Ted Cruz, Agenda 21 conspiracy theorist, leading in Texas polls

Remember Ted Cruz?

Cruz is one of the maniacs promising people can keep their cars, McMansions, and commutes this year.

That was two months ago, when Cruz forced Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst into a run-off. At the time, Cruz was 10 points behind Dewhurst and not likely to win the run-off. Now, the situation is reversed, as Slate reports.

Public Policy Polling returns from Texas with a 52-42 lead for former state Soliciter General Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate runoff. Are you dusting off your "how the Tea Party changed everything" columns? Do it now.

Over at ABC News, one of the reporters is doing just that, writing Ted Cruz appears likely to win Texas Senate runoff, thanks to tea party support.

Former state solicitor general Ted Cruz appears favored to win the Republican Senate runoff in Texas on Tuesday, which would hand the tea party a significant underdog victory in a massive state.

Tea party support stretching from high-profile figures like Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum and Jim DeMint down to grassroot volunteers helped catapult Cruz to the top slot in Tuesday's primary race. And he held his lead, despite beginning the election with less name recognition and less money than his wealthy and well-connected opponent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

Matt Mackowiak, a Republican consultant who divides his time between Washington, D.C. and Austin, T.X. is a Cruz supporter and gives "enormous" credit to the tea party for Cruz's come-from-behind success.

"Look, this is a low turnout primary runoff late in the summer-- it's hot, we've never had a primary this late-- it's the most committed folks that are voting," Mackowiak told Yahoo News, "and in many ways it's the tea party activists who are not only voting but who are really acting as multipliers."

At this rate, it looks like the prediction I concluded my previous post about him may be true until November.

Looks like I'm not done with blogging about politicians exploiting Agenda 21 paranoia, even after I said "Goodbye, Gingrich!"

I'll check back after the votes are tallied tonight.

Last week's weather news from Nebris

Normally, I'd be posting a summary of last week's climate news from Overnight News Digest: Daily Kos. Because of the emphasis I put on the Olympics, I just didn't collect enough on my own.  However, my friend Nebris posted a summary of his own at his LiveJournal and I'm taking the liberty (with advance notice to Nebs) of reblogging it.  Thanks, Nebs!

Follow over the jump for the summary.

Science Crime Scenes 4: Plagiarism, mysteries, and the usual looting and vandalism

It's time for another installment of stories about crimes against science and culture that I originally reported in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Opening of London Olympics edition) on Daily Kos. All of them have official investigations, whether to restore ill-gotten goods, prevent their loss, or simply to find out the truth. Some have the involvement of police, and others should. As with the three previous editions, most of these stories are about archeology, largely because of the amount of looting and vandalism rampant among cultural artifacts. The lead story, however is about academic misconduct at the highest levels of government, and I mean that quite literally.

Nature (UK): Conflicting verdicts on Romanian prime minister's plagiarism
Victor Ponta cleared of misconduct by government ethics board, but charges reaffirmed by university.
Quirin Schiermeier
20 July 2012

Two investigations into the case of alleged plagiarism by Romania’s prime minister, Victor Ponta, have reached opposite conclusions, ramping up the tension in a fierce struggle over political power in Bucharest.

Ponta stands accused of having copied large sections of his 2003 PhD thesis on the International Criminal Court.

On Thursday, Romania’s 11-strong National Ethics Council (NEC) rejected the plagiarism charges against Ponta, first reported by Nature last month (see 'Romanian prime minister accused of plagiarism'). One day later, a 13-member ethics commission set up by the University of Bucharest — which awarded Ponta his PhD — reaffirmed the charges.

As someone who earned a Ph.D., these are serious charges that could result in his degree being revoked. However, the article indicates that isn't likely to happen. Just the same, his degree will be permanently tainted. Good thing for Dr.--for now--Ponta that probably won't prevent him from having a career of some sort, even an academic one, when he retires from politics.

More over the jump.

Narb asked for more posts about Jell-O

Speaking of my retrospective of the first year of this blog, my buddy Narb left this comment in the previous installment.

Narb congratulates Le Grande Motie on a fine first year. However, he wishes you'd write more about Jello, the history of Jello, uses for Jello around the house, and of course, Jello wrestling.

Hopefully, these will be reoccuring topics in Year Two.

Narb, be careful what you wish for. You might get it. The following comes courtesy of my friend Aratzio Bizzaro, who just posted it on my Facebook wall.

