positive thinking?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20060718-15511600-bc-norway-hypothermia.xml

"Norwegian scientists study hypothermia"

I found it amusing to see this article posted today, when almost the whole country is sweltering under a heat wave. Especially because I don't have air-conditioning in my car or home. Luckily, I do have air conditioning at work. Besides fans at home, I have a spray bottle with water in it that I spray myself with if I get to hot. I try to remember to carry it in my car when I go out in the heat. Well, at least I'm not contributing as much as most people to global warming! I'll try to think of this study on hypothermia when I'm driving home in a few minutes. It's after 8:35pm, and 92 F.

An example of positive feedback is that the hotter it is, the more power people use for air conditioning and water, which causes more local and global warming. Presumbably, it causes less power to be used for heat in the winter. I wonder whether it balances out.

An example of how schools don't educate people in many areas of importance is a lady I knew a few years ago. She was a college graduate, and didn't know that using water uses power. She thought you just turn on the tap and the water comes out. Of course, it takes energy to purify water before and after it is used, and to move it from one place to another. I would say a lot of history instruction could be replaced with more useful courses. We should have basic history instruction, but being required to memorize dates and names long enough to pass a test is really useless. I occasionally use algebra and even calculus in everyday life, but I have never found it harmful that I don't know the names of most of the kings of England and when they ruled. Besides, if schools tried to teach history which was true enough to be of possible use, traditionalists would raise a firestorm of protest, thus adding to global warming :)

Why math scores are low

U.S. students habitually score poorly in math and science when compared with other industrialized countries. A conversation with a secondary math teacher a year or two is an example of some of the problem. I was working at Waffle House at the time, and mentioned that some people were not qualified to work as servers because they didn't know how to do percentages. He said he taught his students percentages by starting with 10 % (which of course just involves moving the decimal one place to the left), and taught them to "estimate" other percentages. This is not good enough. Eg., when computing sales taxes and doing your income tax, you need to know how to get the exact answer. People do need to know how to estimate, so they can know if their answers are reasonable. Some people who wanted a job would come up with totally riduculous sales taxes, and have no idea that they weren't anywhere near the right answer. But knowing People do need to know how to estimate, so they can know if their answers are reasonable. I expect we have all accidently hit the wrong key on a calculator. Some people who wanted a job would come up with totally riduculous sales taxes, and have no idea that they weren't anywhere near the right answer. But knowing only how to estimate is not sufficient.

unexplained symptoms

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060712175825.htm
"Treatment Developed For Patients With Medically Unexplained Symptoms"


"Smith and his colleagues devised the treatment plan which involves a combination of behavior modification and pharmaceutical treatment, as well as a good dose of improved communication between patient and doctor. "


There is merit in this approach. But just because someone has a symptom that their doctor can't explain doesn't mean it is unexplainable. Some years ago, I was feeling so bad for several years that I was sure I had a fatal disease. At least five different doctors did the standard blood tests, and told me I was in perfect health. When my leg gave way while shopping, so I almost fell to the floor, tests were finally done that showed my my asthma was causing my bronchial tubes to spasm 24 hours a day, so I wasn't getting enough oxygen. Luckily for me, I had a problem that proper medication was able to alleviate. But it is common for people with diseases such as multiple sclerosis to go undiagnosed for years. What is needed is for doctor's to have respect for their patients.

take it like a man

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060711/hl_afp/africahealthaids;_ylt=AgV8udYXh36gDwtAciiT08rVJRIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-
"The systematic circumcision of all boys in sub-Saharan Africa could potentially prevent nearly six million new AIDS infections over the next two decades, a research team says in a published study. "

This puts the religious right in a predicament. To be consistent, they should be against this because they think it will lead to more extra-marital sex. On the other hand, I would expect them to be for it because it causes pain and is said to lower pleasurable sensations.

I think that men who do not oppose sexual mutilation of women in their societies should be forcibly circumcised w/o anesthetic.

How to make record deficits sound good

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060711/ap_on_go_pr_wh/budget_deficit;_ylt=AuBGWju3x70OueX1_SrK9uWyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-
"U.S. deficit estimate drops to $296B"
Typical headline in the so-called "liberal" MSM (main-stream media) for this non-news.

Why is it big news that the U.S. deficit figures are below what Bush predicted?
I predict that I will spend $10,000 this month. So if I only spend $5,000, far more than I make, I guess that will mean that I've done good?

terrorist wannabees

Now that there have been arrests of what appear, from news reports, to be serious terrorist wannabees, there don't seem to be any more mentions of the young men who were arrested in Miami for talking about being terrorists. It sounded like the Miami group were like a lot of young people, talking about things they would probably never do, blowing off steam and trying to imress each other. Even the government said they didn't present a credible threat. So why were they arrested at this time? It is likely that after being arrested and imprisoned for such flimsy reasons, some of them will be even more angry and dangerous. I'm sure many people have joined me in wondering if the fact that this is an election year triggered the highly publicized arrest of the Miami group.

Sorry for the blog's appearance

After I changed a couple of settings yesterday, my blog lost it's left marging/padding. I changed the settings back, but no change. So I changed them to the way I want them. I hope to get it looking better soon.

Recovered memories

People are still arguing over whether traumatic memories can be forgotten, and later remembered, even though it has been shown that it can happen; I know it is so from first-hand experience. Other people deny that there are such a thing as false memories, even those these have also been shown to exist.

Why do so many people have trouble with the fact that in much of life, there are no absolutes? If the sky is cloudy, sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't. I wonder if part of it stems from our education, where we are rewarded for getting the one right answer? I'm sure some people are born with varying levels of such characteristics as curiosty and openess to learning new things, just as we are born with a tendency to be varying heights and body builds. This is good, as we need a variety of capabilities.

But of course, almost any extreme characteristic can be a problem. Both extreme dogmatism, and the acceptance of any flaky idea that comes around, are not good. I expect that education and educators have an effect, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. Indeed, I have tutored people in math who were clueless on how to solve problems involving very large numbers. When presented with the same problem with small numbers, they had no problem at all. They knew how to solve the problem, but were intimidated by large numbers. Almost everybody I know who hates math can trace it back to an elementary school teacher.

fiddling while Rome burns

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060706/ap_on_sc/climate_fires;_ylt=AqlCgNc0lgbpX8gOcPdvHEkPLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

Wildfires may be linked to global warming

http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/060531_cyclone_intensity.html

Massachusetts Institute of Technology climatologist Kerry Emanuel "linked global warming to the trend of increasingly stronger Atlantic Ocean hurricanes observed in recent decades."

"Meanwhile, other new research by Purdue University scientists supports Emanuel’s original finding and extends it to the entire globe. "

profits more important than sight

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20060617-10463500-bc-britian-blinddrug.xml

A colon cancer drug being successfully used in Britain to combat blindness may be yanked from the market and replaced with a version 100 times the price.

ignorance is bliss

http://pewresearch.org/obdeck/?ObDeckID=32

In a 2002 Pew Global Attitudes Project survey, 60% of Americans agreed with the statement: "Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others."
This placed Americans in the bottom third of the 43 national publics
surveyed, far behind counties such as Indonesia (90% completely or mostly agreed with the statement), South Korea (90%), Egypt (88%), Mexico (86%), India (85%), Mali (80%), Uzbekistan (77%), Bolivia (77%), Tanzania (77%), and Bulgaria (74%).
Among the publics of Western Europe, on the other hand, there was even less inclination to assert cultural superiority than in the United States. Just 55% of Italians agreed with the statement; as did just 40% of Germans; just 37% of the British; and just 33% of the French, the smallest percentage among any of the 43 nations surveyed. (So much for the arrogant French!)

It is easily observable that the people who are most sure that they know everything about everything are the most ignorant. The more I know, the more I know I don't know. I would say that these poll results tend to show the same holds true for attitudes about the superiority of one's culture.

flag burning vs global warming

http://pewresearch.org/obdeck/?ObDeckID=32

According to a Pew Research poll of Americans, more people think that flag burning is more important than global warming. I would that is the result of ignorance of the facts of global warming. That's disheartening enough. The thought that Americans think that flag burning, which is very rare anyway, is more important than the life of large numbers of people, would be truly horrifying.

resume cops?

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/business_44f637020334426a0039.html

This article discusses a product that can supposedly tell if a person's resume has been altered. "They can even tell if the cover letter or resume has been recycled from a previous job hunt."

Is this a joke? Or maybe a test to see how many people read the paper w/o buying it, because it would be sure to generate a lot of letters? It was on the first page of the business section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on May 21, 2006; it would have been more appropriate to April 1.
I won't discuss the stupidity of this idea, because it's obvious to anybody who has looked for a job. I would just like to say that I would like a list of any companies who do this, because I wouldn't want to work for anybody that stupid.

