I had not realized there were so many versions of this old song. Looking for the Country Gentlemen, I find Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band, featuring Rodney Crowell on guitar and some great steel player (who?). Recorded from a German television broadcast, 1977.
My favorite line: “That’ll be cash on the barrelhead, son. This old grey dog, she gets paid to run.”
More:
1 Comment | 
Music | Tagged: Emmylou Harris, Hot Band, Rodney Crowell | 
Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
President Barack Obama's signature on the health insurance reform bill at the White House, March 23, 2010. The President signed the bill with 22 different pens. CBO projections in March 2012 indicate savings under the bill will increase beyond earlier projections, offsetting increased costs from continuing economics woes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Remember, without the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. was experiencing health care cost inflation of about 15%annually.
You might not know it if you read conservative blogs, watch Fox News, or listen to the Republican candidates for president — all of whom seem to have their fact panties on wrong — but the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects the bill will reduce federal spending, still, even after accounting for recent changes in law and changes in the economy that will increase costs of the bill’s provisions.
Yeah, Obamacare saves money.
The new law will not eliminate the problem of people not having insurance coverage to guarantee access to health care, a sad result of Republican efforts to cut the bill’s effectiveness. But it’s a great first step to making America better, healthier, and economically more sound. Here’s the blog post from the CBO discussing the bill, and CBO’s continuing studies of the effects of the law:
CBO Releases Updated Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act
March 13, 2012
In preparing the March 2012 baseline budget projections, CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have updated estimates of the budgetary effects of the health insurance coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—the health care legislation enacted in March 2010. Those provisions:
- Establish a mandate for most legal residents of the United States to obtain health insurance;
- Create insurance “exchanges” through which certain individuals and families may receive federal subsidies to substantially reduce the cost of purchasing health insurance;
- Significantly expand eligibility for Medicaid;
- Impose an excise tax on certain health insurance plans with relatively high premiums;
- Establish penalties on certain employers who do not provide minimum health benefits to their employees; and
- Make other changes to prior law.
The most recent previous estimate of those effects was prepared in March 2011. For more details on the insurance coverage provisions of the ACA, you can see CBO’s cost estimate for the health care legislation, which was issued in March 2010.
The Estimated Net Cost of the Insurance Coverage Provisions Is Smaller Than Estimated in March 2011
CBO and JCT now estimate that the insurance coverage provisions of the ACA will have a net cost of just under $1.1 trillion over the 2012-2021 period-about $50 billion less than the agencies’ March 2011 estimate for that 10-year period. (For comparison with previous estimates, these numbers cover the 2012-2021 period; estimates including 2022 can be found below.)
The net costs–specifically the combined effects on federal revenues and mandatory spending–reflect:
- Gross additional costs of $1.5 trillion for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), tax credits and other subsidies for the purchase of health insurance through the newly established exchanges and related costs, and tax credits for small employers,
- Offset in part by about $0.4 trillion in receipts from penalty payments, the new excise tax on high-premium insurance plans, and other budgetary effects (mostly increases in tax revenues).
Those amounts do not encompass all of the budgetary impacts of the ACA. They do not include federal administrative costs, which will be subject to future appropriation action. Also, they do not include the effects of the many other provisions of the law, including some that will cause significant reductions in Medicare spending relative to that under prior law and others that will generate added tax revenues relative those under prior law.
CBO and JCT have previously estimated that the ACA will, on net, reduce budget deficits over the 2012-2021 period; that estimate of the overall budgetary impact of the ACA has not been updated.
Gross Costs Are Higher, but Offsetting Budgetary Effects Are Also Higher
The current estimate of the gross costs of the coverage provisions—$1,496 billion through 2021—is about $50 billion higher than last year’s projection; however, the other budgetary effects of those provisions, which partially offset those gross costs, also have increased in CBO’s and JCT’s estimates—to $413 billion—leading to the small decrease in the net 10-year tally.
Over the 10-year period from 2012 through 2021, enactment of the coverage provisions of the ACA was projected last March to increase federal deficits by $1,131 billion, whereas the March 2012 estimate indicates that those provisions will increase deficits by $1,083 billion.
The net cost was boosted by:
- An additional $168 billion in estimated costs for Medicaid and CHIP, and
- $8 billion less in estimated revenues from the excise tax on certain high-premium health insurance plans.
But those increases were more than offset by a reduction of:
- $97 billion in the projected costs for the tax credits and other subsidies for health insurance provided through the exchanges and related spending
- $20 billion in the projected costs for tax credits for small employers, and
- $107 billion in deficits from the projected revenue effects of changes in taxable compensation and penalty payments and from other small changes in estimated spending.
The Revisions in Estimates Reflect Legislative, Economic, and Technical Changes
The major sources for the differences between the March 2011 and March 2012 projections are the following:
- New Legislation. Several laws were enacted during the past year that changed the estimated budgetary effects of the insurance coverage provisions of the ACA.
