Let's not get caught up in short-term thinking here. Whether or not you think creditors of a company ought to be able to bargain hard for their money (I do), companies that make money and invest wisely for the future survive, and the ones that don't, generally don't. What we do now may be complicated, but how we got here is not. All this hand-wringing over whether these companies will technically declare bankruptcy is a distraction and enormous waste of precious time.

While in general I despise the Congress, this fellow has taken risks with no obvious monetary or electoral payoff. I don't think he's completely irrational. The only motive left is genuine interest in the Republic. So, good for him. I hope a more liberal Democrat defeats him, but if not, good enough.

Very good point. Mexico City is one of the most polluted cities on earth. (http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/26/pollution-baku-oil-biz-logistics-cx_tl_0226dirtycities.html). It only stands to reason that "young healthy adults", breathing that every day, are vastly more likely to die of influenza. After all, it's primarily a respiratory disease.

You apparently haven't heard of nanotechnology, gene therapy, batteries that recharge in seconds, the wild and exploding variety of solar generation technologies, natural language processing, etc. The revolution hasn't stopped by any means.. it's just no longer instantly understood by the masses. Anyone can understand a tank, a plane or a ship.

Start here:

http://eetimes.com/

Then here:

http://arstechnica.com/

..don't use Google news as your barometer of scientific progress. They're not quite the least common denominator of science news, but they're close.

If we start funding -basic- research again, even assuming most of the money goes to stupid stuff, at least some really fundamental breakthroughs will follow. When I read up on fusion advances a few months ago I was really shocked to find how closely the people just a few miles away in Livermore have corralled the problem. It's vaguely possible there will be still more engineering hurdles to overcome, but frankly they know so much about the problem practical fusion reactors can't be that far off. It's more a matter of funding and manpower at this point to prove out designs. That's why news like this is so welcome.. the future of the biosphere and the human race's prosperity depend upon it.

not worn the abaya or followed the ridiculous directions about spacing, and dared BMI to fire her. Tactical error.

was his space initiative, which was instantly killed by Congress. This, by the same token, is probably the thing that most impresses me about Obama. The guy thinks big! I'm not willing to forgive his lack of ardor for the defense of civil liberties over it.. but, bravo.

It's long past time the Democrats mustered a little spine and broke the will of those who'd let the country go down the tubes while sticking their fingers in their ears and singing little songs. Obsessing over the 60 vote threshold is just the latest chapter in the "oh, we can't do anything about that" saga being written in Washington.

I hate that phrase. Passionately. It should be:

We don't torture human beings. Maybe it should be we don't torture anyone or anything. Leaving off the "human being" part is a great way of euphemising a completely uncivilized act, letting us not think about what is actually taking place. Unacceptable.

My bad. I either learned wrong or the science has changed since I checked last. I was under the impression the sun would cool down until it became a red giant. In fact it's heating up. Clearly some more reading is in order ;].

Of course, so did Joe Barton. But.. here's my spiel.

1. 65 million years ago it was a lot hotter on planet earth. For all I know, some of the oil in Saudi Arabia -did- come from somewhere much further north like Siberia, back when there were big forests there.

2. Over that long period, the sun cooled somewhat, and also carbon was sequestered, removed from the biosphere and stored in oil/coal/shale/etc deposits. So, on the one hand we have less biomass now (not a huge percentage, but still, carbon in an oil field is not part of plants or animals), and on the other, yes, over geologic time deposits of this and that move around.

Some questions I don't know the answer to but would really like to know:

When we're done burning up all the oil and coal, will the average temperature on the planet go back to something like the Jurassic period?

Or will the sun's cooling have had a permanent effect, and we'll end up somewhere in between?

Or, will the biomass just suck up all that extra carbon and leave us exactly where we were, temperaturewise, so that the runup is just a statistical blip?

I don't know the answers to those questions, but I think they are the operative questions in this ongoing, interesting experiment in climatology the human race is inadvertently running :].

Let's have big companies put lots of money into a prize fund. Say, a couple billion. Then, they can have the fund give cash awards to politicians who are great patriots and otherwise awesome people who just also happen to do nice things for the corporations. Then, maybe the politicians will stay in power, and do more nice things for the corporations!

Prawgress!

Because it's the truth.

to plan always for the best-case scenario. That way you can avoid doing anything unpleasant until the absolute last minute. And by then, the disaster is usually unstoppable anyway, so you can just throw your hands up, proclaim "Ah, there was nothing anyone could have done", and wander off to your next triumph.

That was a masterpiece. Sometimes the fish really do jump into the boat.

"civil rights and the rule of law" in your description of topics on which we're free to say what we like. I have some things I say about those topics and Obama, unfortunately.