An emotionally affecting drama about the birth of compassion in an Iraq war hero assigned to work for the Casualty Notification Office.
Documentary Film Review: NoBody’s Perfect
An extraordinary German documentary about 12 adults with disabilities created by the toxic drug Thalidomide and how a special project lifts their spirits and gives them a fresh sense of community.
Republican Christian Conservatives strongly condemn Uganda’s repressive policies against Gays
Comments from recent days...
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) (ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee):
"I am deeply saddened and troubled that such blatantly ignorant and hate-filled legislation would see the light of day anywhere in today's world. It needs to be stopped in its tracks immediately."
U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK):
"Over the past two decades, political, religious, and community leaders in Uganda have united to promote a rare, winning strategy against HIV that addresses the unique and common risks of every segment of society. Sadly, some who oppose Uganda's common sense ABC strategy are using an absurd proposal to execute gays to undermine this coalition and winning strategy...
Officials in Uganda should come to their senses and take whatever steps are necessary to withdraw this proposal that will do nothing but harm a winning strategy that is saving lives."
U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA):
"Based on what I’ve been able to learn about the legislation and from the stand point that I’m a born again Christian, I can tell you that I don’t agree with this un-Christian and unjust proposal, and I hope the Ugandan officials dismiss it..."
Christian Pastor Rick Warren:
The potential law is unjust, extreme and un-Christian toward homosexuals...
ALL life, no matter how humble or broken, whether unborn or dying, is precious to God. My wife, Kay, and I have devoted our lives and our ministry to saving the lives of people, including homosexuals, who are HIV positive. It would be inconsistent to save some lives and wish death on others. We're not just pro-life. We are whole life."
"Finally, the freedom to make moral choices and our right to free expression are gifts endowed by God. Uganda is a democratic country with remarkable and wise people, and in a democracy everyone has a right to speak up. For these reasons, I urge you, the pastors of Uganda, to speak out against the proposed law."
Editor's Note - See our sister site Worldwide Liberty for a full explanation of the proposed Uganda legislation and other related info. Also, LR hopes to have an edition of "Libertarian Politics Live" tonight at 8 pm to discuss the controversy with top guests. Stay tuned...
Republican Senator John Ensign strongly condemns Uganda’s proposed Death Penalty for Gays
Nevada Senator Stands Up for Human Rights: Calls for International Condemnation of African Nation
"Obviously it's a law that's pretty outrageous... even if you disagree with the way people live, what Uganda is doing, I think most people would agree that's pretty outrageous..."
Libertarian Republican Polling Briefs for the Week
From Eric Dondero:
A few races of interest to Libertarian Republicans, and a few more of general interest to the GOP community...
Libertarian-leaning Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra is comfortably ahead of the pack to be Michigan's next Governor. From Rasmussen:
Rasmussen Michigan Gubernatorial Survey
Pete Hoekstra (R) 46%
John Cherry (D) 32%
Some Other Candidate 6%
Not Sure 16%
Two Polls out in Florida:
Zogby has Crist over Rubio 45 to 36.
Rasmussen has the race tied at 43 each.
But even more interesting, libertarian-leaning Rubio appears to be the stronger general election candidate handily beating the likely Democrat:
Marco Rubio 49%
Kendrick Meek 35%
Republicans may be poised to take over yet another State House. And it's a big one.
Quinnipiac 2010 Pennsylvania Governor Poll
Tom Corbett (R) 45%
Dan Onorato (D) 30%
No strong libertarians in this race, but still of interest. Meg Whittman is running away with the California GOP primary. According to PPI of California:
1. Meg Whitman 32%
2. Tom Campbell 12%
3. Steve Poizner 8%
In the general election she's a bit behind Jerry Brown, 43% to 37%, but is by far the strongest GOPer of the pack.
And how about this result certain to lift the spirits of any Republican, conservative, moderate or libertarian:
GOVERNOR – SOUTH DAKOTA (PPP)
Dennis Daugaard (R) 42%
Scott Heidepreim (D) 29%
If you're a 'D' in South Dakota, you really got to ask yourself, why even bother?
Big hat tips to our blogging buddies at GOP12, Race42012, and Hedgehog for compilining these polling results.
