This promo video, made in 1984 for a marketing event by Apple, is over the top cheesy, laugh my ass off ridiculous and probably the worst 'commercial' they've ever made. Favorite moment: the guy carrying the huge Lisa computer like it's a laptop. [CrunchGear] More »
Hi, All
kindly please advise the redius of protection of the ground bed anode mounted vertical below the ground 100M depth.
Regard's
Hi, All
what is the min or maximum thickness of the galvanize paint on any structure i-beam or any steel material. please provide any details.
Regad's
Leftists Go Bezerk
by Eric Dondero
You've heard the stories. A hard-working farming or ranching family has the boys waking up at 5:00 in the morning to feed the cows, and the girls to help Mom out in the kitchen to prepare daily meals for the ranch-hands.
Well, to liberals that's simply an outdated notion.
OSHA or some other alphabet soup government agency steps in and fines the family heavily, under so-called "Child Labor Laws." In an increasing amount of cases the family farm or ranch is forced to declare bankruptcy, putting several workers on the un-employment lines.
Conservatives, libertarians: Teach Teens a Work Ethic
Now comes a courageous MO State Senator who is standing up to liberal Nanny-Staters.
From the Riverfront Times, Feb. 15:
Jane Cunningham (R - West County) believes Missouri kids need to improve their work ethic so she's sponsoring a bill (SB 222) that would repeal much of the state's child labor laws.
According to the bill's official summary, children under the age of 14 would no longer be barred from employment. They'd also be able to work all hours of the day, no longer need a work permit from their school and be able to work at motels and resorts... Moreover, businesses that employ children would no longer be subject to inspections from the Division of Labor Standards.
From the Bill:
SB 222 – This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.
Better to "Stay in School" say the Busy Body pro-government Nannys
The Senator was quoted at StaffingTalk.com:
[Rep. Cunningham said] her two adult sons both held jobs as minors and are “better for it.”
“My aim is to put back some common sense,” she said. “We’re not doing students any favor by telling them, ‘You cannot work.’ ”
Naturally, the liberals are on the attack. Their argument, not surprisingly, is that 14-year olds are better served being in public indoctrination camps, otherwise known as public education.
Blogger David Gee:
traditional bastions of child labor such as glass factories and textile mills aren’t exactly growth industries today, and there is less demand for newsboys, messengers, bootblacks and peddlers. But surely there is somewhere in this job-starved land, or at least Missouri, where we can pull kids from the classroom and teach them instead about the miseries of low paying working life.
And of course, after high school, there's the ultimate public indoctrination camp, otherwise known as public universities and colleges. And a high unemployment rate keeps those "kiddies" in liberal classrooms til the ripe old age of 22, or 23.
The Department of Commerce has released an Inspector General’s report on the involvement of its scientists (e.g., scientists in NOAA) in “ClimateGate”–and once again, it’s a vindication: “In our review of the CRU emails, we did not find any evidence that NOAA inappropriately manipulated data comprising the GHCN-M dataset [maintained by the National Climatic Data Center] or failed to adhere to appropriate peer review procedures.”
There’s no fire here, although of course partisans will seize upon a few wisps of smoke. You see, the IG did look more closely at 10 emails, to “clarify” that nothing had been done wrong. And it does appear that there may have been an inadequate response to a FOIA request at one point; and there are some issues raised about a contract. However, none of this stuff remotely rises to the level of undermining the integrity of global climate science, which is of course what “Climategate” was allegedly all about.
There’s also the following:
This email, dated February 19,2007, captioned “Fwd: Marooned?” contained an inappropriate image which NCDC’s Chief Scientist forwarded to the Director of the CRU. The image depicts superimposed photographs of several individuals involved in the debate over global warming as characters from the television program Gilligan’s Island, stranded on a melting ice cap at the North Pole or floating nearby in the ocean. In the course of our inquiry, we learned that another NOAA scientist had created the image during official business hours, using government computer equipment.
Both the Chief Scientist and the creator of the image told us it was meant to bring some levity to the constant criticism that they and their fellow climate scientists were facing at the time from “climate skeptics.” Notwithstanding their rationale, such an image could foster an adverse appearance about the scientists’ objectivity, and at least one internet blog questioned the propriety of the image. While none of the senior NOAA officials we interviewed said they were aware of the referenced email and the attached picture before we interviewed them, Dr. Lubchenco told us that “it was in bad taste.” According to NOAA, both scientists, who acknowledged that the image was inappropriate, have since been counseled by their respective superiors.
