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[ Thursday, July 28, 2005 12:38 PDT ]
Antarctica: A view from the Heartland and Space.
Section:
Movies
Summary:
All the world loves a lover, cute kids, pets and great animal stories. By that standard, the best of the summer movies is
March of the Penguins.
Main:
So what is so cool about the continent of Anarctica from the Heartland perspective ?
* The environmental facts of the place appears to be turn upside down the well touted stories of human induced global warming illustrated by melting summer southern Alaskan Glasiers at > 65° N. latitude as viewed from the comfort of desk chairs aboard a diesel powered cruise ship.
* The ocean waters of Anarctica are teeming with life and the keel provide lunch by the ton for the baleen whales.
* The South Polar region is cold, but not lifeless. Local conditions are profoundly influenced by the tilt of the earth’ axis and a variable elliptical orbit around the sun. A NASA site tells the story of Milankovich and graphically describes his astrological work. The man and the topic is also part of the recent book, Frozen Earth ucpress, 2004, by Prof. Doug Macdougall of the Scripps Institute of Oceanograghy. Both resources are appropriate for the engaged and open-minded layperson.
* So, this Heartlander is humbled by the power of evolutionary biologic adaptations to sustain the Emperor Penguin colonies and the power of planetary science to explain some facts of life and nature as we are just beginning to understand them.
The historical and personal context of advances in technology, exploration and fact gathering by Natural Scientists is striking to those of us who are inspired by the remarkable feats of both the Penguin and the Astronauts.
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[ Wednesday, July 20, 2005 09:16 PDT ]
Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. : A Unique Supreme Court Candidate
Section:
Commentary
Summary:
First, a list of Robert’s Firsts: He is the President’s first Supreme Court choice: he is the first USSC candidate of the 21 Century; he is the only modern nominee to have argued before the Supreme Count—- in fact, he is a record holder for his appearances; if confirmed and if luck holds, he would be the first to be sworn to the bench by the man for whom he clerked, current Chief Justice, William Renquist. He is also the first to share his name with an occasional CBS anchor face.
In addition to being the only justice with small children at home, Judge Roberts will be the first justice from the ranks of the powerhouse stable of mega corporate law firms and the Office of the President where he was in the Counsil’s office.
Main:
Therein lies the prologue for a tale, not out of Canterbury, not out of Washington, D.C. or even New York City , Boston or San Francisco, but from the Heartland where folks know and care about the civility, dignity and the integrity of the nations elected and appointed public servants. Heart-landers currently hold career politicians , and by association, their respective institutions in low and falling esteem. The reverse is the case for the Supreme Court. So, the nub of the story is in the deep, wide, diverse and rational center.
As one nytimes writer has noted, ” The Robertses are evidently the sort of people, like most Americans, who confound culture war categories.” But, he lacks that certain edge, that some call charisma, the media types may find the Judge—- well——boring come (confirmation?, coronation?, circus?, carnival? camera? charade?) time on the Senate side of the Congress. She also has a record, friends and a quiet presence.
* Like Coach Wooden and others, the Judge’s mid-west character travels well. The fact that he and his sisters spent many of of their formative years in safe, small and nurturing places in Indiana is both endearing and reassuring.
* He has steel in his spine, a light in his eye and quick to the point in his speech and writings. He hides his Latin and displays a sense of humor and wit. Not all that bad for the son of a Bethlehem Steel guy.
* Associates give him high marks for modesty, friendliness, hard-work, character and intelligence.
* He case record as an appellate advocate before the Supreme Court is major league. His record is 64% plus wins in 39 starts.
* He is clearly a shining light in the judical school called the new federalism by some.
Current events and the news of the day is like watching live basketball from court-side. Keep one eye off the ball or you will miss 80% of the action. Stay tuned and beware of the one issue drumbeats.
