Walker wants to kill my life insurance

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Sunday March 06, 2011 · 11:21 AM PST

2011/03/06 · 11:21

The title is not hyperbole - buried in Walker's odious budget bill is the dismantling of the State Life Fund. It's a totally self-financed agency of the State of Wisconsin that sells life insurance - most Wisconsin residents probably aren't even aware it exists.

This certainly isn't the worst thing Walker is attempting, but it's a good indication of just deeply in the pockets of greedy corporations Walker and the GOP are.

The details over the fold ....

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Rebuilding: Welcome to the Machine

badger

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Monday November 15, 2010 · 9:17 AM PST

2010/11/15 · 09:17

Just like a lot of people here, I've been wondering how to rebuild the Democratic Party. It's not a small task, and like businesses that fail because they only look towards the next quarter, rebuilding the party means more than looking towards the next election (or the last).

I'm going to start with a little bit of relevant history of the Democratic Party's successes, and then see if I can't put together some ideas for building a better, stronger, more democratic party.

badger

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Sunday April 11, 2010 · 11:30 AM PDT

2010/04/11 · 11:30

I love to hear someone say "If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we ..." It used to be a more popular complaint, but at some point it became unfashionable, seen as a weak or irrelevant argument. Technical people especially seemed to roll their eyes when that expression came up.

But I've always liked it, because it gave me a chance to explain that we put a man on the moon through knowledge and research, and especially because we had a clear goal, good engineering and used a structured problem-solving approach - all things that happen too rarely when we're faced with problems. As an engineer, I'd like to see us tackle social and economic problems in the same way we attacked the problem of a manned lunar mission. But when the problem we're trying to solve crosses over into the scientific or engineering domain, there's no excuse for not taking an 'Apollo program' approach to developing a solution.

And we're faced with just that kind of problem now - climate change.

badger

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Friday February 12, 2010 · 10:07 AM PST

2010/02/12 · 10:07

Do you find that just the sound of Rush Limbaugh drives you mad? If so, you're not alone. Even the bark beetles that are killing western pine trees in large numbers won't put up with the sound of Limbaugh's voice:

To combat such infestations, scientists thought up the "nastiest, most offensive sounds" they could. Those included recordings of Guns & Roses, Queen, Rush Limbaugh and manipulated versions of the insects' own sounds.

badger

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Tuesday January 26, 2010 · 4:48 PM PST

2010/01/26 · 16:48

What do you think you know about the effects of global warming on forest fires?

For example, you probably believe that global warming has been going on for a decade or more - so do I. But do you think that global warming means more forest fires? It doesn't.

Senator Tester (MT) has introduced a forest bill affecting part of MT and Senator Wyden has a bill in the discussion draft stage that will affect all of OR if passed. I think both are very good bills, and I'd like to do a diary on why, but both bills are somewhat technical, so my goal in this diary is to lay a foundation about wildfire that I can reference if I actually get around to writing the other diary.

And in the process, I'd like to provide a clearer view of the interaction between climate change and wildfire.

badger

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Sunday January 03, 2010 · 2:33 PM PST

2010/01/03 · 14:33

If you thought the title referred to an album by a white 1970s band signed to the Motown Label, you're wrong. Sorry.

Rare earth elements are that odd series on the periodic table (the lanthanides, primarily) that you were told wouldn't be on the test - the ones that weren't talked about in chem class. They're the elements with weird names like ytterbium and praesodymium. And it turns out they're not all that rare anyway - they occur in the earth's crust with much greater frequency that elements like gold.

But they do have a lot to do with ecology - more properly the environment. And they're on the way to creating their own mini-crisis related to trying to solve environmental problems.

badger

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Friday August 21, 2009 · 5:07 PM PDT

2009/08/21 · 17:07

The title of this diary is stolen from an essay by George Orwell, and I don't pretend this short piece is as profound as Orwell's essay.

