"Descwibe what Mawcewwus Wawwus wooks wike!" Thanks Xeni! Hee, Hee, Hee!Coast Guard Celebrates 220th Anniversary
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Coast Guard celebrates 220 years of service to America today.
From its genesis as the Revenue Marine, the Coast Guard has evolved to become the world’s premier multi-mission, maritime service, conducting operations around the globe to execute its 11 missions.“Coast Guardsmen are agile, adaptable and multi-missioned,” said Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr. “Born as revenue cuttermen, lighthouse keepers, steamboat inspectors and surfmen, we have expanded to meet the maritime needs of our nation. As Coast Guard men and women, we share a bond of pride in our rich heritage and a common purpose to uphold our honorable traditions.”
Semper Paratus! I'm proud to have served and never floated. Imagine that!
(Always Ready!)
![[CARDFEES]](http://sg.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MI-BE920C_CARDF_NS_20100730184416.gif)
Spider eats a lightning bug in a thunderstorm
I'm probably going to buy this.
Space historians will note that R2 will thus become the first "humanoid robot" to reach orbit,
as well as the first American-built robot to get to the space station.
This story originally appeared on CBSNews.com
Reply
This is a little old, but I ran across it on Jon Taplin's blog recently and I think it does a good job of making an important point—fossil fuel, as an industry, isn't self supporting. No matter where we get our energy from, we're propping up production with tax dollars.
Couple things to keep in mind with this graph:
Not all fossil fuel subsidies are evil. (Frankly, I think we can drop the fossil fuels part and say "not all subsidies are evil", but I digress.) The Environmental Law Institute—who compiled the research and created this graphic—points out a great example: The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. That's calculated under subsidies to fossil fuels. It's by no means a big part of fossil fuel subsidies, but it's there.
This accounting doesn't include all spending. For instance, there are programs that, arguably, spend money as a direct result of the fossil fuel industry, but that aren't technically subsidies. The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, say, or, more controversially, money spent on military campaigns at least partially influenced by a desire to stabilize/defend/friendly-fy oil-producing countries.
Read the full paper this graph is based on. See the full graph with footnotes.
The following infographic from CreditLoan.com offers a sobering look at how much it can cost to own a home. It also compares renting to buying, and your costs in each case. For the original article, please visit: Is It Better To Buy Or Rent?
Take your time; think about it. Owning a home is a long-term deal.
Oil spill image inspired by WWII-era posters
J.P. Townley sent me this image, which he based on World War II-era posters reminding people on the home front to conserve fuel for the war effort. At his website you can download a PDF of the modern version and see the historic piece that inspired it.
Now, all we need is a "When you ride alone, you ride with Tony Hayward!" poster:
Bose and Dolby to receive prestigious IEEE awards
Two of the biggest names in sound are going to get two of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)'s highest honors next week. Ray Dolby and Maxwell Bose will respectively receive the IEEE Edison Medal and the IEEE/Royal Society of Edinburgh Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award at an awards ceremony on June 26.
The Edison Medal is akin to the Nobel Prize for Technology. Since its creation in 1904 it's been awarded to inventors and engineers like Alexander Graham Bell, William Pickering, and Vladimir Zworykin, pioneers in telephony, space exploration, and television technology. Dolby is receiving the medal for the work he's done over the last 50 years in noise reduction technology, starting with the algorithm he created in 1960 to reduce hissing on analog recordings. Since 1965, Dolby Labs has been one of the biggest names in sound engineering.
The Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award isn't nearly as old as the Edison Medal, but it's still a prestigious award. It was established in 2006 as a way of recognizing people or groups whose work has significantly advanced electronics or electrical engineering. Amar G. Bose, chairman and technical director of the Bose Corporation, will receive the award for his work in consumer electronics and engineering education. Over his career, he's researched everything from sound technology to automotive suspensions, and he spent over 45 years teaching engineering at MIT.
The awards ceremony will be televised live over IEEE.tv on June 26.
— Will Greenwald
... very proud to bask in the glow.
Many Thanks to Dr. Bose for all his energy and hard work!
Thanks as well to Will over at Sound+Vision Magazine for the excellent post.
Explore Survey Questions
Overview
More than half (57%) of adult internet users say they have used a search engine to look up their name and see what information was available about them online, up from 47% who did so in 2006. Young adults, far from being indifferent about their digital footprints, are the most active online reputation managers in several dimensions. For example, more than two-thirds (71%) of social networking users ages 18-29 have changed the privacy settings on their profile to limit what they share with others online.
