Archive for January, 2009
And they’re all too happy to oblige
Posted by kemibe in We're Doomed on January 24, 2009
The opinion section of the online edition of the Concord Monitor features this in its sidebar:
Here’s an example. Actually, the letter-writer himself intends only to promote harmony and humanism, but because his viewpoint is prejudiced by personal “revelation” (“I remember the moment my indifferent attitude to abortion was transformed. That was when my daughter was conceived…”) and the usual flourish of Bible-based bullshit (“When we perform these abortions we crucify Christ again and again!”), he fails to see the hypocrisy in his own comments about selfishness and depersonalization. On whose authority does anyone grant more rights to the unborn than to sentient women again?
And they’re all too happy to oblige
Posted by docbushwell in We're Doomed on January 24, 2009
The opinion section of the online edition of the Concord Monitor features this in its sidebar:
Here’s an example. Actually, the letter-writer himself intends only to promote harmony and humanism, but because his viewpoint is prejudiced by personal “revelation” (“I remember the moment my indifferent attitude to abortion was transformed. That was when my daughter was conceived…”) and the usual flourish of Bible-based bullshit (“When we perform these abortions we crucify Christ again and again!”), he fails to see the hypocrisy in his own comments about selfishness and depersonalization. On whose authority does anyone grant more rights to the unborn than to sentient women again?
Free will vs. divine omniscience
Posted by docbushwell in Hootworthy on January 23, 2009
“One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent.”
– H.L. Mencken
Why Breathe When You Can Swallow?
Posted by jim in Better Living through Chemistry, Bio-bizarre, Ninnytechnology, The New Woo Revue on January 23, 2009
From a recent ad spotted in Running Times magazine, we discover a way to get oxygen into the bloodstream of athletes without using the lungs. Yes, it’s SportsOxy Shot from Scientific Solutions LLC. They’re selling “super oxygenated” water that’s supposed to drastically improve athletic performance. A “serving” is 10 milliliters and it contains 15 volumes percent O2. Hmmm, a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation reveals something interesting. Let’s say we have a decent (though not elite) runner with a VO2max of 60 ml O2 per kg per minute. Further, let’s say that they’re running at an easy pace and using maybe 2/3 rds of their maximal O2 uptake and they’re kinda small, maybe 50 kg. That’s a per minute O2 intake of 2 liters. Why do I get that impression that swallowing 10 milliliters of “highly oxygenated” water isn’t going to have much of an effect over the course of even a short race, such as 1500 meters?
Oh, and a 500 milliliter bottle is only $60, on special. Stop by and order yours today, and while you’re at it, check out some of their other great “products”.
No bite to be found, but whose bark is most feeble?
Posted by docbushwell in Spankin' the Crank on January 21, 2009
For me, watching the inauguration carried not so much the air of pomp and celebration but the weight of a stunning reality: America recently elected Barack Obama to the highest office in the land, and he is now not someone waiting in the wings, but the president. I was also struck by the fact that despite the wide variation in people’s individual political leanings, Obama is seemingly impossible to truly dislike as a human being, as a leader. I voted for him in November, but I was also consciously voting against the appalling idea that someone as cerebrospastic as Sarah Palin could play any role at all in a presidential administration. But I was reminded today Obama’s presence and command of himself and his audience is stunning given his relative youth and inexperience.
Of course, it is this presence that has his blind and throaty detractors claiming that Obama is nothing but presence, and that his rhetoric is ominously reminiscent of (natch) Adolf Hitler. I can see their point; both men, after all, gave speeches to large numbers of people.
That brings me to a nod of appreciation toward a couple of terminally addled and agitated bloggers whose reliably inept contributions to the Web’s ignorance quotient today put the cherry on top of ushering out eight years of thumb-sucking pandering to America’s sprawling, noisy Moron Belt and ushering in someone whose intentions are exactly what people–some of them grudgingly–hope to see in a president. Rather than accept the reality of a new and inspired leadership, this pair of mush-mouthed and failed rhetoricians simply sank even deeper into the wingnut shitbog, letting fly with some gloriously incompetent gems.
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And, not to be outgunned in terms of stubitterty…
Posted by docbushwell in Spankin' the Crank on January 19, 2009
…one final, pre-inauguration visit to Gribbit’s Word is a great opportunity for a paternal chuckle at an angry gasbag’s expense.
