Posts Tagged ‘high fructose corn syrup’
Wednesday Night
* The true gloomsters are scientists who look at climate through the lens of “dynamical systems,” a mathematics that describes things that tend to change suddenly and are difficult to predict. It is the mathematics of the tipping point—the moment at which a “system” that has been changing slowly and predictably will suddenly “flip.” The colloquial example is the straw that breaks that camel’s back. Or you can also think of it as a ship that is stable until it tips too far in one direction and then capsizes. In this view, Earth’s climate is, or could soon be, ready to capsize, causing sudden, perhaps catastrophic, changes. And once it capsizes, it could be next to impossible to right it again.
* But there’s an easy solution to all this! North Carolina considers outlawing accurate predictions of sea level rise. More from Raleigh’s Scott Huler at Scientific American.
* Lessig: “There is no one in the criminal justice system who believes that system works well. There is no one in housing law who believes this is what law was meant to be. In contracts, you read about disputes involving tens, maybe a hundred dollars. The disputes of ordinary people. These disputes are not for the courts any more. Or if they are, they are for courts that are an embarrassment to the ideals of justice from our tradition. The law of real people doesn’t work, even if the law of corporations does.”
* People with autism appear less likely to believe in God.
Links for Tuesday
* This compilation of “near-misses” is pretty spellbinding, even if in some cases it’s clear that some people have been seriously injured or killed off-screen, and in others we’re dealing with thrill-seeking asshats who don’t deserve the attention. (via)
* Ernest C. Withers, a famed photographer who chronicled the civil rights movement in photographs and was able to sit in on some of the most sensitive strategy meetings, also worked as an informant for the FBI, Memphis’ Commercial Appeal reports.
* Jon Hamm as Superman? I could live with that.
* Harry Potter and winner-take-all capitalism.
* Eight of the Most Toxic Energy Projects on the Planet. Deepwater Horizon isn’t even one of the eight.
* A comprehensive Wonk Room survey of the Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate finds that nearly all dispute the scientific consensus that the United States must act to fight global warming pollution….
Remarkably, of the dozens of Republicans vying for the 37 Senate seats in the 2010 election, only one — Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware — supports climate action. Via Steve Benen. I feel torn between hoping Castle loses today so Democrats have a shot at winning the seat, and hoping Castle wins today so at least the seat won’t go to O’Donnell. But Kevin Drum isn’t torn at all:
I’m rooting for O’Donnell with no quiet mourning for Castle at all. I’m not sure at this point why Dionne still wonders “if” there’s room in the modern GOP for guys like Castle, since that seems about as clear to me as anything could possibly be. The answer is no, and Castle’s fate won’t change that one way or the other. The die has been well and truly cast here for some time: the GOP is irrevocably committed to the undiluted Fox/Limbaugh/Drudge party line, and there’s no going back. They’re either going to stand or fall on that. So I say: let ’em do it. No excuses, no scapegoats. Finish up the Texification of the Republican Party and see how it goes. Only then is there any hope of a return to common sense.
* If you don’t call it high fructose corn syrup, it’s suddenly healthy again. Fact.
* And your crazy blast from the past: Feldstein also has uncovered new evidence that documents one of the more outrageous schemes of the Nixon presidency: a plot to assassinate Anderson by either putting poison in his medicine cabinet or exposing him to a “massive dose” of LSD by smearing it on the steering wheel of his car. While the aborted scheme to murder Anderson has been reported—and disputed—before, Feldstein found new corroboration: A confession before his death by ex-White House “plumber” Howard Hunt.
Just A Few More
* John Hope Franklin’s FBI file. Via Triangulator.
* Scott Lemieux says it’s time to punish Lieberman. Vigorously seconded.
* Lieberman’s bad behavior is still rubbing off on his friends.
* TNR considers how to save Detroit. Via Matt Yglesias.
* Spin‘s best 40 albums of 2009 (with full streaming). iTunes has ruined me for albums; I hardly listen to the ones I have all the way though, much less purchase new ones. Via Lisa.
* “Product”: a web comic. You may have to click the image to maximize it after it loads.
* New research suggest high-fructose corn syrup could damage your digestive system. Via MetaFilter.
Gerry Canavan 
