Category Archives: SOCIETY

Why Good Writing Matters [in Science and elswhere], by Kathleen Taylor

A woman after my own heart. ~ Mike

“In the fierce competition for readers’ attention, clarity is crucial — and clarity comes from using language well. Ease of reading is also important, because I (and I suspect most readers) are less inclined to struggle through an abstract, let alone a whole paper, if the authors make it hard work. I like to read in a smooth, fast flow, sucking up meaning without having to stop and think about how to interpret every sentence; if I wanted that kind of intellectual workout I’d read French. Translating from science into English can be quite hard enough even if the writing’s limpidly transparent, given the jargon and surfeit of acronyms.” ~ Kathleen Taylor, “Why Good Writing Matters” (January 9, 2013)

http://neurotaylor.com/2013/01/09/why-good-writing-matters/ Continue reading →

SNL: The Undecided Voter (Video)

It’s worth waiting through the ad to watch the video. I promise. ~ Mike

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/undecided-voter/1418227/

SNL: Undecided Voter

KITTYCAM: What Your Sweet, Harmless Little Kitty Is Doing When You’re Not Watching [VIDEO]

Your cat has a secret life when it’s outside. The Kitty Cam project is an attempt to see the world they way your cat does when you’re not watching. The videos are ‘rough’ (cats make poor cinematographers), but as a peek into an unknown feline world, are fascinating.

The National Geographic & University of Georgia

Kitty Cams (Crittercam) Project

“A window into the world of free-roaming cats”

http://www.kittycams.uga.edu/photovideo.html

Election Night Coverage (and Call-In) On KPFT-Houston

3 Replies

I have the exciting privilege of hosting election night coverage tonight on KPFT 90.1 FM from 7PM to 10 (or maybe 11) PM CT. I’ll be joined by some smart and knowledgeable panelists (Charles Kuffner, Leo Gold and Geoff Berg). There will be race updates, interviews with some notable political personalities, and we will be taking some phone calls at 713-526-5738 to discuss people’s voting experiences whether you voted early, absentee, or on “the Day”.

You can also listen live on-line from anywhere in the country by clicking here: http://www.kpft.org/streamkpft_64.m3u

This is by far the most ambitious thing I’ve done on radio up to this point, so if you want to listen to a guy on a high wire without a net for 3-4 hours, tune in and give me a listen! Continue reading →

Election Night Coverage (and Call-In) On KPFT-Houston

2 Replies

I’m excited to announce that I will be hosting election night coverage on KPFT (Houston) 90.1 FM from 7 PM to (at least) 10 PM CST. I will be joined by a panel of knowledgable and entertaining Houston personalities, and guests will include interesting and noteworthy personages.

You can listen and participate live from anywhere around the country by going to KPFT.org and clicking on “Listen Live“.

Tentatively scheduled panelists include Geoff Berg (blogger, and host of KPFT’s Partisan Gridlock) and Houston-based political blogger Charles Kuffner (OffTheKuff.com).

Currently scheduled guests tentatively include:

Lane Lewis: Chair of the Harris County Democratic Party
Gilberto Hinojosa: Chair of the Texas Democratic Party
Brad Friedman: Founder of The Brad Blog, an acknowledged expert on voting rules, systems, and suppression around the United States.
Robert Hooks: Actor, producer, and civil rights activist.
Amanda K. Wolfe: Activist for better mass transit in Houston, and greater transparency and accountability for how Metro’s dollars are spent.

One of the aspects of this show to which I am most looking forward is taking calls from listeners in Houston and around the country in order to hear about their election experiences. Whether you voted in Houston or Hastings-on-Hudson. Whether you voted on election day, or early voted, or absentee voted, we’ll want to hear from you. Was it easy or hard? Was the ballot easily understandable or almost unintelligible? Did you feel welcome at the polls, or were you bothered by poll watchers?

I hope you’ll be listening and participating.

“So papa, how do you like the iPad we got you?” [VIDEO HUMOR]

From bisteinee (Youtube)

Papa, how do you like the iPad we got you?

Papa, how do you like the iPad we got you?

So papa, how do you like the iPad we got you?

She: “Hey Dad, I didn’t ask you yet, but how do you like the new IPad we gave you yesterday as a birthday present?”
He: “I like.”
She: “You cool with handling the apps?”
He: “Hm…? What apps? Could you step aside, please?”
She: [Stares]
He: “What?”

