CapitalistImperialistPig

One of my commenters took exception to the description of the pyramids as an uber boondoggle, and suggested those who thought so must be "ignorant." Luckily, the meeting notes for the planning session for one of these monuments has survived, and a freedom of information act request to the Department of Antiquities pried them loose. Here they are as translated and edited by your humble correspondent. If I may coin a phrase - "I report, you decide." My comments in italics. MEETING NOTES: Pyramid Planning ( The Great Pyramid of Bushufu, here discussed, is widely considered to be one of the eleven wonders of the ancient world ) Dramatis Personae: Bushufu, Pharaoh of Egypt Cheneops, His Grand Vizier Imhorove, Advisor Khahren (Nefertits) Advisor Kheneops: So the plan is we spend the next few decades piling up 4 million tons of rock to bury you in? Bushufu: Huh? Imhorove: He means build a giant pyramid for you to ascend to spea...

One of the most hyped stories of the past few days has been that of how high IQ children's brains grow differently that those of average children. The brains of highly intelligent children develop in a different pattern from those with more average abilities, researchers have found after analyzing a series of imaging scans collected over 17 years. I think this is interesting, but a high degree of skepticism is probably appropriate. Like the liberal vs. conservative preschooler story of a week or so ago, this one has a narrow base: The finding is based on 307 children in Bethesda, Md., an affluent suburb of Washington. Starting in 1989, they were given regular brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging, a project initiated by Dr. Judith Rapoport of the National Institute of Mental Health. So what did they find: This set of scans has been analyzed by Philip Shaw, Dr. Jay Giedd and others at the institute and at McGill University in Montreal. They looked at changes in the thicknes...

I make fun of Gregg from time to time, so it's only fair that I offer praise when he says something right. He diagnoses NASA's disease pretty well in It's the Earth, Stupid . At this point, the shuttle exists almost solely to service the space station, while the station exists almost solely to give the space shuttle a destination to fly to. Two space shuttles have exploded on national television. Yet the program drags on owing to the desire of aerospace contractors, and members of Congress who represent shuttle districts, for launches that cost nearly $1 billion each. The shuttle has operated just once since the Columbia loss in February 2003. It may or may not fly in 2006. Most experiments conducted aboard the space station could be done at far less expense by automated probes. "Life science" research on the astronauts themselves is the sole mission that requires people to be present, but even this boils down to billions of dollars spent for astronauts to take e...

Lubos Motl had a reference to the current unfortunate state of particle physics in the US, and its origins in the demise of the Superconducting Supercollider, which was to have been a giant collider built in Texas. To refresh my memory, I looked up the Wikipedia article on the SSC. I was a member of the APS division of particles and fields in those days, an I had followed the SSC story closely, even participating in a very minor way in some of the debate. What I found in the Wikipedia article didn't match my memory of the events, so I looked a bit further. What I found was upsetting. The Wikipedia article was little more than an Stalinist version of the real SSC history. The word Stalinist is a general derogatory epithet, so let me make explicit what I mean by it here: "making shit up to fit an ideological agenda." Here are the most offensive sentences: The project was eventually canceled by Congress in 1993 due to heavy pressure from President Bill Clinton.[...

A GOP Congressional candidate recently visited Bagdad, and posted a picture of a peaceful street scene to show how well the war was going. The only problem - the picture was evidently taken in Turkey . Such a weird combination of stupidity and duplicity perfectly captures the combination of stupidity and duplicity characterizing today's GOP. This combination deserves its own name. How about "dupidity?" No, let's save that for those believing that crap - and go with Stuplicity .

Want to really mobilise anti-immigrant feelings in the US? Get up a big demonstration with tens of thousands of people shouting in Spanish and waving Mexican flags. Not only does that seem to demonstrate how many illegal immigrants are living among us, but it also shows how they fail to share our culture or loyalties. It's no coincidence that Drudge and the other right wing suspects emphasize exactly these points. It's a bit harder for me to figure out why immigrant rights people seem to think these demonstrations are a good thing.

Also via Huffington, The Wall Street Journal explains why average Americans manage to contain their enthusiasm for the "Bush Boom": Since the end of 2000, gross domestic product per person in the U.S. has expanded 8.4%, adjusted for inflation, but the average weekly wage has edged down 0.3%. That contrast goes a long way in explaining why many Americans tell pollsters they don't believe the Bush administration when it trumpets the economy's strength. What is behind the divergence? And what will change it? Some factors aren't in dispute. Since the end of the recession of 2001, a lot of the growth in GDP per person -- that is, productivity -- has gone to profits, not wages. This reflects workers' lack of bargaining power in the face of high unemployment and companies' use of cost-cutting technology. Since 2000, labor's share of GDP, or the total value of goods and services produced in the nation, has fallen to 57% from 58% while profits' share has r...