Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts

Friday, September 18, 2015

Irving Texas Arrests Muslim Kid Too Smart for Irving Texas

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14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed has a bright future as a scientist of tomorrow. But until yesterday his high school in Irving, Texas, merely thought of him as "That Muslim Kid" or "Who?"

Now they won't ever forget his name. And they'll never live down what they did to him.



See, this smart kid made a clock and took it to school. Some hysterical and stupid teacher thought it was a BOMB. However, no bomb squad was ever called, and the school wasn't evacuated. But the principal and police still interrogated this boy without his parents beside him for two hours. Over a clock that wasn't a bomb.

By the middle of the day, the obviously frightened child in a NASA t-shirt was handcuffed, arrested, and taken to jail. For being smart. And Muslim. And unfortunately for Irving, Texas, what they did there infuriated most of the known world as the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed trended for 24 hours. Now he has been invited to the White House, NASA, MIT, Harvard, Twitter, Facebook - you name it! Ahmed's story has a totally happy ending. Irving, Texas, not so much.







From the New York Times
HOUSTON — Ahmed Mohamed’s homemade alarm clock got him suspended from his suburban Dallas high school and detained and handcuffed by police officers on Monday after school officials accused him of making a fake bomb. By Wednesday, it had brought him an invitation to the White House, support from Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mark Zuckerberg, and a moment of head-spinning attention as questions arose whether he had been targeted because of his name and his religion.
. . . The thing in question was the product of Ahmed’s love of invention. He made the clock out of a metal briefcase-style box, a digital display, wires and a circuit board. It was bigger and bulkier than a typical bedside clock, with cords, screws and electrical components.

He said he took it to school on Monday to show an engineering teacher, who said it was nice but then told him he should not show the invention to other teachers. Later, Ahmed’s clock beeped during an English class, and after he revealed the device to the teacher, school officials notified the police, and Ahmed was interrogated by officers.
“She thought it was a threat to her,” Ahmed told reporters Wednesday. “So it was really sad that she took a wrong impression of it.”


















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Sunday, August 2, 2015

The World Mourns the Killing of #CecilTheLion

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The world is mourning the death of majestic Cecil the Lion of Zimbabwe, seen here in his prime:



This magnificent creature was slain by dentist Walter Palmer of Minnesota, who paid $50,000 to guides in Zimbabwe who lured Cecil out of a game preserve merely to shoot him and cut off his head for a trophy. When the guides realized the lion had been collared by an Oxford group doing research on lions, they dumped the collar and proceeded to behead and skin Cecil, but the Zimbabwe government seized what was left of the creature and did not allow Palmer to keep his kill.

From CNN
Palmer is in the public crosshairs after the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said Cecil the lion was lured out of an animal sanctuary in Zimbabwe and shot with a crossbow.
But his death wasn't immediate.
Cecil lived another 40 hours until the hunters tracked him down and shot him with a gun. He was then skinned and beheaded.
The hunters also tried to destroy the GPS collar that Cecil was wearing as part of research backed by Oxford University, the conservation group said.
. . . Above the menagerie of stuffed animals at the door, posters now cover the front facade of the practice.
One sign asked, "Dr. Palmer, why did you kill Cecil?" Another said, "Rot in hell." A third employed the hashtag #catlivesmatter.
The vitriol for Palmer even flowed from the governor's mansion.
"I'm just so disgusted with that man," said Gov. Mark Dayton. "Shoot any lion but lure a lion like that out of the preserve and shoot him, how could anybody think that's sport? Just appalling."

When word of this senseless death hit the news and social media, all hell broke loose for Mr. Palmer, as it should.








Palmer, left, poses with an earlier lion he killed.






Believe it or not, even though the hunt went completely wrong, Walter Palmer wanted to keep on hunting and asked to shoot an elephant next. Apparently he doesn't give a crap about the rare animals of Africa or the world in general. But now the world cares what happens to Palmer and would love to see his ass in jail.

