Raytheon's cold equations

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Monday October 03, 2011 · 4:55 AM PDT

2011/10/03 · 04:55

As I write, there is a medical crisis at Antarctica's South Pole Station. Raytheon (the contractor that runs the Station) and the National Science Foundation (which is responsible for it) are refusing to authorize a medevac. Desperate relatives of the patient have created a website to publicize the situation, and are petitioning the White House to over-ride the contractor and agency's decision.

On August 27th Renee-Nicole Douceur, the winter site manager at the South Pole Station, suffered a stroke. The Pole doctors requested that she have an emergency medical evacuation as soon as possible: they have neither the kind of scanning equipment that could tell them what is going on in her brain, nor the kind of medication a true hospital would stock to treat a stroke patient.

The doctor noted on Sept. 3 that the healing is slower at the South Pole and that Renee would benefit from assessment and rehabilitation therapy as soon as possible. She also admitted that she didn’t know how to rehabilitate a stroke victim. Renee has partial vision loss to both eyes, and she also has brain fatigue.

(from the SaveRenee FAQ)

Also posted at Obsidian Wings

DoctorScience

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Saturday August 21, 2010 · 7:15 AM PDT

2010/08/21 · 07:15

Here are summaries and my comments from The Atlantic's discussion about Iran, Israel, and the Bomb, on Friday, August 20. Previous installments:

• Monday and Tuesday, August 16 &17.

• Wednesday, August 18.

• Thursday, August 19.

Friday had a post by Patrick Clawson (The U.S. and Israel: Same View of Threat, Different View on Force), with a response by Gary Milhollin (Iran's Nuclear Clock Is Not Slowing) -- which was also IMHO a response to the morning's NY Times article, U.S. Assures Israel That Iran Threat Is Not Imminent. The day's summary by The Atlantic editors was titled, If Force Is the Answer, What Is the Question?.

Detailed report and my comments after the jump.

DoctorScience

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Friday August 20, 2010 · 10:55 AM PDT

2010/08/20 · 10:55

Here are summaries and my comments from The Atlantic's discussion about Iran, Israel, and the Bomb, Thursday's installment. Previous installments:

• Monday and Tuesday.

• Wednesday.

Thursday saw a post from R. Nicholas Burns (The Strength of Obama's Long Game With Iran), with a response by Robin Wright (What the Successful Containment of Iran Will Look Like). The Atlantic editors highlit some of the discussion I was in on Wednesday, to make a post on Doubts That Israel's Leadership Believes an Attack Would Work. Pardon me while I punch the air, then get details after the jump.

DoctorScience

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Thursday August 19, 2010 · 5:53 AM PDT

2010/08/19 · 05:53

Here are summaries and my comments from The Atlantic's discussion about Iran, Israel, and the Bomb, Wednesday's installment. Monday and Tuesday's report is here.

Wednesday saw posts from Gary Milhollin (why an Israeli attack won't work) and Reuel Mark Gerecht (why Israel should attack), with comments from Fallows (strongly disagreeing with Gerecht) and Ambinder (carrying water for the White House's peaceful intentions). Details below.

DoctorScience

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Tuesday August 17, 2010 · 8:27 PM PDT

2010/08/17 · 20:27

The Atlantic's cover story for August is The Point of No Return by Jeffrey Goldberg, about Iran's nuclear weapons program and whether (or when) Israel will attack it -- and what the U.S. might do about it.

The Atlantic is having discussions all week about Jeffrey Goldberg's article. I've been making an effort to be active in the comments there, pushing to give peace a chance by stressing what I call "the Clausewitz-O'Neill Principle". I'll explain in this record of my comments.

DoctorScience

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Friday May 28, 2010 · 5:33 AM PDT

2010/05/28 · 05:33

The ongoing Deepwater Horizon disaster has finally pushed energy policy and the need for renewables to the top of the national menu. Desert naturalist and blogger Chris Clarke cautions that solar energy doesn't necessarily count as "renewable", at least when it's produced in deserts -- the weather there is sunny, producing solar energy requires water that (in the desert) isn't really a renewable resource. Desert ecosystems include many plants that are exceptionally long-lived and slow-growing, and so recover very poorly from disturbance by traffic and construction.

I am re-posting the full text of Chris' article here with his gracious permission, to help these issues get to the attention of the non-desert progressive community. The article is also online at the Desert Protective Council's Educational Bulletin.

