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Vultures - vultures, everywhere. They are circling New Orleans and the rest of the devastated Gulf Coast. The no-bid contractors like the employer of Vice-president Cheney are vying to snag juicy reconstruction contracts:

From global engineering and construction firms like the Fluor Corporation and Halliburton to local trash removal and road-building concerns, the private sector is poised to reap a windfall of business in the largest domestic rebuilding effort ever undertaken.

Normal federal contracting rules are largely suspended in the rush to help people displaced by the storm and reopen New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Hundreds of millions of dollars in no-bid contracts have already been let and billions more are to flow to the private sector in the weeks and months to come. Congress has already appropriated more than $62 billion for an effort that is projected to cost well over $100 billion.

Some experts warn that the crisis atmosphere and the open federal purse are a bonanza for lobbyists and private companies and are likely to lead to the contract abuses, cronyism and waste that numerous investigations have uncovered in post-war Iraq.
In Storm’s Ruins, a Rush to Rebuild and Reopen for Business - New York Times, 9/10/2005.

Recently, I had a little rant about how silly it is to consider creationism a scientific theory, even under the guise of so-called “intelligent design theory.” When I read Stephen Meyer’s ID paper, I realized, after I stopped laughing, that some may be taken in by Meyer’s scientific mumbo-jumbo talk. Even with no clue about the scientific terminology he throws around, it was clear to me that this paper is complete bogus. Meyer purports to challenge evolution with the argument that Darwin’s heirs cannot explain everything in this world, only to then turn around and propose that some “intelligent designer” of whom we know nothing and have no evidence, is a better scientific explanation for life on earth.

An experience-based analysis of the causal powers of various explanatory hypotheses suggests purposive or intelligent design as a causally adequate–and perhaps the most causally adequate–explanation for the origin of the complex specified information required to build the Cambrian animals and the novel forms they represent. For this reason, recent scientific interest in the design hypothesis is unlikely to abate as biologists continue to wrestle with the problem of the origination of biological form and the higher taxa.
“The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories” - Dr. Stephen C. Meyer, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington (volume 117, no. 2, pp. 213-239)

As laughable as this is, it is commendable that Alan Gishlick, Nick Matzke, and Wesley R. Elsberry took the time to systematically pick Meyer’s treatise apart. They come to the conclusion that Meyer simply does not understand very well the science he challenges:

There is nothing wrong with challenging conventional wisdom — continuing challenge is a core feature of science. But challengers should at least be aware of, read, cite, and specifically rebut the actual data that supports conventional wisdom, not merely construct a rhetorical edifice out of omission of relevant facts, selective quoting, bad analogies, knocking down strawmen, and tendentious interpretations. Unless and until the “intelligent design” movement does this, they are not seriously in the game. They’re not even playing the same sport.
Meyer’s Hopeless Monster - Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 117(2):213-239 - by Alan Gishlick, Nick Matzke, and Wesley R. Elsberry

Let me make one thing clear: I have no beef with folks who believe the Good Lord created the world in seven days and said it was good. No problem - I have my own creation myth, too. But do I pretend my creation myth is anything but a myth? Do I force it down the throat of students in science class? Even if I could - I would not! But Meyer’s pseudo-scientific polemic is part of a movement to advance the agenda of the reactionary theocrats who would like to turn back the time to the “good old days” when all bowed to the lord, everyone knew his place, and witches and heretics burned at the stake.

BBC reporter Matt Wells nails it:

The uneasy paradox which so many live with in this country - of being first-and-foremost rugged individuals, out to plunder what they can and paying as little tax as they can get away with, while at the same time believing that America is a robust, model society - has reached a crisis point this week.
Will there be real investment, or just more buck-passing between federal agencies and states?
The country has to choose whether it wants to rebuild the levees and destroyed communities, with no expense spared for the future - or once again brush off that responsibility, and blame the other guy.
BBC NEWS: New Orleans crisis shames Americans

Boy, am I glad that I fixed my bike. Ninety percent of the pipeline capacity for the South-Eastern US is down right now. We’re car-pooling with the TDI for now. Here is the press release from the Gov-man’s office:

STATEMENT GIVEN TODAY BY GOV. EASLEY CONCERNING GASOLINE SUPPLY IN NORTH CAROLINA

THE TWO MAJOR PIPELINES THAT FURNISH GASOLINE TO MANY STATES, INCLUDING NORTH CAROLINA, HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY HURRICANE KATRINA AND ARE CURRENTLY WITHOUT ELECTRICITY. THEY SERVICE NORTH CAROLINA AND 8-10 OTHER STATES.

