New Tonga Volcano

New island emerges in Tonga

Nuku'alofa, Tonga:

A NEW island has emerged out of the sea between Tonga's volcanic islands of Kao in the Ha'apai Group and Late in the Vava'u Group, according to an eyewitness report.

The island is thought to have emerged after a volcanic eruption in early September that has also spewed large amounts of floating pumice into Tongan waters that has been sweeping across Fiji about 350 km to the west south west of where the new island has formed.

Siaosi Fenukitau, a captain of one of the fishing boats of the Maritime Projects Co. (Tonga) Ltd., confirmed on Saturday, November 4, that about six weeks ago they sighted a new volcanic island near Home Reef, to the South West of Vava'u. "It was bigger than Fotuha'a," he said comparing it to the small raised limestone island in Ha'apai with a population of about 134 people.

Tonga volcanic eruption seen by yacht crew (blog) (More Photos)

Giant Snails in Barbados

Allaby Small, 66, shows a dead African snail at his home in the rural parish of St. George, central Barbados, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006. A breed of giant, ravenous snails that first appeared in Barbados six years ago is thriving on the tropical island, destroying crops and prompting calls for the government to eliminate the slimy pests. Small, who has started lighting bonfires a few nights a week to kill the snails encroaching on his house, said he worries they will find a way under his roof and infest his home. AP Photo/CHRIS BRANDIS

Barbados fights giant snail invasion

A nocturnal survey last weekend found hundreds of thousands of African snails - which are often about the size of a human hand - swarming the central parish of St. George, the country's agricultural heartland, where farmers complained of damage to sugar cane, bananas, papayas and other crops.

"We saw snails riding on each other's backs and moving in clusters," said David Walrond, chairman of the local emergency response office that organized 60 volunteers for the expedition. "You're just crunching the shells as you're walking through."

...The snails are known to consume as many as 500 different plants and can transmit meningitis and other diseases through their mucous.

"At present the snail is regarded as an agricultural pest, but in other parts of the world it is also a very important public health pest," said Ian Gibbs, a government entomologist.

Walrond said his group aims to help the country avert an ecological disaster. Beyond threatening the food supply, he said the snails can lead to an increase in the populations of rats, which prey on the fast-multiplying creatures, and mosquitoes, which breed in water that collects in shells of dead snails.

The turban-shaped snails can grow as long as 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 centimeters) and about 3 to 4 inches (8 to 10 centimeters) wide, but most aren't quite that big.

In a Maybe World

I saw/heard Lisa Germano in concert last month. In a Maybe World is her latest album.

Lisa Germano seems to speak to the essence of things. In a Maybe World about sums it up.

Her song Too Much Space.

You can see her puppet video and other ones here.

Interview with Lisa Germano.

Phytoplankton and Clouds (& Global Warming)

If you combine this with the story about people vacuuming up Krill as well as the report explaining less Krill in the the Northern Pacific due to climate conditions - it seems that what you end up with is some kind of loop. Like less krill = fewer clouds = warmer temperatures = less krill, etc. (Also less ocean animals, sea gulls, etc.)

Researchers Link Ocean Organisms With Increased Cloud Cover And Potential Climate Change

Atmospheric scientists have reported a new and potentially important mechanism by which chemical emissions from ocean phytoplankton may influence the formation of clouds that reflect sunlight away from our planet.

...Based on satellite data, the researchers hypothesized that airborne particles produced by oxidation of the chemical isoprene -- which is emitted by the phytoplankton -- may have contributed to a doubling of cloud droplet concentrations seen over a large area of ocean off the eastern coast of South America.

Using complex numerical models, they estimated that the resulting increase in cloudiness reduced the absorption of sunlight by an amount comparable to what has been measured in highly polluted areas of the globe....Many environmental scientists believe that increased cloud cover may be partially countering the effects of global warming by reducing the amount of energy the planet absorbs from the sun....