Ever been in an office building, like, anywhere? People make cartoons and posters and funny messages related to their work, and post them on walls and doors. Apparently, sometimes they also email them. Not a very good idea on such a politicized topic, and Lubchenco’s rebuke seems appropriate, as does the “counseled by superiors” bit…but, if that’s the worst climate scientists have done, I guess the only upshot of “ClimateGate” remains that old, old refrain–scientists are people, too.
Release...
Senate Comm. Hears Bill on Employees' Liberty - Measure Would Make Missouri "Right to Work"
Missouri State Senator Jane Cunningham (R-Chesterfield)
JEFFERSON CITY – Fifty percent of manufacturers refuse to consider Missouri as a place to locate new jobs because Missouri law has no protection against forced unionization of their workers, according to testimony given Tuesday in the Senate General Laws Committee. Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Sen. Luann Ridgeway, R-Smithville, would change that by giving employees the freedom to choose whether or not to join a union as a condition of getting or keeping a job.
Ridgeway said recent census data shows that businesses with jobs and the workers who take them are fleeing to states with worker protection laws, also know as “Right to Work.”
“With an unemployment rate at nearly ten percent, Missouri must consider every obstacle to putting our citizens back to work,” Ridgeway said. “It is clear that job producers and the workers who take those jobs are voting with their feet on the ‘Right to Work’ issue because they are moving to states that have this protection.”
As recently reported, Missouri will lose a Congressional seat. Ridgeway testified that non-“Right to Work” states lost a total of nine Congressional seats and, due to population shifts, “Right to Work” states gained 11 Congressional seats.
“At this important time, losing jobs, our manufacturing base, as well as representation in Congress... is a trend that must be reversed,” added Ridgeway.
Senate Leader Robert N. Mayer, R-Dexter, supports the measure and said making Missouri a “Right to Work” state would be another reason for businesses to expand or locate here.
“While Missouri has lost more than 100,000 jobs since June of 2008, many ‘Right to Work’ states have faired far better,” said Mayer. “Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that unemployment is lower in the 22 states that have adopted ‘Right to Work’ laws. In the last decade, those states have added 1.5 million private sector jobs, while non-‘Right to Work’ states have lost 1.8 million jobs. That should be a wake-up call that now is the time to allow Missouri to compete.”
Six of Missouri’s eight neighboring states are “Right to Work” states and all but one has a lower unemployment rate than Missouri. Tennessee, the only “Right to Work” state with a comparable unemployment rate to Missouri, gained jobs in 2010, Missouri lost jobs.
Sen. Jane Cunningham, who chairs the committee, said much of the testimony highlighted Missouri’s need to better compete to bring more jobs to Missouri.
“It was alarming to learn from those who consult U.S. and foreign manufacturing companies on new site locations that 50 percent of those companies are not even considering Missouri because we are not a ‘Right to Work’ state,” Cunningham said. “That shows by not changing we are costing Missouri jobs.”
The committee also heard testimony that per household income was higher in “Right to Work” states than in forced union states. Data cited from a study published in 2000 by Dr. James T. Bennett, a professor for George Mason University, demonstrated that the mean two-income household in a “Right to Work” state had nearly $2,000 more in after-tax purchasing power than its counterpart in a non-“Right to Work” state. A study published in 2005 by Dr. Barry Poulson, a professor at the University of Colorado, determined real disposable income in metropolitan areas in “Right to Work” states is higher, with nearly $4,300 more in after-tax purchasing power than its counterpart in a non-“Right to Work” state.
Ridgeway noted that if Missouri becomes a “Right to Work” state, employees will still be allowed to unionize and employers will still be allowed to enter into collective bargaining agreements and hire union labor.
“‘Right to Work’ is not about whether unions can continue to operate in Missouri,” said Ridgeway. “Rather it is about removing a legal barrier that is harming our state’s ability to compete for jobs that impact the 89 percent of Missourians that are not union members.”
The committee also heard a similar bill, Senate Bill 197, also sponsored by Ridgeway that would send the measure to voters. To learn more about these bills, visit http://www.senate.mo.gov.
From Eric Dondero:
As many regular LR readers have become aware of over the years, weekends are a bit less "on-format." We get a little more loose.
If you come to LR on a Monday or any weekday, you're going to find mostly straight-forward, hard-hitting news, with some occasional light-hearted stuff mixed in, for the evenings.
