Scientist Badges

If scientists earned Boy Scout badges, I'd have nearly a dozen.

How to Destroy the Earth

In case the title doesn't say it all, here's a little quote:

Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.

You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world.

Fools.

The Earth is built to last...

This is not a guide for wusses whose aim is merely to wipe out humanity...

This is a guide for those who do not want the Earth to be there anymore.

Best of all, the author has taken into account the new definitions of planet and dwarf planet! Go check it out.

NCLB (ESEA) Reauthorization

NCLB (No Child Left Behind) is up for renewal, and it looks like they're still screwing it up. Take action today - it takes 5 minutes if that.

from National Education Association
date Sep 19, 2007 3:00 PM
subject NEA Education Insider Special Alert: September 19, 2007

Tell Congress: SLOW DOWN and Take the Time to Get ESEA Reauthorization Right!

The House of Representatives is moving forward with very troubling legislation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind. The draft under discussion:

* Continues to measure school success overwhelmingly on just two (reading and math) low-quality statewide standardized tests;

* Fails to take into account adequately the unique needs of English Language Learners and students with disabilities for educationally appropriate assessments;

* Ignores the critical issues of class size reduction, access to quality early childhood education, and adequate resources for school facilities and materials;

* Contains pay for performance plans that link standardized test scores to teacher pay without the agreement of impacted teachers;

* Eliminates the High Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE) through which teachers can demonstrate that they are "highly qualified;" and

* Imposes many additional mandates and requirements on schools without any guarantee of additional funding.

Instead of rushing to pass legislation that will offer more bureaucracy, more mandates, and less help for students and educators, Congress should take the time to craft a bill that will truly help ensure great public schools for every child!

Send a Message to Congress Today!

Tell your Representative in Congress that you do not support the ESEA reauthorization draft currently under discussion. Urge Congress to take the time necessary to get ESEA reauthorization right! A copy of your message also will be sent automatically to House Education and Labor Committee Chair George Miller.

Earthquakes

In case you haven't heard, a spate of earthquakes have hit the Sumatra region of Indonesia in the last 24 hours - more than 60 of them according to CNN. For the scientifically/geographically minded, here's a map of the region from the USGS in which color indicates how recent the quake was (red is most recent), and size of the box indicates magnitude. It's a little nuts how many of the >7 boxes there are.

FWIW, the biggest nuclear bomb ever exploded had as much energy as a 7th magnitude quake, and ever additional magnitude is more than 30 times more energy.

No significant tsunami as of yet thankfully - a 0.6m (2ft) one was confirmed yesterday, and there's rumors of a 1-3m (3-9ft) one but unconfirmed.

Statz Rappin'

Math is less my expertise, but this's still to awesome to not post.



I bet it was a project for a kickass Math class.

eclipse...

Hm, I think I got my dates wrong. I think the lunar eclipse was early this morning, not early tomorrow morning. Oops. Stupid UT.

Protect public workers' retirement

(Perhaps slightly off-topic at first glance, but not really in the end b/c of how many scientists are public employees either through public institutions of higher education, or through national laboratories.)

"Long ago in days of yore it all began with..."

...some politicians on Capitol Hill deciding that if state and federal employees and their families got Social Security benefits in addition to their pension or retirement investment that it was "double dipping," never mind that everyone else in the US is entitled to both a pension and Social Security benefits, never mind that Social Security is their own money in both cases.

This affects ALL state and federal employees - not just me and all public higher ed workers from faculty to facilities, not just my mother (hoping to retire in 2 years) and all public K-12 teachers and employees from secretaries to security, but even firemen, cops, many EMS workers, garbage men, and so on. Of course there probably won't be any Social Security left by the time I'm eligible for it, but think of all the Baby Boomers out there who have put in 40 or 50 years of faithful service to the public (around 50 in the case of my mother), fighting fires and crayons, who are now told as they approach retirement that they deserve less than the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Because of this legislation, the widows of firefighters killed in 9/11 were likely told six years ago they will not, in fact, receive the Social Security benefits that their spouse earned with his or her sacrifice.

So what can you do about it? There are two pieces of federal legislation that my union (the NEA, National Education Association) is working to repeal, called GPO and WEP (Government Pension Offsets and Windfall Elimination Program). The way they are doing this is by bringing pressure to bear on Congressmen nationwide through petitions and letters. What you can do about this is to send a letter online. The letter is already written for you, so it will take less than 10 minutes of your time to fill in your personal information, and you'll be making a difference. Tell your friends and neighbors to participate too.

If you want more information, here's a summary from my State-level union. Spread the word.