It’s time for the ProfessorTreeFrog First-Ever Holiday Gift Guide!!!

1) This line of plush toys is seriously cute and seriously awesome. They’re called “Evolvems“, and are zip-inside-out plushies demonstrating major evolutionary milestones. They have the Coelacanth-to-Ichthyostega transition, as well as Dimetrodon-Cynognathus, Yinlong-Styracosaurus, and Pakicetus-Squalodon!!!

2) Also a line of plush toys, “Foodchain Friends” is for those with a more ecological than evolutionary bent. Like some sort of cute, twisted take on Matryoska dolls, each plushie fits neatly inside the mouth of the next-largest plushie in its set, forming an adorable semi-creepy food-chain. These are three different sets, set in a prairie, forest, and river on the fictitious planet of Daro:

3) Ever thought of giving your significant other Herpes for Christmas? How about giving your friends the oh-so-timely Swine Flu? Now you can with Petri Dish Plushies! Choose from a wide array of horrific diseases, or maybe invest in a few extra neurons?

4) For those of you not into plushies (you people suck), why not go with the super-preachy Global Warming Mug? Oh, you know you’d love to pour yourself a cup of coffee and annoy the heck out of the climate-change-denier at the next desk…

5) For all your closest teen vampires who have nothing better to do, there’s the Blood Caffeinated Energy Potion! This product is the “same color and consistency of real blood. It has many of the same nutrients of the rubicund liquid we love to consume (iron, protein, electrolytes, and caffeine) and has a delectable fruit punch flavor!!” It even comes in its own transfusion bag! Lame.

6) For those with a more historical bent, how about adopting a scientist from the Unemployed Philosophers’ Guild? They’ve got Darwin, Einstein, Curie, even Schrodinger’s Cat!

7) For your perennially tardy friends, why not get a Relativity Alarm Clock or Watch? The rotating face quickly turns 9:00 into 3:00 in just 30 seconds! Yes, it actually tells time, but in an innovative and quirky way!

[8] For you tech geeks with trust funds, the fabled Optimus Maximus Keyboard has finally come on the market. Every key is a tiny screen. EVERY KEY. That’s 113 screens on your keyboard, each able to dynamically change based on what you’re doing. Amazing. The fact that it costs sixteen hundred dollars? Not so amazing….

Eight seems like a good number, so this officially concludes the ProfessorTreeFrog First-Ever Holiday Gift Guide!!!

I’m all for new and innovative technology, but the new Google Wave format scares the crap out of me. The concept is great: a real-time multi-person interactive document and media sharing platform, where everyone can chat and collaborate on projects. Beta-testing is currently underway, with invitations flying and everyone getting super excited. Sounds like a great thing, no? The next Twitter or Facebook?

Not so fast, progress!  How does this work, and what’s happening to the information we’re producing?

“complete threads of multimedia messages (blips) are perpetually stored on a central server”

So it can work so fast because you’re keeping a copy on your fancy Google servers in California, but what do you mean by “perpetually”? A further perusal of the FAQ page on the Google Wave website brings up the following disturbing passage:

“Any Waves which have other participants will to continue to exist in the Google Wave system, including all of the content that you provided in those Waves. Any Wave for which you are the only participant will be deleted from the system within 60 days and may remain in our offline backup systems.”

What!??! So you’re keeping a copy of everything we say, do, or create not only so long as we’re working on it, but even after we exit/delete the “Wave”? That sounds pretty fishy. Who’s going to be able to see/use our info? Is it only for use with the Google Wave, or even just Google itself?

There are only certain limited circumstances when Google allows access to your information. We may give access to:

• Subsidiaries or other trusted businesses that help us provide our services to you (we make sure they promise to keep your data private);
• Law enforcement or others when we believe we are required to do so by law;
• Others as necessary to enforce the Terms of Service or our policies, to protect against harm to Google or others, or to prevent or address fraud, security or technical issues.

So basically businesses get to see and use our information – which Google can keep forever – as long as they help Google provide services? What sort of services? Wait, isn’t the way Google provides all of its free services through Ad sales? Does this mean Ad agencies will have access to our information? Also, what about intellectual property? If I’m going over the draft of an academic journal article I’m writing, and you get to keep a copy of it, what does that entail for me trying to publish it? Or what if I’m an inventor and I’m going over schematics with a colleague? You get to keep a copy forever? Why???

Also “Law enforcement or others when we believe we are required to do so by law” – and since the Patriot Act is still in effect, you’ll be sharing our information to anyone with a badge, with or without a warrant, I assume?