The researchers stumbled upon the phytoplankton-cloud connection quite accidentally. "While looking at the satellite pictures, I noticed that cloud properties over large phytoplankton blooms were significantly different from those that occurred away from the blooms," recalled Meskhidze, now an assistant professor in NC State's College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

The Southern Ocean normally has relatively few particles around which cloud droplets can form. The isoprene mechanism could therefore have a significant effect on the development of clouds there -- and may account for most of variation in the area's cloud cover.

"If a lot of particles form because of isoprene oxidation, you suddenly have a lot more droplets in clouds, which tends to make them brighter," Nenes explained. "In addition to becoming brighter, the clouds can also have less frequent precipitation, so you might have a build-up of clouds. Overall, this makes the atmosphere cloudier and reflects more sunlight back into space."
In their paper, the researchers estimated that the isoprene emissions reduced energy absorption in the area by about 15 watts per square meter. "This is a huge signal," said Nenes. "You would normally expect to see a change of a couple of watts."

The Southern Ocean is ideal for study because it is largely untouched by pollution and has relatively steady temperature and meteorological conditions during the seasons in which phytoplankton blooms appear. "This seems to be one of those rare regions in the globe where the biology really takes over," Nenes explained. "That allows us to see strongly the impact of biology on the clouds." (snip)

"It shows that there is still a lot we need to explore to better understand the delicate balance in nature," said Meskhidze. "It will require the cooperative efforts of researchers from many different fields to identify the chemical components in these aerosols, to estimate the amounts of this and other potentially important gases emitted from the ocean, and to better characterize the effort of organics on cloud droplet formation."

"The Real Scoop on Biofuels"

Posted at Common Dreams:

You can hardly open up a major newspaper or national magazine these days without encountering the latest hype about biofuels, and how they’re going to save oil, reduce pollution and prevent climate change. Bill Gates, Sun Microsystems’ Vinod Khosla, and other major venture capitalists are investing millions in new biofuel production, whether in the form of ethanol, mainly derived from corn in the US today, or biodiesel, mainly from soybeans and canola seed....

The Times reported earlier this year that some 40 new ethanol plants are currently under construction in the US, aiming toward a 30 percent increase in domestic production. Archer Daniels Midland, the company that first sold the idea of corn-derived ethanol as an auto fuel to Congress in the late 1970s, has doubled its stock price and profits over the last two years. ADM currently controls a quarter of US ethanol fuel production, and recently hired a former Chevron executive as its CEO.

...WorldWatch Institute founder Lester Brown, long concerned about the sustainability of world food supplies, says that fuel producers are already competing with food processors in the world’s grain markets. “Cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in grain production this year,” reports Brown, a serious concern in a world where the grain required to make enough ethanol to fill an SUV tank is enough to feed a person for a whole year. Others have dismissed the ethanol gold rush as nothing more than the subsidized burning of food to run automobiles.

The biofuel rush is having a significant impact worldwide as well. Brazil, often touted as the the most impressive biofuel success story, is using half its annual sugarcane crop to provide 40 percent of its auto fuel, while increasing deforestation to grow more sugarcane and soybeans. Malaysian and Indonesian rainforests are being bulldozed for oil palm plantations—threatening endangered orangutans, rhinos, tigers and countless other species—in order to serve at the booming European market for biodiesel.

Are these reasonable tradeoffs for a troubled planet, or merely another corporate push for profits?


Read more at the link for information about the studies about this - like how much energy it takes to make energy from crops and the problem of displacing the forests which are needed to absorb Co2. The bottom line(s) :

Biofuels may still prove advantageous in some local applications, such as farmers using crop wastes to fuel their farms, and running cars from waste oil that is otherwise thrown away by restaurants. But as a solution to long-term energy needs on a national or international scale, the costs appear to far outweigh the benefits. The solution lies in technologies and lifestyle changes that can significantly reduce energy use and consumption.... But no one has figured out how to make a fortune on conservation and efficiency.

By Brian Tokar who directs the Biotechnology Project at Vermont’s Institute for Social Ecology

Celestia

I was looking for the transit of Mercury and found this. I thought it was sort of fun.