Johnny Cash

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13639505/

Johnny Cash's wife had just died. Diabetes had cost him much of his sight, and he needed a wheelchair.

The unnamed AP writer commented : "The one selection that seems ill-conceived is Hank Williams' "A Legend in My Time," with a jarringly self-pitying tone."

I can see why the writer is unnamed; he should be ashamed of saying such a jerky thing. In our society, people who have suffered severe loss, and who may be in physical discomfort, or even severe pain, are often expected to be cheerful, and not discomfort the more fortunate. What a sadistic attitude.

lack of health care

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20060629-19523000-bc-us-medicaltourism.xml

U.S. citizens are going to other countries for surgery.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20060418-12140300-bc-costrx.xml

Medicare patients can't find doctors.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20060404-15102400-bc-us-survey-analysis.xml

U.S. patients rate their healthcare among the worst in the industrialized world, despite costs that surpass nearly all those in every other comparable country, a multi-national survey concluded Tuesday.

I am currently experiencing the problem of lack of availability of health care to many in our country. I don't have health insurance. I have cataracts, and am already legally blind in one eye. Because I worked at a low-paying job for four years before I got my current job last winter, I have little savings - only what I have been able to save since getting this job. I need to get surgery on one eye while I can still see well enough to drive and work with the other eye; I am beginning to have problems with my good eye. If I can get the surgery on my left eye in time, I'll be able to continue working and paying taxes, and of course I won't be drawing disability payments.

In regard to the U.S. government, I am not eligible for disability until I am legally blind in both eyes, and then I would not be eligible for Medicare for two years. Of course, of U.S. Congresspeople get medical insurance paid for with our taxes. I guess they're too busy, trying to pass constitutional amendments against the handful of people who burn American flags, to spend time on such unimortant things as our citizens who are becoming disabled, and dying, from lack of medical care and needed medication.

In regard to the state of Georgia, I am not eligible for Medicaid because I make too much money. In fact, when I was living in poverty while working for Waffle House, I made too much money for Medicaid!

I make too much money to get help from the Lions Club. ( I understand that they have limited funds, and their priority will be the poor.)

The local United Way doesn't have any member agencies that provide surgery, but they suggested a couple of agencies that might be able to help, including the National Federation of the Blind, which gave me another couple of referrals.

So, I am currently waiting to talk to the appropriate person from Prevent Blindness Georgia, who who has been out in the field. I have no complaints, she's doing her job, and there are many who need help. But I am feeling increasingly anxious as my good eye is getting worse.

I am going to get information about surgery in foreign countries, in case I have to do that, instead of waiting until I am legally blind in both eyes, and destitute, so I can get help in my own country.

secret weapon planned against North Korea

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13577400/site/newsweek/

Monkeys see no evil, hear no evil

http://www.livescience.com/environment/060627_inconv_truth.html

"The nation's top climate scientists are giving "An Inconvenient Truth,'' Al Gore's documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy. The former vice president's movie -- replete with the prospect of a flooded New York City, an inundated Florida, more and nastier hurricanes, worsening droughts, retreating glaciers and disappearing ice sheets -- mostly got the science right, said all 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie or read the book and answered questions from The Associated Press. "

This is no surprise for those who've followed the facts on what scientists are saying about global warming in scientific news sources, rather than the main stream media (MSM) reports, which almost always include references to one of the very small number of scientists who deny global warmning, or attribute it solely to natural cycles, and who usually are in fields not related to weather, and who usually turn out to be funded by Mobil-Exxon, which of course are not reported by the MSM.

"While more than 1 million people have seen the movie since it opened in May, that does not include Washington's top science decision makers. President Bush said he won't see it. The heads of the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA
haven't seen it, and the president's science adviser said the movie is on his to-see list."

"They are quite literally afraid to know the truth,'' Gore said. "Because if you accept the truth of what the scientific community is saying, it gives you a moral imperative to start to rein in the 70 million tons of global warming pollution that human civilization is putting into the atmosphere every day.''

It is certainly ironic that severe flooding of the kind to be expected from global warming is occuring right when the leaders of our country are asserting their allegiance to ignorance on the matter. Of course, we can't know that a particular piece of bad weather would not have occurred w/o the greenhouse effect, any more than we can know which of the small percentage of lung cancers would have occurred w/o exposure to tobacco smoke. What scientists can do is predict trends.

I think Gore is being too easy on our "leaders". To choose to avoid knowing the truth in such a matter is in itself immoral.

What's in a name - estate taxes

The rich Republicans who are trying to do away with the estate/inheritance tax call it a "death" tax, and claim it is unfair because the money has already been taxed. Even if that were so, forgive me for not feeling sorry that someone might lose money after they're dead; what are they going to do with it?

But of course, it is not a tax on dead people who can't use it; it is actually a tax on the inheritor of the money. All money is repeatedly taxed. The money that we are paid in salaries, for which we pay an income tax, originally passed through many other hands which paid taxes on it. Without the estate tax, we have people acquiring vast sums for which they did no work, and not paying tax on it. But they reap the benefits of taxation on those who work. They are protected by our military. Businesses depend on having large numbers of literate workers, who are educated by public schools. Government regulation of air traffic makes air traffic safer.

And these same rich Republicans want to do away with taxes on investments, so the offspring of the rich can inherit wealth, and invest it, maintainin their wealth, w/o paying taxes at all. It reminds me of the old British aristocracy, which considered money acquired by working to be shameful.

Iraq misdeeds no surprise

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13506794/

Near the beginninig of this article it says "The recent flurry of accusations against U.S. servicemen has stunned military analysts and experts."
If these people were experts, they wouldn't be surprised.

1) Previous studies have found that 95 percent of soldiers in active warfare showed psychological problems after 6 months of combat. The ones that didn't were those who were already sociopaths (aka psychopaths) with violent inclinations.

2) In role-playing studies, when groups were divided into "prisoners" and "guards", many of the guards immediately started behaving abusively towards the prisoners.

3) There are many cases of those in power in various settings abusing those they have power over, whether it be children, elderly people in nursing homes, prisoners, mentally ill, memtally retarded. It would be surprising if there were no people with abusive tendencies in the military. And I would expect that being abused in boot camp, while it might be necessary to inculcate needed military discipline (or might not be necessary, for all I know), would increase tendencies to abuse others.

4) As in other occupations where people have power over others, a certain proportion will be atracted to the occupation because they are abusive personalities. For people who don't understand logic, I will point out that I don't at all think that all or most people attracted to these occupations are abusive.

Not all experts are surprised.
John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-based military think tank says, “Anybody who contemplates a decision to use force, anybody who contemplates putting boots on the ground has to understand that part of what they’re assuming responsibility for is stressed-out soldiers are going to massacre civilians. It just comes with the territory.” Still, Pike said that even if true, the number of abuse cases isn’t shocking, given the number of troops and three-plus years of combat: “If this is the worst that the troops have done, the chain of command would appear to have done a pretty good job.”

Military commanders should know to expect such problems, and be pro-active in trying to prevent them. People who choose to be president and send our troops into battle have a duty to educate themselves about the realities of the situation.

Why less time in nature?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13460467/

This study found that Americans are spending less time in natural surroundings like national parks because they are spending more time watching television, playing video games and surfing the Internet.

I expect this is true.

However, I also expect that part of the reason fewer persons are visiting natural areas is that it costs more. Entrance fees to national parks have been increased, or created where there were none before. To the working poor, $20 can be the difference between whether or not they can afford to go somewhere.

Offending delicate sensibilities

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13346897/

The Senate Judiciary Committee gave a nod Thursday to a constitutional amendment to protect the American flag from desecration.

I used to get teary-eyed over the American flag. But that was before the conservatives turned it from a symbol of our country, into a symbol of silliness and there eagerness to punish people. Protestors who burn the American flag are annoying, but they do it for the very reason that it gets a strong reaction from immature people. We tell our children to ignore teasing, that reacting simply encourages it, but these congress people are setting a poor example. If you are a wienie with such a delicate sensibility that you simply can't bear to watch attention seekers damage the flag, then turn the channel, or go in another room or something. Burning the flag produces a little bit of air pollution. The big vehicles many people drive do far more harm to our country than a few attention-seeking flag burners. My pets are too smart to do tricks for a picture of a treat.

Punishing the messanger

http://editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002687978

Pentagon Orders U.S. Reporters to Leave Guantanamo. Is this supposed to reassure people that the place is being run right? It just brings up the question as to what they are trying to hide.

