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Tuesday, September 19, 2006
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MSNBC: "Bob Schieffer of CBS News made a good point on 'The Charlie Rose Show' last week. He said that successful presidents have all skillfully exploited the dominant medium of their times. The Founders were eloquent writers in the age of pamphleteering. Franklin D. Roosevelt restored hope in 1933 by mastering radio. And John F. Kennedy was the first president elected because of his understanding of television.
"Will 2008 bring the first Internet president? Last time, Howard Dean and later John Kerry showed that the whole idea of 'early money' is now obsolete in presidential politics. The Internet lets candidates who catch fire raise millions in small donations practically overnight. That's why all the talk of Hillary Clinton's 'war chest' making her the front runner for 2008 is the most hackneyed punditry around. Money from wealthy donors remains the essential ingredient in most state and local campaigns, but 'free media' shapes the outcome of presidential races, and the Internet is the freest media of all."
"2008 pres"
6:56:48 PM 
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Wired: "A type of fish so common that practically every American kid who ever dropped a fishing line and a bobber into a pond has probably caught one is being enlisted in the fight against terrorism. San Francisco, New York, Washington and other big cities are using bluegills -- also known as sunfish or bream -- as a sort of canary in a coal mine to safeguard their drinking water...
"Big cities employ a range of safeguards against chemical and biological agents, constantly monitoring, testing and treating the water. But electronic protection systems can trace only the toxins they are programmed to detect, Lawler said. Bluegills -- a hardy species about the size of a human hand -- are considered more versatile. They are highly attuned to chemical disturbances in their environment, and when exposed to toxins, they experience the fish version of coughing, flexing their gills to expel unwanted particles. The computerized system in use in San Francisco and elsewhere is designed to detect even slight changes in the bluegills' vital signs and send an e-mail alert when something is wrong. San Francisco's bluegills went to work about a month ago, guarding the drinking water of more than 1 million people from substances such as cyanide, diesel fuel, mercury and pesticides. Eight bluegills swim in a tank deep in the basement of a water treatment plant south of the city...
"New York City has been testing its system since 2002 and is seeking to expand it. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection reported at least one instance in which the system caught a toxin before it made it into the water supply: The fish noticed a diesel spill two hours earlier than any of the agency's other detection devices. They do have limitations. While the bluegills have successfully detected at least 30 toxic chemicals, they cannot reliably detect germs. And they are no use against other sorts of attacks -- say, the bombing of a water main, or an attack by computer hackers on the systems that control the flow of water. Still, Lawler said more than a dozen other cities have ordered the anti-terror apparatus, called the Intelligent Aquatic BioMonitoring System, which was originally developed for the Army and starts at around $45,000."
"2008 pres"
6:50:14 PM
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Science Blog: "Satellite images acquired from 23 to 25 August 2006 have shown for the first time dramatic openings - over a geographic extent larger than the size of the British Isles ' in the Arctic's perennial sea ice pack north of Svalbard, and extending into the Russian Arctic all the way to the North Pole.
"Observing data from Envisat's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument and the AMSR-E instrument aboard the EOS Aqua satellite, scientists were able to determine that around 5-10 percent of the Arctic's perennial sea ice, which had survived the summer melt season, has been fragmented by late summer storms. The area between Spitzbergen, the North Pole and Severnaya Zemlya is confirmed by AMSR-E to have had much lower ice concentrations than witnessed during earlier years."
"2008 pres"
6:36:55 PM
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Here's the next installment of the Rocky Mountain News' analysis of their recent voter poll. From the article, "More than half of Colorado voters support giving legal rights to gay couples, but an almost equal number don't want them to get married, according to a new Rocky Mountain News/CBS 4 poll. Fifty-eight percent of registered voters said in a recent survey that they support Referendum I, a measure that would allow gay couples to register as domestic partners and obtain many of the legal rights and responsibilities given to married couples, such as making medical decisions for a partner.At the same time, 52 percent of voters said they support Amendment 43, a measure that would effectively ban gay marriage by putting a one man-one woman definition of marriage in the state constitution. While voters who support Referendum I typically oppose Amendment 43, and vice versa, nearly one in five voters said they approve of both measures...
"The current gay rights battle began in February, when a coalition of 10 Christian groups called Coloradans for Marriage launched a campaign for what is now known as Amendment 43. The measure is backed by the Colorado Springs- based evangelical group Focus on the Family, the National Association of Evangelicals and the Colorado Catholic Conference. Similar ballot measures, known as defense of marriage acts, have been approved in recent years by voters in nearly 20 states. Some use the simple "one man-one woman" language, while others also ban civil unions. The Colorado gay rights community fired back with an unusual tactic: They persuaded state lawmakers to sponsor a domestic partnership bill, which was passed by both houses and referred to the November ballot as Referendum I. National organizations on both sides of the issue are closely watching the Colorado campaigns because the state appears to be the only one with competing measures on the same ballot...
"The voter poll shows that, in general, there are major demographic differences between supporters of Referendum I and those who favor Amendment 43. Young people heavily support Referendum I (70 percent of those under age 35), whereas older voters strongly favor Amendment 43 (64 percent of those age 65 and older). Republicans tend to favor Amendment 43 (76 percent) while Democrats and independents support Referendum I (67 percent of independents and 76 percent of Democrats). Education levels matter, too. More than two out of three voters with a post-graduate degree support Ref I, whereas almost equal numbers of voters with a high school degree or less show the strongest support for Amendment 43. Where repondents live also makes a difference. Denver voters show the strongest support for Referendum I (75 percent) and the strongest opposition to Amendment 43 (63 percent). It is the opposite in Colorado Springs. Those voters show the strongest support for Amendment 43 (66 percent yes and 28 percent no) and the most disapproval of Referendum I (39 percent yes and 59 percent no). The poll also showed that voters who know a gay or lesbian person are much more likely to support Ref I."
"denver 2006"
6:35:39 AM
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2006 may go down as the year that the U.S. got on board the climate change bandwagon, according to the Voice of San Diego. From the article, "Scientists admit they've been frustrated. They've known about global warming since the late 1980s. They've written hundreds of papers about its causes. Humankind is burning fossil fuels, producing greenhouse gases that trap more of the sun's energy. And they've detailed its effects and implications: Warmer oceans. Higher sea levels. Stronger hurricanes. Skinnier polar bears. More common heat waves. The rest of us haven't quite gotten it. A powerful minority of scientists -- some with financial backing from the fossil fuel industry -- have characterized the earth's increasing temperature as part of a natural cycle of warm temperatures. Within the last year, public perception of the debate has been changing. Some scientists and environmentalists say historians will reflect on 2006 as the seminal year in the debate. The year the Republican governor of California agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The year that millions saw Al Gore's definitive global warming movie. The year that a heat wave killed 140 across the state. Two-thousand-and-six. The moment the tide turned on global warming. The moment we realized: Climate change is real."
Be sure to read the whole article.
"2008 pres"
5:48:46 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 11:58:57 AM.
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