Here is a movie of the Transit of Mercury

Krill & Pirates

Pirates, Vacuum-Fishing Threaten Antarctic Waters

Pirates seeking Chilean sea bass and fishing vessels that vacuum up tiny shrimp-like creatures that are a staple for whales, seals and penguins are menacing Antarctic waters, environmentalists said Thursday.

...Both kinds of fishing could undermine the complex ecosystem of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, the US conservation experts said in a telephone news conference, and will be on the agenda next week at a meeting of the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in Hobart, Australia.

One problem is the rising demand for Chilean sea bass, also known as toothfish and not really a genuine sea bass at all, Stevens said on the conference call.

"It's a deep-living, slow-growing, long-lived predator fish found in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica ... It's important for the survival of Weddel seals, killer whales and sperm whales," Stevens said.

Current fishing for krill is below mandated limits, but there is localized depletion, he said. New regulations could ensure continued sustainable fishing, but two factors may make this difficult, he said.

First, there is a growing demand for krill, which can be used as feed for farmed salmon, and second, the latest technology for catching krill, with ships that continuously vacuum them up, could deplete their numbers.

Some members of the Antarctic marine conservation group -- Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Chile, the United States, Norway and South Africa -- favor reformed requirements on krill, but fishing nations -- including Japan, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea and possibly Poland -- could derail this, Curtis said.

More information is available online at Krill Count and Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources .

We had learned from this article how important the krill are. And how their declining numbers due to various factors impacts the food chain:

"There seems to be a window of opportunity that was missed when the upwelling was delayed," Kudela said. "A key organism is the krill, because krill feed directly on the phytoplankton and they, in turn, are fed on by all kinds of other organisms, from fish and seabirds to whales. So if the krill are affected it has a huge impact."

It sounds to me like the pirate article is downplaying the message. Maybe the author didn't get the memo that at the rate things are going by 2048 there won't be enough fish to bother with. The vaccuum practice by "legitimate" fisherman sounds esp. bad.

It sounds like the countries that are more for the Kyoto Protocal are more likely to be against Fishing regulations and vice-versa. It seems to me that there needs to be a comprehensive plan for countries not to ruin the planet. Of course Pirates are not going to cooperate, regardless.

It never ends.

Daniel Ortega elected President of Nicaragua (after being out for 16 years). Good for him.

Meanwhile - here at home - Rumsfeld is out and Robert M. Gates (former CIA director) is in (or at least nominated). You have to wonder with the Gates appointment if the intention is go more under-cover. More like the Iran-contra days. Just like our gov't was interfering with Nicaragua and Iraq and Iran back in the 80s - so it goes again. Gates was a big part of that back then. Bush seems to be keeping that era alive. (Oh, and Gates was part of the scheme to do away with a paper record of votes - HAVA and all that).

Ortega Wins Nicaraguan Election
In Nicaragua, Sandinista frontrunner Daniel Ortega has been declared the victor in the country’s presidential elections.

Nicaraguan President-elect Daniel Ortega: "We need to give Nicaragua a sign of stability, a sign that goes above all of our political stances. the responsibility that we have, above all else, is to take Nicaragua out of poverty."

The Bush administration has not yet responded to Ortega’s victory after threatening economic sanctions if he won.

(The irony is not lost on a lot of people who see our interferance with other countries elections as being very undemocratic - where supporting democracy becomes a pretence.)

Bush introduces new secretary of Defense
Criticized for failing to send enough troops to Iraq to quell the insurgency and for interrogation tactics at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons that gave the United States a black eye around the world, Rumsfeld, resigned as one of the longest-serving Defense chiefs...

To replace him, Bush announced he was appointing Gates, who served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President George H.W. Bush. Gates is the president of Texas A & M University and a close friend of the Bush family. He first joined the CIA in 1966 and served in the intelligence community for more than a quarter century under six presidents..
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Some history. This was written in 2001 - when the US was attempting to block Ortega:

White House Revives Iran-Contra Memories
Mr Ortega was a leader of the Nicaraguan revolution which removed the dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. He was elected president in 1984, but lost in 1990 to a coalition candidate, Violeta Chamorro.