- Changes in the Economic Outlook. The March 2012 baseline incorporates CBO’s macroeconomic forecast published in January 2012, which reflects a slower recovery when compared with the forecast published in January 2011 (which was used in producing the March 2011 baseline).
- Technical Changes. The March 2012 baseline incorporates updated projections of the growth in private health insurance premiums, reflecting slower growth than the previous projections. In addition, CBO and JCT made a number of other technical changes in their estimating procedures.
The Number of the Nonelderly Uninsured Is Higher Than Previously Estimated
CBO and JCT’s projections of health insurance coverage have changed since last March. Fewer people are now expected to obtain health insurance coverage from their employer or in insurance exchanges; more are now expected to obtain coverage from Medicaid or CHIP or from nongroup or other sources. More are expected to be uninsured. The extent of the change in insurance coverage varies from year to year.
Compared with prior law, the ACA is now estimated by CBO and JCT to reduce the number of nonelderly people without health insurance coverage by 30 million to 33 million in 2016 and subsequent years, leaving 26 million to 27 million nonelderly residents uninsured in those years (see Table 3 at the end of the report). The share of legal nonelderly residents with insurance is projected to rise from 82 percent in 2012 to 93 percent in 2016 and subsequent years. That share rose to 95 percent in CBO and JCT’s previous estimate.
According to the current estimates, from 2016 on, between 20 million and 23 million people will receive coverage through the new insurance exchanges, and 16 million to 17 million additional people will be enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP as a result of ACA. Also, 3 million to 5 million fewer people will have coverage through an employer compared with the number under prior law
Estimates Through Fiscal Year 2022
This report also presents estimates through fiscal year 2022, because the baseline projection period now extends through that additional year. The ACA’s provisions related to insurance coverage are now projected to have a net cost of $1,252 billion over the 2012-2022 period; that amount represents a gross cost to the federal government of $1,762 billion, offset in part by $510 billion in receipts and other budgetary effects (primarily revenues from penalties and other sources).
The addition of 2022 to the projection period has the effect of increasing the costs of the coverage provisions of the ACA relative to those projected in March 2011 for the 2012-2021 period because that change adds a year in which the expansion of eligibility for Medicaid and subsidies for health insurance purchased through the exchanges will be in effect. CBO and JCT have not estimated the budgetary effects in 2022 of the other provisions of the ACA; over the 2012-2021 period, those other provisions were previously estimated to reduce budget deficits.
If we could get another stimulus program to goose the economy into quicker recovery, the cost savings would likely grow much faster. What conservative budget chopper wouldn’t prefer that solution?
Barack Obama signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the White House Español: Barack Obama firmando la Ley de Protección al Paciente y Cuidado de Salud Asequible en la Casa Blanca (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
How did your favorite media outlets report the CBO cost projections?
More, Resources (with help from Zemanta and WordPress):
7 Comments | Economics, Health care, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: ACA, CBO, Congressional Budget Office, Economics, Health care, Health Insurance, ObamaCare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
More shots of our rather tame, wild neighbor.
S/he may have been trying to reach the safety of the area under the heat pump -- but the dogs caught on, and "treed" it on the fence. I worried about rabies, but it seemed healthy.
I’m torn, really — are they cute, or really ugly?
Walt Kelly would have been pleased at its familiarity with the idea of a mugwump, as it demonstrates, here.
The hairless, "rat" tail is one of the least attractive features. How much cuter would it be with a furry tail?
He does have a very cute, pink nose, however. You could get used to dealing with these little guys.
6 Comments | Dallas, Gardening, Wildlife | Tagged: Dallas, Gardening, Oppossums, possums, Wildlife | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Over at Desmogblog, John Mashey details problems with George Mason University’s conclusions that plagiarism did not really occur in a report written for Congress that plagiarized several different sources.
If true, not only did GMU violate its own policies on duration, but on process, because they have ignored numerous well-documented complaints, including about 4 papers with Federal funding. This process involved VP Research Roger Stough, Provost Peter Stearns and President Alan Merten, so it was certainly visible inside GMU.
See No Evil,
Hear No Evil
Speak No Evil … except about Ray Bradley [the fellow who filed the plagiarism complaint], who has yet to receive any report.
The attached report enumerates the problems that GMU managed not to see, shows the chronology of a simple complaint that took almost 2X longer than specified by policy and finally produced an obvious contradiction. People may find GMU’s funding and connections interesting, including similarities and relationships with Heartland Institute. Finally, readers might recall the WR was alleged to be an attempt to mislead Congress, so this is not just an academic issue.
No e-mails stolen to expose the problem, but still no action against those who deny climate change occurs and will plagiarize papers to make their point. It’s a not-pretty pass.
