Gallows humor: you can either laugh or cry
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Washington elitists, government types and the media villagers who are completely out of touch with average Americans who do not live in the "Beltway Bubble," apparently took offense to President Obama being the first president since Grover Cleveland in 1885 to miss the Gridiron Dinner in his first year in office. … Read more
Water desalination doesn’t produce salt?
by David Safier In an attempt to cure some of my ignorance, I did a google search on water desalination (desalinization, desalinisation) and found an Economist article from June, 2008. It has lots of excellent technical information. The most important fact in terms of answering my question — Why isn't desalination coupled with the production … Read more
Where do college athlete’s scholarships come from?
by David Safier Here's another question born of ignorance. When college athletes are given scholarships, where does the money come from? A column by John Harris in the Pittsburgh Trib-Review questions the free education given to college athletes. Harris comments: A basketball player attending Pitt is eligible for an education worth more than $100,000. Except … Read more
A query born of complete ignorance
by David Safier This could be viewed as a cry for help — scientific help, that is. Advertisers as well as health food advocates the world round sing the praises of sea salt over . . . not sea salt,wherever that comes from. One of the problems with desalination of sea water (also called "desalinization" … Read more
Bobby Jo versus the volcano
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Remember how, during his big prime-time speech last month, Lousiana's Republican governor Bobby Jindal, in addition to making stuff up about what he did during Hurricane Katrina, also found time to mock the Obama administration for "wasteful spending" in the stimulus bill, including … $140 million for something called “volcano monitoring.” Instead … Read more
Wall Street, schools and merit pay
by David Safier A Seattle Times columnist has an interesting thought piece on teacher merit pay, comparing it to bonuses paid to Wall Street execs. If pay for performance is such a good idea, how did Wall Street's bonus babies get us into such a mess? It's a good question, and part of a larger … Read more
G.I. hearts G.N.
by David Safier Where does the Goldwater Institute go for inspiration on the issues of taxation and the cutting government spending? Grover Norquist. That's right. The same Grover Norquist who gave us this bit of wisdom: My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where … Read more
