It is best to use two hands, and to nod frequently to mom to let her know it’s OK. Also, it’s easier if it’s a Minnesota Taco which is actually a Burrito (but we call Burrito’s “Wraps” here, of course).
Monthly Archives: January 2012
The proper way to kill someone
First, make sure the baby has it’s bottle. Then call the police and tell them you are going to do it. Then shoot the guy dead. What could be simpler?
Will Michele Bachmann Run for Re-Election to Congress?
Now that Michele Bachmann, Minnesota 6th district Congresswoman, has pulled her hat out of the presidential ring, the question remains: Will she run for re-election to her seat in Congress? The filing deadline is June 5th, so no matter what we may speculate and no matter what Michele or her operatives may indicate, we will not know for sure until June 6th. Continue reading Will Michele Bachmann Run for Re-Election to Congress?
How to Speke Inglish
I had never heard of The Chaos before today. I suppose that makes me unkulterd, and I’m afraid that I can’t use the excuse that it came out in the 1980s when I was either in a trench underneath Boston or deep in the Jungles of Zaire, or doing double duty taking classes and teaching and writing a thesis. Chaos is a poem by Gerard Nolst Trenité that demonstrates the lockstep association between English words as we say them, and English words as we write (spel) them. In other words, Chaos, using the non-mathematical meaning of the word.
The poem exists in many forms. I found what is probably the best “original” version, but the copy I found italicizes the words that you are suppose to notice, and includes line numbers. The italics makes it too easy and the numbers are distracting. So, I’ve decided to give you a link to that authoritative version, but provide a transcript sans italics below the fold.
Japan Nuclear Disaster Update # 42: A River Runs Through It
In the beginning of the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis, in the hours and days after the earthquake and tsunami struck, nuclear power experts assured us that no matter how bad it seemed, nuclear material would stay in the reactors. It was unlikely that the reactors would melt down, and if they did melt down a little, that would be OK because the melted down stuff would stay within the reactor vessels. No problem. What actually happened, however, is that the nuclear material in three of the reactors totally melted down, and then melted through in perhaps two or three of the reactors, but at least, probably, did not reach “China Syndrome” levels of out-of-control.
What actually did happen, though, may have been worse.
Continue reading Japan Nuclear Disaster Update # 42: A River Runs Through It
Jean Baret was a Girl!
As you certainly know, Jean Baret was a famous botanical explorer of the 18th century, travelling on Louis Antoine de Bougainville’s expedition and circumnavigating the world collecting and discovering new plants. But Jean was Jeanne, a female, who at first pretended to be a man, then later changed her story slightly to being a Eunuch, to stay on board after others had become suspicious of her gender identity. She was actually married to her boss, who presumably knew her secret.
Very recently, Glynis Ridley wrote a biography of her life (The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe
No SOPA
NO SOPA is a google chrome extension that warns you when you browse to a web site of an entity that supports SOPA. Go here to get the extension. Then, go to the Mosion Picture Association of America (fer instance) to test it. Seems to work fine.
Russian Rivers and Arctic Salinity: Climate Variation Better Understood
The sun heats the earth, but unevenly. The excess heat around the equator moves towards the poles, via a number of different mechanisms, the most noticeable for us humans being via air masses. That’s what much of our weather is about. Heat also moves towards the poles, in the ongoing evening-out of energy distribution on the planet’s surface, via ocean currents.
One of the interesting things that happens with ocean currents is this: Warm water tends to move from equator towards polar regions across the surface, then cools down and drops to the deep sea, where it moves back south again, often in a kind of loop that we call a "conveyor." Becuase of some quirky historical stuff, the continents on this planet are mostly in the norther hemisphere, so the loops of ocean water that mariners have long called "currents" are extra strange in the north, and as it happens, there is a big loop of warm water or two that go way farther north (as warm water) than usual, where increased evaporation and cooling cause the water to a) loose it’s heat to the air and b) sink rather dramatically to the bottom of the sea. The sinking helps direct the north-moving surface currents, maintaining the loop. The release of heat keeps England from looking like Canada and Norway from looking like Greenland, as much of this heat leaves the North Atlantic and traverses Europe first. By the time that energy gets around the world all the way back to Greenland, well, it isn’t helping to melt glaciers very much, bit it does in fact have an effect. Without this warming, there would probably be continental glacial masses on Europe and Canada, rather than scattered and small mountain glaciers. In other words, there would be an ice age.