World’s Two Leading Communist Thugs address Climate Warmers in Copenhagen
HUGO CHAVEZ PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA
From the Washington Post, "Thugs in Copenhagen" by Stephn Stromberg:
Hugo Chavez , who paraphrased Marx in assigning blame for climate change: "A ghost is stalking the streets of Copenhagen...it's capitalism, capitalism is that ghost."
"The destructive model of capitalism is the eradication of life," Chavez also said. Tell that to the millions of Chinese that Mao killed in the fight against capitalism, or the millions more recently pulled out of poverty because of market-liberalizing reforms.
ROBERT MUGABE PREMIERE OF ZIMBABWE
When these capitalist gods of carbon burp and belch their dangerous emissions, it's we, the lesser mortals of the developing sphere who gasp and sink and eventually die," announced President Robert Mugabe’s Copenhagen address, “Where are (the) sanctions for eco-offenders? When a country spits on the Kyoto Protocol by seeking to shrink from its diktats, or by simply refusing to accede to it, is it not violating the global rule of law”?
"Why is the guilty north not showing the same fundamentalist spirit it exhibits in our developing countries on human rights matters on this more menacing threat of climate change?" the African leader lamented.
Muslims push Radical Anti-Gay Laws across Sub-Saharan Africa
Uganda, Rwanda starting to feel Heavy Hand of Muslim Fundamentalism
From Eric Dondero:
Islam is on the rise across Sub-Saharan Africa, including Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Nigeria. And estimated 9.5 million Muslims now live in Uganda, for example. That is approximately 12.1% of the population (2004 figures). The Muslim dominated Luo Tribe headed by Raila Odinga now has a power sharing arrangement for the first time with the formerly Christian-dominated government of Kenya. Nigeria is suffering from a bloody civil war in its northern region with Muslim Separatists supported by Jihadist groups in Sudan, and Niger.
With the increase in fundamentalist Islam in the region comes an increasing push to institute laws consistent with Sharia. Among these include radical Anti-Homosexuality laws.
Homosexuality is already outlawed in 38 out of 53 African nations, all in Muslim or Muslim-dominated countries. Now Muslim groups are pushing for the sexual identity to be outlawed in countries previously immuned to Islamic domination.
From the Population Institute website:
Nigeria has a similar bill waiting to reach its statute books and already allows the death penalty for homosexuality in northern states, as does Sudan. Burundi criminalised homosexuality in April this year, joining 37 other African nations where gay sex is already illegal. Egypt and Mali are creeping towards criminalization, using morality laws against same-sex couples.
Rwanda, which suffered from one of the worst genocides in human history in the early 1990s, is the first of these countries to consider completely outlawing Homosexuality.
From Queerty:
On December 16, 2009, the lower house of the Rwandan Parliament will hold its final debate on a draft revision of the penal code that will, for the first time, make homosexuality a crime in Rwanda.
Neighboring Uganda has followed suit.
CNN reported on December 9 that the Ugandan Parliament is debating severe restrictions on Homosexuals. The "Anti-Homosexuality Bill" includes these provisions:
• Gays and lesbians convicted of having gay sex would be sentenced, at minimum, to life in prison
• People who test positive for HIV may be executed
• Homosexuals who have sex with a minor, or engage in homosexual sex more than once, may also receive the death penalty
According to CNN:
A leading Muslim cleric, Sheikh Ramathan Shaban Mubajje, has called for gays to be rounded up and banished to an island until they die.
Also, Sheikh Nsereko Mutumba, the public relations officer of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council has been quoted as saying:
We believe that Allah created us to multiply and worship him. How will a gay do that? Muslims are aware that homosexuality is a sin and I am sure that the churches also teach that this vice is a sin and unacceptable in any society.
The International Community has been slow to react. Political sensitivities with its native Muslim population have kept the United Kingdom from denouncing the Ugandan legislation. In the US the Obama administration, through Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now just beginning to issue mild and carefully worded criticisms.