Lime Jello Surprise

2 packages lime Jello (Sugar Free for those on low carb diets)
2 Cups Clear Chicken Broth
2 Cups boiling water.
1 Small Trout

Make 1/2 Jello using 1 Cup Water & 1 Cup Broth. Put in Bread Pan. Chill until thickened. Place Trout in Jello (upside down) In Jello. Add second 1/2 of Jello made like first. Allow to harden.

Using a hot water bath loosen the Jello and place jello (Trout Side Up) on plate. Garnish with Parsley.

Take to work for fellow employees that insisted you bring dessert for PotLuck luncheon.

Original here, taken from here.

Two space anniversaries plus more space and astronomy news

Last week's top space and astronomy stories in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Two space anniversaries edition) on Daily Kos were also the top stories of the week. Here they are, minus last week's top story. I decided not to recycle.

Discovery News: Did We Meet Martians 36 Years Ago?
Analysis by Ray Villard
Fri Jul 20, 2012 11:47 AM ET

As we count down to the much-anticipated landing of NASA's six-wheeled Mars Science Lab (MSL) on Aug. 5/6th, it's noteworthy that 36 years ago today mankind made the first successful touchdown on the Red Planet.

The nuclear-powered Viking 1 lander settled down in a burst of retrorocket fire on a smooth circular plain close to the great volcanic Tharsis Bulge on July 20, 1976. Four billion years ago this region may have been a water-filled bay on Mars.
...
Viking 1 was shutdown in 1982, but its legacy is as alive as ever today. Viking 1, and its sister robot, Viking 2, were the only two spacecraft ever dispatched to Mars with miniature onboard biological laboratories that performed the first in-situ experiments to find extraterrestrial life.

Though sending such a payload to what was then a largely unknown planet seemed premature, it does reflect NASA's aggressive spirit of exploration from the glory days of the 1960s and early 70s.

Discovery News: Nixon's Contingency Plan for a Failed Apollo 11
Analysis by Amy Shira Teitel
Sat Jul 21, 2012 05:02 AM ET

On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin launched from the lunar surface and rejoined Michael Collins in orbit before the three men began their trip home.

Ascending from the lunar surface was one of the most important maneuvers on the mission; any problems could leave Aldrin and Armstrong stranded on the moon with no way home. It was a gruesome scenario, but not impossible. In the unlikely event this lunar disaster did happen, NASA had a plan in place.

More stories after the jump.

The first year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News: Part 6 of several

In the previous installment of this series, I concluded my discussion of the first post in this blog with the following.

I know I promised to cover at least two posts from now on in the previous entry in this series, but I couldn't figure out how to link a second entry to this one. Besides, as the first post, it deserves to be commemorated by itself. Also, this part of the series is short. I'll make up for it by having a later post look at three at one time.

The mere idea of looking at three posts at once ended up being just a bit too daunting, so I didn't do it. As for why I considered doing it, check out this passage from Part 1:

[T]his entry was the most successful of several where promising Kunstler's readers a link to an article in the New York Times got their attention--567 page views worth, the most of any single referring page. There are at three others on this list.

Yes, the three entries I was planning on covering at one time were the same ones where I used a post organized around a N.Y. Times story to lure readers in. It's not a bad theme, but as you can see, it was enough to deter me from continue the series without an external prompt.

So, which of my posts am I featuring today? The one that was in 10th place with 215 page views and no comments--that is, until the revenge of the back catalog hit on July 4th, propelling Happy 4th of July from James Howard Kunstler's Tea Party! from about ten page views to more than 800 in the space of a month, with 700+ of those views the week of July 4th and ~500 of them on July 4th alone, making it the most viewed ever on the site with 888 views and knocking The New York Times explains how to completely avoid the real problems of suburbia, posted on May 8, 2011, completely out of the top 10.

So, how did I use a N.Y. Times story to entice readers from Kunstler's blog? Like so.

By the way, the New York Times ran a review of a bunch of Manhattan designers trying to make over Levittown into a "future surubia." From the perspective of both the reviewer and myself, they generally failed. As I wrote in The New York Times explains how to completely avoid the real problems of suburbia:

Ms. Arieff shows that she has a good eye for the real problems of suburbia. In fact, her list of problems, including her observation that the U.S. has become wedded to sururbia as the American Dream, makes her seem as if she's watched "The End of Suburbia," in which exactly the issues she mentions plus suburbia as the American Dream, are major topics, along with peak oil. Too bad the designers seem not to have watched the movie.

