Friday Scientific Instrument Blogging

Geez another thing with a screen and a keyboard.

Harriet Miers

Q So are you ruling it out, any withdrawal?

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, she is going to be on the bench, she’ll be confirmed — and when she’s on the bench people will see a fantastic woman who is honest, open, humble and capable of being a great Supreme Court Judge.

George, welcome to reality.

Treasongate

I've been following Treasongate pretty closely for reasons I will explain sometime soon. As I understand it, here's how it went down:

1)Bush wants war with Iraq and needs a reason
2)Forged Italian documents indicate Iraq trying to obtain yellowcake from Niger, Bush/Cheney/Rice use this as major evidence for reason to attack Iraq
3)Joe Wilson gets sent to Niger by CIA, finds no evidence of Iraq trying to purchase yellowcake (they really didn't need to cause they already had plenty of yellowcake under international lock and key)
4)Bush gives State of the Union Address with those 16 words.
5)Wilson writes NYT guest editorial saying there was no evidence to support those 16 words (meaning Bush lied)
6)We go to war with Iraq
7)Cheney decides, for some unknown reason that Wilson needs to be discredited. So they tell reporters he went to Iraq on a boondoggle and was sent by his wife
8)Novacula outs Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent as Wilsons wife
9)CIA asks Justice department to investigate. Everyone lies. Rove and Libby, Cheney and Bush among others (funny thing is no law may have been broken, we don't know yet)
10)They get caught in perjury, obstruction of justice and maybe conspiracy

THE BIG QUESTION RIGHT NOW IS WHO ASKED THE ITALIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY TO FORGE THE DOCUMENTS?

Oddly enough, Stephen Hadley, among other Bush admin. officials had a meeting with Italian intelligence shortly before the documents were 'found'. Things should get interesting and this may be way more important and interesting than the Watergate scandal.

'W' on Iraq War

“We will never back down, never give in, and never accept anything less than complete victory”

Fair enough. But 1) offer a fair assessment of where we currently are, 2)define success or 'victory', 3) announce a contingent withdrawal schedule, 4) commit the needed troops and resources, 5) give up permanent bases and designs on Iraqi oil, 6) work on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and finally maybe we should apologize/admit mistakes to someone, even if it's France.

Maasai Market

I was going to put a picture of the Maasai Market here but I've hit my flickr limit. In any case, part of the most recent email from Julia:

...if you have any gift ideas send them my way because I only have one week left at the Maasai market, where I have made a name for myself as one of the best bargainers, see I knew all of the sale shopping I have done my whole life would come in handy.

Drugs for Flu

I've been interested lately in just how effective anti-flu drugs would be in case of a major flu epidemic. Four drugs are available for treatment of influenza: two of them (amantadine and rimantadine) only work for Influenza A, are pretty toxic, and the virus can rapidly generate resistance to the drugs. The other two drugs are the newer neuraminidase inhibitors. These drugs (zanamivir and oseltamivir) interfere with the release of new virus from infected cells thus preventing the spread of infection and the virus does not generate resistance rapidly (I don't believe this has been proven outside of the laboratory). Unfortunately, replication of influenza virus reaches its peak between 24 and 72 hours after the onset of illness, so the drug has to be given really early. Also, don't expect a cure from taking Tamiflu (oseltamivar). In the best cases, it might shorten your illness by a 1.5-2 days if given within 2 days after you are infected. It can also result in a lower frequency of secondary complications. It is also effective in preventing flu symptoms if taken prior to infection. Again, I'm not sure how well this has been proven in real life pandemic situations. In any case, we would need about 4.2 billion doses of the drug to treat everyone in the USA for 14 days.

Oh Yeah - 10-12 Inches of Snow at My House

The snow started seriously yesterday about 5 PM or so. By 10 PM we already had at least 6 inches. Above is from the top of my driveway. The trees are bent over seriously and I had to plow through the branches.



The rest of our road was the same. The branches are bent over so far that the plow could only make a single lane. I'm worried that the trees will not make it upright again and may have to be cut.



Not quite as much snow in the village, maybe 5-6 inches. Almost no snow in Tupper Lake only 15 miles away. Pictured is 'Little Red', the first TB cure cottage built in Saranac Lake. Now standing on the grounds of Trudeau Institute.

Normally the pictures would look a bit better, but I didn't have a chance to 'photoshop' them.