While he was president the US backed the contras - counter-revolutionaries - in the civil war. This led to the Irangate scandal: the use of profits from secret weapons sales to Iran to finance the contras after Congress voted to deny them aid.

And from Znet:

Twenty Years After Iran-Contra, Washington’s Role In Nicaragua Still a Scandal
But the US Central Intelligence Agency soon brought guns and money to the enforcers of the toppled dictatorship, Somoza’s hated National Guard. Before long these re-named “contras” were killing health care workers, teachers, and elected officials – the CIA actually prepared a manual which advocated the assassination of the latter. The contras preferred attacking these “soft targets” rather than the national armed forces. In that sense they were very much a terrorist organization; they also used torture and rape as political weapons.

These atrocities brought the contras universal condemnation from humans rights groups such as Amnesty International and Americas Watch. The Sandinistas took the United States to the World Court for its terrorist actions—the same court where the US had won a judgment against Iran just a few years earlier, for the taking of American hostages. The court ruled in favor of Nicaragua, ordering reparations estimated at $17 billion.

The heinous nature of these crimes and the direct involvement of the Reagan Administration disgusted millions of Americans, even more so after Ortega was democratically elected in 1984. Led by activists in the religious community, some hundreds of thousands of US citizens organized against US funding for the contras and convinced Congress to cut it off. That’s where Ollie North came in: on behalf of the Reagan Administration, he illegally sold arms to Iran and used the proceeds to fund the contras. This became the infamous “Iran-Contra” scandal of twenty years ago.
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Esp. after listening to Democracy Now! this morning (11/9) - where they discussed Gates roles in Iran-Contra, in having Iran hold the hostages until Reagan's inauguration, his lying to Senate Committees about stuff that was widely know.... it doesn't sound like someone who would be good to have in any position and esp. as Defense Secretary. I suppose - deals will be made. Bush will say - "you guys go along with this and I'll go along with blah, blah, blah".

Bob Marley - One Love

(It's really not all about Paul McCartney - it's unfortunate that that is the opening picture).

The Problems with Carbon Trading

Seen linked from Stan Goff: The Flavor of Fear

Carbon Trading Scheme 
A Sop To King Coal

...The scheme has numerous loopholes. Firstly, it assumes that the participating governments will set an emissions cap that mandates massive decreases in CO2 emissions. Only then would the scarcity of permits increase, pushing up their price and impacting on the bottom line of high-emitting plants.

In one of the first major tests of carbon trading, the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) which began on January 1, 2005, was labelled a “major disappointment” in an April 2006 assessment by the Climate Action Network-Europe, the network of major environmental groups in the EU, as a result of member governments setting lax national emission targets.

According to a May 15, 2005, CAN-Europe press release, EU member states condemned Phase 1 of the scheme to failure from the beginning by being too generous in their allocation of permits so that the “actual emissions of installations covered by the ETS in 2005 were several million tonnes below the granted permits”.

As a result, by May 2006 the market price of permits had dropped to 10 euros per tonne, down from 30 euros per tonne in April.

CAN-Europe criticised the “lack of transparency in most member states processes” to determine their national emission caps, highlighting the vulnerability of carbon-trading schemes to manipulation by governments acting in the interests of the big energy corporations.

On the other hand, a stringent national emissions cap can be undermined by a lack of capacity to enforce the regulations or by penalties that are easily absorbed by corporations that make billions of dollars of profits.

Underlying the three Labor governments’ discussion paper is a commitment to coal-fired electricity generation far into the future. It states that coal “is expected to be the dominant source of fuel till 2030". In fact, one of the key aims of establishing a carbon-trading scheme is to “reduce uncertainty” for capitalists who would otherwise be keen to invest in energy production but are unsure how governments’ future climate change policy will impact on their profit margins.

Pacific Storms

Flooding may be worst in 50 years in the Snohomish River valley in Washington State. The whole Northwest coast has been getting quite the storms. A riverbank collapsed. People stranded. Highways closed.