Is unemployment good for the poor?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13300931/

This article doesn't mention that inflation that includes increases in salaries helps many poor people because it decreases the relative value of their debts. Of course, the poor (and middle-classed) have not been getting an income benefit from the good economy we keep being told is occurring. The Fed's strategy for holding down inflation is to increase interest rates, which slows down the economy, causing job loss, so that there is less demand for goods. And of course it's the poor and middle-classed who suffer the job losses. I guess those who lose their jobs for the sake of inflation should be grateful; if you don't have a job, you really need prices held down!
Of course, the article also doesn't point out that those whose income derives from lending money (i.e., many of the rich) are hurt by inflation because it decreases the value of the debt they are owed.
This article looks to me like one of the common bits of propaganda that permeate supposed business news, whose purpose is to mislead people from seeing who things really work.

Swan falls in love with swan-shaped boat

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13029354/

Humorous, but also a little sad for the swan.

Guantanamo suicides

http://www.newsdaily.com/TopNews/UPI-1-20060611-23075000-bc-us-meetpress.xml
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13286154/
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10704032/

Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey said Guantanamo has become a political problem for the United States.
" This was an act of political warfare by the three people that committed suicide, the same as a suicide bomber in downtown Baghdad."

Colleen Graffy, deputy assistant U.S. secretary of state for public diplomacy, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the suicides at the U.S.-run camp in Cuba were a “good P.R. move to draw attention” and “a tactic to further the jihadi cause.”

Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, the camp commander at Guantanamo, told reporters Sunday that the detainees “have no regard for human life, neither ours nor their own.” “I believe this was not an act of desperation but an act of asymmetric warfare against us,” Harris said.

I would like to say these people are warped and crazy, but unfortunately, humans have a tendency to believe that that other racial or ethnic groups are different from one's own. But even at that, these statements seem to me to be unexcusable for people at their level of responsibility. With leaders like this, no wonder some of our troups have committed atrocities.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060522093156.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/10/981012074004.htm

It should not be hard for us to understand that being imprisoned for 4 years with no end in sight, w/o trial, under the conditions at Guantanamo would drive some people to despair. It sure would me!

A few years ago, one of the weekly news magazines (I think it was Time), had an article which tried to find ways to define "consciousness" so that humans have it and animals don't. It was really amusing, because my observations are that many humans don't exhibit the conditions that were supposedly needed to show that one has a consciousness, while animals sometimes show these traits. One of these traits is empathy. It is my observation that even normal people are often/usually/?always not capable of empathy for a situation that they have not experienced themselves. Now, this is not really surprising. But many people show little if any empathy even for situations they themselves have experienced. We all feel we are exceptional.

If empathy is a requirement for consiousness, what about people who aren't able to feel empathy - eg., people with narcissistic personality disorder, sociopaths (also known as psychopaths).

Neanderthals vs humans

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060118210756.htm
(Neanderthals Were As Good At Hunting As Early Modern Humans.)

There has been much theorizing about what caused the extinction of Neanderthals. One possibility (?probability) I have seen mentioned is that early humans killed them off because they were simply more violent. Now, I'm sure I can't be the only person who has considered that possiblity, but nobody else seems to want to admit it.

Eating worm eggs for health

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13232481/

Eating parasitic whipworm eggs might be good for us.

Besides helping our immune systems, I would add that the idea of eating whipworm eggs could be good for us if we make a habit of thinking of it just before we eat, to reduce our appetite! :)

Puff's happy ending

I saw a Peter, Paul, and Mary on PBS TV last night. I love them! Of course, they played "Puff, the Magic Dragon" to a group of children. Some of the children appeared solemn. PP&M seemed to think that making the last verse "Puff ... lives by the sea", instead of "lived", would be a help. However, as someone who used to cry everytime I heard this song, this change is no help at all. The reason the song made me cry was that I feel it as a song about the lost of friendship, and being alone and lonely. It might especially affect me because I was an army brat; we never lived anywhere more than 3 years when we were growing up. Changing the tense just makes it even worse, if anything, because it implies Puff is still lonely.

I finally wrote my own ending, and now when I hear the song, I don't cry, because I remember my verse. Here it is for anybody else who wants a happy ending for this song.:

Puff's Happy Ending
copyright 1983 Patricia M. Shannon

If Puff could see the future, he would not be so sad;
for Jackie soon will marry, and have a little lad.
He will tell his son why his own youth was not a bore,
then Puff the magic dragon, will have a friend once more.

Lying by omissions

John Stossel has written a book which has a good title : "Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel--Why Everything You Know Is Wrong" . I read a transcript of an interview with him about his book, and considering his silliness about overpopulation, I would suspect anything he says.
He said "All those new babies are brains that may cure cancer some day."
Of course, all those new babies are brains that may create a biological weapon that devastates the earth. Many medicines come from other species. We may have already driven to extinction the species that this hypothetical "brain" would use to cure cancer.
He said "The population density of New Jersey is equal to that of India. And New Jersey is doing OK. Hong Kong is one of the most prosperous places in the world, one of the nicest places to live, has 20 times as many people per square foot as India."
I don't have the time to investigate whether these figures are accurate, but even if they are, they are misleading. Places that have such high population densities depend on much larger places, that have low population densities, for food, oil, lumber, water, steel, concrete, rubber, and other resources. Places like Hong Kong import most of their food and other resources from elsewhere. Much of the earth's land is desert, not suitable for farming, and areas that are suitable for farming are losing top soil, when they are not being covered with buildings and roads. With the number of people we currently have, we have already caused the extinction of many species, and greatly decimated the population of many species of ocean species, including fish and whales. We put such quantities of chemicals such as freon into the air, that we destroyed large areas of the ozone layer that protects us from ultraviolet radiation from the sun, before we realized what we were doing and cut back on the use of these chemicals. We put polluted the air with acid rain, damaging our forests, art, and the outside of our own buildings. We have polluted a large percentage of the waters in the U.S. so badly that they are not safe to swim in, or eat fish from. We have put so much greenhouse gases into our air that we putting ourselves at danger. We have probably already been damaged from these effects - stronger hurricanes, droughts, floods.

Stossel made an apology to his audience in 2000 after it was discovered that some of the research for a segment he ran discrediting organic foods was misleadingly and incorrectly cited; in fact, he referred to studies that didn't even exist.

Stossel is a libertarian. He believes free enterprise and private property will cure all ills, and government is the source of all evil. But he ignores the fact that for the sake of immediate profits, farmers in some areas of the country are irrigating their crops with water that has a high mineral content, and is killing the soil. He ignores the fact that for the sake of profits, drug and car manufacturers have hidden the fact that their products were lethal.

What is needed is balance. Too much government power is indeed bad. But too little is also bad. Parts of the world where there is no functioning government are not nice places to live! And in fact, it is because of the high population density that he defends that we need government. But that is a subject I'll talk about more another time.

Clawless cat chases off bear

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13222962/

Some humor.

Top ten best things about global warming

http://gardenearth.com/topten.htm

10. Why pay for tattoos when melanoma's free?

An inspiration

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12995881/

A top New York heart surgeon who was doing a mercy-mission operation on an 8-year-old boy in El Salvador had to scrub out in the middle of the procedure so he could donate his own rare-type blood to the patient.

Army to ok mistreatment of detainees?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-torture5jun05,0,7975161.story?coll=la-home-headlines

The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to knowledgeable military officials.

This would send a message to other countries that it is ok to treat our people to humiliating and degrading treatment. Do we really want to do this?

This is especially bad timing coming on the heels of the revelations of the deliberate killing of innocent Iraqis by our own military. It sends a destructive message to our own military people, who are stressed out by multiple tours of duty in Iraq.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13053200/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11911144/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13137362/

Reparations for women

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13072926/

It's true that Afro-Americans were held as slaves, and denied rights long after slavery ended. Things are much better today than 30 years ago, even. But women were also oppressed and denied rights, and churches supported the oppression. I don't hear anybody calling for reparations for women. We should oppose discrimination and strive to give equal opportunity to all children to reach their potential, but I think reparations for conditions that occurred 140 years ago is ridiculous.

Atlanta drivers are courteous???

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12819552/

A recent survey claimed that Minneapolis, Nashville, St. Louis, Seattle and Atlanta were rated as the cities with the most courteous drivers.

I live in the Atlanta Metropolitan area, and I felt that I was less traumatized by the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 is that I am used to be terrorized by Atlanta drivers. The only way Atlanta could conceivably be rated as positive is if the other cities are really, really, really horrible, or if the Atlanta drivers who took the survey have very low expectations. Or maybe their brains are damaged from the air pollution and the stress of driving here. Birmingham, Alabama, has much more courteous drivers, and it wasn't listed.

