Check out Saturday’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. Be sure to look at the whole picture and read the synopsis to get the full effect. Imagine explaining that one to your insurance company? No, really, it fell from the sky. No, I’m serious. What? You’re not going to pay my claim? You think it’s a scam? Dude, I’m totally serious about this.
I know this is going around via e-mail, but pointing you to this post is easier than uploading and posting the photos myself. Way too cute. I’d like to know the story behind the cat and the rat in the window.
Speaking of cats, Carnival Of The Cats #139 is up and running. See the nice photos and visit the links for a whole lot more.
Doesn’t this sound familiar? “A classifed draft CIA assessment has found no firm evidence of a secret drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons…” Right now, it’s hearsay. Nonetheless, I have two concerns. Didn’t we hear the same thing about Iraq long after going to war, and didn’t our preznit go to war with Iraq even though he knew about that report A LONG time before we did? He won’t let a few facts get in his way if he’s hell-bent to fight Tehran. Second, I don’t trust the CIA any more than I trust Dubya. They’ve been one tragic and gigantic mess for years now, and they’re the folks wallowing in domestic spying (along with the No Such Agency) while thumbing their noses at civil rights, constitutional protections, and all that jazz. Can these people find their way to the bathroom without a map and GPS? I wonder. In either case, we’ll see if this report actually exists, and then we’ll see if it means as much to this administration as the Iraq reports did.
When will this administration stop manipulating and gagging scientists? “It took six years to get federal worker safety officials to issue warnings to auto mechanics that the brakes they’re working on could contain lethal asbestos fibers. But it took only three weeks after the warnings were posted before a former top federal official with ties to the auto industry reportedly pushed to have them removed. John Henshaw, a former head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, called Aug. 15 for the agency to make changes to its warnings, according to documents obtained by The Sun. But Ira Wainless, an OSHA scientist who wrote the advisory bulletin about asbestos in brakes, refused, according to agency documents. Wainless cited dozens of studies, including work at his own agency, to show that his presentation of the medical risk to mechanics was solid. Last week, David Ippolito, an official with OSHA’s Directorate of Science, Technology and Medicine, told Wainless that he would be suspended without pay for 10 days if the changes weren’t made, according to documents.” So they’re going to suspend him without pay if he doesn’t hide the truth about the asbestos danger to car mechanics. Once again, we find lobbyists are in control of the science, and this government is more than willing to change the facts to ensure nothing interrupts the flow of money into their pockets—even if that means endangering and killing a bunch of people. [via Chris at AMERICAblog]
Speaking of problems with federal science… “But what really troubles the most vocal critics is their sense that the CDC’s devotion to pure science–a long-established mandate to follow the trail of medical evidence wherever it leads–has been sabotaged. AIDS specialists today feel that they are being constrained not to say anything positive about condoms, while others complain that more cash bonuses are being given to administrators than to researchers. ‘It’s the policies and the direction of the institute I’m most concerned about,’ says Dr. Brad Woodruff, an epidemiologist in the organization’s Maternal and Child Nutrition Branch. Woodruff is particularly incensed that the agency’s new jet, which is supposed to be for medical emergencies, was used by HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt to make promotional appearances on behalf of President Bush’s Medicare drug plan. [. . .] But some within the agency complain that the main difference they have seen so far is that their work is more likely to be second-guessed. ‘Scientists feel less empowered to make decisions,’ says Dr. Stephen Cochi, who has worked at the CDC for 24 years, currently in the Global Immunization Division. ‘There’s more bureaucratic filtering.’ Decisions that were routinely made in Atlanta, he and others say, must now be approved by higher-ups in Washington.” And we’re talking about the guardians of our health here, poppets. This is the CDC, and the employees—especially the scientists—are getting screwed at every turn, their science polluted and filtered to fit with policy goals rather than health and safety, and most of the new funding appears slated to provide bonuses to administration staff rather than the people doing the hard science, not to mention failing to adequately fund any real programs that would help ensure our health.
This is the kind of angry, misdirected vengeance that disgusts me. “All I can say is that after a visit to DC this weekend and all of the monuments to our nation’s wars, SOMEBODY needs to start paying for the death toll that’s only mounting worldwide on a daily basis. I’d say Saddam is a good start.” Um, are you on crack? If not, you should be. It’s one thing to blame Saddam for the horrors he visited on the world and on his own people; it’s quite another to say let’s take out our frustrations and anger on him as a good place to start getting revenge for all the anguish, war, and death in the world. That’s truly the most blindly ignorant thing I’ve ever read in my life. If he’s looking for a place to start putting blame and getting some payback, let’s start right here at home, shall we? Let’s start with Bush and the hundreds of thousands he’s killed in Iraq (directly and indirectly). Once you’re done there, let’s continue to focus on our own shit-filled barn before we start pointing fingers in other places. Typical American. It’s always someone else’s fault, and by golly somebody’s gotta pay for it. Bah.
Oooh… Pretty… It’s a spectacular photo of the Orion Nebula. Be sure and look at the hi-res version. It’s breathtaking.
Un-Fucking-Believable! Janitors were peacefully protesting in Houston last week when police on horseback corralled them and injured many by trampling them under hooves. The janitors were protesting for higher wages and health insurance (they currently make about $20 per day and have no insurance coverage). In an assault on their constitutional freedom to protest, the police treated them like murdering thugs and sent many to the hospital. But it didn’t end there. They were arrested on class B misdemeanor charges, yet the district attorney set their bail (for each of them) at $888,888 cash. What the fuck! Let’s be clear about this: “For a woman charged with beating her granddaughter to death with a sledgehammer, bail was set at $100,000; For a woman accused of disconnecting her quadriplegic mother’s breathing machine, bail was set at $30,000; For a man charged with murder for stabbing another man to death in a bar brawl, bail was set at $30,000…” But these janitors, charged with a minor offense, were given a combined bail of $39.1 million—for 44 people. Again, police state? What police state? Confirming previous reports, the Constitution of the United States is in fact quite dead. What happened to these people is a violation of the First Amendment (“The right of the people to be secure in their persons…” and “…the right of the people peaceably to assemble…”) and the Eighth Amendment (“Excessive bail shall not be required…” and “…nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”). And that’s just for starters, for interpreted rights go further than that.
There’s another edition of Good Planets available with some really captivating photos of our little blue dot and some of the life that lives on it.