Cranky rant of the day

OK, this is directed at the marketing geniuses at Coa-Cola who came up with the idea of updating "I'd LIke to Teach the World to Sing" as "I'd Like to Teach the World to Chill": Chill on this, motherf*ckers! For cryin' out loud... "I'd Like to Teach the World to Chill." Someone ought to teach the marketing department how to pull their heads out of their collective asses, that's what ought to be taught.

What was that about "government... for the people?"

From today's edition of "All Things Considered," here's a two-part chronology of how contingency plans were originally envisioned as Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast, followed by how those plans completely fell apart.

Après moi, le déluge

Or not, perhaps.

So, it's been ten days since Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast and left devastation in her wake. The dumbfounding missteps at all governmental levels have been well documented. And yet, I can't help but feel that the Bush administration is operating with the mindset that everything that has transpired has done so in the only manner possible.

If given the chance to reconsider decisions, should such decisions have been decided in a different manner? Of course. Certainly, the New Orleans city government should have had made contingency plans to evacuate its citizens in advance of Katrina's landfall. And yes, the system of levees that was supposed to protect New Orleans from just such a disaster to which we've just borne witness should have received funding from the Federal government for structural improvements. Would these same decisions have resulted in different outcomes that could have prevented this tragedy? Could they have resulted in different outcomes? It saddens me when I come to the conclusion that the answer is: No. Certainly at the Federal level, I don't expect any outcome other than the one we've experienced.

Welcome to Bushworld, where, as Maureen Dowd describes it, "It's their reality. We just live and die in it." In this best of all possible worlds, President Bush plays Candide to Karl Rove's Pangloss. Everything that transpires does so because it was meant to be so and cannot possibly result in any other outcome than that which has transpired.

We are so screwed.

Holy crap

Or maybe: "When MRI magnets attack..."



(Click on either image for the full story.)

More ursine wackiness

Ur? Did I do something wrong? (Click on the image for the full story.)

Platypi!

(Click on the image for a larger version.)

Water, water, everywhere

As if "Dark Water" wasn't creepy enough, now comes news of a woman charged with a water bill of $74,000. Gah.

Fun with science, part IV

More specifically, William F. Buckley, Jr. believes in God, but not the scientific method. To quote his contribution to "This I Believe":

This I believe: that it is intellectually easier to credit a divine intelligence than to submit dumbly to felicitous congeries about nature.

This I wonder: has Mr. Buckley, Jr. ever taken penicillin, a drug whose antibiotic effects were deduced and demonstrated by the very methods he seems to have no confidence in?

Krazy kable hijinks

So, last Wednesday, I came home late after a long day in lab. Looking forward to the two episodes of "The Inside" that I had programmed my VCR to tape, I noticed that my cable had gone out (no signal on my cable modem). My first thought was, "OK, maybe the signal just went out so maybe the VCR was still able to tape it." No such luck. Rewound the tape and all I had was static. Called the cable company and got the "We are experiencing outages due to inclement weather" message. (To be fair, Hurricane Dennis was approaching the Gulf Coast. The crappy weather was kind of like the way the Silver Surfer used to announce the arrival of Galactus. Except that no one's homeworld got eaten for lunch.) Finally got through to a human operator and was told that they would send someone over to take a look. To sum up: came home tired, no TV, no Internet connection. Oh well, maybe I'll read a book. (Actually, I think I watched "Hellboy" again.)

Came home the next day, still no TV signal or Internet connection. Spoke with another representative at the cable company and this time, after a little snooping, he concluded that someone was trying to steal my cable because none of my neighbors were having problems with their cable. He said he'd put in a request for someone to come over to the building and fix my cable connection. The score thus far: still no TV, still no Internet connection, and I had missed "Beauty and the Geek" not once, but twice. Crap.

OK, so now it's Friday. Came home and saw that my Internet connection had been restored. So far, so good. How about the TV? Turned on the TV only to discover that I was receiving less than half the channels I had been receiving for the better part of a year and a half. And of course, leave it to my luck that the channels that I was no longer receiving were the ones I watched the most (e.g. - Cartoon Network, SciFi Channel, ESPN, the History Channel). Called the cable company yet again. Turns out that I wasn't supposed to be receiving those channels at all since I had signed up for the basic subscription rather than the extended basic subscription. Damn. I guess the Man caught up with me.

Final score: Internet connection is back. TV viewing is now restricted to broadcast channels plus Chicago's WGN Superstation (which will come in handy if I'm interested, say, in the weather in a city from which I moved away almost two years ago). I think I'll start paying a lot more attention to PBS from now on, especially since I joined Georgia Public Broadcasting a couple of months ago.

Once again, the cable company wins. Down with the Man!

