Business, Economics, Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

The Penn State Cover-Ups

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It wasn’t just child molestation:

Although State Senator Piccola had written to Penn State President Spanier asking him to ensure that “the university must deploy its fullest resources to conduct an investigation of this case”, the Inquiry Committee decided that the investigation committee should not investigate three of the four charges “synthesized” by the inquiry committee and, as a result, despite the request of Piccola and others, no investigation was ever carried out Penn State on any of the key issues e.g the “trick… to hide the decline”, Mann’s role in the email deletion enterprise organised by Phil Jones or the failure to report adverse data which the House Energy and Commerce Committee had asked about (but not investigated by the NAS panel, whose terms of reference were sabotaged by Ralph Cicerone, President of NAS).

This latest malfeasance in Not-So-Happy Valley makes the whitewash of Michael Mann look even less credible.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Every Day

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…is a good day to remember those who fought (and the many who gave their lives) so that we could remain free. Sadly, too many today want to squander what they gave us at such great sacrifice.

[Update a while later]

More Veterans Day thoughts from Bill Whittle.

Poppies

From my V-Day post four years ago:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

Note that the number of WW I vets has dwindled down to a tiny few (my paternal grandfather was one, who died in the early sixties). Barring some miracle medical breakthroughs, in another decade they will all lie (at least metaphorically) in Flanders fields. Honor today the few who are still with us, and their compatriots who no longer are. And thank, silently or otherwise, those in harm’s way today overseas.

[Note: this is a repost from four years ago. You can now count the number of remaining on a single hand, and in fact, the last one might be gone now.]

[Afternoon update]

A nice photo gallery of those who have served.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space

The Spirit Of Apollo

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…is alive and well. Just not at NASA:

…the legacy of Apollo, at its core, isn’t about big rockets; it’s the boldness of new, game-changing ideas. It’s John Houbolt’s proposal for lunar orbit rendezvous in 1962, an idea that flew so wildly in the face of accepted wisdom that NASA’s uber-engineer Max Faget protested, “Your figures lie!” — before realizing it was the right way to go.

It’s Office of Manned Space Flight chief George Mueller pushing for all-up testing of the Saturn 5, because he knew testing one stage at a time would require too much hardware and too much time, and most important, wouldn’t reduce the risk of failure. All-up testing so horrified members of Wernher von Braun’s rocket team that Mueller basically had to tell them they had no choice.

And it’s George Low’s summer of ’68 realization that with the lunar module seriously delayed, the only chance of staying on schedule was to fly Apollo 8 around the Moon, without a lander. Once again, some resisted; NASA Administrator Jim Webb yelled at his deputy over a transatlantic phone line, “Are you out of your mind?” But once again, the wisdom of the idea won out. Like all of Apollo’s bold moves, it looked from the outside like a Hail Mary pass, but in reality it was a stroke of genius.

Four decades later the challenge is not just to follow Apollo’s trail into deep space, but to do it affordably and sustainably. That’s not going to happen if NASA continues to be run as a jobs program as much as a space program.

As I’ve noted before, today’s NASA would never be able to do Apollo 8. It’s far too risk averse. Of course, back then, space was actually important.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Perfectly In Character

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Holder didn’t send the letter of apology to the Terry family, but he or someone on his staff did leak it to Politico.

What a despicable excuse for a human being. And yes, obviously I’m being racist.

[Update mid morning]

Family of slain border agent breaks silence, and lashes out at Holder.

[Update a couple minutes later]

That Fox story has a geographic anomaly:

“I think they are liars and I would tell them that,” said Kent Terry from his home in central Michigan. “What would I say to Eric Holder? They would not be nice words.”

Terry is in his 70’s, paralyzed and bound to a chair after an accident 17 years ago. His former wife Josephine lives 90 minutes north near Detroit.

Someone can live 90 miles north of somewhere in Michigan, or they can live near Detroit, but they can’t do both.

Political Commentary, Science And Society

To Salt?

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…or not to salt? That is the question:

…a series of studies looking at dietary salt have recently suggested the evidence base for population-wide salt-reduction policies may not be as strong as first thought.

A separate Cochrane Library review conducted by British researchers and published in July found no evidence that small reductions in salt intake lowered the risk of developing heart disease or dying prematurely.

And another study by Belgian scientists published in May found that people who ate lots of salt were no more likely to get high blood pressure, and were statistically less likely to die of heart disease, than those with low salt intake.

Graudal said his results showed that when salt intake is reduced, there are increases in some hormones and in fats known as lipids “which could be harmful if persistent over time.”

He added that because none of the studies in the review were able to measure long-term health effects, his team was not able to say “if low salt diets improve or worsen health outcomes.”

Graudal said the growing number of studies questioning the net benefit of salt reduction meant public health officials should look again at their guidelines.

Emphasis mine. But some people are sodium sensitive, and I think I’m one of them.

I cut way back on salt back in February, because my BP was through the roof, and it’s gotten it down from ridiculously high (sometimes above 200 systolic) to moderately high (e.g., 140/95 this morning and lower at night if I’ve had a couple drinks, like 117/75). When I heard this reported on the news this morning, they said that cutting back on salt intake might increase one’s cholesterol level by two percent, which seems trivial to me. So I’m not going to go back on a bacon and jerky diet. Since going paleo (of which salt reduction was just part) several months ago, my weight is down (not a goal, though not a problem either) and when I tested my cholesterol a couple weeks ago, it was 207 total, with tryglycerides less than fifty, and HDL of almost eighty, which is the best results I’ve ever had in my life, and all due to diet alone. So I think I’ll stick with what I’m doing.

But Bloomberg should butt out.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!