NCBI ROFL: Seriously guys, you really shouldn’t mock burns and burn prevention. | Discoblog

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manonfireThe media glorifying burns: a hindrance to burn prevention.

“The media have a profound influence on the actions of children and adults. Burns and burn prevention tend to be ignored or even mocked. The purpose of this presentation is to reveal the callousness of the media in its dealings with burns and burn prevention. Printed materials with a relationship to burns, risk of burning, or disrespect for the consequences of burns were collected. The materials were tabulated into four categories: comics, advertisements (ads), articles that made light of burns, and television shows that portrayed behavior that would risk burn injury. Most burn-related materials were found in comics or advertisements. Several comics made light of high-risk behavior with flames, scald injury, contact injury, or burns. In addition, several advertisements showed people on fire or actions that could easily lead to burns. Several articles and televisions shows portrayed high-risk behavior that, in some instances, led to copycat injuries. Flames are frequently used to sell items that target adolescent boys or young men. The high incidence injuries that frequent this population parallel the high-risk behaviors portrayed by the media. The media portrays flames and high-risk behavior for burn injury as being cool, funny, and without consequence. The use of flames on clothing and recreational equipment (skateboards, hot rods) particularly targets the high-risk adolescent male. The burn community should make the media aware of the harm it causes with its callous depiction and glorification of burns.”

mediaburns

Photo: flickr/happysweetmama

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I Smell A Compromise In The Making

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Keith's note: As is usually the case at times like this rumors abound in and around NASA. Many are of the sort that spread because you hope that they are true. Having the ring of logic helps too. In this case, the rumor or viral meme that I keep encountering is that the President will visit KSC - not just to try and woo people with his prose mixed with logic and compassion - but rather that he will augment his comments with the announcement of a compromise of sorts. He'd announce it after describing the problem and discussing the options he has available to him.

The question lingering in the minds of folks inside and outside NASA - as well as inside and outside the Beltway is why political strategists in the White House would knowingly send their boss into the proverbial lion's den with nothing but words as a defense. There are a lot of angry people at KSC who will be unemployed through no fault of their own in a short period of time - in a region where there is not another space program to go work for. As such, whether it is an anguished and angry outburst in a town hall meeting or pickets along the road, folks down there have little to lose - and their elected officials are almost as desperate. Opinions will be brutal and frank. Lots of potential YouTube moments.

So why send him down there? Well, he could say that he felt the need to speak to people face to face about this potentially dire situation - something his predecessor never did. That will score some points - but not enough. But if he really wants to connect with folks, he'll do a partial mea culpa and say "I hear ya".

And then comes the compromise. The current White House plan is to continue with the Shuttle shutdown initiated by President Bush. But instead of having Constellation ramping up to provide a human transport capability and to cover shuttle program workers, Constellation is cancelled and there is no safety net whatsoever. Bad layoff numbers now become dire.

NASA folks on the other hand are of two camps. First, here are the folks who want to shut down shuttle and yet retain as much of Constellation as possible - an "Ares V Lite" with Orion on top being their favorite flavor.

Then there is the "fly Shuttle" crowd - which is of two sub camps. One sub camp simply wants to fly the Shuttle as it is until something else is fully operational to take its place - with human access and jobs being the two main drivers. The other sub camp wants to stretch out the remaining shuttle flights and add some additional flights as they transition from shuttle to a shuttle derived (side mount) architecture that would be cheap, straightforward, use existing resources, and would also preserve human access and jobs.

The White House jumped out of the gate resolute that their plan (OSTP's plan) was perfect in every way. NASA had insight into its formulation but the decision to go in the direction that was announced was OSTP's - not NASA's. NASA had no choice but to go along with it because that is how things work. The talking points, white papers, etc. were all of White House origin.

Well, we all know what happened.

Clearly, OSTP's plan did not receive the universal accolades that they had assured themselves that it would. NASA's rollout was botched - but a lot of the blame rests with OSTP for this - not NASA. What do you do when you are kept out of the loop and only have several days to roll things out? Congress was unified across party lines (at least in the states affected by the policy) in their opposition. Something needed to be done. So, one Sunday afternoon OSTP announced the "Space Summit" at KSC on 15 April - during a shuttle mission (talk about timing). No details were released other than the fact that President would swoop in on Air Force One.

