Marc Valdez Weblog

Elsevier has always done what it can to overcharge everyone:

In 2008, under bipartisan pressure from Congress to ensure that all Americans would be able to access the results of taxpayer-funded biomedical research, the US National Institutes of Health instituted a Public Access Policy.

...The policy has provided access for physicians and their patients, teachers and their students, policymakers and the public to hundreds of thousands of taxpayer-funded studies that would otherwise have been locked behind expensive publisher paywalls, accessible only to a small fraction of researchers at elite and wealthy universities.

The policy has been popular – especially among disease and patient advocacy groups fighting to empower the people they represent to make wise healthcare decision, and teachers educating the next generation of researchers and caregivers.

But the policy has been quite unpopular with a powerful publishing cartels that are hellbent on denying US taxpayers access to and benefits from research they paid to produce. This industry already makes generous profits charging universities and hospitals for access to the biomedical research journals they publish. But unsatisfied with feeding at the public trough only once (the vast majority of the estimated $10 billion dollar revenue of biomedical publishers already comes from public funds), they are seeking to squeeze cancer patients and high school students for an additional $25 every time they want to read about the latest work of America’s scientists.

Unable to convince the NIH to support their schemes, the powerful publishing lobby group – the Association of American Publishers – has sought Congressional relief. ... A new AAP backed bill – the “Research Works Act” – was just introduced by Reps Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Darrell Issa (R-CA). Its text is simple and odious:

No Federal agency may adopt, implement, maintain, continue, or otherwise engage in any policy, program, or other activity that: (1) causes, permits, or authorizes network dissemination of any private-sector research work without the prior consent of the publisher of such work; or (2) requires that any actual or prospective author, or the employer of such an actual or prospective author, assent to network dissemination of a private-sector research work.

This bill would not only end the NIH’s Public Access Policy, but it would forbid any effort on the part of any agency to ensure taxpayer access to work funded by the federal government.

Why, you might ask, would Carolyn Maloney, representing a liberal Democratic district in New York City that is home to many research institutions, sponsor such a reactionary piece of legislation that benefits a group of wealthy publishers at the expense of the American public? Hmm. Wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with the fact that she’s the biggest recipient of campaign contributions from the publishing industry, would it?

According to MapLight, which tracks political contributions, Dutch publisher Elsevier and its senior executives made 31 contributions to members of the House in 2011, of which 12 went to Representative Maloney. This includes contributions from 11 senior executives or partners, only one of whom is a resident of her district.

It is inexcusable that a simple idea – that no American should be denied access to biomedical research their tax dollars paid to produce – could be scuttled by a greedy publisher who bought access to a member of Congress.

...Several people have commented that the language of the bill I quoted refers to “private sector work”, thinking that this means it does not refer to work funded by the US Government.

...They are using intentionally misleading language to distinguish works funded by the government but carried out by a non-governmental agency as “private sector research”. Thus, under this bill, works funded by the NIH but carried at a University would be “private sector research”.

This language is in there because the US Copyright Act specifically denies copyright protection to works carried out by federal agencies, and the authors of this bill did not want it to be seen as amending Copyright Act, something that would have ensured its defeat.

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It's been cold up there recently, but the cold weather will break soon for them:

Veteran Fairbanks photographer Eric Muehling posted this great video of ice fog at 50 below. It includes a shot from Farmers Loop of the downtown power plant plume, which is mostly fog that forms from water vapor, and a dashboard view of local roads on a chilly winter day.

Muehling compressed four hours into 90 seconds, which is plenty of time to capture the essence of the cold conditions.

..."It's interesting that the high-altitude clouds appear to be moving to the east," he said. The plume is moving west.

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One of the comical sides of watching old people live their lives is watching how they can't manage the number, frequency, and variety of pills that they are required to take. All the little pill boxes with bright day-of-the-week labels, and all the rest.

I couldn't figure out why I was bedeviled by a headache this week. Finally figured it out. They changed my blood pressure medication recently, and so now the pill looks similar to another pill. Instead of taking BP medication I was taking Viagra, one of whose side effects is a headache.

