collision detection: Molecular secrets of the “iron-plated snail”

Life isn’t easy for the “scaly-foot gastropod”. This humble snail lives in hydrothermal vent fields two miles deep in the Indian ocean, and is surrounded by vicious predators. For example, there’s the “cone snail”, which stabs at its victims with a harpoon-style tooth as a precursor to injecting them with paralyzing venom. Then there’s the Brachyuran crab, which has been known to squeeze its prey for three days in an attempt to kill it. Yowsa.

Ah, but the scaly-foot gastropod has its own tricks. To fight back, it long ago evolved a particularly cool defense structure: It takes the grains of iron sulfide floating in the water around it and incorporates it into the outer layer of its shell. It it thus an “iron-plated snail”.

...“Go ahead, we’ll be right behind you.  Honest.”

Lemme see now, what’s Bing’s market share?

FT.com / Media - Microsoft and News Corp eye web pact

Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company being paid to “de-index” its news websites from Google, setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry.

The impetus for the discussions came from News Corp, owner of newspapers ranging from the Wall Street Journal of the US to The Sun of the UK, said a person familiar with the situation, who warned that talks were at an early stage.

However, the Financial Times has learnt that Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google’s search engine.

Think Progress » O’Reilly Upset Over 9/11 Trials: ‘I Don’t Care About The Constitution!’

But last night on Fox, the network’s top legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano — who has been known to disagree with Fox’s right-wing narratives on legal issues — disputed that view, citing the constitutional right to be tried in the place where the crime has been committed. “I don’t care about the Constitution!” host Bill O’Reilly responded.

Arizona Allows Guns In Bars Starting Today | TPM LiveWire

Arizona—in the news over the summer for allowing gun-toters to attend presidential events—has now passed a law allowing people to carry guns into bars. TPM has reported on 14 people in 3 separate Arizona incidents packing heat at political events - events that involved President Obama and Democratic representatives from the state.

...we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Fear was no excuse to condone torture - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com

BY CHARLES C. KRULAK AND JOSEPH P. HOAR
In the fear that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Americans were told that defeating Al Qaeda would require us to ``take off the gloves.’’ As a former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and a retired commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command, we knew that was a recipe for disaster.

[...]

The Bush administration had already degraded the rules of war by authorizing techniques that violated the Geneva Conventions and shocked the conscience of the world. Now Cheney has publicly condoned the abuse that went beyond even those weakened standards, leading us down a slippery slope of lawlessness. Rules about the humane treatment of prisoners exist precisely to deter those in the field from taking matters into their own hands. They protect our nation’s honor.

To argue that honorable conduct is only required against an honorable enemy degrades the Americans who must carry out the orders. As military professionals, we know that complex situational ethics cannot be applied during the stress of combat. The rules must be firm and absolute; if torture is broached as a possibility, it will become a reality. Moral equivocation about abuse at the top of the chain of command travels through the ranks at warp speed.

[...]

On this solemn day we pause to remember those who lost their lives on 9/11. As our leaders work to prevent terrorists from again striking on our soil, they should remember the fundamental precept of counterinsurgency we’ve relearned in Afghanistan and Iraq: Undermine the enemy’s legitimacy while building our own. These wars will not be won on the battlefield. They will be won in the hearts of young men who decide not to sign up to be fighters and young women who decline to be suicide bombers. If Americans torture and it comes to light—as it inevitably will—it embitters and alienates the very people we need most.

Our current commander-in-chief understands this. The task force recommendations take us a step closer to restoring the rule of law and the standards of human dignity that made us who we are as a nation. Repudiating torture and other cruelty helps keep us from being sent on fools’ errands by bad intelligence. And in the end, that makes us all safer.

Charles C. Krulak was commandant of the Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999. Joseph P. Hoar was commander in chief of U.S. Central Command from 1991 to 1994.

Culture of Dependency | Talking Points Memo

Tea partiers complain that the DC subway system wasn’t prepared for last weekend’s rally and that some protesters were forced to rely on free market solutions (i.e., taxis) to get to the demonstration.

About What You Would Expect Update: The congressman complaining about the DC Metro voted against the stimulus package that boosted funding for the subway.

Mary Travers, Singer of Protest Anthems, Dies at 72 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

Mary Travers, whose ringing, earnest vocals with the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary made songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “If I Had a Hammer” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” enduring anthems of the 1960s protest movement, died on Wednesday at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut. She was 72 and lived in Redding, Conn.

In for a Dime, In for a Dollar | Talking Points Memo

We just talked to an eyewitness to the rapidly becoming notorious finger-biting incident at the health care rally in California last night. According to the eyewitness the anti-health care reform guy punched the reformer in the face before having the reformer bite off his finger.

