Archive for the ‘politricks’ Category

Seeds Of Doubt

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We pride ourselves on our skepticism and our nullius in verba approach to scientific questions. Many people are familiar with the works of Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, and Martin Gardner. The vague platitudes of astrology and the self-delusion of television psychics are not for us. However, scientists such as ourselves are not immune to self-delusion, and even the brightest among us can fall prey to the substitution of wishful thinking for rigorous logic when the science points to conclusions that uncomfortably conflict with our world view.

.:pubs.acs.org->

Twitter said that news of bin Laden’s death "saw the highest sustained rate of tweets ever".
For more than an hour there were over 3,000 tweets per second about bin Laden, peaking at 5,106 tweets per second as President Obama addressed Americans. #link#

"Look Ma, No Hands" aka Pragmatic Solutions to Sagging Pants

In an effort to show you that they have nothing better to do than act racist, the Florida legislature has approved a bill to outlaw, not only sagging pants, but all other manner of fun and tomfoolery, like hands-free biking and whatnot (…wonder if this applies to unicycles).

From TCPalm:

The "sagging pants bill"

Belt (blt) n. — A band, as of leather or cloth, worn around the waist to support clothing.

It probably won’t show up on their SAT vocabulary list anytime soon, but if a few legislators get their way, Florida students might have to reacquaint themselves with this old-fashioned piece of clothing that seems to have gone the way of the wristwatch in recent years.

Concerned that too many kids these days are lookin’ like fools with their pants on the ground, in late March the Florida Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 228 — dubbed the "sagging pants bill." A similar version is ready for a full House vote, but it doesn’t seem likely this late in session.

The bill would require school districts to adopt a dress code policy that forbids students from wearing clothing that "exposes underwear or body parts in an indecent or vulgar manner." Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, has been pushing the bill since 2005.

Scofflaws could face penalties ranging from a verbal warning to an in-school suspension.

"I would think the dress code issue would have already been dealt with by the schools," said Jessica Baker, 25, of Port St. Lucie. (source, which I recommend reading)

So if this all sounds very 2007 to you, that’s because it is.

In response to any concerns about accidental exposure, a colleague and friend of mine has located the following, extremely pragmatic, solution:

Active People Vote More?

Despite that people "run" for office, many would believe that physical activity and political activity are two separate interests. Not so, argues a study that finds that people who get out and move are the same people who get out the vote. Evidently, those who exercise are more likely to be engaged politically.

: Click here to read the study :

Documentary : Starting-Up in America

Starting-Up in America is a documentary film by Tarik Ansari and Basil Glew-Galloway about the issues faced by international Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs with US Immigration.

What is a Blog?

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Interpreted from the I&B Ministry, supplement to India’s Information Technology Amendment Act 2008:

This is tricky: blogs do two things - they publish content, and have user generated content in the form of comments. at one level, they are a publisher, and at another, an intermediary. The guidelines however, clearly define a blogger only as a user, and that a blog is A"a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video." This is generic, and could mean any online publication, including ours, and online publishers would also come under the ambit of the definition of the term 'users'.

.:medianama.com->

Aliko Dangote, BBC Interview Excerpt

Dubbed "the richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote is an interesting figure in a new Africa vying for economic stability.A Check out the interview below, noting what Dangote says about investing his money in Africa and the need to open markets, as opposed to receiving aid.

To quote:

Any corrupt dictator can embezzle $70B over 30 years when the Suez Canal is in [his] backyard. Building/managing a conglomerate is much more admirable. Besides, US intelligence estimates the Mubarak family fortunes are much less than the Bush crime family. But what do I know? I don’t believe in capitalism anyway. - M.G.

The Kickstarter Party

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I simply accepted the fact that the only way to stop using people as a means to ends in which they were not included was to vote "no" to everything and shut down virtually all taxes. This effectively meant parting with all kinds of noble causes which I truly loved. Sure, I would pay double, triple, or even quadruple my share for a robust and heroic space program that would establish colonies on every scrap of rock we could find, but I can’t in good conscience spend the money of an objector on my dream, so it’s got to be "no."

Then, yesterday, my eyes were opened.

I started to browse Kickstarter.

: Continue reading :

Obama's 1 Million Electric Vehicles

In Tuesday night’s State of the Union, President Obama reiterated his goal of being the first country to put 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015, a plan he first put forth in 2008. And in the day since, the Obama administration started to expand on how it proposes to reach that goal.

Announcing more details of the plan Wednesday was Vice President Joe Biden who visitedAEner1, Inc., a manufacturer of advanced batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage in Greenfield, Indiana. Ener1 added 120 employees in 2010 after receiving a $118-million Department of Energy grant, made possible by the $2.4 billion Recovery Act investment in electric vehicles.

Although likely to receive pushback from some congressional Republicans, Obama’s proposal on how the program would be paid for will undoubtedly incite some populist support, perhaps even from newly-elected Tea Party-istas.

.:ecopolitology.org->