90 PERCENT OF OUR GAS COMES FROM THESE PIPELINES AND RIGHT NOW THEY ARE NOT OPERATIONAL.

SUPPLIERS GENERALLY HAVE A WEEK OR SO OF SUPPLY. THEY HAVE BEEN SHUT DOWN SINCE THE HURRICANE.

THE PIPELINES NEED ELECTRIC SUPPLY AND THE REFINERIES THAT PRODUCE GASOLINE NEED TO MAKE URGENT REPAIRS ALSO ARE WITHOUT ELECTRICITY. THE REFINERIES THAT PRODUCE GASOLINE NEED TO MAKE URGENT REPAIRS.

CONSEQUENTLY, WE DO NOT KNOW THE EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM, BUT WE DO KNOW THAT THERE WILL BE A SIGNIFCANT LOSS OF GASOLINE IN THE SOUTHEAST, AT LEAST IN THE SHORT TERM UNTIL THE ELECTRICITY IS RESTORED.

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Creationism is religion and has no place in the classroom. End of story. One problem with scientists is that they want to argue with anyone over anything. So they fall into this trap the creationists set for them to consider “intelligent design” a scientific theory and argue painstakingly over creationism’s scientific merit.

However, the “intelligent design” debate is an Orwellian trap. Most people want simple answers. Evolution is not simple, and scientific arguments are nit-picking gobbledygook to most of us not-so-scientific worker-bees. The creationist “theory” is simple and compelling to many who are tired of the complexities of life on earth: “There is the Big Guy - trust me - and He made it all up and said it was good. Amen.”

Uh - that’s not science. That’s religion. Creationists don’t bother to explain where the Big Guy came from and how He got so smart He could make all this stuff up. I mean, if that’s a scientific theory, than we also have to consider the Norse creation myth or the creation myth of the Huron (check it out) or the Dreamtime of the Australian Aborigines as competing scientific theories. Some of these creation myths are very cool stories - compelling ways of our forebears to explain where we come from. But there is no science in these stories, and neither is in the Christian creation myth.

Today we know that we were designed by an unintelligent process of natural selection - unintelligent design, if you will - and we call this process evolution. This is no more a theory than the globe-shape of the earth is a theory. Evolution is a very broad scientific principle that leaves plenty of room for change, debate and arguments. But there is no room for creationism. Creationism belongs in the church.

The Christian creation myth is not so totally incompatible with evolution as the creationist zealots make it seem, anyway. Many Christians I know have no problem with the idea that God got the ball rolling and created the rules that apply in our world. These Christians praise the Lord for creating such a clever, efficient and effective design as unintelligent design, or evolution.

Pope Panzerfaust rolled into Köln today, threw his scull cap into the cheering mob and slid down the handrail of the gangway. No, he did not kiss the ground - he’s doing the ecclesiastical slide! Yeah, he’s now da man! Check out all the young Christians, screaming and fainting, when they catch a glimpse of the pope-man. You think the chicks are crazy about Mister P.? Take a look at the some of the guys ;) …

Yeah, he’s the man to stem the tide of young people fleeing the catholic church. Just look at him, a trust-inspiring father-figure, yet hip and edgy, not afraid to rock the boat, ruffle some feathers, shake some booty … The grand-inquisitor-turned-grand-inspirator is here: “Let Christ surprise you.” What a message! Yeah, baby, we looove surprises. What a man!

(hilarious pope-photoshop job via ProfessorBainbridge.com)

A toast to the efforts of Sean Wilson and Julie Bradford and all supporters of the Pop the Cap effort here in North Carolina. This weekend the NC Governor Mike Easley signed House Bill 392 into law. It is now on the books as S.L. 2005-277 and it raises the cap on alcohol content for beer from a measly 6 percent to 15 percent alcohol by volume. This change makes hundreds of fine brews available to beer connoisseurs in North Carolina.

