Sometime when you’re bored because you think you know everything check out this animated video of the processes taking place inside a living cell every second produced by BioVisions at Harvard University.
Here is the story behind the video.
Link courtesy of Boing Boing (which also has an explanation of one of the cooler scenes in the video)
I’m an optimistic and proud Democrat living in the most Republican state in the country. I have made it one of my goals to try to help change the existing political power structure in my state because I believe one party rule is bad for Utah. I also believe that in Utah the Democratic Party is friendlier to my libertarian leanings than the Republican Party is. I think there are lots of Utahns who think similarly to the way I think and I believe there is a great opportunity for Democrats to make great gains over the next few years as the Republican Party further shows itself to be the fraud that it really is.
Unfortunately there is a vocal element in my party which makes it extremely difficult for most people to accept the idea that the Democratic Party could ever represent them. Check out this post at One Utah (one of my favorite local blogs on the left).
I don’t think belittling people who believe in God is a winner for Democrats and yet a small vocal constituency among Democrats is anti-God (they would say anti-superstition). These people argue that the whole religious divide is a significant difference between them and the rest of us. I agree. It is a significant difference and it may just be a deal breaker for Democrats as they try to get Utahns to come aboard. People who think God is superstition typically have a very different idea about the purpose of government than those of us who think our existence is the result of the divine.
A little bit of tolerance from both sides would go a long way toward making our party more palatable to many Utahns…but as the post and corresponding comments at One Utah show…we still have some work to do.
This is disgusting. I’m sure we’ll never find who did it but I think we should all be a little embarrassed that someone would stoop to doing something like this because of partisan fervor. I don’t like Orrin Hatch but I’d be equally outraged if someone did this to him or his supporters…I’d also be more than a little embarrassed that my side has people who are this lame.
Read Pete’s whole blog post on this incident and the efforts to catch sign thieves.
Hat Tip: Part of the Plan
Rob Miller held a press conference today on the front steps of the Davis County Memorial Courthouse today. It was fun to see lots of people there to support Rob in his campaign for Davis County Commission Seat A.
I’ll have more on the substance of the press conference later but here are some great pictures taken at the event!
Derek Staffanson and Pat Herrera proved to have amazing endurance as they held up Rob’s banner throughout the 45 minute gathering!
Press represenatives from KSL Radio, The Salt Lake Tribune, and the Ogden Standard Examiner were on hand to report on the event.
Rob answered questions from both reporters and citizens after his short prepared speech.
This event represents to me what politics should be. Candidates coming out to face the citizens they want to represent and making themselves available to answer citizens’ concerns. Rob has been great about making himself available to anyone with questions in the past and this event played well to that aspect of openness which is a huge part of his idea of public service. I admire Rob for putting himself out there like that and I hope that the Republican candidates for county office will be willing to do the same thing. Davis County citizens deserve this kind of openness from their public servants and those who want to be part of their government.
I believe it is in everybody’s best interest if retailers and rental stores keep underage customers from buying or renting video games and movies that are made for adults. I also think many of the most violent games on the market are sickening and deserving of as much criticism as parents and others in our community can heap upon them.
All of that said this plan from members of the Utah Legislature to make it a criminal offense for retailers to sell or rent these games to minors is just unbelievably stupid. Every year these Republican jokers come up with a new way to squander taxpayer money in pointless court fights in order to win votes from Utah’s numberless hosts of well intentioned but uninformed social conservatives.
This legislation is sure to lose when it is inevitably challenged in the courts as is typical of most Republican issue legislation.
Judges in several states, including Minnesota, Illinois, California and Louisiana, have blocked similar laws on grounds that there’s little evidence violent video games are harmful to children and the statutes restrict First Amendment rights.
In July, U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum issued a permanent injunction to halt the implementation of a Minnesota law that would have penalized minors for purchasing adult-themed games.
“There is no showing whatsoever that video games, in the absence of other violent media, cause even the slightest injury to children,” U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum wrote.
Hogue expects the video game industry to sue should his bill pass. But he thinks his bill will stand up in court.
Representative Hogue and all the other Republicans who are sure to join with him in this crusade are pushing this bill which, if passed, will surely go straight to court costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. The bill does not ban minors from possessing these games or parents from buying them for their kids so it doesn’t really do any good but it will still cost Utahns when it is inevitably challenged in court.