In the weeks that have followed little concrete detail has emerged. NASA PAO has no idea how this will be covered since no one has told them. KSC employees know something is up but the people most affected seem to have the least amount of input or participation in the event.

As it stands now the President will land at the KSC skid strip and be helicoptered over to the Headquarters area of KSC for an invitation-only event. While no invitation criteria have yet emerged you can imagine that the audience will be well screened and everything scripted - at least while POTUS is in the room. After that event the President will tour some KSC facilities while another venue is brought online for some subset of the KSC workforce to participate. The format is supposedly a "town Hall" - something the President does rather well at. Who gets to ask questions is still a TBD. Oh yes, KSC management is not sure they like the idea of this event in the first place given the tensions and potential for televised bad moments.

So here the President stands, confronted with a lot of very dedicated people who work as much for the income as they do the thrill of being a part of space exploration. What do you say to this group as they are about to have their ranks utterly devastated in a way that will rival the closeout of Apollo in its effect on the economy?

In my mind the only thing he can do is offer some sort of compromise. Again, along the lines of saying "You spoke loud and clear" or "I heard ya", the President offers some sort of bridge wherein money slated for use in HLV studies is added to the shuttle budget. The shuttle is flown perhaps twice a year as a shuttle-derived cargo capability is brought online - all while commercial means - including perhaps human-rated EELVs are brought online. Constellation is cancelled, commercial capabilities come online and prove their value, and NASA gets a HLV. In addition, NASA's workforce is not eradicated but manages to retain some semblance of its former self. It is not perfect, but it is a compromise.

The President could also decide to designate the jobs situation in the NASA sector as he has with other sectors - retail ("cash for clunkers"), banking (mega bailouts), construction (that train from Tampa to Orlando), etc. and use Recovery Act funds to augment the funding of such a transition.

Then again, the President could just come down to KSC, stand on that stage, gird his loins, and stand up for his decision in front of the very people most affected. Many politicians would be terrified of doing such a thing. To be certain, while the decision he defends may be unpopular, I suspect many affected will at least walk away (still angry) knowing that the guy on the stage that they elected is not a wimp.

But this scenario where the President arrives with nothing but words to offer is such a non-starter. As such, I smell a compromise in the making.

DIRECT Evangelistas Just Won’t Give Up

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Keith's note:
According to multiple sources, the chief DIRECT fan boy Stephen Metschan, is still trying to whip up support for his rocket idea - as if it is the one and only solution to every single problem NASA has. It would seem that his big protest rally idea onsite at KSC has evaporated from lack of interest (and permission). Now he is sending proposed speeches around to Washington and his pals via messages that incorrectly spell the the first and last name of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Gee Stephen, it sure would help if you get the names of the main players straight before you try and influence White House policy.

Hmmn? Dave Weigel a "progressive" blogger??

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MOVEMENT NEWS

Have we libertarians been duped?

From Eric Dondero:

With the Health Care debate raging, the Obama administration snubbing Israel, and a gi-normous budget deficit getting worse by the day, this may seem like real insider basbeall stuff. And it is.

But this is a libertarian blog after all. And we aim to cover as much movement news in addition to the big stories as possible.

With that said, many of you may have been following the "Coffin on the lawn of Missouri Congressman" story.

A quick summary: Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit and some Tea Party plus Pro-lifer demonstrators in St. Louis held a candlelight vigil in front of the home of US Rep. and Democrat Senate candidate Russ Carnahan. (He's in a tight race with Republican Rep. Roy Blount, though the very latest polls has Blount widening his lead to 8 points.) Well, Politico.com picked up on the story spinned from the leftwing blogs, that "Rightwing Protesters leave coffin on Democrat Congressman's lawn." They've since retracted the story. And to their credit at least one leftwing blog, has also admitted they got the story completely wrong.

Weigel officially outed by Democratic Underground

But buried in their retraction is this interesting little note of great interest to movement libertarians, from Cleo Lio, Democratic Underground as relayed from Gateway Pundit

I am posting this because "I" posted the original thread of the coffin being left on Rep. Carnahan's lawn... It came to my attention via Dave Weigel who IS a progressive blogger...

