Track Congress

GovTrack.us allows you to track legislation and your representatives in Congress. You can see the progress of bills and what your representatives have been saying in session along with their voting records. This site has been recognized by the New York Times and the Washington Post and was nominated for a Webbie.

100,000 year old plant?

I'm not sure if this is true or not...but apparently this is the oldest living organism at 100,000 years old and 8 kilometers long. Link

It's Never to Early to Get Excited

Football anyone? SI Post Spring Rankings and ESPN Rankings.

Can Marriage and Science Co-exist?

Several years ago, Satoshi Kanazawa, then a psychologist at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, analyzed a biographical database of 280 great scientists--mathematicians, physicists, chemists, and biologists.

"The productivity of male scientists tends to drop right after marriage," says Kanazawa in an e-mail interview from his current office at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom. "Scientists tend to 'desist' from scientific research upon marriage, just like criminals desist from crime upon marriage."

Data from the National Science Foundation show that female, doctoral-level scientists, and engineers are less likely to be married than are their male counterparts (66% versus 83%). Among those married, however, women are more likely to confront problems accommodating a two-career marriage--one reason being that they are twice as likely as men to have a spouse who works full-time.

And the final kick in the balls....

"Sacrifice is a two-way street. Sometimes you sacrifice time in the lab to spend with a girlfriend or a wife, … but I can tell you it’s well worth it. In the end, when your friends get married and have their own families, your parents pass away, and families move apart and you grow older, your gel box isn’t going to be there for you on the holidays and those moments when you need someone for support," says Bob. "Really, what’s the point of discovering the greatest thing in the world if you have no one to tell it to when you come home?"

Haven't had enough? Read here.

The Piraha

Yep, damn interesting. The Piraha, a tribe in Brazil, has no concept of math, no collective history, and no art.

From Harper's

Harper's Index June 2006:

• Estimated percentage of women in U.S. prisons or jails who are single mothers: 77
• Chances that an American says he or she uses the word "fuck": 2 in 3.
• Ratio of negative portrayals of teachers on U.S. children's TV shows to positive portrayals: 3:1
• Ratio for portrayals of adults in general: 10:1

From one of the 262 letters of support written for Jack Abramoff as pleas for leniency: "He assisted my daughter in her acting career. With his help, she worked a little with the Power Rangers."

F**k

Should I be proud or embarrassed?

CHRISTOPHER M. FAIRMAN
Ohio State University - Michael E. Moritz College of Law March 2006

Ohio State Public Law Working Paper No. 59
Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies Working Paper Series No. 39

Abstract:
This Article is as simple and provocative as its title suggests: it explores the legal implications of the word fuck. The intersection of the word fuck and the law is examined in four major areas: First Amendment, broadcast regulation, sexual harassment, and education. The legal implications from the use of fuck vary greatly with the context. To fully understand the legal power of fuck, the nonlegal sources of its power are tapped. Drawing upon the research of etymologists, linguists, lexicographers, psychoanalysts, and other social scientists, the visceral reaction to fuck can be explained by cultural taboo. Fuck is a taboo word. The taboo is so strong that it compels many to engage in self-censorship. This process of silence then enables small segments of the population to manipulate our rights under the guise of reflecting a greater community. Taboo is then institutionalized through law, yet at the same time is in tension with other identifiable legal rights. Understanding this relationship between law and taboo ultimately yields fuck jurisprudence.

Link to paper. From docuticker.com.

Carbon Dioxide: We call it Life

This was from a posting on Andrew Sullivan's site. The Competitive Enterprise Institute has begun airing TV commercials on the "alleged global warming crisis." Watch the commercial.

Although it's true that carbon dioxide is a product of cellular respiration and plants do indeed use CO2 in photosynthesis, the problem occurs when the balance is disrupted with burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

Domestication of Elephants

According to government figures, at least 84 people in Sri Lanka have been killed since early 2005, with 156 pachyderms suffering the same fate at the hands of villagers by shooting or electrocution.

"We will be using them for (wildlife) protection work," said Kariyawasam. "Officials can ride on them, where vehicles can't go, to prevent poaching."