Ironically, it has been Christians who have been the strongest and quickest in their reactions against the anti-homosexual proposals. A coalition of Christian leaders in the US strongly condemned the actions of the Ugandan Government and issued the following statement:
"Regardless of the diverse theological views of our religious traditions regarding the morality of homosexuality, in our churches, communities and families, we seek to embrace our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters as God's children, worthy of respect and love," the statement read.
Photos: Sheikh Ramathan Shaban Mubajje - top, Gay African Man in market-place.
Gay Conservative Group calls on Obama to Stand Up for Human Rights of African Homosexuals
GOProud Urges President Obama to Publicly Take a Stand against Proposed Uganda Law
Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director - "If the President wants to start earning the Nobel Peace Prize he is accepting, he can start by speaking out against this outrageous Ugandan law."
Press Release, Dec. 10
(Washington, D.C.) - While the President is in Norway accepting a Nobel Peace Prize, Ugandan political leaders are considering a bill that criminalizes gays and lesbians. "If the President wants to start earning the Nobel Peace Prize he is accepting, he can start by speaking out against this outrageous Ugandan law," said Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director of GOProud - the only national organization for gay conservatives and their allies. "President Obama's lack of leadership on international human rights issues is appalling," continued LaSalvia. "From his refusal to confront the radically anti-gay regime in Iran to his refusal to speak out against this proposed Ugandan law - this President's silence speaks volumes about his priorities."
Ugandan political leaders have been debating legislation that would impose criminal penalties on gays and lesbians living in Uganda. Certain proposed versions of the bill have even called for the death penalty or life imprisonment for being gay.
While President Obama has been silent, leading Republicans have spoken out forcefully against the proposed Ugandan legislation.
"It is time for this administration to stand up for human rights across the globe. Not another day should pass without President Obama making it clear that he unconditionally opposes this Ugandan law," concluded LaSalvia.
Note - GOPProud.org is less than 2 years old. They split off from Log Cabin Clubs viewing them as too moderate. They will be official Co-Sponsors in Feb. 2010 of C-PAC in DC.
RLC vs. LP Round II
From Eric Dondero:
Yesterday, our conservative friends at Jumping In Pools blog, reprinted my article in full, "RLC vs. LP," from Monday (scroll down a few articles). This is an excerpt from one of their writers, "Mr. K.":
Eric Dondero at the Libertarian Republican posted an interesting article last night, which deserves more attention, and a Conservative response.
The Libertarian Party serves almost no use, except to deprive Republicans of votes, and to serve as a soapbox for supposed Republicans, who just want to see the destruction of National defense from our platform.
In the end, it is best to go with Republicans, because Libertarians will never win, and voting or supporting such a lost cause, is not worth it.
My Response:
Firstly, not all Libertarians are Anti-Defense. In fact, a very large segment of us are staunchly Pro-Defense, even within the Libertarian Party. For example, in 2003, at the start of the War in Iraq, then LP News Editor Bill Winter conducted an internal poll of Libertarian membership. He found fully 40% of LP members supported the invasion.
Yes, the LP is a lot less Pro-Defense than it once was, but that's only because the vast majority of Pro-Defense Libertarians have left the Party, and joined the Republican Liberty Caucus.
Secondly, to say that "Libertarians never win elections," is completely inaccurate. By some estimates 400 to 500 Libertarian Party members currently serve in public office nationwide. Just last week we here at LR reported on a Libertarian who won election to the Cedar Falls City Council in Iowa. Two weeks before that, in the off-year elections Nov. 3, 11 Libertarians won office nationwide, including Dan Halloran to the New York City Council. In fact, that's more elected officials than any other third party in the US.
Over the years, 10 Libertarians have been elected to State Legislators in Alaska, New Hampshire, and Vermont. And for the record, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas is a Lifetime Member of the Libertarian Party, a dual Party Republican/Libertarian. (Sort of like Lieberman is both an Independent and a Democrat).
Yes, for practical purposes the RLC is best. But without the Libertarian Party, we Libertarian Republicans would have no "safety valve," nowheres to escape if the GOP were to become too statist like the Democrats. The LP serves as our insurance policy. And I for one, am very glad they're around.