His latest post is titled “Any Liberal Successes Can Be Linked to ‘Hive’ Mentality,” is essentially a reposting of an irrelevant and witless essay by someone named Joe and including wonderfully ironic “insights” like this:
Nutters enthusiastically lowering their game as reality strikes
Posted by docbushwell in We're Doomed on January 18, 2009
On Tuesday, Barack Obama will take over as president of the United States. The deranged of the nation’s online denizens were bitching about the evils of liberal polices even when the presidency and both houses of Congress were controlled by Republicans with an unusually strong evangelical stench. When the 2006 midterm elections saw the Democrats regain control of both the Senate and the House, these blinkered souls somehow began making even more guttural sounds and unleashing an even more prolific torrent of lies, distortions, and petty grievances, a harbinger of what would come if a Dem won the presidency in 2008. Sure enough, with Obama poised to begin his term, the nutballs have shed all traces of pretense to either literacy or coherence and simply started detonating shitbombs wherever they live.
In this spirit, check out today’s one-two punch at (We’ll Never) Stop the ACLU (or Running Our Keyboards in Vain), which at baseline is reliably rich an all of the elements of blaring right-wing hysteria but today boasts a comical and psychotic melange of spite and nonsense.
Cody update
Posted by docbushwell in Habitats and Humanity, Hootworthy on January 18, 2009
From the NH Pathways to Hope Web site, concerning the young black Lab in training to be a service dog who was struck by a car the other day:
Cody had his orthopedic surgery on 1/15/09 to repair his broken front left leg and everything went very well. He was released from the veterinary hospital this afternoon and is now in foster care. Cody will be on strict crate rest for 3 months and will receive regular check-ups and X-rays to monitor the progress of his leg, as it heals. Everything will be done according to his attending veterinarian’s instructions. The outlook for Cody’s future is bright and we expect him to fully recover. Cody has had a slight career change and we are planning to have him become the Ambassador for the NHPTH program, after he is fully recovered.
People, from across the country, have been very generous and their donations have allowed us to pay for Cody’s medical treatments, as well as his follow up care over the next few months. Many thanks to everyone who sent Cody good wishes, prayers and support. Thank you again to Tracy, the Good Samaritan who stopped to help Cody last Monday night. Thank you to the staff at CrossRoads Animal Hospital in Londonderry who stabilized Cody immediately after his accident. Many thanks to the entire staff at CAVES for their dedication, compassion and care for every patient who comes through their front door, including Cody.
Without all of these people, who in some way, helped Cody in his time of need, Cody’s future would not be as bright. A big wag and a smile from Cody and his big brown puppy eyes.
Sincerely,
Terry Kelley CVT, CPDT
NHPTH Secretary and volunteer trainer
A suggestion for a new state motto for Mississippi
Posted by docbushwell in Hootworthy on January 15, 2009
The [Jackson, Miss.] City Council voted 4-2 against a plan Tuesday that would have made it unlawful for people to wear pants below the waistline exposing their underwear.
The council members who voted against the saggy-pants ban said it likely was unconstitutional.
But Mayor Frank Melton, who joined the council meeting via telephone from Texas, said he will issue an executive order instituting the dress code.
“I certainly respect the Constitution,” Melton said, “but we have some issues that are much bigger than the Constitution.”
As Ed Brayton notes, the paralipsis-happy Melton has been called–with good, if darkly entertaining, reason–”the worst mayor in America.” Please give yourself a moment and read though the chronicle of Melton’s antics; I started laughing so hard that the dog started frantically licking my face and then left the room.
Councilman Kenneth Stokes sponsored the saggy-pants ordinance. He said many of the young men who wear saggy pants also get in trouble at school or with police.
He said the ordinance was an attempt to “save all the children we can.”
Good thing no one in a position to introduce and vote on bills confuses correlation with causation. Most people who wind up in prison declare themselves to be Christians, so let’s ban churches!
Melton said his executive order will not call on offenders to be put in jail. Instead, he said he envisions police officers taking young men with sagging pants home to their parents to talk about the problem.
Now that’s a great use of police resources in a city that in 2004 boasted the highest murder rate of any medium-sized city in the United States–and has apparently become an even more dangerous place under Melton’s “leadership.”
