Our dog likes sherry

Our dog has refined tastes and loves a nip of sherry. As I relaxed on the couch the other day, glass in one hand, good book in the other with nice music on the stereo, he parked in front of me making little pools of drool on the floor in anticipation of the last little taste that would never come.

Message to Global Warming Deniers

I posted the following to LiveLeak.com on December 23rd, 2008 in response to yet another inane post about Global Climate Change being a scam.

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Dear Global Warming Deniers,

You are the sheep. You are the one who is so enamoured of your bullshit conspiracy theory that you refuse to believe anything that contradicts it. You are unable to see reality because you just don't understand the science.

You are not the true free thinker. You aren't the ones who apply true scientific method and ask the questions: "What are the possible causes of the real effects we are seeing?" "What proof exists that each alternatives is valid?"

and most importantly:

"What proof exists that each alternative explanation is NOT valid?"

This last question is the concept of falsifiability. To be truly science a theory must have the ability to be proven false. Global Climate Change would be shown to be false if the real proof existed. That proof simply does not exist.

The alternative theory that a world-wide cabal of commercial interests generated masses of scientific data required to convince the huge majority of the world's climate scientists that the earth is undergoing global climate change for the sole purpose of economic benefit and political control is the epitome of modern stupidity.

Face the facts: You don't understand science, especially climate science. You don't understand politics, you don't understand economics, you don't understand international relations. You understand NOTHING. You support inane conspiracy theories because they feel good to you and make you think you're important. Too bad you're incapable of seeing how ridiculous those beliefs are.

$3 Million Overhead Projectors

Senator John McCain has been telling people that Barack Obama requested $3 million for an overhead projector for the Adler planetarium in Chicago as though this was a bad thing and a waste of taxpayers money. He hasn't just said this once, he's said it several times, most recently in the 2nd presidential debate.

Now, I'm not sure who feeds him this information but it is obvious that when he uses the term "overhead projector" he may be thinking of that thing you saw in classrooms and boardrooms years ago. $3 million would be a large amount of money for such a piece of equipment.

However, he is wrong, misleading and/or intentionally deceitful. Let me show you why:

This is an overhead projector:












It costs about $250-$400. It is an outdated piece of equipment that has been replaced by laptops and Powerpoint. It is usually used by businessmen trying to show why they need more money.


This is a Zeiss Planetarium projector:


It costs several million dollars and is used to educate children and adults about the universe they live in. This is what Barack Obama requested the 3 million dollars for. Don't you think the oldest planetarium in the western hemisphere and a source of great science education for the population of America deserves to have up-to-date equipment?

The Adler and planetariums like it have taught literally millions of people the wonders of the universe. Children have embarked on careers in astronomy and space science as a result of their trips to a planetarium.

There are a thousands of places where far more than $3 million dollars has been frittered away in useless earmarks and pork. Senator McCain has chosen probably the worst example of waste and has instead has highlighted an example where an earmark actually benefited the public and was possibly there because the funding wasn't available through regular channels.

America needs a president who is honest, intelligent and shows integrity. In the "overhead projector" charge John McCain shows he has none of these.