The Redistricting Game! http://www.redistrictinggame.com/

The Redistricting Game is designed to educate, engage, and empower citizens around the issue of political redistricting. Currently, the political system in most states allows the state legislators themselves to draw the lines. This system is subject to a wide range of abuses and manipulations that encourage incumbents to draw districts which protect their seats rather than risk an open contest.

I'm really impressed by the ingenuity of the people who made this game, or rather were responsible for it being made. The game seems like a great tool in raising awareness about this issue and the same approach could work for other issues as well... such as the electoral process perhaps.

Dr Moreau flees country in rage! http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/02/president_panders_to_antimanim.php

Dunno how many listened to the State of the Union. I didn't, but I've been hearing news about it on NPR and online, even on Slashdot about Bush's proposed ban on human-animal hybrids! I cried, I feel that my hope of one day having a tail has been destroyed.

Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research, human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling or patenting human embryos.

The Cute Factor - New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/science/03cute.html?pagewanted=2&hp

The Cute Factor - New York Times: "'Cute cuts through all layers of meaning and says, Let's not worry about complexities, just love me,' said Dr. Dutton, who is writing a book about Darwinian aesthetics."

So, Guy Walks Up to the Bar, and Scalia Says... - New York Times http://www.times.com/2005/12/31/politics/31mirth.html?hp&ex=1136005200&en=1a35bc2f8ef21419&ei=5094&partner=homepage

So, Guy Walks Up to the Bar, and Scalia Says... - New York Times: "'Recently I lost my luggage,' Justice Kennedy said. 'I had to go to the lost and found at the airline, and the lady said has my plane landed yet.'

'[Laughter.]'"

a simple action

(Originally posted on American Lobotomy earlier this evening.)
I just experienced a weird act of courage a few minutes ago.  On my part, strangely
enough.
I was walking from my office to the Prudential Center (maybe 4 blocks down Boylston
St.), to pick up a few things from the See's Candy kiosk.  :-)
As I passed by the Boston Public Library, I noticed a man lying on the sidewalk.
I slowed down to check things out, as I wasn't sure if he was a passed-out drunk,
or a homeless guy who'd been beaten up, or someone who'd just passed out, or what.
Maybe some combination of the above.
Anyway, he was laying there, not moving much.  A few seconds passed, and nobody
else did anything.  Being about 5:30 pm, people were heading home, heading out to
eat, to shop, or what have you.
I continued walking toward the Prudential Center.
I'd walked about a block when I decided that something needed to be done.  I am
generally very passive, and not one to speak out much at all.  That's part of the
reason I feel people take advantage of me.  Be that as it may, I decided that if
something were to be done, I would be the one to do it.
I called 911 from my cell phone.  After being transferred three or four times (but
very quickly, thankfully), I spoke to an ambulance dispatcher.  I mentioned that
I say a man lying on the sidewalk by the pay toilet in front of the BPL at Boylston
and Exeter Streets.  I mentioned that I wasn't sure of his condition, but that it
was cold out and nobody was doing anything about it and I thought the matter needed
looking into.  They said thanks, we'll have it checked out.
I then went into the mall and made my purchase.  The whole time I was thinking about
this man I saw lying on the sidewalk.  It made me feel uneasy not knowing what his
condition was.
Walking out of the mall a few minutes later, en route to my office, I again walked
past the library.  This time I saw a Boston Fire Department fire truck parked at
the curb, lights a-blazin'.  But I didn't see anyone lying on the sidewalk.  What
I did see, however, was that same man, sitting on a chair just inside the library's
lobby, with four Boston firefighters talking to him, presumably tending to his needs
or at least assessing the situation.
I thought several things at that moment.  I thought it was great that the people
representing the public emergency infrastructure reacted quickly.  I thought it
was sad that nobody else seemed to have helped this guy out.  Who knows how long
he'd been lying on the sidewalk, or why?  My guess is that he's a homeless drunk,
and he may have greeted today like most any other day.  I don't really know.
And who knows?  Maybe he'll spend a night at Boston City Hospital, or some other
local medical facility, get a bed and a meal, and maybe some form of rudimentary
counseling.  Maybe the local cops, EMTs, and nurses know this guy, know his spiel,
and treat it as a routine evening event: another homeless drunk in a big American
city.  Maybe the firefighters checked him out and, by now, less than an hour after
I first saw the guy, he's back on the streets, sitting on some heating grate in
Copley Square, having convinced the emergency crew that he was OK and needed to
sleep it off.  I'll never know.  I don't know if this has happened to this guy countless
times before.  Did I make a difference?  I can only shrug.
I've seen this kind of thing for years, and I thought I was inured to it.  Every
place I've lived as an adult - Buffalo, Cambridge, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco
- they've all had, and have, homeless populations of varying stripes.  Everyone
has a condition, a situation, a history, a story.  This was just another page in
this man's life.
Maybe it's just me, assuaging my white, middle-class guilt.
But now it has me thinking, really pondering my place in the world.  Thinking about
social inequities, and about the confluence and incongruence of wealth and squalor
in a place like Boston.
And it also makes me glad I finally did something about what I always see and yet
always let myself ignore.
How strange, and also cliched, that I feel this and write this during the hustle
and bustle of the holiday season, in this, the wealthiest and most selfish nation
on earth.
This also makes me think about the values I will pass on to my children.  Things
like: treat everyone with the same respect as you'd like to be treated.  Don't be
afraid to speak out about something you really believe.  And understand the power
of a single action, and understand too that it can be multiplied.
Happy Holidays.

Gained In Translation

Via Kevin Drum, from the L.A. Times:

...If you're looking for a gift that bespeaks elegance and taste, you might try Spam. The luncheon meat might be the subject of satire back home in the U.S., but in South Korea, it is positively classy.

G.A.S. Inflames

Via Josh Marshall, video of House Democrats very vocally protesting the extension of the extorting voting period for the G.A.S. Act. It's a tiny bit inspiring.