Really I should be nicer and not post this...

More tough questions

Asking the tough questions

Sarah Palin, Inc.

always about the money

Classics

This is why I won't buy a reader like the Kindle until it is really open - open platform - lets me load on what i want, different file types, and no company should have control over what gets deleted...

This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.

But no, apparently the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic edition, and apparently Amazon, whose business lives and dies by publisher happiness, caved. It electronically deleted all books by this author from people’s Kindles and credited their accounts for the price.

Palin to resign as governor

I wonder what the heck this is all about?

Her statement says she doesn't want to be a lame duck because she isn't running for a second term.



and if you made it through all that, here is part II:

60

Wow, didn't think it would happen. Now, just it will only be the Dems fault when they don't stand up to the monopolistic health insurance industry to institute health reform with a public option...

Coup

in Honduras

In the first military coup in Central America since the end of the cold war, soldiers stormed the presidential palace in the capital, Tegucigalpa, early in the morning, disarming the presidential guard, waking Mr. Zelaya and putting him on a plane to Costa Rica.

The Four Iran Scenarios and "Basiji Hunting"

what might happen in Iran?

Traditional Marriage

ninja in chief

Iran protests: live

Here

Catch the wave

pretty cool stuff.

I like the live concurrent editing:

Fish Spa

(not my feet)

The other day I tried this.

The fish are called Garra rufa... The experience was actually quite nice. I graduated up to the biggest fish they had, probably 4 inches or so long.

Just for kicks

1993

Creating the open city

Cities 2.0

Tweeting Body Counts

Apparently the military has started doing that in Afghanistan...

Young Conservative Rap

Can a machine change your mind?

The mind is not the brain. Confusing the two, as much neuro-social-science does, leads to a dehumanised world and a controlling politics

Love me some Cheney

Precision hacking

the wisdom of crowds

story of stuff

story of stuff

more here

Omama speech at the WH Correspondence

Hurtling space junk

Sounds like we need to move towards a sustainable astronautics

MONTREAL - Man-made space particles as small as a cornflake could take out a spacecraft in the skies or anybody on the ground who strays into its path, cosmic experts from around the globe warned on Thursday.

Hurtling space junk has been deemed a growing extraterrestrial threat to humankind, prompting a group of space gurus to descend on Montreal this week to consider what to do about the potentially dangerous debris.

"They travel at the speed of about eight or nine kilometres per second - that's almost 10 times the speed of a bullet from a gun," said Ram Jakhu, a professor at McGill University, which is hosting the three-day congress on the high-flying hazards.

"So, they are naturally very dangerous."

A public service announcement

Socialism Gone Wild

Going Dutch

The Irony of Satire

Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in The Colbert Report

This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert's political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.

My explanation is that strong conservatives are incapable of recognizing satire - just too subtle. I'm curious -- have there ever been a famous conservative satirist comedian?

The Database State

and database tyranny

Fear is all they know

If the swine flu doesn't get you

red meat will

Now a new study of more than 500,000 Americans has provided the best evidence yet that our affinity for red meat has exacted a hefty price on our health and limited our longevity.

The study found that, other things being equal, the men and women who consumed the most red and processed meat were likely to die sooner, especially from one of our two leading killers, heart disease and cancer, than people who consumed much smaller amounts of these foods.

Penn. Sen. Arlen Specter to Switch to Democratic Party

Looks like it really has happened...

So why did he do it? Electability, apparently. Now if they can only seat Franken...

Specter statement

... Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans. ...

Feds Declare Health Emergency

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Drugs in Portugal: Did Legalization Work?

Looks like it has so far...

At the recommendation of a national commission charged with addressing Portugal's drug problem, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy. The argument was that the fear of prison drives addicts underground and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment — so why not give drug addicts health services instead? Under Portugal's new regime, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment (which may be refused without criminal punishment), instead of jail.

The question is, does the new policy work? At the time, critics in the poor, socially conservative and largely Catholic nation said decriminalizing drug possession would open the country to "drug tourists" and exacerbate Portugal's drug problem; the country had some of the highest levels of hard-drug use in Europe. But the recently released results of a report commissioned by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, suggest otherwise.

The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.

"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."

Swine Flu

Follow news about it here

WHO warns of a possible pandemic.

Looks like it has jumped to New Zealand

torture? eh, whatever...

disappointment to the 1st degree

Chile's Old Testament economics

Sometimes unpopular policy is good policy

Dani Rodrik points us to a fascinating Bloomberg story detailing the saga of Chile's Minister of Finance, Andres Velasco. Last November, Velasco was being burned in effigy by marching protesters. Today, he is the most popular minister in the Chilean government.

What happened? Chile's primary export is copper, and its biggest mining company is state-run. During the extended commodity price boom that sent copper prices booming, Velasco played it safe, squirreling away a huge proportion of the copper windfall, investing the proceeds abroad, and building up Chile's Treasury holdings from $5.9 billion to $48.6 billion -- equivalent to a whopping thirty percent of Chile's GDP -- during his three year tenure. Then: Pop-went-the-global-economy! But Chile was ready.