What is God telling Robertson?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13105641/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12851397/
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9053929/
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10728347/

Two people died and three others were injured after a plane owned by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson went down in heavy fog today.
Not being Pat Robertson, I take no joy or satisfaction from this, but given past pronouncements by Robertson, I wonder what he thinks God was trying to tell him?

As for Robertson's prediction that the U.S. coastline will be hit by storms this year, I predict that it will rain somewhere in the U.S. this very week. When doesn't a storm hit the U.S. coastline sometime in a year?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9995578/
I wonder how God feels about the fact that Robertson doesn't think God is smart enough to create evolution?

People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder are usually religious, which fits my personal experience with these people, and Pat Robertson certainly seems to be a candidate for this condition.

Everybody knows

What everybody knows is usually comfortable and untrue.
- Naomi Bliven

Talk sense?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060522093156.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060131092225.htm

"Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish," Euripedes once said.

Do you want to be Methusalah?

The discussion of whether a greatly increased life span is good reminds me of a verse from George and Ira Gershwin's song "It ain't Necessarily So".

Methus'lah lived nine hundred years.
Methus'lah lived nine hundred years.
But who calls dat livin' when no gal'll give in
To no man what's nine hundred years

How Mexico treats immigrants

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13006798/site/newsweek/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13063238/site/newsweek/?nav=slatefrom/RSS/
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12967877/

Mexico criticizes us because we don't open our borders to their citizens, but they treat immigrants from countries south of them worse. If Mexico improved their own country, they wouldn't be sending so many to our country.
I have read that 1/4 of Mexican men between the ages of 18 and 35 are in the U.S. And our president and Senate want to open the gates. Is it really good for Mexico to lose so many of their people, esp. because the ones with the most initiative are most likely to immigrate?

Does clean air make hurricanes worse?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13083495/from/RS.2/

Kerry Emanuel, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology climatologist, and Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University, contend that the aerosol particles, which reflect sunlight and cool the atmosphere, have been masking the effect of global warming on Atlantic Ocean hurricanes for several decades. The researchers say that it is only in recent decades, as aerosol emissions from North America and Europe have declined due to clean air standards, that the full impact of greenhouse gas emissions on hurricane strength has been realized.

So it seems we have a choice : to smother or bake.

Any day now, I expect to hear of ads funded by Mobile/Exxon saying that aerosol emissions from cars are "life".

'Rhythm Method' May Kill Off More Embryos Than Other Methods Of Contraception

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060526180749.htm

Professor Bovens says the rhythm method of birth control may owe much of its success to the fact that embryos conceived on the fringes of the fertile period are less viable than those conceived towards the middle. Professor Bovens calculates that two to three embryos will have died every time the rhythm method results in a pregnancy. It will be interesting to see if this affects the extreme fringe of the so-called "right-to-lifers." My own experience with having conversations with them is that their real motivation to opposing contraception and abortion, even for a clump of a half-dozen cells, is that they consider pregnancy a fitting punishment for people having sex, more than any caring about the welfare of the potential baby.

global warming leading to more earthquakes?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0819/p16s01-sten.html

I made a tentative prediction on 10/22/2005 that global warming might cause increased earthquakes, and least in some places, because of melting of glaciers releasing pressure on earthquake zones. I also made comments about this subject on 03/23/2006. At least two geophysicists (Jeanne Sauber with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Bruce Molnia with the US Geological Survey in Reston, Va.) are predicting this. They point out that it has happened in the past. For example, earthquake action picked up in places where the ice masses retreated some 10,000 years ago, Dr. Sauber notes.

dinosaur die-off, chicken or egg

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/08/050810130729.htm

There is an argument among some scientists about what caused the climate changes 65 million years ago that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Some believe it was due to an asteroid impact. Others blame it on massive volcanic action. Both have been shown to have occured at that time. It seems to me an obvious possibility that an asteroid impact could have triggered these massive lava flows, but I haven't seen this possibility discussed.

Too much of a good thing

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12857723/

The oil industry is running ads with the slogan “Carbon dioxide: they call it pollution; we call it life.” Unfortunately, our citizens are so poorly educated in science, and so well-trained to not think, that many people will probably be taken in by these ads. Presumbably, they were market-tested and found to be effective before being released.

Of course, carbon dioxide (CO2) is essential for life; w/o it our world would be an ice cube. However, a substance or activity in small or moderate quantities can be harmful or fatal in larger quantities. Eg., fat-soluble vitamins A and D. In fact, polar bear liver contains so much vitamin A, it is toxic.
http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears-in-depth/physiology/
Small amounts of arsenic have been shown to be necessary for the health of at least some animals. That doesn't keep it from being a poison and carcinogen at more than trace amounts.
http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/nmdrugprofiles/nutsupdrugs/ars_0026.shtml
Of course, if our citizens had a minimum of scienctific understanding, they would see the silliness of these ads. CO2 is a waste product for animals. Too high a concentration kills us by crowding out oxygen. We aren't likely to be in danger from that. The big problem is that we are increasing the amounts of greenhouse gases too quickly for much of nature, of which we are a part, and on which we are dependent, to adapt.

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/09/297818.shtml
http://www.chriscodes.com/store/detail/books/related_result/Book/1572304510/
I have been feeling for awhile that the leaders of Mobile-Exxon, who fund many or most campaigns to resist dealing with the threat of increasing greenhouse gases, are sociopaths (the modern term for psycopaths), and now am really convinced.

Poor reasoning by jury

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/12/13/peterson.case/index.html

This is not very recent, but it has always troubled me, and the problem it presents has not disappeared.

Scott Peterson is the man who was found guilty of killing his pregnant wife, and sentenced to death, on the basis of circumstantial evidence. I would guess he probably did it. But it seems to me that when there is only circumstantial evidence, the death penalty is not appropriate. Especially troubling is the reason some jurors gave for deciding on the death penalty in this case.


Three jurors spoke at length in an emotional news conference after issuing the verdict, saying Peterson's own lack of visible emotion during the trial helped convince them it was the correct decision.
"A big part of it was at the end, the verdict -- no emotion, no anything. That spoke a thousand words," juror Richelle Nice said. Three jurors spoke at length in an emotional news conference after issuing the verdict, saying Peterson's own lack of visible emotion during the trial helped convince them it was the correct decision. (Full story)
"It just seemed to be the appropriate justice for the crime, given the nature and how personal it really was, against his wife and his child," said jury foreman Steve Cardosi.
"A big part of it was at the end, the verdict -- no emotion, no anything. That spoke a thousand words," juror Richelle Nice said.

I have seen similar comments reported in other trials, sometimes in regards to people who were retarded or psychotic.
This makes no sense to me. Children, especially boys, in our culture are often taught not to express emotion. I have often seen little boys who have been hurt being told to be a man, not to cry. I saw a baby girl, old enough to crawl, but not even yet a toddler, whose when the mother was leaving, and the baby started to show unhappiness, the mother scolded her and insisted she smile. I felt so sorry for the baby. I myself remember one time when I was feeling really miserable, people kept telling how good I looked! I have seen a study that found that some women who insist they are never unhappy, and who give the appearance of being happy, have high levels of stress hormones, and increased risk of death. The researchers felt the women had learned to suppress their awareness of negative emotion so they were not consciously aware of it, but it still had negative physical effects. I have had this happen myself. But someone smart enough to serve on a jury, which decides the fate of other people's lives, should know that you can't necessarily tell how a person is feeling by their outward appearance. Unfortunately, it's not the only cases that makes one wonder about the competency of the jurors.

The American Idol auditions remind me of research I saw a few years ago that found that people often thought they were good in areas in which they were not. (Not a unique finding). The researchers noted that the reason was that, usually, the same qualities that are needed to do something well are also the qualities needed to judge whether a task was done well. Eg., in the case of American Idol, if someone is tone deaf. (Obviously this is not an absolute rule. A person could be not very good at sports, but be a good coach, including a good judge of how good a player is). In fact, people who are very good at something often did not value their gift because it came so easy to them, that it didn't seem anything special. When I asked someone at the start of the current A. Idol season if they were going to watch the audition show that night, they said no, they didn't think it was funny to see people being made unhappy. In general, I myself feel that way. But I think the reason I react differently to A. Idol is that the producers choose to show the people who are obviously narcissistic, and react with the typical narcissistic rage, and insisting that they are great. If they showed a lot of nice people who were just tone deaf, and were crushed by not getting into the show, that would not be funny. The singing is so pitiful, it is hilarious. And I'm not as nice a person as my co-worker. I kind of wish I were, except that since there are people who will take advantage of others with no qualms, we need people who will oppose them, which is the category I feel I am in. I would prefer to live in a world where everybody was nice, but that is not the way it is.