I suspect reporters get MEGO syndrome reading the stuff, but Desmogblog points to real problems, real difficulties in science, that deserve to be covered better than they have been.
Go read Mashey’s report and follow the links.
More:
1 Comment | Climate change, climate_change, College, Education, Ethics, Politics, Research, Science | Tagged: Climate change, Colleges and Universities, Desmogblog, Education, Ethics, George Mason University, Global warming, Heartland Institute, John Mashey, Politics, Research, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Much angst among Heartlandgate perpetrators over the increasingly obvious fact that Peter Gleick not only shouldn’t be prosecuted, but can’t be prosecuted under federal law, for duping Heartland employees into revealing their true intentions, to lie about global warming so people won’t “believe” it and support solutions.
Peter Gleick, lifetime of informing the public accurately at a researcher's greatly diminished salary; Heartland Institute is spending thousands of dollars to convince people he changed suddenly. Who to believe? Here's Gleick at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2009 (Photo credit: World Economic Forum)
But this odd site cut through the clutter and posted the words of the relevant law, establishing Peter Gleick’s lack of criminality:
18 U.S.C. 1343:
Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both….
Did you catch that, Dear Reader? Gleick would be guilty of federal wire fraud had he asked the perpetrators of Heartlandgate to send him money or property.
But all Gleick asked for was a copy of their agenda for a meeting, and the supporting data. No money, no property. Nothing of value. Nor did he intend to use, nor could he use, any of that information to get money or property.
You noted, of course, the site is one promulgated by the Heartland Institute itself.
(Did they really mean it that way? Probably not.)
(By the way — you may want to read the actual law from an authoritative source like the Cornell University Law Library’s Legal Information Institute (LII), and not a version filtered by people who deny global warming, nor its severity, nor its causes, or who don’t work to hoodwink gullible politicians.)
Peter Gleick: Deep Throat of the climate denial scandals.
How can you tell whether you should be concerned, Dear Reader?
For example, if you’re a teacher, should you be concerned that in Heartlandgate, the Heartland Institute reveals itself to be working to “dissuade” science teachers from teaching science? Or, if you’re just a concerned citizen, should you be concerned that you’ve heard precious little about the analysis of the documents released, from major news outlets?
If you are in any degree confused about who to believe in this issue, or worse, if you are convinced that there is a pattern of skirting of the laws by scientists (contrary to the evidence), you should be concerned that you’re not getting the full story.
More, Resources, Further reading:
38 Comments | Climate change, climate_change, CO2, Environment, Environmental protection, Global warming, History, Politics, Science | Tagged: Climate change, environment, Global warming, Heartland Institute, Heartlandgate, History, Law, Pacific Institute, Peter Gleick, Politics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I’d forgotten about the birthers’ greatest nightmare — Obama’s got Irish blood in him!
Democratic Underground features a series of photos of President Obama with an Irish cousin at one of my favorite old haunts in Washington, the Dubliner.
President Barack Obama drinks a Guinness with his ancestral cousin from Moneygall Ireland Henry Healy, center, and the owner of the pub in Moneygall Ireland, Ollie Hayes, right, at The Dubliner Restaurant and Pub and Restaurant on St. Patrick’s Day, Saturday, March 17, 2012, in Washington (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Many great memories of the Dubliner.
In 1974, when I interned at the Senate, it was just a small bar on the first floor of the Commodore Hotel. Rocky Johnson of Sen. Mike Gravel‘s office, one of my roommates, introduced me to Guinness. The Dubliner was the most reliable source in D.C. at the time. The bartender was a guy named Paddy. It was never crowded — and they had good fish and chips with a fine, imported malt vinegar. I wasn’t exactly a regular, but I made several visits.
Ironically, for my summer job that year with the Louis August Jonas Foundation, we had a trip to D.C. planned with about 16 “boys from abroad” and the designated hotel was the Commodore — it was cheap and met our needs, being close to the Capitol. I was asked to chaperone, and happily went. So Freddy Jonas, the great benefactor of the foundation and Camp Rising Sun, and I could sneak down to the Dubliner for a nightcap. Michael Greene, the foundation’s executive director, warned me that Freddy would always ask if you wanted a second drink, but Freddy would not take one himself — and so, of course, neither should staffers.
One night while Freddy and I were capping off the evening we ran into a friend from my interning, Avis Ortner, a former rodeo barrel rider who had starred in a Kodak commercial series, and who worked in a Washington law firm. She and Freddy struck it off very nicely. I was surprised at how much Freddy knew about horses, and the questions he had about rodeo riding. At some point in the evening he asked me if I were going to have a second drink, and of course I declined. “Well, you only live once. Avis and I are having a second one, and you should join us.” People who knew Freddy well still don’t believe me when I tell them the story. But it’s true. It’s the magic of the Dubliner. [Is Avis still cleaning up at bridge in D.C.? [Yes!]]
