TOnight is the PTCB certification exam. I'm more than nervous. This one will be close, I have a feeling, the result of only having 14 weeks of instruction compared to 9 month or two years. Also, my classes didn't delve too deeply into many areas that "how is the work done", "you need to be able to do this math", "here's some A&P", and "a quick overview of the history/regulations."
We Trekkies And We Know It. Thanks, Vince, for helping stamp my Geek Card for this quarter. I'm almost to a free frogurt.
One in six cancers - two million a year globally - are caused by largely treatable or preventable infections, new estimates suggest. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Elizabeth looks into some of the free online courses being offered that is becoming all the rage. I've looked into classes on iTunes U and have found them a bit lacking. I haven't had time to check these new things out (although I did check MIT when they started several years ago).
Because I'll want to watch this later, Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown (2008). (Grokked form Dan)
It's amazing that when global climate becomes an undeniable reality for people already affected by it all barriers to their disbelief fall quickly. In this case it's the low-lying country of Bangladesh which has been getting batter by super-cyclones for the past few years. It's especially fast when you see your countries GDP washing out to sea. That reminds me of a very wealthy coastal town (this was on NPR a long time ago, and I apologize for forgetting it's name) that saying "global climate change" was a political death sentence, suddenly could get together to build a higher sea-wall because of "rising ocean waters", but only so long as they didn't actually say "global warming." (Grokked from the Slactivist)
See, this is what happens in a conspiracy. The truth eventually comes out. That's a video of Wis. Gov. Scott Walker telling a big donor to his campaign about how he was going to break the unions. A few weeks before they introduced the "budgetary necessary" move of eliminating collective bargaining rights from public employees. This isn't a gotcha moment (like the spoofed call form David Koch), this is him being honest with someone who gave a big chunk of money to his campaign and being caught on film doing it.
On that story about Michelle Bachmann taking dual-citizenship in Switzerland. Well, one, the US doesn't officially recognize "dual-citizenship". Two, the oath of office is "I, (your name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God." (emphasis mine) So, Congresswoman Bachmann, since you had to swear an oath to Switzerland, that would mean you're a liar, a breaker of oaths to the US and your God, and are in conflict with your oath of office. America, love it or leave it. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. And in case you think I'm being flip here, understand I'm damn serious. She's violated her oath of office. Hell, when some of our elected officials were granted "knighthood", it causes more consternation (and many refuse, or postpone the honor until they've left office). With all her talk on who is and who isn't a "Real American™", I'm just dumbfounded that she would do this. You know all those people who went ape-shit when the President bowed in greeting to a foreign leader? Michelle Bachmann has pledged her allegiance to a foreign government.
Look, here's what Mitt Romney actually said about the auto industry back then. Now, much of what he was saying was pretty much what happened (although I have a feeling a lot of the details were different - with all the blathering I can't find a link to his actual op ed piece). Here's another thing, from the beginning that was pretty much the plan, not "bailouts" but "finance the bankruptcy" (the banks wouldn't step up to make the loans, so the US government did, and let's be clear, if we hadn't, the auto industry bankruptcies would have ended in liquidation of the companies). However, to claim, "he takes a lot of credit" goes against his railing for two years that the government "did it wrong." Again, it was those details that were different. So, yes, he was for a course through bankruptcy (as most people were a the time, except the minority that felt those companies should fail), but not the way it was actually done.
Just in case you are still belaboring under the impression that human activity can't change the environment. Our activities are even affecting the way bugs reproduce. Just wait until the impact of that is more widely felt. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Alligator Quotient: To bad they couldn't be my study group.
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