There is a link to the New York Times article at the blog entry.

It worked. Too bad most of the ideas didn't, at least in terms of anything that makes sense as a practical future. On the other hand, the projects the designers came up with became an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream, which runs until August 13th. I hope they work better as art than as real solutions.

Examiner.com on Between The Lines' endorsements

Carol Kuhnke at the Milan Fair Parade. She was endorsed by Between The Lines for District Court Judge.

Stabenow, Irwin, Kuhnke endorsed by Between The Lines

Between The Lines, Michigan's LGBT newspaper, just joined the Detroit Free Press among local newspapers in endorsing candidates for the August 7th primary election. In the its July 26th edition, the paper published endorsements and recommendations for candidates ranging from U.S. Senate to District Judge. Three of those candidates will be on the ballot in Washtenaw County and two in districts bordering Washtenaw County.

Between The Lines endorsed incumbent Debbie Stabenow for U.S. Senate, incumbent Jeff Irwin for the 53rd Michigan House District, and candidate Carol Kuhnke for the 22nd District Court. The LGBT paper also endorsed Syed Taj in the 11th Congressional District and Dian Slavens in the 21st Michigan House District, who are running in the portions of Wayne and Oakland counties adjoining Washtenaw County.

The candidates earned the endorsement of Between The Lines based upon their records and public statements in support of equality for LGBT people.

In addition to the endorsements I listed above, Between The Lines endorsed candidates from all over Michigan, although they mostly concentrated on those running in metro Detroit, including Karen McDonald, one of whose lawn signs is standing in my front yard as I type this. They also endorsed a yes vote on the millage to support the Detroit Institute of Arts. Finally, the paper made a pointed non-endorsement, as they refused to endorse any of the Republicans running to oppose Stabenow. ZING!

Science crime scenes 3: Restitution and crime prevention

Time for another installment of stories about crimes against science and culture. All of them have official investigations, whether to restore ill-gotten goods or to prevent their loss. Some even have the involvement of police. As with the two previous editions, these stories are about archeology, largely because of the amount of looting and vandalism rampant among cultural artifacts.

Without any further ado, here are the stories from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Two space anniversaries edition) on Daily Kos that qualified as science crime scenes. Follow over the jump.

Videos: Urban agriculture in Detroit and sustainable parasite control

I added three videos to the Powerpoint that accompanies my lecture on agriculture on the food supply and showed them to my students yesterday. Two of them illustrated the promise and perils of urban agriculture in Detroit. For the promise, here is Michigan State University's video about the MetroFoodPlus Innovation Cluster that it will be building in Detroit.

Rick Foster, professor of Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies, discusses the MetroFoodPlus Innovation Cluster project.

Note that this will be an integrated approach that considers no only food, but energy and water as well. Also, did you catch the "People, Planet, Profit" diagram explaining the goals of the project and how the MetroFoodPlus Innovation Cluster lies at the intersection of all three Ps? This is explicitly a sustainability project.

MSU's involvement in Detroit extends beyond what it calls metropolitan agriculture. Another video, MSU and Detroit: Side by side, which I didn't show to my students, describes the scope of the cooperation between MSU and Detroit. It's more promotional than informative, so I'm not embedding it, but it is very well done.

The video that displayed the perils of urban agriculture in metro Detroit was the one that I embedded in Oak Park Woman plants vegetable garden; city objects, illustrating the problems Julie Bass had with the Oak Park over her vegetable garden. That situation provoked a really lively discussion, as most of the students had heard about it and a few already knew Julie personally (her former home is within five minutes drive of where I teach). One of the things that came out was how much more accepted vegetable gardens and even raising chickens has become, just during the past year.* Julie made a difference.

I won't embed the video here, as the entry where I first featured it has slipped from second to fourth most viewed this month and I want it to get some readership love.

For the third video, which is about sustainability in unexpected places, but isn't about Detroit, follow over the fold.

Climate and heat wave news from Texas A&M

In last week's installment, I noted the following.

In Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Bastille Day edition) on Daily Kos, I included some more stories from Discovery News which were about both the heat wave and climate change, but I also found out that some of the colleges on the campaign trail, in particular University of North Carolina, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech, were also following the current climate very closely. It's not just the commercial sources that pay attention to what people want to know.

The trend continued with the articles I included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Two space anniversaries edition) on Daily Kos. Texas A&M put out four press releases on the subject all by itself. Check them out over the jump.