Article from Aljazeera.net

Boondocks

"Hmmm. Selective salvation. You may have a bright future in foreign policy."

Link

Kristof on Smart Asians

So then why do Asian-Americans really succeed in school? Aside from immigrant optimism, I see two and a half reasons:

First, as Trang suggests, is the filial piety nurtured by Confucianism for 2,500 years. Teenagers rebel all over the world, but somehow Asian-American kids often manage both to exasperate and to finish their homework. And Asian-American families may not always be warm and fuzzy, but they tend to be intact and focused on their children's getting ahead.

Second, Confucianism encourages a reverence for education. In Chinese villages, you still sometimes see a monument to a young man who centuries ago passed the jinshi exam -- the Ming dynasty equivalent of getting a perfect SAT. In a Confucian culture, it is intuitive that the way to achieve glory and success is by working hard and getting A's.

Then there's the half-reason: American kids typically say in polls that the students who succeed in school are the ''brains.'' Asian kids typically say that the A students are those who work hard. That means no Asian-American ever has an excuse for not becoming valedictorian.

''Anybody can be smart, can do great on standardized tests,'' Trang explains. ''But unless you work hard, you're not going to do well.''

If I'm right, the success of Asian-Americans is mostly about culture, and there's no way to transplant a culture. But there are lessons we can absorb, and maybe the easiest is that respect for education pays dividends. That can come, for example, in the form of higher teacher salaries, or greater public efforts to honor star students. While there are no magic bullets, we would be fools not to try to learn some Asian lessons.

I believe I've stated that half-reason before.

Kristof, May 14th, 2006 New York Times.

Awesome

AVirginsPlea.com

US Losing Influence in Bolivia

Even though the US sends more money (and its finest citizens) in aid to Bolivia than other countries, Bolivians are embracing the new aid programs from Venezuela and Cuba.

"The Cubans and Venezuelans are putting a human face on what they're doing, so they can get a hell of a lot of mileage," said Myles Frechette, a former United States diplomat in Latin America. "We have been the donor of choice for a very, very long time, and the kind of things that we help with pay off in the long run. So they tend to be undramatic and people don't notice and seem to take them for granted."

Link

EggNog

"A gang of anarchist Robin Hood-style thieves, who dress as superheroes and steal expensive food from exclusive restaurants and delicatessens to give to the poor, are being hunted by police in the German city of Hamburg."

Link

Andrew Sullivan and God

"And there are those who simply believe that, by definition, God is unknowable to our limited, fallible human minds and souls. If God is ultimately unknowable, then how can we be so certain of what God's real position is on, say, the fate of Terri Schiavo? Or the morality of contraception? Or the role of women? Or the love of a gay couple? Also, faith for many of us is interwoven with doubt, a doubt that can strengthen faith and give it perspective and shadow. That doubt means having great humility in the face of God and an enormous reluctance to impose one's beliefs, through civil law, on anyone else.

I dissent from having my faith co-opted and wielded by people whose politics I do not share and whose intolerance I abhor. The word Christian belongs to no political party. It's time the quiet majority of believers took it back."

Link

Rumsfeld vs Rumsfeld

Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst, speaking truth to power. This video quotes Rumsfeld to Rumsfeld asking for explanations on Saddam's connection to al Qaeda and the knowledge of WMD.

On To the Point, McGovern states that the CIA had no real links between Saddam and al Qaeda. CIA members have also come out to say that the policy was set and that there were no active WMD programs in Iraq.

Why did the administration cherry-pick information for public release before the war? How good was our pre-war intelligence? How good was our policy?

Three sites to see...

• ChannelChooser.com 70 free channels you can watch online. BBC News comes in awesome.
• PeekVid.com has a bunch of TV shows. Highlights include: 31 episodes of Thundercats, 38 episodes of Smurfs, and 40 episodes of Home Improvements. This must be illegal. Hosted through Guba.com
• Eyewitnesses of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on a more serious note. It's hard to imagine this occurred.

Bolivia Gas Takeover

Here is an interesting view from what I've read about the situation.