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It would be interesting to know what the most-common real-world effects of the Patriot Act have been. Unfortunately, such knowledge would likely require solitary confinement, with occasional waterboarding:

Former New Mexico governor and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson called for the Patriot Act to be repealed Sunday night during a national American Civil Liberties Union conference.

...“Ten years ago, we learned that the fastest way to pass a bad law is to call it the ‘Patriot Act’ and force Congress to vote on it in the immediate wake of a horrible attack on the United States,” Johnson said. “The irony is that there is really very little about the Patriot Act that is patriotic. Instead, it has turned out to be yet another tool the government is using to erode privacy, individual freedom and the Constitution itself.”

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The forecasts say "eat my dust."
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I think everyone was horrified by the Light Rail accident on Saturday:

The train, carrying about 50 passengers, was southbound on the Meadowview line at 4:10 p.m. when it hit the SUV on 26th Avenue and pushed it 20 yards. The train stayed on the tracks, but the SUV flipped upside down, said Sgt. Andrew Pettit, Sacramento police spokesman.

Investigators looked at video and other evidence from the crash site and confirmed initial reports - that the driver of the SUV drove around a 26th Avenue crossing arm just before the vehicle was hit broadside by the Sacramento Regional Transit train, police said Sunday.

Three fatalities, and numerous injuries.

Out of curiosity, I drove down to the crossing tonight. Westbound on 26th Avenue, it looks like there is enough space for drivers to reconsider going around the crossing arms even if they had already started to do so.

But eastbound is another problem. As others have mentioned, visibility is limited. The street is hemmed in a bit, and there are sound walls right next to the track, so you might not see a train until you are on the tracks:

"It's crazy behavior, but I understand why," Tolmach said. "It's another form of road rage. You can't predict how long you'll be trapped."

In several heavily traveled neighborhoods, including south Sacramento, Rosemont and Rancho Cordova, the delay can be doubled, because light-rail trains share the same rail corridor as freight trains, and trains sometimes pass through on separate tracks just seconds apart.

Saturday's fatal crash happened during what may have been a perfect storm for frustration and danger at a rail crossing. The 26th Avenue crossing arms were down continuously for 7 1/2 minutes while first one, then another freight train passed on two of the corridor's four tracks, according to on-site recorders, Sacramento Regional Transit officials said.

After the second freight train cleared the crossing, recorders show there was a 37-second gap, with crossing arms remaining down, before a light-rail train came through on its track at an estimated 50-55 mph.

During those 37 seconds, authorities said, video shows that the Nissan Pathfinder pulled onto the wrong side of the road to angle past the down crossing arm. It may have jumped a four-inch plastic center divider just west of the crossing

Interestingly, it looks like the engineers who designed the crossing foresaw the problem. That four-inch plastic center divider on the median of the street on the west side of the tracks is there specifically to discourage people from even thinking about going around the crossing arms. The engineers anticipated the frustration that might conceivably happen. Maybe the barrier should have been six inches, or even eight inches tall. Maybe the center divider doesn't extend far enough from the crossing (but how to avoid inconveniencing people using driveways near the track?) Maybe. Maybe a portion of the sound wall should be demolished in order to enhance visibility. Maybe. But maybe there's only so much engineers can do. People just make stupid decisions sometimes.
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I drifted asleep Sunday evening in front of the TV, and awoke to RuPaul's Drag U. Apart from 'Breaking Bad', RuPaul's shows are the best on TV:

The episodes start with RuPaul introducing three "students" to their assigned drag professors for each episode. The students meet RuPaul, who explains the competition, and then asks them to "walk this way" to the Drag Lab. The students then meet their professors, who ask them some intimate questions and try to find out what has brought them to Drag U. RuPaul presents each student with their "Dragulator" image and name, and lets the students and professors start working on their images.

And RuPaul's 'Word of the Day' slays me too. Just some random word. Because education enhances attitude!


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Nearly collided with a pickup truck on the way into work this morning. The driver of said truck simply drifted into the lane where I was, forcing me to take evasive action. No signal, no hurry, no glances around. Perched as high as the driver was, I think the driver simply didn't see me.

First there was Victoria Evarenka and Maria Sharapova. Maria Sharapova always looked like the kind of competitor who could reach into your chest and seize your beating heart and eat it without ketchup. Except that's what Evarenka did to her. Short and brutal match!