West Side flooding causes evacuations, voting trouble. Handey said that in Cowlitz County, election officials worked with the sheriff’s office to reach stranded voters to deliver ballots and get votes in.

We may not have seen the worst yet. A Pineapple Express — a tropical jet stream from Hawaii that moved across the eastern Pacific, gathering moisture before unloading in the mountainous Northwest — is being blamed for the deluge that is causing flooding much earlier than usual. Typically, January and February are the worst months for flooding.

Recently - Heavy weather that battered North Korea's eastern coast in late October left more than 7,300 people homeless, an international aid group said Tuesday, but no deaths were reported due to a successfully functioning early warning system.

The storms from Oct. 21-23 caused tidal waves that struck North Korea's Kangwon province, destroying or partially destroying 732 houses and flooding 366 others, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement.

Yesterday a tornado hit Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan resulting in 9 deaths. Though tornadoes are very rare in Japan, the country's Meteorological Agency said that the worst tornado hit Japan two months ago, when three people were killed on the southern island of Kyushu.

Bird-Friendly Communications Towers

U.S. Considers Bird-Friendly Communications Towers

The Federal Communications Commission drew praise from a wildlife conservation group Monday for considering a plan to make communications towers less deadly for migrating birds.

The current lighting and support wires on some towers that carry broadcast and mobile phone signals kill up to 50 million migratory birds a year in the United States, said Darin Schroeder of the American Bird Conservancy.

"The birds that are being killed aren't just your common sparrows," Schroeder said by telephone, after the FCC agreed to seek comment on the tower plan. "These are Baltimore Orioles and Cerulean Warblers, birds that we really need to actively protect.

"If we can find a solution, as simple as changing the lights on a tower, I think everyone wants to see that happen," he said. "We're hopeful that a rule will be developed."

These (safety measures) include: putting antennas on existing structures rather than building new ones; building towers less than 200 feet tall to avoid the requirement that they be lighted so aircraft can see them; using red or white strobe lights on towers over 200 feet instead of solid state or slow pulsing lights; avoiding the use of guy-wires, which extend at an angle from the ground to support the towers.

Most bird kills involving communications towers occur during fall and spring when night-migrating birds are attracted to the aviation safety lights on the towers, the conservancy said in a statement.

Problems in China & Starving Orangutans in Indonesia

Water flow in China's Yellow River hits record low

Water levels in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, China's second longest, have hit a historic low, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday, after a senior official warned that China might run out of water by 2030.

Hot weather and low rainfall led to the dry-up, with water flow over the first 10 months of the year down nearly 33 percent from the long-term average.

The river, which supplies water to over 150 million people and irrigates 15 percent of the country's farmland, is also at serious risk from over-exploitation, Li Guoying, director of the Yellow River Conservancy Committee, told Xinhua.

Nearly two-thirds of the river's water is used for residential and industrial supplies, while international guidelines suggest a 40 percent limit, Li said.

Once known as China's sorrow because of its flooding, in recent years it has sometimes run dry before it reaches the sea.

China City Shuts 43 Cement Factories for Pollution

"Pollution from cement factories is pretty severe and they are not very safe," Zhou said in an interview with Reuters and a small group of foreign media.

"For the sake of bringing Dongguan's environmental protection up a step, we closed the 43 cement factories" over the past two years, Zhou said.

Hong Kong's Beijing-funded Wen Wei Po newspaper said Dongguan authorities also closed down 206 brick factories and 90 quarries, and pledged to spend 21.193 billion yuan (US$2.65 billion) to curb pollution.

Sulphur dioxide emitted by cement factories in Dongguan accounted for about 10 percent of the city's total sulphur dioxide emission, the daily said.

On Wednesday, state media cited China's State Oceanic Administration as saying the Bohai Sea, the body of water between China and the Korean peninsula, was so polluted it would "die" within 10 years.

China to Pass U.S. in 2009 in Emissions

China will surpass the United States in 2009, nearly a decade ahead of previous predictions, as the biggest emitter of the main gas linked to global warming, the International Energy Agency has concluded in a report to be released Tuesday.

