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Another refreshing video from Qualia Soup. Science, it works b*tches. :)
The Provincial Progressive Conservative party in Alberta should really jettison the ‘progressive’ part of their name. They have not done anything particularly progressive since the latest oil company approved election campaign nominated Ed Stelmach as First Courtier to Big Business Premier of Alberta. We really do get what we deserve when we continually vote the PC’s into office, namely a province run for the benefit of business rather than the benefit of the people. It makes sense then to turf knowledgeable specialists such as Raj Sherman when he dares to make a evidence based argument instead of what the party line dictates.
“The Alberta MLA who criticized his own government over its handling of backlogs in the province’s emergency rooms has been suspended from the Tory caucus. Raj Sherman, the Progressive Conservative MLA for Edmonton-Meadowlark and an emergency room physician, made headlines over the past week for his sharp criticism of Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach and how the province has managed long lines in the province’s ERs.”
Won’t the optics look back for the Government when they boot out a doctor for speaking up about an area of expertise? Sherman says:
No more evidence based decisions for you!
“For me, it’s really a matter of principle. I guess the principles of being a doctor and advocating for patients collided with the principles of politics,” Sherman said.
“I don’t see a reason why they would have needed to collide. I think politicians and doctors, voters and patients are one and the same. But for me it’s a bit of a sad day.”
Sherman said he will now sit as an Independent.”
It is a bit of sad day for all Albertans because stuff like this gets buried so quickly in the province and then come voting time, we elect, you guessed it, more PC’s into office. So, should we really be surprised anymore when such decisions are undertaken? Not in Alberta, where a tie clip that ran for the PC’s would get elected.
Depending on where you look on in the bible it is easy to a deity that pretty much acts like a malevolent spoiled douche of a child. Cue ProfMTH.
Sometimes it is better not to know, but the headline just draws one in.
“US man accused of shooting TV in rage over Bristol Palin’s ‘Dancing with the Stars’ routine”
How can one not continue reading?
MADISON, Wis. – A man apparently enraged by Bristol Palin’s “Dancing with the Stars” routine blasted his television with a shotgun, leading to an all-night standoff with police commandos, investigators said.
When I see commercial TV this is also my internal reaction, but I do not think I could act it out. Others, well, they go the extra mile.
“Steven Cowan, 67, was arrested Tuesday morning after officers coaxed him out of his house in Vermont, a rural farming community near Madison. Cowan, who is accused of threatening his wife with the gun after destroying the television, appeared in a Madison courtroom Wednesday on a charge of second-degree reckless endangerment. His bail was set at $1,500.
Cowan’s attorney at the hearing, Jonas Bednarek, declined to comment.
Cowan’s wife, Janice Cowan, told investigators that her husband suffers from bipolar disorder and had threatened her life in the past.
According to court documents, Janice Cowan said her husband came home Monday from the bar and had a beer with dinner before they settled down to watch “Dancing with the Stars.”
When Palin, the 20-year-old daughter of tea party favourite and former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, began her routine, Cowan jumped up and began swearing, saying something like “The (expletive) politics.” His wife said he was upset that a political figure’s daughter was dancing on TV even though he felt she didn’t have talent.
Janice Cowan told investigators her husband left the living room and reappeared 20 minutes later with his shotgun, “raging” with his face bright red, and blasted the TV. She said he then pointed the gun at her and told her to go fetch his pistols, and threatened to kill himself if she brought anyone back”
Obviously, the brain-chemistry has something to do with entire situation, but is it not sad to note on what has incensed this individual? A mere entertainment show. I can remember times in my early TV watching days when people would become incensed about issues more solidly based in reality – healthcare, armed conflicts, politics etc. Would this story be filed under the “oddities” section of the CBC website if this individual was incensed by the lack of universal public health care? It seems that the media we have is divorcing us from the issues that really matter in society, atomizing us and fostering consumption and competition on the most basest of levels. Considering the amazing potential that TV media has to foster debate and community, it is depressing to see how low it has sunk with regards to serving the needs of citizens in society.
Self contradictory and internally inconsistent? No problem. :) Oh wait… (courtesy of ProfMTH)
Irish Tiger turned kitty under the firm hand of neo-liberalism
Ireland once heralded as an ‘economic tiger’, like the Asian tiger economies of Korea and Japan, but now has become insolvent. The key difference is that Korea and Japan did not bend to international pressure and open their economies to ‘free trade’ and other disastrous neo-liberal prescriptions, they protected their domestic economies with tariffs and limited the mobility of capitol so it benefited domestic industry first and investors second. Ireland took the other path throwing off domestic protections and embracing the investor market and ‘free trade’ (see Chile and Haiti) and their economy, once plundered, has been tossed aside to die at the wayside. Well, not die per say, but now requiring a huge bailout to save what is left of the Irish economy for those who depend on it the most, the people of Ireland.
“Ireland is running a deficit of €19 billion ($26.4 billion Cdn), which Lenihan said could not be financed at current market rates. He said the country needs help to pay its bills and provide a contingency fund to support banks that are hemorrhaging cash.”
This is yet another shining example of the socialism for the rich in action, as we see the EU and IMF rushing in with public dollars to prop up yet anther doomed neo-liberal experiment gone horribly wrong (or right depending on how you look at it). Austerity and public service roll backs are about to be unleashed on the people of Ireland, the investors, having made their money are long gone, already looking for the next country to rape.
Update with a hat-tip to Sabina Becker from News for the Restless for the link to the Youtube video.
We are not alone in our galaxy. We have a visitor. By the name of HIP 13044 b? Leave it to science to find a really poetic name.
“Astronomers say they’ve found the first known planet to orbit a star that began its life outside our own Milky Way galaxy. In the last 15 years, almost 500 planets have been detected orbiting stars in our galaxy. But until now, no planet has been discovered that came from another galaxy.The discovery of a giant planet around the star HIP 13044 changes all that, a team of astronomers claims.”
“Because of the great distances involved, there are no confirmed detections of planets in other galaxies,” he said in a statement. “But this cosmic merger has brought an extragalactic planet within our reach.”
The planet — named HIP 13044 b — lies about 2,000 light years from Earth in the southern constellation of Fornax. Its mass is at least 1.25 times that of Jupiter’s and takes only 16.2 days to complete an orbit.
It was discovered by looking for the tiny wobbles produced when an orbiting object creates a pull on a star’s gravity. Astronomers used a high-resolution spectrograph attached to the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.
Way to go astronomers. I’m looking forward to more news on our first exoplanet discovery.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
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