Overall, these policies freak me out. I may or may not get Google Wave, but If I do I sure won’t put anything I want to keep ownership of on it, including pictures or academic work. And I sure won’t be saying anything of a sensitive nature or any personally identifying information.

:/

These three men represent what I consider the journalistic ideal. What else do they have in common? They are no longer reporting. Well, sort of. As you know, Walter Kronkite passed away in July, after a lifetime of diligent reporting and being voted “the most trusted man in America”.

Carl Kasell, the voice behind Morning Edition on NPR News since its inception in 1979, has stated that he will no longer be reporting as of December 30th, 2009. Kasell will, however, continue announcing for the NPR news quiz Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.

Bill Moyers was the White House Press Secretary during the LBJ Administration, and went on to have a lengthy career with National Public Radio, as well as smaller stints on CBS and NBC. Since 2007, Moyers has hosted Bill Moyers Journal, discussing some of the most important and least-covered stories of the day with experts from multiple perspectives. I personally haven’t missed an episode of the Journal since its inception, and to me Bill Moyers represents the perfect journalist, one whose concern is uncovering the truth for the American people. Moyers is an outspoken critic of the American media, whose focus in recent years has shifted more and more to ratings and profits. Moyers is one of the few journalists who realises what “balance” truly is:

“The journalist’s job is not to achieve some mythical state of equilibrium between two opposing opinions out of some misshapen respect—sometimes, alas, reverence—for the prevailing consensus among the powers-that-be. The journalist’s job is to seek out and offer the public the best thinking on an issue, event, or story.”

Moyers has stated that he will no longer be producing the Journal as of April 30, 2010, and as of yet he does not have plans for another show. Let’s all hope that changes, for the good of America. Seriously, this man should be president.

I don’t know how I’ll feel once Kasell and Moyers are off the air; I certainly felt sick when Kronkite died. It really sucks having the wise older folks you trust no longer supplying you with vetted and insightful information. Who are we supposed to trust now?

Now that the Health Care Reform bill (HR 3200) has passed the House, getting the Senate to pass a similar bill is the next big hurdle. While the Democrats have a clear majority (58 seats plus two independents), three conservative Democratic Senators have threatened to vote against even starting debate. The New York Times would like you to meet the Holdouts:

In order to move Health Care Reform forward, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) must convince these three Senators to vote to allow debate to begin. There may be significant arm-twisting involved, with the Progressive Caucus hinting that it may revoke Committee seats if these Senators vote against their own party. Let’s hope those seats mean more to Senators Lincoln, Landrieu, and Nelson than the huge campaign contributions they receive from the special-interest groups that oppose Health Care Reform.

Tonight was the season finale of Project Runway, in which a collection of vibrant, diverse, and innovative clothing was passed over in favor of a parade of unimaginative black sweaters and felt helmets. I am of course speaking of the shocking defeat of Carol Hannah Whitfield, with the PR judges instead selecting Irina Shabayeva instead as the winner for Season 6.

The third finalist, Althea Harper, produced what was in my opinion an all-over-the-place collection of boring separates and knitwear. The clothes themselves were nice, but they didn’t go together on the models and really looked like something you could buy at Target. What is most infuriating about Carol Hannah’s loss was the way in which the winner was announced. Instead of Althea being told she was going not the winner first, and having Carol Hannah and Irina as the last two standing, Carol Hannah was sent home first. This made it seem as though Althea’s collection was better than Carol Hannah’s, which it patently was not. The judges’ comments even backed this up. The main – and really only – critique of  Carol Hannah’s collection was the lack of “common thread”, a quality that was far, far more present in Althea’s line. Carol Hannah was complimented on her designs and fabulous use of color. Irina’s line, on the other hand, was almost entirely black, with repeated motifs of armor and metal. It was dark-on-dark and much the detail was hidden from easy view. It honestly seemed like Irina had become fixated on the idea of a black sweater with metal accents, for that is what she gave us model after model. Even her gown had the same accents, with what seemed like the same strips of metallic fabric done in almost exactly the same way. Overall, a major upset that will surely have mouths flapping for weeks to come.

Here’s a taste of Carol Hannah’s line:

And here’s some of Irina’s line:

To see all 36 designs by the three finalists, visit the Elle website. They’re all jumbled up in an attempt to keep the winner a secret pre-finale, but essentially if it has a headband or is a non-black sweater with long sleeves, it’s Althea’s. If it has a felt helmet, a high ponytail, or is black and ominous, it’s Irina’s. If it’s perky, colorful, and wearable while still being high-fashion, it’s Carol Hannah’s.