Congratulations to North Carolina on another step into the 21st Century. It didn’t hurt, did it? Keep on going, and maybe this great state, too, will one day have both feet solidly this side of the turn of the century.

… are much cheaper than people. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is projected to cost a total of $686 million over 6 years, according to this year’s NASA budget (PDF - see page 320). This is roughly half of a single launch of the space shuttle but the MRO is designed to send back a torrent of scientific data about Mars. Yet, there is still this silly obsession with putting humans on Mars.

To contribute to the four science goals, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has the following science objectives:
1. Characterize the present climate of Mars and its physical mechanisms of seasonal and interannual climate change
2. Determine the nature of complex layered terrain on Mars and identify water-related landforms
3. Search for sites showing evidence of aqueous and/or hydrothermal activity
4. Identify and characterize sites with the highest potential for landed science and sample return by future Mars missions
5. Return scientific data from Mars landed craft during a relay phase
MRO Objectives

Humans on Mars? What for? What can humans do on Mars that a well-designed robot cannot do? Seems that the challenges of putting humans into space has the potential to interfere with actual science, because it uses up so much more resources (=taxpayer dollars). Especially at times of tight budgets, manned space flight is a luxury, maybe even a vanity, we cannot afford.

Kenyan journalist John Kamau, of the Sunday Standard newspaper, chronicles his G8-summit experiences on the BBC website. In an entry from Wednesday, he comments on the lack of journalists from Africa at a summit that supposedly intends to “solve” problems in Africa.

It is a sad state of affairs that we cannot find concrete analysis from African media on what is happening here simply because it seems few efforts were made to invite them.
G8 summit diary 1330BST, 06 JULY 2005.

Even when it concerns the “future of their continent,” Africans primarily get their news and information filtered via the Euro-American info monopoly of Reuters, AP, BBC, AFP, CNN, etc. In addition, the rest of the world is apparently not all that interested in what Africans have to say about decisions made at the G8 summit.

Relief from this indifference toward Africans would be much more helpful in the fight against poverty in Africa, than so-called debt-relief or the $50 Bn in aid the were able to agree on. But I doubt that these pale, powerful men have any real interest in Africa, beyond distracting from some of their foreign policy disasters.

Oh boy! Don’t take your greasecar into Yellowstone (via Sustainablog):

Larry Joy, a 53-year-old electrician, said the bear shattered a window on his 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit, tipped the plastic fuel tank on its side and gnawed on car hoses about two weeks ago. He said the evidence included muddy paw prints around the broken window and a pool of cooking oil on the rear floorboard.
Newsday.com: Owner of biodiesel car says smell of vegetable oil attracted bear

Uh - oh! I hope this is not the Kiss of Death for biodiesel. Hark the shrubman:

“Biodiesel is one of our nation’s most promising alternative fuel sources and by developing biodiesel you’re making this country less dependent on foreign sources of oil,” [President Bush] said.

“Americans are concerned about high prices at the pump and they’re really concerned as they start making their travel plans, and I understand that,” the president said. “I wish I could just wave a magic wand and lower the price at the pump. I’d do that. But that’s not how it works.”
Bush urges development of alternate fuels, AP via BusinessWeek, May 16, 2005.

Indeed, Mr. Prezman, that’s not how it works. Thanks for pointing that out! We know you understand about travel plans. You travel a lot. And you make travel plans for others, too. We understand that. And, I guess, no one told you that biodiesel is not about lowering the price at the pump. It is all about reducing air pollution and cutting down the waste of that precious crude in internal combustion engines. We understand that you don’t understand that.

George Bush has a track record of praising ideas, programs, people and then turning around and cutting funding for them. Molly Ivins documented this phenomenon in a column last year: Bush’s Kiss of Death. Considering this administration’s ties to the oil (fossil not veggie) industry, I need to see serious action before I believe a word of this. I mean, the secretary of State had an oil tanker named after her - the MS Condeleezza Rice!

