Gems of space

In all their Hubble glory.

What an incestuously inbred asshole sounds like.

Elizabeth Warren for president

I'm going to chance it

And post this fantastic hour and a half long interview between Steven Colbert and Neil deGrasse Tyson.  YouTube may do its thing and remove it, but it is wonderful and worth your time.

Maybe because we're heating the oceans to boiling point?

Marine scientists are trying to find out why previously unknown blooms of toxic algae are suddenly proliferating along the California coast, killing wildlife and increasing the risk of human sickness. The mysterious blooms have recently been bigger and have occurred more frequently than ever before, an alarming trend that a team of scientists led by UC Santa Cruz is attempting to figure out.

[snip]

Scientists will also try to determine whether climate change is having an effect on the size, frequency and location of deadly algae blooms. "We can't say for sure that it is tied to something like climate change," Kudela said, "but it does seem to be spreading globally, so something is changing, and we are trying to find out what that is." Algal blooms are already known to be relatively common in the coastal waters of Oregon, Washington state and Canada. Recently, though, unusual toxic algal blooms have also been detected in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, in Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Maine, according to researchers. Future outbreaks may be unstoppable, Kudela and others admit, but they hope the study will eventually help them develop a computer model that will predict blooms before they have a chance to cause havoc in the marine environment.

The tide comes in, the tide goes out....

We all came from primordial ooze.... Which might explain the Republicans' desire to return to simpler times...

"In the race to take on Obama, playing dumb about foreign affairs is the politically clever thing to do"

How Newt is channeling “The Producers”

One who takes issue with Naomi Wolf's article about the DHS and the mayors involved with a nation-wide crackdown of the OWS.

I think I like this new generation... teen tweeter won't apologize to Brownback.  Update:  Brownback backs down.

The NYTimes and LATimes both came out against SOPA and PIPA.

I tend to resent it when people tell me I'll need a tissue

But this time they were right.

They removed it from YouTube, but it still plays on MoveOn.org. Click the link.

Where there is money or power...

There will be people figuring out ways to take it...

Going after public education.  Because that's where there's money to be had.

Vouchers sound like such a nice plan.  Because that's where there's money to be had.

The 99.9% can easily be squeezed for more.  Because that's how the .1% make their money.

Reoccupying your foreclosed house.  Because that's where the banks played fast and loose with your home.

Beating the tar out of the camping Occupy protesters instead of the teabaggers or overnight shoppers.  Because they are the biggest threat to the people who hold power.

You have health care? You are still not safe.

Reminding us what we should really be thinking about

Rather than quibbling about how many bodies of the poor we need to step over...


‎"Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a
short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine
purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one
thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the
countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of
sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life
is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how
earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I
have received."
~ Albert Einstein