I recently became aware of this website from Talk of the Nation: Science Friday (if you like science, you're already listening, if you're not, shame on you). They were pushing to get the presidential candidates to discuss issues of science. They were not able to get an actual debate, but they were able to get the candidates to reply to a 14 question survey (you can read the complete answers on the website, or the NY Times gives an overview here). I want to read all the answers before really commenting (unfortunately, I have my own science to worry about now), but I would like to hear other peoples opinions of their answers.
On a side note, someone in the lab played the song below and it reminded me that 2 of my first 3 cars had bench seating, and my Dad always had a full size truck, so I've always been kind of anti-bucket seat.
"I need you here with me, not way over in bucket seat"
(oh yeah, if you can't tell, j's out of town...)
Monday, September 15, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Taking Umbrage
(Once again written without j's edits)
A few months ago, the Slate Political Gabfest had an abbreviated discussion how campaigning nowadays seemed to be two rival camps fighting over who could take umbrage with what the other was saying. And you scored more points by whoever was dealt the bigger slight. Today, Obama, talking about the McCain repackaging themselves as the change campaign, compared it to putting lipstick on pig (it's still a pig). The McCain campaign came out demanding an apology to Gov. Palen, obviously this is a slight on her due to her pit bull/lipstick comment. Well, come to find out, he wasn't discussing Palin at all, and McCain had already said the exact same thing when discussing Hillary's health care plan. Oops.
On a side note, how do other people feel about all the knocks on community organizers that came out during the RNC? During the Palin speech, I sent the following text to t "I feel like the community organizer is important to black communities. Are the shots at it latent racism?" I have since discussed it with my bro e, and read this article here from the conservative point of view. I wasn't totally convinced that it wasn't.
It's seems to me that 'community organizer' as a (job) title, is more of an urban/minority phenomenon. Their purpose is to work with the community to better its people working with people in power whether they be private or public, so that meant working with landlords, businesses, state and local government. In some ways, I agree that (similar to the article) it is similar to a lobbyist, but isn't it inherently more noble to be a lobbyist for the poor than for for large corporations? They also took exception to his taking a job and declaring himself a C.O. rather than the community selecting him. But that was the jobwe was hired to do by (according to Wikipedia) Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland. So churches pooled together to hire someone who the thought would be most effective for better their members/community, nothing inherently wrong with that (I don't think there is inherently anything wrong with lobbyists, until they get disproportional amounts of power/access and actually start writing law).
Finally, I'm not sold on their argument that we see a racial tone to it just because our preconceived notion of the C.O. is that of an African American, that was just the fault of our own experience. They are declaring that the Chicken definitely came before the egg, hopign that we will not delve deaper into the origins of the chicken. I would argue that they had to same prejudice, and by invoking it knew they were pushing some racial buttons. But maybe I'm just taking umbrage...
A few months ago, the Slate Political Gabfest had an abbreviated discussion how campaigning nowadays seemed to be two rival camps fighting over who could take umbrage with what the other was saying. And you scored more points by whoever was dealt the bigger slight. Today, Obama, talking about the McCain repackaging themselves as the change campaign, compared it to putting lipstick on pig (it's still a pig). The McCain campaign came out demanding an apology to Gov. Palen, obviously this is a slight on her due to her pit bull/lipstick comment. Well, come to find out, he wasn't discussing Palin at all, and McCain had already said the exact same thing when discussing Hillary's health care plan. Oops.
On a side note, how do other people feel about all the knocks on community organizers that came out during the RNC? During the Palin speech, I sent the following text to t "I feel like the community organizer is important to black communities. Are the shots at it latent racism?" I have since discussed it with my bro e, and read this article here from the conservative point of view. I wasn't totally convinced that it wasn't.
