Imagine President Obama sound asleep in his pajamas in the White House at 5:30 AM. Now imagine he is stirred by 200 armed military personnel and quickly whisked away on a military aircraft and dropped off without a word at the Ottawa international airport. Consider that this is the direct result of an order passed down from the supreme court requesting his forcible removal from power.
This scenario played out yesterday in Tegucigalpa, Honduras for president Manuel Zelaya. President Zelaya is a "leftist" and part of the Chavez, Ortega, Castro coalition of Bolívarian idealists that have been attempting to foster the rise of Latin cultural unity for decades. Now his comrades are defending him. Chavez, Ortega and leaders from Cuba connived in Managua, Nicaragua yesterday to coalesce their stance on the Honduran coup. That stance being hostile and aggressive.
This rapid revolution is quite an interesting case-study and opportunity to dissect the results of "leftist" policies in Latin America. As a leftist myself I consider the word in quotes when describing this collation because I take offense that they cloak their classicism, and aristocratically laced greed in the guise of "leftism." Traveling inside Nicaragua last summer I saw first hand whole villages where children play in open sewer streams and human refuse is carried down the streets of major cities because there simply is no civil engineering nor infrastructure. I saw countless vagrants walking the streets, eyeballs rolling to the backs of their sockets huffing a yellow glue from tiny jars. I heard the snake-like hiss of young men taunting women in the streets making them objects in a gallery.
These "leaders" call themselves leftists but it is truly a farce. They live like a priestly cast in luxurious settings on large ranches, mustaches filling out, eating well while the majority in these countries are kept in poverty. I do not know all the circumstances surrounding the revolt in Honduras but I do understand the desire for a government that - in practice - really does work for the people rather than corrupt idealists whose actions fall far from the scope of their words. Revolution is beginning to swell in Latin America and I have seen with my own eyes why.
I spent much of my childhood in Puerto Rico where I witnessed the long-term affects of good government policy transforming a people from a poor majority to a flourishing middle-class. I saw Rooselvelt's public works projects lasting effects on the psyches and pocketbooks of an island. This may seem idealistic in its own right but I feel that a cultural unity in Latin America should not separate itself from the world but rather integrate with a rising global culture to lift itself from the darkness of the "us versus them" mentality.
A person dear to my heart is at this instant traveling on a chicken bus from Managua through Honduras to El Salvador. I can not think of a more perilous day for her to be traveling through a country where people on the street carry fully automatic weapons in times of peace. I fear for her safety and the safety of all the people of Honduras as revolution is too often accompanied by discharged weapons. My hope is that the world would join me and the people of Honduras in discussing the merits and short comings of the current government to ensure democracy remains intact throughout this process.
As the Iranian revolution deserves our conscious attention so does this. May we combine our minds in contemplating a peaceful path out of these uncertain places and times.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tegucigalpa, Chicken Buses, and Revolution
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Semifinals!
A post from the ghost has made it to the next round in the first ever "Top Quark" science blogging competition over at 3 Quarks Daily. Thank you to all who cast their vote for our humble submissions. Between now and June 11th the editors at 3QD will scrutinize those twenty posts and distill them to seven. These will then be submitted to Steven Pinker for final judgment. The other semifinalists are listed in ranked order from the public voting round here. May the most powerful post prevail!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Reborn after 200 years
Thomas Paine - the man of letters that built the foundation of ideas the American revolution sprung from - died 200 years ago today. His rebellious spirit still stirs resentment amongst dyed in the wool crown-lovers to this day.
Listen to what one commenter had to say about the man 200 years after his death in response to this BBC Magazine article...
Thomas Paine was a traitor to his country. It doesn't matter if what he said was right or wrong or we look back on as profound, his meddling in colonial affairs were catastrophic. Supporting a French dictator and American rebels? His descendants should hang their heads in shame.This is why we revolted!
Lucian Whippe, Cambridge
Viva Tom Paine's revolution!
And long live the power of the PEOPLE!
An amusing coincidence was pointed out today by a catholic magazine.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Auto-Tune the News
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Cheating Death - Colbert on Fire!
Oprah is a prominent gate-keeper and her constant promotion of quackery opens up the topic of responsibility when using free speech from certain platforms. I surely can not, with good conscience, stand by while Oprah spearheads the charge to flay the hypothetical Hypatias of our time.
How do you think these matters of free speech vs. phony speech should be handled? Perhaps a network sponsored special running for several weeks consisting of a panel debate on each claim inviting experts from academia and clinics in for each issue - vaccines, the secret, Dr. Phil etc etc.