I was back in D.C. in 1975, again with the Jonas Foundation bunch, and again at the Commodore. The Dubliner had a successful year, and had taken over the small cafe/dining room next door to bar.
In 1976 I visited again, and after a very successful year the Dubliner kicked out the gift shop of the hotel and opened a second bar there. It was crowded on weekends.
In 1979 I moved to D.C. Within a couple of years the Dubliner bought out the Commodore. You couldn’t get a seat at the bar most nights. St. Patrick’s Day 1980 the line wrapped around the block, and though the place never had a great stage, the live act was the Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem, if I recall correctly.
Reconstruction and massive redecorating made the hotel into a great stop. Eventually the bar company sold the hotel, but kept the location. After Kathryn and I got married, we’d walk over to the Dubliner for lunch at least a couple of times a month, and the fish and chips at the Dubliner got better. I may have done in half the cod from the Grand Banks all by myself.
We’ve been in Texas now since 1987. I miss the Dubliner. Obama’s lucky he could get in, on St. Patrick’s Day. I hope he appreciates his luck.
(Kenny’s in Baltimore tonight — more irony. Girl Talk on Federal Hill (I think it’s an outdoor concert performance). Better than waiting in line at the Dubliner. Go when the crowds aren’t there, and you can savor the place.)
2 Comments | History, Humor, Music, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: History, Humor, Music, Obama, Politcs, St. Patrick's Day | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
No, not “playing possum.” Playing WITH the ‘possum.
The mostly-dachsund harasses any animal that may wish to take up residence under our shed — or, in some cases, under the heat pump. The animals usually stick around for a while, though, because there is so much good stuff to dig up there. For our part, we don’t mind when they dig up and dispose of the grubs, most of the time.
But these creatures — a possum, a raccoon a couple of years ago, armadilloes from time to time, or even rats (before Smokey the cat took them out, one by one) — eventually wander off, mostly unseen by us because they’re nocturnal.
Yesterday morning both dogs went nuts, and when I looked out, I realized they had something treed. Between the mostly-dachsund and the border setter, they average out to a couple of beagles, and they can tree something if they want to. Can’t get it, but they can tree it.
It's an election year, so why shouldn't one of Pogo's cousins be on the fence?
It’s probably the same one I saw a few weeks ago when taking coffee grounds to the compost pile (maybe the caffeine is keeping this guy up days, eh?). Kenny caught him crossing the alley late one night, in the headlights, of course.
I brought the dogs in, and turned them out an hour later, thinking the guy had plenty of time to get to his daytime hiding place.
They treed him again. (Actually, that’s the second treeing, pictured above.)
Later they got him on the fence in a different part of the yard.
Possum caught in the early morning, peeking through the Chinese photinia (not red tip). Flash photography confuses the little guys, I think.
By this time I worried that the critter might be suffering from an illness — like rabies, which tends to make nocturnal animals come out in daylight, and be mean.
But there are no other symptoms. I was relieved this morning to find new digs from the critter. If he, or she, is digging for food, it’s probably not rabid.
In his jaunts around the world last year Kenny mentioned how ugly possums are, to one of his friends from Britain, who immediately took issue. Cute?
Turns out Kenny’s friend was referring to the Australian possum, which is quite cute.
Australian ring-tailed possum, photo by kookr. Australia has 27 different species of possum, all of them cuter and more cuddly than their American cousins.
Ours is not an Australian import.
I hope the bob whites come back, too. Maybe it was just the drought that discouraged them last year.
It’s been a good year for wildlife, at least those with wings. One day last week we had a tree full of cedar waxwings, passing through. Blue jays and white-winged doves flew around them, and into the same tree. There were a bunch of robins out — making eight weeks of sightings of the things, which leads me to understand some sizable population is staying in the Dallas area now, instead of just migrating through as they would, formerly. On the live oak, the yellow-belly sapsucker probed for new grubs. And on the trunk of the red oak the waxwings gathered in, another woodpecker, wholly oblivious to the cacophony, looked for emerging insects itself. On local roads I’ve seen a bobcat — first for Texas, for me — and a few coyotes (while cousin-in-law Amanda has video of what looks to be wolves, in California!). We haven’t gone out to look at the snowy owl in Rockwall, but there’s a chance of adding a rarity to the life-list.
With luck, we’ll get the toads, soon. We should do well — Kathryn’s worked hard to make the yard a refuge for wildlife. We’re mostly organic, so there should be no poisons to accumulate in any insect-eating critters. We feed birds, several different species, and we have water for animals in front and back yard. The National Wildlife Federation will certify your yard as a backyard wildlife habitat. Working to get there is most of the fun; watching the wildlife is the gravy.
Backyard wildlife study is great fun.