And then there was Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. I finally went to bed at 3:00 a.m. after two very-long sets, but woke again at 5:00 a.m., and found to my horror that the game was still going on. Indeed, Nadal's Sisyphean struggle to defeat Djokovic turned into the longest match in Australian Open history - nearly six hours long - and ultimately ended in Nadal's defeat.

Just amazing stuff!

Video.
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Chicago Play « Good Day Sacramento

Now a fond, fond memory!
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Time seems to whip by. I was listening to the Thunderpuss edit of this tune and realized it now qualifies as a form of dance nostalgia.
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MikeMac sends this:

Apologies for the notification e-mail, but time's a factor here. +Sarah Rippy is working emergency at the UCD Vet Hospital tonight, and a dog came in that was beaten up by another dog. Is anyone in the market for a (slightly used) dog? The owner is planning on euthanizing soon. :-\

The musical theater community is affected by the loss of Anthony Andrade from Woodland in a terrible car accident. I didn't know Anthony, but several friends did, and the loss is keener for that:

FAIRFIELD — Two Sacramento men were killed in an early morning traffic accident on westbound Interstate 80, just east of Air Base Parkway.

They are Vincente Santos, 25, and Anthony Andrade, 33, according to the Solano County Coroner’s Office.

The driver of one of the cars, Michelle Henry, 42, of Sacramento, was arrested for felony DUI and possession of a loaded firearm in her vehicle.

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Or something like that - Deborah confuses me so.
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Facing a new assault by the rest of the GOP, and an animated Romney, Newt Gingrich is looking less like a World Historical Figure and more like a bit player in Dukes of Hazzard. So, how can he pull himself out of this jam? What demon is writhing around in the minds of Floridians that Newt can exploit that Mitt can't? Illegal Haitians releasing Burmese pythons into suburban neighborhoods? Oversized yachts in Ft. Lauderdale capsizing under the amateur direction of hedge-fund managers who winter in Davos? What?:

Mitt Romney ... went after Newt Gingrich immediately and relentlessly. He scolded him, rendered him momentarily mute, and took answers about other topics and turned them into attacks on Gingrich on key issues like excessive government spending. Romney didn't just have good answers, he looked like a man in command of himself.

...Romney started right away. If a candidate can deliver a strong moment that will run throughout the next day on cable and on local news, he wins the night. You just have to be good once, and preferably early in the evening. Romney had to know that Gingrich's claim that Romney was "anti-immigrant" would come up, and it came up early. He took offense and then took a hairbrush to Gingrich's bottom. He said the attack was "repulsive," called on Gingrich to apologize for the "kind of over-the-top rhetoric that has characterized American politics for too long."

Gingrich, inexplicably continued to defend the sentiment behind the "anti-immigrant" ad that he pulled down and that Sen. Marco Rubio had criticized. It gave Romney a chance to look indignant. This provides us with a quirk of political theater: Romney, who is authentically stiff and robotic in his natural state, looked "authentic" in what was no doubt a staged moment.

Romney also finally gave his best defense yet of his taxes. After Gingrich dared him to explain his Swiss bank account, Romney launched into a riff he'd clearly tried out a few times in front of the mirror. "I think it's important for people to make sure that we don't castigate individuals who have been successful. Let's put behind us this idea of attacking me because of my money."

He was in Gingrich's face all night. He criticized Gingrich for his ambitious plans to colonize the moon. "If I had a business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I'd say, ‘You're fired.’ (Remember just a few weeks ago when Romney couldn’t say the word fired? That’s OK it was Newt he was firing.) "At another time he kneed Gingrich for pandering to local politicians, offering a new project in every state he visited. "This idea of going state to state and promising what people want to hear, promising billions, hundreds of billions of dollars to make people happy, that's what got us into the trouble we're in now. We've got to say no to this kind of spending."

During an exchange over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Gingrich offered a blustery attack on Romney's investments in the two companies. Romney pointed out that Gingrich had identical investments. "Right," was all Gingrich could say, as if being guilty of the charge he had just leveled at Romney were totally natural.

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Some hints of changes around Valentine's Day, but that seems a lifetime away.
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Tev shared this on Facebook.