Really, Weigel a "progressive blogger"? With a capitalized 'IS" no less.

I have to tell you, I've suspected Weigel to be a hard leftist for quite some time. He took a particularly rabid anti-Bush line during 2005, 06, 07 and 08 in the pages of Reason. Weigel is still listed as a "Contributing Editor" (bio page for Reason). Of course, in '08 5 of 8 Reason editors, including Weigel, famously backed Obama over McCain, and Libertarian Bob Barr. Weigel was one of those who praised Obama. He later got hired on by the hard left Washington Independent, but has still masqueraded as a "libertarian." He's also a frequent guest on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

If you read Weigel's writings these days they're almost universally anti-Tea Party and/or anti-Republican. Here's a sampling of some of the articles he's written:

"Nervous Tea Partiers See Possible Democratic Win on Health Care"

"Anti-Health Care Reform faces steep hurdles"

"Sarah Palin: Newspapers That I Won’t Talk to Won’t Let Me Talk to Them"

And this little interesting tidbit from a post-C-PAC interview Weigel gave to the far left National Public Radio (NPR) in February:

Weigel says he doesn't have a problem getting access to leaders of the Tea Party movement.

On the Soros payroll?

I've heard from some that Weigel is a card-carrying member of the George Soros-opus. Admittedly, it's all been conjecture and hearsay.

But now a very well-respected and very popular hard left blog is openly calling Weigel a "progressive."

One has to wonder what his true libertarian friends feel about his progressivism. Or, even worse. How they must feel about all the insider information on the libertarian movement and other confidential information they may have shared with him over the years.

But you have to admit, it's a very clever way to infiltrate the Right. Call yourself a "libertarian." Gain libertarian cred by being officially affiliated with the much respected Reason magazine. Use that libertarian cred to gain insider access to the Sarah Palin movement, Tea Party, Bob Barr's Libertarian campaign for President, Ron Paul's Presidential campaign, and even C-PAC.

Weigel now getting a BIG Promotion! in Liberal Media land

And now this incredible news just breaking...

From Instapundit:

WASHINGTON POST HIRES DAVID WEIGEL to cover the right.

And National Review Media Blog reports:

Weigel joins the Post on April 5, and will be launching a blog focused on the conservative movement, tea party activists, and how the GOP's preparing for November.

From libertarian-left Reason, to hard left Washington Independent to establishment left Washington Post, all the while pretending to be a "friend of the Right." That's quite a journey indeed.

Fog bound

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Thursday 25th March comments:

A very cold, bleak day as heavy rain in the morning gave way to thick fog in the afternoon, but things don't stop because of the weather - the team have work to do! It was also good for birding as a flurry of migrant birds descended onto the islands including an impressive Black Redstart.
Highlights: Snipe 3, Sanwich Tern 1 fishing but we couldn't see the roost due to the fog! Skylark 2, Meadow Pipit 42, Robin 2, Fieldfare 15, Redwing 6, Song Thrush 1, Blackbird 2, Black Redstart female - favouring Lighthouse, Wheatear 2, Chiffchaff 3, Goldcrest 2, Brambling male and Reed Bunting 2.

Francisco Ayala Wins Templeton Prize | The Intersection

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News here. It's great to see such a staunch champion of the teaching of evolution, and of embryonic stem cell research, winning this award. There is no better demonstration, I think, that science and religion don't have to be at war all the time--for after all, Ayala is also a former priest and has been exceedingly prominent in making the argument against the problematic "conflict thesis." Meanwhile, those who embrace that thesis, and dislike the Templeton Foundation, will still have a hard time saying anything bad about Ayala, I would imagine. In addition to fighting doggedly in defense of evolution, his scientific credentials include winning the National Medal of Science and serving as president and chairman of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In congratulating Ayala, the National Center for Science Education adds:
Among his contributions to the defense of the integrity of science education was his testimony for the plaintiffs in McLean v. Arkansas and his coordination of support for evolution education at the National Academy of Sciences, including his lead authorship of the publication Science, Evolution, and Creationism (National Academies Press, 2008). NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott commented, "Ayala's contributions to NCSE and its goal ...