Another case of paranoia over reason

Supreme Court Debates Strip Search of Student

My thought process,” Justice Souter said, “is I would rather have the kid embarrassed by a strip search, if we can’t find anything short of that, than to have some other kids dead because the stuff is distributed at lunchtime and things go awry.”

This will go wrong way more times than it will be useful.

not even through torture could they squeeze-out a link between al qaida and iraq

knowledge as empowerment

How to Raise Our I.Q.

Another proven intervention is to tell junior-high-school students that I.Q. is expandable, and that their intelligence is something they can help shape. Students exposed to that idea work harder and get better grades. That’s particularly true of girls and math, apparently because some girls assume that they are genetically disadvantaged at numbers; deprived of an excuse for failure, they excel.

Tides are turning...

The Bigots’ Last Hurrah

Some change?

U.S. declares warming gases are health threat

Obama's Bad Bank Plan

Could Destroy His Promising Presidency -- How Do We Push Him in the Right Direction?

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The economists whom (I) most respect, such as Joseph Stiglitz, Jeff Sachs, Simon Johnson, and Paul Krugman, all have grave doubts about whether the Geithner-Summers plan can work.
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The administration's approach to the auto rescue suggests the more robust strategy needed for the banks: take a hard look at the company's books; fire incumbent management; make all stakeholders take some sacrifices; and involve government directly in the design of a leaner and more efficient successor firm. But nothing of the sort is being done with the banks.

Morphogenetic fields

and the science of collective consciousness

In 1981 British biologist Rupert Sheldrake published A New Science of Life. The book argued that genes alone were not enough to account for life’s intricate patterns of form and behaviour. There must be, Sheldrake suggested, some sort of form-giving field that holds the memory of each thing’s proper shape – he called it a morphogenetic field. This intriguing idea was widely discussed in the months after the book’s publication. Then the editor of the prestigious scientific journal Nature, Sir John Maddox, wrote an editorial in which violently denounced Sheldrake’s work and called it “the best candidate for burning there has been for many years.” Years later in an interview with the BBC, he defended his denunciation on the grounds that Sheldrake’s view was scientific “heresy.” Maddox’s attack stuck Sheldrake a reputation for flakiness that still lingers. A few years ago Nobel physicist Steven Weinberg was still referring to the theory as “a crackpot fantasy.” But, for Rupert Sheldrake, this zealous policing of the boundaries of science only proved that scientific materialism had hardened into a rigid and inhibiting dogmatism. He carried on with the research programme he had put forward in A New Science of Life. Today on Ideas he shares the story of his journey with Ideas producer David Cayley.

obama on aid

Hearts

Apparently you don't die with the same one you were born with. Here is how they figured it out:

Tests of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, which lasted until 1963, generated a radioactive form of carbon, carbon-14. The carbon-14 in carbon dioxide is breathed in by plants, turned into glucose (see equation) and enters the human diet. In the body, the carbon-14 is incorporated into new DNA, and once a new cell is made, its DNA does not change. The level of carbon-14 in the atmosphere has dropped each year since 1963 (see graph), so the exact amount in a cell marks the year the cell was born. From a cell's birth date, researchers can calculate how quickly different tissues such as the intestine, brain and heart are renewed.

Ghost Net Busters

Exposing world's largest cyberspy ring

More sunlight like this, please...

Bush's Torture Rationale Debunked

Death Star Canteen

How to get dumber

They must be stoned...

From documents to data...

Credit crisis visualised

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

26 other visualizations here

Sixth Sense

Patty Maes unveiling the "Sixth Sense," game-changing wearable tech

DARPA to Explore Geoengineering

Hopefully only as a last resort.

Thomas Frank

Steward v. Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Interview Outtake Pt. 1

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Interview Outtake Pt. 2

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Interview Outtake Pt. 3

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

To a Greener Home

Five Beginners’ Steps

Capitalism Beyond the Crisis

according to Sen

Mash ups to the max

Thru-you

Belligerent chimp proves animals make plans

According to a report in the journal Current Biology, the 31-year-old alpha male started building his weapons cache in the morning before the zoo opened, collecting rocks and knocking out disks from concrete boulders inside his enclosure. He waited until around midday before he unleashed a "hailstorm" of rocks against visitors, the study said.

Meanwhile, Bush's lack of planning proves some primates don't.

Keeping it real

MoveOn from a greed to a green economy?

Obama addresses congress and focuses on a green economy

Full speech here

Looks like MoveOn wants to help out:

MoveOn members voted overwhelmingly that we should hire more organizers, run ads, and launch a huge volunteer campaign to create a clean-energy economy and create millions of green jobs. Now, we need to know we'll have the resources to pull it off. Can you make a monthly contribution to support our massive campaign? We'll bill your credit card today and on the 3rd of every month going forward. You can stop at any time. You can also make a one-time contribution but your monthly gift will make a big difference.

EPA to Issue Carbon Dioxide Rule, Obama Climate Czar Says

That would start the ball rolling...

"The next step is a notice of proposed rulemaking," for new regulations on CO2 emissions, Ms. Browner said one the sidelines of the National Governors Association meeting, one of her first public appearances since inauguration.

Ms. Browner declined to say exactly when the EPA would issue the finding or rulemaking, but EPA chief Lisa Jackson has indicated it could be on April 2, the anniversary of Mass Vs. EPA.

Officially recognizing that carbon dioxide is a danger to the public sets would trigger regulation of the greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, refineries, chemical plants, cement firms, vehicles and any other emitting sectors across the economy.

Industry fears it could shut down the economy, not only preventing plants to operate and a drastic retooling of the energy sector but also pushing costs up uncompetitively, while environmentalists say that Administration action is required by law and to pressure lawmakers to act.

But Ms. Browner said the Administration would prefer that Congress would draft legislation rather than co2 to be regulation under the Clean Air Act because lawmakers could develop a bill that could more deftly regulate the greenhouse gas through a cap-and-trade system.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said Friday he aimed to pass a climate change bill by the end of the summer, and Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) head of the panel responsible for drafting a co2 bill, said he wanted a bill approved by Memorial Day.

The Weekly O-ddress

What would the poor say?

Recently NYU held a conference entitled "What Would the Poor Say? Debates in Aid Evaluation". You can find many of the ppts of the talks here at William Easterly's new blog "Aid Watch".

I've only looked at a few of them, but I thought I'd highlight two of them who take fairly (although not entirely) contrasting positions. First is Esther Duflo's talk that focuses on the benefits of experimental design for improving aid interventions. The other is William Duggan's short piece arguing against just using statistical evaluation. He suggest two other methodological techniques: historical political economy and qualitative investigation. What I find interesting about both of these is that ultimately they are both asking the same question: what works? but with a very important difference in terms of what the explanation looks like. In other words, they are both looking to test and generate theory, but theory of very different types.

I think Chris Blattman's notion of Evaluation 2.0* nicely captures the means that these two seemingly contrasting approaches can be combined, namely by defining explanation as the identification of the working causal mechanisms. The answer to what works? is the itetification of the active causal mechanism (ideally the intervention), its structure, what its causal tendency is, and how it interacts with particular aspects of the context. In other words, relevant research question is: what works (or not), how, for whom, and in what contexts? From that we can move to the methodological design that provides the best possible answer given the research opportunities the intervention affords. 

* This notion of a causal mechanism has been around a while in the phil. of social science, but Blattman's example is nice and clear.  This type of theory is applicable at both the macro and micro level.

obama buys canadian cookies

video

Apparently he loves Canada

unfortunately i had to work.

"Off the hook"

The GOP looking to go beyond cutting edge.

Dr. Doom and the Black Swan

They argue that the financial system needs restructuring and they still want to know stock tips.

Classic.

how to be evil

Do we need a new internet?

Depends on your level of fear

Ricard could use a bottle of Despondex

Change your Mind Change your Brain: The Inner Conditions...

Mindfulness Stress Reduction And Healing

http://www.mediafly.com/Podcasts/Episodes/BodyScan_Meditation

Foreign Aid and Bad Government

Help entrepreneurs not governments:

During the Cold War, the U.S. instituted a policy of sending money to governments in poor countries to buy their political loyalty. While studies show that sending aid to foreign governments creates allegiance, it does not lead to economic progress. Instead, it makes governments in poor countries dependent on the U.S. rather than their citizens' taxes.

Pakistan has been one of the key recipients of U.S. aid over the last six decades, but there has been no real progress as a result. Pakistan is riddled with problems that are rooted in the disproportionate power of the state. Aid has only boosted that power.

In contrast, Malaysia saw its economy grow at twice the rate of Pakistan's over the same period of time. Fueled by trade rather than aid, Malaysian economic prosperity is decentralized, and its reliability as an ally much greater.

Tragically, the Cold War aid approach actually preserves suffering in poor countries. Aid empowers bureaucracies, promotes statism, and weakens government incentives to boost tax revenues through growth. Economic assets are often kept in the hands of the state, leading to monopolies, stagnation and extortion. All of this hurts entrepreneurs, who have the potential to create wealth and promote governmental accountability.

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President Obama now has the opportunity to adopt a new aid approach that will actually help citizens. Such an approach would demonstrate our faith in democracy and serve long-term American interests.

What should this plan look like?

First, America must remove trade barriers on exports from the poorest countries, regardless of trade policies in those countries. With global market access, poor countries would automatically attract private investment, despite their institutional weaknesses. These institutions would become stronger over time as businesses flourish. Private investments capitalizing on access to global markets would necessarily employ low-cost labor, thus creating jobs.

Next, small entrepreneurs can be bolstered with seed money in the range of $25,000. Small entrepreneurs create jobs, products and services that form the bedrock of flourishing democracies. With some tangible changes in its operation, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) within the World Bank Group could promote development through entrepreneurs. The World Bank should stop lending to governments and be absorbed into the reformed IFC.

Third, America could give $1 million to match any grass-roots group capable of raising $1 million to establish a health clinic. These clinics -- one thousand could be built with $1 billion -- could provide crucial services to poor citizens and generate goodwill towards America.

Google Ocean

Google Earth goes underwater

Finally!

Ottawa transit strike over, after 51 days