Archive for December 3rd, 2009


Nota Bene #94: Bear Vs. Ninja

Posted on December 3, 2009 by Mike Sheehan under Features, Nota Bene [ Comments: 3 ]

“Overture, curtain, lights Full story »


Sensenbrenner’s hypocrisy and a SwiftHack science update

Posted on December 3, 2009 by Brian Angliss under Environment & Nature, Politics, Law & Government, Science & Technology [ Comments: 3 ]

Allow me to present you with two quotes from Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), one from March 2007 and one from December 2009:

[T]he Administration is allegedly curbing Federal scientists from presenting scientific findings that are at odds with its policies. Before we start screaming “McCarthyism,” we should examine how little merit these accusations actually have. (Source)

and

These e-mails betray the true thoughts and motives of many leading climate scientists. It shows a pattern that’s closer to scientific fascism than the scientific method.(Source)

The first was Sensenbrenner defending the Bush Administration from accusations (later proven) that scientists were being pressured and their work interfered with for political reasons. The second refers to the Swiftboating of CRU scientists (aka Swifthack – see here for the best roundup of links on this subject I’ve found on the Web).

Care to explain your apparent hypocrisy, Rep Sensenbrenner?

Also, two different journal publishers have publicly said that the contents of the emails are not sufficient justification to open an investigation into scientific misconduct. Full story »


Christmas music (7)–Best album to have on hand while you’re reading A Child’s Christmas in Wales to your children (or grandchildren)

Posted on December 3, 2009 by wufnik under Arts & Literature, Music & Popular Culture [ Comments: 9 ]

This is tricky. You want it to be calm, since you don’t want the kids to get up and start dancing–that alone lets out The Nutcracker. You don’t want too much singing, because that would be distracting, and you want kids to enjoy Dylan Thomas’s wonderful language and stories. What would be nice is if you knew any Welsh composers who wrote Christmas songs, but you don’t, and I don’t either. So, instead, you want something kind of quiet and noodling and soporific…wait! How about A Celtic Christmas?

Well, how about something else?
Full story »


How nukes are like toys still in their boxes on ‘Antiques Roadshow’

Posted on December 3, 2009 by Russ Wellen under War & Security [ Comments: none ]

Deproliferator1.0THE DEPROLIFERATOR

“We have reached the point where the senior military generals responsible for nuclear forces are advocating, more vocally, more vehemently, than our politicians, to get down to lower and lower weapons.”
– General Eugene Habiger (Ret.), former head of U.S. nuclear forces, in 2000 Full story »