Republican Susan Collins still holding Strong against Bill, Snowe also leaning "No"
All 40 Senate Republicans could unite against Legislation
Late breaking word that Maine Senator Susan Collins is leaning against voting for Harry Reid's Health Care package. She had given mixed signals earlier in the day at a press availability in the Capitol Rotunda. This despite her colleague and friend Sen. Joe Lieberman of CT changing course, and indicating that he now leans "yes."
From the Washington Post "Prospects for GOP support for Health Care bill declining":
"I don't see voting for the current bill that is on the floor even with the improvements that have been made," Collins told reporters.
The Hill quoted Sen. Olympia Snowe on Monday:
"Yes, I do have misgivings because I understand that there are a lot of unintended consequences," Snowe said Tuesday. "We haven’t had this bill laid down in its entirety so it makes it difficult, I think, to make a decision on a bill in such a short timeframe."
But Maine's Senior Senator has not given any indication on her vote, since yesterday's emergency session at the White House.
Of note Democrat Senator Ben Nelson is also still a hold-out.
Texas Tea Party urging Special Legislative Session for Nullification of Feds
Greater Autonomy for the Lone State State
Texas may take one giant leap towards full sovereignty if some Tea Party Patriots get their way. An effort by the Texas Tea Party affiliates to lobby for a special session of the legislature is spreading like a wildfire across the State. Tea Party leaders based in Houston are calling on Governor Rick Perry to call such a session to block regulations and taxes coming from Washington, specifically on Health Care reform, and Cap & Trade.
From North Houston Tea Party Patriots website:
Texas must act NOW to block these onerous laws BEFORE they take effect.
Ideally we want to have a resolution of Nullification in place BEFORE any legislation is passed – along with an injunction against the collection of associated taxes. For example, if health care passes this year, the IRS will begin collecting taxes to pay for it in January 2010. The sooner we act, the less the damage.
What is NULLIFICATION & WHY is it Important?
When the federal government enacts laws that are beyond the scope of its constitutionally enumerated powers, it takes away our freedoms as states and as individuals, and imposes on us the economic and social consequences. With unconstitutional legislation such as health care “reform” and “cap & trade”, the federal government is attempting to tell Texans what we can and can’t do and charge us for the privilege! Fortunately, the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects us from this very thing and allows a state to “nullify”, or make null and void, any law that the STATE determines is unconstitutional.
Nullification explained in full, plus historical context at North Texas Tea Party Patriots, NotInTexas.org
Rick Perry tells Feds to leave Texas out of EPA Regs
Exerting Sovereignty for the Lone Star State
Texas Governor Rick Perry, joined his friend former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, in denouncing the Obama administration's participation in the Global Warming Summit in Copenhagen.
From The Hill, Dec. 16:
Perry speaks up. Last week he wrote a letter to the EPA asking it to withdraw its finding that greenhouse gases threaten Americans, alleging the findings are based on manipulated data. Sarah Palin opposed points of the Copenhagen agreements as well, with an editorial in The Washington Post.
In a strongly worded three page letter to EPA Director Lisa Jackson, Perry asked that the EPA completely retract its recent finding that carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is a public threat. Perry stated that the science was not conclusive.
From the Houston Chronicle, Dec. 9:
"Using uncertain and highly questionable science to institute volumes of onerous new regulations on employers who have never before been subject to EPA regulation is unprecedented and shows a real disregard for the preservation of American jobs, as well as families and businesses struggling to make ends meet."
At a press conference in LaPorte (near Houston), surrounded by political and industrial leaders, Perry further stressed the importance of jobs to the Texas economy. The Chronicle noted:
The oil and chemical plants employ nearly 270,000 people and pay billions of dollars in state and local taxes.
The state's energy industry supplies 20 percent of the nation's oil production, one-third of its natural gas production, a quarter of its refining capacity and about 60 percent of its chemical manufacturing.
Perry has been garnering a great deal of attention as of late for his increasingly controversial remarks. Some have suggested that the Governor is going all out for Sovereignty. At a recent dinner of the Collins County Republican Party Perry remarked (Lewisville Leader):
"The Cap and Trade bill will be a disaster to the Southern states and Texas in particular," he said.
He continued: "There is a lack of courage in Washington, D.C.... If we are Republicans, then we are going to act like Republicans."