And in a crowning bit of poetic justice (moral victory?) for the reformers, the anti- guy had his finger reattached under Medicare.

...if one takes pictures/video of torture it needs to be destroyed.  Then Cheney would approve because, well, the torture wouldn’t be as newsworthy.  And the inherent sadism of it all wouldn’t be so obvious.

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

From Cheney’s statement:

The activities of the CIA in carrying out the policies of the Bush Administration were directly responsible for defeating all efforts by al Qaeda to launch further mass casualty attacks against the United States. The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions.

Now compare that compassion with his words for Lynndie England just six months ago:

At Abu Ghraib, a few sadistic prison guards abused inmates in violation of American law, military regulations, and simple decency. For the harm they did, to Iraqi prisoners and to America’s cause, they deserved and received Army justice. And it takes a deeply unfair cast of mind to equate the disgraces of Abu Ghraib with the lawful, skillful, and entirely honorable work of CIA personnel trained to deal with a few malevolent men.

As Andrew wrote:

Look at the photos again. Forced nudity: approved by Cheney. Hooding: approved by Cheney. Stress positions: approved by Cheney. Use of dogs: approved by Cheney.

Birthers
Militia
Town hall shouters
etc, etc, etc.

Especially when they get their ‘news’ from FOX, Limbaugh, et al.

Exclusive: New Poll Finds Majority Of Republicans Either Believes Or Isn’t Sure About “Death Panel” Claim | The Plum Line

Wow. A forthcoming poll by the nonpartisan Research 2000 for DailyKos finds that a majority of Republicans either believes, or isn’t sure about, the claim that the Dem health care proposal will create “death panels” to determine whether the sick or injured get health care depending on their “productivity in society.”

I’ve gotten an advance look at the relevant question from the poll, which will be released tomorrow, and here’s how it asks the question:

Do you think the health care reform plan being considered by President Obama and Congress creates “death panels” which have the authority to subjectively determine whether or not a gravely ill or injured person should receive health care based on their “level of productivity in society”?

Here are the numbers on how Republicans answered that question:

Yes: 26
No: 43
Not sure: 31

So a startling majority of 57% of Republicans either believes or is uncertain about the veracity of the “death panel” claim, versus only 43% of GOPers who don’t beliveve it.

The New Joe the Plumber | TPM

The conservative activist who claims he was beaten up by union thugs in St. Louis while protesting against health care reform is accepting donations towards his medical care because he was laid off recently and ... has no health insurance.

58 percent of GOP not sure/doubt Obama born in US - Glenn Thrush - POLITICO.com

A whopping 58 percent of Republicans either think Barack Obama wasn’t born in the US (28 percent) or aren’t sure (30 percent). A mere 42 percent think he was.

That means a majority of Republicans polled either don’t know about—or don’t believe the seemingly incontrovertible evidence Obama’s camp has presented over and over and over that he was born in Hawaii in ‘61.

It also explains why Republicans, including Roy Blunt, are playing footsie with the Birther fringe.

Surprise, surprise: Birther sentiment was strongest in the South and among the 60-plus crowd - presumably because seniors can’t log on to the Internet and rely on rumor, word of mouth and right-wing talk radio.

When do we start a serious dialog about the Birther movement being a proxy for racism that is unacceptable to articulate in more direct terms?

In all 77 percent of Americans overall think the president is actually an American.

...very tired. 

Meaningless.

Trite.

Way overused.

Get rid of it.

Monbiot.com » Politically Transmitted Disease

Between 1990 and 2004, the birthrate among teenage girls fell sharply: by 46% for 15-17 year olds. The decline was unbroken throughout these years. (The same thing happened in the rest of the western world, though about 20 years earlier). But between 2005 and 2006, something odd happened: the teen birthrate increased by 3%. In 2007 it rose by another 1%. I think most people would agree that this is a tragedy. According to the UN agency Unicef, women who are born poor are twice as likely to stay that way if they have children as teenagers. They are more likely to remain unemployed, to suffer from depression and to become alcoholics or drug addicts (3). Similarly, the incidence of gonorrhea dropped for more than 20 years, then started to rise in 2004. After a long period of decline, syphilis among teenage boys began to increase in 2002; among girls in 2004.

The CDC makes no attempt to explain these findings, but the report contains four possible clues. The first is that between 1991 and 2007, the percentage of high school students who had ever had sex declined. So did the number of their sexual partners, and their level of sexual activity. But from 2005 onwards there was a levelling or reversal of all these trends(4). The second possible clue is that while the use of condoms among high school students rose steadily from 1991 to 2003, it stagnated then declined between 2003 and 2007(5). Towards the end of the Bush years, schoolchildren began abandoning condoms at the same time as their sexual activity rose.

