I'm a dad of 13 year old triplets; two boys, one girl. One boy is Bipolar. On 2-27-06, we hospitalized him. On 3-6, he moved to partial hosp. I blog about him at: http://nonsequitur2.blogspot.com
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2007 SOTU By the Numbers
Well, it's that time of year again. The Groundhog, er, um, President has come out of his hole and told us what he wants us to think about the State of our Union.
Here are the numbers and my anaysis.
Year
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
Number of Words
5671
5435
5185
5284
5400
3948
Number of applauses
64
66
67
72
77
76
Mentioned Terror/ist/ism
23
20
27
20
40
20
Mentioned Free/dom
11
19
21
20
11
36
Mentioned God
2
2
1
3
4
2
Fear Factor* (%)
0.4
0.4
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.9
*Fear Factor = Percentage of words in the speech referring to "terror"
Number of words:
2007's SOTU is a record year for words. The trend, starting in 2003 has been pretty flat. The sudden uptick for 2007 can only mean one thing. He's trying to talk himself out of a hole.
Number of applauses: The applause count continues on the downward trend coming in two units lower than last year and 17% below his peak of 2003. The applause index too shows a definite trend downwards. In 2002, that index (the ratio of applauses to words) was a respectable 1.9. This year he's at his lowest with an absymal 1.1.
Number of Terro/ists/ism: With the exception of 2002, the fear factor has held pretty steady. There was a slight blip in 2005's speech but hardly noticeable. Same goes for this year. A blip but well within the record set in post 9/11 2003.
Number of Freedoms: Freedom is showing a dramatic decrease. From 2002, freedoms have dropped consistently. Our freedom is now down to 2003 levels. Scary.
Number of Gods: God is holding steady. Not much to report here.
Is my analysis any good? Do the data tell us anything? Can we make predictions with it? Hey, knock yourself out. Were I president, that applause trend would bother me.
As a citizen, I don't like the "freedom" count and I would like to see the "fear factor" go down.
ARB
Federal Way schools restrict Gore film
So here we have one guy with a 2000 year old book going against more than 2000 scientists. What a F***ing idiot.
Sam is part of a Newsweek/Washington Post blogging effort on religion.
Looks quite interesting.
Hypocrisy?
If you have not had a chance to read Mr. Haggard's letter to his flock, check it out.
I am a deceiver and a liar...
These adjectives, are of course, true but we have all been deceivers and liars in our life. How many of us can say we have deceived and lied to thousands of people who trusted us? A notable omission from his self-abuse; he didn't call himself a hypocrit.
Hypocrisy is the act of pretending to have beliefs, virtues and feelings that one does not truly possess. The word derives from the late Latin hypocrisis and Greek hupokrisis both meaning play-acting or pretence. The word is arguably derived from hypo- meaning small, + krinein meaning to decide/to dispute. A classic example of a hypocritical act is to denounce another for carrying out some action whilst carrying out the same action oneself.
The greater the hate, the greater the fear - don't let afraid people try to run your life...
A New and Interesting Blog
The Energy Miser a blog about the environment, ways to save electricity, and alternative energy.
Quotes from Letter to a Christian Nation
Bruce has done a nice job collecting quotes from Sam Harris' latest book, Letters to a Christian Nation.
Presented for your reaction... I encountered this car in a CVS parking lot. Thanks to the amazing abilities of technologists to compress cameras into cell phones, you get to see what I saw. I was with my family (wife, 14-year old triplets) and asked them what they saw.
My regular readers know I'm an atheist and that I have my doubts about the existence of a man named Jesus. Regardless, I'm all for the values ascribed to Jesus "turn the other cheek", "do unto others...", "give for the sake of giving" etc. (But I learned these from science not the bible. - Read "The Evolution of Cooperation" by Robert Axlerod and see why there might be race-survival benefits for these rules).
What do you see?
Busted! The Family Research Council knew about Foley.
I read this book back in '95, shortly after it was published. It had a profound affect on my own cognitive abilities. The link below takes you to a nice summary. (PDF Converted to HTML by Google)
Unlike his son who tried to sandbag Bill Clinton and got a new one torn... Watch it at Crooks and Liars
An Inconvenient Index
I'm a big fan of Harpers Magazine. I particularly like the Harpers Index. In the spirit of Harpers Index, I give you a collection of Global Climate Change Statistics.
