Yummy Leftovers!

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Leftovers

SGU-24, our flawed gem of a webcast, has come and gone. During the show, quite a few viewers were chatting on the various IM channels were calling for more, such as SGU-48 and even a few cries for SGU-72.  While those exercises in insanity will never come to be, there were a few things which I prepared and was not able to find time to cram into the show.

So without further adieu, here are "Evan's SGU-24 Leftovers".  

I will present them as they were intended to be read aloud. Until now, they have remained untouched, vacuum-sealed in Saran Wrap so as not to spoil any organic content.  I now lay them before you – feast your eyes and you minds, if you so wish!

On This Day In Science and Skepticism: 

September 24, In The Year of Our Lord 1890.

A letter penned on this day read as follows:

Press dispatches having been sent for political purposes, from Salt Lake City, which have been widely published, to the effect that the Utah Commission, in their recent report to the Secretary of the Interior, allege that plural marriages are still being solemnized and that forty or more such marriages have been contracted in Utah since last June or during the past year, also that in public discourses the leaders of the Church have taught, encouraged and urged the continuance of the practice of polygamy—

 I, therefore, as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do hereby, in the most solemn manner, declare that these charges are false.

We are not teaching polygamy or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice, and I deny that either forty or any other number of plural marriages have during that period been solemnized in our Temples or in any other place in the Territory.

One case has been reported, in which the parties allege that the marriage was performed in the Endowment House, in Salt Lake City, in the Spring of 1889, but I have not been able to learn who performed the ceremony; whatever was done in this matter was without my knowledge. In consequence of this alleged occurrence the Endowment House was, by my instructions, taken down without delay.

Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws, and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.

There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associates, during th...

B Herr

Moses Just Had Bad Eyesight

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Moses Just Had Bad Eyesight

Now it all makes sense:

(via Reddit)

B Herr

Act globally, think locally.

 

 

Sent to you by Brent via Google Reader:

 

 

Ugandans say they were beaten and forced from homes to make room for carbon credit forest

via Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder on 9/23/11

New York Times reports that Ugandans say they were beaten and forced off their land to make way for a carbon credit forest.

The case twists around an emerging multibillion-dollar market trading carbon-credits under the Kyoto Protocol, which contains mechanisms for outsourcing environmental protection to developing nations.

The company involved, New Forests Company, grows forests in African countries with the purpose of selling credits from the carbon-dioxide its trees soak up to polluters abroad. Its investors include the World Bank, through its private investment arm, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, HSBC.

In 2005, the Ugandan government granted New Forests a 50-year license to grow pine and eucalyptus forests in three districts, and the company has applied to the United Nations to trade under the mechanism. The company expects that it could earn up to $1.8 million a year.

But there was just one problem: people were living on the land where the company wanted to plant trees. Indeed, they had been there a while.

Are carbon credits the new blood diamonds? (Via The Agitator)

 

 

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Life Neutral - Life Beyond Conflict: 1 moral level above those hippie carbon offset points

http://www.lifeneutralsolutions.com/

B Herr

My impression of the 10th anniversary profiteering/memorials of several thousand deaths caused by irrational religious fanaticism

But it's a sign from god!?

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9/11 Memorial Curators Decide Not To Display Swastika Formed By Twisted Girders Found At Ground Zero

NEW YORK—Despite the surprising coincidence of finding a perfectly formed swastika amidst the broken girders of the Twin Towers, 9/11 memorial curators have opted not to display the symbol, choosing instead to leave it in the storage facility where ...

B Herr

Money, War, God

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Money, War, God

It's Labor Day in America — a strange time and a strange place, given the campaign the Republican party has been waging to destroy unions. Now a 30-year veteran of the Republican party gives up in despair. He's got the party's number: it's all about money (same as the Democrats), a "libidinous enthusiasm for invading other countries", and "pandering to fundamentalism".

Thus, the modern GOP; it hardly seems conceivable that a Republican could have written the following:

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." (That was President Eisenhower, writing to his brother Edgar in 1954.)

It is this broad and ever-widening gulf between the traditional Republicanism of an Eisenhower and the quasi-totalitarian cult of a Michele Bachmann that impelled my departure from Capitol Hill. It is not in my pragmatic nature to make a heroic gesture of self-immolation, or to make lurid revelations of personal martyrdom in the manner of David Brock. And I will leave a more detailed dissection of failed Republican economic policies to my fellow apostate Bruce Bartlett.

I left because I was appalled at the headlong rush of Republicans, like Gadarene swine, to embrace policies that are deeply damaging to this country's future; and contemptuous of the feckless, craven incompetence of Democrats in their half-hearted attempts to stop them.

I think it's entirely appropriate that we all feel a little depressed this Labor Day.

B Herr

I think that is statistically significant

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A more progressive tax system makes people happier, 54-nation study finds

The way some people talk, you'd think that a flat tax system -- in which everyone pays at the same rate regardless of income -- would make citizens feel better than more progressive taxation, where wealthier people are taxed at higher rates. Indeed, the United States has been diminishing progressivity of its tax structure for decades. But a new study comparing 54 nations found that flattening the tax risks flattening social wellbeing as well.

B Herr

Political science: why rejecting expertise has become a campaign strategy (and why it scares me)

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Political science: why rejecting expertise has become a campaign strategy (and why it scares me)

On this long Labor Day weekend in the US, we're bringing you a set of opinion pieces from various Ars writers—and we'd love to have you join the conversation in the comments.

"To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy." With that tweet, Jon Huntsman set himself apart from every other candidate in the Republican primary field. Despite his phrasing, Huntsman, who is barely registering in most polls, was clearly hoping that the public would believe most other candidates to be a bit loopy by contrast.

Agreeing with the scientific community has become a key issue in recent presidential campaigns. Evolution came up at a debate during the previous Republican primary season, and Rick Perry, the current front runner, was put on the spot about it at a recent campaign event (he flubbed his answer on several levels). And, as Huntsman's tweet suggests, the reality of climate change has been a hot topic.

Read the comments on this post

B Herr