Today is the day that Ray Comfort, the creationist of hand-banana fame, will be distributing copies of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species at “the top 100 universities nationwide”. The catch? A 54-page introduction equating the theory of evolution with Nazism, and overall bashing the venerable Charles Darwin with lies and misinformation. The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has launched a campaign to warn the public of Comfort’s tactics, including a mass bookmark-distributing effort. I love the NCSE and everything for which they stand, and luckily (disappointingly?) Comfort’s website does not list my university as a target for the book distribution.

On the up side, no impressionable undergraduates at my school will be swayed by Comfort’s tactics, which is, of course, to have laypeople read his introduction and then get bored and close the book. This is a good tactic, because let’s face it, if you’re a non-scientist and someone hands you On the Origin of Species you’re going to read the juicy first couple dozen pages of drivel and then get bored when you hit the 18th-century science-speak. On the down-side, I don’t get to picket the distribution site with a poster explaining what these awful people are doing. Darn. :/

Learn more at the NCSE’s homepage and their Don’t Diss Darwin site, and spread the word!!!

Just when you thought Lady Gaga couldn’t get any stranger….. This is the music video for “Bad Romance” – the first single from the forthcoming The Fame Monster album. I still can’t decide if this is thoughtless craziness or highbrow over-my-head art. I’m going to lean toward the latter, since I pretty much like everything Lady Gaga has made. But as far as I’m concerned, she’s still within an eyelash of full-on nut job.

As for the new album, it’s fantastic. It just is. The Fame Monster was intended to be a re-release of The Fame with a few new songs, but apparently Gaga decided that such re-releases were unfair, and went with an album of eight brand-new songs. Right-on!

Nifty Chart Time!

In the spirit of my recent discovery of FantasySCOTUS, these neat-o charts published in the June 29th edition of the New York Times documents the voting record of the 2007-2008 session of the Supreme Court, including the ‘major decisions’ and those that were decided 5-4, are detailed. Frankly, I love the way that they subtly line the Justices up from ‘most liberal’ to ‘most conservative’ and show the gradual progression of decisions, with the moderate Anthony Kennedy voting in the majority in every major case. In fact, since he played the largest decisive role in this session, the NYT article actually calls this term the year of the ‘Kennedy Court’.

More interesting are some of the close cases, where you often have surprising combinations of Justices voting the same way, like Ginsberg and Thomas both being in the majority on two closely-decided cases. I love visual aids! <3

I LOVE this idea. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (I) has proposed a bill requiring the government to identify the corporations and entities it considers “too big to fail”, or requiring of a taxpayer bailout to keep the economy stable. The bill then gives the government a time-line to break up these entities into smaller firms that do not threaten the financial system. The bill is TWO PAGES LONG!!!! Is this not an amazing idea?

I encourage you to read the full text of the bill in pdf format or the main text below. It’s my kind of legislation.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act’’.

SEC. 2. REPORT TO CONGRESS ON INSTITUTIONS THAT ARE TOO BIG TO FAIL.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall submit to Congress a list of all commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds, and insurance companies that the Secretary believes aretoo big to fail (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Too  Fail List’’).

SEC. 3. BREAKING-UP TOO BIG TO FAIL INSTITUTIONS.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, beginning 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall break up entities included on the Too Big To Fail List, so that their failure would no longer cause a catastrophic effect on the United States or global economy without a taxpayer bailout.

SEC. 4. DEFINITION.

For purposes of this Act, the term ‘‘Too Big to Fail’’ means any entity that has grown so large that its failure would have a catastrophic effect on the stability of either the financial system or the United States economy without
substantial Government assistance.

That’s it. That’s the whole bill minus the header. Why can’t all legislation be so straightforward?

For those of us who balk at the idea of actually watching a football game, the idea of investing our precious time into constructing an imaginary team of players and tracking their seasons sounds not only ludicrous, but the opposite of fun. Lucky for us, there’s a nerdy alternative to Fantasy Football. No, I’m not talking about some role-playing video game, I’m talking about the hot new craze about to sweep through law schools across the nation – It’s Fantasy SCOTUS!

This website, brainchild of recent George Mason Law graduate Josh Blackman, is the law-and-politics buff’s answer to imaginary sports teams. The site currently summarizes every Supreme Court case of the season, and allows users to call the decision (Affirm/Reverse), the spread (5-4? Unanimous?), and pick the Justices in the Majority and Dissent. Best of all? It’s free for students and unemployed lawyers (thanks to the creator’s personal sense of social justice).

I personally have already predicted the first twelve cases argued this season, including the Citizens United case and the VFW Cross debacle!