IB Times
Walter Palmer, the U.S. dentist who killed the lion Cecil in Zimbabwe, wanted to shoot a “very large elephant,” his guide and professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst told the Daily Telegraph Thursday. Palmer has gone underground amid an international outcry over the illegal hunt of the "iconic" lion.
Bronkhorst told the Telegraph that after killing the lion in Hwange National Park, Palmer asked him if he could find an elephant whose tusk weighed at least 63 pounds. "I told him I would not be able to find one so big, so the client left the next day," he said.
Prosecutors charged Bronkhorst Wednesday for failing to prevent Palmer from unlawfully killing Cecil. However, they are yet to charge Honest Ndlovu -- a second suspect and farm owner -- who has been named as an accomplice. Ndlovu appeared in court Wednesday.
The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said Tuesday that Palmer -- who paid $50,000 to kill Cecil -- and his group tied a dead animal to their car to lure the lion. According to the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe, drawing in animals with a bait is unethical. The association, of which Bronkhorst is a member, has revoked his license.


Talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel highlighted the death of Cecil by asking for donations to the group studying the lion and his pride: Wildcru.org





Statement from famous naturalist Jane Goodall:
I was shocked and outraged to hear the story of Cecil, Zimbabwe’s much loved lion. Not only is it incomprehensible to me that anyone would want to kill an endangered animal (fewer than 20,000 wild lions in Africa today) but to lure Cecil from the safety of a national park and then to shoot him with a crossbow...? I have no words to express my repugnance. He was not even killed outright, but suffered for hours before finally being shot with a bullet. And his magnificent head severed from his wounded body. And this behaviour is described as a “sport." Only one good thing comes out of this – thousands of people have read the story and have also been shocked. Their eyes opened to the dark side of human nature. Surely they will now be more prepared to fight for the protection of wild animals and the wild places where they live. Therein lies the hope.
Jane Goodall, Ph.d., DBE
Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute &
UN Messenger of Peace







From the Born Free Foundation:
Following the tragic and reportedly illegal killing of Cecil the lion, Born Free Foundation and Born Free USA today called on the US Government and European Union to take urgent steps to end the import of lion trophies and for an international moratorium on lion hunting.
The global outcry following Cecil’s death has sent shock waves across the world and has further ignited the political and public debate on the plight of wild lions and the inhumane actions of sport hunters.
. . . President of the Born Free Foundation, Will Travers OBE, has publicly called on the hunters to lay down their weapons of mass destruction. “Cecil's story has sickened and saddened us all. We can no longer accept that hunting magnificent wild animals for ‘sport’ can be deemed acceptable. Cecil's death was brutal and it showed no respect for this iconic symbol of Africa. Trophy hunting is no sport; it is merely a disguise for killing to massage an ego.”
Born Free is calling on the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to release its Final Rule on the petition to list the lion as ‘endangered’ under the United States Endangered Species Act, first submitted by Born Free and others in March 2011. Listing under the ESA would prohibit wounding, harming, harassing, killing, or trading in lions, except under certain very limited conditions, and would add significant protection for lions across their range.
Further, Born Free is calling on US Government prosecutors to explore whether legal action against Mr Palmer is warranted under the Lacey Act, which prohibits transport of wildlife specimens if they were taken illegally in their place of origin.



Zimbabwe would like a few words with Dr. Palmer, as well as our own U.S. Fish and Game service.






























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Monday, June 8, 2015

Non-Scientist Rick Santorum Slams Scientific Pope

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Previous Related Posts:
Santorum Says Smart People Reject GOP
Memes of 2012: Santorum's Sweater Vest

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Rick Santorum thinks Pope Francis, leader of the Catholic Church, should stop speaking out on scientific matters. He said last week:

Via Addicting Info
“The church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think that we probably are better off leaving science to the scientists,” he told the Pope. “I think when we get involved with controversial political and scientific theories, then I think the church is probably not as forceful and credible. And I’ve said this to the bishops many times when they get involved in agriculture policy or things like that, that are really outside the scope of what the church’s main message is.”

Here's what Santorum either didn't know or simply forgot - Pope Francis has a school background in Chemistry. That's right, SCIENCE. Unlike Mr. Santorum and most politicians in the U.S.

According to Snopes.com, while the Pope does not have a "Masters" in Chemistry, he did graduate with the equivalent of a Community College degree as a Chemical Technician.

