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March 2008 - Posts

Even scientists have a sense of humor

Monday, March 31, 2008 10:18 PM
A couple of physicists in Italy have developed an explanation for poltergeist activity, which suspiciously always seems to happen around children; it has to do with quantum mechanics and the chemical changes that occur in the brain around the time of
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TennViews weekly roundup

Sunday, March 30, 2008 5:34 PM
After a brief but well-deserved break, R. Neal has this week's roundup of Tennessee liberal bloggers. See what everyone is typing about here . Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit
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Tactical foot-dragging by the Bush gang

Saturday, March 29, 2008 8:15 PM
Two stories from yesterday illustrate the Bush administration's use of foot-dragging as a tactical maneuver in their war against the proper role of government. First, the EPA is refusing to comply in a timely manner with a Supreme Court decision from
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Three cool stories

Thursday, March 27, 2008 9:44 PM
Three very cool stories caught my eye today. 1) Researchers have managed to decipher and play back a recording made nearly two decades before Edison's phonograph. The phonautogram was made in France in 1860 and represents the earliest known recording
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Give these people money, right now

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 10:40 PM
Of all the humanitarian aid organizations in the world, Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) stands head and shoulders above the rest. They go where the Red Cross and others dare not. In the face of murderous assaults on aid workers, in
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Melting from pole to pole

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 9:30 PM
The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a region of ice in Antarctica roughly the size of Connecticut, and it is collapsing much faster than scientists had predicted. In 1993, the British Antarctic Survey issued a forecast that the shelf would collapse within 30 years;
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Knox County Commission admits to breaking the Sunshine Law

Monday, March 24, 2008 11:40 PM
As a consequence of this debacle in our local government, Knox County Commissioners are under a court order not to violate the Sunshine Law again, under penalty of fines and possibly even jail time. Given the events of the last year and a half in this
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Cheney insults the American public and the troops

Monday, March 24, 2008 8:38 PM
Today marks twice in one week Dick Cheney has insulted the American people, and now he's been brazen enough to insult the troops he and Bush have placed in harm's way. The outrage began last week , when Cheney was faced with this question: RADDATZ: Let
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Watchlist purgatory

Sunday, March 23, 2008 8:45 PM
I missed a couple of stories this week on the shoddy, ineffective, and inaccurate compilation of federal "terrorism" watch lists, and the consequences of unfettered government surveillance without appropriate oversight. First, this story details two reports
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Using JungleDisk

Saturday, March 22, 2008 2:26 PM
Jack Lail posted about JungleDisk the other day; it sounded interesting, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I like it. The idea is pretty simple, at least in the abstract: using Amazon's S3 online storage service, JungleDisk maps an online storage location
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Saturday "Lost" blogging: "Meet Kevin Johnson"

Saturday, March 22, 2008 12:50 PM
This week's "Lost" episode, " Meet Kevin Johnson ," told the story of how Michael ended up as Ben's man on the freighter. As Barry pointed out in comments here , Michael left the island, "found rescue," made it back to New York under an assumed name,
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On the fifth anniversary of a dark stain

Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:53 PM
Five years ago, the majority of the American public believed Bush's portfolio of lies used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Five years and 4,000 dead American soldiers later, the lies remain unpunished and the occupation continues to be a disaster. Hans
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The Healthy Americans Act

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 11:11 PM
Fourteen senators from both parties have signed on as co-sponsors of the Healthy Americans Act (S. 334); accompanied by a companion bill introduced in the House, the HAA seeks to address the problems of the crumbling US health care system. My mind isn't
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Trampling the First Amendment

Monday, March 17, 2008 10:36 PM
A federal judge in DC is holding a reporter for USA Today in contempt of court for refusing to divulge her sources for a series of stories she wrote on the unsolved 2001 anthrax attacks . Toni Locy wrote a series of articles for her paper that were skeptical
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More cool stuff from TED: Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope

Sunday, March 16, 2008 11:20 PM
This TED video of Roy Gould and Curtis Wong highlights Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope , which is a mashup of the best images of the universe from all the world's telescopes, blended together in an interactive, zoomable, and feature-rich interface. It
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Saturday "Lost" blogging: "Ji Yeon"

Saturday, March 15, 2008 7:10 PM
This week's episode of "Lost" is named after Sun and Jin's baby, Ji Yeon, whose birth is shown in a flash-forward. Several tidbits are revealed in this episode. We now know the identities of all of the Oceanic Six : Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, and
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Pentagon buries report showing no links between Saddam and al Qaeda

Thursday, March 13, 2008 10:09 PM
Up until yesterday, the Pentagon planned to release a landmark survey of over 600,000 seized Iraqi documents that showed conclusively there was no connection between al Qaeda and the regime of Saddam Hussein. At the last minute, the Pentagon decided to
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Restaurant review: the Crown And Goose

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 11:02 PM
I've been looking forward to trying out Knoxville's new gastropub, the Crown & Goose , ever since it opened in the Old City a week ago. I had my first taste of it tonight, and if they can maintain the quality and momentum I saw this evening while
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NSA involvement in domestic spying greater than previously thought

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 10:34 PM
According to this Wall Street Journal article , the NSA's involvement in warrantless spying on Americans is even greater than previously disclosed: According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records
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Southern Baptists shift on global warming

Monday, March 10, 2008 8:32 PM
In a fairly surprising move, leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have adopted a position on global warming which stands in direct contradiction to their position taken only a year ago : Signaling a significant departure from the Southern Baptist
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Sunday "Lost" blogging: "The Other Woman"

Sunday, March 09, 2008 9:11 PM
This week's "Lost" episode, " The Other Woman ," followed the familiar pattern of raising more questions (about 100) than it answered (about 2). Juliet's former therapist, Harper, appeared to Juliet amid the Whispers and a rain storm to deliver a warning
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"Baby Doc" Bush vetos bill banning waterboarding

Saturday, March 08, 2008 6:32 PM
George "Baby Doc" Bush vetoed a bill today that would have banned the CIA from torturing people using waterboarding. The bill would have required the CIA and other government agencies to abide by the interrogation guidelines set forth in the US Army Field
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Is it irony, or is it karma?

Thursday, March 06, 2008 9:42 PM
I'll bet Dick Cheney's head is about to explode : Iraq and China are close to re-signing a $1.2 billion oil deal that was called off after the 2003 U.S. invasion, an Iraqi Oil Ministry official said Thursday. [...] Saddam Hussein's government signed a
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Far removed from the conscience of the world

Wednesday, March 05, 2008 9:46 PM
Global Issues has published a run-down of recent statistics on global poverty. Among the startling findings: Half the world -- nearly three billion people -- live on less than two dollars a day. [...] According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each
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Favorites meme

Tuesday, March 04, 2008 9:44 PM
Newscoma tagged me with a meme, so here goes. ** Post about the meme and link back to the person that tagged you. ** Go back to your archives and link to your five favorite posts. Link One: must be about family Link Two: must be about friends Link Three:
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My continuing obsession with "Lost"

Monday, March 03, 2008 11:05 PM
As I confessed in an earlier post , this non-TV-watching dude is now completely obsessed with "Lost." The syndrome keeps getting worse. Last week's episode, " The Constant ," shows once and for all that the central mystery of the island, the DHARMA Initiative,
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Give this pilot a raise

Monday, March 03, 2008 8:43 PM
A Lufthansa pilot acted quickly to avert catastrophe as his plane was hit by a cross-wind just as the wheels were touching down on the runway : German airline Lufthansa said on Monday its pilots had averted a crash at Hamburg airport after a strong gust
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The TennViews Sunday liberal roundup

Sunday, March 02, 2008 12:26 PM
R. Neal has this week's roundup of Tennessee liberal bloggers here . While you're over there, read this post . Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit
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