I take this as good news
Email I received at work:

The expiration date for the following user has been updated to: 2010-07-15.

Mattison Narramore [XXXXXXX]

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Vote Martha Coakley
Election Tuesday. It is up to you. Go vote for Martha Coakley for US Senate.

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Orphan's Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is only a two weeks away (Thursday, Nov 26th). Adria and I are thinking of hosting an orphan's Thanksgiving for our friends who don't have family in the area, or those that prefer to avoid theirs. If you are interested in joining us please drop me a line. It will be a pot luck dinner. I'll be making my ham with cranberry and Burgundy sauce. There will probably be a turkey for poultry eaters and if we have vegetarians I suspect there will be some Tofurkey.

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The Glenn Beck Appendix Connection


This is hilarious!!

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Battlestar Galactica - The Plan
Adria is going to be out of town this weekend and I'm going to watch Battlestar Galactica - The Plan on Saturday evening around 7pm. If anyone would like to join me please drop me a line. With sufficient interest there could be pot luck or at the very least ordering sushi or pizza.

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Local Elections
Senate: Flip a coin between Attorney General Martha Coakley and Congressman Mike Capuano. I think I'll choose Capuano, but it either would be good.
Update: The special election Senate primary is not today.


PDS's endorsements for local races.
* Ward 4 School Committee - Christine Rafal
* Ward 5 School Committee - Mark Niedergang
* Ward 6 Alderman - Rebekah Gewirtz
* Alderman at Large - Luis Morales
* Alderman at Large - Dennis Sullivan
* Alderman at Large - Bill White

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Flu Vaccines
For the benefit of my readers who live do believe in germ theory, don't see socialist hiding under your bed, and also live in Massachusetts.

• Oct. 16: 109,854 doses for children under age 18, contacts of infants younger than 6 months, pregnant women, health-care workers, people with contact with pregnant women in their third trimester.
• Oct. 23: 165,137 doses for children under 18, contacts of infants younger than 6 months, pregnant women, health-care workers, people with contact with pregnant women in their third trimester.
• Nov. 13 to Nov. 20: 389,578 doses for public clinics. The doses will be available for all children and adults under age 24, contacts of children under 6 months, pregnant women, contacts of pregnant women in their third trimester, health-care workers, adults age 25 to 64 with high risk conditions.
• Nov. 27 to Dec. 11: 612,555 doses for public clinics.
• Dec. 18 to Jan. 8: 1.7 million doses for public clinics for all individuals.

I believe this means I can get the vaccine in mid November, and Adria can get it next week.

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Nobel, Evolution, and Telomeres
The Nobel Prize in Physiology was awarded to Elizabeth Blackhorn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak for discovering the functions of telomeres. Telomeres are repetitive non-coding sections of DNA at the end of chromosomes. They protect the chromosome from damage like a plastic tip keeps shoe laces from fraying. They also play a crucial role in cell division.

Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes while all other great apes have 24 pairs. This means that the common ancestor of all great apes had 24 pairs. An ancestor in our linage however had a mutation that fused two of our chromosomes together reducing our number to 23. If this happens we should expect the remains of telomeres to be found in the middle of one of our chromosomes. We should also expect genes on either side of that chromosome to match up with 2 separate chromosomes in our closest relatives the chimpanzees.

When we sequenced the human genome, what do you think we found in the middle of human chromosome #2? When we sequenced the chimpanzee genome what genes do you think we found in chimp chromosome #12 and #13? (Hint: The International Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium has re-numbered the them to #2a and #2b.)

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Nobel Laureate President Obama
President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." This recognizes Obama's standing in the world and provides America with some extra political capital for accomplishing our nation's goals. As a bonus it is driving the Republicans bat shit.