Oh, and almost as an afterthought:
Melton is scheduled to stand trial in federal court next month on civil rights charges related to a police-style raid on a Jackson duplex in 2006.
Melton doesn’t appear to be much longer for this world, so perhaps the city will soon have a mayor who will not try to run things in the manner of a Somali warlord on nitrous oxide.
Not something I’m happy to report
Posted by docbushwell in Habitats and Humanity on January 15, 2009
But it would be nice if this story about a service-dog-in-training had a happy ending.
URGENT- Please Help Cody!
| <img src='http://pthnhpdp.org/pages/cody_sm.jpg' width=155 border=1 alt='URGENT- Please Help Cody!' |
New Hampshire Pathways to Hope (Prison Dog Program) is sending out an urgent plea to the public. Cody, a 5 month old Black Labrador puppy, escaped from his foster home on Monday, January 12 and was hit by a car. Cody is currently being treated at the Capitol Area Veterinary Services (CAVES) in Concord. He has a broken front left leg, head trauma and multiple bruises and lacerations. Cody is currently stable, but will need orthopedic surgery to repair his broken leg. The current estimate for his hospital bills and surgery is $2000-that’s after a nearly the very generous discount by CAVES. |
NHPTH is funded solely by donations and we urgently need help in paying for Cody’s medical treatments. If you would like to help Cody, please consider making a donation to the following address.
NH Pathways To Hope
PO Box 672
Concord, NH 03302-0672
More upheaval over Gene Robinson
Posted by docbushwell in We're Doomed on January 15, 2009
The other day, I noted an article in the Concord Monitor about Gene Robinson, a gay Episcopalian minister from New Hampshire, being invited to participate in the presidential inauguration proceedings that get underway this weekend. The comments to the article spanned a breathtaking range of the godsick spectrum, boasting all the usual mindless Bible-wowser high points.
On Tuesday, the Monitor also ran an editorial praising Barack Obama’s choice of Robinson and titled ” “. The Christers liked this one even less and jacked up their hypocrisy well into the red-zone, complaining that one of the few voices of reason wasn’t censored by the paper for the high crime of maligning belief while simultaneously scorning the very idea that their mere differences of opinion about gays and homosexuality (that these are “evil,” “unnatural,” etc.) could be viewed as bigoted.
That these are not people who are consciously lying is the really nasty part; they are as blisteringly stupid as they are mean by default, with each trait reinforcing the other, and are certain that their ideas are merely just, while everyone else’s are part of greater liberal plot to pervert the world by way of embracing “the Gay Agenda” and godlessness in general.
Thanks, neocons; your slogans about “values” and other bullshit sold a lot better than I would have believed over the past eight years. But never again will I overestimate the collective brainpower of this calamitous citizenry.
Meanwhile, Jay Stephenson, an elder statesman among the coterie of self-parodic keyboard abusers at StopTheACLU.com, complains that Robinson “plans to give Obama’s inaugural prayer to some other god beside that of Christianity….or basically he’s doing a fill in the blank with your favorite god prayer.”
The article Jay quotes himself expose the inaccuracy of this claim, but who cares? The meat of the matter, to Jay, is that this is not to be a strictly Christ-centric undertaking, and that Robinson’s presence and ecumenical mien renders the proceedings “insanely politically correct.”
How about that–Robinson has the nerve to treat non-Christian Americans, believers and otherwise, as Americans, and wants to reach as many people as possible! In the world of hapless cross-brandishing hickdom occupied by Jay and too many like him, delivering a prayer that is not strictly a Christian one is a terrible concession.
Well, guess what, Jay? I didn’t grow up in an Alabama swamp, playing with guns and wondering what “books” were while praying to a PCP-smoking, pimple-popping despot in the clouds, and I’m still an American. So Robinson is addressing me too, and y’all can suck it. (And yes, if anyone’s wondering, I’m being non-PC to make a point.)
If there’s a downside to having what appears to be a genuinely competent and progressive mind in the White House, it’s that millions of people who were already dangerously close to adult-diaper territory are already deep into wild-eyed and frantic shit-hurling mode, and they aren’t about to stop. I guess that means I just have to keep enjoying the show; truth be told, if people were even 10% smarter on average, the world might operate more efficiently, but life wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining a spectator sport..