I read Lakoff's original book on framing quite a while ago (I remember a post in which I recommended it to Markos), so I have at least some idea of the subject. But there are definitely pitfalls in the practice of framing, and substituting a phrase like "American Option" or "American Choice" for "public option" certainly demonstrates some of those pitfalls.

Orwell's original essay in it's entirety is here

badger

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Wednesday May 27, 2009 · 11:20 AM PDT

2009/05/27 · 11:20

This diary on the rec list today contained the following assertion:

The way that the Lyme bacteria disperses itself through the body causes a significant immune response that, in some people, continues long after the bacteria are gone. Basically, they get into all kinds of places, and the immune system, on a crusade to drive them out, attacks the body itself. [3] Antibiotics cannot fix that.

[emphasis added]

A little further research would have shown that the highlighted statement, which is the main thesis of the diary, may not be true and in fact may be completely false.

badger

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Wednesday May 20, 2009 · 5:11 PM PDT

2009/05/20 · 17:11

About a week ago, I diaried a new agreement which will bring biopower to the Pacific Northwest.

Driving around Washington State and Oregon this weekend, I saw more examples of how the Pacific Northwest is leading in installing renewable energy systems, not only in the future, but right now, with creative ideas, public-private partnerships, and private investment.

How's your part of the country doing?

badger

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Tuesday May 12, 2009 · 9:29 AM PDT

2009/05/12 · 09:29

While I was standing in line at the library the other day I noticed a magazine from Washington State's Public Utility Districts. Public Utility Districts (PUDs) are county government units that own hydroelectric dams and other generating facilities, as well as a high-speed fiber network across WA and OR. The article that caught my eye began like this:

ADAGE and Energy Northwest signed today a preliminary agreement to develop wood waste biomass power plants in the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon. According to the agreement, the companies plan to jointly market clean wood biopower (biomass to electricity) to the 24 member utilities that comprise Energy Northwest, and to other regional utilities, with the goal of constructing and operating one or more 50 megawatt (MW) power generation plants in these states.

badger

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Tuesday March 24, 2009 · 7:52 PM PDT

2009/03/24 · 19:52

Most people are probably aware that mountain pine beetles have been decimating Colorado's lodgepole pine forests, affecting over 2 million acres of woodlands. Google the subject and you can find dozens of articles blaming the beetle infestation on global warming - the absence of cold winters has allowed the beetle population to thrive, the story goes. Maybe.

A hypothetical posed on the TV series Law and Order went something like this: a man jumps off the top of a 100 story building and as he's falling past the 50th floor, someone fires a gun. The bullet lodges in the man's brain and he dies almost instantly. Given that he wouldn't have survived the fall anyway, is the shooter responsible for his death?

The condition of Colorado's forests is like the man who jumped off the top of that building. Global warming is the bullet lodged in his brain, but likely fired from the 1st or 2nd floor, rather than the 50th.

badger

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Monday January 07, 2008 · 10:46 PM PST

2008/01/07 · 22:46

I'm not a socialist, although my Political Compass score says I think like one. I'm not even anti-capitalist - in fact I am a capitalist by profession.

I drove to town today, so I got to listen to the radio (no reception at my house). I usually leave around 2PM so I can catch Fresh Air, and today Terry Gross was interviewing Bob Sullivan, author of a new book called Gotcha Capitalism (audio link). It's about all of the little extra "hidden fees found in many phone, cable, credit card and other bills."

These things have been driving me nuts for years, but I never quite caught the trend until I heard the program today.

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Walker wants to kill my life insurance

Rebuilding: Welcome to the Machine

If we can put a man on the moon ...

Beetle Mania

Clearing the Smoke - Forest Fire and Climate Change

Rare Earth - Ecology

Politics and the English Language

Medical misinformation misinformation - doxycycline

Pac NW Has Renewable Energy - Now

Biopower Coming to the Northwest

Who Killed Colorado Forests?

Scam Capitalism