Dan

Uber-cool Astronomical Sciencey Stuff!

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Galaxy NGC 3021I found this article on DiscoverMagazine.com today about how fast our universe is expanding… and how astronomers figure this kind of thing out. After reading the whole thing, I was in awe… for two reasons.

First, the size and content of our universe is just completely mind-blowing. Carl Sagan’s “billions and billions” quote seems to understate it to an extreme degree. Just looking at a single galaxy and trying to wrap my head around how many stars it contains… and that just one of those stars (among billions) is like our Sun, one infinitesimally small fireball in a whirling mass of billions of similar fireballs… and that our tiny planet revolves around one such tiny star… it makes my head hurt.

Second, that there are people on this planet who have the intellectual wherewithall to actually measure the distance between galaxies and the speed of universal expansion by using supernovas and the pulsating brightness of stars. I mean, I can’t really grasp the idea of how small we are in just a galaxy (one of billions) without misfiring neurons in my brain causing me physical pain, but these guys are discussing the expansion of the universe, pulsating Cepheid variables, type I supernovae, and dark energy. I imagine them doing it casually over a beer or two at their local pub, but I’m sure they work exceptionally hard in labs and observatories and classrooms. Either way… wow.

So kudos to astronomers… misfiring neurons never felt so good!

Farewell, Pokey

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This Monday was a sad day for me. I had to take Pokey, my cat, to the vet to get put down. He was 18 years old and had been getting weaker and losing some weight over the past week, but Sunday night, he fell on the stairs and hurt himself to the point where his back legs wouldn’t support him. He seemed to be in pain when he’d try to move his back end, so it was best to end his life peacefully.

Pokey claiming the computer for himself
Pokey claiming the computer for himself

I got Pokey at a friend’s farm while visiting for his wedding. He and his brother Casper (who died in 2001) were about 8 to 10 weeks old when I got them. Pokey was the runt of the litter, but was only a little bit smaller than the other kittens. He was a great cat and was always super-friendly… to me. He was pretty much scared of almost everyone else until his last few years when he lost his hearing which seemed to make him a lot more laid back. He also became a lap cat in his last couple years. He’d always preferred to lie right next to me on the couch, but had taken to curling up in my lap when I watched movies.

Eighteen years is a long time to have a pet, especially a cat, and he’ll be missed… a lot.

So Much for Catwoman

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I’m not even sure how to begin with this one. It seems that the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops finds it necessary to have Senator Danny Martiny file a bill that will prohibit Louisiana scientists from creating human-animal hybrids for experimentation. I’m not kidding.

Conference lobbyist Danny Loar said the bill is designed to be a “pre-emptive strike” against scientists who might want to mix “human and animal cells in a Petri dish for scientific research purposes. . . . It is becoming more of an issue globally.”

Then there’s this statement…

Martiny and Loar said they are unaware of any attempts to do that type of research in Louisiana.

However, that won’t stop them from proposing legislation to ban it. I mean, it’s becoming a global issue! It’s not like there’s more important stuff that should be dealt with in Louisiana right now, anyway. Maybe they should also propose legislation banning the use of insects in space-flight research. I’m unaware of any attempts to do that type of research in Louisiana, but it could happen!

Martiny’s bill would make it illegal to “create or attempt to create a human-animal hybrid, . . . transfer or attempt to transfer a human embryo into a non-human womb . . . (or) transfer or attempt to transfer a non-human embryo into a human womb.”

That’s a far cry from doing some stem cell research. It seems that, about a year ago, the British Parliament approved legislation allowing scientists to mix human and animal DNA in cloning experiments. Any human embryos created this way would be destroyed after 14 days, the goal being to create new stem cells for use in research into the curing of diseases. They did, however, reject using sex cells of a human and an animal.

The Louisiana bill, however, seems to take issue with creating growing creatures in the womb… sort of a Doctor Moreau thing (though he was a vivisectionist). There doesn’t seem to be any attempt by scientists to create any sort of viable human-animal hybrid, yet it seems to be a fear of the Catholic Bishops… enough so to persuade a state senator to propose legislation banning it.

I’m not really sure what’s sillier: the fear that scientists are going to make mutant human-animal hybrids or the fact that a state senator actual proposed a legal ban on the act, presumably with a straight face.

At least Vincent gets grandfathered in.

Off to Vancouver

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StargateWednesday, a couple friends and I are heading off to Vancouver for the official Stargate convention. It’s a wonderfully geeky time and it’s sure to be a blast.

We’re going in serious style this year… flying first class, taking a limo to the hotel, staying in the hotel’s largest suite on the exclusive executive floor… what could be better!?

Okay… I’m sure you can think of a few things, but you can dream about them all you want while I chow down on my free breakfast at the exclusive Opal Lounge on the exclusive 18th floor. Nyah!

What a Load of Crap!

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Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) has announced that he will oppose the misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act” which he previously supported. That’s good news as far as I’m concerned because at least he’ll be nullifying the support given by  Senator Casey (D-PA) for the legislation.

What’s absurd is Change to Win chairperson Anna Burger’s statement about the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Employee Free Choice Act is a vital component to restoring our economy, rebuilding the middle class and renewing the American Dream for America’s workers. Allowing workers the choice to join together, free from intimidation and harassment, to bargain for job security, better wages and health care will stimulate our economy and put working families back on the path of prosperity. We will continue to work with Democrats and Republicans, including Sen. Specter, to pass this critical legislation and make our economy work for everyone.

Now that is a load of repulsively odiferous crap.

The statement about allowing workers to join together, free from intimidation and harassment is complete nonsense. They can already do that now, with less potential intimidation and harassment than they would be subjected to if this legislation would pass! Allowing the EFCA to pass would be like opening the virtual floodgates of uninhibited union harassment onto employees… with no repercussions… which is why unions desperately want this to pass. By taking away any practical chance of a secret ballot election, the EFCA would completely remove the current protection granted by anonymity, letting the union know exactly who it needs to target and where to apply the pressure, making harassment and intimidation its key tools. Getting employees to submit to union representation, willing or not, would never be easier.

The EFCA would remove employee choice, negate employee rights, and open a Pandora’s Box of harassment and intimidation abuses that haven’t been seen for decades.

And that is not good for the economy.

Employee Free Choice Act Opposition

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Ballot BoxI wrote a letter today to Senator Casey of Pennsylvania urging him to oppose the grossly misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act” which unions desperately want to pass in order to make unionization much, much easier. I say that the proposed legislation is grossly misnamed because it essentially removes an employee’s free choice in the matter by removing any anonymity from the unionization process.

Currently, when a union wants to get into a company, they need to get at least 30% of the employees to sign cards stating that they’d like union representation. After that, the company can decide to hold a secret ballot election to determine if a majority of employees want union representation. The company doesn’t have to hold the elections. They can just agree to union representation if they want, but that’s a rare (if not nonexistent) happening. Typically, unions try to get 50-60% of the employees to sign cards before moving on to the election in order to bolster their chances for success.

The EFCA effectively removes the secret ballot election, thereby removing any and all employee anonymity in the unionization process. Supporters claim that it does not remove the secret ballot elections and technically, they are correct. They say that it moves the choice of whether to have one from the company to the employees, giving the employees even more say in how the process works. The reality, however, is that they are gone.

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