Avoid And Report Intimidation At The Polls: Two Suggestions

Bob Krause

Bob Krause ‏@KrauseForIowa

“@CanzoneriSally If you learn of voter intimidation call Election Protection Project at 866-OUR-VOTE. Nonpartisan & doing great work.” #p2

M. Naz

M. Naz ‏@Mozi_N

If ANYONE suspicious confronts you @ a voting location asking 2C your ID, pull out your camera phone,video them&interrogate them instead.

LAST DAY TO REGISTER TO VOTE. Then, Remember to VOTE!

NOTE – Additional voter and registration info is available at this tab (and be sure to check sub-menus available at the tab): “VOTER & Political Info And Resources“

No matter where you live, when you go to vote, remember these suggestions:

Know the voting rules and dates for your county (which may vary from your state)
Know the ID requirements (Photo? Voter registration card? Utility bill with address?)
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS! Don’t be intimidated by poll watchers whose main objective is to keep you from voting.

Continue reading →

Rachel Maddow Masterpiece Theater: She schools the Koch Bros. [VIDEO]

1 Reply

ALSO, for your Rachel viewing pleasure:

Curiosity has shown us one of the best reasons to go to Mars: Such a beautiful world should not be dead. [VIDEO]

This color panorama shows a 360-degree view of the landing site of NASA’s Curiosity rover, including the highest part of Mount Sharp visible to the rover. That part of Mount Sharp is approximately 12 miles (20 kilometers) away from the rover.

This image is from a series of test images to calibrate the 34-millimeter Mast Camera on NASA’s Curiosity rover. It was taken on Aug. 23, 2012 and looks south-southwest from the rover’s landing site.
The gravelly area around Curiosity’s landing site is visible in the foreground. Farther away, about a third of the way up from the bottom of the image, the terrain falls off into a depression (a swale). Beyond the swale, in the middle of the image, is the boulder-strewn, red-brown rim of a moderately-sized impact crater. Father off in the distance, there are dark dunes and then the layered rock at the base of Mount Sharp. Some haze obscures the view, but the top ridge, depicted in this image, is 10 miles (16.2 kilometers) away.
Scientists enhanced the color in one version to show the Martian scene under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain. A raw version is also available.
The 34-millimeter Mastcam takes images with lower resolution, but a much wider field of view than the 100-millimeter Mastcam. A sharper version of the same scene from the telephoto 100-millimeter Mastcam can be seen at PIA16104.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A chapter of the layered geological history of Mars is laid bare in this postcard from NASA’s Curiosity rover. The image shows the base of Mount Sharp, the rover’s eventual science destination.
This image is a portion of a larger image taken by Curiosity’s 100-millimeter Mast Camera on Aug. 23, 2012. See PIA16104. Scientists enhanced the color in one version to show the Martian scene under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain.
For scale, an annotated version of the figure highlights a dark rock that is approximately the same size as Curiosity. The pointy mound in the center of the image, looming above the rover-sized rock, is about 1,000 feet (300 meters) across and 300 feet (100 meters) high.
› Annotated version
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Show Announcement: “Unionizing For Dummies”, 8/8/2012

On Wednesday, August 8 from 9:05-9:25am (CDT), I’ll be doing a show which I think may be a little groundbreaking.

My guest will be Baber Mohammed, a labor organizer for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 1 in Houston.

Progressives, Democrats and various pro-labor groups and individuals can often be heard waxing eloquently about all the benefits which organized labor has brought to the American workforce, both union and non-union. One topic rarely discussed in media is, how do you start to unionize? Where does a person or small group of workers begin?

This will be the topic for a show which I’m entitling “Unionizing For Dummies™ (Part 1)”. Baber and I will be discussing some of the most basic “‘how-to’s” of unionizing, starting with the question, “Where do I begin??”

It is my hope that this will be the first in a series of “Unionizing For Dummies™” episodes.

You will be able to listen live in Houston on 90.1 FM, or online here.

The show will also be added to the Thinkwing Radio blog on the archive page shortly after it becomes available.

Join us!

SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT: Gun Rights Discussion (From Aug. 6, 2012) [AUDIO]

On Monday’s show, we had to listener comments which I felt deserved a little more research.

One caller cited an alleged quote from President Obama in which he claimed that Obama favored well-armed civilian militias:

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

I expressed doubt as to either the veracity or context of the quote. He later emailed me this link on YouTube. The video contained no larger context for the quote. I then did a little more research Continue reading →

A Discussion of the Syria Situation, Originating on KPFT

On last week’s “Community Conversations” hosted my Mike Honig (ThinkwingRadio.com), over a couple of days, there were discussions about the situation in Syria. You can hear those shows at the links below.

