dox^2

Quick.  How do you make a hardcore, Bush-loving, Republican's head explode?

Oh yeah, this way:

Republican John McCain pledged to take the lead in combating global climate change if elected president in a speech that set him apart from the policies of President George W. Bush.

In remarks he prepared to give at a wind technology firm in Portland, Oregon, on Monday, the Arizona senator said he would seek international accords to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and would offer an incentive system to make businesses in the United States cleaner.

"The facts of global warming demand our urgent attention, especially in Washington," McCain said in remarks he planned to give at the Vestas Wind Technology plant.

This is also further proof that evolution exists.

I keep hearing that once it is official when Clinton has dropped out of the race that the Democratic Party will have to undergo a healing process.  I also keep hearing that the easy way of doing this is for Obama to make Clinton the VP on the ticket.

But the way this campaign has gone on the left side of the aisle, you really have to sense the canyon that healing process will have to cross is wide.  And as Novak reports, a VP nod just ain't going to happen:

Close-in supporters of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign are convinced he never will offer the vice presidential nomination to Sen. Hillary Clinton for one overriding reason: Michelle Obama.

The Democratic front-runner's wife did not comment on other rival candidates for the party's nomination, but she has been sniping at Clinton since last summer. According to Obama sources, those public utterances do not reveal the extent of her hostility.

A footnote: Support is growing in Democratic ranks for Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland as vice president. He would bring to the ticket maturity (66 years old), experience (six terms in Congress) and moderation (rated "A" by the National Rifle Association). He is very popular in Ohio, a state Republicans must carry to elect a president.

So the question is going to be can the Democratic Party heal?  My guess:  Most likely.  If McCain could heal the Republican Party -- my guess is that it will happen with the Democrats.

But if this holds true...

A sizable proportion of Democrats would vote for John McCain next November if he is matched against the candidate they do not support for the Democratic nomination. This is particularly true for Hillary Clinton supporters, more than a quarter of whom currently say they would vote for McCain if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee.

...Obama has his work cut out for him.  Or it is game, set, match for McCain.

Real Climate had a pretty good article a few weeks ago about Edward Lorenz, who recently died.  The article speaks of Lorenz's butterfly effect, atmospheric modeling, and chaotic systems.

The article is definitely worth reading, but I found the last two paragraphs very insightful:

...how can climate be predictable if weather is chaotic? The trick lies in the statistics. In those same models that demonstrate the extreme sensitivity to initial conditions, it turns out that the long term means and other moments are stable. This is equivalent to the 'butterfly' pattern seen in the figure above being statistically independent of how you started the calculation. The lobes and their relative position don't change if you run the model long enough. Climate change then is equivalent seeing how the structure changes, while not being too concerned about the specific trajectory you are on.

Another way of saying it is that for the climate problem, the weather (or the individual trajectory) is the noise. If you are trying to find the common signal that is a signature of a particular forcing then averaging over a number of simulations with different weather works rather well. (There is a long standing quote in science - "one person's noise is another person's signal" which is certainly apropos here. Climate modellers don't average over ensemble members because they think that weather isn't important, they do it because it gives robust estimates of the signal they are usually looking for.)

Changes in the eye over populations and time... 

These soldiers are (hopefully) fighting in the name of everything that makes this country great...  including the right to believe whatever or in nothing if you wish.

Here is a guy taking it to the establishment.

It eventually came out in Iraq in 2007, when he was in a firefight. Hall was a gunner on a Humvee, which took several bullets in its protective shield. Afterward, his commander asked whether he believed in God, Hall said.

"I said, 'No, but I believe in Plexiglas,"' Hall said. "I've never believed I was going to a happy place. You get one life. When I die, I'm worm food."

The issue came to a head when, according to Hall, a superior officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, threatened to bring charges against him for trying to hold a meeting of atheists in Iraq. Welborn has denied Hall's allegations.

It is a shame there is this religious undertone in the military.  I understand tradition.  I understand the religious motives of people about to go into battle because of the unforeseen outcome.  But this country is founded on the premise of "freedom of religion" when it comes to our government.  And if some military personnel consider it their duty to berate other members of our military because of their atheist beliefs, this will come to a head in the court system.

My guess is that this will go all the way to the Supreme Court and hopefully the outcome will be a positive one for those who wish to fight for this country and not be criticized for their right not to believe in a god.

The more I see Ben Stein in these interviews, the more I understand the term: talking points.

New Scientist has a great piece on evolution myths and misconceptions.

This is why you have to both love and hate lawyers.

Definitely worth your time.

Looks like one of the interviews in the movie Expelled was made with a person who has made anti-semitic comments in the past.  But don't worry -- you should just look past that in the argument they are making against Darwinism.