From the Natinoal Catholic Reporter
It is true that Pope Francis studied chemistry and worked as a chemist prior to entering the seminary. But Jorge Bergoglio never graduated from university prior to entering the seminary.
. . . What he did do was graduate with a título in chemistry from the Escuela Técnica Industrial No. 12*, which is a state-run technical secondary school.
In the Argentine system, "the título (same word used for a secondary diploma or a university degree) was earned at about age 19 after an extended secondary program," Liebscher said. "Not everyone who goes to secondary school gets one of those diplomas, and the título really represents something beyond our high-school diploma, something akin a certificate from a community college in the U.S."

A "diploma" that is post-high school qualifies as a "degree" in the U.S., right?

Even after the gaffe was pointed out to Santorum, he still tried to double down on the Pope. But in a surprisingly tough interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News on Sunday, Santorum was caught without a defense.

From Forward Progressives
“If he’s not a scientist, and in fact he does have a degree in Chemistry – neither are you,” Wallace said. “Somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of scientists who have studied this say that humans, human activity, contribute to climate change.” “So, I guess the question should be, if he shouldn’t talk about it, should you?,” he asked.
“We have to make public policy with regard to the environmental policy,” Santorum said before being cut off by Wallace.
“But you’re not a scientist, you said leave the science to the scientists,” Wallace shot back.


PWN!










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Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Jenny McCarthy, Queen of the Anti-Vaxxers

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This has been "Vaccination Week" in the news, as Chris Christie, Rand Paul, and ABC's Laura Ingraham decided they would set modern medicine back about 100 years and diss vaccinations in the middle of a Measles Epidemic.

But they are just minor players in this meme. Many on Twitter are pointing fingers at actress and erstwhile Playboy Bunny Jenny McCarthy as the real Evil Queen of the Anti-Vaxxers because she was so outspoken about her belief that childhood shots are the cause of autism. Without her help, that debunked theory might have died long ago. Thanks to her, humans may die long before the Anti-Vaxx movement dies.

From Huffington Post
...Jenny McCarthy has been described as a "Playmate turned pseudoscientist" who "by dint of sheer energy and celebrity... became the nation's most prominent purveyor of anti-vaxxer ideology." She is president of Generation Rescue, a non-profit group founded in 2005 by Lisa and J.B. Handley, which promotes the discredited idea that children with autism can be cured by unscientific, non-medical methods. Its website claims, "Conventional medicine treats the symptoms of autism. Biomedical treatment addresses the root cause." McCarthy stumbled onto this website within weeks of its debut in 2005, shortly after her son was diagnosed with autism, and soon afterwards began her anti-vaccine crusade.
. . . Now that long-dormant diseases are reappearing, McCarthy has tried to deny her anti-vaxxer history. Worse, she is still misinforming the public.
"I am not anti-vaccine," she said last November, right before the debut of her new SiriusXM radio show. "I'm in this gray zone of, I think everyone should be aware and educate yourself and ask questions. And if your kid is having a problem, ask your doctor for an alternative way of doing the shots," meaning receiving fewer doses at once, which is not medically recommended, since it increases the time children remain unvaccinated and vulnerable to illness.





















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Monday, February 2, 2015

Measles Epidemic Pits Anti-Vaxx Parents Against Public Health

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No parent enjoys taking their infants and toddlers in for vaccinations. My husband hates needles, which meant that I was the one who always had to take our kids to the health department for shots against Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) or Diptheria(whooping cough) and Tetanus (DpTt) shots. I would go in with a happy smiling baby, come out with a screaming, cranky baby who would then run a fever for several days as the antibodies from the shots built up immunity in the blood.

No parent enjoys taking a little lamb in for shots, but I always reminded myself that children once died from things like Measles and Whooping Cough. Vaccines are a miracle. The kids in the U.S. are lucky to have nearly free vaccines for the asking.

Except when parents don't ask and don't care, and don't take the steps to get their children vaccinated. And when there's an actual "Anti-Vaxx" movement, then many more children are at risk. And now it is causing a dangerous epidemic that started, of all places, in Disneyland!

From Time Magazine
Somewhere in Orange County, Mary Poppins and Ariel the mermaid may be running a fever. The same could be true for her coworkers—any of the other 23,000 people (OK, or characters) who punch in for work at Disneyland every day. And the same could be true too for any one of the estimated 16 million people who will pour into the theme park this year.

The reason? Measles. The cause? This may not come entirely as a surprise: the anti-vaccine crowd.