KPFT Open Journal – Community Conversation – Daily Call-in KPFT, 2012-07-31) (Starts @ 6m15s) TOPICS: Recap of Dispute Resolution Council (DRCHouston.org), Mitt’s International Gaffe Tour, Business ethics (is it right just because it’s legal), Occupy Movement, Indian national electric grid failure (2nd day); is it coming soon to a power grid near you? Syrian civil war, now in Aleppo. Are the echoes of WW1 still resonating violently today, particularly in the Arab world? Is it time for an interstate flood and drought control system to be built spanning the nation?
KPFT Open Journal – Community Conversation – Daily Call-in ( KPFT, 2012-08-01) (Starts @ 6m20s) TOPICS: Recap of Syrian Civil War discussion, US election integrity, using the word ‘rape’ as a metaphor: okay or insensitive? Do we need third or fourth political parties? Feeding the poor: FreeToGiveHouston.org

The caller comments and my responses during those shows encouraged one listener to initiate what became this email exchange. I am reproducing it here because it was interesting, intelligent, courteous and thoughtful, and the writer included documentation linked or attached to support the writer’s points.

Please note that the viewpoints expressed in these messages are exclusively mine, Nesta’s, or those of any sources cited, and not those of KPFT or its management.

All typos and misspellings are the errors of the respective writers and their spellcheck.

Nesta and I would be most interested in seeing what thoughts and comments which readers of this exchange might contribute.

Mike

Continue reading →

Calculators: What will your taxes be under Romney vs. Obama? What Percent Are You? (Link to INTERACTIVE Calculators)

Juxtaposition can be a really cool thing. Check out both apps.

The www.barackobama.com/tax-calculator claims to calculate what your taxes would under a Mitt Romney tax plan versus what your taxes will be under Obama in a 2nd term.

On October 19,2011 the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published this article written by Phil Izzo for the WSJ blog . It includes what is fast becoming a favorite app for seeing where you stand in the 99% (or perhaps the 1%, if you’re lucky).

You can read the article, or click on the link below to go straight to the app:

http://graphicsweb.wsj.com/documents/PERCENTMETER1110/

Also check out a version of the calculator created earlier by Robert Frank (July 28, 2011) for The Wealth Report that also looks at total wealth. Frank has now upgraded his calculator with “Frank’s Rich-O-Meter 3.0”.

__________________________________________

NOTE: This post includes portions originally posted as, “What Percent Are You? (Link to INTERACTIVE Calculators)”, published April 2, 2012.

Show Announcement 8/3/2012: Election Journalist Brad Friedman (“The Bradblog”)

Can we trust our U.S. election system?

On Friday, August 3rd from 9:05-9:55am (CDT), I will be interviewing famed honest-election journalist and advocate Brad Friedman. This will be a “Thinkwing Radio” edition, and will combine “Open Journal-Community Conversation” with “Open Journal-Community Spotlight”. (“Community Conversation” will be live from 9:05-9:30am. Brad’s interview will run from 9:30-9:55am, and will be pre-recorded.) You will be able to listen in real time in Houston on 90.1 FM, or online here.

Voter rights and election integrity have been under assault in ways that we have not seen since the 1965 Voting Rights Act became law. Why that’s the case, what can be done about it, and how you can take steps to protect your vote will be among the topics of discussion during this hour.

The show will also be added to the Thinkwing Radio blog on the archive page shortly after it becomes available.

Join us!

Show Announcement (Monday, July 30): Harris County Dispute Resolution Center Spokesperson April Tone

On Monday (7/30) from 9-9:30am (CDT), I will be sitting in for the KPFT general manager Duane Bradley to host “Open Journal – Community Conversation”. This program is a listener call-in format, and you can call with questions or comments during the show.

My guest will be April Tone of the Harris County Dispute Resolution Center (DRC).

The DRC is a free service available to all Harris County residents. It handles disputes between neighbors, families and friends, among other things.

Their web site is drchouston.org. All services are FREE to residents of Harris County (TX). They can be reached during their normal business hours at 713–755–8274

You can listen in Houston on 90.1 FM, or online here.

The show will also be added to the Thinkwing Radio blog on the archive page shortly after they become available.

Texas Primary Runoff Election: July 31, 2012 (Early Voting 7/23-27)

7 Replies

There are still some runoff elections as a result of undecided primary races. To vote in the runoffs, you must have voted in that party’s primary. [8/1/2012: This is apparently only partially accurate. Please see the CORRECTION at the bottom of this post. – Mike]

For early voting and ballot information in Harris County (my home area, encompassing most of Houston) you can visit this site: http://harrisvotes.org/.