Some would argue that this would be a bad idea because it gives equal footing to those making fraudulent health claims. But I say the truth should be able to defeat any imitations using the "disinfectant of sunlight" as justice as Oliver Wendall-Holmes might have put it.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Cheating Death - Cheerios, Soda Paralysis & Oprah's Crazy Talk | ||||
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Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Death of Paine
The official announcement from our friends reads as follows.
Thomas Paine Remembrances
Will Be Held in New York City and New Rochelle NY
Marking the 200th Anniversary of His Death
on June 8, 1809 in Greenwich Village, New York City
Sponsored by Thomas Paine Friends, Inc.
Events are free and the public is invited
SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 2 PM, lecture by historian and actor J. WARD REGAN,
at Jefferson Market Branch of New York Public Library, at Sixth Ave. & W. 10th St.
~ Co-Sponsor: GREENWICH VILLAGE SOCIETY FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION ~
J. WARD REGAN is a lecturer on Paine with New York Council for the Humanities
and National Endowment for the Humanities "On the Road" program.
He lectures on history and philosophy at New York University.
His one-man show, "A Paranoid's Guide to History," had a recent off-Broadway run.
SEATING IS LIMITED. RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED. MAKE RESERVATIONS BY
EMAIL AT RSVP@GVSHP.ORG OR BY TELEPHONE AT 212-475-9585, EXT. 35
SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 3:30 PM, following the lecture, a short WALKING TOUR to Paine's
last two residences, 309 Bleecker St. and 59 Grove St., where he died. Both are close by
the Jefferson Market Branch Library. We will depart from the Library at 3:30 pm and
the first stop will be 293 Bleecker St. Highlight of the tour is a pair of rarely seen art works housed in
59 Grove St., the site now of Marie's Crisis Café. One piece is an etched glass of marching revolutionaries; the other is a large wood engraving of Danton, Robespierre, and Thomas Paine.
The guide will be MARIAM TOUBA, Reference Librarian at New-York Historical Society
and Curator of the memorable Thomas Paine Exhibit at N-YHS in 2005.
SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 1 PM, memorial observance at Thomas Paine Monument, New Rochelle NY, located on North Ave., near Paine Ave., close to the original gravesite.
~ Co-sponsors: CITY OF NEW ROCHELLE and HUGUENOT & NEW ROCHELLE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION ~
Paine Monument, Paine Cottage and Paine Museum comprise the PAINE HISTORIC SITE
at the western edge of what was his farm, awarded to him in 1784
by a grateful New York state legislature for his eminent services in the struggle for independence.
[At 2 pm, the Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association holds a gala lawn party / fundraiser
at Paine Cottage grounds, $45 each ($50 at the door). Distinguished actress-writer-director, RUBY DEE,
will be a special guest speaker. Funds are for the Cottage restoration.
Contact executive director John Wright, 914-633-1776 or PaineCottage@optonline.net .]
MONDAY, JUNE 8, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM, a commemoration at Thomas Paine Park,
at Foley Square, across from the courts in lower Manhattan;
the Park is bound by Centre, Worth, Lafayette Sts.
~ Co-Sponsors: THE NATION MAGAZINE, CENTER FOR INQUIRY-NEW YORK CITY CHAPTER
and HUMANISTS OF METROPOLITAN NEW YORK ~
Dedication of a new Thomas Paine historical sign installed by New York City Parks Dept.
~ SPEAKERS ~
JOHN NICHOLS, prolific writer and journalist; Washington correspondent
with The Nation magazine; associate editor of The Capital Times [Madison WI];
author of The Genius of Impeachment, and books on media, political and social reform.
ERIC FONER, DeWitt Clinton professor of history, Columbia University; past-president of
the Organization of American Historians and president of the American Historical Association;
his many books include Tom Paine and Revolutionary America, and Paine: Collected Writings;
CRAIG NELSON, historian, eclectic writer and editor, author of
Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution and the Birth of Modern Nations,
which won the 2007 Henry Adams prize.
FRANCES CHIU, faculty in humanities and social sciences at the New School University,
where she teaches a course on Paine;
editor and scholar on 18th and 19th century literature for Valancourt Books.
MICHAEL MISCIONE, Historian of the Borough of Manhattan.
MICHAEL DE DORA, executive director of Center for Inquiry-New York City chapter,
which presents an annual Thomas Paine Memorial Lecture every January.
BARBARA AND GRAHAM DEAN will perform songs--guitar and vocal--from their collection,
Tom Paine's Blues: Common Sense Songs.
A number of organizations and individuals are expected to join in to offer a few words of homage
to Thomas Paine and to the late PAUL O'DWYER whose initiative and tireless work
when he was City Council President led to the naming of Thomas Paine Park.