The third clue is provided by the shocking data from the Hispanic community. Adolescent Hispanic girls have less sex than their non-Hispanic classmates; but they have three times as many children as non-Hispanic whites(6). Why? Because they are less likely to use contraceptives, probably because of the doctrines of the Catholic church.

But perhaps the most interesting clue is this one. The CDC has published a map of trends in the teenage birth rate. I ran it against a political map of the Union and found this: nine of the ten states with the highest increase in teenage births voted Republican in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections(7). (Eight of them voted for McCain in 2008.(8)) Among them are the Christian conservative heartlands of Kentucky, Alabama, Mississipi, Louisiana and Oklahoma. These are the places in which Bush’s abstinence campaigns were most enthusiastically promoted.

Texting Raises Crash Risk 23 Times, Study Finds - Series - NYTimes.com

The first study of drivers texting inside their vehicles shows that the risk sharply exceeds previous estimates based on laboratory research — and far surpasses the dangers of other driving distractions.

The new study, which entailed outfitting the cabs of long-haul trucks with video cameras over 18 months, found that when the drivers texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting.

Phone manufacturers should come out with a ‘driving mode’ feature that kills the bleep/bing/whatever noise is played when there’s an incoming text message.  Less temptation.

And do that now, before it gets mandated.

On second thought, let’s get the legislation underway ASAP.

Oh, yeah, fat chance of that getting by the lobbyists, eh?

Release the Hounds! | TPM

Palin promises “less politically correct” tweets once she formally bails on governorship.

Is Sen. Jeff Sessions GAY?  I’m watching CSPAN Robert’s hearings now. - Democratic Underground

Is Sen. Jeff Sessions GAY? I’m watching CSPAN Robert’s hearings now.
Gaydar is ON. (No offense to our gay, bi- and trans-gendered DUers.

It’s not like he would be the first closeted GOP politician, after all.

Ensign’s Weirdest Moment | TPM

Ensign is a member of something called the C Street group, which is part of a highly secretive religious outfit called ‘The Family’. It’s a combo religious fellowship and Capitol Hill group home where a number of Republican members of Congress live. And it’s run by a guy named Doug Coe. (Because the comedy never stops, remember that Gov. Sanford too is a member of the C Street group/Family.) In one of the more surreal episodes in this whole drama, while folks from ‘The Family’, including Sen. Coburn (R-OK), were trying to get Ensign to end his relationship with the girlfriend and write her and her husband a big check.

So Ensign agrees to do this. But the members of his fellowship had so little trust he could follow through that they had him write out a letter to the mistress that he was ending the relationship and then drove him to the local Fedex office to make sure he actually dropped the letter in the box. So he does that. But then after he shakes them loos he calls the mistress to tell her his friends made him write the letter and to ignore it.

Ahmadinejad Says World Powers Must Interact With Him (Update1)  - Bloomberg.com

July 9 (Bloomberg)—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that although the world’s powers are angry over his re- election, they must “interact” with his administration. 

“The enemies of the Iranian people are very angry because, despite their efforts and propaganda, a government will be in power with the support of 40 million votes,” he said in a meeting with officials in Tehran today, according to the state- run Iranian Students News Agency. “We will not give them any advantage, and they must interact with this government.”

He just can’t get no respect.

...when the cameras aren’t on her?

Saudi offers $10m for shoes thrown by journo | Media and Advertising

A Saudi man has offered $10m to buy the shoes that Iraqi journalist Muntadar Al Zaidi hurled at US President George W. Bush, according to a report carried by Al Arabiya net. Sixty-year-old Hassan Mohammad Makhafa, from Aseer, south west of Saudi Arabia, said he is ready to sell all his properties to buy Al Zaidi’s shoes, which he described as a ‘medal of freedom’ to put them on offer at a public auction.

Rubin Defends His Role at Citi - WSJ.com

“Nobody was prepared for this,” Mr. Rubin said in an interview. He cited former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan as another example of someone whose reputation has been unfairly damaged by the crisis.

Both are upset with the mainstream media…

Counterterrorism Blog: Frustrated Claims of Pro-Obama Media Bias… This Time From Al-Qaida

Global reactions to Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri’s controversial condemnation of U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama as a “House Slave” (or, alternatively, “House Negro”) have begun to pour in—including via the top jihad web forums used by Al-Qaida to disseminate its propaganda. Though hardcore Al-Qaida supporters have predictably dismissed any criticism of Dr. al-Zawahiri and are fiercely backing his choice of words, there is a rather ironic (if not entirely unfamiliar) twist to this issue. After observing international press reporting on the incident, these same supporters are now bitterly attacking the media for its “unfair” pro-Obama bias and for deliberately “confusing” the meaning of al-Zawahiri’s message.

...but sometimes this country surprises the hell outta me.