After this, the siren song of sleep - 5 March 2009

Here we go again. Mrs. Barbara Bush had heart valve replacement surgery. Dalek parts found in a UK pond. And more, upcoming.

Starting up top and getting some part of the stupid out of the way with a doctor telling us that if you're smart, you're prone to more trouble dating. If you don’t want my word on it, read The Weirdo's take on it and understand it all in much less text. According to this doc, smart people apparently focus on other things instead of building relationships with people, which leads to feeling like those achievements should net them love, which turns us into Nice Guys (and Girls), who get in the way of our own potential success, and then knock out most of the dating pool as being insufficient for us. So, it’s all our own fault that we can’t find a date, or even a one-night stand, and our further failures only reinforce this until we’re bitter shells of Nice Guys. Um. Reality check, incoming. If, at some point, you get pegged as the Smart One, the Nerd, the Brain, the whatever, all throughout the hell that is primary education, your label dictates how many people will behave around you. It only takes so many mud baths, people edging away from you, being made fun of, generally sent to the outer rings of the popularity clique, and sycophants using you for your brains instead of actually trying for genuine interaction before you decide that the odds are going to be against you in finding someone worth dating. I think most of The Smart Ones recognize that all that wonderful brain talent means squat when it comes to relationships, but if nobody’s looks like they’d give them a chance to learn the ropes, then there’s no point in trying, is there?

Which makes that whole “exclude 95% of the population” bit pretty easy - you want to meet someone who sounds or feels like they’re genuinely interested in you and are willing to make the effort to get to know you (and have you get to know them) so that any changes to style and delivery that need to be made come from a place of understanding, rather than jumping straight into “Well, if you changed yourself into something more like the people you hated and excluded you, and didn’t give off such a smart person aloof air, you’d do better.” Which is what this advice is, make no mistake. Stop being such an egghead, smart person. Let go of the thing that’s brought you solace or praise and try to be like everyone else as much as you can. Be more jock-like aggressive, men. Be more tramp-like sexual, women. Is it any wonder that a lot of Nice Guys appear out of this sequence? After all, if you told most people that everything they had done to this point meant nothing or worse than nothing, and that they had to get rid of it all, you’d probably hit resistance, too. Or worse, they’d take your advice, go out on some miserable first dates and only further reinforce what will become Nice Guyness.

For comparison purposes, humans regularly fail the Turing test. So I don’t think it’s just high intelligence that can give you trouble in the dating realm.

Trumping this stupid with a full-blown “Stupid, stupid Catholic Church”, a Brazillian archbishop has ordered the excommunication of everyone involved in helping a 9 year-old pregnant rape and family sexual abuse victim in getting an abortion, but not the child herself. All part of the seriously conservative shift that’s been on since the Inquisition head became the Pope. Her circumstances have nothing to do with it, because according to the inflexible law, anyone involved in an abortion (who isn’t an innocent, like the child) commits mortal, murderous sin. If the child were older, I suspect she would have been included on the excommunication as well. More reasons for Catholicism to become a fringe element in societies. I was going to say “in the United States”, but then I think of “pro-life” movements and how problems the other monotheists have with Catholics probably isn’t about their abortion stance. Besides, we’re a special case. We come up with demented things like the Midwest teen Sex Show, which talks about sex but doesn’t show any of it.

In international waters, the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team has the opposition leader in Pakistan claiming the country's security has failed. Politics. The Sudanese president thumbed his nose at the International Criminal Court yesterday as they issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in how the Darfur situation has played out. International aid agencies were expelled from the country as a result of the warrant.

The Telegraph paints Mr. Chavez's decision to impose price controls on food so that everyone still can afford to eat as a bad thing. Economically speaking, it might be, but angry and hungry poor have a tendency to turn humane execution devices into mass-murder machines against the upper classes.

Domestically, a Wikipedia screenshot, some digital forensics, a sequence of Twitter tweeting, and finally, a phone call to someone who knew what they were doing, and a school bomb threat ends with evacuation and the person making the threat in custody. As it turns out, it was a prank done by one friend, signed in another’s name. the likely result, however, will be expulsion. Makes me wonder whether it’s really true that people have to go past the line to figure out where it is.

Merrill Lynch executives are being subpoenaed about the $209 million USD they gave their executives and workers as bonuses, because giving bonuses while being bailed out is going to trip the logic circuits of just about everybody.