The Labradometer, revisited
Posted by docbushwell in Self-Indulgent Wankery, The Running Ape on January 14, 2009
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of running with a dog–not mine but a close friend’s eight-year-old Golden retriever. It’s been years since I have consistently run with a canine companion; between 1998 and 2002 I logged also sorts of miles (and one memorable race) with a yellow Lab named Komen, but other than a few token jogs with a partner’s adoptee, a notoriously lazy German Shepherd mix named Soup, I have run either alone or bipeds since then.
Nubble (below, right, as a puppy), like a lot of retrievers, is primarily a swimmer. When I first took charge of part of her days last month, Nubble had never run an “official” step in her life. But she was not overweight or otherwise decrepit, so I was able to start her comfortably at an easy mile, and she’s now handling six-milers at 7:00 pace or faster with ease. (She also likes the 10- to 15-degree [Fahrenheit] weather more than I do.) So while she’s perhaps not as constitutively inclined to running as Komen (below, left), she’s doing very well–and gives me a reason to keep active myself in the absence of definitive running goals.
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More importantly, this spate of canine companionship has reminded me of possibly the best use of an expensive–and vocationally superfluous, as it happens–education in math and physics: the creation of the Labradometer.
Medtronic seeking distance runners for “Global Heroes” program
Posted by kemibe in Techies & Technology, The Medical Tent, The Running Ape on January 14, 2009
Medtronic is recruiting runners who benefit from medical technology to participate in its fourth annual Medtronic Global Heroes program. Up to 25 runners will be selected to receive a paid entry and travel expenses for themselves and a guest to the Twin Cities Marathon on October 4 or its companion 10-mile race. The deadline for applications is March 31.
In addition, the Medtronic Foundation will donate $1,000 to a select non-profit patient organization that educates and supports people who have the Global Hero’s medical condition.
To qualify, runners must currently be using a medical device to treat heart disease, diabetes, chronic pain, spinal disorders, or neurological, gastroenterology and urological disorders. Eligible medical devices include any pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), any spinal device, any neurological device, any insulin pump, or any heart valve.
Medtronic seeking distance runners for “Global Heroes” program
Posted by docbushwell in Techies & Technology, The Medical Tent, The Running Ape on January 14, 2009
Medtronic is recruiting runners who benefit from medical technology to participate in its fourth annual Medtronic Global Heroes program. Up to 25 runners will be selected to receive a paid entry and travel expenses for themselves and a guest to the Twin Cities Marathon on October 4 or its companion 10-mile race. The deadline for applications is March 31.
In addition, the Medtronic Foundation will donate $1,000 to a select non-profit patient organization that educates and supports people who have the Global Hero’s medical condition.
To qualify, runners must currently be using a medical device to treat heart disease, diabetes, chronic pain, spinal disorders, or neurological, gastroenterology and urological disorders. Eligible medical devices include any pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), any spinal device, any neurological device, any insulin pump, or any heart valve.
This explains a lot: coffee consumption linked to hallucinations
Posted by docbushwell in Better Living through Chemistry, Brains and Behavior on January 14, 2009
A study out of Durham University (not a university in Durham, North Carolina, a fine institution in its own right) suggests that people who consume the equivalent of seven cups of instant coffee a day are three times more likely to hear things that aren’t there than those who consume little to no caffeine.
In the study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Medical Research Council, 200 students were asked about their typical intake of caffeine containing products, such as coffee, tea and energy drinks as well as chocolate bars and caffeine tablets. Their proneness to hallucinatory experiences, and their stress levels, were also assessed. Seeing things that were not there, hearing voices, and sensing the presence of dead people were amongst the experiences reported by some of the participants.
Seven cups sounds like a lot until you consider that, at least in the U.S., 1) seven cups of instant coffee is equivalent to about five cups of brewed coffee, and 2) a “cup” is considered to be 8 ounces, far less than those of us suckling at the teat of Dunkin’ Donuts and its cousins with their 24-ounce XL methylxanthine bombs will ever chug in a sitting. 40 ounces of brewed coffee a day is nothing to some of us. Fortunately, I remain firmly grounded in reality, although I’m a little annoyed that my keyboard won’t stop playing Herbie Hancock tunes every time I enter a blog post (and AC/DC whenever I rip into Concord Monitor commenters).