More:
[ Monday, July 18, 2005 13:29 PDT ]
Trouble in Paradise: Making a good thing perfect
Section:
Commentary
Summary:
The environmental green bar has been raised for communities like Davis. The State of Calilfornia ,via the local equivalent of the EPA, impliments the State Air and Water Quality Board approved standards. One of those standards in an unfunded mandate that requires tertiary treatment (micro filtration) by all local sewer water treatment facilities. The standard approched that of potability. To the best of our knowledge, The City of Davis has no plans to recycle the local sewer water into a packaged product any time soon.
Main:
However, one thing is certain. The old cost effective green standards of design that historically guided both surface runoff and secondary septic treatment is fading like a cheap teeshirt. The replacement is in the 150 million range a cost that easily double with the interest on a 30 bond.
The village rate payers, mostly detached single home owners, are in for a potential quadrupling of their monthly sewer bills. The sitting City Council persons will be fielding the local flak while Public Works is in the field, or on vacation.
The standard alternatives are either fight the SOBs in court, or bit the bullett. Both are expensive.
Meanwhile, runoff continues to provide habitat for wetland creatures within The City limits and secondary sewer presumably sits, suns, soaks and percolates at some downwind site in Yolo County.
BTW, what is the water supply for the Davis Municipal Golf Course and some of the surrounding farm land ?
More:
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[ Wednesday, July 13, 2005 14:58 PDT ]
Orient, Observe, Decide and Act
Section:
Alerts
Summary:
WiFi, high level learning and data mining are up and running in the Heartland. The Davis Senior Center has installed a Cisco 1200 AeroNet radio/router, the UCD Library staff has hosted a two day NCBI lecture/ lab mini-course, and the local Internet and DMUG groups have used the Internet to do live demos of IChat AV and e-democracy action.
Main:
This week has thus witnessed the old fighter pilots mantra OODA in multiple venues.
* The NCBI and PubMed are open for learning basic and advanced biology, queries and Web technologies like XML. The site is open to a growing international community of genonic sequencers, content publishers, and researchers in many disciplines.
* Seniors are using IPODs, PCs and laptops for health, travel, current events, family communication, shopping and swapping.
* DAM and the AquaDarts is preparing to share a new Club House. It will be wired for Internet access and can easily go wireless. Now we are ready for a waterproof laptop,
BTW. As of today, this site is running Expression Engine 1.3 and the Discussion Forum 1.0 from pmachine.
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LegacyJournal:MyWeblog: • Science and Technology: • Natural Sciences: • Biology: • Biotechnology Education: • Swimming: • Stroke Technique: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:
[ Thursday, July 07, 2005 13:53 PDT ]
London Olympic Games 2012: Lord Coe meet Baron de Coubertin
Section:
Sports
Summary:
There is a bit of irony in the IOC decision from Singapore announcing the decision to award the 2012 Olympic Games to London England instead of the odds on favorite, Paris, France. Lord Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London 2012 Committee and one of the principle presenters, finished with a Strong kick and prevailed at the end. Once again the Brits prevailed over the French in sport and add to the truth and power of Coubertin’s original pedagogic thesis.
The Baron’s passionate prejudice was that physical education and amateur sport in the public schools of France must adopt the Rugby School mentality of including rigorous sport in the curriculum of country so that future national leadership elite would sufficiently fuel and mortally energize the national will in trade, technology, business, national security and global politics. Head Master Arnold of Rugby was but one of the Victorian British Empire archetypes. Another were the East Coast Yanks including Garrett of Princeton.
Main:
The ironly is that the Baron was the son of aristocrats from Paris with a Chateau in Normandy. Coe, the asthmatic son of an engineer who was his coach, failed his first 11 + exam. He graduated from a public college, won Gold in two Games, was elected as a Conservative MP from Sheffield and was awarded a peerage by the Queen.
Yet again, the fiesty sporting nation of England with global colonial legacy, is able to successfully contest the vaunted French elan and prevail. One of the challenges for London will be the bitter terrorist legacy of the 1972 Games in Munich where 11 athletes from Israel were killed by Palestinean assassins infiltrating into the Olympic Village.