Polite drivers would be faster

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060524093736.htm

"If All Drivers Were Polite, They Would Get Where They're Going Faster"
Included in the article is the point that letting people merge helps traffic flow, if you don't have to slow down to much, because the person merging is able to enter traffic at a higher speed. Shouldn't be surprising, but I've actually seen AJC vents criticizing mergers who slow way down before merging. Well, since people on Atlanta highways usually tail gate and try to keep people from merging in front of them, what do they expect the merger to do if they can't get into traffic right away?
Now, this is not inevitable human nature. People learn to be more or less competitive from their culture. Eg., driving in Atlanta, Georgia is vastly different from driving in Birmingham, Alabama. In Birmingham, it is the norm for drivers to let in other people who need to merge or change lanes. I don't know how to change Atlanta culture, but maybe somebody else can figure it out. That would solve a lot of problems that people complain about in other drivers (such as me) who are reacting to the prevailing conditions. Eg., in Atlanta, if I'm going to have to make a left turn, I get in the left lane way before my turn, in order to make sure I can make my turn. When I first moved here, I missed several left turns because people wouldn't let me over. If people were more polite, I would wait until I was closer to my turn to move into the left lane.

cloning people?

There is a lot of concern about the possibility of closing people. No doubt, the kind of people who are a negative force in the world, such as Rush Limbaugh, would clone themselves if they could. But I am undecided whether I think it should be banned. All new technology has unexpected consequences, usually or almost always including negative consequences. But I have to say there are some people I would like to see cloned. Eg., Leonardo Da Vinci. Considering the things he was able to invent that would have worked if technology had been advanced enough, I would love to see what he could do today. I would like to see some composers cloned, esp. those whose died young, such as Mozart. I would like to have been able to clone my favorite cat!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051005074900.htm
There may be good arguments against cloning people, but the one about it depriving people of individuality is nonsense. Being a clone would not automatically deprive people of their own identity. Identical twins are clones. The five Dionne quintuplets were identical, thus clones, but each was an individual. Some chromosomes are randomly turned off and on in different cells of the body, esp. the X chromosome. The problem I would see in this regard is that I would expect that narcissistic people and power freaks would especially be attracted to cloning, seeing the children as an extensions of themselves, and being even less likely to allow the children to be themselves than with there regular children.

It's conceivable that it might be a good thing to have the capability, in case it would be helpful at some time. Eg., we might someday be in the position of the human race being decimated by some disease, and find the only person who is resistant to it is not fertile. I think that is highly unlikely, but it is also not impossible.

In regards to the recent research on the possibility of greatly increased life spans, the ability to find out what happens to humans and the rest of the world in the future is one of the big reasons I find the possibility of a greatly increased life span appealing.

special treatment for Limbaugh?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12536446
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3158209/

Rush Limbaugh has acknowledged abusing prescription drugs.
“Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. ... And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up,” Limbaugh said on his television show on Oct. 5, 1995. During the same show, he commented that statistics that show blacks go to prison more often than whites for the same drug offenses only illustrate that “too many whites are getting away with drug use.”
So what happens when he, a millionaire makes his living by telling lies, is caught abusing drugs? He spent no time in jail. If he remains free of drugs for at least 18 more months (or at least is not caught using drugs), his criminal record will be erased.
I would like to see somebody investigate whether this judge shows such mercy to poor people. Our prisons are full of people whose only crime is non-violent drug offenses. When they get out, their record is not erased, making it hard to get a job. In some states, such as Georgia, their right to vote is permanently lost, unless they can get a waiver.
I would have liked to this wimp get at least 3 months in jail, so he could experience the reality of what it's really like.

longer life

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12916099/

Researchers are looking for ways to extend our healthy life spans. I know I would like to have more time to do such things as music. However, how will we support ourselves? It's easy to say we can change careers, but will employers hire a 60-year old with a new degree, but no experience in the new field? If we have to spend 100 years working and going to school, with little time for what we want to do, what's the use of that?

Gregory Stock, director of the Program on Medicine, Technology and Society at UCLA’s School of Public Health, says a doubled lifespan would "give us a chance to recover from our mistakes, lead us toward longer-term thinking...".
Since people are so resisting to changing opinions once they are formed, I'm afraid I am not that optimistic.

illegal immigration is not a capital offense

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12869693/

Federal authorities shot and killed the driver of a sport utility vehicle headed for Mexico Thursday after somebody reported seeing it pick up suspected illegal immigrants near the U.S. side of the Otay Mesa border crossing.
What in the world is going on here? I have some problems with the enormous numbers of Mexicans moving to the U.S., but illegal immigration certainly shouldn't be a capital offense. And this car was headed toward Mexico.

I notice that the accident that ended the career of a racehorse has been followed closely by the news media. I like animals, and I am interested in how this turns out. However, it seems like the press is giving more attention to this than to the killing (I would say murder) of someone because he he was suspected of transporting illegal immigrants.

lousy U.S. textbooks

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12705167/

This is an article on the poor state of textbooks, caused by the need for textbook publishers to satisfy politically oriented school boards.
Examples are easy to find. I explained to a young man that when oil is hydrogenated, it means that hydrogen atoms are added to the oil molecules. He insisted there was no change to the makeup of the fat, that hydrogenation was appled to the outside of the canned oil. Presumbably being cold, and thereby causing it to solidify from the low temperature. I tried to point out that if that were the case, the oil would return to liquid form at room temperature, but he was sure I was wrong. He appeared to be in his late teens, possibly early 20's, and he was about to go to some kind of science fiction event.
I also met several people said that they couldn't eat food cooked with solid vegetable shortening, because it was good for their hearts, but that they could eat all the beef they wanted, that it was not harmful.

No wonder the citizens of our country are overweight and unhealthy.

short-term vs long-term

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060404092234.htm

In this article on hermaphodite nematodes, University of Maryland biology professor Eric Haag notes that "Over the years, there have been numerous species of nematodes that have become hermaphrodites. They can survive for millions of years, but eventually they go extinct. Meanwhile, the old-school male/female species seem to stick around long-term."
I guess to most of us, the idea of "millions of years" being short-term is kind of mind-boggling. But anyway, this is an example of how characteristics that may be beneficial in the short-term may be harmful, even fatal, in the long-term. Human nature may turn out to be an example. I sure hope not.

help a soldier

http://soldiersangels.org/

See this web site ways to support our troops whose lives are in danger

Why punish victims

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12857161/

66% of Saudi women are obese or fat. They are restricted from exercising by Muslim fundamentalist. A writer named Muhammad al-Habdan distributes booklets that warns against such things as girls taking PE in schools and women going to fitness clubs. He writes : "There is no faster way to corrupt nations than the emancipation of women — that is getting her out on the street to entice men and ruin their morals."

Since men are so easily enticed and lacking in self-discipline, they are the ones who should be locked up and isolated from society, so that they can avoid temptation.

Why not return of income averaging

With all of the tax cuts for the ultra-rich, it would be nice to see a return of one that Reagan did away with, that can be really helpful to the middle-class : income averaging. Income averaging taxes on the average for a certain period of years, eg., 5 years. So if your income greatly increases or decreases, you have the option of calculating your average income for the last five years, and recalculating the taxes that would have been owed. If you would pay less tax by income averaging, you have the option to choose to do so.
For example, if you earned $10,000 for four years, then earned $35,000 , the average income for each year would be $15,000.
(These hypothetical tax rates are made up on the spur of the moment; they are only to show the mechanics of the calculations).
If the tax rate on $10,000 is zero, and the tax rate on $35,000 is 15%, the total taxes for the five years without income averaging would be 0.15*35,000 = $5250.
If the tax rate on $15,000 is 5% (which is 0.05), then with income averaging, the taxes for the five years would be 0.05*15,000*5 = $3750. So there would be a savings of $5250 - 3750 = $1500. In this example, if the tax rate on $15,000 was 7% or greater, you would be better off not doing income averaging.

biofuels, other aspects

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060423191907.htm

There is increasing interest in biofuels, created from organic matter.
There was a discussion of them on NPR this morning, which was interesting, but showed the usefulness of having a variety of inputs. The report was totally positive. I do think it is a largely positive development. But there are other aspects. NPR referred to the remains of crops in fields that would otherwise be burned or left to rot. Well, if they were going to be burned, going directly to greenhouse gas and particular air pollution, converting them to biofuels would certainly be a positive thing. But people who are into gardening or farming could have pointed out that when organic matter rots, in returns nutrients to the soil that have been taken out, enriching it, and improving the quality. In fact, this is how topsoil is created. We are losing large amount of topsoil every year. The program stated that burning biofuels would not affect the amount of greenhouse gases, that it would simply be returning to the atmosphere material (mostly carbon dioxide) that had recently been removed by plants using the energy of the sun. However, if left to decay naturally, much of the carbon would be taken up by new plant growth, and so not get into the air right away. Also, a certain amount would remain in the soil for some amount of time. Since most of the carbon might end up eventually as carbon dioxide in an agricultural setting, then to the extent that biofuels replace a like amount of fossil fuels, we would still have a some increase in greenhouse gases, but perhaps much less than relying solely on fossil fuels.