More:
3 Comments | Gardening, Wildlife | Tagged: Common ringtail possum, Dallas, Gardening, Opossums, possums, Texas, Wildlife | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Odd as hell. It’s like Obi Wan Kenobi pulled the old mind-wave trick (“You don’t need to see his identification”), and the birthers suddenly forgot what they’ve been saying, doing and threatening, for three years.
Have you heard any of the most frantic, frenetic, dedicated birthers ask for the birth certificates of Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum?
Why all the tough questions for the Democrat, for the non-lunatic, for the Chicago guy, for the kid from the single-parent household, and none for the White Anglo-Saxon Catholic/Mormon/Lapsed Lutherans?
Where’s the birth certificate for Joe Arpaio? Could he be so tough on immigrants because, secretly, he is one, and hopes not to be discovered?
I think, perhaps, they weren’t really concerned about citizenship qualifications to be president, except to “get” Obama. If they can’t figure out a way to win — and therefore beat Obama — by cheating, they don’t want to play at all. Even Leo Donofrio is folding his tent.
If only Congress would get the message that America’s president is president of all of America, and their efforts to bring down the nation to “get” Obama are not working, and should be stopped, I’d be a lot happier guy.
Minor update, March 17, 2012: Sorta as I feared/expected/realized-from-years-of-experience, the birthers are letting the current group of Republicans slide, so far as I, or they, can tell. Most of them are completely unaware that at least one candidate has a foreign-born father, most of them don’t know where or when the candidates were born or naturalized, and of course, because the Republicans are not Obama, they don’t really care. One birther claims to be sure that “others” are looking hard into these questions, experts. Shades of that other Harrison Ford movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark:” What experts? “Top experts.” And shame on me for even asking the questions calling their bluff.
More (if you can stand it):
11 Comments | 2012 Campaigns, 2012 Elections, Political Smear, Politics, President Obama, Presidential Eligibility | Tagged: Birth Certificate, Birthers, Campaign 2012, Joe Arpaio, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Political Smears, Politics, President Obama, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I get e-mail from people who work for good schools, the Texas Freedom Network:
TFN Launches SBOE 2012 Campaign
Ideologues on the State Board of Education are doing everything they can to keep our children in the dark (ages). They:
- censor American history, including what students learn about separation of church and state
- reject established science and dumb-down instruction on evolution
- ignore the recommendations of teachers and scholars who know what Texas kids need to learn to be successful today
Ignorance is not a Texas value. Texas needs a new SBOE.
So what can you do?
Every 10 years all 15 seats on the SBOE are up for election at once. This is that year.
Throughout this election year, our campaign will help you:
- Get informed about SBOE elections
- Get involved in your community
- VOTE for candidates that restore sanity to the SBOE
Take the first step: sign the pledge and join the SBOE 2012 campaign at tfn.org/educate.
Regards,
The Texas Freedom Network
tfn.orgP.S. Take another step toward fulfilling part of your pledge by clicking here to send this message to a friend.
P.P.S. For even more campaign updates, like TFN on Facebook and follow #SBOE2012 on Twitter.
Good idea.
For years, when people asked me about my opinions “in the really important races” I’d first ask them which school district they lived in, usually pointing out that I don’t know their district. Local school board races are probably the most important most people will vote in (or fail to vote) in their lifetimes. Since coming to Texas and fighting the Texas State Board of Education, I wonder sometimes if the state board races aren’t even more important than your local school board. Santayana’s Ghost agrees with the sentiments on the TFN logo above.
If you don’t already use the site, you ought to at least check out the TFN Insider, TFN’s blog which covers the Texas SBOE better than most media in Texas.
1 Comment | 2012 Campaigns, 2012 Elections, Education, State school boards, Texas, Texas Freedom Network | Tagged: 2012 Campaign, Education, Elections, Politics, Texas, Texas Freedom Network | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Did you do what I did yesterday? I got so wrapped up in Pi Day festivities that I forgot to offer birthday wishes to Albert Einstein.
So, an encore post.
Happy Einstein Day (a day late)! Almost fitting that he was born on π Day, no? I mean, is there an E=mc² Day?
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany, to Hermann and Pauline Einstein. 26 years later, three days after his birthday, he sent off the paper on the photo-electric effect; that paper would win him the Nobel Prize in Physics in another five years, in 1921. In that same year of 1905, he published three other papers, solving the mystery of Brownian motion, describing what became known as the Special Theory of Relativity and solving the mystery of why measurements of the light did not show any effects of motion as Maxwell had predicted, and a final paper that noted a particle emitting light energy loses mass. This final paper amused Einstein because it seemed so ludicrous in its logical extension that energy and matter are really the same stuff at some fundamental point, as expressed in the equation demonstrating an enormous amount of energy stored in atoms, E=mc².
Any one of the papers would have been a career-capper for any physicist. Einstein dashed them off in just a few months, forever changing the field of physics. And, you noticed: Einstein did not win a Nobel for the Special Theory of Relativity, nor for E=mc². He won it for the photo electric effect. Irony in history.