Did I mention the evaporation as a driving force in the conveyor? Yes, of course I did. And the reason this works is that when the warm surface water evaporates, it becomes more saline relative to the rest of the ocean, and sinks, because salty water is denser than fresh water. We believe that there have been times in the past when fresh water being added to the northern seas has mixed with a conveyor, caused the water to be less salty, turned off the flow of warm water to the northerly latitudes, and ushered in a mini-ice age, or perhaps a maxi-ice age. Indeed, there are some theories about paleoclimate that suggest, very strongly, that this is exactly the mechanism that triggers an ice age.
Continue reading Russian Rivers and Arctic Salinity: Climate Variation Better Understood
Stand with Tucson
Watch this and then click here.
Rush Limbaugh Calls the Shots
… in the Republican Party.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has canceled the climate change chapter in his upcoming book of environmental essays after Rush Limbaugh and other commentators targeted its author, atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe.
The truth about Iowa. Not work safe.
Don’t watch it unless you are going to watch it ’till the end. The total end, not just the thing you think is the end.
Don’t believe him? Click here.
It is reported that John McCain has endorsed Mitt Romney
“It’s with some nostalgia that I return to this place that I love so well, but I am really here for one reason and one reason only and that is to make sure that we make Mitt Romney the next president of the United States of America”
I haven’t seen a news report of this yet, but that’s what my email tells me. The Washington Post will have it shortly.
Bachmann Ends Campaign
Only hours after indicating that she would take the fight to New Hampshire, we now hear that Michele Bachmann will suspend her presidential bid today. She is expected to make the announcer soon from West Des Moines.
May I Direct Your Attention to Ring Number Two!
… of my bloggy three-ring circus.
Over the years, I’ve blogged quite a bit about election politics, with increasing attention paid at appropriate times, including the Minnesota Recount (winner: Al Franken!) and other timely issues. As of last night, the 2012 election season is officially up and running, and for general election commentary, I’ll be blogging mainly at The X Blog, and I just wanted to draw your attention to that. For example, we have what I said before the Iowa Caucuses (The Meaning and Significance of Tonight’s Iowa Caucuses) and what I said after the Iowa Caucuses (Bachmann Moves Ahead “Full Steam” after Iowa Victory …)
This does not mean that there will not be election related blogging here. After all, the current “front runner” for the Republican Party seems to be Rick Santorum, and he may be the most denialist of the denialists with respect to Anthropogenic Global Warming in the race. So we will be addressing that and other issues here, of course.
Bachmann Quits Presidential Bid
Only hours after indicating that she would take the fight to New Hampshire, we now hear that Michele Bachmann will suspend her presidential bid today. She is expected to make the announcement soon from West Des Moines.
This is a surprise and a disappointment. Michele told us that both God and her husband thought she should run for president. The de facto founder of the Tea Party hast quit after the first real contest, which in turn followed a hollow victory at the Sraw Poll. The Tea-Tossing Patriots of the American Nation had a surprise victory at Lexington and Concord followed by a trouncing at their first real contest, at Bunker Hill, but they did not quit. No. They continued the fight, dragging cannons over the snowy Berkshires and training the weapons on the British Fort in Boston, driving them out. Then they went on to win the American Revolution and found the greatest nation ever.
But Michele Bachmann has encountered one significant loss and is quitting the race. This is very, very disappointing for many reasons.
Including, and especially, the fact that this probably means she will run for re-election to congress in Minnesota’s 6th district. Which I can see from my living room. Damn.