China’s rise, fueled heavily by coal, is particularly troubling to climate scientists because as a developing country, China is exempt from the Kyoto Protocol’s requirements for reductions in emissions of global warming gases. Unregulated emissions from China, India and other developing countries are likely to account for most of the global increase in carbon dioxide emissions over the next quarter-century...

If nothing is done, global energy demand is projected to grow 53 percent by 2030, the energy agency said. Oil consumption is seen jumping to 116 million barrels a day, compared with 85 million barrels now, mostly because of increased oil consumption in developing countries.

Demand for coal, mostly for power generation, will rise 59 percent. As a result, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions will increase 55 percent, to 44.1 billion tons in 2030.

Worldwide coal consumption has risen as much in the last three years as it had in the previous 23 years, Mr. Birol said. China accounts for 90 percent of the increase, the result of steeply rising demand for electricity that is mostly generated by coal-fired power plants.

India is responsible for about 8 percent of the increase in coal use, and the United States for most of the rest, Mr. Birol said.

Indonesia Forest Fires, Attacks Kill 1,000 Orangutans

About 1,000 orangutans are estimated to have died in Indonesia during the dry season this year in which raging forest fires have produced thick smoke across huge areas of Southeast Asia, a conservationist said on Monday.

The fires in the Indonesian part of Borneo have deprived orangutans of food and forced them to encroach on human settlements, where they are often attacked for damaging crops, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation said.

"Orangutans are starving. They are sick and many of those we are treating were injured after being attacked by machetes," Willie Smits, an ecologist at the foundation told Reuters, adding that many also suffered from respiratory problems...

Orangutans live on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, but encroachment on their habitats by humans and massive destruction of forests is threatening their existance.

In 2002, it was estimated there were 56,000 orangutans in the wild but the population has dwindled at a rate of 6,000 a year, conservationists say. 


So it's Voting Day

I voted last week - so I feel like I'm just observing.

I think the whole thing is quite discouraging - when you can't trust the electronic machine to count your vote correctly. (See also Hacking Democracy). And I think that that discouragement is a tactic. It's a well known concept that a reduced turnout favors Republicans.

This year there have been reports of various voter suppression tactics:

SPEAKING OF PROBLEM PHONE CALLS...

Jensen says state officials alerted the Justice Department yesterday to several complaints of suspicious phone calls to voters that attempted to misdirect or confuse them about election day. She adds she has now been contacted by FBI agents. The FBI in Richmond refuses to comment.
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One example:

Tim Daly from Clarendon got a call saying that if he votes Tuesday, he will be arrested. A recording of his voicemail can be found here

The transcript from his voicemail reads:

"This message is for Timothy Daly. This is the Virginia Elections Commission. We've determined you are registered in New York to vote. Therefore, you will not be allowed to cast your vote on Tuesday. If you do show up, you will be charged criminally."
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There have been different Republican groups making "Robo-calls" that start out sounding like Democrats - essentially to piss people off. Supposedly they say that they are Republicans at the end - should anyone bother to listen to the whole thing.

Republicans Deny Subterfuge as Phone Barrages Anger Voters

...Some voters, sick of interrupted dinners and evenings, say they will punish the offending parties by opposing them in today's elections. But critics say Republicans crafted the messages to delude voters -- especially those who hang up quickly -- into thinking that Democrats placed the calls.

Republicans denied the allegation, noting that their party acknowledges its authorship at the recorded calls' end. After citizens' complaints in New Hampshire, however, the National Republican Congressional Committee agreed to end the calls to households on the federal do-not-call list, even though the law exempts political messages from such restrictions.
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Also: In a Tense Election Year, Push Polls Flourish

Not only has the Virginia-based company been making millions of calls on behalf of the Economic Freedom Fund, the GOP attack group funded by the money man behind the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, but the firm has also worked for Common Sense Ohio, a conservative nonprofit group active in the closest Senate races.

These groups go to ccAdvertising for one reason: the company is effective. It provides tremendous but targeted reach, largely under the radar -- and arguably without scruple. You can hear recordings of ccAdvertising's work this election here (from Indiana's 9th, funded by the EFF - a call a polling expert called "egregious") and here (from Tennessee, funded by Common Sense Ohio).

