A man shot up his neighborhood in celebration of the Obama victory.
I Hate When That Happens
An Arizona woman jogged a mile with a rabid fox locked on to her arm with its jaws.
Could have been worse–at least it wasn’t MSNBC. I don’t think that there is a serum for an Olbermann bite.
It’s Not Too Early
To start fighting the “Fairness” Doctrine.
Yes, I know that then-Senator Obama said that he didn’t support it, but do you think that he’d really veto it if it came to his desk? Really?
I Have To Confess
I have never thought of Lori Garver as a snow princess.
Will she be the next administrator, though?
I also have to say that I found this comment disturbing:
Seems highly likely Orion will become ISS only for now.
Let’s sincerely hope not. That would be a major blow to commercial services. Better to just end it, and ramp up COTS.
[Afternoon update]
She’s married, with kids. Shouldn’t she be the Snow Queen (not to be confused with the Ice Queen)?
This Is Frightening
…if true:
It seems that the conspiracy theorist, windpower opponent (at least when it’s in his family’s backyard), expert climatologist and proto-McCarthyite, RFK Jr., is being considered for the EPA. I guess he must be an example of the pragmatic approach that we keep reading so much about…
Change!
When Are The Human Tests?
A new drug that is a thousand times more powerful than resveratrol:
In the study, scientists fed the mice a high-fat, high-calorie diet mixed with doses of SRT1720 for approximately 10 weeks. The mice were given 100 or 500 milligrams of fat per kilogram of body weight each day (a high dose even for humans). The mice did not exercise regularly, although the scientists tested the animals’ exercise capacity, or endurance, by making them run on a treadmill. “The mice treated with the compound ran significantly longer,” says Auwerx. The drug also protected the animals from the negative effects of high-calorie diets: metabolic disorders, obesity-related diseases, and insulin resistance. It even improved the mice’s cholesterol.
It is significant that the drug mimics the effects of a calorie-restricted diet, since this has previously been tied to increased life expectancy, says William Evans, a professor of geriatric medicine, nutrition, and physiology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
It’s as if the couch-potato mice underwent a strict diet and exercise regime, says David Sinclair, a biologist at Harvard Medical School, in Boston, who is one of the cofounders of Sirtris but was not involved in the current study. The new study “is a major step forward, showing that we can design and synthesize potent, druglike molecules that could slow down the aging process,” says Sinclair.
I think that people are going to be amazed at the life-extension and health advances coming along in the next few years. It makes it all the more the shame that we continue to lose people who we might save if they could just hang on long enough.
Food Versus Fuel
Ethiopians are starving because they decided to cash in on biofuels. How much of this was due to government policies?
Well, That Sucks
Michael Crichton has died. I guess his cancer was a well-kept secret–I was certainly unaware that he was ill. One less voice for reason in political debate on scientific issues.
How Will House Results Affect NASA?
Jeff Foust has a post on some key races, though he talks about how they will affect “space.” I think we’ll do fine in space, regardless of election outcomes. It’s NASA, and NASA human spaceflight supporters who should be worried.
A Bad First Sign
Yuval Levin has some thoughts about Obama’s choice of Rahm Emanuel as WH Chief of Staff:
The White House chief of staff is not a chief strategist or a chief advocate. He is a manager of people and of process. Above all else, he sets the tone internally, and shapes the president’s decision process and the feel of the upper tiers of the administration. Obama is especially in need of someone who will lead him to decisions, because he appears to be intensely averse to making difficult choices–which is the essence of what the president does. His inclination is to step back and conceptualize the choice out of existence, looking reasonable but doing nothing. To overcome this, he will need a chief of staff with a sense of the gravity of the choices the president faces, and one capable of moving the staff to decision, keeping big egos satisfied and calm, and resisting the pressure to be purely reactive to momentary distractions. None of this spells Rahm Emanuel. There is definitely a place for a Rahm Emanuel type of brilliant ruthless shark in a White House staff, but not in the Chief’s office.
I think that this is a result of Obama’s never having been a real executive, or run anything. He didn’t run his campaign–Plouffe and Axelrod did. He was simply the front man. As Yuval notes, it’s not a good portent. Get ready for Carter II.
[Update a while later]
Does anyone seriously believe that this pick represents “change” or a “new kind of politics”?
[Mid-afternoon update]
Oh, goodie. More “change” and “new kind of politics.” I just heard that John Podesta is leading the selection of the transition team and cabinet.