Brain Rage, Unplugged

Sincerest apologies for the lack of posting over the past several days. I've been taking a much needed self-imposed sabbatical from the Internets and reading these weird old paper things called "books". Apparently they used to be all the rage back in the day, although I can't figure out how they became so popular without an RSS feed. So, is the BP oil well still... It is? Fuck.

Something Someone Else Said

"Of all the lessons we can learn from the BP fiasco, the simplest, and the first we should apply to offshore-drilling laws, is this: Don't open any holes you can't close. If the well site is too deep for humans to reach, drill a simultaneous relief well so you can plug a blowout promptly. If a relief well is too expensive, don't drill at all. Or you can keep robots on hand to shut down leaks. But they'll have to be better robots than the ones we're now watching.

Today's laws don't come anywhere near this standard." -William Saletan, Slate.com.

Amen. Now if someone could just tell me how we get laws passed that adequately regulate the multi-billion dollar industries that are legally allowed to contribute virtually unlimited amounts of money to the campaign coffers of the greedy, power-hungry politicians who would ostensibly be passing those improved future laws, I'm all ears. Giving money to a politician isn't always a form of free speech; sometimes it's just a bribe.

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Picture Of The Day

This is really starting to depress me. Might even drive a man to drink.

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Something Someone Else Said

"BP wants Twitter to shut down a fake BP account that is mocking the oil company. In response, Twitter wants BP to shut down the oil leak that’s ruining the ocean." -Jimmy Fallon, Late Night.

I find the recent Republican attempts to label the Gulf oil spill "Obama's Katrina" to be both desperate and laughable. The Bush administration had an entire agency in place expressly charged with responding to Katrina-like disasters but because they decided that FEMA wasn't very important that response came all too late and was far too incompetent. That same administration decided that government regulation of private industry wasn't very important either, thus allowing companies like BP to take the risks and cut the corners that have led to this current disaster.

As far as I can tell President Obama has done everything he could have done to remedy this situation thus far, which unfortunately is realistically very little. I find it a bit ironic that the same critics who decried his partial takeover of the banking and auto industries as "socialism" are now screaming for him to take over BP, as if that company doesn't have ample incentive to fix the leak as quickly as possible themselves. One of the differences between this situation and Katrina is that the government is neither equipped to nor capable of stopping this disaster and no amount of management or "owning the spill" on Obama's part could have changed that. The federal government is not in the business of drilling for oil a mile beneath the ocean's surface or fixing any leaks caused by that drilling, and nor should it be. What it should be in the business of doing is regulating the private companies that are and that is where it failed.

The oil spill in the Gulf is BP's mess: they own it and they are going to have to clean it up. Enabling the spill should have been the Bush administration's mess but now, as with so many others, they've left it for Obama to clean up instead. I would imagine that he's getting pretty tired of this shit by now; I know I am.

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Something Someone Else Said

"I bought some BP stock recently because I liked the odds that the top engineers and scientists in the solar system, with unlimited funding, presumably somewhat freed from management meddling, could plug a hole...I also assumed that the liberal media's coverage of the oil damage would depress the stock more than necessary. It's a catastrophe, no doubt, but even catastrophes have levels. I'm betting the financial damage will be very, very, very bad and not very, very, very, very bad.

This is also a test of my theory that you should buy stocks in the companies that you hate the most. In general, you hate the companies that have the most power. And BP is the frickin' Death Star of companies. They're in the process of destroying an entire region of the world and there's still no talk of cutting their next dividend. I admire them in the same way I admire the work ethic of serial killers. There's an undeniable awesomeness about BP. I hate BP, but I still want to have their baby." -Scott Adams, The Scott Adams Blog.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this world view. Sure, it makes sense from an economic stand point and I have nothing against capitalistic investment but there's a part of me that finds the whole thing just a bit too distasteful. I too admire the work ethic of serial killers but I'm not going to invest in and encourage their success killing people. Ethics matter in a civilized society, or at least they should.

