Tata’s supporters and the N&O’s false balance

Does this look nonpartisan to you?

Above is a picture of Donna Williams, a former Republican candidate for Wake County School Board, out demonstrating in support of endangered school superintendent Tony Tata. Williams was one of about 30 demonstrators who attended yesterday’s rally, whom News and Observer reporters Thomas Goldsmith and T. Keung Hui called “self-described” nonpartisans:

At Monday’s meeting, a group of about 30 self-described nonpartisans gathered outside to oppose any move to remove the retired U.S. Army brigadier general.

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Twitter Updates for 2012-09-25

Twitter Updates for 2012-09-25

The drugs don’t work: a modern medical scandal | Ben Goldacre | Business | The Guardian

This is a frightening, eye-opening look at the sham taking place with drug trials, where the sponsoring pharmaceutical company often cherry-picks the results.

Because researchers are free to bury any result they please, patients are exposed to harm on a staggering scale throughout the whole of medicine. Doctors can have no idea about the true effects of the treatments they give. Does this drug really work best, or have I simply been deprived of half the data? No one can tell. Is this expensive drug worth the money, or has the data simply been massaged? No one can tell. Will this drug kill patients? Is there any evidence that it’s dangerous? No one can tell. This is a bizarre situation to arise in medicine, a discipline in which everything is supposed to be based on evidence.

via The drugs don't work: a modern medical scandal | Ben Goldacre | Business | The Guardian.

Romney Is Losing His Social Media Mojo – OhMyGov News


Mitt Romney’s Facebook growth has slowed considerably, coincidentally right after Facebook began cracking down on fake “likes.”

While Romney’s done plenty in public to scare away voters, I can’t help but wonder if Facebook’s new policies may have stopped the campaign from padding its numbers.

Romney’s trouble with the social network has nothing to do with President Obama’s commanding overall lead in total number of Facebook “Likes.”

Rather, it has everything to do with the fact that in August, plenty of people were liking Mitt Romney on Facebook, yet in September that growth has suddenly — and significantly — slowed.

via Romney Is Losing His Social Media Mojo – OhMyGov News.

Rethinking Sleep – NYTimes.com

Here’s an interesting look at the power of naps, i.e. breaking up the so-called usual 8-hour sleep cycle.

I’m a big believer in new sleep patterns. I think we’re doing it wrong by sleeping for long chunks. Without a spouse who’s willing to share my sleep habits, however, I’m not likely to change much!

Rather than helping us to get more rest, the tyranny of the eight-hour block reinforces a narrow conception of sleep and how we should approach it. Some of the time we spend tossing and turning may even result from misconceptions about sleep and our bodily needs: in fact neither our bodies nor our brains are built for the roughly one-third of our lives that we spend in bed.

via Rethinking Sleep – NYTimes.com.

The future of driving: Seeing the back of the car | The Economist

Here’s a good look at “peak car,” the point where growth in automobiles … uh, stalls.

Looks like research confirms my hunch that the Internet is to blame.

A University of Michigan survey of 15 countries found that in areas where a lot of young people use the internet, fewer than normal have driving licences. A global survey of teen attitudes by TNS, a consultancy, found that young people increasingly view cars as appliances not aspirations, and say that social media give them the access to their world that would once have been associated with cars. KCR, a research firm, has found that in America far more 18- to 34-year-olds than any other age group say socialising online is a substitute for some car trips.

via The future of driving: Seeing the back of the car | The Economist.

Col. Bob Ley

Col. Bob Ley, US Army retired


I just mentioned my former boss Bob Ley in my last post, so I want Google searching for him. I turned up this obituary of Col. Ley from last year. I’m sad to hear of his passing.

I worked part-time for Col. Ley in the hardware department of Hechinger store in Sterling, VA. His influence on me went far beyond what the part-time nature of my job suggested.

He was an outstanding mentor and I’m undoubtedly a better person because of him.

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Time for Gen. Tata to fall on his sword

Some friends and I were recently discussing the Wake school bus fiasco. Some thought that through his resignation, Don Haydon, Wake’s long-time operations and facilities manager, might be accepting responsibility for the debacle. And he is. It has been his job for 12 years to get the buses where they need to go. I wondered, though: how could a seasoned administrator with over a decade of experience foul things up so badly?

Then I recalled the military bureaucracy I once served in and got an idea of what most likely happened. Haydon was almost certainly given an impossible task to move more kids with fewer buses. I can imagine that his boss wasn’t too keen to hear that a train wreck was imminent and Haydon had no choice but to step down.
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Senate Republicans kill veterans jobs bill

Sometimes its easy for me to forget that Sen. Richard Burr is a Republican. He isn’t flashy, his office does well with constituent services, and he has shown support for veterans, an important constituency in military-friendly North Carolina. Oh sure, there’s been an occasional bank run, but Burr hasn’t drawn my outrage like other Republicans.

Until now, that is. Burr was one of the Senate Republicans who voted against a jobs bill designed to get veterans back to work. The bill was bipartisan. It was fully funded at its modest $1 billion over five years. It would’ve put some of America’s heroes – the men and women who wear our uniform – back to work. Nonetheless, Burr and his buddies scuttled it at the last minute because Obama lauded it in his convention speech.

There is simply no excuse for not passing this bill. It’s pathetic. As blogger Jim Wright profanely points out, Congress was all too eager to send our armed forces off to war, but when it is time to welcome these troops home to America Congress gives them the finger?

Burr and his pals want people to believe this is all over a billion dollars. A billion dollars over five years! Shit, the Department of Defense spent more than a billion dollars on air conditioning in Iraq – every month! And yet Congress can’t afford to cough up a quarter-bil each year to help get jobs for the brave men and women who served their country? After all these citizens have sacrificed?

I mean, damn. If there’s one issue that really shows what’s wrong with our current Congress, this is it. I hope veterans everywhere are paying attention.