(Non-Texas voters may find some useful info for their localities here: http://gottavote.org/en/?choose-state=true)

I try to maintain some general voting and political reference material here: https://thinkwingradio.com/political-information-and-resources/

Your state may vary, but the information in Texas is as follows:

The early voting period for the July 31^st Runoff Election is July 23 – 27, 2012.

From VoteTexas.org: Any registered voter may vote early by personal appearance (in person). Early voting by personal appearance for the July 31, 2012, Primary Runoff Election begins on July 23, 2012, and ends on July 27, 2012. You may vote at any early voting location in your county of registration.

July 31, 2012 – Primary Runoff Election

Find my polling place
Updated Statewide Republican Primary Races/Candidates
Updated Statewide Democratic Primary Races/Candidates

You can see a list of runoffs for Texas Statewide positions (US Senator, etc.) here: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/candidates/, and here: http://votetexas.gov/voting/what.

You can contact the Texas Secretary of State (SoS) about election-related questions or complaints here: http://votetexas.gov/contact/

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CORRECTION: Thanks for this submission by J J Smith, on 2012/08/01 at 6:28 AM | In reply to ThinkWingRadio.

New News for all of us….. From http://votetexas.gov/faq/registration#1120:
Q. Does a voter have to vote in the primary election in order to vote in a runoff-election or on November 6, 2012?

A. A voter does not have to vote in the May 29, 2012 primary election in order to qualify to vote in a primary run-off election on July 31, 2012, OR in the general election on November 6, 2012. If you voted in one party’s primary on May 29, 2012, then you may not vote in the other party’s runoff on July 31, 2012. Remember if you signed a petition in lieu of filing fee for a candidate for one party, you many not vote in another party’s primary or primary runoff that voting year (2012). Whether you voted or not in the primary, you may vote for whomever you choose in November. Party affiliations expire on December 31.

The Wisconsin Recall Is Old News. Or is it?

I posted the opinion below in response to Wisconsin Recall: Hijacking or Pilot Error? (June 11, 2012). For election results, I used this article as reference: Wisconsin June 5 recall election results.

I have started a recount petition here: “Re-count The Wisconsin Recall”. Please consider signing.

________________________________________________

Far be it from me to question your analytics of the situation, but I’m disappointed that more people are not asking the more fundamental question which I’ve been asking: Did Walker actually win? It is a truism that when exit polls and election results vary widely, the problem is probably with the election results (See: Ukraine, Nov. 2004). As we saw in 2000 and 2004, that rule doesn’t seem to apply in the United States.

Maybe it should. Continue reading →

Florida Government Complicit in Negligent Homicide?: Worst TB outbreak in 20 years kept secret

Worst TB outbreak in 20 years kept secret

State rushes closure of its only TB hospital in Lantana

Updated: 6:10 p.m. Sunday, July 8, 2012 | Posted: 10:52 a.m. Sunday, July 8, 2012

By Stacey Singer

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

JACKSONVILLE — The CDC officer had a serious warning for Florida health officials in April: A tuberculosis outbreak in Jacksonville was one of the worst his group had investigated in 20 years. Linked to 13 deaths and 99 illnesses, including six children, it would require concerted action to stop.

That report had been penned on April 5, exactly nine days after Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill that shrank the Department of Health and required the closure of the A.G. Holley State Hospital in Lantana, where tough tuberculosis cases have been treated for more than 60 years.

(See full article here)

Steal The Course, Or Have It Ghost-written? Two articles which make perfect companion pieces.

Roger Ebert tweeted a reference to this article on KEKA’S BLOG (studentoffortune.com: Why study? Just steal the course!). I think it makes a perfect companion piece to the one I found and posted about on November 30, 2010 which you can still read here: The Shadow Scholar: The man who writes your students’ papers tells his story.

What makes these two articles a perfect back-to-back read ? It’s because one is written by the teacher who discovers the cheating, and is forced into hard decisions about how and whether to blow the whistle. The other is about one of the enablers: A man who makes his living by writing the material these cheating students use.

A university student once posed a tough question to me. She’s in a high-performance, high-stakes, competitive school. Many of the students use unprescribed ‘uppers’ — stimulants — in order to find the extra energy, wakefulness and alertness to get the grades they feel they need to compete. This student asked me if she should consider this strategy, and if it might be considered cheating.

My responses were, respectively, No (don’t do it; the health penalties aren’t worth it) and Yes (it’s as good as outright cheating, just as if an athlete was ‘doping’). She ended up writing a class paper on the topic of the ethics of academic stimulants, and I was proud of her take on it.

We live in a tough, competitive world, and we are often faced with classic cases of ‘situational ethics’. Cheating is wrong. Enabling cheating is wrong.

“Cheaters never win, and winners never cheat”: Would that it were always so.