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Live Tracking The BP Gulf Oil Leak

Well this is certainly depressing yet I can't help remarking about how cool it is that we can watch an ecological disaster happening a mile beneath the ocean in real time:


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Something Reality-Based Someone Else Said

"We don't have the authority here in Arizona to turn off the lights." -Gary Pierce of the Arizona Corporation Commission, Your World with Neil Cavuto, on the mistaken notion that some on the political right have that a letter he wrote to Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was some type of threat to cut power to that city over its stated boycott of Arizona because of its new anti-immigration law (L.A. receives 25% of its electricity from power plants in Arizona).

"So why are you and I even talking then?" -Neil Cavuto, Your World with Neil Cavuto, on learning this apparently obvious fact on live television right after blithely asking Pierce, "What's the trigger point at which you turn off the lights?" whilst running a news banner that read "AZ THREATENS TO CUT OFF LA'S POWER OVER ECONOMIC BOYCOTT".

Of course, no one has ever accused FOX News of doing too much research for their "news" segments, have they?

Picture Of The Day

Spill, baby, spill. Weak, dude.

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President Obama's State Of The Union Address

So I watched the State of the Union speech last night (you can watch/read it here) and yes, I do have a few thoughts. All in all I found it a pretty good, not great, but pretty good speech and while it was one of the longer States of the Union in a decade I thought that it encompassed pretty much everything it had to without plodding along (although the average non-political junkie might take exception to that statement). Most importantly though, it was a challenge to the American people as well as the recently ineffectual Democratic party to not back down in the face of economic and political adversity.

As always, Obama combined soaring oratory with conversational rhetoric and I thought that he appeared quite presidential as he used both to easily convey his ideas to the American people in a frank, almost informal, manner. He once again enumerated the myriad problems that his administration has inherited from the last one (this will most likely be labeled as petty or partisan by some talking heads but recent news cycles have shown that many folks are already beginning to forget these things) before quickly moving on to the main topic of the economy.

He started out by commiserating with Americans about their collective economic woes with a warning that while the worst is behind us there is still much to be done (tedious but necessary) before laying out proposals for business loans, tax credits and the elimination of capital gains taxes for small businesses while at the same time urging the Senate to pass a jobs bill similar to the House bill from last year. He also articulated the need for stronger financial reform of the banking system which was then followed by a call for more investment in clean energy jobs and increases in safe nuclear power, off shore drilling and so-called clean coal technology. I can't tell you how happy it made me to finally hear a Democratic president calling for more and better nuclear power plants; I was less enthusiastic about the off shore drilling and "clean" coal however.

He then noted the need for increased U.S. exporting of goods and making sure that our trading partners and competitors adhere to the rules of current trade agreements in order to make America competitive on the world market once again. Finally, he emphasized that we must increase funding for and accountability of public education, particularly in the areas of math and the sciences, through a national reform competition and tax credits for attending four year colleges. His pronouncement that he does "not accept second-place for the United States of America" on these fronts set an appropriately forceful tone as he then addressed the current health care reform debate in Congress.

He repeated his administrations goals of covering the uninsured, bringing down the deficit and insurance premiums, strengthening Medicare for seniors and reining in insurance company abuses (those of us who have been paying attention have heard these all a thousand times) before stating that he's still open to any serious suggestions about doing so while also asking Congress to "not walk away from reform" when they are so close to changing the status quo of a health care system that has been broken for decades. This is what I was wanting to hear more than anything else last night and while I think that he could have been a little more forceful (don't I always?) I think that his message was quite clear: I've spent the better part of my first year working on this so you wishy-washy bureaucratic pussies need to sack up and get this thing done! That's a little something called leadership and it was nice to see him finally doing it well.

Addressing the deficit Obama again explained that it was necessary to spend money that was added to our debt in order to right the country's financial ship rather than immediately trying to reduce spending, something he would have preferred to do right away. He introduced his plan for a bipartisan fiscal commission charged with reducing the deficit and then stated that since American families are tightening their belts that the federal government should do the same; though why, I have no idea. Yes, his proposed three year spending freeze looks good on a psychological and symbolic level and it's a good jumping off point for serious fiscal responsibility and reforms in the future but I'm still of the opinion that when it comes to the economy we should be listening to the suggestions of actual economists, not public opinion polls from nervous voters unable to balance their own checkbooks.