Snow

3-5 inches tonight and 6-12 inches tomorrow. Pictures will follow. Check here for current Saranac Lake weather.

Barnum Pond and St. Regis Mt.

Just past Paul Smiths College and the Adirondack Interpretive Center is Barnum Pond. The pond is probably named after P.T. Barnum who stayed at Paul Smiths hotel a century or so ago. In the background is St. Regis Mountain. If you blow the picture up you can see the fire tower on top.

My Return Trip Saturday

Meacham Lake Outlet, half-way between Malone and Saranac Lake.



Meacham Lake dam

Republican Values - RE: Perjury

Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) on perjury:

For Bill Clinton (1999): "Something needs to be said that is a clear message that our rule of law is intact and the standards for perjury and obstruction of justice are not gray. Because our system of criminal justice depends on people telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

For Bush Administration officials (yesterday): "if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn’t indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars.”

Snow Last Night

Saturday started out great. Sunny but cold, nice blue skies, wispy clouds. I took off North to watch the Salmon River Cross Country Invitational. Our HS girls team, which is ranked 4th in the State, were concerned that Section X Malone might beat them. The SL girls not only beat Malone, they destroyed them 40-75. The next best team had 125.



Above is about a quarter mile into the girls varsity race. Although these two SL girls are not in the lead at this point, the first one goes on to win the race and the second girl comes in 3rd. Sydo, the third girl comes in 7th. These girls have a great chance at winning the Class B states this year.



Looking up our driveway from our front porch about 8:30 AM this morning.



Looking at the side yard. More snow expected this week but I doubt it will stick.

Differences Among US Presidents

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts." A. Lincoln

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever. . . the Almighty has no attribute that can take side with us in such a contest." T. Jefferson

"No Man is justified in doing evil on the grounds of expedience." T. Roosevelt

"When even one American - who has done nothing wrong -- is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all of Americans are in peril." H. Truman

"The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted." J. Madison

"You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier."
"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it." G.W. Bush

Friday Scientific Instrument Blogging

Can slice meat (and your finger) very very thin.

Finally - A Killing Frost

I think our plants can be considered officially dead now.



I also had to find my windshield scraper.



And, a ghostly morning scene on Lake Flower.

The Internets Were Down Today

No posts today cuz the internets were down. Looks like tonight will be the first big freeze for Northern NY.

Did Bush Know Rove Leaked Plame's Name?

According to the NY Daily News (http://nydailynews.com/front/story/357107p-304312c.html), a 'counselor' to Bush has leaked that 'W' has known for 2 yrs that Karl Rove leaked Valerie Plame's name to the press. Bush was supposedly VERY angry with Rove. "Bush did not feel misled so much by Karl and others as believing that they handled it in a ham-handed and bush-league way."

So Bush knew all along even though he said he didn't. And why was Bush angry with Karl Rove? Not because of what Karl did, but rather the slipshod methods he used. If true, then classic.

I mention all this because I doubt it will be reported very well, although the press does seem to smell blood in the water these days.

Political Animal

I consistantly read 3-4 political blogs because that is how I get my news and I'm a political junkie. My favorite political blog is 'Washington Monthly's' Political Animal authored by Kevin Drum.

One of the topics posted last night concerned the use of liquified coal as an alternative source of internal combustion engine fuel. The govenor of Montana is very interested in this concept because Montana has vast reserves of coal. Anyway, one of the funniest replies I've ever seen is below:

Southpark had an episode in which everyone switched to cars powered by buggery. Might solve the population problem too.

Unfortunately, as the Emperor Justinian pointed out, buggery is the principal cause of earthquakes. We'd just be trading one big problem for another.

However, I did have an idea for cars that run on rage. You'd just get in, hook up the electrodes, think about how much you hate your boss or your ex-wife and zoom! -- off you go!

Plus, we could make a practice of cutting one another off on the road to increase fuel efficiency.

Many know that I'm also a South Park junkie. And the 'buggery' powered vehicle episode was a classic, although it turned out that 'buggery' actually had nothing to do with powering the vehicle.

So Which is It?

When a Democrat President is the target of a criminal investigation it's all about the "Rule of Law".

When the target is a Republican, all of a sudden it's all about the "Criminalization of Politics".

Nice to know the conservative standard.

James Carroll Asks:

What if God's unknowability is the most illuminating profundity humans can know about God? Comments?