Information at spiegelman22@yahoo.com or 413-253-7934
Thomas Paine Friends, Inc.
185 Middle Street
Amherst MA 01002-3011
Website: http://www.thomaspainefriends.org
Survival of the Savvy
We at Tom Paine's Ghost are engaged in a science blogging competition hosted by a fellow free-thinking blog - 3 Quarks Daily. We have submitted three posts. If you like our site I kindly ask that you visit the voting page and vote for us. Our entries are about 2/3 down the page. Of course, vote for whoever you like but if you do decide to vote for us the post about Temple Grandin seems to be getting to most love so far.Apologies to our regular readers for the slowing content lately. After some recent discussions with my colleagues I have been so excited about a certain batch of material that I decided to take some extra time and flesh out the upcoming posts to read more like book chapters. We are brewing several ideas to be on tap soon.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Food Revolution - led by a "renegade lunch lady"
On Thursday I met Michael Pollan - author of In Defense of Food, the Omnivore's Dilemma and other works analyzing the evolving food philosophy in America. He spoke at the Unity church in Boulder, Colorado as part of the Boulder book store's speaker series. His entire talk was a large paraphrase of his most recent book in Defense of Food. Reiterating his dietary advice he makes the following three suggestions. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." It is a very worthy read I highly recommend.
I had been thinking for weeks about what question might prove the most novel and useful in continuing my efforts to support his cause of reforming our collective American mentality on food. I thought about my own high school home economics class and how paltry the education was on growing your own food or how to shop for healthful food. I also thought about my father and his idea that we ought to have gardening and cooking classes taught in every grade starting in kindergarten. As Michael signed my books I asked him who he foresaw becoming the "Jamie Oliver" of the United States. He had a very prompt answer - Ann Cooper the renegade chef. And thus I share this revelation with you in hopes that you might watch the following video and perhaps write or call your local congress person to see if we can fuel the flames of food revolution in these United States. Big thinkers have big ideas and one of Ann Cooper's big ideas is this - to have the national lunch program oversight reallocated to the CDC rather than USDA where it currently lies. If we collectively think of the food our children eat as a health issue then this shift carries with it some clean logic.
The following clip from the Daily Show demonstrates with a hefty side of sarcasm the serious industrial forces we are up against in the food revolution.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Little Crop of Horrors | ||||
| ||||
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Ida - the Missing Link?
The fact that this bombshell of a fossil was unleashed in the pages of PLoS One says more than something about the future trends of scientific publication and the open access philosophy!
Dubbed Darwinius masillae this arboreal quadruped lived in the trees of an ancient rain forest now buried under present day Germany. Dr. Jørn Hurum of the University of Oslo in Norway was integral in bringing the two halves of Ida back together after years of roving on the international fossil market. Jørn nicknamed the primate 'Ida', after his daughter. This is the most complete early primate fossil ever unearthed.
Bora has more on this wonderful specimen over at the Blog Around the Clock. and PZ runs down the phylogenetic "tech-specs" over at Pharyngula.
The Guardian has also done a nice job fleshing out the skinny on Ida. They even have a one minute clip from the upcoming documentary "The Link" hosted by Sir David Attenborough. This bit of infotainment will air later this month.
In this classic clip from Cosmos Carl Sagan explains the theory of man evolving with illustrated examples. At 6 minutes and 7 seconds into this video we could replace the drawing of the lemur-like creature with the fossil unveiled above.
I will continue to add links to this post as the regular media catches up to this story. As I go along one article that jumped out was FOX covering this. Right off the bat they use a saying I despise when speaking of science. "The jury is still out" on whether this is the missing link. That is such a simplistic way of looking at this. Science does not take place in a court of law because ideas and theories themselves evolve! When new evidence is observed new conclusions are made. No one will ever say with absolute certainty that this one fossil IS the missing link. But we can still try to use logic to tell where along human lineage she falls. It is not as simple as a yes or no answer!
Surprisingly, the Wall Street Journal, of all sources, does an elegant and scientifically admirable job covering Ida's unveiling.
My favorite quote from the FOX article is the most relevant to Tom Paine's Ghost...
When asked if the publicity surrounding the fossil was overdone (the History Channel touts the discovery as "the most important find in 47 million years"), Hurum said he didn't think so.Precisely!
"That's part of getting science out to the public to get attention," he said. "I don't think that's so wrong."
I can hear the ghost of Carl Sagan echoing in those words.