Also a symptom of the economy, with his house slated for foreclosure, and the police ready to evict him from the house, a man shot himself in the head. Having run out of options, this seemed like a good idea. It’s part of a trend happening in the down economy. Losing one’s shelter and/or one’s means of living make living not look like its worth much.

As with any political organization, there are some Senate Democrats who don't like the omnibus spending bill working its way through the body. Also noted - some Republicans like the bill and will work to pass it. I still want to know when our system of government developed backbenchers and strict adherence to party line as the requirements.

Comedian Rush Limbaugh is reveling in his new status as head of the Republican Party, considering it a boost for his ideals (and his ratings, no doubt) and good that people are turning to him to get an alternative from the mainstream media. Whether his opposition can succesfully tie him and the Republican Party together and then sink them both, using him as the millstone is yet to be determined, but Republicans aren’t necessarily doing themselves any favors by continuing their current tactics.

Although he may be facing a rivalry bid from Mr. Beck with his We Surround Them idea, where he lays out nine principles he believes in, and asks people to send him their picture if they believe in seven of the nine, to show how many more people are truly conservative and hold the power of changing their government and world. (Probably by supporting the appropriate faction of Republicanism, but that’s not been revealed yet.) More on the principles and things in another post, most likely. He’d get support from Mr. Henninger's call for the resurgence of Ronald Ragan's ideas, which, when properly explained and orated, will be immensely popular and lead the country out of the economic wilderness to the Promised Land.

The President opened a forum on health care reform today, which could result in some new rules, laws, and material to help us find a system that actually works for eveyone. One of the Republicans in attendance stated that he thought health care was a privilege, not a right, referring to people who choose not to pay for health insurance. How many people, praytell, do not have health insurance because they choose not to pay for it compared to the amount of people who do not have health insurance because they cannot afford the premiums and their employer does not provide, or who have disqualifying conditions that no insurer would take on? And saying that the provision of health care for all persons in the country was ”socialism“ and ”class warfare“ is pretty bizarre. Unless you think that giving the lower classes the ability to not have to worry about ruinous premiums or putting off health until they become emergencies is class warfare, because it lets them become a lot more class-mobile than they currently are and you don’t want ”those people“ in your clubs.

Elsewhere, perhaps of interest to our ”LGBT people are still people“ department, The California Supreme Court is reviewing the legality of the constitutional amendment passed as Proposition 8 in November. This is a matter of procedure more than of content, with the question being whether the initiative process was insufficient for changing the Consitution, because by affecting the rights of the people, the matters in Prop 8 consituted a revision instead of an amendment, which requires passage by houses of the Legislature.

Pastor Dan calls out right wingnuts - if you want to ban abortion, stand up and say so and get legislators to put a bill in - don't be chickenshits and ask people to put anti-abortion riders in appropriations bills. Don’t pervert the political process, stand by your convictions and let others ridicule you for them.

Starting the opinions, Kim Stanley Robinson says we need to stop the "multigenerational Ponzi scheme" of capitalism and climate change denial so that the world can pull itself up into a higher standard of living. This requires trusting and acting on what our science says about carbon emissions. So the governments need to bring carbon costs up to their true values and strongly encourage carbon-neutral power and infrastructure, advocate for social justice and rights for everyone, and transition away from ”free market capitalism“ into a larger, more globally based system, including education in business schools about environmental matters, biology, and the effects of their work in business. Plus, we need people studying ”postcapitalism“ to help us find these things and ease the transition. Neat and necessary, that’s for sure. Mr. Bryce thinks that trying to get away from hydrocarbons is foolish, as is any system that imposes additional costs on them. So every thought looking forward has its detractors.

Mr. Blankley submits a phrase he hopes gets coined, "Obama Lied; The Economy Died", based solely on what the President has done for the first month in stimulus spending, proposed tax increases, and the reaction of the markets to this and other units of policy in the Obama presidency, like green jobs and alternative energy, that Mr. Blankley and others are convinced will spawn new bureaucracies and intrusions by the government into their lives. Thus, by saying he’s not into big government, Mr. Obama is fibbing, and the economy is paying for it. Mr. Stossel would adopt that cry in a heartbeat, calling Mr. Obama’s pledge to cut waste and fraud from the budget hollow and ineffective, with the WSJ complaining about the resurgence of earmarks in the omnibus spending bill, even though the official line is that there aren't any, Mr. Turd Blossom claiming the President is an outright liar based on what he promised and what he's delivering (in the very narrow band of the economy, and even then, it is proabbly premature to say ”Promises broken“), and Mr. Sullum providing support on the idea that calling increased taxes savings is a problem, as well as repeating the refrain that tax cuts are inherently superior to anything that government can do. Mr. Martin would pick up on that theme and run with it, based on the government's response to the ice storms in the Midwest, what he believes is a perfect analogue for the previous administrator’s response to Hurricane Katrina, so that we can now also claim that ”Barack Obama doesn’t care about white people“ in addition to Mr. Blankley’s statement above.