SARAH PALIN is to LITERACY as INTELLIGENT DESIGN is to:
Posted by docbushwell in We're Doomed on January 14, 2009
A) THEISM
B) CREATIONISM
C) GOD
D) INTEGRITY
In case you couldn’t deduce the correct answer by simple process of elimination, This e-mail exchange between the Alaska governor and the editor of the state’s largest newspaper will steer you in the right direction. But, ya knoo, dose educated meedeeya types, dere just out to get poor Sarah because she’s, ya knoo, just a plain old hardworkin’ family mom with $4,000 boots and all dat, not some blue-blooded pretty face like that Kenney girl from New York…
No surprise: Human predation exerts selection pressures on other species
Posted by docbushwell in Habitats and Humanity, The Evolving World on January 13, 2009
In a purely humanless world, other organisms would face “purely” environmental obstacles to their own sustenance and hence a different set of pressures than those of today, which include deforestation, pollution, and other ecologically definitive actions perpetrated by H. sapiens sapiens. The result is that adaptations in plants and animals that in the real world are in close contact with humans would generally coour more slowly, or along different paths. (I’m perhaps oversimplifying here, and real biologists are free to take me top task.)
At the other extreme, the directed breeding of animals whose reproductive habits are strictly controlled by humans has led to some extremely rapid evolution. The example that usually comes to mind is dogs, domesticated from wolves only ten or twelve thousands years ago. The variety of dog breeds in existence today–all of which are theoretically capable of mating with both wolves and each other–is staggering, and in unclouded minds serves as unimpeachable testament to the existence of raw, randomly generated DNA substrate upon which selection–in this case artificial selection–can act.
Today, a Yahoo! News article described a situation that lies somewhere in between: Human hunting and fishing activities, while not aimed consciously at breeding in or breeding out animals with new and improved traits, have the same basic effects as antibiotics do on bacteria. Just as an incomplete course of a cephalosporin can result in “superbugs” and pests like MRSA, harvesting of more susceptible fish and game leads, as expected, to the emergence of especially hardy varieties. And this apparently happens three times faster than it would if human activities were not a factor.
The abstract of the study mentioned in the article is here.
The Gay brings out the crazies; gay clergymen bring out the infranuts and subloons
Posted by docbushwell in We're Doomed on January 13, 2009
An openly gay Episcopalian bishop from New Hampshire named Gene Robinson has been invited to take part in next week’s inauguration proceedings in Washington. Robinson is not only unabashed about his sexual orientation, but is well known for advocating for homosexual rights.
As you can imagine, the bigots are all over this, especially in the context of what promises to be an administration characterized by freewheeling liberal immorality and, if all goes as the Dems allegedly hope, the very destruction of freedom and the world itself in accordance with Satan’s blackest aims. But if everyday homobigots are ignorant and toxic, the ones emerging from within various rotting stumps and from under rocks are a different brand of shit-swilling and unapologetically illiterate and just plain stupid American citizens. Seriously, I can’t go three days without calling someone or something dumb here, but I think I have never seen examples as bad as in the comments to this article in my hometown paper.
Can’t find a homeless person to sue? You still may be in luck
Posted by docbushwell in We're Doomed on January 11, 2009
Apparently, celebrities and others of mega-means are no longer the only lightning rods for frivolous lawsuits; prevaricating, low-traffic bloggers whose wallets are as empty as their storehouse of facts are now attractive targets as well–at least according to Gribbit, who, unable to draw love even from those theoretically in his corner, continues to mention me and this blog frequently, evidently operating in the common belief that it’s better to be ridiculed than ignored.
Realizing the potential in frozen testicles
Posted by docbushwell in Bio-bizarre, Hootworthy on January 11, 2009
Realizing the potential in frozen testicles (Bio-bizarre, Life Science)
If you live in northern climes and like to spend time outdoors, as I do, and complain of damned near freezing your nuts off, as I would if I were prone to bouts of profanity, fear not. Scientists in Japan have cloned four healthy calves from bull testicles frozen for over ten years.
Key to the viability of this enterprise was the fact that the bulls’ balls were frozen without the use of chemical cryoprotectants.
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- Doc Bushwell is a biochemist and a medical writer who serves as a slavering minion of the dark lords of Big and Little Pharma; Jim is an engineering professor with a fondness for running shoes and drumsticks; and Kevin Beck is a self-exiled member of the clan who refuses to stay gone.
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