Today in London, as previously in Madrid Spain, civilians using public transportation were targeted by middle eastern terrorists armed with bombs. Clearly, they have the willful moral imperative, the means, and the opportunities to seek out and inflict graphic wounds in the soft underbelly of daily civic life. The measured and reasoned response from the British leadership, security and safety authorities and the British people is admirable.
“The Battle of Waterloo was fought and won on the playing fields of Eton.” ...... Duke of Wellington.
“We can take it”...... Winston Churchill and his fellow Brits.
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[ Saturday, July 02, 2005 13:03 PDT ]
Sandra Day O’Connor: An All American Original
Section:
Opinion
Summary:
The legacy of the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court is about to be written upon a carefully laid foundation. She will continue to be an active participant in the shaping the course and character of young American Lawyers. Her vigous public presence, accessiblity, common sense and likeability will continue to well serve her, her heritage, her supporters and all of us.
Consult the 2001 nytimes Rosen profile of Justice O’Connor
Main:
Broad and long experience is one of her hallmarks. For example:
* Sandra Day was a self reliant Lazy B rancher’s daughter from the dry corner of south eastern Arizona who stll knows about horses, mountains, flyfishing, and states rights. No wonder Goldwater and Reagan were smitten and right on target.
* A forth generation Arizonian,she was attended school and lived with family in El Paso. She entered Stanford at 16 and graduated 3d in her Stanford Law Class at the age of 22. Renquist, a fellow Arizonian and a WW ll veteran was number one and five years her senior. She wed classmate,John O’Connor.
* She knows public service as a legal practioneer in a mall, a civilian employee of the military, a volunteer who did pro bono work for the Salvation Army, a stay at home mother of three sons who wrote questions for the State Bar Exam and was a Goldwater precinct worker an assistant District Attorney, a elected state Senator, and an Appellete Court Judge.
* She is assertive from the bench, narrow in her interpretation of established law and deeply committed to probing the practical consequences of positions advocated before the court in the last 24 years.
* Her esteem and influence will continue to grow for many years after she leaves the bench. It is rumored that life does exist outside of the Supreme Court and Washington, D.C.
Some have proposed that her successor would be a clone cast from her unique mold. A question for the anonlmous editorial writers. Whom would one reseasonably trust to manufacture a copy of one of a kind American Original?
Out west we call call this sort of activity “branding with a hot running iron” and that can get you in a heap of trouble pronto.
The harshest works in print today appear to fault the Justice for her lack of a sufficiently high “whine” quotient in per persona. Backbone and practicality, not wit and humor, are clearly part of her Strong character suit. But, who can not like a lady who habitually rises early, reads the news, drives to the office, does a workout and lunches in chambers with her clerks over home cooked Tex-Mex food. She likes sports, public appearances, and the Washington social scene.
So, on a quiet Friday in D.C. the Administration was on the ball and on the air. Bill Frist was on the Senate Floor. The opposition was caught off base, in the air or out town.
Meanwhile. in Davis the Senior Current Events group generally gave thumbs up on the O’Connor tenture, the proportional voting advocates from the campus and Cambridge at the Farmer’s Market were unprepared and the local peace and freedom folks were continuing to fight wars generations removed from July 4th weekend, 2005.
BTW:
* Consider the possibilities that may be presented to the current Administration, including elevating a sitting Associate Justice, and naming two new Associates to be confirmed by the Senate prior to the new session in October. The post-season mojor baseball rating could take a beating around the water cooler.
* On 3 July, 1981, Potter Stewart of Cincinnati and Yale announced his retirement from the Court. His replacement was Sandra Day O’Connor.
* Question. Who was Bill Clinton’s first confirmed Supreme Court appointee, who did she replace, what was the length of her confirmation hearing, and what was the Senate vote?
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