It's seems to me that 'community organizer' as a (job) title, is more of an urban/minority phenomenon. Their purpose is to work with the community to better its people working with people in power whether they be private or public, so that meant working with landlords, businesses, state and local government. In some ways, I agree that (similar to the article) it is similar to a lobbyist, but isn't it inherently more noble to be a lobbyist for the poor than for for large corporations? They also took exception to his taking a job and declaring himself a C.O. rather than the community selecting him. But that was the jobwe was hired to do by (according to Wikipedia) Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland. So churches pooled together to hire someone who the thought would be most effective for better their members/community, nothing inherently wrong with that (I don't think there is inherently anything wrong with lobbyists, until they get disproportional amounts of power/access and actually start writing law).
Finally, I'm not sold on their argument that we see a racial tone to it just because our preconceived notion of the C.O. is that of an African American, that was just the fault of our own experience. They are declaring that the Chicken definitely came before the egg, hopign that we will not delve deaper into the origins of the chicken. I would argue that they had to same prejudice, and by invoking it knew they were pushing some racial buttons. But maybe I'm just taking umbrage...
Monday, September 8, 2008
Forgotten weekend madness...
So recently my laptop started having some issues. First the power cord started to fray right at the plug into the computer and a crack propagated along the right hinge. Naturally this was exactly one month after the warranty/service plan ran out from Dell, so to replace it was going to be pretty expensive. It's also been running progressively slower, as everything that runs Windows seems to do with time. So after talking with Dell, it was apparent that they don't even make the back of the displays that I would have to buy in order to repair the problem. So I started researching buying a new one, although I didn't want to spend $1100-1500 for the prepackaged computers from Penn, especially since Dell and Lenovo are both releasing new versions of their platforms.
So I looked on some message boards and found a site that had some surplus Dell parts, and found my 'backsplash' (what we called the electronics part on the back of Washers/Dryers at GE). While researching how to replace the display cover, I discovered I'd be exposing my RAM as well. So I found the RAM I needed to be dirt cheap now, so I ordered 4x my current RAM and a new external hard drive to also quadruple my current capacity.
After ordering all the parts, Saturday morning, I got up early, took apart my computer, install the new components and now my laptop is fixed and running faster, and hopefully I bought 2-3 more years for it. It's amazing how good you feel when you do something not really that difficult (I am an engineer for Pete's sake) but it saves you around $1000 and it's a little out of your normal comfort zone.
So I looked on some message boards and found a site that had some surplus Dell parts, and found my 'backsplash' (what we called the electronics part on the back of Washers/Dryers at GE). While researching how to replace the display cover, I discovered I'd be exposing my RAM as well. So I found the RAM I needed to be dirt cheap now, so I ordered 4x my current RAM and a new external hard drive to also quadruple my current capacity.
After ordering all the parts, Saturday morning, I got up early, took apart my computer, install the new components and now my laptop is fixed and running faster, and hopefully I bought 2-3 more years for it. It's amazing how good you feel when you do something not really that difficult (I am an engineer for Pete's sake) but it saves you around $1000 and it's a little out of your normal comfort zone.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Weekend madness...
So a few thoughts from this weekend. (warning, j usually proofreads, and she's asleep, please forgive my stream of consciousness writing)
1. Yesterday, j and I went up to our old neighborhood, Manayunk, to watch the Red Bull Soapbox Race. Now you might have seen their commercials where people construct creative soapboxes and race them down hills or fly off a ramp (and come crashing into water). Well, I don't know about the hills they use in those commercial, but this one is known as "The Wall," a 17% grade at parts, and I've seen estimates of 10-14% for the ~1/2 mile hill. Plus, you need to factor in the remnants of hurricane Hannah, which made the event (and the spectating) that much more adventurous. There were several interesting designs, you can find pictures here (not ours, we didn't take many trying not to ruin our camera); but our favorites included:
Great Scott!: Doc Brown going down in the Delorean after filling up "Mr Fushion" with Red Bull
The Whack-a-Mole-bile: Had a fun little act before they ran down the hill.
Cheesesteak Chariot: A cheesesteak with a bucket-o-fries trailer.