He then pivoted to the problem of Americans not trusting their government (who do so with ample reason, I might add) by addressing the need for bipartisanship in governing along with lobbying and earmark reform, all of which I won't believe until I see it irregardless of which party is in power. His foreign policy proposals were fairly standard and pretty much hold overs from his campaign: increased vigilance towards al-Qaida and terrorist networks, prohibitions against unlawful torture (although holding certain past administrations accountable for instituting such practices seems to be all but off the table as of late), strengthening our position in Afghanistan, pulling our troops out of Iraq, securing loose nukes from former Soviet republics and keeping up diplomatic pressure against Iran and North Korea. I certainly don't mean to belittle these efforts by calling them campaign hold overs because I do think that Obama is quite sincere on these issues; I'm just saying that we've already heard them all before, as we have his ever eloquent call to embrace the ideals and values that have made America great (but that part is always good to hear and never gets old).

As I said, this was obviously a speech for both the American people and members of the Democratic party but they weren't the only ones Obama was speaking to last night. Just as he did with teachers' unions and black voters during the presidential election, Obama spelled out some hard truths to several groups assembled in the crowd. He admonished Republicans for their callous obstructionism on health care and economic reform who, despite his repeated calls for bipartisan tax relief and energy policies, proceeded to sit on their hands throughout the entire speech whilst glaring like petulant children being scolded by an angry father. He was met with similarly dissenting scowls from conservative Supreme Court justices and the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he decried the recent ruling allowing corporations unfettered access to politicians and media through increased campaign contributions and pledged to end the military policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" towards homosexuals, respectively. And on a totally unrelated style note, I was also quite happy that he forwent the relatively recent practice of presidents sprinkling various ringers throughout the audience to refer to during their speeches; it just always seemed like such awkward and obvious political theatre to me and it wasn't missed at all.

This was a speech of intelligence, wit, honesty and serious truths that the American people, and especially our politicians, needed to hear from our president. Obama stood before the nation and reminded us of why we elected him to lead us through these tough times. I do fully expect his continued calls for bipartisanship to fall upon deaf Republican ears but that will of course come as no big surprise; what I really hope to see emerge as a result of this speech is a renewed spirit of perseverance and strength on behalf of the Democratic party. Obama needed to come up with a strong State of the Union address last night and he delivered, but I never really had any concerns on that account. As always, it's what he does best. We must now wait to see if he convinced Congress to similarly deliver on the various proposals he's laid out for the nation. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't cynical about his chances but I also must admit that I now have a bit more optimism towards that end as well. Let's just hope that it's warranted.

Illustrating Gravity Wells

A comment by regular reader oneLbill yesterday about shooting our collective waste into space as a (tongue in cheek, I assume) strategy for dealing with some of our environmental problems reminded me of this chart I saw last week illustrating the respective gravity wells for the major celestial bodies in our solar system. I just like the simple layout and the easy to understand way in which it explains the science (you'll have to enlarge to read it).

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Frog Leg Dance

This is a bit creepy:


Apparently since the legs are fresh all of the cells in them are still intact and the biochemical machinery is still working. The unused ATP molecules in the cells act as a source of energy for the muscles and because the salt contains sodium ions it creates a voltage difference as the ions cross the nerve cell membrane. This voltage difference duplicates the effect of nerve impulses from the brain, causing the muscles to contract and relax. Still creepy though...

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It's Raining Polar Bears

I'm all for reducing our collective carbon footprint and I question the science behind the declarative statements but this is a bit jarring, even for me:

Brief: We wanted to confront people with the impact that short-haul flights have on the climate. We used Polar Bears because they're a well understood symbol of the effect that climate change is having on the natural world.

This is not for the faint of heart (although it's obviously totally CG). Fair warning:

Female Saudi Journalist Sentenced to 60 Lashes

Religious sexual repression is always ugly but this is particularly disgusting:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A Saudi court on Saturday convicted a female journalist for her involvement in a TV show, in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, and sentenced her to 60 lashes.