. . . The outbreak has spread to five other states—which is to be expected when the place that is ground zero for any infection attracts visitors from all over the world. Of the first 20 Disneyland victims, 15 were unvaccinated. Concern about the infections has gotten so great that California State epidemiologist Gil Chavez warned the public that anyone who has not had the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine should avoid all California theme parks “for the time being.”



Schools were once the frontline against epidemics, either becoming makeshift clinics for vaccinations, or by insisting that parents have their children vaccinated before they could attend school. But thanks to the Anti-Vaxxers, some systems began to allow parents to opt-out of the requirement for religious or personal reasons. In politically red states, the Anti-Vaxx movement has been helped along by a GOP that appears to hate any type of mass health care, and who like to pander to far-right Libertarians and Homeschool parents.





How did the Anti-Vaxx movement get started? Mostly because there are "clusters" of autistic children around the country and no one has proven scientifically why that is happening. One scientist decided to "prove" that it was the vaccination mixtures causing autism. And since autism remains vastly more frightening to parents who have never actually seen what measles can do to child, they bought the idea hook, line and sinker.



From Forbes
...The wave began with a 1998 paper published in The Lancet by Andrew Wakefield, claiming that the MMR vaccine was linked to autism. Wakefield’s work was later shown to be fraudulent, and his claims about the vaccine “dishonest and irresponsible.” After lengthy investigations, the paper was retracted and Wakefield lost his medical license. Despite this very public repudiation, Wakefield has stuck to his claims, though, and has spent much of the past 15 years speaking (or perhaps “preaching” would be a better term) to anti-vaccine groups, to whom he is a kind of folk hero.
It’s not just Wakefield, though. Anti-vaccine messages have been broadcast aggressively by the group Generation Rescue, led by former Playboy playmate and MTV host Jenny McCarthy, and by Age of Autism, a group dedicated to the proposition that vaccines cause autism. (Age of Autism is doing it again right now.) And just last summer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. published a new book further promoting the long-discredited claim that thimerosal causes autism.

Who are these parents?

From Washington Post
. . . the anti-vaccination movement is fueled by an over-privileged group of rich people grouped together who swear they won't put any chemicals in their kids (food or vaccines or whatever else), either because it's trendy to be all-natural or they don't understand or accept the science of vaccinations. Their science denying has been propelled further by celebrities, like Jenny McCarthy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and actress Mayim Bialik, who is also a neuroscientist and even plays one on TV.

Of the 34 patients in the current measles outbreak whose vaccination status is known, only five were fully vaccinated, according to the Los Angeles Times. And the worst of the outbreak is centered in Orange County, ground zero for the anti-vaccination movement that's put children at risk over junk science.
























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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Alabama Lawmaker McClurkin "A Baby is Largest Organ of the Body"

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When a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body. That's a big thing. That's a big surgery. You don't have any other organs in your body that are bigger than that.
~ Alabama State Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin

So, if babies are organs and organs are babies, does that mean an appendectomy is the same thing as an abortion? Are tonsils twins? My head hurts.
~ J.D. Crowe on Alabama.com

Mary Sue go to college, read a few books and stop trying to write law. Please. They may even have picture versions of Gray's Anatomy now.
. . . We want to help, MarySue. Really. Because you are sitting down in Montgomery writing law. You are sitting down in Montgomery meddling in the physician-patient relationship. You are meddling in things about which you have no knowledge whatsoever, and that means you are a danger to society.
~ Julie on Left in Alabama Blog

They ... need to hop on the Magic School Bus for a refresher in how the human body operates!
~ Katie Baker on Jezebel

This is what happens when education is considered to be elitist while stupidity and ignorance are glorified.
~ T. Steelman on Addicting Info

My largest organ is down the road in the local church.
. . . yep, for better or Wurlitzer
~ entlord on Daily Kos

If you find yourself birthing a lung or a kidney
You may want to seek medical attention.
*Dopeslap*
~ nightsweat on Daily Kos

My sister's baby organ became enlarged once. It got so big that one day it literally burst out of her. Then it went on living OUTSIDE HER BODY. That was years ago, and it's still crawling around her house. It's like something out of a David Lynch movie.
~ Mehvolutionist on Jezebel