Last out, the Slacktivist tackles the question of Hitler in Hell, and comes out with a well-thought piece on how much the Humes want justice to be served... to the other guy.

In technology, a bionic eye has been successfully implanted and a man blind for thirty years now has rudimentary vision. Sw33t!

Also, the human genome as an audio broadcast, a five-sense virtual reality experience, using fabrication printers to print three-dimensonal movie model expressions, at a cheaper cost and finer detail than many sculptors can achieve, designing and building a mobile emergency laboratory for soldiers that intends to stabilize them long enough to get tehm to a hospital where further work can be done, and a cancer treatment technique that could also be modified to make stun guns more effective.

Last for tonight, your Cool Thing - The EFF launches the Surveillance Self-Defense Project, a way of informing you, the user, about security, things that threaten it, and ways of protecting yourself from being snooped on by people you don’t want to know your information. It focuses on government agents that will follow the law, but can help with other adversaries, as well. There’s also the Eyeborg, a camera fitted to a prosthetic that will record and transmit what the wearer sees. Good for making documentaries abuot surveillance and the like.

And now the weekend - 6 March 2009

Here comes the infortrain, where the best investigative journalism on the planet predicted the current situation from quite a ways out... several times, all set to happen within a time frame... that wasn’t this one. But, y’know, stopped watch. If that’s not impressive enough, The Tattoo Baby Doll Project would like your viewing. If that’s too weird, enjoy the sheriff suing craigslist as a place where prostitution takes place.

Worldwide, Mr. Gorbachev says that the current Russia is much like the worst of the communists he led, but does not pass off communism itself as being bad, holding out hope that some countries will re-form with Russia into a new union.

The U.N. SecGen says that the expulsion of aid workers from Sudan will only make the bad situations in the country worse, with irrevocable damage as the result. If we're lucky, it will be more like a death spasm. There are still harsh words for the ICC for issuing the warrant, but not having the stones to go in and stop the thing for which the warrant was issued from happening.

Mental illness is the ruling in the case of a Canadian who killed and dismembered a fellow passenger, which means he gets psychiatric help and institutionalization, isntead of a prison sentence, which irks the family of the dead man to no end - they think he got away with murder, and will challenge the law that sends the mentally ill to hospitals rather than prison.

Domestically, McGrfuf the Crime Dog took a fist to the face. The person throwing it thought it would be a good joke. No, they’re not laughing.

testosterone is a go for naturopaths in the state that pays for the most pr0n. Yeah, the General clued me into this one.

Atheist-bashing author claims conspiracy on Amazon to give his book one-star reviews. And this is somehow different from the campaigns that wingnuts mount to “boycott” certain businesses, with likely similar effects? The author claims that the negative review campaign has hurt his book sales, but also claims it’s so powerful, exposes all the lies and unsicentificness of atheism, and when he sent a copy to an atheist, the atheist wrote back saying he had converted. Naturally, the General seizes on his point that evolution has no answer for why females came into being, and takes it all the way out to its natural conclusion. All of this almost pales in comparison to An Oklahoma representative introducing a resolution to say how much they don't support Richard Dawkins coming to talk at one of the universities there because he’s a minority opinion...and that the university should engage in an "open, dignified, and fair discussion" of Darwinian evolution (unlike the current theory, which Dr. Dawkins is probably more familiar with). I’m with PZ Myers - it’s got to be a badge of honor to say that someone called you out by name as being a bad influence.

Tax Day Tea Party rallies to protest the government's stimulus bill and appropriations afterward, if you’re so inclined. A protest mostly about spending, although everyone’s certain someone else is going to get bitten by the taxes, if not now, then later on.

Boss Rush continues his reign of terror over Mr. Steele. The Steele for RNC chairman blog now links directly to the RNC homepage, most likely a result of taking serious heat for

Okay, getting serious, now. The FDIC thinks its deposit insurance fund may go broke if bank failures and problems continue. Thus, new fees for the banks to help and a bill that would expand the FDIC's credit line up to $500 billion.

The FDA has some 'splainin to do about the way that it's been approving medical devices and drugs, with criticism that the regulatory body caves too much to the industry at the forefront.

