Monday, May 24, 2004

Take Your Pick

Recall, if you will, the Beagle 2 mission, which shouldn’t be too difficult, considering it is currently in the news, again.  Beagle 2 is in the news, because of the blame game.  Meaning, who can be blamed for its failure.  Here are your choices.

“Time and money crunches doomed Beagle 2."

“‘Martian heatwave’ destroyed Beagle 2." My personal favorite.

“Cheap and rushed: the verdict on Beagle 2."

“Beagle 2 Was a ‘Bridge Too Far’."

Posted by John Venlet on 05/24 at 11:47 AM
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Plastic Fantastic

Tummy tucks, liposuction, face lifts and breast implants.  Most of us are familiar with these plastic fantastic treatments, but, what about the latest and greatest?  Like mesotherapy.

"Mesotherapy is a technique where we inject medication, plant extracts, and vitamins into the mesoderm layer of the skin to break-up the amount of cellulite that’s visible,” explains Marion Shapiro, DO, president of Mesotherapy Associates in New York City and West Orange, N.J. The mesoderm is the middle layer of the skin. “We break the band in skin that causes the lumpy appearance and melt the fat to give a smoother appearance,” she says. Shapiro regularly performs mesotherapy on legs, arms, backs, and abdomens."

Or, for those individuals suffering from steatopygia, there is what is called a “butt lift,” but I think that’s just because calling it “sand blasting your ass,” doesn’t sound medically legit.

"The “butt lift” involves microdermabrasion (or a steady stream tiny crystals sandblasted across the buttocks to remove the dead, outer layer of skin) and then a lifting treatment using collagen, vitamin E, C, and ginseng extract to firm, tone the bring back elasticity to the buttocks, followed by a tightening gel. The procedure costs about $250 for a one-hour session and after it, voila!"

Then of course there are the bicep implants, calf implants, and pectoral implants.  Plastic fantastic.

“Extreme Makeover: Coming to a Beach Near You."

Unreal.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/24 at 08:34 AM
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Forgotten by History, by Coming in Second

Many individuals are aware that John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth.  But, are you aware of who is the second American to orbit earth? His name is Scott Carpenter, and his flight took place on May 24th, 1962.

"Carpenter flew the second American manned orbital flight on May 24, 1962. He piloted his Aurora 7 spacecraft through three revolutions of the earth, reaching a maximum altitude of 164 miles. The spacecraft landed in the Atlantic Ocean about 1000 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral after 4 hours and 54 minutes of flight time."

Posted by John Venlet on 05/24 at 08:18 AM
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Live Free or ?

First it was the Free State Project, being spirited ahead by Libertarians, today, it’s the Christians spiriting their own free state.

“Christians look to form ‘new nation’ within U.S."

Via the Liberty Post.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/24 at 08:07 AM
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"World's Fastest Motor Sport"

Mark your calendars, if you’re a fan of air racing.  The 41st National Championship Air Races and Air Show are coming up in September.  I’ve read about the races, and I’ve seen some film footage of the races, but it would be way cool to attend the races.

Via Jonathon Pearce, at Samizdata, who evidently will be attending.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/24 at 05:50 AM
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Sunday, May 23, 2004

The Honeymoon is Over - Time to Get Down to Business

“Newly Married Lesbians File Medical Malpractice Lawsuit."

"One day after marrying, a lesbian couple filed a medical malpractice lawsuit on Friday asking that one of the women receive damages because doctors had failed to detect breast cancer in her spouse."

Posted by John Venlet on 05/23 at 06:40 AM
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It's Just a Funny Remark

Here’s how Drudge notes John Kerry’s reaction to the President’s bicycle mishap.

"President fell off bike today… Kerry told reporters in front of cameras, ‘Did the training wheels fall off?’... Reporters are debating whether to treat it is as on or off the record… Developing..."

Developing?  What’s to develop?

Posted by John Venlet on 05/23 at 06:27 AM
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The Glories of Canadian Socialized Medicine - Coming to Amerika Soon

"* One in 13 people who go into hospital suffer an adverse event.

* Based on 2.5-million admissions in 2000, that means 140,000 to 232,000 people suffered them.

* 37% of those were preventable.

* These events added an average of six days to a hospital stay.

* One in five people who had an adverse event went on to die; 9% of adverse events were categorized as highly preventable.

* The most common types of adverse events related to surgeries, followed by drug- or fluid-related events."

“Hospital death toll alarming."

Via Google News.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/23 at 05:53 AM
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Saturday, May 22, 2004

A Lab Experiment Gone Awry?

The universe, is it a product of evolution, or creation?  Could the universe have been cooked up, in a lab?  Andrei Linde thinks it’s possible, a lab created universe that is, and it is an experiment that could, possibly, be replicated today.

"It doesn’t take all that much to create a universe. Resources on a cosmic scale are not required. It might even be possible for someone in a not terribly advanced civilization to cook up a new universe in a laboratory. Which leads to an arresting thought: Could that be how our universe came into being?"

Linde’s theory is termed “cosmic inflation.”

Now, where is that chemistry set?

“The Big Lab Experiment."

Posted by John Venlet on 05/22 at 09:35 AM
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Abu Ghraib, Still in the News

On the 14th of this month, I posted a link to a NYT article concerning Specialist Jeremy Sivits, a serviceman who had been involved in the humiliation and abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison.  Sivits was willingly giving evidence on other individuals involved, which, in light of the many articles and commentary calling for heads to roll throughout the military and on into the Whitehouse, seemed to me, to encourage some thought on the subject of responsibility, rather than blindly feeling, and then lashing out, at this atrociousness.

