Another blog you should read

At least, if you’re interested in medicine. Tara C. Smith, has a blog called Aetiology.

If you’re not interested in medicine, but are interested in what happens when a Brazilian wax goes wrong, Professor Smith has that covered too.

Mexico, June 30, 2007

There are civil rights protests going on in the United States, which you can read about in Mexico. They have lots of pictures for people who don’t read Spanish. Here’s one:

If only Al Gore had done this:  Lopez Obrador, successful presidential candidate/unsuccessful presidential appointee of the PRD in Mexico has written a book, “The Mafia Stole the Presidency From Us.” Looking at poll documents showing evidence of fraud, that’s not hard to believe.
 
Among the things mentioned  are that someone (presumably the ruling PAN party) told Televisa that AMLO planned to expropriate them.  Also, that  Dr. Ana Cristina Covarrubias did an exit poll of 38,617 voters that predicted a three-point win (via SdP)

In Oaxaca César Mateos was freed from jail, which the APPO regards as a victory.

A modest proposal in the Swiftian sense

Mexico economy: A modest tax reform

…

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE [sic] UNIT

.

Mexico’s government presented its long-awaited fiscal reform proposal to Congress on June 20th…

Metaphors For Life

Some say that life is a bowl of cherries:

While others say it is a chair of bowlies:

Some spine in journalism

From Stephen Foley of the London Independent:

The Wall Street Journal’s offices across the US were working without union staff yesterday morning as employees protested against the threat to their independence from a takeover by Rupert Murdoch.

The septuagenarian media mogul appears to be closing in on the Journal after agreeing terms with its parent company, Dow Jones, over a deal that would install an independent editorial board to protect the paper from interference.

The protest action was aimed at putting pressure on the Bancroft family, who have controlled Dow Jones for more than a century….

Journal employees are also stuck in tortuous negotiations over new pay and conditions… They have been working without a contract since March. (via t/o)

Unfortunately, these would probably not be the journalists. But thank heaven that there a few people willing to put their hind ends on the line to stand against the vampire king.

Making Corn Ethanol A Bit Less Sucky

An outfit called POET is making cellulosic ethanol out of corn cobs:

The cellulosic project that POET is jointly funding with the DOE will convert an existing 50 million gallon per year (mgy) dry-mill ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa, into a commercial cellulosic biorefinery. Once complete, the facility will produce 125 mgy, 25 percent of which will be from cellulosic feedstock.

By adding cellulosic production to an existing grain ethanol plant, POET will be able to produce 11 percent more ethanol from a bushel of corn, 27 percent more from an acre of corn, while almost completely eliminating fossil fuel consumption and decreasing water usage by 24 percent. Last week, POET announced that Jim Sturdevant, a 22-year veteran of the US Geological Survey, will serve as director of the project.

POET claims that they can do this without having to put any more corn acres into production. It’s not a permanent solution, but it looks to be a good way to encourage straight corn-kernel ethanol plants to transition over to cellulosic ethanol plants, which will enable the use of materials that provide more bang for the buck, such as switchgrass.

Friday Cat Blogging

My cats have succumbed to the memecats.

The situation in Palestine explained

Via Avedon Carol’s (incomparable) Sideshow, Tiny Revolution presents a CNN interview with Nir Rosen, with the following excerpts:

NIR ROSEN, JOURNALIST: … We created a civil war. … Ongoing U.N. envoy to the Middle East peace process, Alvaro De Soto, himself accused the U.S. of fomenting a civil war by training, funding and arming Fatah thugs and inserting them into Gaza to destabilize the Hamas government. …

.

They [Hamas]were democratically elected in an election that was widely recognized as free and fair, even by former President Jimmy Carter.  And then the U.S., along with Israel, Jordan and Egypt trained these gangs and actually put them in Gaza to overthrow the Hamas government. And, of course, it’s actually backfired and Fatah was overthrown. But all you’re going to do is isolate and further radicalize Hamas.

.

These are tensions that the U.S. actually created in the Middle East…. [Fatah fighters] were trained by the U.S. General Dayton, our envoy to the peace process, was responsible for a program, along with Elliot Abrams, the deputy national security adviser for the Middle East, and they actually trained Fatah in the West Banks. The Jordanian special forces created the Fatah bada (ph) brigade. The Egyptians, as well, trained Fatah in Egypt. The United Arab Emirates actually sent money and arms. And then they were allowed to enter Gaza and then began to attack Hamas.

Rosen adds that Hamas is Sunni and associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, making it a deadly threat to Egypt’s unofficial dictatorship and Jordan’s monarchy. But since Egypt’s government is highly unpopular and Jordan’s government is getting shakier, that gives Hamas broad and deep regional support. Therefore, trying to overthrow Hamas is very much like shooting a hornet’s nest. In fact, it’s like shooting a hornet’s nest in an area with lots of very smart hornets, who can figure out that if you shoot their neighbor’s nest, you might just shoot their own.

The financial guys make a funny

Amid all the earnest BS and adolescent cheerleading that is modern exchange trading, it’s good that one anonymous person who writes the headlines have a sense of humor. Writing about the troubled home building sector:

BEAZER HOMES USA INC $25.20 $0.61 -2.36%
Chief accountant went to the Oliver North School of Business.

Making Minnesota Safe For Atrazine

 

(From http://www.startribune.com/10072/rich_media/1255926.html)

Looks like Ms. Mandernach’s yearlong reticence in releasing the data on the miners who died of cancer may be the tip of a large iceberg of habit within the Pawlenty régime, to judge from this article:

The Legislature should investigate claims that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency barred a state scientist from testifying about the dangers of the farm chemical atrazine and then fired him, state Rep. Ken Tschumper said Tuesday.

The scientist, MPCA hydrologist Paul Wotzka, filed a whistleblower lawsuit last week in federal court, claiming he was refused permission to testify about his atrazine research at the Legislature in March, then was fired in retaliation last month.

“My passion is to get good policy based on sound science, and I felt I was as qualified as anyone to talk about atrazine in the state’s waters,” Wotzka said in an interview Tuesday.

Atrazine is a herbicide widely used on cornfields in the United States, but which has been banned by the European Union because of environmental and health concerns.

And then there’s this:

Dog Bites Man. Sun Rises In East. Rudy Spews Bull.

I see that Mister 9/11 Rudy Giuliani is attacking Bill Clinton again, in an apparent effort to buff up his rapidly-ebbing support as the Fundie WASPs desert him for Fred Thompson. 

When even Tucker Carlson is forced to admit that Rudy’s spewing bull, he’s really spewing bull.