Tis the Season

I fell asleep in the middle of everything tonight... so as to not totally remove myself from duty, I will steal material for tonight's blog from other sources. (A time honored personal website/blog tradition, that for the most part I've tried to avoid)

If you don't want to read the stuff I've lifted I'll provide my usual commentary on news and odd tidbits at the end of this entry.

First one of my favorite holiday oriented Saturday Night Live sketches, I'm sure many of you love this one as much as I do.

A Holiday Wish
written by Steve Martin, performed on Saturday Night Live (1991)

Steve Martin: If I had one wish that I could wish this holiday season, it would be that all the children to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace. If I had two wishes I could make this holiday season, the first would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace. And the second would be for 30 million dollars a month to be given to me, tax-free in a Swiss bank account. You know, if I had three wishes I could make this holiday season, the first, of course, would be for all the children of the world to get together and sing, the second would be for the 30 million dollars every month to me, and the third would be for encompassing power over every living being in the entire universe. And if I had four wishes that I could make this holiday season, the first would be the crap about the kids definitely, the second would be for the 30 million, the third would be for all the power, and the fourth would be to set aside one month each year to have an extended 31-day orgasm, to be brought out slowly by Rosanna Arquette and that model Paulina-somebody, I can't think of her name. Of course my lovely wife can come too and she's behind me one hundred percent here, I guarantee it. Wait a minute, maybe the sex thing should be the first wish, so if I made that the first wish, because it could all go boom tomorrow, then what do you got, y'know? No, no, the kids, the kids singing would be great, that would be nice. But wait a minute, who am I kidding? They're not going to be able to get all those kids together. I mean, the logistics of the thing is impossible, more trouble than it's worth! So -- we reorganize! Here we go. First, the sex thing. We go with that. Second, the money. No, we got with the power second, then the money. And then the kids. Oh wait, oh jeez, I forgot about revenge against my enemies! Okay, I need revenge against all my enemies, they should die like pigs in hell! That would be my fourth wish. And, of course, my fifth wish would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace. Thank you everybody and Merry Christmas.

OK, next a coworker sent me the following forward today... I'm fairly certain I've seen it before, however as it speaks to both my interests in theology and science I must post it for all to enjoy:

The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Toronto chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when its compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, lets look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

With Birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you, and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct... leaving only Heaven thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."

This student received the only "A".

And below, In the news:

I saw this one yesterday actually. (wiping tears) I can't help but feel a little surge of pride for my home state over this one.

Live lingerie models have male shoppers 'Spellbound'

Here is some pretty scary extremism. Not to mention that it is highly illogical. Studies have shown that homosexuals trend towards being "hypermasculine" or having higher than average levels of testosterone. The prescribed treatment of United Arab Emirates, likely won't do too much accept accelerate body hair growth and balding, however it could actually contribute to increased sexual urges.

UAE: Hormone treatment for gay men

Additionally of interest, a letter to the "metro" Boston's free newspaper that I pick up on the subway, accused Bush's grandfather Prescott Bush of being a Nazi sympathizer and funder. Surprisingly of all of the things I've heard regarding the Bushes, this particular item has evaded me. It was a bit of an extremist assessment of W, calling him a fascist and evil, which, although I dislike his policies, I'm not quite sure either is an appropriate description. Anyway, I decided to "Google" Prescott to see what I could find. The following link is to a chapter of an unauthorized biography on George Bush.

http://www.tarpley.net/bush2.htm

If you link from the chapter (related to topic mentioned above) to the table of contents, it is rather evident from the title of each chapter, the opinion and the agenda that Tarpley and Chaitkin had in constructing this book. At the same time this chapter seems to mass evidence that much of the Walker/Bush fortune was acquired by business with a known enemy. Kind of hypocritical considering George H.W. Bush fought in WWII, and perhaps the reason more has not been made of these associations. I suppose they lived by that mantra "Its just business". My disagreement with such an ideal is perhaps one of many reasons I'll never be a billionaire :D. (Hmmmmm You're either with us or against us? The Patriot Act? Looks like W would have had Poppy (Prescott's nick name) sent to Guantanamo Bay if he was running the country back then.)

And in closing tonight here is an insiders take on the decision making process and ability within the Bush administration regarding the Iraq war. It sheds more light on Powell's exit from not only the administration, but essentially the public eye as well. I think it suggests some extreme conflict within the mind of one the United State's highest respected political figures of the past 20 years.

Ex-Powell aide: Bush 'too aloof'

Cranial Crud

Before I ease into a peaceful slumber I must write down what ever random thoughts expletives, and what not, are currently gracing my cranium.

A couple interesting finds today.

First off, of all the horrible things that could happen to people:

Girl with peanut allergy dies after kiss

Good luck to the poor surviving kid to see if he can manage to be a functioning human being the rest of his life. (I can't touch you... you'll die!!)

