Swans on Tea

The List: Five Physics Lessons for Obama
Everyone expects the U.S. president to know the difference between Sunni and Shiite, or understand the causes of the financial meltdown. But in today’s high-tech world, many critical issues have more to do with electrons than economics. Here are five short physics lessons for President-elect Obama from the author [...]

but there’s this
Mayor In Russia Says He Can See Sarah Palin Showering From His House
Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, has said that she can see Russia from her house. Across the Bering Strait in Provideniya Bay sits the town of Provideniya, Russia and its mayor Dimitri Andropov. He says that he can [...]

Voting-day giveaways. Krispy Kreme giving away free donuts. Ben & Jerry’s giving away free ice cream (between 5 and 8 p.m.) and Starbucks giving out free coffee. Ostensibly to those sporting “I voted” stickers.
However …
Handy said there is a federal statute that prohibits any reward for voting.
Starbucks’ good deed can be [...]

Don’t try to understand this
Just knock, ring and canvass
Soon we’ll be votin’ high and wide
Obama Takes Lead in Galactic Polls
M83, known sometimes as the “Southern Pinwheel”, is a more complicated case, as its electoral votes are divided following Interstellar Congressional districts. The rural regions continue to hold out for McCain, with disaffected liberals in the [...]

McCain’s Cosmological Breakthrough: Unreality Is Expanding
Gov. Sarah Palin, campaigning, she said, in “real America,” which apparently includes part of North Carolina, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, calling for a media investigation to determine whether Americans are real or not, and today, McCain all-around best surrogate Nancy Pfotenhauer (pronounced — Foe-Ten-How-er, like proton power), said that parts of [...]

The Big To-Do List–Scientific Challenges Facing the Next President
This month marks the 50th anniversary of NASA, which was launched a year after the Soviet Union lofted Sputnik into orbit, a feat that threatened to accelerate the communist rival’s lead over the U.S. in spaceflight technology. It’s probably fair to ask whether any U.S. president might [...]

Check out yesterday’s “PhD Comic” comparing the average salaries of University administrators, professors, grad students and football coaches.
Here’s a different graphic, focusing on the professors and coaches

(sort of my own mini cartoon-off, like between Randall Monroe and Farley Katz)

When I was in Dulles airport the other day, I noticed a few of the airport stores had full-size cutouts of Obama, McCain and Palin outside their stores. No Biden. Either he was being stiffed for some reason, or there’s someone out there with a Biden fetish, stealing the figures.
That thought [...]

I’m sorry, this is abuse. You want 12A, next door.
Day of reckoning for doomsday lawsuit
Basically the decision came down to an issue of jurisdiction: Wagner and a co-plantiff made their claim under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). But NEPA only applies to “major federal actions,” and the judge said that the US contribution [...]

Why government MUST invest in fundamental research
Basic research is not a place where “the market” tends to show interest.
Problem number one is that it typically takes 20-30 years - in best case scenario to see “returns” on fundamental discoveries. Often discoveries pave the way to other discoveries, and so forth, which eventually trickle down to [...]

Physics for Future Presidents apparently doesn’t include reflections.

I’ve made only a few few political posts, and most of those that touched on the upcoming elections have either been tongue-in-cheek or nonpartisan. But (to quote Tom Lehrer) I will digress, momentarily, from the mainstream of this evening’s symposium.
I can’t vote for the McCain-Palin ticket. If you don’t care why this is, [...]