Our Founding Father
In Frank we trust (a great old video clip of Frank Zappa debating freedom of speech – hat tip Ed)
Archive of posts filed under the mind category.
Making Sausage
Earlier this week, Kevin Vranes helped explain something that had been puzzling me: how members of Congress could use appropriations bills as vehicles to make policy. The item at hand for me was the Yucca Mountain language included in the most recent Senate version of the Energy and Water appropriations bill, which I’d been writing …
Updating the Planet
Added a couple of feeds to the planet: Roger Pielke Sr. and David Appell. David’s back in fine form, and I keep forgetting to read Roger’s blog and then kicking myself when I finally get to it because I’ve missed something interesting days earlier.
Wish I’d Thought of That
A friend points to one of the great baseball names, Twins’ rookie picture pitcher Boof Bonser. According to the MLB web site, the former Florida high school star had his name legally changed in 2001 from “John”. (Thanks to copy editor Malcolm.)
Daybook
reading: My goofball daughter gave me The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster for Father’s Day. Way better than a barbecue, frankly. climate news: Sergey Zimov of the Russian Academy and colleagues have a paper in Friday’s Science arguing that the potential for carbon loss from permafrost has been underestimated. That’s another “plus” feedback: “Factors …
Life Imitates Art
“The group title may well come down to its final two games Wednesday when Mexico plays Portugal and Angola meets Iran.” “This match will determine once and for all, which nation is the greatest on Earth – Mexico or Portugal!”
Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere
The problem with the U.S. Department of Energy. Perhaps subtitled: “Parking in 14 easy pages.”
Chess and Love
From the virtual lips of Johnny_Mango, a phrase that has never before appeared on the InterWeb: Armenian chess houligans.
Daybook
IMG_0059 Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. ride: The picture’s from a pedestrian bridge over the interstate near my house. This is how we do a lot of our rivers here in the western U.S. – all concrete, but with very little water in them. In this case, it’s a bit of a puzzle that there’s any …
Priorities
We can do without toilets, we can bring our own water, but we have to have Internet. Mount Stromlo Observatory director Penny Sackett, on the priorities for restoring infrastructure following the wildfire that swept across the observatory in January 2003. From Dennis Normille’s account in the May 5 Science.