On Saturdays, we're going to start running an increased amount of press releases from various Republican legislators and congressman. Mostly, in full (sometimes edited down a bit). And also from libertarian-oriented organizations.
So, if you've got a favorite politician or organization that has a release of interest to libertarian Republicans, sent it along to me, or send me a note with a link.
General Stuff; We're hoofin' along at a regular 950 visitors a day, mostly over 1,000 during the week, lower 900s on the weekends.
We have one of the most steady, regular readerships in the right-blogging community. Most others bounce around from 500 one day, to 2,000 the next to 200 after that. We almost never fall below 800.
Of course, we'd much prefer to be at the regular 1,050 a day. Help us out, by recommending the site to a friend. And signing up at the top for the Daily LR Newsletter which gives you a well-formatted, quick to read summary of the day's posts.
IMPORTANT!
Finally, you may have noticed we are at 290 Google Followers (sidebar). Please! help us to boost that over 300. If you are not a Follower, please become one ASAP. It's rare for a blogspot to reach over 300. We're on the edge of accomplishing that goal. Help us please!
Here at Chez BA we have two dogs and a cat. They get along, kinda. There’s a lot of sniffing followed by swatting, for example, and the occasional spirited if short-lived chase.
But there is also harmony. Sometimes. It’s common for the animals to fall asleep together on the couch, and it’s usually extremely cute. I saw Canis Major and Leo (not their real names) napping on the couch recently, and thought what a sweet picture that would make. But when I took the shot…
This explains a lot of things, including the worried look on Canis Major’s face, and the recurring red marks on my arms.
Related posts:
- CatIRday
- Caturday night’s all right for fighting: Part 2
- Big Caturday
- I toad you it’s Caturday
From Eric Dondero:
Congressman John Campbell has often been on the libertarian radar, but never highlighted as one of the top libertarian Republicans. With this new piece of legislation, his standing in the LR community may rise greatly.
From SF Gate, "Online gambling could be California revenue source"
In Washington next month, self-described "libertarian-leaning Republican" Rep. John Campbell of Newport Beach (Orange County) will join Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank to introduce a bill that would lift federal restrictions to online gambling.
It will be similar to a measure that the Democratic-controlled House Finance Committee passed 41-22 last year with seven Republican votes.
Campbell remains optimistic, even though the House is now controlled by his fellow Republicans. He could attract Tea Party support describing it as "freedom issue" and as a matter of consumer protection.
"I don't think this is something we should be banning or making illegal," Campbell said. "Americans want to gamble online and they're doing it now in droves, but they're using offshore sites that don't provide anything for the economy of the United States and don't provide any protections for these people who are gambling."
Exit Poll: Fine Gael within reach of a majority
by Clifford F. Thies
It will be a couple more days before we know for sure, but an exit poll puts Fine Gael within reach of a majority of seats in the new Irish national assembly.
Fine Gael (a center-right party in affiliation with the Christian Democrats of Europe) came in first, with 36 percent; Labor (center-left) second, with 25 percent; and, Fianna Fail (a centrist party in affiliation with the Liberal parties of Europe) third, with 15 percent. The rest of the votes were scattered amongst the Green Party, Sinn Fein (a stridently republican and socialist party), and
independents.
In the Irish system of voting, members of the national assembly are elected from multi-member districts by the single transferable vote method. For example, in a five-member district, any candidate receiving enough first preference votes is elected, and others are elected as necessary from the transfer of votes to candidates with a chance of winning from the second or lower preference votes of
candidates who were defeated. With 36 percent of first preferences for Fine Gael and 25 percent for Labor, it is possible that Fine Gael and Labor will dominate the new assembly, with Fine Gael having a majority and Labor a large minority.
If Fine Gael does not fetch an outright majority of the seats, it may be able to reach the 50 percent mark with the support of some of the independents, most of whom have a center-right orientation, or even with Fianna Fail, reduced as it may be to small party status. In any case, the strong showing for Fine Gael means that the economic policies that transformed Ireland from a poor country into one of the
richest in the world will survive the financial crisis of 2008. Fine Gael proposes to bring the country's budget into balance through spending cuts along with some help from Germany and perhaps some other EU countries in re-financing its debt on more favorable terms.