106 years later Einstein’s work affects us every day. Relativity theory at some level I don’t understand makes possible the use Global Positioning Systems (GPS), which revolutionized navigation and mundane things like land surveying and microwave dish placement. Development of nuclear power both gives us hope for an energy-rich future, and gives us fear of nuclear war. Sometimes, even the hope of the energy rich future gives us fear, as we watch and hope nuclear engineers can control the piles in nuclear power plants damaged by earthquakes and tsunami in Japan.
If Albert Einstein was a genius at physics, he was more dedicated to pacifism. He resigned his German citizenship to avoid military conscription. His pacifism made the German Nazis nervous; Einstein fled Germany in the 1930s, eventually settling in the United States. In the U.S., he was persuaded by Leo Szilard to write to President Franklin Roosevelt to suggest the U.S. start a program to develop an atomic weapon, because Germany most certainly was doing exactly that. But Einstein refused to participate in the program himself, sticking to his pacifist views. Others could, and would, design and build atomic bombs. (Maybe it’s a virus among nuclear physicists — several of those working on the Manhattan Project were pacifists, and had great difficulty reconciling the idea that the weapon they worked on to beat Germany, was deployed on Japan, which did not have a nuclear weapons program.)
Einstein was a not-great father, and probably not a terribly faithful husband at first — though he did think to give his first wife a share of a Nobel Prize should he win it in the divorce settlement. Einstein was a good violinist, a competent sailor, an incompetent dresser, and a great character. His sister suffered a paralyzing stroke. For many months Albert spent hours a day reading to her the newspapers and books of the day, convinced that mute and appearing unconscious, she would benefit from hearing the words. He said he did not hold to orthodox religions, but could there be a greater show of faith in human spirit?
When people hear clever sayings, but forget to whom the bon mots should be attributed, Einstein is one of about five candidates to whom all sorts of things are attributed, though he never said them. (Others include Lincoln, Jefferson, Mark Twain and Will Rogers). Einstein is the only scientist in that group. So, for example, we can be quite sure Einstein never claimed that compound interest was the best idea of the 20th century. This phenomenon is symbolic of the high regard people have for the man, even though so few understand what his work was, or meant.
A most interesting man. A most important body of work. He deserves more study and regard than he gets.
More, Resources:
4 Comments | 1941-1945, Albert Einstein, Atomic Bomb, Citizenship, Franklin Roosevelt, History, History of Science, Physics, Science, World War II | Tagged: 1941-1945, Albert Einstein, Atomic Bomb, Biography, Citizenship, Einstein, Franklin Roosevelt, History, Leo Szilard, Lisa Randall, Physics, Relativity, Science, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Joseph Stalin would have to have been drunk to call the U.S. “healthy,” and to have complimented America’s patriotism, morality and spiritual life. Even then, it would be unlikely. Why does this quote keep circulating?
This has been floating around Tea Party and other shallow venues for a while, but I’ll wager Stalin did not say it:
“America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: Its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.”
I can’t find any source for it; it’s mostly quoted on right-wing sites where people marvel over what a prophet Stalin was. All requests for a citation in five or six different forums I’ve checked, are unanswered. Nothing like it appears at the often-checked Wikiquote. The Stalin Archive holds nothing close to the claimed quote.
Perhaps more telling: Is it likely that Joe Stalin ever would have called the U.S. “a healthy body?” Stalin was of a school that claimed capitalism was diseased, and America was infested with a soon-to-be terminal case. If he called America “diseased” by patriotism and religion, it would be consistent with other statements, but his calling America healthy for patriotism and spiritual life, it’s inconsistent with other claims he made, about America and about capitalism (see Stalin’s 1929 remonstrance to the U.S. Communist Party, for example).
So, Dear Readers, my request to you: Can you offer the source of this quote, Joseph Stalin or not?
Why would a false claim from Stalin get such a life on the internet?
Update, March 15, 2012: I’m calling this one: It’s a bogus quote. Joseph Stalin didn’t say it. Not as many comments here as e-mails and comments on other discussion boards and Facebook — no one has come even close to anything like the line above from Stalin. No source quoting the line even bothers to give a decade, let alone a year, a location, and a citation that would pass muster in a sophomore high school English class. Tea Partiers, you’ve tried to twist history again — stop it.
Update March 1, 2013: If you’re checking in here studying for a DBQ for an AP class, please tell us in comments, which AP class, and what city you’re in. Thanks.
18 Comments | Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Bogus history, Capitalism, Communism, History, Quotes | Tagged: Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Bogus history, Capitalism, Communism, History, Joseph Stalin | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Understanding the physics of the Earth’s atmosphere poses great problems — it is an astonishingly dynamic, fluid environment. Understanding the relationships between species in ecosystems is no less complex, and no less vexing.