Joseph boasted to Mother Jones that "he can handle 3.5 million calls per day, each one costing less than 15 cents." By comparison, approximately 120 million people voted in the 2004 election. In Indiana, where ccAdvertising flooded the 9th District with robo calls (only to be stopped by a state law that prohibits automated calls), the company admitted in court that it maintains a database of 1.7 million Indiana phone numbers, and that its calling system may dial each number as many as three times. (ccAdvertising lost their challenge of the state's law and has recently appealed.)

As hard as ccAdvertising works to smother its targeted voters with calls, it also works to cloak its identity. So if you get a call from ccAdvertising, you won't know it's them. Although the calls tend to disclose through which organization the call was ordered, the name on a recipient's caller ID is generic-sounding, like "Election Research" or, as in the case of the recent calls to Maryland and Tennessee, "P RSRCH 2006." The company maintains a stable of business aliases like those to stay anonymous. It even went so far as to make calls in a couple states under another business' name.
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There have also been reports of voter "flipping' where someone thinks they voted for one person and then the final page says that they voted for someone else. Some machines do not have that page -that would even tell them.
Election Problem Log - 2006
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And today:

Form: Talking Points Memo

So many phone calls about voting questions/problems in Columbus, Ohio, that the county's phone system crashed:
Franklin County's phone system was returned to service about 90 minutes after it collapsed today under a crush of calls from voters and poll workers.

In Pennsylvania - Voter smashes touch-screen machine in Allentown

In California (yesterday) - Thief grabs voting machine from election official's car

She said the precinct officers are directed to keep the voting machines in "secure locations" such as their homes prior to their being set up in the polling place. (That seems pretty odd to me)

If you have problems you can call: 1-866-OURVOTE

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Update - the Democrats took the House and maybe the Senate. It will be interesting to see what they do with it.

"Personal Responsibilty"

I like to get the Philosopher's POV over at Mad Melancholic Feminista. Today she posted on "Why My Students Are Likely to Vote Republican" which is a timely topic.

While I consider myself to be a idealist - I must not be as idealistic as her Republican students - because they seem to think that everyone actually has an equal opportunity. And equal educations. And the money to get started. And no mental health issues, or emotional issues, or other health issues. Or responsibilities that would keep people from fulfilling their goals.

For those who do recognize these obstacles - they don't see the people with obstacles as part of their society. And they pretty much can't relate to any of it. Or so it seems.

I agree that it's important to think that you can - to have a positive attitude. But I wonder how much of that can-do attitude translates into a lack of sympathy and empathy for others. Or the disconnect from the idea that a society as a whole is responsible for the how everyone in that society lives - to one degree or another. (ie. more taxes or less - and for whom, what regulations, what laws, minimum wages, what social programs, what education - funded in what way, etc.)
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I found another (assistant) professor's blog today - of Physics and Astronomy. I had noticed a link to his post A tale of egregious scientific male misbehavior linked to from Cosmic Variance - Things You Should Read On the Internet .

I thought it was pretty interesting. And the comments seemed to indicate that there are a lot of people in denial - who are unable to recognize their actions for what they are (as if the "South Park" or "Man's Show" mentality is reasonable). Basically unapologetically sexist. No room for any "politically correct" ideas.

I thought I was being pretty nice - but I got deleted. I expect the professor is not interested in having the feminist contingent show up. But you can see for yourself whether you think that the behavior of Herb, the scientist, was "egregious" or not. There seemed to be some disagreement about that.

I think that it's each person's responsibility to treat others with respect. It's a bind when it's your boss or something that's the asshole - but that's no excuse to look the other way. It sounds like a lot of people need a new way of looking at the world - ie - where women are people. Yet where would they learn that - not from the media (nor from pornography, obviously) - that's for sure. If the people around them do not speak up - who will? (This is a good article that Knop linked to: Diminished By Discrimination We Scarcely See).

Maybe someone will learn something from a blog.
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