People don't really seem to understand this very well. The interior states (mostly Red States) sponge off the rest of the country, and have always done so. There is no good reason for any of them to favor less federal government.

I'm happy to report my home state of New Mexico leads the list. Without the feds, NM would barely exist!

For example, what is the purpose of Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city? Does it serve a critical function? No. Does it provide an irreplaceable resource? No. Economically speaking, it's a crossroads on the high desert plateaus, and not much more. As far as the rest of the country is concerned Albuquerque could function just as well with 50,000 residents as with 500,000. Without the federal government's direction and interest it would barely have any purpose at all!

As a New Mexico native, I'm grateful to the federal government!

Holy mackerel! Today is the 35th anniversary of the date I bought my first car: the green 1970 VW Bug.

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Check out Kelsey B (together with Brooke Brzoska-Ogorek) in Eric Redd's new video! Kelsey looks awesome!

And Eric is such a great singer too!
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Jonathan shared this on Facebook.

Still going after all these years:

Former President John Tyler, born 221 years ago, still has two living grandchildren.

...So, how is it possible that a former president who died 150 years ago would still have direct descendents alive today? As it turns out, the Tyler men were known for fathering children late in life. And that math is pretty outstanding when added up:

John Tyler was born in 1790. He became the 10th president of the United States in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died in office. Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler in 1853, at age 63. Then, at the age of 71, Lyon Gardiner Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. in 1924 and four years later at age 75, Harrison Ruffin Tyler. Both men are still alive today.

...Some context on Tyler's progeny: Jane Garfield (granddaughter of James Garfield) is 99, making her the oldest living grandchild of a former president, even though Garfield took office 40 years after Tyler.

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Like fluffy colored clouds (via Wicked Thoughts):

The extraordinary sight is causing a sensation at SheepWorld, near Auckland.

Park bosses originally dyed the animals as part of breast cancer awareness week, but it proved to be such a hit with visitors that they decided to keep them as a permanent feature.

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Just a killer semi-final match between two gracious and very-evenly-matched foes.

In this video, the net intervenes.
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Wednesday evening I was over at Jetta's place, putting together short videos to answer this casting call:

David Katz Productions, a Los Angeles based film and television production company whose projects include “Kissing Strangers” and “The Dispensary” is looking for amateur comedians to join the cast of a new, hilarious docu-series that follows the lives of the amateur comedians.

-Are you the next comedian to make us laugh?

-Are you juggling the ups and downs of life, writing jokes and going to open mic nights?

If you are living to tell a joke, have a unique point-of-view and potential to be the next big stand up comedian, then we want to hear from you!

J.: OK, tell me what you think about this joke:

When I moved from New York to Tucson, I walked into a bar and told the bartender "I want a beer!" He said, "Huh?" So, I told him again, this time louder, "I want a beer!" He said, "Huh?" So I shouted, "I want a BEER!" He said, "OH!"

J.: What do you think?

M.: It's not funny.

J.: (exasperated) Do I have to explain the joke to you? You analyze these things too much! It's because of my New York accent. The bartender couldn't understand my pronunciation of 'beer'!

M.: Your accent has faded over the years. It sounds like you are asking for a beer.

J.: Whatever; let's get to filming. What are you doing?

M.: I'm trying to make this joke work better.

J.: Not now. We've got to start filming.

M.: But my joke is pretty clunky. Besides, you hardly have any material.

J.: Don't you understand? It doesn't have to be funny.

M.: It doesn't?

J.: No. It's all about getting noticed by Hollywood. If they don't think we're funny - and they probably won't - then they can put us in something else where we are better-suited.

M.: But it's a casting call for comedians. It HAS to be funny!

J.: You analyze these things too much! Let's get to filming!
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This makes me sad. We all need a place in Las Vegas that is simultaneously debauched, and yet easy-to-access for the cost-conscious traveler. Studio 54 filled that need. High-end yet inaccessible clubs may be nice to watch on TV, but can you ever get inside? I wonder what this new venture will be like?:

As Studio 54 at MGM Grand prepares to close after a decade-long run, entertainment and hotel executives this morning confirmed our earlier Vegas DeLuxe stories of the new fine dining and luxury nightlife concept that will open there in December. An Abu Dhabi property-investment company, Tasameem, is partnered in the new venture, the second Middle East group to be involved in Strip nightclub ventures.

