Mike Dunford
tqa
Posts by this author
As many of you know, my family circumstances do not put me neatly within the American norm. I've got a functioning Y-chromosome, but even though I'm happily married, I've done single parent duty for months at a time. Even when my wife is home, she has very little control over her schedule, and…
Education Secretary Arne Duncan testified for the first time in front of the House Education and Labor Committee yesterday, on the topic of the President's education plan. Duncan was the only witness for the hearing, and his testimony covered the broad spectrum of federal involvement in education…
As a blogger, I've got to say that I love Michael Steele. All I have to do when I'm having a hard time trying to find something to write about is pop over to Google News and type his name into the box. (I don't have a news alert set for him because I don't want to be overwhelmed with material.)…
This is largely a test post. I'm dragging myself kicking and screaming into the new era of online communications. If I've done things correctly, both my facebook account and twitter feed should provide some sort of announcement when new material posts to this blog.
That doesn't mean that they…
Yesterday, the LA Times ran an opinion piece that is nothing short of appalling. The column in question was titled, "Atheists: No God, no reason, just whining". Sadly, that remarkable headline does appear to very accurately reflect the content of the column. The LA Times apparently decided, for…
Dear Moms and Dads,
When I work at a swim meet as a deck official, I'm always happy to see parents there who are happy and excited to see their children compete. It's almost as cool to see parents taking an interest in their children as it is to watch kids working hard and trying their best.…
Yesterday, the Daily Kos and ThinkProgress reported on some spectacularly inane things that Texas Representative "Smokey Joe" Barton said about carbon dioxide. Now, Barton getting something wrong that involves science or the environment is, of course, nothing new. He is, after all, the man who…
I just playing an album I haven't listened to for a while, and I was struck by a sudden and painful sense of deja vu. As it turns out, the source of the feeling is available on YouTube, so I thought I'd share.
At least two medical doctors think that it isn't, and have said so publicly. They feel that the "research has shown" that the new flu isn't going to be very virulent, and question the wisdom of spending $1.5 billion developing a vaccine that "may never be used". I suspect that few of you will be…
...you should go and read Devilstower's truly superb article "How Freedom Was Lost" over at the Daily Kos. After you read it, you might want to send copies to the Libertarians you know.
I'm not a huge LOLcats fan, but this one is just perfect.
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
I was planning to take a couple of days off, but five or six people have emailed me the link to this quote, and it's far too good not to feature:
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that…
I'm still trying to fully digest the implications of Specter's Switch, but there was something in one of the Politico articles on the defection that I can't resist commenting on now:
In 2001, Republicans still had the House and the White House. Now they have neither. Instead, they have a…
The BBC is reporting that some people are not thrilled about calling the influenza virus that's currently causing alarm around the world "swine flu". Unfortunately, there's a slight possibility that the alternative suggestion wasn't entirely well thought out.
One Monday, Israel's deputy Health…
First, the Quote of the Day:
we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
If you're an American, those fourteen words will hopefully look at least vaguely familiar. They're the closing words of the Declaration of Independence. Those words weren't tacked on to…
...because there's something about the culture here in the South that I just don't understand.
I was driving earlier, when a funeral procession started to pass from the opposite direction. While I was waiting for them to pass, I was looking at some of the drivers in the procession. A significant…
Everyone knew there were wolves in the mountains, but they seldom came near the village - the modern wolves were the offspring of ancestors that had survived because they had learned that human meat had sharp edges.
Terry Pratchett
Equal Rites
After my earlier antics, this seemed apropos. Particularly given the conversation that took place after my wife found the directions I hadn't read.
Jill: I thought you said it was a technical problem!
Tim: Technically, I was the problem.
Home Improvement
Episode 1.09 Bubble, Bubble, Toil and…
Representative Joe Barton is feeling very good about himself right now. He's convinced that he "baffled" a Nobel Laureate with a "basic question." During a congressional hearing earlier today, he asked Energy Secretary Stephen Chu how the oil got to Alaska. Here's the YouTube clip of the exchange…
There are two pictures in today's installment. Both were taken just a few minutes ago. The second is a close-up of the area circled in red in the first picture.
I know a picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words, but right now the only one that springs to mind is "poignant".…
Unless you've been asleep for the last couple of days, you've probably heard that our government apparently wiretapped a member of Congress a few years back. According to the reports, the National Security Agency captured Representative Jane Harman (D-CA) engaging in a quid-pro-quo agreement with…
Just in case you forgot (I did, somehow), today is Earth Day. The best bloggy way I can think of to celebrate Earth Day is to start a new meme. This one is on Earth Day resolutions.
I'd like you to take a minute or two to come up with three things that you can do to be more environmentally…
âIt is known that there are an infinte number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in…
Earlier today, a team of researchers lead by noted exoplanet hunter Michel Mayor announced a pair of blockbuster discoveries - the lowest mass planet yet discovered orbiting another star, and a new analysis suggesting that another, previously discovered planet is orbiting that same star within the…
I introduced my daughter to a cinematic gem today:
"How can you close me up? On what grounds?"
"I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here."
Casablanca
Over the last few days, there has been a fair amount of discussion about the Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act (HR 669). Some of that has occurred in the comments on my blog post on the subject, and quite a bit more over at GrrlScientist's blog. So far, I haven't seen anything that leads…
This is what I get for not reading my own blog - for some reason, the Quote and Picture of the Day posts for the last few days went missing on me. (Apparently, my software thought that it's entitled to the same time off that I am.) Picture of the Day will resume later today; Quote of the Day will…
According to Matt Nisbet, the third ethical imperative when framing science is accuracy. Accuracy is important, he argues, because those who fail to accurately convey what's known about a subject risk losing the trust of their audience.
Also according to Matt Nisbet, a new Pew survey shows that…