( data and anecdata )

We drove back from Michigan on Sunday, taking a long detour through small-town Indiana to avoid Chicago traffic. In one particular town, there were a whole bunch of yard signs saying "Pence Must Go ( Read more... )

I highly recommend the September 21 issue of The Nation, a theme issue dedicated to food policy. In particular, the two articles about American interference in African food policy -- "Ending Africa's Hunger" and the book review "Cornucopia Blues". If any of you who are professional wonks actually work on this issue (I don't think any of you do ( Read more... )

From the DailyKos/Research 200 poll about the "birther" nonsense:

Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States or not? Yes No Not Sure ( Read more... )

This Order is an important step in advancing the cause of science in America. But let's be clear: promoting science isn't just about providing resources -- it is also about protecting free and open inquiry. It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, ( Read more... )

NO LOVE ( Read more... )

While noodling around during a coffee break, I found this awesome page. A professor at University of Michigan took maps of the 2008 presidential election results and turned them into cartograms, by weighting the area of each state by its population. It gives you a great visual sense of just how "blue" the country really is. And there are neat ( Read more... )

I JUST CALLED STRANGERS ON THE PHONE. I hate talking to strangers, and hate talking on the phone to *anyone*, so this was big for me. I'd been thinking about doing this, but kept coming up with excuses not to ("Oh, maybe I'll go look on the Obama website after I do the dishes. And clean the litterboxes. And do a load of laundry.") But those ( Read more... )

Thanks for all the sympathy! I have to say, once again, that I LOVE ANTIBIOTICS. I still have the woozy feeling of the seriously ill, but my respiratory symptoms have been cut in half from what they were yesterday, after just one dose ( Read more... )

So I was admiring the pretty, pretty numbers at Five Thirty Eight as I often do, and I happened to look more closely at the map for the Senate races, and I thought, "Why on earth is Illinois colored in? We don't have a seat up for election this year ( Read more... )