As we previously reported, Angel Management Group, which also runs Wet Republic at MGM Grand (and its dozen properties include Pure at Caesars Palace and LAX and Savile Row at the Luxor), will convert Studio 54 into a lavish, multi-story nightclub.

The Las Vegas-based company also has announced a partnership with the London-headquartered global restaurant brand Hakkasan known for its Michelin-starred properties. A Middle East emirates property group owns Hakkasan. Vegas DeLuxe readers will recall that a similar oil-rich money group purchased half of the Light Group nightclub operations at other MGM Resorts on the Strip and also took a major position in the ownership of MGM’s CityCenter.

In a statement released this morning, AMG officials said: “The collaboration delivers an innovative concept evolving beyond Hakkasan’s original restaurant model, incorporating the best elements in dining and nightlife to create an unimaginable experience that will revolutionize the Las Vegas market."

...The new venue, Hakkasan Las Vegas set to open in December, is part of MGM’s “Grand Renovation,” a 360-degree makeover that updates MGM Grand’s guest rooms, casino floor and other entertainment, dining and nightlife experiences. The transformation will expand the size of the former venue, creating an indoor/outdoor space with views of the Strip.

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Job creators gotta do what job creators gotta do, which is to call the wahmbulance anytime anyone ferrets out the carried-interest dodge:

“All you have to do is look at the former governor of Massachusetts’ tax return — and that’s why this has become an emergency,” Reid said. “Too many families in Nevada and across the country wake up every morning wondering why the opportunities for them and their children are so scarce. Then they look at the top 1 percent and find that they have a tax rate lower than what they pay.

“The system seems to be rigged in their favor ... it’s only fair to ask why people making millions shouldn’t pay their fair share.”

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I wanted to update a graph I made last year regarding April minimum temperatures in Mina, NV.

The April minimum temperatures are shown (using adjusted data), plus a three-year running average, to guide the eye.

Why Mina? Because it is in central Nevada, with a very low population, and unaffected by urbanization and the urban heat island effect.

Why April? Because April is a rather dry month in Nevada. The greenhouse effect is dominated by water vapor. The effects of the other greenhouse gases will be more evident if water vapor levels are at a minimum.

Why Minimum Temperature? Because the effects of greenhouse gases (other than water vapor) on raising temperature will be more pronounced when turbulence is at a minimum (mostly at night).

Last time, I noticed that temperatures increased sharply starting in the mid-70's, but the HCN Version 2 record ended in 1994, so I couldn't anything more than that. The updated HCN Version 3 record ends in 2011.

Some warming at this location appears evident, but the record looks more-complicated than I thought at first.

Citation:

3.1 GHCNM (version 2):

Peterson, T.C., and R.S. Vose, 1997: An overview of the Global
Historical Climatology Network temperature database. Bulletin of
the American Meteorological Society, 78 (12), 2837-2849

3.2 GHCNM (version 3):

J. H. Lawrimore, M. J. Menne, B. E. Gleason, C. N. Williams,
D. B. Wuertz, R. S. Vose, and J. Rennie (2011), An overview of the
Global Historical Climatology Network monthly mean temperature data
set, version 3, J. Geophys. Res., 116, D19121,
doi:10.1029/2011JD016187.
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Jerry shared this on Facebook.

I like TPMs meme "Newt Gingrich Pointing At Things Condescendingly", but I think it works better just as "Newt Gingrich Pointing At Things".
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Failure has consequences! And finally the GOP is starting to talk about tax increases!

Ultimately, it all depends on how much we want to pay for our huge military. You can't have a huge military without either a huge deficit or huge taxes:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Monday suggested replacing the $600 billion in automatic defense cuts set to begin in 2013, even if Congress must do so one year at a time.

The defense cuts are looming as half of the $1.2 trillion sequestration that will kick in because of the failure late last year of the congressional deficit “supercommittee” to agree to a deficit-cutting plan.

...Cantor told reporters Monday that he wanted to try to find at least enough in offsets to restore the $60 billion in defense cuts set to take effect next year. He acknowledged that finding cuts to replace the entire $600 billion, spread out over 10 years, would be difficult, given the failure of deficit talks through 2011.