From the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.
I'm surprised at that the numbers are lower than I would expect.
Please check out and support MoveToAmend.org in our efforts to remove corporate personhood and return freedom of speech to the human citizens of this country. The Supreme Court's decision in and against Citizens United is a travesty of justice.
The artist Frank Frazetta, whose luscious oil paintings for science fiction and fantasy
paperback covers were usually better than the stories themselves, died today.
He was 82 and one of my favorite artists. Comics Beat has more.
And Do not miss the documentary: Amazing life and story and life! The mold is broken.
I don't smoke Green Tea, I embrace nuts, I be a baby, and I eat my floss daily! Oh, yeah, and don't forget: I drink outgoing holidays, burp. Exsqueeze me.
Thanks, "How to live to 100" and GDS Publishing
"Google facts and figures" by Royal Pingdom
WOW! Staggers the mind. 2009 profits of $6.5B - Billion!
There's a lot of space junk orbiting the Earth, and graphic artist Michael Paukner knows exactly how to show it to us. Click on the graphic in the gallery below to see the full-sized version of this illuminating diagram showing data from the UCS (Union of Concerned Scientists) Satellite Database.
At first, we yanks might be disappointed to see that Russia has more satellites orbiting the earth than the United States. But Amurrca, as some like to call it, however dysfunctional it is on the planet Earth, has more orbiting functional satellites than any other country. Hooray for us!
On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions. The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.We Move to Amend.
We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:
- Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
- Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our votes and participation count.
- Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments.
Signed by 30,977 and counting . . .
Initial Signatories:Adrienne Maree Brown, Ruckus Society
Alec Loorz, Kids vs Global Warming
Andrew Kimbrell, International Center for Technology Assessment
Andy Gussert, National Trade Activist
Anne Feeney, musician
Baldemar Velasquez, President, Farm Labor Organizing Committee
Ben Manski, attorney, Exec. Director, Liberty Tree
Benno Friedman, photographer
Benson Scotch, former Staff Counsel to Sen. Leahy, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
Bill Fletcher, Exec. Editor, BlackCommentator.com
Bill McKibben, founder, 350.org
Bill Moyer, Backbone Campaign
Brad Friedman, Publisher, The BRAD BLOG
Brad Thacker, Be The Change USA
Brett Bursey, Exec. Director, South Carolina Progressive Network
Brett Kimberlin, Director, Justice Through Music
Brian McLaren, Christian activist & author
Carl Davidson, Progressive America Rising
Carolyn Oppenheim, Shays 2
Charlie Cray, Center for Corporate Policy
Chris Kromm, Executive Director, Institute for Southern Studies
Dal LaMagna, founder, Tweezerman, Inc.
Dave Wells, formerly Board of Directors, Sierra Club
David Cobb, initiator of 2004 Ohio Recount
David Gespass, president, National Lawyers Guild
David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World
David Rovics, musician
David Swanson, AfterDowningStreet.org
David Wells, Jr., Nashville Urban Harvest
Dean Myerson, Executive Director, Green Institute
Diane Wittner & Margaret Flowers, Chesapeake Citizens
Dr. Jill Stein, candidate for Governor of Massachusetts
Ed Garvey, attorney at law, editor, FightingBob.com
Emily Levy, Velvet Revolution
Fran Korten, Editor, YES! Magazine
Frank Arundel, activist
Gary Zuckett, WV Citizen Action
George Friday, National Coordinator, IPPN
George Martin, United for Peace & Justice
Georgia Kelly, Praxis Peace Institute
Glen Ford, Executive Editor, BlackAgendaReport.com
Greg Coleridge, NE OH American Friends Service Committee
Howard Zinn, historian
Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation
James Gustave Speth, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos
Jan Edwards, writer
Jane Anne Morris, author, Gaveling Down The Rabble
Jeff Cohen, founder, FAIR
Jeff Milchen, founder, ReclaimDemocracy.org
Jeffrey Short, Ph.D., Pacific Science Director, OCEANA
Jerome Scott, League of Revolutionaries for a New America
Jill Bussiere & Sanda Everette, Co-Chairs, Green Party of the U.S.