A Rising Burden of Government Spending: Meeting the challenge of Growing Deficits
NEW VIDEO FROM CATO'S DAN MITCHELL
Bush Big Spending leads to even Bigger Spending Under Obama... Now, "an orgy of new government spending"
Solution: Cut the Spending
Government Efficiency …
is making the security lines at airports sufficiently long that you have plenty of time to untie your shoelaces before you reach the conveyer belt.
Drug Reimportation
Should the U.S. ban re-importation of medicines produced by U.S. manufacturers and then sold in other countries? This issue has arisen again as part of the health care debate, and it does not have an obvious answer.
The problem is that price controls on pharmaceuticals in countries like Canada cause prices for some drugs to be much lower abroad. The difference is often large enough to generate a substantial incentive for re-importation. This lowers profits for the U.S. manufacturer and reduces the incentive to develop new drugs.
If patent protection is important for innovation, then it seems to make sense to ban re-importation given the price controls imposed by other countries.
Yet I think the situation is more complicated.
First, the pratical issues involved in banning re-important are daunting. To reduce the flow materially, the U.S. would have to ramp up scrutiny at border crossings and inspect a substantial fraction of packages delivered across borders. More broadly, any attempt to impede trade in one product is likely to inhibit trade more generally.
Second, drug companies can reduce the risk of re-importation by refusing to sell their products in countries that insist on excessively low prices.
My hunch, therefore, is that U.S. policy should enforce patent protection within our borders, but if patent owners sell their products overseas, they assume the risks of re-importation. I make no claim this policy is "optimal," but I suspect it is better than the alternative.
This position is even more compelling if in fact patent protection is not necessary to generate a reasonable amount of innovation. David Levine at Washington University makes exactly this argument. I am not yet convinced David is right, but he raises good objections to the claim that patent protection is benefical overall.
Australian Bee Fights Like an Egyptian—It Mummifies Beetle Intruders | Discoblog
Trigona carbonaria is a bee without a stinger, one of the 10 or so out of 2,000 Australian bee species to lack the feature. This doesn’t appear to have been any concern… at least not until the hive beetle Aethina tumida showed up. This invasive insect may have reached the island continent along with a flock of athletes during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, and as the name suggests, it like to invade beehives. But it hasn’t been very successful in this case, thanks to creative defensive tactics by the bees.
Since the worker can’t sting, they instead make the beetles into mummies. Workers swarm to the approaching beetle, which adopts the turtle defense–tucking in its head and legs, according to researcher Mark Greco, whose team used CT scans to see the action inside the hive. Then the construction onslaught starts. From BBC News:
This gives the bees an opportunity to mummify their enemy, which they do by coating the invasive parasites in resin, wax and mud.
“The beetles remain in position and eventually starve and shrivel on the spot,” Mr Greco told BBC Earth News.
Within 10 minutes, Greco says, the bee flurry repulses the beetle attack and saves the colony.
Related Content:
Discoblog: Rat Risotto & Emu Chips: Thing Not to Eat in Australia
Discoblog: To Fight Croc-Killing Toads, Australians Turn to “Cane Toad Golf”
Discoblog: Bees on a Plane! 10,000 Bees Swarm an Airplane Wing in Massachusetts
Image: Mark K. Greco
The Mutations That Kill: 1st Cancer Genomes Sequenced | 80beats
The genomes of lung and skin cancer have been decoded by scientists at the UK-based Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge, which is the first time an entire cancer gene map has been created.
The scientists say they have pinpointed specific DNA errors that may cause tumors in these two cancers, both of which have direct known causes—smoking for lung cancer and sun exposure for skin cancer. Researchers predict these maps will offer patients a personalized treatment option that ranges from earlier detection to the types of medication used to treat cancer. The genetic maps will also allow cancer researchers to study cells with defective DNA and produce more powerful drugs to fight the errors, according to the the study’s scientists [CNN]. News reports are heralding the new research as revolutionary, however it will be years, perhaps decades, before the full implications of the work are understood.