Franzen, J., Gingerich, P., Habersetzer, J., Hurum, J., von Koenigswald, W., & Smith, B. (2009). Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology PLoS ONE, 4 (5) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005723
Monday, May 18, 2009
KIVA
Today I joined KIVA and initiated my first micro-loan. Hopefully I'm late to the party and most TPG readers have already joined KIVA. If you haven't heard, KIVA is a non-profit organization thats facilitates interest-free loans through micro-lending institutions around the world. "KIVA is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe." Learn more about KIVA directly from their website. If you've heard about KIVA but haven't looked into it, please consider acting right now. It literally takes 2 minutes to set up your membership and make a deposit by PayPal or credit card. You can immediately browse profiles of entrepreneurs from around the world and learn about their stories and goals. Loans are given in $25 increments, while multiple KIVA members can pool their micro-loans to meet total loan requests. Many of the micro-lending institutions have excellent track records with very low delinquency rates (rates that certainly rival many US credit institutions these days). In the event your loan is repaid, your money is returned to your account so that you may withdraw it or make another loan.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Indeed, in many situations these micro-loans can be seeds that help people to empower themselves and their communities. Here are 11 discussion points proposed by KIVA. Please consider KIVA as a way to lend a helping, empowering hand to the less fortunate.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Obama Speaks at Notre Dame
Friday, May 8, 2009
Pandora's Box
Imagine sitting down at your computer, typing out a message, and then having that message translated into a tiny self-assembling machine. In essence, this is what a group of Danish German and American researchers have done. Using short bits of DNA to link up distant regions throughout a very long single strand of DNA these folks were able to build six square walls and have them assemble, on their own, to form a sealed box. What's more, they were able to affix several molecular locks on each edge of the hollow cube. This allows the box to be opened at will when the right combination of molecular "keys" are introduced to the solution. Each cube is approximately 1/10,000th the width of a human hair. Billions of these boxes were assembled in a test tube and a few were imaged using an atomic force microscope.
Start listening to this Nature podcast at 11 minutes and 15 seconds in to hear a description of this project from Jørgen Kjems, the paper's last author.
This work literally expands the arsenal of a technique known as DNA origami. Paul Rothemund explains this technique in the first TED talk below.
The above talk was given in 2007. In the next talk (posted a year later) you can see a larger potential being realized for the application of DNA origami. The idea that DNA can be programmed by human beings to form circuits is more momentous than I think people realize. If this technology is pursued it might mean that self-assembling, self-replicating, molecular machines designed by humans may emerge and evolve in the not-so-distant future. The implication here is that humanity may in fact be creating a new form of life in which evolving neural networks could emerge without programmer input. This is by definition - artificial intelligence. Of course we don't have to get out our matrix survival kits quite yet. But these human-made DNA machines could help us colonize the moon, mars, or explore other potentially habitable planets. Imagine conjuring a self assembling, self replicating, thinking, adaptable machine capable of flying out of earth's orbit.
If images of the Borg immediately flood your mind you are not alone. This will indeed be a complex set of decisions we must face. How do we advance technology while preserving human moral integrity? It should not be up to the President's council of bioethics, but rather the citizens of the world that will have to live alongside these creations. In a case such as self replicating artificial intelligence we can not be afraid of the boggy men in deep space but rather be aware of the potentials for good and ill and voice our opinions accordingly.
Andersen, E., Dong, M., Nielsen, M., Jahn, K., Subramani, R., Mamdouh, W., Golas, M., Sander, B., Stark, H., Oliveira, C., Pedersen, J., Birkedal, V., Besenbacher, F., Gothelf, K., & Kjems, J. (2009). Self-assembly of a nanoscale DNA box with a controllable lid Nature, 459 (7243), 73-76 DOI: 10.1038/nature07971
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Beyond Energy
By Kristopher Hite
Motion amongst molecules pushes us,
propels us,
prepetuates the people of the planet
through -
procreation
Generation through generation we generate.
The sun with its rays ripping through the vacuum
clashing with our atmosphere
and deep inside some clandestine chloroplasts the conception of energy transforming to matter
speckled this sphere with -
oxygen.
Magnesium
and green grabbed the ground
greedily grasped Gondwana
groped for more -
territory.
Terrestrial torrents took over.
together teeming,
tying their tenuous tendrils
finally intertwining to tame the topography for -
trilobites.
Cacophonous was the Cambrian crescendo.
Archaic arthropods armed with ambition
their enormous exskeletons enriched with chitin
careening, crashing for
survival.
And now with a nascent nation notoriously needing -
more.
And after the storms and the swarms take form
what will we be left wanting?
With the world's water wasted
will they wonder what wetness was?