James M. Cullen, editor of The Progressive Populist
Jim Hightower, author, columnist, and radio commentator
Joel Bleifuss, Editor & Publisher, In These Times
John E. Peck, Executive Director, Family Farm Defenders
John Nichols, Washington Correspondent, The Nation
John Rensenbrink, President, Green Horizon Foundation
John Stauber, author, Weapons of Mass Deception
Jonathan Frieman, Co-founder, Center for Corporate Policy
Jonathan Tasini, candidate, U.S. Senate, NY
Josh Healey, Youth Speaks Josh Lerner, The New School for Social Research
Josh Silver, Executive Director, Free Press
Judith Pedersen-Benn, Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community
Kai Huschke, Envision Spokane
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County
Karen Dolan, Cities for Progress
Katherine Forrest, MD; Co-Founder, Commonweal Institute
Ken Reiner, inventor and founder, Kaynar Corp.
Kevin Danaher, Executive Co-Producer, Green Festivals
Kevin Zeese, Executive Director, TrueVote.US
Leah Bolger, CDR, USN (Ret), Bring the Guard Home! It's the Law.
Lewis Pitts, Lawyer, Legal Aid of NC
Lisa Graves, Executive Director, Center for Media and Democracy
Lori Price, Managing Editor, Citizens for Legitimate Government
Luis A. Cuevas, National Director, Progressive Push
Makani Themba-Nixon, Executive Director, The Praxis Project
Margo Baldwin, Publisher, Chelsea Green
Mark Crispin Miller, author, Fooled Again
Mary Zepernick, Program on Corporations Law and Democracy
Marybeth Gardam, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Matt Nelson, Just Cause
Matt Rothschild, Editor, The Progressive
Maya Schenwar & Matt Renner, Truthout
Medea Benjamin, co-founder, Code Pink
Michael Albert, Z Communications
Michael Bonnano, OpEdNews
Michael Marx, Corporate Ethics International
Michael Shuman, attorney, economic, author of "The Small-Mart Revolution"
Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace
Mimi Kennedy, actress, activist
Miriam Simos, Starhawk, activist and writer
Nancy Price, Alliance for Democracy
Nick Pavloff, Jr., Gulf of Alaska Aleut from Kodiak Island
Norman Solomon, author, co-chair, Healthcare Not Warfare campaign
Patrick Reinsborough, SmartMeme
Paul Saginaw, founder, Zingerman's, Inc.
Prof. Peter Gabel, School of Law, New College of California
Prof. Victor Wallis, Managing Editor, Socialism & Democracy
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Rep. Michael Fisher, House of Representatives, Vermont
Rev. Edward Pinkney, Black Autonomy Network Community Organization
Rev. Lennox Yearwood, President, Hip Hop Caucus
Richard Mazess, Prof. Medical Physics, UW-Madison, CEO of Lunar Corp & Bone Care Intl.
Riki Ott, Executive Director, Ultimate Civics
Robert McChesney, professor, co-author, The Death and Life of American Journalism
Ronnie Cummins, founder, Grassroots Netroots Alliance
Sally Castleman, Election Defense Alliance
Sam Smith, Editor, Progressive Review
Sarah Manski, CEO, PosiPair.com
Shahid Buttar, Rule of Law Institute
Ted Glick, climate change activist
Ted Nace, author, Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power
Thom Hartmann, nation's #1 nationally syndicated progressive talk show host
Tia Oros & Christopher Peters, Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development
Tiffiniy Cheng, Executive Director, A New Way Forward
Tim Carpenter, Executive Director, Progressive Democrats of America
Tom Hayden, activist
Ward Morehouse, chair, National Lawyers Guild's Committee on Corporations* organizations listed for identification purposes only
An end to false, flag-waving patriotism. Let's vote back to basic democracy. And remember:
“…there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well administred (sic); and I believe farther that this is likely to be well adminstred (sic) for a Course of Years, and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.” (From Benjamin Franklin: Speech in the Convention on the Constitution, unpublished, September 17, 1787)
And Jefferson knew it too: “I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
~ Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Logan. November 12, 1816
The Campaign to Legalize Democracy is circulating a petition in response to yesterday's ruling that legalized unlimited political bribery by corporations in the USA. Signatories include Bill Moyer, Howard Zinn, Jim Hightower, Billl McKibben, and Tom Hayden."We the corporations" (Thanks, Rodney!)
We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:* Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
* Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our votes and participation count.
* Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments.
... gotta go to work now...
Farewell, aughts! Illustration above by David Silverman (Thanks, David!).
Happy New 2010 to all our family, friends and colleagues!
Peace and Love!