Save the Internet

May 2nd, New York Times editorial:

"Net neutrality" is a concept that is still unfamiliar to most Americans, but it keeps the Internet democratic. Cable and telephone companies that provide Internet service are talking about creating a two-tiered Internet, in which Web sites that pay them large fees would get priority over everything else. Opponents of these plans are supporting Net-neutrality legislation, which would require all Web sites to be treated equally. Net neutrality recently suffered a setback in the House, but there is growing hope that the Senate will take up the cause.

One of the Internet's great strengths is that a single blogger or a small political group can inexpensively create a Web page that is just as accessible to the world as Microsoft's home page. But this democratic Internet would be in danger if the companies that deliver Internet service changed the rules so that Web sites that pay them money would be easily accessible, while little-guy sites would be harder to access, and slower to navigate. Providers could also block access to sites they do not like.

That would be a financial windfall for Internet service providers, but a disaster for users, who could find their Web browsing influenced by whichever sites paid their service provider the most money. There is a growing movement of Internet users who are pushing for legislation to make this kind of discrimination impossible. It has attracted supporters ranging from MoveOn.org to the Gun Owners of America. Grass-roots political groups like these are rightly concerned that their online speech could be curtailed if Internet service providers were allowed to pick and choose among Web sites.

Opportunities abound to take action for this cause: Sign the Petition, Call your Congressional Reps, Write a Letter to Congress, etc. However consider the following from the Economist:

An overly prescriptive set of net-neutrality rules could prove counterproductive. For a start, it would mean that all new network construction costs would have to be recouped from consumers alone, which could drive up prices or discourage investment. Ensuring “neutrality” could require regulators to interpose themselves in all kinds of agreements between network operators, content providers and consumers. If a network link is too slow to support a particular service, does that constitute a breach of neutrality? Strict rules could also hinder the development of new services that depend on being able to distinguish between different types of traffic, imposing a “one size fits all” architecture on the internet just as engineers are considering novel ways to improve its underlying design (see survey).

While the two positions might appear to be incompatible, there is in fact a sensible path that should suit everyone. A minimal set of rules to protect net neutrality would still leave room for operators to experiment with new premium services. Even Edward Whitacre, the boss of AT&T, says he is happy to go along with the simple rules proposed by America's telecoms regulator that forbid discrimination against particular websites or services. Blocking or interfering with existing traffic on the internet is unacceptable; but if operators want to build fast lanes alongside it, they should be allowed to.

Here is the bill introduce by Edward Markey, Rep from Massachusetts two days ago.

Read more:

• New Yorker article
• San Francisco Chronicle editorial
• SaveTheInternet.com
• Wikipedia article with counterarguments from the Cato Institute (at the bottom).

Global Index of Failed States

The top 10 failed states

Sudan: Chaos in western region of Darfur has undermined the peace dividend from the end of the north/south civil war

Democratic Republic of Congo: Millions have been displaced by a bloody internal conflict that has lasted for decades

Ivory Coast: Protracted civil war has shattered country and government has only now met after two-year hiatus

Iraq: In political deadlock and on the verge of civil war after US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein

Zimbabwe: Facing starvation and in economic freefall under the regime of Robert Mugabe

Chad: Destabilised by Darfur fighting

Somalia: Still in near anarchy under warlords. Government has only recently returned from Kenya

Haiti: Massive human rights abuse and popular unrest followed a US-backed regime change

Pakistan: Tensions between secular government and popular Islamist pressure

Afghanistan: Taliban insurgency on rise again and government hemmed in at Kabul

• Summary from the Independent.
  
• Full article from Foreign Policy
  

The Independent

The Independent is a great online news source, especially for a non-US perspective. Today's headlines include the Catholic church considering allowing the use of condoms (for married couples when one has AIDS). This comes after much criticism for being complacent in the epidemic.

According to sources close to the Vatican, a document setting out the new position has already been approved by the health pastoral care office. It awaits review by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and finally the approval of Pope Benedict XVI.

Nothing will be certain until the Pope has signed it. But the fact that the change has got this far, with carefully placed and worded endorsements by half a dozen influential cardinals, is seen as an indication the change is almost certain.

What has always impressed me about the Catholic church is its rich traditions and the consistent logic the church uses (although not always timely).