Scientific studies started showing that smoking tobacco was unhealthy all the way back in 1950s. The tobacco industry knew it would have to create confusion in the mind of the public in regards to these studies by casting doubt on them. And thus was born the Manufactured Doubt Industry. Big Tobacco and their public relations campaign successfully ( Read more... )

surreallis  started a discussion on her LJ about internalized sexism. Because she did not understand the point of view I was trying to express in my comments to her post, she encouraged me to make my own post on the subject. So, here I am, whacking at weeds off in left field. If no one wants to join me out here, that's okay. But I hope to explain why I'm ( Read more... )

It's been 40 years since humanity first stepped on the moon. I was only four years old, but I do remember the moon landing. My mom woke me up from my afternoon nap and dragged me down to sit in front of the TV with the rest of the family. I was cranky (as I still am, often, when awakened from a nice nap), and I remember wondering what the big deal ( Read more... )

It's been a week since the election, and I've been following the events in California surrounding Proposition 8.  I confess that I was unable to fully rejoice in Obama's election because of the votes in Florida, Arizona, and California banning gay marriage. If those states, with their thriving gay communities, are faced with such prejudice, what ( Read more... )

So, our government now owns a 79.9% share in AIG, the insurance company, after spending $85 billion of our tax dollars to bail it out of bankruptcy. This comes less than a month after the government siezed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and on the heels of deciding not to save Lehman Brothers. Six months ago, the feds spent  $29 ( Read more... )

Quote of the day from the National Weather Service: "All neighborhoods ... and possibly entire coastal communities ... will be inundated during the peak storm tide. Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single family one- or two-story homes will face certain death ( Read more... )

So, I think one of the reasons I've been in such a piss-poor mood is that I haven't been feeling well since getting back from Baltimore.  I won't go into detail, but suffice to say it isn't fun.  I'd worry about tomatoes and salmonella if I had eaten any tomatoes lately, but I haven't.  And, it seems to be contagious since my boss seems to have had ( Read more... )

I've been rereading The Sword of Shannara, a book I fell in love with when it first came out in 1977.  I remember thinking at the time that it was a fairly blatant ripoff of Tolkien, but there weren't a lot of fantasy books out there that were reminiscent of LoTR then, and this filled a void. It did for a lot of people, actually, and the book was a ( Read more... )

In an early celebration of Halloween, spiders all over town apparently decided to explode yesterday. Driving home at dusk, I passed dozens and dozens of webs floating eerily on a gentle breeze, illuminated by my headlights and the last rays of the setting sun. Sara and I ran into another dozen or so on our walk later on. We arrived home feeling ( Read more... )

So, when did the word "fewer" fall out of the English language?  Everything is "less" now.  Less people, less things, less items.  It drives me crazy.  We have FEWER people enrolling at the university these days, Mr. Vice President, thank you.   Unfortunately, using "less" more often seems to be a trend that is here to stay, and my attachment to " ( Read more... )