Other than partisan jealousy the primary complaint from Republicans is that President Obama hasn't accomplished much yet. While he has made a major break through in negotiations with Iran and begun restoring America's reputation there is much more to do. However, if you look at past winners this doesn't make President Obama's award that unusual. Lech Wałęsa won in 1983 but Poland didn't break away from communism unil the 1990s. Desmod Tutu won in 1984 but apartheid wasn't dismantled until 1993. The Dalai Lama won in 1989, is Tibet free yet?

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I meet someone online once and tentacles were involved


Hat tip to Wil Wheaton

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Buffy Meets the Dweeb from Twighlight

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Aliens appologize for past mistakes

Extra-terrestrials have today conceded that a decades-long programme of abduction to gather detailed knowledge of human society and biology might have produced better results had they looked beyond suggestible loners with a history of mental health problems.

http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2009/09/01/aliens-regret-policy-of-only-abducting-lone-weirdos/

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If I were Obama's Chief Political Strategist
If I were Obama's Chief Political Strategist here is how I would respond to the town hall screamers. Grab a couple progressive policy wonks and a couple progressive Congresscritters put them in a room to write a simple health care policy. Something like providing the health insurance of the congress to all Americans at a sliding scale payable along with income tax. Also prohibit some of the hideous insurance practices such as pre-existing condition exclusions and dropping patients when they get diagnosed with a disease.

I'd present this fully formed, good, and simple proposal then I'd send Obama on a 50 state tour to use his star power and repeat the old Republican mantra "up or down vote."

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ISO TV Series
Adria and I just watched the 8th episode of True Blood. Now we have to wait a week between new episodes and our other TV series don't start until late September. Anyone want to recommend a new series to try out? Ideally we'd like one with a couple seasons that could be downloaded from amazon.com/unbox, but we can be flexible.

For context other series we like include: Buffy, House, Heroes, Jericho, Lost, The 4400, The Mentalist, Six Feet Under, Sopranos, and Survivors.

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Liar or Fool: Conservatives on Healthcare (again)
As continues to be come clear, honestly is not a conservative value. At this point it seems conservatives have no shame when it comes to health care lies.

“People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless,” the editorial claims.

Of course, that same Stephen Hawking who wouldn’t have a chance in the United Kingdom was in fact born in the United Kingdom, has lived his entire life in the United Kingdom and lives there still today, at the ripe old age of 67. (He was in fact hospitalized earlier this month.) Hawking is, you might say, living, breathing proof that these people are first-class fools.

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Sexual Humanist
I'm a sexual humanist, how about you?

Hat tip to Friendly Atheist

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Liar or Fool: Conservatives on Healthcare
If you wonder what would happen if medicare was run by the government perhaps you should begin by typing "wiki medicare USA" into your browser, then read the first paragraph of the first page. You should also lose your right to be taken seriously as a TV pundit or economist.

Arthur Laffer, conservative economist:
If you like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they're run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government.

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Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over, or who meet other special criteria. Medicare operates as a single-payer health care system. The Social Security Act of 1965 was passed by Congress in late-spring of 1965 and signed into law on July 30, 1965, by President Lyndon B. Johnson as amendments to Social Security legislation. At the bill-signing ceremony President Johnson enrolled former President Harry S. Truman as the first Medicare beneficiary and presented him with the first Medicare card.

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Good News from North Korea
Euna and Laura Ling, the two American journalist who having been imprisoned in North Korea since St Patrick's day have received a "special pardon" and will be coming home. In a nice bit of diplomacy, Obama sent President Clinton to negotiated the release.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/fantastic-by-dday-euna-lee-someone-with.html

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Listening to Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Coyote: "Libertarians: Anarchists that want police protection from their slaves."

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Last living Plains Indian War Chief
It is nice that the Medal of Freedom is now a mark of achievement not failure this year. Lots of deserving people but this one jumped out at me just basic coolness.

Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, the last living Plains Indian war chief . . . A veteran of World War II, Medicine Crow accomplished during the war all of the four tasks required to become a “war chief,” including stealing fifty Nazi SS horses from a German camp.

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