Newton's Apple Tree Bound For Gravity-Free Orbit : NPR

Sir Isaac Newton famously formulated his theory of gravity while watching an apple fall from a tree. Now a bit of that tree is going into zero gravity. The space shuttle launching Friday will carry a sliver of Newton's apple tree. The tree still grows at the physicist's old home in England. A British-born astronaut will release the sliver at the international space station and let it "float around for a bit.
via npr.org

PC Magazine makes the 27-inch iMac an Editors' Choice

PCMag.com reviews the 27-inch iMac, calling it “an excellent multimedia-oriented all-in-one desktop” computer and making it the Editors’ Choice in its class.

The Apple iMac 27-inch (Core i7) ($2,199 direct) is an excellent multimedia-oriented all-in-one desktop, particularly for people that actually create media instead of just viewing it. In most ways, it resembles its predecessor, theApple iMac with Core 2 Duo ($1,699 list, ), only it's faster. The Intel Core i7 CPU gives the iMac the quad-core power that used to be impossible in the all-in-one desktop category. Though it seems expensive, it's good enough to claim the Editors' Choice for multimedia-oriented, high-end all-in-onedesktops.

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See how the oil spill grows in the Gulf of Mexico - USATODAY.com

See how the oil spill grows in the Gulf of Mexico
The government, energy company British Petroleum and hundreds of Gulf-area fishermen lay inflatable booms and take other preventive measures to contain a massive oil slick spreading in the Gulf of Mexico.
via usatoday.com

While the interactive map shows the 210,000 gallons of oil spewing out each day spreads to the Gulf coast, notice how many other oil rigs are just offshore.

Drill Baby, Drill?

Robert Reich (“Why Public Education is More Important Than Wall...)

“Why Public Education is More Important Than Wall Street, and What We Must Do”

All over America right now, public education is in crisis.  Teachers are being fired as next year’s school budgets shrink. Next fall’s classrooms will be far more crowded. Some districts are going to four-day weeks.  And the nation’s public universities are in deep trouble.

The answer is for the federal government to bail out public education until state and local revenues return as the economy strengthens.

After all, the government bailed out Wall Street.  What our kids learn — America’s human capital — is more important to our economy than Wall Street’s financial capital.

In addition, we should rebalance the economy away from finance and toward people. Congress should enact a small one-half of one percent transfer tax on all financial deals. This might slow down Wall Street a bit but generate $200 billion a year for our public schools and universities.

Last year, America’s top 25 hedge fund managers earned an average of $1 billion each — enough to pay for 20,000 teachers.

Please watch this video, and pass it on.

via robertreich.org

Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor and now professor at UC Berkeley, has some wise words for us all: Public education is more important than Wall Street.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXybvm0BKvY

Bring back regulation! - Bank Reform News | Obama Bank Reform Bill - Salon.com

Bring back regulation!

The disasters at Massey Energy and at Goldman Sachs remind us how important it is to stay awake at the wheel

By Robert Reich

What do oil giant BP, the mining company Massey Energy, and Goldman Sachs have in common? They’re all big firms involved in massive plunder. BP's oil spill is already one of the biggest and most damaging in American history. Massey's mine disaster, claiming the lives of 29 miners, is one of the worst in recent history. Goldman's alleged fraud is but a part of the largest financial meltdown in 75 years.

All three of these companies are also publicly held, which means that much of the financial costs of these failures will be passed on to their shareholders, many of whom are already watching their stock prices plummet. Prominent among those shareholders are pension funds and mutual funds held by people like you and me.

That may seem fair. After all, shareholders benefited when BP made big profits extracting oil without paying attention to a possible blowout, when Massey Energy got fat earnings from its careless coal mining operations, and when Goldman Sachs did wonderously well for its own stockholders by allegedly defrauding others. In fact, it was pressure from their shareholders seeking the highest possible returns -- and their executives, whose pay is linked to the firms' share performance -- that led all three companies to cut whatever corners they could cut in pursuit of profits.

But profits aren't everything, which is why we have regulations that are supposed to be enforced. So a key question in each of these instances is: Where were the regulators?