S&P downgraded to “junk” status two of the largest automakers in the world, Ford and General Motors, because these companies have been thoroughly mismanaged:

… decades of management miscues … led Standard & Poor’s yesterday to cut the credit ratings of both the world’s largest car maker and Ford Motor Co. to junk-bond status for the first time. GM and Ford, once icons of American manufacturing, have blundered over issues ranging from design, vehicle size and fuel economy to union contracts and meeting the challenge from rivals such as Japan’s Toyota.

“They have a pretty bad track record on guessing the market,” says Thomas Stallkamp, 58, who was president of Chrysler Corp. before it was acquired by Daimler-Benz AG in 1998 and is now a partner at the New York buyout firm Ripplewood Holdings LLC. “They went with the sure bet, and the market moved around them.”
GM, Ford Stumbled to Junk on Designs, Unions, Japan’s Challenge - Bloomberg.com

Their marketing departments have brainwashed many Americans into a bigger-is-better attitude on personal transportation. They completely ignored the fact that we will run out of oil eventually. Now it is becoming increasingly clear that we will run out of oil sooner, rather than later, and we might be hitting world-wide peak oil before 2010. Even the heavily subsidized gas prices in the US are steadily increasing. With the gas price over $2.20/Gallon (55 cents/liter), SUVs are becoming a much less popular choice, despite the slick, macho ads on cable TV.

So the dino-fuel-guzzling SUV’s follow the fate of the dinosaurs, and they are dragging down the greedy, short-sighted companies that created them:

A broad, sustained, long-term strategy was missing, says Ian Beavis, 52, a former Ford marketing manager who launched the Lincoln Navigator SUV in 1997 and is now a consultant at the Shop LLC, a marketing firm in Long Beach, California.

“Short-term profits, that’s all that was driving it,” he says. “Everyone looked at how much they were making on Navigators and Expeditions and said, `Oh, my goodness, we can make more of this.”’

And why are short-term profits all they care about? Because the executive “compensation packages” are tied to short-term goals. The focus on the next quarterly earnings statement in corporate America has spawned some of the worst corporate scandals in history, and it has laid the groundwork for massive economic collapse, once we hit peak oil.

With the glaciers melting and the barrel of crude headed to new heights (in April!) the idea of using renewable, lower-emissions fuels has even penetrated the Lifestyles section of our local “paper of record:”

With the average price for a gallon of gas hovering around $2.22 — you could indulge in a vanilla chai for that or buy a pound of chuck roast — it’s no wonder that more North Carolinians are considering used hush puppy grease a viable fuel source.

At least the bottom line is often what sparks interest in the biodiesel movement, which is shooting out tendrils quickly across the state. Chances are greater than ever before that the Volkswagen in the next lane is running on what once bubbled in someone’s Fry Daddy.
Southern fried fuel, Raleigh N&O, Apr 22, 2005

That story was published just a few days after I wrote about my trip to the Biofuels Coop, which caught the attention of the N&O blogwatch. Just a coincidence, I’m sure.

BTW - I cancelled my subscription to the N&O after 8 years, when they ran a front-page story about US soldiers getting baptized 2 days before the start of the invasion of Iraq.

Defender of the dogma, chief inquisitor and the Vatican’s official heresy hunter: John Nichols at the Nation has a brief story on Pope Panzerfaust I. So does Majikthise. Halleluja!

So the Catholic Church selected Joseph Ratzinger as Pope today. Oh well, that’ll ensure one more world power broker will remain stuck in the dark ages. Congratulations!

There are many things Europeans in the US complain about, especially these days: No local public transportation systems (outside NYC); no decent bread; no sidewalks; awful roads; houses made of sticks; etcetera. And I live in a state where the sale of beer with more than 6 percent alcohol is illegal, but the natives make 200 proof moonshine in every other backyard!

But every year on April 15 we stop complaining for a moment and open a bottle of champagne, or rather some of that yummy California bubbly! Considering that in most of the EU we’d stand a pretty good chance of getting taxed 40-50 percent on our income, we just have to tell ourselves that “you get what you pay for.” A 25 - 30 percent income tax rate is a pretty good deal.