Rozanna al-Yami is believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to be given such a punishment. The charges against her included involvement in the preparation of the program and advertising the segment on the Internet.

That's right, all she did was help to prepare a program in which someone else talked about sex (those guys were also convicted of discussing sex publicly and sentenced to two years imprisonment and 300 lashes each). I have a hard time believing that we'd put up with this kind of ignorant bullshit if these people didn't live on a massive oil reserve.

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The Big Bang, Briefly Explained

This extraordinarily powerful scientific event is one of the primary reasons you're even reading this post right now so please take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with one of the most incredible natural occurrences to ever impact our fairly insignificant existence:


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Single Molecule Phtographed For The First Time

Some historic close-up photography:

It may look like a piece of honeycomb, but this lattice-shaped image is the first ever close-up view of a single molecule.

Scientists from IBM used an atomic force microscope (AFM) to reveal the chemical bonds within a molecule.

'This is the first time that all the atoms in a molecule have been imaged,' lead researcher Leo Gross said.

The researchers focused on a single molecule of pentacene, which is commonly used in solar cells. The rectangular-shaped organic molecule is made up of 22 carbon atoms and 14 hydrogen atoms.

In the image above the hexagonal shapes of the five carbon rings are clear and even the positions of the hydrogen atoms around the carbon rings can be seen.

To give some perspective, the space between the carbon rings is only 0.14 nanometers across, which is roughly one million times smaller than the diameter of a grain of sand.

Cool, but pentacene? It's a b-list molecule at best. Show me some Buckminsterfullerenes and I'll really be impressed.

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TDS: Cap'n Trade

Jon Stewart gives one of the most concise examples I've heard yet for why the United States government sucks so much ass so much of the time:

Picture Of The Day

An array of cutting-edge solar collectors in Albuquerque, New Mexico (click picture to enlarge):

Stirling Energy Systems (SES) and Tessera Solar recently unveiled four newly designed solar power collection dishes at Sandia National Laboratories’ National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF). Called SunCatchers™, the new dishes have a refined design that will be used in commercial-scale deployments of the units beginning in 2010.

“The four new dishes are the next-generation model of the original SunCatcher system. Six first-generation SunCatchers built over the past several years at the NSTTF have been producing up to 150KW [kilowatts] of grid-ready electrical power during the day,” says Chuck Andraka, the lead Sandia project engineer...

The modular CSP SunCatcher uses precision mirrors attached to a parabolic dish to focus the sun’s rays onto a receiver, which transmits the heat to a Stirling engine. The engine is a sealed system filled with hydrogen. As the gas heats and cools, its pressure rises and falls. The change in pressure drives the piston inside the engine, producing mechanical power, which in turn drives a generator and makes electricity.

Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing thinks that the array resembles the works of Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte. I agree but I personally think that it could use some more apples and derby hats as well.

Man Killed By His Own Good Luck Charm

Call me a heartless bastard if you will but I think that stories like this are just hilarious:

Kuala Lumpur - A good-luck talisman worn by a Malaysian man brought him the ultimate misfortune when a lightning bolt struck the copper emblem he wore around his waist and killed him instantly, a news report said Thursday. Champee Kelean, 46, died late Wednesday while he was taking shelter under a shed during a thunderstorm in the northern state of Kedah. The bolt of lightning was believed to have been attracted by the copper talisman he wore for good luck, the Star online news portal said.

It's almost as if luck doesn't even exist and is just something that humans have dreamed up to make themselves feel better about the randomness of their lives and the universe at large, huh? On a completely unrelated topic, I've come up with a fantastic new system for winning at the roulette table...

The Power Of The Moon

I've seen a few trailers for the SXSW, Sundance and Tribeca Film Festival recognized feature film Moon and I love Sam Rockwell so I have to admit that it appears intriguing to me. Here's the newest trailer:

Maher's New Rules

This was a good one. He really has the Republicans' number:


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