Name Dropping
Obama was in town today and a large crowd rallied around him at the Monona Terrace. Although I didn’t go and see him, he did stop in the neighborhood at one of our acquaintance’s house for a party that charged $500 a head. I just have not been caught up with all the Obama fervor yet. I’ve been sort of disillusioned by all his religious rhetoric - maybe I’ll go and see him when he runs again in 2016.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186×22564
I did go and see Christopher Hitchen’s at the FFRF 30th annual convention this last weekend at the Monona Terrace. Hitchen’s was receiving the “Emperor Has No Clothes” Award and then stuck around for a talk and book signing. The talk started out fairly well enough but descended from there. The low point came when Hitchen’s suggested bombing Iran, etc. This didn’t sit well with the peace loving folks at the convention. I think we sat there stunned but that’s what Hitchen’s likes to do. I did get about half of the talk uploaded to YouTube and surprisingly it’s been a big hit. I’ve had about 1400+ hits on part1 in the last 48 hours! - Part of this is because I found out that Prof. PZ Myers of Pharyngula fame featured my videos on his blog.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/10/hitchens_at_ffrf.php
Pushing all the right buttons
I’ve watched all the Democrat and Republican Presidential debates on YouTube thus far and I’d have to say that I have not been impressed with any of the front-runners. Every candidate has been lack luster in the extreme. Bill Richardson has been the only candidate that I can’t seem to disagree with on any point. So it was gratifying when I saw this article in Wired Online that really pushes all the right buttons for me:
By Sarah Lai Stirland WIRED Hillary Rodham Clinton took another sharp jab at the Bush administration as she outlined her science policy Thursday. The front-runner in the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign unveiled her agenda for the scientific community at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. Under her administration, she said, the federal government would return to funding “ethical embryonic stem-cell research,” ban political appointees’ interference with government scientists’ conclusions, elevate a science advisor to report directly to the president, and boost research into space exploration, the earth sciences and alternative energy. Many scientists have criticized President Bush, charging that he’s had political appointees interfere with the conclusions of scientific research, muzzled agency officials who have independent points of view, and not paid enough attention to evidence that human activities are causing global climate change. Clinton used the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch to outline a broad science policy that would reverse Bush’s overall approach to federally funded science programs. She also addressed the science community’s increasingly vocal allegations that the Bush administration has politicized scientific research. “For six-and-a-half years under this president, it’s been open season on open inquiry,” Clinton said in a statement… MORE http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/10/clinton_science
Hillary Clinton Stands Up for Science, Slams Bush
Google Sky
Google introduced a new feature to Google Earth recently called Google Sky. Google sky is built right into Google Earth and is free to download.
http://earth.google.com/sky/skyedu.html
With many of us living in cities, we have lost that connection to the night sky. Google helps to bring that wonder back. You can zoom in on a patch of sky and reveal a myriad of stars and deep space objects. With the number of suns in the universe totaling more than number of grains of sand in all the beaches of earth, it puts your life in perspective. You can see this for yourself in google sky. The images are stitched together from telescope surveys. Check it out!
The War
The documentary film titled “The War” by Ken Burns aired on PBS these last two weeks. It’s a fascinating 15+ hour story of America’s perspective and participation in World War II. It starts at Pearl Harbor and goes until the end of the War with the G.I.s adjusting to post war America. Jean and I watched all of it and found most of it gripping and intense. What makes this film so different from many of the “Hitler” channel’s shows of WWII was the reverse role of the players in story telling. Instead of the war being told from the perspective of elitists of government or from the generals, “The War” is told around the stories recounted from the actual G.I.s from 4 different American cities. These cities include Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and Luverne, Minnesota.
“The War” opens with the quote, “There are no good wars, only necessary wars.” One of the good things about this film was that it made us think of the WWII veterans that we personally know. It gives us some perspective on what they had to endure, but we will never really know. The other thought I had while I watched, was what an profound impact WWII had on the economy and social ideology of this country ever since. For instance, just think of all the military contactors that sprung up from ordinary business to fill the orders of war equipment. There are a lot of companies that exist today that know the fact that war is good for profits. Ever since the war there has always been a huge industry to sell and manufacture weapons.
Some of my favorite parts include:
The countless stories of tragedy and courage. One such story was of the marine platoon advancing in the dark on a south pacific island, when they hear a single gun shot. They all stop and dig in. Then they start to hear the moans of someone up ahead. The groans grow more intense and last all night. The man telling the story explains that he wished the guy would just shut up and die. When morning comes they discover that the man in pain was a marine who accidentally shot himself and that he had died in the night. Not only that, but it was the story teller’s best friend. The irony of war is raw with this sort of grit.
Then there is the story of a Native American soldier who has to accomplish four tasks in order to become a War Chief among his people, the Crow of the plains. The tasks were to lead a war party, to touch a living enemy, take away an enemy’s weapon, and to steal enemy horses. He accomplished all of these against the Nazi army.
The quotes by General George S. Patton left me laughing. He really was a colorful man and an awesome military genius. “Some men can shoot, some men can run. If you can shoot and run, you and Napoleon are pissin’ through the same straw.” or “Italy is like a boot, you have enter it from the top, like Hannibal did.”
I just have a couple criticisms about the film. One was that the segments that I found easy to get away for breaks were the stories from the home front. These are no doubt an important part of the story during the war, but I found them slow against the backdrop of conflict.
Another issue I have is with the whimsical music that was distractingly played during some of the more serious and tragic scenes.
Other than these couple things, I highly recommend this masterpiece of documentary film making. Thank you Mr. Burns!