The Christian Science Monitor had an interesting article about the Iraq progress, or lack thereof from a soldier's viewpoint. Yes I realize the church of Christian Science has some wacky ideas about modern medicine, but their news commentary isn't half bad. (I guess the popularity of this publication vs. the popularity and membership count of this religious institution speaks for itself) I must say that I do enjoy strolling around the Christian Science campus in Boston. The reflecting pool coupled with both modern and Romanesque architecture definitely makes it one of my favorite spots in Boston.

Anyway the article:

The Iraq story: how troops see it

Work is kind of pissing me off this week. I have experiments to run, data to assemble, notebooks to put together, correspondences to send out, and if that weren't enough we are moving our whole lab to a different building, while trying to minimize any interference to our work. Oh yeah, did I mention IT shut down our PCs the second half of the day? Which made it real convenient for me to put together the data on the excel spreadsheets and what not. Oh yeah and I have to put together my "November Summary" to forward to, my boss, and half of the data isn't stored electronically yet. Two of our HPLC's aren't networked, and can't be networked for security reasons because they only run Windows 2000. In addition they have no CD drives, so I end up getting creative on the data transfer. Fun with floppies, woo hoo! Each time I try to finish up an experiment I find that someone has packed up something I needed. We have two days till the physical move and everyone packed everything up already! So much for trying to maximize the experimentation time. Grrrrr....

Anyway.

Well Good night everyone. Tomorrow is another day, as they say. Oh-oh, I'm starting to rhyme unintentionally, it is definitely time for some shut eye.

Thanksgiving and politics

Well, I hope everyone had a nice holiday.
I watched Harry Potter's Goblet of Fire Wednesday night with dad. Ate quite my share Thursday. Friday I caught up with some old neighbors and friends. Saturday I bought an artificial tree that Kate and I plan on decorating with our infinite creativity. I rented some movies with my parents (all of which I had sadly seen). Sunday I ate yet more turkey and managed to mosey on back to Boston.

Jens brought this issue to my attention after a long weekend of avoiding politics. (I didn't want to fight with my parents. I'm proud to say, for the most part I achieved that goal).

He initially sent me a link to a UK editor's take on the issue. There wasn't anything surprising in this information. I really kind of just assumed it was a given. I must say, that I'm glad that the trumpeter of information is an Iraqi rather than U.S. media interests. However it is also important to keep in mind that Allawi lost the election for prime minister. Much like any politician they are likely going to paint a less than rosy picture of what the opposing party does. I will say it is sort of amusing that the "one time" appointed PM is now poised to cause the Bush administration additional headaches.

Jens's column:
Abuse worse than under Saddam, says Iraqi leader

Initially upon skimming this, I assumed that it was more of an "editorial" than hard news. I do think that the author tends to use language that is a bit more flamboyant than what you would find from the BBC or associated press. All the same, this article does have some additional value over the "watered down" version picked up by the American "Associated Press".

I'm particurally fond of:

In a chilling warning to the West over the danger of leaving behind a disintegrating Iraq, Allawi added: 'Iraq is the centerpiece of this region. If things go wrong, neither Europe nor the US will be safe.'

This needs to be driven home.

W is failing to do this.

Partly because he is nearly incapable of speaking without intensive coaching by Karl Rove (who happens to be preoccupied).
And additionally most Americans view Bush as bearing responsibility for the muddled confusion that Iraq has become. It is tough to rise above the scorn of this. If I were making decisions in the Bush administration I would be looking for someone who could communicate this to the U.S.

Powell might be good if that bridge hasn't been burned. Perhaps McCain. Hell... enlist good old Bubbah Clinton. He always loves publicity, and he could always throw in comments about how great Hillary is.
You can't have Rumsfeld or Rice, and definitely not Cheney do this job. No-one cares about the press secretary either.

Anyway. Here is the brief CNN AP article.

Ex-PM: Abuse as bad as Saddam era

It is almost comical by comparison of its total lack of substance, although I will say, unlike Peter Beaumont's report, this lacks assumptions. Peter tends to suggest what this information will mean for the future, which is kind of a misstep. I'd expect this type of journalism from someone like Katie Couric who makes her thoughts on news quite clear. This is why she is Today show material rather than Prime Time with Brian Williams.

These are some of Peter Beaumont's commentary that is interspersed in the Observer article. I find the structure not unlike a thesis paper, quote/fact, then comment to support the "thesis".

Allawi's bleak assessment is likely to undermine any attempt to suggest that conditions in Iraq are markedly improving
His uncompromising comments came on the eve of Saddam's latest court appearance on charges of crimes against humanity. They seem certain to fuel the growing sense of crisis over Iraq, both in the country itself and in the US, where political support for the occupation continues to plummet.
The intervention by one of Iraq's most prominent political figures promises to turn human rights abuses into a key election issue.
In a very clever move Beaumont ends his article with a quote:

'The assertions by Mr Allawi simply underline the catastrophic failure to have a proper strategy in place for the post-war period in Iraq.'Sir Menzies Campbell, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman