Entries Tagged 'Uncategorized' ↓

Craig Venter encoded a line from James Joyce in a bacteria’s genome. Now, he is being sued from copyright infrigement.

Craig Venter encoded a line from James Joyce in a bacteria's genome. Now, he is being sued from copyright infrigement.

After such an elloquent review

After such an elloquent review

Michael Moore doesn’t upset me, nor does Sarah Palin or any Fox commentator, nor does the HuffPost. I simply ignore all of those as noise.

Paul Krugman, though, is a very inteligent person and is often really perceptive. However, sometime ago, he decided that instead of public intelectual, he’d become a political hack. And the result are posts like this.

Having someone like Krugman do a job that any non-brain-dead partisan could have done is, quite frankly, a major waste of human potential.

Michael Moore doesn't upset me, nor does Sarah Palin or any Fox commentator, nor does the HuffPost. I simply ignore all of those as noise. Paul Krugman, though, is a very inteligent person and is often really perceptive. However, sometime ago, he decided that instead of public intelectual, he'd become a political hack. And the ...

Like many “ancient” traditions, yoga is actually pretty new.

Like many "ancient" traditions, yoga is actually pretty new.

This recipe is just a really good one to have up your sleeve: it’s easy and it’s very good.

I normally serve it with white rice (maybe cooked with a cinnamon stick) and a bitter vegetable (brussel sprouts or, per my wife’s suggestion, leeks with cream).

This recipe is just a really good one to have up your sleeve: it's easy and it's very good. I normally serve it with white rice (maybe cooked with a cinnamon stick) and a bitter vegetable (brussel sprouts or, per my wife's suggestion, leeks with cream).

At least, early polling, shows that the public is behind the Democrats on the Wisconsin issue.

At least, early polling, shows that the public is behind the Democrats on the Wisconsin issue.

1. There is a pair of lies. On the one hand, the Republicans keep denying that their goal is to gut the unions. They claim that all they care about is the fiscal situation. They’re lying (otherwise, they’d take the deal on pay and benefits while preserving mandatory collective bargaining). They want to gut the unions, if possible. On the other hand, the Democrats cannot mention that what they really care about the right-to-work provisions in the law because, if it passes, making union dues voluntary, it would result in a large loss of campaign contributions.

2. I’m surprised that this issue only gets a passing mention in most discussion. Of course, liberal commentators have no interest in pointing to the fact that the Democratic party would like to continue taxing all public servants for campaign contributions. However, even pundits on the side of Wisconsin governor tend to mention loftier arguments (democracy against special interests, fiscal rectitude).

3. This is, in part, why the issue is so vicious, why Obama got involved. Millions of dollars in campaign contributions are at stake for the Democratic Party, but no one can mention it.

4. In general, their relationship with the unions are the weakest point for the Democrats in the current election cycle (I wish I’d written this before it started blowing up, because I’ve realised it before). If they are too strident defending the unions (which are an unpopular constituency), they will lose support of independents. Defending the unions risks being seen as purely self-serving and gets them no extra votes (strong pro-union voters already vote Democrat). Since they are bound to lose some of the battles, they get the double whammy of less money and an image of impotence with their base. The money issue does not matter so much for Obama, who is still likely to outspend his Republican challenger (and everyone in history), but the image problem could be fatal.

5. So, the Democrats need a strong victory early to stem the tide. The longer this goes on, the more political capital they’ll waste. We’ll see what the polls start telling us in a week or so (assuming that there is no early resolution), but I’d be surprised if Dems/Obama get a boost and not surprised if this starts costing them.

1. There is a pair of lies. On the one hand, the Republicans keep denying that their goal is to gut the unions. They claim that all they care about is the fiscal situation. They're lying (otherwise, they'd take the deal on pay and benefits while preserving mandatory collective bargaining). They want to gut ...

Here’s a spirited defence of the filibuster by a liberal commentator:

After all, [the majority party] won an election last November.

That is true.

But Wisconsin’s greatest governor, Robert M. La Follette, declared: “”We have long rested comfortably in this country upon the assumption that because our form of government was democratic, it was therefore automatically producing democratic results. Now, there is nothing mysteriously potent about the forms and names of democratic institutions that should make them self-operative. Tyranny and oppression are just as possible under democratic forms as under any other. We are slow to realize that democracy is a life; and involves continual struggle. It is only as those of every generation who love democracy resist with all their might the encroachments of its enemies that the ideals of representative government can even be nearly approximated.”

La Follette’s point [...] is that democracy does not end on Election Day. That’s when it begins. Citizens do not elect officials to rule them from one election to the next. Citizens elect officials to represent them, to respond to the will of the people as it evolves.

Of course, he was talking about the Wisconsin fleeing Democrats, but it’s a pretty good defence of the Republican filibuster in the Senate.

I always thought we’d have to wait for 2012 and a Republican Senate majority for liberals to start waxing poetically about the rights of a minority to stop a majority from passing its extremist agenda. I was wrong.

Here's a spirited defence of the filibuster by a liberal commentator: After all, won an election last November. That is true. But Wisconsin's greatest governor, Robert M. La Follette, declared: ""We have long rested comfortably in this country upon the assumption that because our form of government was democratic, it was therefore automatically producing ...

The case for state-level support for the arts is strongest, by far, for the state of New York for reasons related to tourism and New York City. But Manhattan, Kansas? Let them watch YouTube.

­— Tyler Cowen (at marginal revolution).

The case for state-level support for the arts is strongest, by far, for the state of New York for reasons related to tourism and New York City. But Manhattan, Kansas? Let them watch YouTube. ­— Tyler Cowen (at marginal revolution).

Micromort animation. A micromort is a one-in-a-million chance of dying. (h/t: Bruce Schneier)

Micromort animation. A micromort is a one-in-a-million chance of dying. (h/t: Bruce Schneier)