There were some scary looking tumbles (a Jacko running off with a baby carriage went down at breakneck speed and went head over heels after finishing with the best time at that point), we were completely soaked, but a good time was had by all.
2. We've recently been hooked on Mad Men. It's very differently paced (ie kind of slow/deliberate) than most shows I watch, but the main character has kind of a George Clooney appeal to him. Since we've started watching, we've been exposed to different commercials, but this is by far the best thing I never knew existed:
I never knew that General Hospital Night Shift existed, but this is great in a terrible type of way. As j said, "I thought that was called Grey's Anatomy."
3. The Louisville Cardinals can still score, if they play a team as bad as Tennessee Tech. The verdict is still out for this team, but the Big East is really down this year. So we might still have a chance to compete. The St Louis Cardinals finally started to crack (actually about 3 weeks ago, they actually won two this weekend) after a season where they've exceeded expectations. Since the All Star break, even Pujol's .375/.467/.716 can't carry this bullpen or a rotation that just missed Wainwright for too long and never really got Carpenter back. Here's hoping for both of them to come back healthy next season, where I think we can really compete again.
Have a busy week coming up, but have many thoughts about the campaign and my first campaign donation of my life I hope to blog on this week...
1. Yesterday, j and I went up to our old neighborhood, Manayunk, to watch the Red Bull Soapbox Race. Now you might have seen their commercials where people construct creative soapboxes and race them down hills or fly off a ramp (and come crashing into water). Well, I don't know about the hills they use in those commercial, but this one is known as "The Wall," a 17% grade at parts, and I've seen estimates of 10-14% for the ~1/2 mile hill. Plus, you need to factor in the remnants of hurricane Hannah, which made the event (and the spectating) that much more adventurous. There were several interesting designs, you can find pictures here (not ours, we didn't take many trying not to ruin our camera); but our favorites included:
Great Scott!: Doc Brown going down in the Delorean after filling up "Mr Fushion" with Red Bull
The Whack-a-Mole-bile: Had a fun little act before they ran down the hill.
Cheesesteak Chariot: A cheesesteak with a bucket-o-fries trailer.
There were some scary looking tumbles (a Jacko running off with a baby carriage went down at breakneck speed and went head over heels after finishing with the best time at that point), we were completely soaked, but a good time was had by all.
2. We've recently been hooked on Mad Men. It's very differently paced (ie kind of slow/deliberate) than most shows I watch, but the main character has kind of a George Clooney appeal to him. Since we've started watching, we've been exposed to different commercials, but this is by far the best thing I never knew existed:
I never knew that General Hospital Night Shift existed, but this is great in a terrible type of way. As j said, "I thought that was called Grey's Anatomy."
3. The Louisville Cardinals can still score, if they play a team as bad as Tennessee Tech. The verdict is still out for this team, but the Big East is really down this year. So we might still have a chance to compete. The St Louis Cardinals finally started to crack (actually about 3 weeks ago, they actually won two this weekend) after a season where they've exceeded expectations. Since the All Star break, even Pujol's .375/.467/.716 can't carry this bullpen or a rotation that just missed Wainwright for too long and never really got Carpenter back. Here's hoping for both of them to come back healthy next season, where I think we can really compete again.
Have a busy week coming up, but have many thoughts about the campaign and my first campaign donation of my life I hope to blog on this week...
Monday, September 1, 2008
Careful what you pray for...
After suggesting that they pray for rain for Obama's nomination speech, and getting perfect weather, it makes you wonder what the hurricane means for the GOP? By his own logic, if it had rained during Obama, as God deemed proper, then it would be good. Then the fact that the weather was perfect and now a hurricane is interrupting the Republican Convention, I guess God must want him to vote for Obama. I'll be holding my breath.
Side note...
After hearing several times about Palin's choice not too abort a baby with Down Syndrome, I was really curious how common this was. Found this referenced in wikipedia that reviewed literature that found 90-93% of pregnancies are terminated after diagnosis of Down Syndrome. I must admit that I was shocked it was that high. Not exactly sure how I feel about that.
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