Why didn’t the Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service make sure offshore oil rigs have backup systems to prevent blowouts? One clue: You may remember MMS's wild drinking parties exposed during the Bush era.

Where was the Mine Safety and Health Administration before the Upper Big Branch mine exploded? MSHA says it fined the company for a whole string of violations, but the law didn’t allow fines high enough to deter the company. Which raises the next question: Given Massey's record, why didn’t the Bush-era MSHA seek to change the law and increase the penalties?

Why didn’t the Securities and Exchange Commission spot fraud on the Street when it was happening? Well, as we all now know, the Bush SEC was asleep at the wheel.

But don’t blame it all on George W. For 30 years, deregulation has been all the rage in Washington. Even where regulations exist, Congress has set such low penalties that disregarding the regulations and risking fines has been treated by firms as a cost of doing business. And for years, enforcement budgets have been slashed, with the result that there are rarely enough inspectors to do the job. The assumption has been that markets know best, and when they don’t, civil lawsuits and government prosecutions will deter wrongdoing.

Wrong.

When shareholders demand the highest returns possible and executive pay is linked to stock performance, many companies will do whatever is necessary to squeeze out added profits. And that will spell disaster -- giant oil spills, terrible coal-mine disasters, and Wall Street meltdowns -- unless the nation has tough regulations backed up by significant penalties, including jail terms for executives found guilty of recklessness, and vigilant enforcement.

After 30 years of deregulation, it's time for the rebirth of regulation: not heavy-handed and unncessarily costly regulation, but regulation that's up to the task of protecting the public from companies and executives that will do almost anything to make a buck.

via salon.com

Amen ... we've tried 30 years of "government is the problem" and look at the mess we are in. Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and now a professor at UC Berkeley, makes a strong argument for re-regulation.

Think Progress » Phoenix Suns will wear ‘Los Suns’ jerseys as partly a political statement against ‘flawed’ state law.

Phoenix Suns will wear ‘Los Suns’ jerseys as partly a political statement against ‘flawed’ state law.

The Phoenix Suns basketball franchise announced that they will be wearing “Los Suns” jerseys on Wednesday night for Game 2 of their playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs. The game will be played in Phoenix. Team owner Robert Sarver, a Republican, said the jerseys will “honor our Latino community and the diversity of our league, the state of Arizona and our nation.” Sarver also made clear in a statement that the selection of the Spanish-language jersey — which will coincide with Cinco de Mayo — is a political statement against Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law:

The frustration with the federal government’s failure to deal with the issue of illegal immigration resulted in passage of a flawed state law. However intended, the result of passing this law is that our basic principles of equal rights and protection under the law are being called into question, and Arizona’s already struggling economy will suffer even further setbacks at a time when the state can ill-afford them.

via thinkprogress.org

Besides Governor Brewer, is there anyone who thinks this immigration law is a good idea? And I'm not so sure about Brewer. She said when asked what an immigrant looks like: "No, I don't know what an immigrant looks like."

Dumb-Asses of the Day

Conservatives Want To Deny U.S. Citizen Faisal Shahzad Miranda Rights, Ensuring He Won’t Be Convicted

As soon as the Obama administration announced that it had Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab in custody and was questioning him about his failed Christmas Day bombing, conservatives began complaining about the fact that authorities had read him his Miranda rights. Now the same whining about Miranda rights for Faisal Shahzad, a U.S. Citizen:

  • “I think obviously that [mirandizing Shahzad] would be a serious mistake until we’ve — at least until we find out as much information as we have, and there are ways — legal ways — of delaying that.” — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
  • “I hope that [Attorney General Eric] Holder did discuss this with the intelligence community. If they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? Did they Mirandize him? I know he’s an American citizen but still.” — Rep. Peter King (R-NY)
  • "I think it’s time for us to look at whether we want to amend that law [Miranda rights] to apply it to American citizens who choose to become affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, whether they should not also be deprived automatically of their citizenship, and therefore be deprived of rights that come with that citizenship when they are apprehended and charged with a terrorist act." — Sen. Joseph Liberman (I-CT)