Wise followers of science recognize that when findings in biology, chemistry and physics, point the same direction, something powerful creates the convergence, and is not to be ignored.
So it is with these findings from the University of Montana and the U.S. Geological Survey, demonstrating clear links between climate change and the changing life patterns of large animals like elk, small animals like birds, and the plants the animals live in and consume. This study is so complex that climate denialists haven’t figured out which part to deny, yet. (This press release came out in January.)
From the USGS, with no adornment from the Bathtub, a press release on a letter in Nature Climate Change:
Dramatic Links Found Between Climate Change, Elk, Plants, and Birds
Released: 1/9/2012 11:30:00 AM
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Communications and PublishingIn partnership with the University of Montana
Missoula, MT – Climate change in the form of reduced snowfall in mountains is causing powerful and cascading shifts in mountainous plant and bird communities through the increased ability of elk to stay at high elevations over winter and consume plants, according to a groundbreaking study in Nature Climate Change.
Red-faced warblers are one of the species affected by climate change in the form of reduced snowpack in the Arizona Mountains, according to a USGS Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit study. Photo by Tom Martin, USGS, May 1998, in the Coconino National Forest
The U.S. Geological Survey and University of Montana study not only showed that the abundance of deciduous trees and their associated songbirds in mountainous Arizona have declined over the last 22 years as snowpack has declined, but it also experimentally demonstrated that declining snowfall indirectly affects plants and birds by enabling more winter browsing by elk. Increased winter browsing by elk results in trickle-down ecological effects such as lowering the quality of habitat for songbirds.
The authors, USGS Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit scientist Thomas Martin and University of Montana scientist John Maron, mimicked the effects of more snow on limiting the ability of elk to browse on plants by excluding the animals from large, fenced areas. They compared bird and plant communities in these exclusion areas with nearby similar areas where elk had access, and found that, over the six years of the study, multi-decadal declines in plant and songbird populations were reversed in the areas where elk were prohibited from browsing.
Hermit thrushes are a songbird species that was strongly affected by plant community changes in mountains because of reduced snowpack and cascading ecological effects, according to a USGS Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit study. 2005 photo by Tom Martin, USGS, in the Coconino National Forest
“This study illustrates that profound impacts of climate change on ecosystems arise over a time span of but two decades through unexplored feedbacks,” explained USGS director Marcia McNutt. “The significance lies in the fact that humans and our economy are at the end of the same chain of cascading consequences.”
The study demonstrates a classic ecological cascade, added Martin. For example, he said, from an elk’s perspective, less snow means an increased ability to freely browse on woody plants in winter in areas where they would not be inclined to forage in previous times due to high snowpack. Increased overwinter browsing led to a decline in deciduous trees, which reduced the number of birds that chose the habitat and increased predation on nests of those birds that did choose the habitat.
When elk are excluded, aspen growth dramatically increases - Climate change in the form of reduced snowfall in mountains is causing powerful and cascading shifts in montane plant and bird communities through the increased ability of elk to stay at high elevations over winter and consume plants. Here, you can see an example of the difference in aspen growth inside versus outside a fence that excludes elk. Photo by Tom Martin, USGS, in Coconino National Forest
“This study demonstrates that the indirect effects of climate on plant communities may be just as important as the effects of climate-change-induced mismatches between migrating birds and food abundance because plants, including trees, provide the habitat birds need to survive,” Martin said.
The study, Climate impacts on bird and plant communities from altered animal-plant interactions, was published online on Jan. 8 in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Elk in winter at Camp Creek Feed Ground, Northwestern Wyoming - USGS photo
More:
Leave a Comment » | Bird Watching, Climate change, climate_change, Global warming, History, Ornithology, Research, Science | Tagged: Climate change, Elk, environment, Global warming, History, John L. Maron, Nature, Ornithology, Research, Science, Songbirds, Thomas E. Martin, University of Montana, USGS | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From an article in the current New Yorker:
Just after Limbaugh lashed out at Fluke, a Georgetown professor attended a reunion at a Catholic school in Queens. An elderly nun asked her, “Do you know that girl?” She added, “That awful man should be fired for what he said. How’s she holding up?”
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2012/03/19/120319taco_talk_talbot#ixzz1p0cHEEVv
A lot more serious, good thought in that article by Margaret Talbot, “Taking Control,” billed as a discussion of the real reasons for the recent conservative attacks on women.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Frank Milewski, off in the wilds of Michigan.
4 Comments | 2012 Campaigns, 2012 Elections, Politics, Republican Party | Tagged: Contraception, Margaret Talbot, Politics, Republicans, Rush Limbaugh, The New Yorker, War on Women | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
What happens when you take a 20th century rock song (from U2), contemporary dancers, a church choir, an ancient but beautiful language, battery-powered amps for buskers, and use digital personal communications to mash them all up on Grafton Street in Dublin?
