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The Science Learning Centre in London asked 11,000 pupils for their views on science and scientists. Around 70% of the 11-15 year olds questioned said they did not picture scientists as “normal young and attractive men and women”. […] Among those who said they would not like to be scientists, reasons included: “Because you would constantly be depressed and tired and not have time for family”, and “because they all wear big glasses and white coats and I am female”.
Stephen Colbert is my new hero. If you read any other blogs, you’ve probably already heard about his performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner. (Video: part 1 2 3, transcript.)
My name is Stephen Colbert and it’s my privilege tonight to celebrate our president. He’s no so different, he and I. We get it. We’re not brainiacs [my correction; the transcript, bizarrely, had ‘brain backs’ — Zed] on the nerd patrol. We’re not members of the factinista. We go straight from the gut, right sir? That’s where the truth lies, right down here in the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. I know some of you are going to say I did look it up, and that’s not true. That’s but you looked it up in a book.
Next time look it up in your gut. I did. […]
Now, I know there’s some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in “reality.” And reality has a well-known liberal bias.
Naturally, the media, with its well-known liberal bias, is… ignoring it.
It’s insane journalism not to write about Colbert’s appearance. It’s the main event. Like it or hate it, it’s the thing to talk about. You have to CHOOSE to focus on the lightweight entertainment that preceded it.
The right wing blogs are saying Colbert bombed, and in some ways that’s not wrong, the gathered audience wanted and expected something lighter - but that’s what makes the appearance so startling. It’s very witty when you read the text; but actuality as Colbert says these things to the President’s face, it’s very uncomfortable. Watching it, It’s like Hamlet forcing King Claudius to watch the play that accuses him of murder. Or it’s like a man asked to be Court Jester who shows up and tells the king exactly what’s wrong with him, and gets out of the building before they can behead him. (Why do I keep having “king” examples, lol. No reason, I’m sure.)
Colbert’s was a brave and shocking performance. And for the media to pretend it isn’t newsworthy is a total bafflement. And a symbol of how shoddy and suspect the media is.
I’d been thinking of sending Colbert fan mail. Someone has set up ThankYouStephenColbert.com expressly for that purpose. 22,000 thank yous and counting.
Max von Pettenkofer was a high roller.
During the early 1850s there were epidemics of cholera and typhoid in Munich which led Pettenkofer to investigate John Snow’s thesis that they were water-borne. The results of his investigation convinced him that the cause lay in the moisture content of the soil which varied with the rise and fall of ground water. Despite his fallacious theories Pettenkofer’s sanitary work improved the health of Munich. He steadfastly refused to believe in the germ theory and is said to have drunk a vial of water contaminated by Vibrio cholerae which was sent to him by Robert Koch, assuring Koch that he remained in his usual good health.
This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day!
Here are some comic book covers you won’t be seeing.
It’s always refreshing to read about some of the up-sides to the corporal punishment of children in slavery. The left-wing media is always spinning it like there’s only bad news.
Buddhia Singh is today the world’s youngest marathon runner. Considered an athletic marvel, this 5-year-old covered the 65 kilometers between the Indian cities of Puri and Bhubaneshwar in Orissa state in just over seven hours to stake his claim in the Limca Book of Records. […] The record feat was accomplished in the scorching Indian summer heat, with temperatures soaring to over 40°C. Slated to run a distance of 70 kilometers, he collapsed from exhaustion at 65 kilometers and had to be rushed to get medical attention, but not before taking his place in history. […]
Born in poverty and deprivation in the slums of Gautam Nagar in Bhubaneshwar City in Orissa state, Buddhia was sold by his helpless mother, Sukanti, for INR 800 (US$17.85) because she could not afford to raise him. She sold him because she could not feed him and now is happy to see his success and popularity.
This ironically proved to be the turning point for Buddhia. His talent, stamina, and indomitable spirit were discovered in the context of corporal punishment. One day, as punishment, Buddhia was asked to run continuously until he gave out. The kid returned after five hours, without any signs of stress or strain. It was then that Buddhia’s talent became evident, his coach, Biranchi Das, recollects.
When your approval rating’s in the toilet, the solution is clear: make sure the Department of Agriculture talks about how great things are going in Iraq in every speech.
Career appointees at the Department of Agriculture were stunned last week to receive e-mailed instructions that include Bush administration “talking points” — saying things such as “President Bush has a clear strategy for victory in Iraq” — in every speech they give for the department.
“The President has requested that all members of his cabinet and sub-cabinet incorporate message points on the Global War on Terror into speeches, including specific examples of what each agency is doing to aid the reconstruction of Iraq,” the May 2 e-mail from USDA speechwriter Heather Vaughn began.
There’s even a PDF with helpful examples.
Several topics I’d like to talk about today — Farm Bill, trade with Japan, WTO, avian flu … but before I do, let me touch on a subject people always ask about … progress in Iraq.