Hope - here and now - is housed high in the heavens
if eventually Energy emerges
and equality exists in every extreme on earth
what then will the billions of brains be bound by?
Perhaps
a poem.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
The Three Sisters: Corn Beans and Squash
Planted together corn, beans, and squash form a "holy trinity" of cooperative growth. By living in close quarters they provide each other with physical protection and nutritional abundance. As the corn emerges high above the others the stalk provides a living scaffold the beans can coil their vines around as they seek the sun. Meanwhile at ground level the squash act as living mulch by preserving moisture under shady leaves and monopolizing sunlight that might otherwise go to nefarious weeds. The prickly stems of the squash provide a defense system against raccoons and other pests that might otherwise "help" harvest the corn.
Underneath the soil the balancing act continues. 
The beans are legumes - famous for their ability to reduce nitrogen to nitrates by using their root nodules filled with nitrogen fixing bacteria. Corn is notorious for sucking nitrates from soil at a high rate. In the context of large scale farming, corporations get around this by dumping tons of nitrate fertilizers on the corn fields. To fix nitrogen artificially fertilizer producers need to use copious amounts of fossil fuels. This demonstrates that our current food supply relies on ever-evaporating cheap fossil fuels. Another pressing reason to remember and respect the wisdom of the three sisters.
The origin of this wisdom is not a university laboratory but the pre-Columbian fields of present day New York State. The Iroquois or Ho-de-no-sau-nee stumbled upon this beautiful triumvirate sometime during the millenia they lived and played there. So central was this horticultural combination to their sustenance that it became intertwined with their spiritual world-view.
Lewis Henry Morgan writes in League of the Iroquois (First published 1851).
"These plants were regarded as a special gift of Ha-wen-ne-yu (The Great Spirit); and they believed that the care of each was entrusted, for the welfare of the Indian, to a separate Spirit. They are supposed to have the form of beautiful females, to be very fond of each other, and to delight to dwell together. This last belief is illustrated by the natural adaptation of the plants themselves to grow up together in the same field, and perhaps from the same hill. Their apparel was made of the leaves of their respective plants; and in the growing season they were believed to visit the fields, and dwell among them. This triad is known under the name of De-o-ha-ko, which signifies Our Life, or Our Supporters. They are never mentioned separately, except by description, as they have no individual names."
Depending on where you live the time to plant these varies but on average the span between April 20th and mid May marks the optimal planting window. As an added bonus cultivating a garden in your yard or containers in your apartment with your children boosts their veggie intake and physical activity.
For a much more in-depth look at the practical aspects of cultivating the three sisters see this article by the homesteader John Vivian.
Tom Vilsack can't be all bad if he appreciates this wisdom.
HERMANN, J., PARKER, S., BROWN, B., SIEWE, Y., DENNEY, B., & WALKER, S. (2006). After-School Gardening Improves Children’s Reported Vegetable Intake and Physical Activity Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 38 (3), 201-202 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2006.02.002
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
James Lovelock has a new book
We have summoned the thoughts of this skeptical prophet before within the pages of Tom Paine's Ghost. At ninety years of age his wit remains nimble. The Vanishing Face of Gaia a Final Warning by James Lovelock is reviewed this week in Nature. Watch an interview with James Lovelock here on Nature video archives.
Earth Day 2009
A small thing we all can do right now is bookmark ENERGY.GOV. By coming back to this site periodically we can make sure we walk the walk.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Why has "UNION" become a dirty word?
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
...and on and on, as most people who attended grade-school anytime in the later half of the twentieth century probably know. This classic ballad of the American landscape was written by good old Woody Guthrie. But there is a song, most people probably do not know, that was written by this same brilliant American - the ballad of the Ludlow Massacre.
On April 20th, 1914 twenty men, women, and children were murdered in Ludlow, Colorado by the Colorado National Guard. The men in these families were part of the mine worker's union that were staging a labor strike. This struggle represents the roots of the American labor movement and unfortunately has been forgotten in recent years.
In his penetrating dissection of the recent financial meltdown and subsequent corporate power-grab Matt Taibbi makes a subtle point regarding unions and their political decline in recent decades. Taibbi describes how Bill Clinton's administration turned their back on unions simply because the Democrats were sick of loosing the fund-raising game during campaigns. Of course there has been a concerted effort by Republicans to undermine the philosophical concept of a union for the better part of the last century, but this relatively recent change in Democratic attitudes towards unions has further eroded any remaining traction unions held in the minds of the electorate.