Great stuff: “A Language That Will Never Die” from PBO
More:
1 Comment | History, History and art, Music | Tagged: Dublin, Flash Mob, Gaelic, History, Ireland, Music, RTÉ, U2 | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Mostly an encore post — something we shouldn’t have to repeat, but thoughts that deserve a place in everyone’s mind in an election year. I originally posted this back in 2006.
All this murder of lawyers, teachers, accountants, education and civil rights, is bloody business. Poster from Michael Boyd’s 2000 production of Henry VI, Part II, at Stratford; PBS image via Wikipedia
In an otherwise informative post about a controversy over alternative certification for school administrators, at EdWize, I choked on this:
The Department leaders, Klein, Seidman and Alonso, lawyers all (perhaps Shakespeare was correct), are rigid ideologues who have alienated their work force as well as the parents of their constituents
Did you catch that? Especially the link to the Shakespeare line, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers?”
This is not exactly history we’re fisking here — it’s drama, I suppose. Still, it falls neatly into the category of debunkings, not too unlike the debunking of the story of Millard Fillmore’s bathtub.
The line from Shakespeare is accurate. It’s from Henry VI, Part II. But it’s not so much a diatribe against lawyers as it is a part of a satirical indictment of those who would overthrow government, and oppress the masses for personal gain.
It is Dick the Butcher who says the line. Jack Cade has just expressed his warped view that he should be king, after having attempted a coup d’etat and taken power, at least temporarily. Cade starts in with his big plans to reform the economy — that is, to let his friends eat cheap or free, while other suffer and starve.
Dick chimes in to suggest that in the new regime, the lawyers ought to be the first to go — they protect rights of people and property rights, and such rights won’t exist in Cade’s imagined reign. Cade agrees. The purpose of killing the lawyers, then, is to perpetuate their rather lawless regime.
At that moment others in Cade’s conspiracy enter, having captured the town Clerk of Chatham. The man is put on trial for his life, accused of being able to read and keep accounts. Worse, he’s been caught instructing young boys to read.
There is no saving the poor Clerk at that point. Cade orders the Clerk to be hanged, “with his pen and inkhorn around his neck” (even the pen was considered dangerous!).
Thus Shakespeare relates how terrorists of old steal government and rights, by killing the lawyers, the educated, and especially the teachers.
It’s still true today. Those who would steal rights from people, those who would oppress others, assault the rule of law, education, and those who spread learning. Beware those who urge death to law and learning; they are related to Dick the Butcher, philosophically, at least. (No offense to honest butchers, I hope — especially to members of the UFCW. Dick the Butcher was not a member of any butcher’s union.)
Here is the text, from the site “William Shakespeare — the Complete Works”:
CADE
Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows
reformation. There shall be in England seven
halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped
pot; shall have ten hoops and I will make it felony
to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in
common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to
grass: and when I am king, as king I will be,–ALL
God save your majesty!CADE
I thank you, good people: there shall be no money;
all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will
apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree
like brothers and worship me their lord.DICK
The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.CADE
Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable
thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should
be made parchment? that parchment, being scribbled
o’er, should undo a man? Some say the bee stings:
but I say, ’tis the bee’s wax; for I did but seal
once to a thing, and I was never mine own man
since. How now! who’s there?(Enter some, bringing forward the Clerk of Chatham)
Smith the Weaver and Dick the Butcher seize the Clerk of Chatham, in Act IV, scene ii of Henry VI, Part II. Engraving by Henry William Bunbury, from collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library; original published by Thos. Macklin Poets Gallery, London, 1795
SMITH
The clerk of Chatham: he can write and read and
cast accompt.CADE
O monstrous!SMITH
We took him setting of boys’ copies.CADE
Here’s a villain!SMITH
Has a book in his pocket with red letters in’t.CADE
Nay, then, he is a conjurer.DICK
Nay, he can make obligations, and write court-hand.CADE
I am sorry for’t: the man is a proper man, of mine
honour; unless I find him guilty, he shall not die.
Come hither, sirrah, I must examine thee: what is thy name?CLERK
Emmanuel.DICK
They use to write it on the top of letters: ’twill
go hard with you.CLERK
Sir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up
that I can write my name.ALL
He hath confessed: away with him! he’s a villain
and a traitor.CADE
Away with him, I say! hang him with his pen and
ink-horn about his neck.>Exit one with the Clerk
More, Resources (some from Zemanta):
4 Comments | Books, Education, Famous quotes, Freedom - Political, History, Law, Literature, reading, Revolution | Tagged: Accountants, Civil Rights, Education, Henry VI Part II, History, Kill all the lawyers, Lawyers, Literature, Mathematics, Quotes, reading, Shakespeare, Teachers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You are currently browsing the Millard Fillmore's Bathtub blog archives for the year 2012.
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 