I can’t wait to hear HUD, Interior, and Transportation chime in.
George W. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush: not just a profiteer from illegal investments in a country the U.S. was at war with, but also a grave robber?
The grave of [Geronimo] has long been rumored to have been robbed during World War I by a small group of young military officers that included Prescott Bush, the president’s late grandfather, and other members of Yale University’s secretive Skull and Bones society.
Now a 1918 letter, newly unearthed from Yale archives, offers some intriguing new clues. In it, one Skull and Bones member reports that Geronimo’s skull and other remains had been exhumed and taken to the society’s headquarters, known as The Tomb, in New Haven, Conn. The letter is made public for the first time in the new issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine.
The evidence is pretty weak that Geronimo’s grave was robbed at all, let alone that Prescott Bush had anything to do with it. This part of the story is more disturbing:
Fort Sill records show that Prescott Bush was stationed at the base in 1918. Mr. Bush died in 1972. Fourteen years later, leaders of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, in Arizona, received an anonymous package containing a photo of a skull in a display case, said to have been taken at Skull and Bones headquarters. It also contained what was said to be a society log detailing the night Mr. Bush and his cohorts allegedly dug up the remains. The society has not publicly confirmed or disputed the accuracy of the documents.
Mr. Thompson says he and other San Carlos Apache leaders flew to New York several times in 1986 to talk with Jonathan Bush and other Skull and Bones members about getting the remains back. Mr. Thompson says that, at their last meeting, Skull and Bones representatives brought a skull and offered to let the Apaches have it if they would sign a paper promising not to discuss the matter publicly.
Tribal leaders refused because, among other things, the skull appeared too small to be a grown man’s. Even so, Mr. Thompson says, he was shaken emotionally for months afterward. “It was not an old man’s skull but it was there in front of me and it was somebody’s and they dug it up somewhere,” he recalls. “I didn’t touch it.”
This bird-brain is pretty smart.
The bird, a captive African grey called N’kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour. […] He uses words in context, with past, present and future tenses, and is often inventive.
One N’kisi-ism was “flied” for “flew”, and another “pretty smell medicine” to describe the aromatherapy oils used by his owner, an artist based in New York.
When he first met Dr Jane Goodall, the renowned chimpanzee expert, after seeing her in a picture with apes, N’kisi said: “Got a chimp?”
He appears to fancy himself as a humourist. When another parrot hung upside down from its perch, he commented: “You got to put this bird on the camera.”
DUN dun DUN DUN dun dun DUN DUN dun dun DUN DUN dun dun dun dun DEEDADOO DEEDADOO DEEDADOO dun DUN!
A newspaper promotion for Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible III” movie was off to an explosive start when a California arson squad blew up a news rack, thinking it contained a bomb. The confusion: the Los Angeles Times rack was fitted with a digital musical device designed to play the Mission: Impossible theme song when the door was opened. But in some cases, the red plastic boxes with protruding wires were jarred loose and dropped onto the stack of newspapers inside, alarming customers.
Battle cry for the 21st century:
Screw you, info-glut! I’m not going to be the responsible info-citizen I’m expected to info-be anymore. If I get to it, I get to it. If I don’t, well, then it couldn’t have been very important in the first place. I suspect that burning children and drowning buildings will still get the attention they need. But the year-old e-mails that are stinking up the bottom of my in-box? The month-old “Daily Shows”? The three dozen Waxy Links that I’ve flagged and sorted and pinned to a corkboard for further study some day? Gone. And good riddance.
You’re on notice, Entirety of Human Knowledge. You get a week. If you can’t get my attention in that time — and it’s plenty of time — then you’re tossed, junked, thrown away and forgotten.
Call me back if it’s important.
I’ve been getting hammered by online blackjack comment spam — I’ve been deleting dozens a day. For now, I’ve turned on requiring a typekey login to comment.
I hate raising the barrier to comment. I’ll look into alternatives shortly.
I have no word on whether there is still a man-eating sea lion on the loose at the Berkeley Marina.
I’ve actually seen a couple of current movies. I really enjoyed the first ten minutes of Art School Confidential, with its entertainingly mean caricatures of art school students. Then it went into a predictable crime plot, with a lame romantic sub-plot. I was ultimately disappointed.
The Notorious Bettie Page is a bio-pic of, um, Bettie Page. Spoilers below the virtual fold.
At the end of this year, the UK will pay off the last of its post WW II debt to the U.S.
If it seems strange to the non-economist that WWII debts are still knocking around after 60 years, there are debts that predate the Napoleonic wars. Dr Leunig says the government is still paying out on these “consol” bonds, because it is better value for taxpayers to keep paying the 2.5% interest than to buy back the bonds.