Cornell University has an entire college dedicated to the study of industrial/labor relations. Much work here focuses on giving workers the tools they need to use leverage when undertaking collective bargaining. The college helps the research process of unions so they might identify weaknesses in corporations and exploit them in order to gain the basic rights they deserve - health care, decent pay, respect.
This is where, I think, there is a fundamental misunderstanding amongst the general public. What is the purpose of a union?
To guarantee basic rights - health care, decent pay, respect.
This is the reason I am writing about this on Tom Paine's Ghost.
People have been made to believe that unions are filled with fat lazy socialists who don't want to work. This is part of the distorting barrage of information that oozes from broadcast corporations such as the Sinclair Broadcast Group who have their tentacles wrapped around the visual cortices of the American Midwest. Some unions may have behaved improperly and over-stepped their bounds when considering the United Auto Workers Union and others. But this is no reason to disband the concept of unions altogether!
Again. The main purpose of a Union is to guarantee basic rights - health care, decent pay, respect.
Upon recommendation from a friend that attended the college of Industrial Labor Relations I began reading a book titled Global Unions. This book is the distillation of a conference held in February of 2006 regarding the past current and future role of unions on the international stage. Video of each talk given can be found here.
The main point made here, through historical perspectives and contemporary examples, is that in order for unions to be effective, from now on, they need to operate on the same scale as the multinational corporations they serve to balance.
While we approach the anniversary of the Ludlow massacre I feel obligated to breath onto the embers of understanding unions. It will be interesting to see how ideas about unions evolve in the recently bluing state of Colorado. This state has maintained an anti-union err up until very recent history. Traveling to Pueblo, CO in fall of 2008 I heard many first-hand accounts of scabs blocking the efficacy of a steel-workers strike at the Oregon Steel Mill there in the early 2000s.
On the birthday of Clarence Darrow I feel it appropriate to reignite an understanding and passion for core union precepts; basic rights - health care, decent pay, respect.
It was THAT bad
If there are any psychological handbooks out there that help rape victims cope I suggest they be handed out to every American citizen. As a country that metaphor is sadly quite apt for what happened to us over the last eight years. From the administration of a man elected on the premise of restoring morality to the white house came a clear sanction of torture. If you have not read the memoranda released by President Obama last Thursday please consider reading them to form your own opinion of whether the practices described within constitute torture.
I had heard of and even skimmed The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, I had seen previews for Taxi to the Dark Side, but I had always maintained a hope that the US government really did not use these torturous practices. I wanted to believe that this was not possible. That age of innocence ended for me yesterday as I read the last of the torture memos released by President Obama. I realized finally that it really was THAT bad.
I began the move from denial to anger.
At once I wanted justice served to individuals. I wanted to see George W. Bush in front of an international court of justice being tried for war crimes. If not George Bush then at least the person who made the legal decision to allow these practices to be carried out on our enemies, namely ninth circuit court judge Jay Bybee. After calming and talking with friends I realized that even if the person that wrote these "permission slips" for torture was convicted of sanctioning torture what justice would come of this for future generations faced with these same questions?
After ruminating on the most effective cascade of events to ensue in the wake of these memos being made public I came to one solid conclusion. A case should be brought to the supreme court, the people of the United States vs. Jay Bybee. The desired result of such a hearing would be to make clear to the world the exact definition of torture. Our supreme court justices would have a monumental task of using language to build a threshold barrier on the slippery slope between interrogation and torture. In this manner we would both serve justice and clarify the guidelines for what a civilized democracy can and cannot do under universal circumstances.
In the meantime it is our duty as a self-informing citizenry to carefully read these memos and think about their implications. One conclusion I have made is that it really was as bad as I had suspected.
If you happen to have 3 hours of extra time you might want to watch this
John Yoo - this is the name of the author of some of the torture memos. Though Jay Bybee's name appears at the top of the memos John Yoo admits in this hearing (video directly above 1 hour and 13 minutes in) drafting the document.
Praise for "Not Exactly Rocket Science"
A Blog Review.
Perusing the corridors of the free buffet of information out there precious few minds deliver a steady stream of clear, insightful, and 
inspiring material to ponder. One shining star has emerged for me. This is Ed Yong, author of Not Exactly Rocket Science.
While reading some background on why Ed writes his blog I came to the following sentence which sums up the way I feel about sharing information over the internet through thought-posting.
And I prefer to talk talking about science than attacking anti-science. Many people already do that very well and I appreciate the need for that approach in order to defend ourselves from nonsciencical rubbish. But I don't personally believe that bashing creationists or homeopathists is going to inspire people to take an interest in science in the first place. The things that have done that for me are popular science books, wildlife documentaries, good teaching etc, things all united by the common theme of making science seem less complicated and more beautiful. That's the approach I fancy.