I’m not sure if this is intended to be a dig at the President, but Politico notes that Mr. Obama carries a TelePrompTer with him almost anywhere he goes. That’s apparently not as bad as using outdated data in a rhetorical flourish when talking about health care and bankruptcies. And, in a nearly-invisible transition into opinions, Ms. Pipes would dispute that there's anything really wrong ith our health care system, and the arguments used to move us toward a more single-payer system will make for increased costs and reduced services for all.

In more pure opinions, Mr. Boskin says that crisis is not the time to re-engineer the economy wholesale, accusing Mr. Obama of doing so and thus causing the further declines in the stock markets, a point The WSJ agrees on - policy is prolonging the recession, they say. They may not agree with Mr. Forbes (yes, that Forbes) on what kind of policies are the bad ones - he fingers Bush-era revitalizations of bad policies and knockouts of others, and urges the President to kill the bad ones ded again and restore the good ones. Mr. Thomas says that a campaign against the rich ultimately makes the middle class poor, because the middle class gets laid off when people stop showing their conspicuous consumption on luxury items, travel, and the like, and Mr. Towery sees the governing elite and the rich as becoming the royal class, for whom all of us peons work and slave away, get taxed too much and/or mollycoddled to the point that we can’t be independent. Ms. Strassel harps on the cap-and-trade carbon system as a giant tax, one that businesses are starting to realize exists, and which will be passed onto consumers, who will suffer because the companies are unwilling to have their profits cut into.

Fear Sharia, all you in the west! FEAR! Because of the excesses and bad decisions of courts with regard to its principles, the whole thing should, naturally, be scrapped, before it turns us all into woman-oppressing Muslims. Mr. Phares says that we have to keep pressure on Iran and Syria as we leave Iraq, or Iran will take over Iraq and make it into a clone of itself, undoing all the work we did do with our troops. Oh, and Venezuela is a threat, too. Not necessarily as much of a threat as President Obama and his left-wing agenda unleased, according to Ms. Hollis, whom she berates the voting populace for having all the information about the baby killing, activist-appointing Communist-in-Chief and still voting for him anyway on the premise that they didn’t believe he would do exactly as he said he would. If that’s true, than the voting populace are morons, it’s true, but because you should never trust or expect someone to do the opposite of what they say they will. I’m still inclined to believe the American populace heard the messages, weighed them, made their decision, and voted for the things they wanted anyway.

Africa should not try to be a green country, says Messers. Soon and Driessen, considering it a form of “eco-colonialism” that will hold Africa back from developing into a truly rich nation.

At the end of this all, Mr. Chapman says he misses Bill Clinton, because he didn’t go gigantically liberal in his time in office and worked on Republican priorities. Winning the award for “...the hell?” tonight out of the opinion columns, however, is Ann Coulter, who attempts to skewer Keith Oblermann by claiming that he did not really go to the Ivy League Cornell, but instead a hanger-on that’s on the same campus, has the same name, but is all about Aggies instead of Artspeople. With a lower IQ, SAT score and apparely, one that accepts anybody that applies. Mr. Olbermann does what he does best - he shows the viewing populace his degree from Cornell University, signs, seals, and all. Which, as I recall, is still an Ivy League school, no matter what degree you got from there. I’m also wondering when Ms. Coulter ran out of substantive objections to Mr. Olbermann’s on-air statements that she had to resort to declaring that Cornell is not part of Cornell, just so that she could accuse Mr. Olbermann of being a fraud.

Mr. Edler comments on the tactic of blaming Rush, telling Mr. Steele to get his act together and actually lead the party, rather than being Rush’s lapdog and letting the Demcorats use him and Rush as punching bags and someone to blame when things inevitably fail.

In scitech, a paradoxical result of an experiment designed to show that unobserved reality behaves rather oddly, instead of according to classically observed results. The paradox was proven to exist by the results. Yet more of the quantum weird.

Additionally, the rainforst drying up could accelerate the climate change phenomeon, as could the disappearance of summer ice from the Arctic. Suddenly, looking at other areas as possible origin points of life starts looking better, thus the Kepler mission. Did we mention that in Illinois, Pluto is still a planet? Let the plutocracy jokes begin.

Artificial control of celular assembly is now possible, meaning that we can build microtissues just the way we want ‘em. Combined with nanotubes that can sense the entire visible light spectrum... and I’m not sure what you could come up with.

Last out, converting an oil rig into a luxury resort, which is a pretty good reuse of the giant, stable platform and its structures.