The saddest thing about all of this is that most Utahns will love the legislature for doing this to them. The principle of standing up to the evil video game industry is more important to Republican voters and politicians than the fact that this legislation will do absolutely no good even if upheld and will cost Utah taxpayers tons of legal fees.
I learned about Carbon Leaf while living in Virginia. They quickly became one of my favorite bands. Their new record, “Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat” came out earlier this week and it is excellent. You can hear many of their songs for free on their site.
There is not usually much good to say about Utah’s Republicans but when they do cool things they should be acknowledged. Props to the congressman for personally calling a concerned constituent…thats cool.
Too bad Rob Bishop’s policy decisions aren’t as good as his ability to communicate to his blogging constituents! Vote Steve Olsen!!! He wrote the book on how Democrats reflect Utah’s values better than Republicans.
UPDATE! 09/15/2006
Dan and Davis have both asked in the comments of this post for some specifics of why I think Olsen’s policy decisions in Congress will be better for Utahns than what Bishop has to offer
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This looks like a good chance for Utah/Davis County Bloggers to get together to help a member of our online community who is running for office!
Blogging has provided a great outlet for many of us to openly declare our views on news and the current policy discussions of the day. When one of our number takes a shot at running for office we should support him! Politicians who blog bring an openness to public policy that has never before existed and everyone benefits.
Rob Miller is doing a press conference at Noon Tuesday at the Old Courthouse in Farmington. It would be cool if there were lots of bloggers on hand at the event to give him support! It will be a great chance for many of us to get to know each other in real life…not just on the blogs!
I really think this attitude is the key to Utah Democrats making a comeback in Utah…and for a more congenial political climate everywhere it is adopted. Thank you Rob.
Here’s an interesting article in Newsweek about the computer game World of Warcraft.
My favorite quote from the article:
Blizzard COO Paul Sams says only, “We are an incredibly profitable company.”
No surprise there. Blizzard’s product is more addictive than cocaine and should be banned in most states. It is very strictly regulated in my home.
Here’s my second favorite clip about a guy who formed a guild in the game:
First Ito invited people he knew professionally, like Ross Mayfield (Level 60, Human Palladin), CEO of an Internet company on whose board Ito sits. “Warcraft is the new golf,” says Mayfield. “I actually closed a deal with a company I met through WOW.”
World of Warcraft is the new golf? Nice.
I plan on watching the show ABC is going to air called “The Path To 9/11″. The show purports to be a “docudrama” about America’s response to Al Queda starting in the 90’s. If it shows the Clinton administration as being inept at dealing with this terror organization or terrorism in general I think it will be accurate. If it shows that the Republicans in Congress during that time reflexively accused Clinton of “wagging the dog” every time he brought the subject of terrorism up that would also be accurate.
I just read this post at the blog called Uncorrelated. The author is excited about ABC’s show coming on because he believes that it will convince people to agree with him that returning Democrats to power will be a “death sentance to thousands if not hundreds of thousands of regular Americans.” I am led to believe that the author is either trying to get attention to his blog by spouting such obvious idiocy or he’s just really that stupid. I’ll assume he just wants the attention and start working on the first fisking of someone else’s blog post ever produced on this site.
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Lisa and I have made it our goal to save up enough money by our 25th anniversary to buy a plane. I’ve found the one I want. It is the first flying car. You can drive it to the airport or a nice long stretch of road, extend the wings, then take off.
PERFECT! I’m so excited that stuff like this is finally being made. We should have had flying cars 20 years ago!
Hat Tip: Hit and Run
Ray put out another Album. I like it even better than his last.
I only heard him sing once before I lost touch with him…but that wasn’t really a song that would have fit too well on one of his albums.
Here’s a great interview he did with NPR that includes a few songs from his latest CD.
It should be noted that I knew the boy Ray Lamontagne…I do not know Ray Lamontagne now. Please do not contact me with questions about him. I will not share any information other than what I have already foolishly posted. Thanks.
The first “webisode” was posted at midnight. A new one will go up every Tuesday and Thursday. October 6th the best show ever starts up again. I can’t wait.