The lung cancer and skin cancer studies, which were published in the journal Nature, found the DNA code for a skin cancer called melanoma contained more than 30,000 errors almost entirely caused by too much sun exposure. The lung cancer DNA code had more than 23,000 errors largely triggered by cigarette smoke exposure [BBC News]. The bullet point grabbing most headlines is that the scientists say for every 15 cigarettes a person smokes, they acquire a new mutation in their DNA. Not all of those mutations will be in areas of a person’s DNA related to cancer, but some will.
According to Mike Stratton, of the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, “these catalogues of mutations are telling us about how the cancer has developed, so they will inform us on prevention. They tell us about all the processes which are disrupted in cancer cells, which we can try to influence through our treatments. So this is a really fundamental moment in the history of cancer research. I can envisage a time a decade or more hence when these catalogues will become routine, and influential in selecting treatment for that individual. That’s what we’re expecting—every cancer patient will have one of these charts” [London Times]. However, just because scientists now possess this genetic information, it doesn’t necessarily mean a cure for cancer is around the corner. The sequencing of the human genome almost 10 years ago had many researchers giddy about the possibility of personalized medicine and gene therapy, but it’s been much harder to translate the genomic data into treatments than many anticipated.
The study is a part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium, which involves countries around the world working on similar cancer-genome-sequencing projects. The UK is looking at breast cancer; the U.S. at brain, ovary, and pancreatic cancer; China at stomach cancer; Japan at the liver; and India at mouth cancer. The completion of all this work is at least five years—and several hundreds of thousand dollars—into the future, say the researchers.
Related Content:
80beats: Can a Genetic Variation Boost Empathy and Reduce Stress?
80beats: What Can We Learn From the Naked Mole Rat’s Immunity to Cancer?
80beats: Murderer With “Violent Genes” Gets Lighter Sentence in Italian Court
Image: iStockphoto
The Mighty Power of Blogosaurus? | The Loom
Over the past few days, I’ve been following a tale of paleontological woe with a surprisingly happy ending.
Matt Wedel, a paleontologist, has been blogging about his experience with a television show on the Discovery Channel called Clash of the Dinosaurs. It didn’t go well. The producers edited Wedel’s interviews to turn his words around 180 degrees. For example, remember that old notion of big dinosaurs having a second brain along their spinal column? Not true! Wedel explained this, but if you tune into the show, you see Wedel essenitally saying, True!
Wedel understandably flipped out. He complained to the producers and got back a non-apology that just made him angrier. He was transformed into the terrible Blogosaurus, and with his resonant nasal cavity he let out a clarion call for his fellow blogosaurs to stampede the production company
I’ve heard this sort of story many times before, and this is where it usually ends. Blogosaurus slinks back to his office and sulks.
But today the story has another ending. Wedel now reports that someone from the Discovery Channel called him up and is going to make things right. I can only guess that blogs do actually make a difference some of the time. Or maybe just this once.
Still, I find this story heartening, because I find science on television to be so vexing. We’re at the point now where all the pieces are in place for some utterly exhilarating programs. We’ve got awesome computer graphics. We’ve got lightweight HD cameras that people can bring to out-of-the-way places. We’ve got scientists ready to give their time and expertise. We’ve got all sorts of innovative ideas about how to make documentaries. Sometimes they add up into good science shows, but rarely great ones. And too often we end up with Clash of the Dinosaurs, or worse.
There are three kinds of terrible science shows on television.
1. The sleepy, dutiful schlep. Just because a show is accurate doesn’t mean that it’s worth watching.
2. The show that’s crazy from the start. Exhibit A: Nostradamus 2012. Just full-goose bozo from scene one, and spreading misinformation far and wide.
3. The show that could’ve been a contender, instead of a bum, which is what it is. Wedel’s experience is a good example of this category. The show sounded great to Wedel when the producers described it to him. But along the way, somebody got the idea stuck in his or her head that it would be so cool for dinosaurs to have a second brain. It would look great. And so great effort and editing was undertaken to achieve that dream–with no apparent interest in whether it was actually true.
I’ve been involved peripherally in some television science shows. In some cases, the producers and I were totally on the same wavelength. I helped them make their shows accurate and clear, and they understood what I was getting at. In other cases, I got stuck in Category Three situations. I had to explain again and again why something in a script was just totally wrong. I wanted to rig up an electrified fence around the falsehood to keep the producers from sneaking back to it. The producers in these particular cases, I suspect, really do just care about the good look–or, rather, they don’t want to spend the time making the truth look good instead.
