Post-apocalyptic videogame style and music, Hollywood-quality dystopian frame -- "Road" -- narrative driven by gloom and ruin, words by Barack Obama, damning punchline: "I don't think people are better off than they were four years ago." The reported Obama re-elect abandonment of Pennsylvania's 20 Electoral College votes connects with this attack ad. It does not and will not get TV time. This is pure YouTube strike force, to be emailed and blogged. The Obama team will counter, but the POTUS trip to Scranton, PA, these hours looks even more illogical. What is to campaign for in Scranton? Can POTUS develop a collar-county stealth campaign, winning PA with the Black vote of Philadelphia and the educated white vote of the collar counties? My home district as a child was 13 PA. POTUS is an overwhelming favorite from Bryn Mawr radiating out in concentric circles of Progressives (Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky's home district, mother-in-law of Chelsea Clinton); but are there enough votes in all Montgomery County to make up for the Democrats who will not vote west of the Alleghenies or north of the Delaware Wind Gap?
something completely different timelapse from the space station - beautiful
http://vimeo.com/32430473
again
very troubling piece in the Journal on bad science
lack of reproducibility
climate fudge is contagious or perhaps better seen as multiple symptoms of a deep underlying problem in global science.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203764804577059841672541590.html?mod=WSJ_article_comments#articleTabs%3Dcomments
At our public hearing tonight, one of the commentors an educator, referred to our Mayor's use of the word "science" in connection with a consultant's draft master road plan. The commentator said something to the effect that "science is a term used to refer to a body of information that will be rendered obsolete in the next 5 to 10 years."
SCIENCE, POLITICS & FUNDING
A real witches brew.
"If you think science is certain - well that's just an error on your part." Feynman
I come to this site and wander through the posts, reading as I find time the referenced articles, and continue to be amazed, John, at how much I can learn. Peter K was right.
Obama thinks HE has election trouble . . . .
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/05/us-russia-election-idUSTRE7B019B20111205
Axelrod and Plouffe better run some of their Chicago Way folks over to school Putin in how to steal votes on a grand scale. He obviously don't know.
Interesting article in PJMedia:
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2011/12/05/some-of-mf-globals-missing-money-turns-up-in-bill-clintons-bank-account/
Some of MF Global’s Missing Money Turns Up in Bill Clinton’s Bank Account
Proving that “disgrace” is not in the Democratic dictionary.
A former MF Global employee accused former president William J. Clinton of collecting $50,000 per month through his Teneo advisory firm in the months before the brokerage careened towards its Halloween filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Teneo was hired by MF Global’s former CEO Jon S. Corzine to improve his image and to enhance his connections with Clinton’s political family, said the employee, who asked that his name be withheld because he feared retribution.
“They were supposed to be helping Corzine improve his image as a CEO—I guess you can tell how that went,” he said. Corzine resigned as CEO and chairman November 4.
Let’s savor that for a moment. Jon Corzine, who is quite wealthy, apparently used $50,000 per month of MF Global’s money, to pay the once impeached Bill Clinton, who is also quite wealthy, to improve Corzine’s public image. Corzine couldn’t find his personal checkbook to pay for this little perk?
You know what would have done the most good for Corzine’s image? Not engineering yet another massive financial train wreck.
The Teneo contract with MF Global lasted at least five months, he said. “The board cancelled it after Corzine resigned.”
The source, who is no longer associated with MF Global, said Teneo is a dual-track company with one side devoted to merchant and investment banking and the other side set up to provide image and strategy consulting services.
Clinton is the chairman of the company’s advisory board. His duties and compensation have not been released. The other member of the board is former British prime minister Tony Blair.
Two of the three founding partners are very close to the former president and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton. They are Douglas J. Band, who is the former president’s counselor and has served on his personal staff since 1995 and Declan Kelly, who earned the “Hillraiser” status in the secretary’s 2008 run for president for bundling more than $100,000 for the campaign.
These people, Tony Blair and the rest of ‘em, all undoubtedly made sure they got paid. MF Global’s stockholders, not so much.