...The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), has already introduced legislation to undo the defense cuts, and has suggested that raising taxes would be preferable to allowing the sequester to go forward. McKeon later walked back those comments, stressing the need for cuts to entitlement programs.

President Obama’s Defense secretary, Leon Panetta, has warned that the across-the-board Pentagon cuts could damage the military, coming on top of $450 billion in reductions that the Defense Department is already planning to implement. Yet the president has threatened to reject any effort to undo the automatic cuts that is not part of a deficit-reduction deal that includes additional tax revenue.

...Cantor has spoken out against the automatic defense cuts since shortly after the supercommittee failed, but his push for replacing them piecemeal, if necessary, is consistent with his skepticism that major legislative compromise is possible before the November election.

“I’m hopeful that we can actually do something this year along those lines. I am also mindful of where we’ve been the last year,” he said in a reference to the repeated attempts on a deficit “grand bargain” that collapsed in the face of the wide ideological chasm over taxes and entitlement programs.

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Scientific research highlights a conundrum:

A Stanford study sheds new light on the old cliche about women having a higher tolerance for pain than men - according to tens of thousands of electronic patient records, women tend to report much more severe pain than men, no matter the source of the pain.

The study being released today found that when asked to rate their pain on a scale of 0 to 10 - with 0 being no pain at all, and 10 being the worst pain imaginable - women on average scored their pain 20 percent more intense than men.

The results held up across a wide variety of diseases and injuries, including back and neck pain, digestive disorders, sinus infections, and even ankle strains and sprains. In almost every category researchers looked at, women reported more pain than men.

..."If I lined up 10 men and 10 women and I took a hammer and broke their legs exactly the same, the 10 women would report more pain than men. And maybe that's just the way women use the pain rating scale, but even knowing that is important," said Dr. Jon Levine, a UCSF rheumatologist who studies the causes and mechanisms of pain.

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Once Newt is President, we'll have to contend with stuff like this:

Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama has won an apology from the country's free to air broadcaster after it ran a personality competition in which he came second.

Fiji TV subsequently changed the result of the text vote to give Bainimarama the winning personality of the year award and stripping it from the original winner, Premila Kumar of the Consumer Council.

Bainimarama, who ended democracy with an armed coup in 2006 and refuses to restore democracy until 2014, said the poll was undemocratic.

He claimed Fiji TV closed the competition a day early and did not count 1500 votes that had all come in for him later.

Anti-regime blog sites claim those votes came in from two mobile phones used by the military.

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Rafael Nadal outwits Tomas Berdych.
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A total of 2.43" at Sacramento Executive Airport. But we still have a severe deficit to overcome, not much time to do it, and no immediate prospects for more.

Statewide snowfall content is about 40% of average for this date.
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Flight Path: The Flyway Project from Albuquerque Public Art on Vimeo.

This is an interesting, but long, video regarding The Flyway Project.

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Because they suffer:

Men who are narcissists may be at risk for some health problems, since they could have inherently higher levels of the stress-related hormone cortisol even when they're not under pressure, a study finds.

Cortisol, which is released by the body when it's under duress or going through an intense activity, can have some benefits--lending an energy surge, helping the body burn fat, and boosting memory. But too much cortisol from chronic stress can have deleterious effects, such as higher blood pressure, lower immunity and higher levels of abdominal fat.

..."Narcissistic men may be paying a high price in terms of their physical health, in addition to the psychological cost to their relationships," said co-author Sara Konrath of the University of Michigan in a news release.

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Shared by James On Facebook.

Funny guy!:

Yeah man, I am a huge fan. I watched all the episodes, I’ve never missed one episode, and it was the most surreal thing that I got to do. It’s like, if you were into Star Wars, and they made another Star Wars, and you got to play like Boba Fett or a Stormtrooper, that’s how I felt when I was down there. Without a doubt it was like the coolest thing I got to do. All of the sudden, I was somehow inserted into the storylines of these characters. I knew that obviously they weren’t real, that it’s a TV show, but you know when you get so emotionally invested? It’s like if you booked a scene, like you’re watching the Sopranos and you’re following the story and all of the sudden you are in it and you’re standing next to Paulie and you got a scene with him, and you’re just like, how the fuck did this happen?