Another aspect is shown by the discovery a few months ago of a new mammal species. Scientists are concerned that it may become extinct before they can study it because the jungle is being cut down to plant palm trees from which to harvest oil to make biofuel. It would be unfortunate if in an effort to help the environment in one way by switching to biofuels, we hurt it in another way by encouraging the cutting down of forests and jungles.

We could cut back on our use fuel immediately with little effort. For example, we can turn off lights when we are not using them. I turn off the lights at my desk, as well as a nearby conference room and two printer rooms before I go home from work. We can keep our speed down and avoid quick starts and stops. We can buy fuel efficient cars, and energy efficient appliances. We can turn off the water while brushing our teeth. Etc. With 300 million people in the U.S., small actions add up.

desparate recruiters

http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/roberts050806.html

Recruiters in Portland, Ore. signed up an 18-year old autistic man for the army.

More problems with Diebold voting machines?

http://www.newsdaily.com/TopNews/UPI-1-20060512-08451500-bc-us-voting.xml
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~jgm5f/mdst110/lab3/diebold.html


Officials in Pennsylvania and California have issued urgent directives in recent days about a potential security risk in Diebold Election System touch-screen voting machines. Computer scientists said the problem might allow someone to tamper with a machine's software. The owner of Diebold is a fervent Republican.

Contestants for dumbest crooks

http://www.newsdaily.com/TopNews/UPI-1-20060512-17490200-bc-us-burglar.xml

Four young males thought to be involved in six Minneapolis burglaries left a video camera with a tape of themselves in a stolen car.

Results of lack of birth control

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1945981&page=1

In Romania, there are horrifying conditions for children abandoned by parents who can't afford to care for them. The government has not provided adequate funding for their care. A good conservative government, I guess, saving the taxpayers money.

Chinese age bank

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/10/eveningnews/main1608214.shtml

What a neat idea. In a city in China, volunteers who help the elderly get credits for help when they are elderly.

It wouldn't work very well here, though, with people moving so much.

Health care costs

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12703029/

Private insurers like Aetna pay 80 cents of every dollar for health care, while the rest goes for overhead, including executive salaries and the lobbying efforts in Congress.
Medicare pays 98 percent of what it collects for health care.

More tax cuts for the super-rich

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3626796/

The House passed today, and the Senate is expected to pass Thursday, Pres. Bush's tax cut bill. Middle-income households are expected to get an average tax cut of $20. But 0.02 percent of households (2 out of 10,000) will receive average tax cuts of $42,000.

At the same time, the national debt is baloonning, putting Social Security and Medicare at risk.

Poor having more unwanted pregnancies

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12636318/
Poor women in the U.S. are having more unwanted pregnancies. State and federal programs have increasingly focused on abstinence rather than contraception. Many social conservatives say woman should refrain from sexual intercourse until she is ready to have a child. So it's not enough to be poor and unable to afford many kinds of entertainment or activities, and stressed out because you don't have enough money for your expenses. Poor women are supposed to give up sex, unless they are ready to have a child.

Poor people are human beings. They have a need for closeness with a romantic partner. They have normal physical urges, which have to be strong enough, in enough people, to ensure that people procreate, or else the human race would die out.

Over the years, I have observed that conservatives seem to consider poor people as machines, here to serve the better-off. At the same time they criticize poor people for not being superior to those better off. Eg., they shouldn't spend money to buy a TV. Well, they can't afford to go to the movies, unless they live close enough to walk to a $.99 second-run theater, or can take the bus there. They can't afford to go to concerts or to travel. It seems they should spend their free time staring at the walls. Oh, I forgot. Conservatives don't think they should have free time. They should be working two jobs. The actuality is that even if a person is capable of working two jobs while staying healthty, and doesn't have any children or elderly who need care, many low-wage jobs have erratic hours. The workers find out by looking at the schedule whether they are supposed to work the next day, and what time. If they don't come, they may be fired or suspended. Besides, they are living beings. It is wrong to expect them to live in misery, in order to make others more comfortable.

Fill 'er up with Day-gas

The AJC this past weekend had a small column about a series of comments in the Vent section.
It started with the charming claim : "My grandson is more beautiful than a Degas pastel."
It culminated with the comment : "It takes so much Monet to buy Degas to make da van Gogh, one fill-up and you're baroque.

Americans sicker than British

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060502174532.htm
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5377794
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12595624/

A recent study shows that white, middle-aged Americans are much sicker (on average) than their counterparts in Britain.
Although researchers included as possible factors more stress in the U.S. from job insecurity, longer hours on the job, and fewer vacation days, not mentioned was the amount of sleep citizens get in each country. It would not be unexpected that the longer hours and more days of work in the U.S. are resulting in less sleep. Previous studies have shown that the average U.S. citizen does not get enough sleep. Since insufficient sleep lowers the immune system, increases the likelihood of obesity because of effects on hormones (a non-instinctive result), and increases the risk of death from all causes, if we get less sleep than the British, that should explain part of the difference.

Pesticides in cotton

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060501232015.htm

Bt (Biotech) cotton has been genetically engineered to contain Bt toxin, a naturally occuring insecticide. The good news is that farmers need fewer chemical insecticides, and insect diversity is not affected, when compared with conventional cotton. I noticed that although evaluations included uncultivated fields beside the cotton fields, this article did not mention how the uncultivated fields compared with the cotton fields in terms of biodiversity.
A factor of concern is the effect of the Bt or other insecticides on humans. In the past, cotton has not been subjected to the same restraints on the use of pesticides as food crops, despite the fact that cottonseed oil is widely used in processed foods. Many pesticides are fat-soluble. Since the current administration has repeatedly decreased standards for public health in favor of business profits, I doubt that this has changed for the better.

Another aspect not mentioned in this article is that insects have been evolving resistance to pesticides. Bt is unlikely to be an exception. Breeding it into cotton seems likely to hasten the development of resistance.

Also ignored is the likelyhood that the Bt cotton will interbreed with other wild and domesticated crops. Since it confers protection to some insects, I would expect the spread of the Bt genes to spread rapidly in plants, at least until insets gain resistance. This should result in resistance developing even more quickly.

If the Bt genes do spread to other plants, what will be the effects on human and animal health?

Motivation to change job

One of the Austrlians trapped in a mine has resigned since being underground, and asked for a newspaper to look for a new job.
Can't blame him.

Daylight Saving Time

I don't know anybody who likes daylight savings time (DST). But it has been coming earlier and ending later for several years. In fact, it has been decreed that next year it will begin 3 weeks earlier, and will end later. The excuse is saving energy. Now, I care deeply about our environment, upon which our very lives depend, as well as the economy. But I am not persuaded that DST helps us in that respect. What are the effects.
1) People are likely to stay up later, getting even less sleep.
2) More people will be driving home from work in the heat of the day, with all there individual car air conditioners on, lowering gas milage, and increasing smog levels.
3) This is the one I suspect is the real reason for this increase in DST.People will be more likely to go to the store and recreational aread and spend money.

Now, this is supposed to be a democracy, but we have never been offered a chance to vote on this matter. Looking at how our leaders have been delaying and blocking solutions to our environmental problems for the sake of profits for big business, it is ludicrous to believe them when they say DST is for the good of the environment.

Claims about capital gains

The Bush administration cut capital gains taxes. The excuse is that the cuts will supposedly make people more likely to invest in companies, which will be good for the economy. This argument was mentioned this morning on NPR. What supporters ignore is that most people who buy stock do not buy them from the company. They buy stock from other individuals. The stock was probably issued by the company years ago. So you're not helping the company any by buying its stock. However, you might be helping the company officers who have large stock options.

Atlanta Driving

Atlanta Driving
copyright Patricia M. Shannon 2000
(all of this is true)

(chorus)
Driving on Atlanta's highways
can make me feel I've gone to hell.
Well, the reason is not hard to tell you,
pollution's killed off their brain cells.

