Report Says Space Program Is Lacking Money and Focus

I really should devote an entire new blog just to projects that Bush mandates and then fails to fund.

His 'trip to Mars' BS is just another in a long, long, long list of things he puts before the people so that he sounds all presidential, but then he - I guess - forgets to fund, or adequately fund, them.

It's just the same ole, same ole.

Trust for America's Health Fantasy Report

This is going in my politcal and health blogs because it has both political and health ramifications.

The report says that in the coming pandemic, we can expect about 500,000 fatalities. Wow! Really! That many?

Oh, wait, though! In 1918, 645,000 died in the U.S. from the Spanish Flu. The Spanish Flu had an overall death rate of .5% of the population, with would mean, if it struck now, that 1.5 million Americans could be expected to die. Hm... something's off here.

Given that the H5N1 flu has a MUCH higher fatality rate, it would not be unexpected that 1 or 2% of the population die, which would be 3 to 6 million, though I think it would be a lot higher. Also, given that investigators recently found that the TamiFlu vaccine was useless because Chinese farmers had been using a version for a couple of years, this letting the virus 'evolve' (for those believers in Creationism, just ignore the 'evolve' remark; God MADE the virus more resistant so as to hurt us.), we are virtually without protection.

So, how does this Trust for America's Health come up with the 1/2 million number? Apparently, Tarot card reading or tea leaves or some such nonsense, because they're obviously not using real facts.

In the next day or so, I'm going to research their board and staff members and find out just how closely they're tied to the Bush anti-science people; my guess is closer than a Bush is tied to his mommy. (ok, maybe not THAT closely, but close nonetheless.)

Please check back.

'Plastic Oil' Could Improve Fuel Economy In Cars, Chemists Say

Just one more thing that Bush is not doing to help save the planet.

Is there ANYTHING he WILL do? For instance, he could support biodiesel fuel. The IRS has finally gotten around to giving tax credits for a bit of the cycle of biodiesel, but if you read the IRS requirements from the biodiesel.org website, you will find them to be lengthy, complicated, onerous and seemingly designed to discourage biodiesel manufacture and use.

If you want to read what could be done with biodiesel - not to mention the new 'plastic oil', look at the health effects of biodiesel and look at the number of gallons per year being used. The fact of the matter is that almost all of the biodiesel available is due to one man, though that has changed with Willie Nelson jumping in on the act.

Since biodiesel is made from vegetable oil and plastic oil is made from recycled plastic, they would drive down the price of oil, so you can understand why Bush would not want to see that.

On my political blog, for instance, you find that ExxonMobile had a LOT to do with Bush rejecting Kyoto. Bush is a frigging idiot, so he needs industry flacks to draw things out in crayon, with nice pictures, to help him understand why global warming needs - still - more study. Check my political blog, soon, for a list of Bush's statements about how he's SO frigging committed to the environment, but things still need more study. 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. Apparently, there are more studies yet to be done. The pictures of shrinking glaciers, the number and strength of hurricanes, the sea salinity changes, the ocean conveyor shutting down, the droughts here and abroad - none of those seem to indicate to this dunce that there is a PROBLEM!

I'm just glad I had no biological children, though I raised - for a time - stepchildren that I wouldn't have missed for the world. However, it's sad to see what world we're leaving them.

Bush's editor of climate reports resigns: why?

Bush's non-science science editor has resigned. I'm shocked! Why, it was just yesterday that the President's apologist (Scott) said that review of such reports was 'standard'. If what Philip Cooney did was 'standard', then why - in the world - would he resign?

It couldn't be that Bush was bullshitting us, but the facts caught up with him, could it?

Nah!

Bush sits like a chicken in his roost while bird flu stalks the world

You have to understand that if the Chinese are alarmed, then we should be hitting the ole panic button. When SARS came along, they treated it like just another cold. This time, they are worried, and they are doing something about it.

Meanwhile - er.. this is a hard question to ask, but someone has to do it... is Bush on vacation? Cause if he is, then history would tend to say that we're about to get nailed.