McClurkin's assertion that the fetus is an organ contradicts the idea of fetal personhood, a favorite Republican rationale for banning abortion. Organs are not people. That makes McClurkin's comment possibly the most creative excuse for throttling abortion clinics in a while.
~ Maggie Severns on Mother Jones

A "child" is not a bodily "organ." Indeed, children have organs of their own. The largest human organ is actually the skin. According to National Geographic, adults carry about eight pounds of skin, which is slightly above the average weight of a newborn baby.
~ Amanda Terkel on Huffington Post

So now we can just call a woman who needs an abortion an "organ donor". Let the righties figure out how to argue against that. Ms. McCluck, you're a cluck.
~ Frickett on Huffington Post

From her remarks it is clear that McClurkin's brain is by far the tiniest organ ever found in any woman's body.
~ themightyabealrd on Huff Post

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@SnarkAmendment (owner of this blog) had a little Twitter Tantrum today about this topic - I just can't stand the stupid sometimes:









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Saturday, February 16, 2013

Space Tweets ~ Day of the Russian Meteor

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This doesn't happen every day . . .



















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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Mitt's Nightmare at 20,000 feet

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From Huffington Post
Following an emergency landing his wife's plane had to make last week, the governor took a moment on the campaign trail on Monday to comment on her safety.

"I appreciate the fact that [my wife] is on the ground safe and sound," he said. "I don't think she's aware of just how worried some of us were."

Romney continued, "When you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go exactly. And you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that, but it's a real problem," Romney said.

It's a real problem that the windows don't roll down on airplanes? Is it also a problem that guns don't shoot backwards through the barrel this way? Or that diving boards are only really ever mounted over very deep water? Why don't the windows roll down?
I don't think he was joking because he couldn't possibly be joking about his wife almost being in a plane crash. You can't joke about that, especially with her standing right there. So has he never seen Goldfinger?
~ Rachel Maddow on MSNBC


Science Genius Mitt Romney Thinks Airplane Windows Should Open
~ Headline on Wonkette

Can't. Tell. If. Serious. (He can't be serious).
~ comment by freakishlywrong on Wonkette

Those windows are just the right size to be sucked out of.
~ comment by Schmannnity on Wonkette

Rombots don't need oxygen.
~ comment by iburl on Wonkette

Mitt Romney: A vote for roll down windows on airplanes & right-sized trees!
~ comment by BillinFla on Huffington Post

Doh, he would be very upset if the person in front of him on the plane opened the window and it messed up his hair.
~ comment by coffeebeaner on Huffington Post

While on the subject, Romney also wants to know why the windows on the space station don't open.
Romney continued, "When you have a fire in the space station, there's no place to go exactly. And you can't find any oxygen from outside the station to get in the station because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that, but it's a real problem," Romney said.
~ comment by SingularityPoint on Huffington Post

And submarines, what's up with them? No windows at all! No screen doors, either. I'm at a loss to explain why.
~ comment by butlercaddie on Huffington Post












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Saturday, August 25, 2012

Mitt's Anointing Postponed Due to Hurricane

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Memo from Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Convention
Due to the severe weather reports for the Tampa Bay area, the Republican National Convention will convene on Monday August 27th and immediately recess until Tuesday afternoon, August 28th, exact time to follow.

Our first priority is ensuring the safety of delegates, alternates, guests, members of the media attending the Republican National Convention, and citizens of the Tampa Bay area. RNC Convention officials and the Romney campaign are working closely with state, local and federal officials, as well as the Secret Service, to monitor Tropical Storm Isaac and preserve Florida’s emergency management resources. Officials have predicted participants may encounter severe transportation difficulties due to sustained wind and rain.

The Republican National Convention will take place and officially nominate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, and the Party has other necessary business it must address. We also are remaining in constant contact with state and federal officials and may make additional schedule alterations as needed.

The Convention staff is working around-the-clock to ensure the delegations housed in storm-impacted areas have alternative housing if needed. The Committee on Arrangements will provide additional information to delegates and alternate delegates who are affected by Isaac by Sunday morning. We will also provide guidance to those delegates and alternate delegates who may encounter travel difficulties due to the storm.

We will begin issuing revised convention programming as early as Sunday.

We have an experienced team that will ensure changes are operationally smooth and create as little disruption as possible. The most important concern is safety, but our Convention program will proceed.

Map from NOAA's National Hurricane Center
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