(verse)
When I'm driving the speed limit
the car behind me will pass and pull in front;
right away he'll start to slow down,
because to turn is what he wants.

But when I signal, then I slow down,
because a turn I want to take,
if he's behind me, he will hold his horn down,
he thinks the world is only made for his own sake.

(chorus)

For many miles I've been in a straight-ahead lane,
with many miles before I get to my next turn,
when suddenly this lane is now an exit,
with no warning that I could discern!

When I exit from the freeway,
the lane I choose has a stright arrow on the road,
but when I get down to the intersection,
this lane will only turn the way that I don't want to go.

(spoken)
I really can't believe it costs all than much to paint a bent arrow than a stright one.

(chorus)

When my road, merging with another,
puts me in the left lane where I don't want to be,
the car behind will tail-gate 'til a space comes,
then cut me off so he can get in front of me.

(spoken)
And yes, I had my turn signal on.

(verse)
When I wait for a pedestrian,
or stop for a traffic light that's just turned red,
the car behind will start to honking,
are these people really so imbred?

(chorus)

Asteroids vs. Lottery

Scientists and mathematicians will point out that the probablity of winning the lottery is less than that of getting hit by an asteroid, and therefore it is irrational to buy lottery tickets. They base the figures on the probability that a given person will win the lottery or will be killed by and asteroid. Well, I can't deny the odds of winning the lottery are so low, it is not really raional to buy them; I also admit I buy one about once a week.

However, the scientists ignore some basic facts. The odds that any particular person (this means you) will win the lottery tomorrow are extremely low. However, the odds are 100 percent that SOMEONE will win the lottery, if not tomorrow, then in the near future. Whereas the odds that an asteroid will kill ANYBODY in the near future is very low. So I would argue it makes more sense to buy a lottery ticket than to buy insurance against getting hit by an asteroid.

However, in the long run, the odds are probably 100 percent that the earth will eventually be hit by an asteroid big enough to devastate life on earth, unless we develop means to detect and prevent this from happening. I wish I were more optimistic that our civilization will last long enough to do so; looking at the past history of human behaviour, and our current actions, I fear we are in the process of self-destructing. Society has gone in cycles of progress and decay many times, but what makes thing different now is our technology, and what we are doing with it.

U.S. Flag

Last year when I was working at a booth at the County Fair, we were giving out small U.S. flags to those who wanted them. One lady said she would have liked one, but she avoided getting flags because she was worried about what to do with them when they were worn out! It is pitiful that the right-wing has people so scared that they are afraid to fly the flag for such a reason!
I used to get tears in my eyes over the flag, but the right-wing extremists have spoiled it for me, making the flag more into a symbol of their mean hatefulness than what it should be, a symbol of my beloved country. To seek to put people in prison because they mistreat the flag is immature. It just gives the protestors attention, which is what they want. Just ignore them. What actual harm are they doing to our country, other than a little air pollution, which is nothing compare to our cars. My pets know the difference between a picture of a steak and the actual thing. It seems that the extreme right-wingers don't.

Saving gasoline

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12502313/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12517107/

I have found a way to lower gas milage that I haven't seen elsewhere, at least not the specifics. Articles on reducing gas milage do recommend avoiding carrying heavy items around in the car on a continuing basis. But nobody else points out that gasoline is heavy. If you've ever run out of gas on the highway and had to carry a can of gas back to your car, you already know this!
Several years ago, I kept track of my gas milage when I filled up the tank every time I got gas, and then when I filled up about half-way each time. I got a noticable improvement when I only filled up half way. This should be no surprise, because the heavier your car, the more energy, i.e. gas, it takes to move it. Now I can understand that people might not have thought about it. Who has time to think about every conceivable aspect of the universe? But what I don't understand is people who say it can't be so. It's just simple physics and common sense. If someone doesn't believe it, it's easy to check it out.

"Earning" your way into music business

At songwriting forums, I have heard people in the music industry express the belief that songwriters should have to earn the right for their songs to be heard by writing a quantity of songs, over a period of time. This is an example of one of the problems with the music industry, why there is so much discontent by the public over what is available. A song is good or not good irregardless of how many other songs the writer wrote. If someone loves music, I would expect them to want a great song to be heard, even if it is the only song the writer ever wrote. Some of my favorite songs, which were great hits, were "one-hit wonders." I never heard anybody say that "To Kill a Mockingbird" should not be published because Harper Lee has chosen not to write anymore books, or at least not to publish any. The idea is ridiculous.

Of course, the problem is that the music business today is not being run by people who have a burning desire to bring great music to the public, but by business people whose burning desire is to make money. Of course, they have to make money to stay in business, but they are apparently lacking the ability to make the emotional connection to music that is necessary to choose great music.

Official secrets

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12466719/site/newsweek/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12187153

A former CIA officer has been reported to have been fired for allegedly telling a reporter about alleged CIA secret detention operations in Eastern Europe.
Bush claims he wants to bring democracy to other countries, but he doesn't seem to want it in our own country. Why is the government sending people to be tortured in other countries, and hiding it from us? How can we have a democracy if we don't know what the government is doing? It seems to me that if the administration is doing this, and there is some evidence for it, that it is the duty of those who know to reveal it.
At the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, it was ruled that obedience was not a defense. In the U.S. military, it is illegal for soldiers to obey illegal orders. But I forgot; according to Bush, whatever he does is legal, because he is the president. If he decides it to be necessary to do away with elections altogether for the good of the country, I guess that would be ok - not. Of course, he stole the election in 2000, and there is evidence it was stolen in 2004, in Ohio, so he didn't have to do away with elections in order to ensure that he would become president, without having to worry about being democratically elected by the citizens of the U.S.
It is especially hypocritical to the max for Bush to criticize others for leaking classified information. To authorize the leaking of the name of a CIA agent because her husband disagreed with Bush is an act of treason, in my opinion.

An effect of the "dumb" gene?

Somebody has come up with the idea of putting anti-virals into a wide variety of common items, such as doorknobs. Because of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, which kill bacteria but do not fight viruses, we have already caused the rise of dangerous bacteria that are mostly resistant to all known bacteria. People are dying from these bacteria. We don't have very many anti-virals. So now, somebody wants to make sure we create the conditions where the few anti-virals we have become useless. Is this a case of absolute stupidity, or of sociopaths for whom monetary gain is more important than the future of the human race? Or maybe its an example of someone who got his/her credentials by cheating. Eg., wealthy parents have been known to pay bright students to take college entrance exams in place of their own less bright children.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060417124050.htm

Wy do humans preserve "dumb" gene?

Recently, I read of genetic mutation that causes slower response times in a large variety of organisms. It was noted that this mutation was quickly cleared from the gene pool of all organisms except humans. Also, it was found that in people who have this mutation, the average IQ was lowered, although no effect on the IQ of an individual could be predicted. So why don't humans clear this mutation from our gene pool? I would guess that there are multiple reasons.

I would say that one obvious reason has to be that, at least in modern times, men prefer women who are less intelligence than themselves.

Another likely factor is that more intelligent people of both genders tend to have fewer children.

Also, it is probably desirable for complex human societies to have people of a variety of capabilities, because different jobs require different skills. In fact, one study found that people of average intelligence make the best drivers. Those with lower IQs had slower response times, causing them to be less able to avoid accidents. Those with higher IQs got bored, and were not able to maintain a focus on driving.

Maybe people with this mutation are less impulsive, and therefore less likely to get into fights, etc.

Maybe this mutation has a positive effect of some kind when paired with other genes.

I hope more is discovered about this during my life-time, as it really arouses my curiosity.

Why have young people lost interest in IT jobs?

It really is hard to understand why fewer young people are going into Information Technology (IT), or Computer Science (CS), or whatever they decide to call it next. Who wouldn't be eager to major in a subject for which it will be hard to get the first job, because they don't have experience. Then, if and when they finally do get an IT job, they will become obsolete every three years unless they are lucky enough to work for an employee who adopts the newest technology and allows them to work on it. If they take courses in the new technology, it doesn't help to get a new job, if one is needed or desired, because employers only want people with several years experience in that specific technology. Then when they get to be 40 years old, it gets increasingly difficult to find work in IT. If you're in your 50's, you may end up working at Waffle House, as a teacher's aide, on the floor of Home Depot (real life examples). There was a loss of 400,000 IT jobs between 2001 and 2004.
And business "persuaded" (aka bribed) Congress to change the overtime laws so they don't cover most IT professionals, so that they are often required to work 50-60 hours a week for a salary with no Overtime. Golly, who wouldn't jump at such a job.