More Mad Cow

I've been saying that the government is not doing a good job protecting us from prion diseases; mad cow is just one of the diseases that they are not protecting us from. So, here comes another Mad Cow case, but since the government PROHIBITS ranchers from testing all of their cattle (it's actually against the law), we don't really know how many there are. The whole thing about CWD (chronic wasting disease) among deer and elk is another issue that we're not being told the truth on, but I'll save that for a later date.

Who needs science? Not U.S.

It's hard to take science seriously when you believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old and that evolution is only a 'theory' (sort of like The Pythagorean Theorem is only a 'theory').

Statistics show that students are, less and less, taking up science as a career; in the South, that's in large part because they are shamed by their peers for being blasphemous because - you know - science leads to thinking evolution might be real, and because studying things like the stars is pointless because, as the Bible say, during the Tribulation, the stars will fall from the sky. Since these same people believe that the Tribulation is due 'real soon now', mostly thanks to lots of ministries 'proving' the signs are coming together, why study stars that are all going to be down here on Earth soon, anyway?

There's also the point about studying stars is pointless because science assumes that they are older than 6,000 years. There is obviously a big disconnect between the stars being 6,000 years old and studying any science that says that they are billions of years old. It's just hearesy.

So, while the 'reality-based' community (Bush's spokeswoman's term) laments what the article calls 'decimating science', most people don't care. Frankly, NASA should try to understand what Eve threw away when she bit into the fruit; what was the world like in the Garden of Eden? What fruit, exactly, is the 'fruit of knowledge'? Can you make use a juicer and make a tasty drink with that fruit?

The Better Educated A Woman Is, The Better She Sleeps At Night

While a study comes to the conclusion noted above, another study notes that better educated men have MORE trouble sleeping.

You may wonder what this is doing in the Politics section; good question.

Here's my quandry: the people I know are generally more educated and, as a rule, are much more likely to be:
1) troubled by what BushCo and the Religious Right are doing to this country
2) more likely to have suffered unemployment - or be worried about that prospect, due to off-shoring (aided by the tax credits that Bush has given companies that off-shore)

So, I can understand men having more trouble sleeping, but I'm at a lost as to why women have less trouble sleeping. I don't think that the women are any less knowledgeable than the men, nor are they less involved in what's going on (in fact, in most cases, they are more involved), nor do they have less of a conscience about what's going on (again, generally, they are more concerned).

I chalk it up to women being more advanced than men, and they are able to just say, at bedtime, "Well, I can't do anything about the world situation before morning, so I'm just going to get some sleep." Whereas, perhaps, men keep fretting about things they can't change while they are asleep. It just goes to point out, I think, the innate wisdom of women.

Pesky, unneeded regulators - it's enough to give you a heart attack

Yeah, I guess this just proves the Republican mantra that regulation stifles industry.

Just think how many more defib units that Guidant could have sold if not for the pesky regulators? Their stockholders will now suffer because of - you know - the regulators. The company did what companies should do - keep selling. Those whiners that cried about their loved ones dying just need to get over it; the loved ones were old and defective and it was time for them to go. Deal with it.

You may contact Guidant here: http://guidant.com/contact/

I did, and I left them this encouraging message:

It's a shame that those pesky regulators brought all of this stuff up about your defib units. Now the stockholders will pay the price for the interference of the government.

Frankly, the more units you sold did the economy good 2 ways: more money in circulation and it got rid of people that consume an inordinate amount of this country's medical resources.

Frankly, after someone buys a defib unit, the chances of them buying another are slim, so - as Gov. Dick Lamm said so long ago, they 'have a duty to die'; you were just helping them along.

Is that such a bad thing?

Tell their families to quit whining and enjoy the dividends on your stock - should they own any. Liberals and do-gooders always step in to ruin a good thing.

Vaccine Curbs Shingles Cases and Severity

Vaccine Curbs Shingles Cases and Severity - New York Times