Wedel has had a small victory in Category Three. The DVD of Clash of the Dinosaurs will get right what the broadcast version got wrong. Wedel’s experience shows that scientists and audience members can have an effect on science TV. And I suspect that it also shows that deep down, television producers know that they can’t do science shows without scientists. (Although there’s always the chance they’ll turn to pseudo-scientists.)
Still, it would have been nice for the show to have been right from the start–and not just right, but to convey how scientists do science. Some have argued that the only way to be sure you don’t get involved in a turkey is to get lawyerly. Get the final approval on all your material in writing.
It’s good advice, up to a point. At best, it leads to a hostile detente between scientists and producers. If scientists just crouch in their offices, ready to thwack any passing television producer with legal documents, I don’t think we’ll see a blossoming of great science TV any time soon. For that to happen, there will have to be deeper partnerships, in which TV folks recognize what science is actually about, and scientists will leave their staid jargon and lecturing styles at the studio door and spend some serious time thinking about what documentaries can achieve.
In the meantime, as my fossiliferous friend Chris Norris notes, there’s always Wikipedia.
[Image: Sauroposeidon, Matt Wedel's beast of choice, via Wikipedia]
A Titanic wink confirms otherwordly lakes | Bad Astronomy
A peculiar flash of light glinting from Saturn’s largest moon confirms what’s been suspected for years: liquid lakes exist on the surface of Titan!
[Click to entitanate.]
The image above was taken on July 8, 2009 by the Cassini spacecraft. Light can reflect off the surface of liquids, producing a little sparkle or glint, called a specular reflection. Knowing that earlier images had shown what look to be lakes of liquid methane on Titan, they kept their eyes open for Cassini’s images of the moon to show such a glint. There are lots of lakes in the northern hemisphere of Titan, making the odds better it would be seen there, but it was only last year that spring sprung in Titan’s northern latitudes. That’s when it was finally possible to see sunlight plinking off of any purported standing liquid.
And that’s what we’re seeing here. They checked to make sure this wasn’t some other source of light like lightning or geologic activity, and were able to trace the position of this glint to the shores of a monstrous lake called, appropriately, Kraken Mare. It’s a sprawling 400,000 square kilometers, bigger than the Caspian sea!
Titan’s atmosphere is thick and hazy, so visible sunlight isn’t strong enough to produce a glint. The image was taken at 5 microns, well into the infrared, where Titan’s atmosphere is essentially transparent. Cassini was about 200,000 km (120,000 miles, about half the distance of the Earth to the Moon) away from Titan when the image was taken.
It’s a cool picture! It looks a lot like images of Earth taken from space. I don’t mean the color or fuzziness — both due to Titan’s smoggy air — but just the way our brain recognizes how a flash of light like that is from liquid. We have to double check our brains, of course, since we’re easily fooled, but the confirmation of it satisfies some part of my own brain that likes to categorize things.
And it also brings home, so to speak, just how Earthlike this alien world is. It has a thick atmosphere, weather, and a hydrological cycle… except where we have water, Titan has methane. And of course it’s incredibly cold there; water would be frozen into ice literally as hard as rock. But liquid on the surface harkens to another part of our brain, the piece that asks if life could arise in such a place.
The answer is, of course, we don’t know. Not for sure. But we can’t rule it out, either.
The more we learn about Titan — and everywhere in our solar system — the more intriguing and beguiling it gets. I know that even now scientists are planning the next generation of exploratory spacecraft. I hope one of them will take a much closer, and much wetter, look at this giant satellite world.
XCOR wins South Korean Space Center Contract
South Korean Space Center Selects XCOR's Lynx for Suborbital Operations, XCOR
"The Yecheon Astro Space Center announced today that it has selected XCOR Aerospace as its preferred supplier of suborbital space launch services. Operating under a wet lease model, XCOR intends to supply services to the Center using the Lynx Mark II suborbital vehicle, pending United States government approvals to station the vehicle in the Republic of Korea."