This morning, Drudge links to an article which is titled “Many Iraq Prison Abuses Occurred in Nov." Within that article, is this sentence.

"Many of the worst abuses that have come to light from the Abu Ghraib prison happened on a single November day amid a flare of insurgent violence in Iraq (news - web sites), the deaths of many U.S. soldiers and a breakdown of the American guards’ command structure."

Note that it states that the majority of the abuses occurred on one “single” day, in November, though the headline veils this, by stating “in Nov.,” rather than noting the “single” day.

Now, if we take the information from Sivits, and from the article noting the majority of the abuse took place on a “single” day, does this not cause one to think that possibly the call for heads to roll as high into the chain of command as possible is a bit over the top, a knee jerk reaction, based on feelings rather than thought?

Posted by John Venlet on 05/22 at 06:34 AM
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Friday, May 21, 2004

I Still Don't Much Care for Rats

“Black Death blamed on man, not rats."

The research supporting the claim is quite sound.  Rats, foiled again.  An interesting Friday night read.  This information does not make Camus’ book, The Plague, any less an enjoyable read.

Via Fred Lapides.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/21 at 05:55 PM
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"I'm your mother, and I know what's good for you," she explains. "And the public school won't be."

The quote, above, which acts as the title to this post, and I read at The Volokh Conspiracy, drew me to a New York Times article titled “Black Flight to Private Schools Is Growing," and I say, good for them.  Additionally, I say that public schools, and the taxes purloined from individuals’ pockets to fund them, need to be abolished.

The article also briefly mentions something I think about from time to time, my own grade school education, where memorization, and recitation, was emphasized.

"Like the Catholic schools favored by many black parents, the Whitfield School has stuck to instruction in basic skills. The other day, the blackboard in Louise Browne-Jackson’s first-grade classroom was equally divided into sections about phonics (sh, en), grammar (contractions) and mathematics (place value in three-digit numbers). Classes routinely recite aloud. Every pupil in pre-kindergarten is required to learn to read.

Such methods defy the favored approaches of many public school systems, including New York’s, which downplay or altogether omit drilling and memorization. The traditional style appeals strongly, however, to A. B. Whitfield, who taught in public schools for 17 years before founding Trey Whitfield (named for his late son) in 1983. And the curriculum has helped him attract a corps of experienced immigrant teachers, many of them products of the British-style schools in the Caribbean basin, for salaries one-third lower than those in public schools."

Don’t you just hate it when your mother is right?

Posted by John Venlet on 05/21 at 10:54 AM
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My Kind of Librarian

"A good library collection should have something to offend everyone,” said Jan Bojda, head of children’s services at the library. “If they don’t, they are not doing their job."

“Evanston library won’t ban kids’ book."

From the Chicago Tribune (use login: nytimesoops/password: nytimes if you need to), via The Obscure Store.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/21 at 09:39 AM
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A More Positive Cop Story

I often point out the lack of thinking cops here in the USA.  You know the type; by the book, you’re going to jail young man, do we have the right house, I’m an officer of the law and what I say goes, have another donut type cops.  At Hit & Run this morning, Jesse Walker points to a story about Telluride lawman Bill Masters, that is worth a read.  A couple of Bill Masters’ quotes from the article.

"The only reason why drugs and crime have expanded to reach every Mayberry village in the country is our blind obedience to misguided laws and police tactics that just do not work,” Masters writes in his essay introducing the collection. “It is time to admit our own folly and stop our addiction to the drug war."

And this.

"God gave Moses ten laws, he notes; the state legislature has given the citizens of Colorado more than 30,000.

“When you get to that number, lawlessness becomes commonplace,” he says. “We have to triage all this. Which ones do we pick that we’re really serious about?"

And this.

"This one mother came up to thank me because the program was teaching the kids about drugs,” he recalls. “As she was talking, it dawned on me that I’d taken on her role as a parent. Now it was my responsibility to teach her children about drugs."

A thinking cop, a disappearing species.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/21 at 09:07 AM
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A Quote on Herd Mentality

I don’t agree with everything Nietzsche has to say, in this my first perusal of his writings, but the following quote, I find to be of some import.

“The highest and strongest drives, when then break out passionately and drive the individual far above the average and the flats of the herd conscience, wreck the self-confidence of the community, its faith in itself, and it is as if its spine snapped.  Hence just these drives are branded and slandered most.  High and independent spirituality, the will to stand alone, even a powerful reason are experienced as dangers; everything that elevates an individual above the herd and intimidates the neighbor is henceforth called evil; and the fair, modest, submissive, conforming mentality, the mediocrity of desires attains moral designations and honors.  Eventually, under very peaceful conditions, the opportunity and necessity for educating one’s feelings to severity and hardness is lacking more and more; and every severity, even in justice, begins to disturb the conscience; any high and hard nobility and self-reliance is almost felt to be an insult and arouses mistrust; the “lamb,” even more the “sheep,” gains in respect.

There is a point in the history of society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly.  Punishing some seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining “punishment” and “being supposed to punish” hurts it, arouses fear in it.  “Is it not enough to render him undangerous? Why still punish?  Punishing itself is terrible.” With this question, herd morality, the morality of timidity, draws its ultimate consequence.  Supposing one could altogether abolish danger, the reason for fear, this morality would be abolished, too, eo ipso: it would no longer be needed, it would no longer consider itself necessary.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, Basic Writings of Nietzsche, Edited and Translated by Walter Kaufmann, Beyond Good and Evil, Part V, Natural History of Morals, section 201, pgs. 303-304

Posted by John Venlet on 05/21 at 08:27 AM
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