Supreme Court Justice O'Connor to retire...

... Supreme Court nomination battle to begin sooner than expected.

With Justice O'Connor's announcement of her resignation, it became clear that President Bush's choice to replace her would represent not only an opportunity to maintain the current ideological balance in the Supreme Court but actually shift it towards the right. At stake, once again, is the fate of Roe v. Wade. With the imminent departure of Justice O'Connor, conservative opponents of Roe are already mobilizing to take advantage of what they perceive to be a golden opportunity to overturn Roe. In the words of Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council:

We in the conservative movement have been waiting for over a decade for this moment in time to see a philosophical shift in the Court and we will seize this opportunity... We will be mobilizing over 20,000 churches across the nation through a variety of means. We are in communication daily with over a million people through our website. We have brought on new staff just for this battle that is pending.

So, in other words: "Gee, we can't wait to turn this country into a misogynistic theocracy!" Good times.

Fun with science, part III

Granted, we haven't reached a point akin to Galileo's experience with the Inquisition, but who knows what the next three and a half years will bring, let alone the next presidential election.

And while I'm on the topic of bacteria, the National Academy of Sciences has thumbed its collective nose at the Department of Health and Human Services in proceeding to publish the PNAS article analyzing the ease with which the US milk supply could be contaminated with botulinum toxin and the subsequent harm that would be inflicted on the public.

Fun with science, part II

Platypi! I think the only other animal I like more is the otter. Yeah, otters rock. Otter pops, anyone?

One Congressional showdown averted...

... is another one in the wings? The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would expand federal funding on stem cell research, including embryonic stem cell research. The Senate is prepared to pass the bill and, according to Senator Arlen Spector (R-Pa), there is enough support to override a Presidential veto. President Bush, for his part, has clearly stated his disapproval of the bill and his intention to veto it.

Hmm, so, let me see if I understand this correctly. In other words... President Bush to stem cell research proponents: "Already born? Got Alzheimer's? Parkinson's? A degenerative neuromuscular disease? Too fucking bad! You're shit out of luck. Besides, I don't need your vote anymore."

Fun with science

Hey, if evolution is just a "theory," might as well question everything else under the sun, right? (Click on the images for a larger version.)





Yeah. Good times.

You've got to be kidding me

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith just opened today (or last night, rather) and already it's been seized upon by liberals and conservatives alike as Exhibit A in their respective agendas.

People, it's just a movie. Does anyone seriously believe that the man who punished movieviewers with Episodes I and II would have the artistry to craft political allegory in the guise of science fiction adventure? And don't get me started on the whole Joseph Cambell and The Hero with a Thousand Faces business, either. George Lucas practically bought out the entire sledgehammer industry to make that point.

Having said that, I've made my plans to see Episode III this Friday. Wa-hoo! What? Just because I rant about Episodes I and II doesn't mean I'm sitting out Episode III. It's become a matter of principle at this point.

Can't sleep. Clowns will eat me.

It is fucking impossible to find some sorbet in this town. What's a person got to do to get some goddam sorbet?!

Oh, and today, while walking back from campus, I saw a bird of prey (hawk? falcon? not sure) feasting on a squirrel. Right by the Chemistry Building! I kid you not. If I had a camera on me I would have captured it as proof.

In other news, the Yankees suck, the Knicks suck, the Mets are on a roll, hockey's dead, and my allergies are driving me insane.

Oh, for crying out loud

The contents of President Bush's iPod, dubbed "iPod One," have been revealed by a presidential aide. Not surprisingly, far too much has been read into what is (or isn't) on the iPod. For once, I'll give the President a break. Hell, I wouldn't want anyone making conclusions about me based on the contents of my iPod.

Frank Rich rocks

I wouldn't ordinarily associate Frank Rich's pieces in the New York Times with the term "jump the shark" but I suppose there's a time and place for everything. Check out his Op-Ed piece slamming the recent mediafests that were the Sciavo death watch and the papal death watch.

More "Flick Skinny"

"Sin City" a la "Flick Skinny". (Click on the image for a larger version.)

Culture of life?

Not to be too snarky, but... oh hell, who am I kidding? If I can't be snarky, what the hell do I have left?

Anyway. For a so-called "culture of life" that the powers-that-be are trying to encourage, we seem to be awfully obsessed with death these days. First there was Terry Schiavo's death vigil. Now we've just finished with the Pope's death vigil. Gah.

On second thought, given the unseemly morbidity of the past few week's headline news, I can't summon up the snark necessary to make myself feel better about the pathetic state to which the pop media has deteriorated. Out of respect for Pope John Paul II, I'll just have to be content with telling the pop media to go "F" itself.