Since independence, Ireland has mostly been governed by a coalition led either by Fianna Fail or Fine Gael. The main difference between the two, traditionally, is that Fianna Fail is a wee bit more republican (meaning, nowadays, anxious for unification of the island as an independent republic) and a wee bit more populist (or, socially-conservative).
During the 1990s, Fianna Fail came to be associated with liberalization of the Irish economy. But, that was when Fianna Fail was in coalition with the Progressive Party, a libertarian party that is now dissolved. For a time, it seemed as though Fianna Fail tilted a bit toward free-market policies and Fine Gael to socialist policies; but, that was mostly due to two tails (the Progressives and Labor, smaller coalition partners) wagging two dogs.
More coverage of recent Euro elections at our sister site Worldwide Liberty.
PC WATCH!
From Eric Dondero:
Diana Waterman is the newly-elected Vice-Chair of the Republican Party of Maryland. And she has found herself in a big controversy.
Seems locals in Queens Anne County, on a local community blog, have discovered a huge scandal: She has a black cow named Oprah. The cow is actually a Black Angus.
From NBC Washington:
According to the Baltimore Sun, the issue came to light on a recent Facebook posting when the cow birthed a calf.
The Sun says the posting caught the attention of Sveinn Storm, who runs a Queen Anne's County-focused blog called "Pave Our County?"
Storm criticized Waterman's naming the cow after the African-American talk show host who has struggled with her weight. Storm say that's "precisely why an enormouse number of Americans view Republicans as racists."
Waterman defends the name. In a response to the Sun she said her children named the family's three cows. Oprah was named for a person they admire. The other two, Ferdinand and Isabella are named after the Spanish monarchs who approved Christopher Columbus's trip to the New World.
The State GOP is not rolling over for the PC mavens. A spokesman for the Maryland Republican Party commented:
"With Maryland facing a record budget deficit, historic unemployment and a government that spends beyond its means, I'm not sure why we're talking about cows," said Ryan Mahoney.
Photo - Waterman with libertarian Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson at the most recent State GOP convention in Ocean City.
Bruce Dale, chemical engineering professor at Michigan State University has the dual distinction of debunking both the benefits of biofuels and the gloomy environmental outlook of many other scientists. However, do we have a baseline of factors with which to compare scenarios, or are the experts sti
A CMMS can track equipment operation and save money by avoiding unplanned downtime, but did you know it can also be used to track energy consumption and use that information to judge equipment health? The same data that reveals failing motors and equipment can also be used to balance energy consumpt
Reality television is full of desperate dieters and perky personal trainers trying to capitalize on the obesity crisis in the U.S. (and elsewhere). The USDA just released a new set of dietary guidelines, but not all experts from nutritionists to economists are happy about it. Is obesity simply the c
View more videos at: http://www.nbcchicago.com.
The Internal Medicine Residents at the University of Chicago Medical Center are now equipped with iPads as their primary device for clinical use.
As an Assistant Professor at University of Chicago, I work with the residents on a daily basis and I can confirm that they love their iPads.
References:
University of Chicago Medical Center
iPads Helping Doctors. NBC.
Posted at Clinical Cases and Images. Stay updated and subscribe, follow us on Twitter and connect on Facebook.
A few weeks ago, John Shirley - Global Marketing Manager at Alfa Aesar - contacted me to discuss the Chemical Information Validation results I posted from my 2010 Chemical Information Retrieval class. Our research showed that Alfa Aesar was the second most common source of chemical property information from the class assignment.
We explored some possible ways that we could collaborate. With our recent report of the use of melting point measurements to predict temperature solubility curves, the Alfa Aesar melting point data collection could prove immensely useful for our Open Notebook Science solubility project.
However, since we are committed to working transparently, the only way we could accept the dataset is if it were shared as Open Data. I am extremely pleased to report that Alfa Aesar has agreed to this requirement and we hope that this gesture will encourage other chemical companies to follow suit.
The initial file provided by Alfa Aesar did not store melting points in a database ready format - it included ranges, non-numeric characters and entries reporting decomposition or sublimation. One of benefits we could provide back to the company was cleaning up the melting point field to pure numerical values ready for sorting and other database processing. This processed collection contains 12986 entries. Note that these entries are not necessarily different chemical compositions since they refer to specific catalog entries with different purities or packaging.