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Interesting history:

Alaska (born Olvido Gara Jova, June 13, 1963 in Mexico City) is a Spanish - Mexican singer, dj, and TV personality famous in Spain and Latin America. She was of the main characters in the so called Movida the cultural movement following the Franco dictatorship in Spain. This movement in which music, arts, cinema and fashion erupted and collided to confirm the actual society Spain had become under Franco. She has participated since the last part of the seventies in several groups of different success: Kaka de Luxe 1977, Alaska y los Pegamoides 1980, Alaska y Dinarama 1983 and since 1989 the duet Fangoria (band). She is also one of Mexico's and Spain's main gay icons.

Her father was a Spaniard exiled during the Spanish Civil War and her mother a Cuban exiled by Castro.

Some years before Francisco Franco died, her parents decided to move back to Spain.

Alaska was a big fan of Lou Reed, T-Rex, etc., but David Bowie was her biggest influence. She even told her mother that she would love to be a boy just to be gay.

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Got to put them to some use, after all.
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There is no better platform than George Noory's Coast-to-Coast AM radio show, but the show often veers into conspiratorial vacuity, and loses punch.

These days, however, the show is hitting important topics harder than ever, and deserves greater attention.

For example, last week:

In a special program, George Noory was joined by Linda Moulton Howe to interview four guests, who appeared in individual half-hour segments, about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012, which contains controversial provisions such as the holding of suspects without due process or habeas corpus.

And last night:

Muckraker and investigative journalist Greg Palast joined George Knapp for inside details on stories that American media doesn't report, including revelations on Big Oil, and financial "vultures" who use shady practices for mega-profits. He uncovered that two years before the BP/Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf, a similar incident happened to BP in the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan, indicating that they were well aware of such drilling problems. BP covered up the incident by bribing Azerbaijani officials, and flying them to London for lap dances, he detailed.

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After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, that old shipwreck Newt Gingrich tapped into that rich vein of conservative victimology and finally prevailed against Mitt Romney.

Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary on Saturday—according to him, not because of his debate skills, but because of his ability to “articulate the deepest-felt values of the American people.” He is bound by few limits in his ability to mold his accomplishments—as a professor, historian, and world leader extraordinaire—into Manichean fights of vast proportion. His oratory references the countless ways in which he virtually single-handedly lifted America from the pangs of unemployment and national calamity.

One thing I've seen virtually no mention of in the punditry, however, is that the GOP presidential race now reflects that centuries-old divide between the North and the South. There are countervailing currents - Northern evangelical (Santorum) and Southern libertarian (Paul) - and even high finance (Romney) versus TV expertise (Gingrich) - but basically it's North versus South. It's not even conservative base versus the elites, as some would have it. Romney and Gingrich both hail from, and speak for, elites. As long as Perry and Cain had fighting chances for the nomination, Gingrich couldn't fight effectively against Romney's money machine: the Southern vote was split. Now, the battle is on!

So, who wins? The GOP's base these days is suburban, first, with a strong anchor in the South, second. With the North turning increasingly Blue, and the northern GOP losing all salience, I think Gingrich ultimately wins. Gingrich, the fellow that my brother-in-law (among others) dismissed contemptuously as a liberal when he chastised Paul Ryan last May for right-wing social engineering, will be able to overcome Romney's millions. What a turn-around!

But Gingrich will prove a poor candidate in November against Barack Obama. Still, it will be a fun campaign!
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Dyer takes the best photos:

Thanks all, this is an old pump at the Empire Ranch, north of Sonoita. This area was designated the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area in 2000. It is an interesting place and there are big cottonwood trees nearby. (open to the public at all times.)

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Lisicki was able to give Sharapova a hard time, but in the end, ruthlessness won out:

“If you played her strengths, if you give her time, she gets a good strike on the ball and can hit a good winner from, any side of the court,” Sharapova said. “But if she can do that for three hours straight, at the end of the match you end up losing and that's just too good. But obviously I was trying to create those opportunities where, maybe she had to go for a little bit more and force the errors out of her.”

...“You're in a quarterfinals stage of a tournament,” Sharapova said. “It's only going to be tough from here.”

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