three, two, one, let's jam

Here, this is cool: a vertical windmill intended to be installed on corners of office buildings. It claims to generate power at about 2.4c/Kwh, which is very good. (Found via Slashdot; tipped off to its existence by stickmaker.)

Here, this is also cool: further development of a non-rare-earth fuel-cell that could possibly run on methanol and ethanol. This would be a much higher-value return than any other previous form of fuel-cell. The fuel-cell industry is infamous for overly-optimistic claims, so keep that in mind, but this approach may have promise. It's certainly heading in a better direction than the hydrogen mess.

I finished reading "Computation in a Single Neuron: Hodgkin and Huxley Revisited" yesterday; I understood the main point of the paper and a decent bit of the higher-level analysis, but just don't have the background for a lot of the actual data. This is definitely one I'll be re-reading later.

Why, why, why, why, why hasn't Rumsfeld been sacked? At this point, I have to wonder if President Bush is afraid of the book he'd write, or something else on that level. I honestly cannot imagine why else this complete disaster of a defense secretary hasn't been thrown overboard yet. Meanwhile, what the is administration going to claim the point is of being there at all if US defense forces won't help keep a peace if full-fledged civil war breaks out? Nicely fucked up again, Rummy!

Today's Cultural Warfare Update

I took a while to read over the "common ground" report I mentioned in the last CWU; for the most part, it's ... well, there's not a lot to it, but what there is doesn't bother me. So that's good.

Meanwhile, here's todays news.

Faith and Freedom Network kindly posts the text of its anti-gay Prayer Rally powerpoint presentation series - "Fighting gay rights will save thousands of sinners in the years ahead and will prevent many others from becoming sinners"; "[Gays] won’t stop until they can silence the church through imprisonment of its preachers or lawsuits to destroy the assets of churches"; "Our attorneys tell us that by adding sexual orientation to the law we lose a key element in the “rational basis” test for restraining homosexual marriage. It really is a slimy slope"; lots more;

Focus on the Family worries that UN Human Rights Council reform might promote abortion rights;

FotF critical of "Roe v. Wade for men" effort, but still uses it to attack Roe v. Wade;

Focus on the Family runs a series of anti-marriage-rights ads in Iowa to push an anti-marriage amendment; they're saying "Iraqis can vote, why can't we," and uses imagery from the Iraqi elections;

FotF ACTION ITEM to support an anti-marriage amendment in Philadelphia;

FotF's coverage of the Liberty University/Soulforce action, where Jerry Falwell had campus police arrest every Soulforce member who set foot on campus;

FotF coverage of Catholic Charities decision to stop adoption services, stays the state requirement that groups operating as agents of the state comply with state non-discrimination law "trample[s] religious freedom";

FotF defends the "no queers" policy of the US military;

Not being particularly fast on the update, Faith and Freedom Network reports on Delegate Don Dwyer (R-MD)'s attempt to get a judge thrown out over her rulings as a new story - after the effort had already failed;

Agape Press stories: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops tells Catholic Democrats that they must "work actively to restrain, restrict and bring to an end the destruction of unborn human life." "The bishops add that all Catholics, including Democratic politicians, are obliged to shape their consciences 'in accord with the moral teaching of the Church'"; Also, Pat Robertson's Regent University vows to arrest any and all members of Soulforce who set foot on Regent University campus later today;

Concerned Women for America writeup on their anti-gay "Call to Arms" conference in Maine;

Concerned Women for America's Mario Diaz: "What's up with us men?" - article on the attempt by a "men's group" to gain the right not to pay child support;

CWA attacks HBO special "Big Love";

Don Feder, a big supporter of the theoconservative right, in Human Events Online says yes, it is okay to blame the rape victim; if a woman is out by herself late at night, she should expect that she'll get raped; compares it to jumping out an airplane without a parachute; this is the kind of bullshit ginmar spends a lot of time talking about;

Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to support Utah bill HB148, currently at the governor's desk, which would block anyone from using in loco parentis rights to make any claim of "parent-time, visitation, custody, legal guardianship, child support, or an adoption of a minor child"; this is specifically intended to target lesbian and gay partners;

***** American Family Association launches boycott of Ford Motor Company and all affiliated groups over their support of their GBLT employees, GBLT-friendly charities, and advertising to gay and lesbian consumers; includes national petition drive to build anti-gay and Ford boycott support;

AFA/Agape Press: Any attempt to overturn marriage rights in Canada will have to wait, they just don't have the votes in parliament; free vote expected to be delayed until at least fall;

AFA/Agape Press attacks gay/straight alliance clubs again;

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council says polls showing majority support for Roe v. Wade to be false, based results of bad news reporting;

Traditional Values Coalition pushes the "We the People Act," which would prevent the courts from hearing cases involving religious freedom (or persecution), any cases involving GBLT rights or issues, or any cases involving issues involving "reproduction"; I am extremely disappointed in Ron Paul, who I once very much respected, over this to my mind indefensibly unconstitutional bill specifically intended to eliminate women's reproductive right issues and GBLT folk entirely from any federal rights protections;

The Canada Family Action Coalition links to US fundamentalist group Focus on the Family - this is worthwhile just as another example of the growing interlinking of the fundamentalist movement in North America;

Baptist Press quotes Supreme Court Justice Scalia: it's too soon, the current court will not overturn Roe v. Wade and it'll be five votes to save the decision.

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