"Taking on the System" a book by Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga presented one thought that really jumped out at me and stuck in my head. That is that the purpose of a blog is not to tell people what they SHOULD think but to provide people with the information they need to form their own opinions. I did not agree with many other points Mr. Zúñiga made in this book but this is certainly a worthy ideal that I feel Mr. Yong embodies by making statements as I have just displayed.
For individuals who do not "believe" in evolution it is not the duty of scientists to berate them and tell them they are wrong but rather to present the beautiful data demonstrating evolution in action. It is not a climate expert's job to have a screaming match with an oil & gas investor on the message boards of big newspapers but rather to simply clarify their explanation of the data by further refining their delivery of the facts.
On top of these lofty standards Ed Yong has set for himself he also infuses his blog with wonderful mental excursions down scientifically related cultural avenues. His review of the evolution of Ballet serves to bridge understanding by drawing in readers that might otherwise give no care to the thought of evolving cultural elements.
Not Exactly Rocket Science takes a positive tone in diffusing big ideas and intricate data in a most accessible fashion. In a sea of information this is one island I would suggest revisiting over and over again.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Building a "Cerebral Electorate"
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Bush Torture Memos
A little bird told me that Air Force One has sent a message on the wire saying it will release 4 Bush era memos on excessive interrogation practices. We need to bring Robert H. Jackson back from the dead to preside over the
BUSH
CHENEY
RUMSFELD
WOLFOWITZ
ARMITAGE
POWELL
PEARL
ROVE
RICE
TENET
War crimes hearings!
We are no longer the United States of Amnesia and we all remember reading the US constitution in grade school and the part about cruel and unusual punishment.
And we all remember the Geneva Convention agreements. You will not get away with hijacking our country without justice being served to you Mr. Bush!
Read more at the Guardian.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Everyone wants to be Thomas Paine
First it was Bob Basso now it is Glenn Beck. Why is Thomas Paine such a popular hero with these extremely egotistical right-wing gasbags? What does this say about me as I have named this very website in honor of Mr. Paine? I hope it just says that these racist, chauvinist, and apparently illiterate pundits claiming to be modern reincarnations of Paine never made it past the first few sentences in the Wikipedia article on Paine.
Chris Kelly does a great job at the Huffington Post breaking down the fundamental differences between the real Thomas Paine and all these contemporary personality hijackers.
Here is a brief smattering to wet your whistle.
But before another sputtering doofus claims to be the author of the Rights of Man, he might want to check if they share a single belief.
Do you like estate taxes? Paine was pitching them in 1791.
How about progressive taxation? Paine wasn't just for it, he made charts and graphs.
Welfare? Absolutely.
Government make-work programs? Yep. Pay for them with the estate tax.
Public education? Yes, please.
International organizations? Paine said we needed them. Thought they might be useful for preventing wars after we disarmed.
Feminism?
If a woman were to defend the cause of her sex, she might address him in the following manner ... If we have an equal right with you to virtue, why should we not have an equal right to praise? ... Our duties are different from yours, but they are not therefore less difficult to fulfill, or of less consequence to society ... You cannot be ignorant that we have need of courage not less than you ... Permit our names to be sometimes pronounced beyond the narrow circle in which we live. Permit friendship, or at least love, to inscribe its emblem on the tomb where our ashes repose; and deny us not that public esteem which, after the esteem of one's self, is the sweetest reward of well doing. -- T. Paine
Compare and contrast:
OK, so anyway, I was talking about ugly people. Ugly people, if you're a guy, you can get past it. I don't think you can as an ugly woman. I don't -- no, I don't. If you're an ugly woman, I apologize. Oh, you've got a double cross, because if you're an ugly woman, you're probably a progressive as well. --G. Beck
Animal Rights Nuts?
Everything of cruelty to animals is a violation of moral duty. -- T. Paine
Religion?
Religion is under attack! -- G. Beck
Priests and conjurors are of the same trade. -- T. Paine
Clammy Tub Toys who Think Putting on a Tricorn Makes Them Thomas Paine?
I'm Thomas Paine. -- G. Beck
The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. -- T. Paine
Read the entire comparison here.
These comments echo my own sentiments on these unfortunate associations.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
ABOUND SOLAR - Opens SupPLANT Today
Colorado governor Bill Ritter, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Hermann Scheer and the head of the National Renewable Energy Lab spoke at a ribbon cutting ceremony this morning in Longmont, Colorado. The first commercial production of the low cost cadmium telluride solar cells begins today at the ABOUND SOLAR factory.