And while the UK dutifully pays off its World War II debts, those from World War I remain resolutely unpaid. And are by no means trifling. In 1934, Britain owed the US $4.4bn of World War I debt (about £866m at 1934 exchange rates). Adjusted by the Retail Price Index, a typical measure of inflation, £866m would equate to £40bn now, and if adjusted by the growth of GDP, to about £225bn.
Witches are not good enough to pick up trash.
The Silvermoon Pagan Wicca Group, through the state’s Adopt-A-Highway program, recently sponsored the stretch of road in Gastonia. At the head of the group is Kym Miller, a self-proclaimed witch who owns the Witch’s Brew Café in Lincolnton. […]
Many Gastonia residents have their objections. “I’m not for it if it’s got anything to do with witchcraft,” resident Mildred Bumgardner said.
Resident Cody Sams said, “They should change the name or something.” […]
“They’re just trying to get into our communities with that type of thing,” [Bumgardner] said.
Meanwhile, Boy Scout leader says: Liars yes, honest Wiccans no.
The leader [of a Boy Scout Camp] in a room of about 20 Scouts decides to break the ice by showing how religiously diverse the gathering is. By a showing of hands, he asks who belongs to the Baptist Church, the Catholic Church, the Methodist Church, continuing on until two boys are left who have not raised their hands. One of the brothers is called out to tell the group what church he attends. He replies, “I’m Wiccan.”
Within 48 hours of Cody’s confession, the troop committee of Holly Grove United Methodist Church in Anacoco was meeting to discuss the implications. […]
“The number one scout law is to do your duty to God and your country,” Troop 71 Scout Master Gene Doherty said. “They met to discuss whether or not the boys could live up to that because of their religion.”
The conclusion was that they could not.
Doherty called Army Cpt. Todd Buchheim, the boys’ father and a former Eagle Scout stationed at Fort Polk, to inform him that the boys no longer were welcome in the troop. The Buchheims said Doherty told them that if Cody had lied about his faith, the boys could have remained with no problem.
The Boy Scout Oath:
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
From said Scout Law:
Trustworthy. A Scout tells the truth. He keeps his promises. Honesty is part of his code of conduct. People can depend on him.
A month later, the decision was overturned and the boys were invited back, but they have declined to rejoin.
I finally got to see a MacBook in person. My crush on it is over. Looks nice; wasn’t wild about the keyboard; it’s too heavy.
Back to lusting over the rumored MacBook Thin. It doesn’t exist yet, so it can’t break my heart.
Sexual size dimorphism and the single octopus:
The male blanket octopus faces a significant gender imbalance — he is just two centimetres long, while the female of the species can measure up to two metres. […] The male blanket octopus is, technically speaking, “the most extreme example of sexual size-dimorphism in a non-microscopic animal … such dimorphism is not seen in any other animal remotely as large”. […] The two-metre female weighs at least 10,000 times as much as the male, sometimes up to 40,000 times as much.
This reproductive arm, known as a hectocotylus, is tucked away in a white spherical pouch between its other arms. When males mate, the pouch ruptures, the penis injects sperm into the tip of the arm, the arm is severed, and passed to the female. It stays there until used to fertilise the female’s eggs, which can be weeks later.
And while the human post-orgasm is sometimes referred to as “the little death”, for the male blanket octopus the term takes on literal meaning. The male dies, but the female carries on, free to have sex with more males. “It’s kamikaze sex, effectively,” said Dr Norman. “They’ve found females with up to six male arms in the gill cavity.”
The word of the day is hectocotylus.
Before the claim that Rove had been indicted was determined to be false, I enjoyed this response.
I bet president Bush will have an empty feeling inside him if the indictment goes through.
You know. In the spot where Rove stuck his hand to make the president talk and move around.
19 penguins and 2 sea otters were returned to New Orleans, having been sent to the Monterey aquarium after Katrina. Next year, they’re going to be all like “Hey! Where’s our California vacation?”
Samuel Johnson’s famous dictum “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” refers to the old 17th century understanding of the word “patriotism,” meaning someone who upholds the inherited traditions of the patria at the expense of king and parliament, or specifically in Johnson’s context, someone like Edmund Burke and the American ‘Patriot’ rebels. So, the next time someone quotes Johnson to you, you can look them in the eye and say “I agree. We should give unqualified support to our king and parliament.”
There’s to be an uber-fancy, uber-expensive 25th anniversary edition of Little, Big later this year. ($95 for the trade edition, $900 for the lettered edition.) But it’s 40% off the trade edition for orders of five or more — anyone want to go in with me? $57 I could maybe see.
Also, John Crowley has a blog (!). (Both items lifted from withboots.)
And there’s going to be an Absolute Sandman. My Sandman hardcovers were stolen several years ago, and it’d be nice to have them again. (Several were Science Fiction Book Club editions and valueless as collectibles, but several of them were first editions, and all of them were part of a really good read.)