Framing Wars: Progressives Win One. Here’s How. [VIDEO]

Republicans — i.e., Rightwingers, Conservatives, Tea Party-types, Libertarians/Anarchists, etc. — usually win on ‘framing’.

Progressives argue about why this is. The solution for Progressives seems simple (like tell the truth and use rational arguments), but implementation of a successful strategy has proven elusive.

What the Right does is frame issues in ways which bypass people’s normal higher intellectual faculties, and instead aim for the ‘gut’. Rightwing messengers strike fear into their listeners with words and phrases having visceral impact, like freedom, ‘loss of liberty’, taxes, ‘change’, Socialist, Fascist, Communist, Death Panels, appeasement, ‘gays’, and, weirdly, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom, etc.

Some of these Rightwing political ‘hooks’ are lies, distortions, or simply make no real sense, but fear and anger are powerful motivators, and if there’s one thing the Right is great at, it’s instilling fear and anger; then these scared and angry people vote their fears.

So, how do Progressives harness this strategy? Lying and fear-mongering (not to mention staying ‘on message’) is something which are not usually part of the Progressive mind-set. Progressives just don’t do well at it.

Until now. Continue reading →

The Economic Ecosystem, by Nick Hanauer [VIDEOS]

An easily grasped summary of the ‘economic eco-system’, courtesy of Nick Hanauer, author of The Gardens of Democracy.

Show Announcement for Friday 6/15/12: “You watch, we decide what (Harris County, TX Edition)”, Reprise

On Friday’s 6/15 show (KPFT 90.1 FM, 9-9:30AM CDT), I want to discuss this incident which I reported in an earlier post, duplicated below. I think it’s important on several levels.

Is government office space now part of a ‘media spoils system’ where ‘winners’ can inflict their ideologically-based programming on a captive audience?
How many complaints about this media infliction of the winner’s ideology on innocent citizens should it take to make a change?
If the intent of this arrangement between Fox News and Don Sumners’ Tax Assessor-Collector’s office os so innocent, why not CNN or MSNBC, or ABC World News Now? Why not a mix of Public Service Announcements?
Or, heaven forbid, why not run helpful government information and pointers on accomplishing bureaucratic objectives more easily? Or even the Game Show Channel?

No, this is unquestionably an effort at propagandistic indoctrination foisted upon a public doing government business in a government office, with no other options. Imagine the uproar if a Democratic Tax Assessor-Collector was running MSNBC and/or KPFT as entertainment for the ‘customers’.

While this original blog post was written on November 17, 2011, I visited the Griggs Road office today (June 14, 2012) and confirmed that nothing has changed. It’s despicable, and we need to talk about how to embarrass Don Sumners and his office into changing their policy.

I urge you to call and complain. Write and complain. Post comments on this article and tell me if you’ve taken action, what sort, and what if any response was obtained.

You can reach Don Sumners or Fred King by calling the main office and asking for them.

Main Telephone Number:
713-368-2000

Physical Address Downtown:
1001 Preston
Houston, Texas 77002

Office Hours:
Downtown and Branch Offices normal hours,
Monday – Friday, 8:00 AM thru 4:30 PM

This article was revised 6/11/2012: Contact information for the Harris County Tax Office was added at the bottom. ~ Mike

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Back in February of 2011, I posted this tidbit about the Ohio Department of Transportation (DOT) headquarters televisions suddenly becoming Fox News-centric after John Kasich was elected governor. You can read that bit here: “You watch, we decide what” (Cleveland.com, Posted on February 4, 2011)

Don Sumners, Houston Tax Assessor-Collector

Don Sumners, Houston Tax Assessor-Collector

Apparently, similar affliction of Fox News on innocent (and helpless) government office patrons has now come to Harris County, Texas.
Continue reading →

“Don’t Let The Bullies Win”, by Shanda [VIDEOS]

Bullies are evil. Bullying is evil. Bullying creates lifelong scars. Bullying damages and even destroys lives.

It used to be possible to end bullying by growing up, changing schools or jobs, moving, or simply by changing the social circles in which you were involved.

The internet has made bullying global and, by the nature of the internet, potentially eternal and inescapable.

Totally by accident, I ran across a vicious case of cyber-bullying against this woman. It’s been going on for over a year, and since everything posted in the internet is eternal, this bullying may follow her for the rest of her life, and even beyond.

I don’t know the facts about the potentially slanderous and libelous allegations made prolifically on the internet about her, but the nature of the postings is a classic example of the evil that has been named cyber-bullying.

She recently posted two PSA videos about bullying which are obviously very personal and deserve to be seen more widely.

Continue reading →