Chessgirl's blog

What this basically tells me is that out president doesn't believe that science is important or valid. (I know, not a surprise considering who we're speaking of). Still, how much more ignorant can he get? With this move, he's pretty much invalidated every ecologists Ph.D!

Bush to relax Protected species rules.

By going to wordle and uploading text (song lyrics, book excerpts, etc).

My resume as a wordle is here.

Here's some interesting pictures of playgrounds--if by interesting I mean nightmarish and grossly disturbing. I think there's a tie for first between the "elephant slide" and the boy sitting in a womb.

playgrounds

In my current interest of stress management for myself and the planet, I've been doing some reading. Actually, regular stalking (and if anyone knows of a natural shampoo/conditioner, I'll be grateful). Recently I was turned on to the No Impact Man website. His no impact project is long over, but the insights and purpose remain the same. He posts realistic, practical tips on green living, commentary on big issues, and research/news results on the topic.

Today his article is a political issue about how New York's biggest, most ambitious, and yet realistic attempt to improve air quality, reduce congestion failed through their Assembly. Not because it was voted against, but because it was never brought up for a vote! But how...?

"After all, the plan had the support of Mayor Bloomberg, the New York City Council, Governor Paterson, State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, State Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco, the 42 Republican members of the State Assembly, a large coalition of environmental and business groups, 67% of of the voters of New York, and a number, as yet unknown, of Democratic State Assembly members.

Meanwhile, the plan would have brought: $354 million in federal funding for improved public transportation as well an annual $500 million raised by the plan; reduced greenhouse gas emissions and more breathable air to a population that suffers record asthma levels and the second worse air quality of any city in the country; an 11% reduction in traffic congestion; 20-40% reduction in time lost in traffic; and a major dent in the loss of business revenue caused by the loss of this time."

Turns out the Assembly Speaker Sidney Sheldon has been well paid in contributions by a coalition of assembly democrats, who have a hefty financial interest in Parking lots in New York.

Read Impact Man's perspective here.

Well a while back, we had a gathering where we played with iphones. And in that incident I pointed out to y'all that Melanie Fletcher is one damn funny writer.
It turns out that other people think so too as she is up for a Nebula award for "The Padre, the Rabbi and the Devil his own self." Go read and say something nice. (It can be read direct here). Tell her I sent you.

where I find this stuff; but I think it just comes down to I'm sick. Really, really sick.

Dog toy

So, here's another one of those gems that I fall across. I can see a number of good uses for this (aside from the snarky ones about keeping track of J while in Best Buy). There are some serious concerns over the availability of data captured or retrieved by these things. But if we can microchip the dog, presumably because we want him back, why not grandma? Wouldn't you think we would want her back too? I actually like the sex offender idea as well. Part of paying the price for what you did. Don't like it? Well then, keep away from the little boys and girls. It would go far toward the unregistered sex offender problem. Yeah, yeah, I know it ignores the concept that released offenders are "reformed", but I think that sub-population is in the minority. Sure it can turn into a big brother thing. My conspiracy loving heart thinks that the ones we should be concerned about getting this data probably already have it.

On another note, there was a recent article about restaurants that are switching back to tap water. It's worth the read if you can get to it.

Ok, I can't think of anything else. Back to work.

And here I am doing massive amounts of non-work. I ran into giveline today. (because who doesn't like to shop). Don't be surprised if some of you end up with gift cards from them at our events. That book, Infidel, that you bought for D for her b-day would send off over $8 to charity. Go shop people!

Yeah, I haven't been here in a while. But then again, I never was here often in the first place. Mostly due to websites like this. You try it an see if you get any work done.

Here's a treat for the techies of the group. Go to the link. It's for a 1 gig SD card. Quick math: $50 card had a $30 mail in rebate, so now $20. Using google checkout discounts it $20 and it qualifying for free shipping, makes it free. Have fun.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202743519&adid=17662&adid=17662&adid=17662

use it wisely. After watching some woman sit in the Jewel parking lot, at 2pm on a Saturday, and yell at another driver about how she was not going to move (she was standing in a spot) because she wanted two spaces (she had already parked in one), I think that I am going to hybernate until April. Enjoy.

This would be J's personal version of hell. I wouldn't mind so much, but there is the issue of "where would I put the peanut butter?"

Go here.

I ran into this and this article today. They are interesting and, to the best of my personal experience, true. I never think of myself as a female scientist. Or a female version of anything. Maybe it's just my egocentric nature, but I only think of myself as Me. (It goes far to explain the rune letter "T" in elvish that I have tatooed on my back.) I don't spend my time advocating that women are overlooked, underpaid, and other social/cultural problems within science. I am in science because I would rather deal with cloning and protein synthesis than politics and sociology. If I wanted that degree I would have got it.

And yet, I can't help but wonder how much people actually pay attention (more so than I do anyway). My daughter has a perspective on science different than any of her 400 classmates. Her teachers always want to meet me when they hear of my occupation-- I am the parent freak. I wonder how many girls in the fourth grade class noticed that among us, who came to teach about the heart, 2/3 were women? I currently reside in a lab that is 3/5 female and in my previous lab we were 4/5 female to male.

So what if I don't have a point. I rarely do (and even in those times Todd beats me to the punchline, grrr). I just thought it was an interesting thing to notice--finally.

(and it's not the legislation for assisted suicide.)

In fact it's a recent housing development that would allow me to live my version of heaven (which would, by the way, be to live in all of my favorite fantasy book worlds), without the distraction of actually being dead. Go here and cry for me if you must-- just don't let it dilute the alcohol.