Ratio of energy generated by ethanol to energy consumed in its manufacture estimated by Hosein Shapouri et al at the Department of Agriculture: 1.24
Ratio according to Cornell Scientist David Pimentel: 0.71
Number of years Pimentel's data was out of date: 10
Percentage of Italy's farmland, according to chemical physicist Franco Battaglia, required to replace half of its oil usage with corn based ethanol: 100
Percentage of isolated hydrogen that is required to liquefy said hydrogen in order to transport it: 40
Estimated percentage of Australia's energy that, according to Tim Flannery, could be supplied by geothermal "Hot Dry Rock": 100
Days earlier spring arrives for each decade since 1950: 2.3
Days earlier spring arrives compared to 1950: 11.5
Year the journal Nature reported on the Golden Toad as the first victim of Global Warming: 1999
Years the Golden Toad had been extinct when the article published: 10
Pounds of carbon dioxide created by burning 1 gallon of gasoline: 20
Cubic feet occupied by 20 pounds of carbon dioxide at room temperature and pressure: 172
Combined percentage of world carbon dioxide produced by the countries that have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol excluding the US: <8
Millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted by US electric utilities in 1997: 532.4
Percentage of US electricity generated by Coal: 57
Percentage of electric utility carbon dioxide generated by burning coal: 88
Pre-industrial parts per million of atmospheric carbon dioxide: 280
2004 parts per million of atmospheric carbon dioxide: 380
Increase in parts per million per year of atmospheric carbon dioxide since 1990: 2.54
Estimated parts per million "tipping point" for climate change: 440
Years until we reach the climate change tipping point: 20
Cubic kilometers of Mississippi River flow per year: 529
Cubic kilometers of Greenland ice melt per year: 249
Millimeters of ocean level increase contributed by Greenland's ice melt per year: 5.7
Feet of potential increase in ocean depth due to Greenland Ice Melt: 23
Degrees Celsius increase in ground temperature of Svalbard, Norway permafrost over the past decade: 0.4
Percentage this exceeds the rate of increase for the prior century: 400
Years some of the methane has been trapped in Svalbard's permafrost: 40,000
Average degrees Fahrenheit increase between daytime high and nighttime low temperatures over North America while the US Commercial Air Fleet was grounded on Sept. 11 2001 to Sept. 13, 2001: 3
Last summer that was as warm as 2006's summer: 1938
Number of summers out of the last ten that were above average temperature: 8
Percentage probablity that eight out of ten in a random process will be above average: 5.5
Number of volunteer presenters Al Gore is recruiting to deliver his "An Inconvenient Truth" presentation: 1000
Percent probability that I will become one of these presenters: 55 (see note 1)
Hours it took the author to collect and calculate these statistics: >10
Number of statistics cited in this index counting this one: 43
Note 1: 1,800 people have applied for 1,000 slots. I am still waiting to hear... If you know anybody that can help connect me. I'd appreciate it.
The snopsis: A bill is working its way through the House and Senate. This bill
is designed to defund plaintiffs in Establishment Clause cases by eliminating awards for attorney's fees.
I have been wondering how the Christian Right would attack the establishment clause.
I've Been Tagged - Books
I've been Tagged Ok, now it is my turn. Back on September 5th the EnviroAtheist Tagged me with the Book Meme. This is going to be tough…
A book that changed my life: I have read many books and I cannot say that any have changed my life. Some however, have had profound impact. For example, I just finished The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery. I knew our environment was in trouble, now I am worried.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand sticks with me. It made me always suspicious of government “intervention.”
Driven to Distraction by Edward Hallowell, M.D. In 1995, I read this book. With it, I self-diagnosed my ADHD without the help of my psychiatrist (he was an idiot). I switched psychiatrists to an expert in ADHD. He confirmed the diagnosis. It has made a world of difference.
A book I've read more than once: Like EA, I too have read The Lord of the Rings twice. I can recall no other book that I have read twice.
A book I would take with me if I were stuck on a desert island: Boiling this down to one book is impossible. I do have about three edge feet of Harlan Ellisonbooks. I would take all of them.
I became a fan of Ellison about twenty years ago. My then future brother-in-law loaned me a copy of An Edge in My Voice, a collection of essays published by Ellison in the LA Free Press. His brutal review of movies and commentary on life had me hooked.
Oddly, this is not what people think of when Ellison’s name comes up. Normally, people think of his science fiction. After reading Edge, I moved on to his science fiction. I was hooked again. I started collecting his books. I now have 33. Several are signed copies. I also have several comic books he has contributed to, An old (but never used) computer game called “I have No Mouth and I Must Scream” (named for one of his short stories), several Outer Limits tapes of episodes he wrote, and the script from “City on the Edge of Forever,” (a Start Trek episode he wrote which was then butchered by TV producers).
FYI, Ellison was a contributor on the science fiction TV series Babylon 5.
I once met Ellison in Boston. He is funny and quite intelligent. He does not suffer fools and he shows no mercy when his acerbic tongue gets going. After his talk, I sat in on a writer’s workshop run by him. While I did not learn much about writing, I did pick up a few useful tidbits. For example, I learned this Hemingway quote:
The First Draft of Anything is Shit. – Ernest Hemingway
A book that made me laugh: Perhaps you have heard David Sedaris on National Public Radio’s Program This American Life. His book Me Talk Pretty One Day made me laugh so hard I shook the bed and woke my wife up.
A book that made me cry: An easy choice. A River Runs Through It by Norman MacLean. If you are a father or a son, you will have a hard time not shedding a tear. This book touched me deeply.
A book that I wish had been written: There are two and they are both in my head. One is Science Fiction; the other is a non-fiction management book.
A book that I wish had never been written: I can think of no book(s) that have done as much damage as the Bible(s). But there are a few good stories in there as well so is the bad worth the good? A book I've been meaning to read: Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollen, Pragmatism by William James. Pragmatism is dense. I’ve started it about four times. It sits on my night stand taunting me.
I'm currently readingActually I’m listening to Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper. Download your own free audio copy from Librivox.org
I am reading a series of books called The Gateway to Great Books published in the 60s. I just finished Robinson Crusoe. Next is a short story (or a chapter from a larger book) by Victor Hugo.
This story from the AP's John Solomon has been rightly making the rounds, and deserves a highlight here too:
WASHINGTON -- While the British terror suspects were hatching their plot, the Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to divert $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new homeland explosives detection technology. [...]
Lawmakers and recently retired Homeland Security officials say they are concerned the department's research and development effort is bogged down by bureaucracy, lack of strategic planning and failure to use money wisely.
The department failed to spend $200 million in research and development money from past years, forcing lawmakers to rescind the money this summer.
The administration also was slow to start testing a new liquid explosives detector that the Japanese government provided to the United States earlier this year.
Even the congress was baffled by the requests to divert money away from explosives detection, which was rejected by lawmakers. Solomon's report also points out delays in deploying cheap, effective trace explosive detectors to key foreign airports.
Inexplicably, the Bush administration"
Bush administration accused of politicizing terror threat