For our purposes of prioritizing organic chemicals for solubility modeling and applications we curated this initial dataset by collapsing redundant chemical compositions and excluded inorganics (including organometallics) and salts. We did retain organosilicon, organophosphorus and organoboron compounds. Because the primary key for all of our projects depend on ChemSpiderIDs, all compounds were assigned CSIDs by deposition in the ChemSpider database if necessary. SMILES were also provided for each entry, as well as a corresponding link to the Alfa Aesar catalog page. This curated collection contains 8739 entries.
For completeness, we thought it would be useful to merge the Alfa Aesar curated dataset with other collections for convenient federated searches. We thus added the Karthikeyan melting point dataset, which has been used in several cases to model melting point predictions. This dataset was downloaded from Cheminformatics.org. Although we were able to use most of the structures in that collection, a few hundred were left out because of some difficulty in resolving some of the SMILES, perhaps related to the differences in algorithms used by OpenBabel and OpenEye. Hopefully this issue will be resolved in a simple way and the whole dataset can be incorporated in the near future. This final curated collection contains 4084 entries.
Similarly the smaller Bergstrom dataset was included after processing the original file to a curated collection of 277 drug molecules.
Finally, the melting point entries from the ChemInfo Validation sheet itself, generated by student contributions, is added to amount to a collection of currently 13,436 Open Data melting point values. We believe that this is currently the largest such collection and that it should facilitate the development of completely transparent and free models for the prediction of melting points. As we have argued recently, improved access to measured or predicted melting points is critical to the prediction of the temperature dependence of solubility.
In addition to providing the melting point data in tabular format, Andrew Lang has created a convenient web based tool to explore the combined dataset. A drop down menu at the top allows quick access to a specific compound and reports the average melting point as well as a link to the information source. In the case of an Alfa Aesar source, a link to the catalog is provided, where the compound can be conveniently ordered if desired.
In another type of search, a SMARTS string can be entered with an optional range limit for the melting points. In the following example 14 hits are obtained for benzoic acid derivatives with melting points between 0C and 25C. Clicking on an image will reveal its source. (BTW even if you don't know how to perform sophisticated SMARTS queries, simply looking up the SMILES for a substructure on ChemSpider or ChemSketch will likely be sufficient for most types of queries).
Preliminary tests on a Droid smartphone indicate that these search capabilities work quite well.
Finally, I would like to thank Antony Williams, Andrew Lang and the people at Alfa Aesar (now added as an official sponsor) who contributed many hours to collecting, curating and coding for the final product we are presenting here. We hope that this will be of value to the researchers in the cheminformatics community for a variety of open projects where melting points play a role.
UK design team Dunne and Raby (Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby) designed this “Teddy Bear bloodbag”. The idea behind it is to serve as a comfort for children in the hospital. Why do kids get the coolest things? I want a horse shaped bloodbag … not that I really want a bloodbag.
It is worth going to Dunne and Raby’s site, dunneandraby.co.uk, to check out their other work which includes pieces like the one above as well as various texts and lectures.
According to their bios, Dunne and Raby “use design as a medium to stimulate discussion…about the social, cultural and ethical implications of existing and emerging technologies.”
[via LaughingSquid]
18” x 24”
3 colors on Natural Papter.
Signed and Numbered
Two Arms Inc. is an awesome silkscreening shop in Brooklyn, NY. This poster is a new addition to their beautiful portfolio of work. Check them out at twoarmsinc.com!
An astounding wooden Anatomical Eve from an unnamed private collection, as featured in the "Anatomie des Vanités" exhibit at The Erasmus House in Brussels, Belgium in 2008.
An overview of the exhibition, from the museum flyer:
The exhibition includes animals, Narwhal tusks, an anatomical Eve, a whale's penis, 'vanities', turned ivories, testimony to the masters' virtuosity an of the taste for curiosities that could be found in the 'Wunderkammern' of the 16th and 17th centuries. These historic objects are contrasted with contemporary art (Jan fabre, Marie-Jo Lafontaine) and with paintings of this Museum (Jerome Bosh, Quentin Massys, Hans Holbein). The artist Aida Kazarian has helped redesign the layout of the Museum, on the 75th anniversary of the foundation of Erasmus House. The highlight of the exhibition is a pregnant anatomical Eve, coming from a private collection. This exhibition on vanity, though in jubilant fashion, shows many representations of death, at the confluence of the traditional 'memento mori' of the Middles Ages and the birth of scientific thought in the curiosity cabinets.
More about the exhibition here. More about Erasmus House here.
Inspired by Elettrogenica.
