The Pentagon Sinkhole

Anyone want to know why Bush's (and now the Republican Party's) strategy of pouring money all over the non-accountable, non-auditable (for 20 plus years) Pentagon is a bad idea?  The Pentagon can't even say No! but it rains more tax dollars. (Note that there are 3,000 of these things already sitting idle at a remote base).

And from the Bush era.  (Even Senator John McCain was against this one).

On the state of Science in the US

On the way back from the coast, we stopped at OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), and while it was somewhat enjoyable, I couldn't help but have the same reaction as the last time I visited the Seattle Science Center.  These places tend to be stuck in presenting elementary school level 1980's "bubbles and cool lights" science. 

I realize times are tight, but I wonder how much of this is reflected in the generally dismal science knowledge of US citizens?  If people think that a high-school chemistry class and a bi-annual trip to the local "science center" means that they should be "Science-savvy", I have bad news.  I saw nothing at OMSI (or Seattle Science Center last time I was there) that mentioned any of the exciting recent developments in quantum or particle physics, or even what these sciences are, let alone the more traditional sciences.  There was a slight nod to very basic mathematics, but the 'astronomy' consisted of a planetarium giving a few overpriced and superfluous gee-whiz shows that are long on special effects but woefully short on science.

The latter brings to mind another gripe I have -- for the sub-par science offered, the prices are exorbitant.  Twelve dollars apiece for anyone over 13 to see the main exhibits (about a quarter of which are broken or hopelessly infantile) and an additional $3.00  to park in the museum lot.  Add to that $6-$7 each for IMAX movies, planetarium presentations, etc. and you are talking significant dollars for not much educational value.

How about some educational opportunities for adults with more than a cable TV education about science?  I would love to hear a college-level lecture on the latest developments in any of the physics or chemistry branches.   Maybe the general public wouldn't be so quick to swallow the endless Internet tripe about black holes being spontaneously created by the super-collider or climate change not 'being real' if they knew how science actually works  and were not dependent upon some idiot Senator from Oklahoma waving around a list of TV weather personalities as dissenting 'experts'??

Climate change - a near retrospect

Here is a report from NOAA, actually a series of reports that use scientific discipline to attempt to determine if certain weather events of 2011 were caused/made worse by global climate change, in particular the observed overall warming of the climate.  Not surprisingly it is a mixed conclusion, although the troubling thing is that it does indicate strongly that at least a few events were caused/made worse by the overall climate change.

Warning...the faint of heart, science haters, English flunkees, Republicans or the American Idol crowd may want to avoid this one - I mean it actually has the word anthropogenic in the second paragraph after all!

And then they voted...#1 of an indefinite series

A mentor/boss/friend of mine once sent out a series of humorous emails and one of them was about various...well...less mentally adept citizens among us all ending with the phrase "...and then they voted".   So with apologies, Carl, I am 'borrowing' this phrase for an irregular series of posts along the same theme.  Most of them will require no comment, including this one.

Book Review (Iraq War)

I just finished this book.  It tells the story of the pile of deceit, lies and good old fashioned tail-covering that led up to the "WMD" pretext for the Iraq war.  There were of course no WMDs at all but unfortunately the Bush Administration lacked the ability (dare I say "intelligence"?) to see through it, particularly because it served their own preconceived desires.  Too bad for all the soldiers and civilians who paid for it dearly in a completely meaningless conflict.  Here is my review from Goodreads:

Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Man Behind Them: How America Went to War in Iraq by Bob Drogin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you are an American citizen, this book should make you angry. If you are from another country, it will confirm in your mind the incredible amount of stupidity that flows out of Washington DC, particularly at the beginning of the Iraq war.

Curveball is the name of a not-very-bright Iraqi defector to Germany who wove an improbable, inconsistent, and not very believable tale of mobile germ-warfare weapons labs and stockpiles of weapons in Iraq. The Germans wound up not believing his story, and pretty much came to the conclusion that he was mentally unstable. However, the Bush administration, desperate to find a pretext for invading Iraq and most particularly the CIA eagerly swallowed Curveball's tale whole. The interesting thing was the CIA had never even interviewed Curveball in person before assuring Bush and Cheney that indeed this was the real deal.

It didn't help any that the relationship between the CIA and most other intelligence agencies was purely poisonous and not the rosy 'brotherhood against terror' that Bush told the world. The Germans in particular were still smarting over some arrogant high-handed treatment by the Americans a year or two earlier.

The book tells the tale well and completely and makes it plain that many of the people in the CIA were successful in covering their a__es but also many good, capable career intelligence people left in disgust. The last chapter covers a hastily-arranged White House lunch with Bush, Cheney, Rice and the chief 'WMD finder' for the CIA in Iraq. It is plain that even then when everyone else in the world knew the truth, Bush and Cheney were not quite ready to let go of the myth.

I found myself wanting to reach through the pages of the book and crash their heads together and say "...you morons...just how does it feel to completely destroy a sovereign nation and kill so many people for absolutely no reason ?".

Not worth...guano?

Guess we will have to find another phrase for "ain't worth s_it" now.

Science news (climatology)

A study from the University of Melbourne definitively links the shrinking of Arctic ice caps to a combination of melting sea ice (already posing a serious threat to the polar bear) and global climate warming.   Unfortunately, this study probably doesn't have near enough money behind it to begin to overcome the political power of even one mid-sized coal-fired power company. 

Sobering Facts again...

This is from last year, but still very relevant.    Here is an article from Foreign Policy that refers to a table from the IMF listing countries in terms of various measures of social and educational characteristics.  Look at the table (linked from the story).  The US is much worse in most categories than many third-world countries and almost all second-world countries.  

Considering our current death panel/insurance company system we spend more on health care (by several miles) than any other country and yet have a decidedly third-world life expectancy.  Is that maybe because only about half the adult population in the US is covered and can afford the 'cadillac' health care system we have built?

The real interesting part of the article to me though is the introduction of defense spending into the equation. The amount the US spends on defense is truly obscene...particularly for what we don't get.  Remember the US military has not had a 'victory' in a significant war since World War II.   

Interesting also is that the US spends almost exactly the same amount as Canada and Australia on social programs for its people (measured as a % of GDP)...but the results as you can see are obviously vastly different.

Yesiree..we can blow up any country in the world we want to many times over...but provide health care to our citizens...or even a world-ready education to our children???  Not so much...