DoctorScience

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Friday May 08, 2009 · 3:15 AM PDT

2009/05/08 · 03:15

Glenn Greenwald has been doing a great job of holding Jeffrey Rosen and The New Republic's feet to the fire, for Rosen's anonymously-sourced hit piece on Sonia Sotomayor, in which he said she is "not that smart", "[unable] to provide an intellectual counterweight to the conservatives", whose good qualities are mostly that she's Puerto Rican and from poverty -- a combination that has led pretty much every blog I've seen, left or right, to connect the dots and say that what Rosen meant is that she benefited from Affirmative Action at Princeton and Yale Law.

I want to stop the right-wing meme that Sotomayor must have been an Affirmative Action admit to Princeton, intellectually second-rate but bossy. This meme is a lie: Sotomayor got into Princeton despite a restrictive quota system, and left with the highest award Princeton gives to undergraduates.

DoctorScience

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Monday November 03, 2008 · 4:21 AM PST

2008/11/03 · 04:21

As I did in 2006, tomorrow I'll be a paid pollworker in Mercer County, NJ. This is a great job, because:

a) huge karma and good citizenship points

b) $200

c) impossible to fret in the course of the day, because I'll be too damn busy.

However, it does come with a downside: getting up at 4AM so I can be at the polling place by 5:15AM, and not getting home until 9:30PM at the earliest. So I'm going to pack up my stuff today, so I can roll out of bed and out the door in the minimum amount of time.

Here's my packing list:

DoctorScience

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Wednesday September 17, 2008 · 1:37 AM PDT

2008/09/17 · 01:37

I've decided to take this relationship to the next level, as they say, and start canvassing this weekend. I'm in safe-blue NJ, but just across the river from PA, so the local Obama office is sending us to Bristol/Lower Bucks County to go door-to-door on Saturday.

I've never canvassed before, so I've been surfing around looking for "helpful hints" and "what to expect". And I stumbled across something weird.

If you plug canvass for obama into Google, you get 282,000 hits. If you use canvass for mccain, you get only 141,000 hits -- but scanning the first few pages, most of those are about canvassing against McCain, not for him.

DoctorScience

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Wednesday September 03, 2008 · 6:21 AM PDT

2008/09/03 · 06:21

mcjoan's story gives a fine summary of police & military actions against protesters and journalists at the RNC, with links to Glenn Greenwald & FireDogLake's exemplary coverage.

Glenn Greenwald said that:

Beginning last night, St. Paul was the most militarized I have ever seen an American city be, even more so than Manhattan in the week of 9/11 -- with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas cannisters, shouting military chants and marching in military formations. Humvees and law enforcement officers with rifles were posted on various buildings and balconies.

I've found some more up-close reports from people on livejournal.com, including the tale of a 17-year-old swept up in a mass arrest on Monday and held for hours without being allowed to contact his parents.

And go see resa's diary Breaking: This is What Democracy Looks Like!, with more links and MSM contact numbers.

DoctorScience

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Friday August 29, 2008 · 5:53 PM PDT

2008/08/29 · 17:53

Just, drop it. Turn around and walk away.

Try going 24 hours while making comments about Sarah Palin that do not reference:

her anatomy or physiology

her attractiveness

her clothing

her hair or cosmetics

anything that can be abbreviated "I.L.F."

DoctorScience

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Thursday June 19, 2008 · 8:42 AM PDT

2008/06/19 · 08:42

Glenn Greenwald has been documenting the yearning of some Congressional Democrats to pass a FISA bill giving telecoms amnesty for lawbreaking they did at the Administration's request -- amnesty that would, by an amazing coincidence, remove the evidence for this lawbreaking from public view. This battle is also being documented here at Daily Kos.

A lot of us feel that it's time for Senator Obama step up to the plate and lead on this issue.

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Raytheon's cold equations

Iran, Israel, and The Atlantic: Day 5 Report

Iran, Israel, and The Atlantic, Day 4

Iran, Israel, and The Atlantic: Day 3 Report

The Clausewitz-O'Neill Principle

Desert Solar Is Not Renewable Energy, by Chris Clarke

Sonia Sotomayor, TNR stupidity, and the Ivy League

Pollworker packing list -- Updated

Where are the McCain canvassers?

Young arrestee's story; pictures around town

Dear Kossacks: put down the sexism

Time for Obama and Clinton to Lead on FISA