Read more about the company, its history and vision here and here.
Better Place
Better Place: a company Robert Kennedy Jr. invests in.
The novel concept here is that the car is like a cell phone. The provider gives the consumer the car for free and charges for the energy consumed, how we now pay for minutes in cell phone plans. Revolutionary to say the least.
Another group Mr. Kennedy mentioned was Vantage Point Venture Partners. Interestingly a company my Aunt in Napa California told me about is bundled into this Vantage Point group. They are Bright Source Energy.
Monday, April 13, 2009
LIVE BLOGGING RFK Jr Speech Fort Collins
I'm sitting in the front most public row (3rd)
Stay tuned for live updates...
First off Abound Solar is having a "Ribbon Cutting" tomorrow.
Abound Solar is a low cost solar cell manufacturer predicted to be First Solar's biggest competitor. Read more about Abound solar in our previous coverage of this promising company here and here.
Wirsol - new company to Fort Collins
Dr. Hermann Scheer - gave a most impressive speech! One fact shouts out and should be echoed throughout the United States.
Dr. Scheer reports that Germany produces about 5 giga Watts of energy from solar power annually, while the entire United States generates only about 115 mega Watts. To put this in perspective for the audience Dr. Sheer made the following comparison. The amount of solar power generated in the United States annually is equal to that produced in the city of Munich!
That gives you an idea of how much room we have to grow as a country powered by renewables.
Robert Kennedy Jr. made a powerful argument for our shift to a renewable energy economy. He talked specifcally about seval companies he is involved with including Vantage Point Venture Partners (with a special metion of Bright source energy - one of the many companies VPVPs invests in). Also, he mentioned Better Place and electric car maker and energy grid construction firm. The novel concept here is that the car is like a cell phone. The provider gives the consumer the car for free and charges for the energy consumed, how we now pay for minutes in cell phone plans.
See the Speaker's List.
I recorded the audio of the later two and will try to post them soon.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Good Friday and God
As I walked through the plaza in the middle of campus this afternoon a young street preacher was speaking to a crowd about God and Jesus and the old "us and them" routine. He described what we in the crowd needed to do to attain salvation. How we needed to trust in Jesus so we could live forever in heaven.
When I asked him to describe the creation and tell me whether or not he believed God created the universe in 6 days some 6,000 years ago he got a little squeamish and said he didn't want to to talk about that but instead wanted to focus on discussing Jesus.
After having some discussion with others in the crowd about the semantics surrounding the trinity he got to talking about the holy spirit. I asked him to qualify and describe this human-like god and what "he" was like before the physical manifestation of Jesus. I asked several questions about what the holy spirit is. He had to come back to the same answer in each case: I don't know. The only answer he had a sure idea of was about God looking like a man but not having male genitalia.
I asked "does God have a penis?"
The young preacher replied flatly.
"No"
I had some more questions that were discussed with his ilk on the side. These were questions of what God's body looks like and is made of. If God does not need to eat then does he have no bacteria in his gut or teeth in his mouth? If God can be everywhere all at once does he have muscles and bones? The answer was always no, or I don't know. If the physical pieces of a man are stripped away and all the symbiotic relationships that exist between him and the bacteria within him removed then that body can not live. And these folks continued to say that if I went to heaven I would have no need for the bacteria in my gut.
Well I say that the struggle to sustain our bodies on this planet is what makes us human and our drive to pass on our genes and our values is also part of that. So what good is it to go to a place where you are missing all those traits and faculties that make life so entertaining?
When Galileo demonstrated that the earth was not located in the privileged location the church thought it should be he was branded a heretic. When Darwin suggested that humans had descended from "lower" forms of life he was committing the same sin as Galileo. Except this time it was a transgression against every man's ego. Darwin removed humanity from its special ranking among life forms.
Knowing the truth of how our bodies came to exist and house our minds is far more rewarding I would argue. When you sit and think of all the events that had to transpire in just the right way to give you the opportunity to live your life, you can appreciate it far more even if everything is not perfect. The atoms that make up your physical form were generated on the inside of a star billions of years ago. And every single one of your direct ancestors had the fortune of loving every other ancestor you have, even if only for a moment. And all those infinite moments combined to allow you to live and thrive on this intricately decorated blue ball.
As we study life more and more we realize that we are not so alone even in our own bodies. A human body is made of approximately 1 trillion cells, but the number of bacterial cells that live in and on each human can exceed ten times that number. Bonnie Bassler from Princeton University illustrates this well in the following TED talk.
As my father always said. "Never kick a horse ball for it may be your uncle."
It becomes more clear with age.
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