Dana Larsen posted a link to this comic book cover in a comment to my recent post about her story on Alternet. In her story she points out many drug references in the Popeye stories and argues that “Popeye’s strength-giving spinach is meant as a clear metaphor for the miraculous powers of marijuana.” Here is her comment:

I am Dana Larsen, the author of the article you linked to about Popeye’s spinach being a metaphor for marijuana.

I thought your readers might like to see this Popeye cover from October 1939, drawn by Joseph Musial. I only came across this cover recently, after I had written the original article posted on Alternet. The comic cover shows Popeye lounging among pillows in an Arabian sort of tent, smoking out of a hookah labelled “Spinach.”

This cover illustration shows that, to at least some people involved in the early formation of the Popeye comics, the spinach/marijuana connection was obvious, and not something they were ashamed of, as King Comics put it prominently on the cover.

http://www.cannabisculture.com/library/images/uploads/3568-KingComicsNo42.jpg

Thanks for the update, Dana. The hookah-smoking-Popeye cover is great. I do not, however, quite get the Arab-Marijuana connection. Maybe this a cultural perception of 1930s Americans? Most Arabs I’ve met were devout Muslims and quite opposed to any form of drug use.

It strikes me as a cruel irony, this public spectacle of sobbing Christians clinging to the artificially prolonged metabolic activity of the body of one woman on the eve of Good Friday.

Not so ironic, however, and rather cruel and cynical, are the policial games that some members of congress, namely DeLay and Frist, are playing with this family’s tragedy.

The last couple of days I was up to my armpits in stuff. Last weekend I started cleaning out the basement. Then I read a DailyKos diary about “stuff” and I started to think a bit more about stuff, and how we spend so much time accumulating stuff, then managing our stuff, dealing with our stuff. Mrsbrown1 quoted George Carlin

That’s all your house is-a place to keep your stuff. If you didn’t have so much stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. You could just walk around all the time. A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it, and when you leave your house, you’ve got to lock it up. You wouldn’t want to somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. That’s what your house is-a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff. Sometimes you’ve got to move-got to get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore.” George Carlin, A Place for My Stuff 1981

Yes, but who would want to just walk around all the time? We live in a stuff-based society. We love stuff. We use stuff to project social and economic status. Stuff makes us sexy. Stuff comforts us, protects us. Who am I to argue with Madison Avenue? Or with my stuff?

So, I stood in our basement, surrounded by the stuff we gathered in the last ten years. However, none of this stuff did any of these things for me. Piles of kids clothes, a purple crib, toddler shoes, a high-chair. All this projects is PARENT and PACKRAT. The old sleeper-sofa, the dot-matrix printer, the old laser printer and two gutted 486 computers are neither comforting nor particularly protecting. There’s more, let’s see: five cans of old paint, an old NordicTrack, a pile of well-used suitcases, the purple, old futon, a couple of ShopVacs, several plastic bins full of clutter, a rat’s nest of power adapters and power cords, and so on … nope - no sex appeal associated with that either. So I started two piles: Goodwill and recycling/trash.

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This is a funny story turning weird: yesterday I chuckled, when I read the report that the president of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika, had abandoned his 300-room residence because he was worried about “rodent ghosts” haunting the place. These things happen; many Africans are very worried about supernatural phenomena. Ancestral spirits are an integral part of life in many African cultures. Imagining the president of Malawi fretting over “rodent ghosts” is funny in a very African way.

Now, the BBC reports that the reporter who filed the story has been arrested:

The journalists, including BBC reporter Raphael Tenthani, have been charged with publishing false news likely to cause public alarm and fear.

Mr Mutharika angrily denied the reports and suggested they were part of a feud with his predecessor, Bakili Muluzi.

On Tuesday, 25 journalists staged a protest to support their colleagues.

They delivered food to Mr Tenthani, Reuters reporter Mabvuto Banda and the personal assistant to the vice president, Horace Nyaka. Mr Tenthani, who also writes for the AP news agency, says he is standing by his story.

Clearly, they are harassing the reporters over an embarrassing story. But coming down hard on the reporters just makes it worse, because now the story is all over the place.