Is this what we want our country to be?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12354291/

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from two Chinese Muslims who were mistakenly captured as enemy combatants more than four years ago and are still being held at the U.S. prison in Cuba.
a federal judge said the detention of the ethnic Uighurs in Guantanamo Bay is unlawful, but that there was nothing federal courts could do.
Lawyers for the two contend they should be released, something the Bush administration opposes, unless they can go to a country other than the United States.
They cannot be returned to China because they likely will be tortured or killed.
German officials are being pressed to take them, according to a report over the weekend in a newspaper there.

brain hijacked by parasites?

You may have noticed the phenomenon that sometimes, right before getting sick, one has a burst of energy. I had thought it might be the bodies way of preparing for downtime; esp., getting well fed. (Talking to others, they had the same thought).
However, after learning of the effects of certain parasites on their host's behaviour, I see another possibility. Eg., there is a parasite that that infects worms or catapillars, and causes them to climb to the top of grass stems, where they are more likely to be eaten by cattle, which are required for the completion of the parasite's life cycle. There is a parasite of mice that causes them to be attracted to cats, for the same reason.
So when we get that burst of energy just before getting sick, maybe it's the germs' way of keeping us up and about while we spread them to others. And/or maybe it's their way of getting us to get well-nourished so that they will benefit.

blood shortage and conservatives

I read recently that conservatives are having more children than liberals. We can see the results in the continually low supplies of blood. From my experience of company blood drives, conservatives rarely give blood. I am 5 feet tall, weigh just enough to give blood (a little over 110 lb), have a low threshhold of pain, and have given blood at least 8 times, and plan to give more. When I have been able to persuade/shame tall, healthy conservaties to give blood, the poor things are absolutely traumatized afterwards. But these wimps are eager to send other people to war and inflict torture on others.

Addiction?

I have heard some people think lip balm is addictive, that one's body comes to be dependent on it. That is a feasible idea. Our bodies adapt to conditions. But also, if you have been using lip balm, it's probably because you had dry lips in the first place. If you stop using it, there's no reason to think you won't still have dry lips. We would need a controlled, scientific study to determine the facts of the matter. Now, I don't consider this to be important enough for a scientific study, I'm just raising the issue because it's a simple, easily understood situation that shows our first instincts about a matter may be wrong.

return to New Orleans?

I can fully understand why people who fled the flooding of New Orleans long to return to their homes. But is that necessarily the best thing for them? The poor miss the support of their social networks, of course. But there is also the problem that people, especially children, living in a neighborhood where everybody is poor, learn to be poor. New Orleans had a low average standard of living before the storm. Some people might be better off in the long run in a more prosperous area, where they can get better-paying jobs. I realize hypothesizing about a possibly better future doesn't help people who are grieving over their losses now. I myself had to relocate, leaving my friends, in order to find work awhile back. lost my house to repossession when I couldn't find a job several years ago. I hope for the best for the victims of Katrina and Rita.

Cut project time in half

If you think you can cut the project time in half by doubling the number of people working on it, then I expect you believe that two pregnant women can give birth to a full-term baby in 4 1/2 months. :-)

Euthanasia

Some people are trying to block legal, voluntary euthanasia. Some disabled say it sends the message that they are disposable. I really disagree. The reason I support voluntary euthanasia for some people is that it would give them power. I dread the possible that I might be in great suffering, but not have the means to escape - to be powerless over my own fate. I have seen my grandfather and mother die from lung disease (caused by smoking), suffering for years. Since I had bronchitis years ago, I know how horrible it is not to be able to get enough oxygen. My grandmother died from cancer. She chose to end her suffering by stopping eating. I really don't see starving oneselves to death to be preferable to euthanasia.

PMS tea

I recently saw mention of still another study of the causes of PMS; I expect it's sponsored by a drug company hoping to make big profits. This is a big problem. When I had this problem, besides the bad mood and bodily discomfort caused by water retention, it felt like my brain was bloated, which evidently it was. Natural food people have known for years that PMS can be treated with herbal diuretics, which cause the body to get rid of fluid. There is even an herbal "PMS tea". Also, there are pills with herbal extracts. They are inexpensive, and they work. So it seems to me that scientists' time could be better spent on other matters.

When does soul begin?

Some say the soul begins when a cell is fertilized. But what about identical twins, Siamese twins, and chimera?

Of course, identical twins and Siamese twins start out as a single fertilized cell. So, according to this theory, they start out with a single soul. But surely each identical twin has its own soul. (I'm using "its" to avoid boring repetitions of his/her).

Chimera start out as fraternal twins whose cells merge, so that the person has cells that originated from two separate fertilized eggs. So, there are two souls to start out with, for what turns out to be a single individual.

Siamese twins start out as a single fertilized cell, which goes part-way to being identical twins. There may be two mostly separate bodies sharing a small band of tissues or sharing major organs. There might be mostly one body with one head and more than two arms. And various other combinations. Are there one or two souls?

It should be possible for a chimera to end up being Siamese or semi-identical twins, but I think we already have enough options to show the problems.

My feeling is that there is a soul for each distinct brain. I wonder what other people might think/feel.

The beginning of the end?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/06/030609011959.htm

I have long believed that we are likely to develop technology, or technologies, that will accidentally cause our own extinction, as well as those of other species. I would say we are already on the way, if you look at such things as decreasing sperm counts in men, and increasing rates of childhood cancer. We are continually putting increased amounts and kinds of pollution into our environment, many of which take decades, even hundreds of years to break down. Combinations of some chemicals can have a far greater effect than would be predicted from their individual actions.

Scientist are currently developing a kind of antibiotic that could do the job fairly quickly. If it gets into widespread use, and bacteria develop a resistance to it, as they have to all other antibiotics, they would also be immune to our own bodies' defences against bacteria. It is claimed that bacteria will be unable to develop resistance to them; of course, our technology always produces side effects we didn't foresee. They say they will test that bacteria will not be able to develop resistance before they put it into widespread use. But how can they guarantee that the bacteria will not eventually do so?

If we manage to survive direct effects from our own technology, I believe they might still be our downfall. I expect that we will eventually develop a dependency on technology for our survival. Eg., the antibiotics such as the ones mentioned above. Actually, we have already started doing so. Over a long period of time, human bodies will become less able to defend themselves against bacteria. When mutations occur that weaken our immunity, those that have them do not die because they are treated with antibiotics. So, the genes will continue in the gene pool. Many women may need artificial hormones to conceive and carry a child to term. Our bodies will become weaker because of dependency on machines, etc. There will come a catastrophe, such as severe global warming, or a hit by an asteroid, that might not kill everybody, but would devastate the planet so much that we might lose the technologies on which we have become dependent for our existence. The combination might well do us in. Societies in the past have lost knowledge of technologies. How many of us know how to mine ore, and do all the steps necessary even to make a simple ax, much less something like a car? But there will always be those who tell us, for the sake of short-term profits and convenience, that we needn't worry about such things until they have been proven without an eyelash of doubt. Of course, by then, it will be too late.

The existence of our species, with its ability to understand the world, and appreciate the wonder of the universe, is wonderful. But, since we seem to be unwilling or unable to refrain from devastating our environment, on which we depend, I guess we have to accept that if we cause our own extinction, we will have proved that we did not deserve to continue.

effects of immigrants on the poor

NPR had an interview with international economic advisor Adam Davidson on the effect of large numbers of legal immigrants on the U.S. economy. He argued that they don't hurt the economy because they things they buy creates enough new jobs to offset the number that they take, and they keep prices low. He claims that low-wage workers are not hurt. He totally ignored the fact that there are so many immigrants from Mexico, that many low-wage jobs, and the low-level management jobs, now require employees to be bi-lingual in English and Spanish. This makes it harder for most low-skilled U.S. born citizens to get ahead.
Also, he said that the "average" citizen benefits about 1% from illegal immigrants, because they hold prices down. This sounds like all those other defenders of the current economy who talk about the economic situation of the "average" American, when they are really talking about the average for all Americans. The very small upper class is doing so well, it distorts the economic statistics.

My Computer Has a Mind of Its Own

My Computer Has a Mind of its Own
copyright Patricia M. Shannon 1998
(Can be sung to the tune : My Heart Has a Mind of its Own,
sung by Connie Francis)

I said to my PC, You are so mean to me,
why did you lose the file that my boss wants right now to see?
I try to type in “GO”, but my machine says “NO”!
Guess my computer has a mind of its own.

I never thought I’d be in abject slavery
to a glass and metal box on my desktop.

My deadline is past due; all my machine will do
is tell me “System Error SJ19342”.
I can’t save my spreadsheet, must Control-Alt-Delete.

Guess my computer has a mind of its own.
Yes, my computer has a mind of its own.