Motley Moose – Archive

For those who are new … we discuss books.  I list what I’m reading, and people comment with what they’re reading.  Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.

If you like to trade books, try bookmooch

I’ve written some book reviews on Yahoo Voices:

Book reviews on Yahoo

Just finished

What hath God wrought? by Daniel Walker Howe. Subtitled “The transformation of America 1815-1848. I am reading this with the History group at GoodReads.  This is very well written; an excellent portrayal of the USA in these 3 decades.

Now reading

Cooler Smarter: Practical tips for low carbon living  by the scientists at Union of Concerned Scientists, a great group. These folk make sense, concentrating on the changes you can make that have the biggest impact with the least effort.

Thinking, fast and slow  by Daniel Kahneman.  Kahneman, most famous for his work with the late Amos Tversky, is one of the leading psychologists of the times. Here, he posits that our brains have two systems: A fast one and a slow one. Neither is better, but they are good at different things. This is a brilliant book: Full of insight and very well written, as well.

On politics: A history of political thought from Herodotus to the present by Alan Ryan. What the subtitle says – a history of political thought.  

He, she and it by Marge Percy. Near future dystopian SF set on Earth.

Visions of Infinity by Ian Stewart. A nontechnical look at 11 famous problems of math. So far, it’s a little too nontechnical for my taste.

Woodrow Wilson by John Cooper, Jr. A fairly admiring look at Wilson.

Measurement by Paul Lockhart. About mathematics and, especially, how it should be taught and learned. Lockhart is wonderful; his first book A Mathematician’s Lament was, in my view, the best book on teaching math ever written.

Just started

Sleeping Dogs by Thomas Perry. The sequel to The Butcher’s Boy.  The butcher’s boy (a former hit man for the mafia) has retired to England and been living a quiet life for 10 years. But now he is recognized and comes out of retirement very fast.

A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln and the 1848 US invasion of Mexico by Amy Greenberg. What the subtitle says, but very interesting. For instance, the 1848 war was the first US war to have a substantial group of anti-War Americans.  

Good morning, Moosekind. Don’t forget to let your peeps know where to find you.

The common Moose, Alces alces, unlike other members of the deer family, is a solitary animal that doesn’t form herds. Not so its rarer but nearest relative, Alces purplius, the Motley Moose. Though sometimes solitary, the Motley Moose herds in ever shifting groups at the local watering hole to exchange news and just pass the time.

Jan 21, 1941-April 22, 2013

We have all heard by now of the death of Richie Havens.  

I’d like to spend a little time celebrating his life. Not just as the iconic opening performer at Woodstock, or hall of fame blues folk artist.

He was a man with a message, about the environment.

Havens devoted his energies to educating young people about ecological issues. In the mid-1970s, he co-founded the Northwind Undersea Institute, an oceanographic children’s museum on City Island in the Bronx. That, in turn, led to the creation of The Natural Guard, an organization Richie describes as “a way of helping kids learn that they can have a hands-on role in affecting the environment. Children study the land, water, and air in their own communities and see how they can make positive changes from something as simple as planting a garden in an abandoned lot.

From the newswires …

How Closing The Online Sales Tax Loophole Would Help Low-Income Families

The Marketplace Fairness Act, which has bipartisan support in the Senate, would change that, giving states the authority to levy sales taxes on online purchases even when the retailer isn’t based within a state’s borders. Passing the legislation would both remove an unfair advantage for online retailers give cash-strapped states more authority to collect sales taxes. But despite warnings from conservatives that it would represent a “government takeover of the internet” and levy “taxation without representation,” the loophole also makes sales taxes even more regressive, since low-income families often don’t have access to online retailers

Kansas Governor Approves Sweeping Anti-Abortion Law, Writes ‘JESUS + Mary’ In His Notes On The Bill

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) has signed a stringent anti-abortion bill that blocks tax breaks for abortion providers, requires doctors to tell women about the disputed link between abortion and breast cancer, and defines life as beginning at conception in the state constitution. However, despite the fact that the omnibus legislation is 70 pages long, it does not necessarily explicitly state everything that the Republican governor wishes to convey on the abortion issue.

Before Brownback signed HB 2253 into law at a ceremony at the statehouse on Friday, an AP photo reveals that he made a few additions of his own in his notes on the bill.

42 Million People Watched Last Hour Of Manhunt For Accused Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

In 1993, 42.4 million households tuned in to the series finale of Cheers. Last Friday, almost 42 million people tuned in ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel or MSNBC to watch the last hour of the manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old who today was charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death in the bombings a week ago of the Boston Marathon. There’s no question that a national news event, particularly one centered on a spectacular and seemingly inexplicable crime, would draw an enormous audience. But the juxtaposition of those figures from twenty years apart serves to illustrate a useful point: national tragedies, particularly crime stories, are perhaps the last form of television that has a truly mass audience.

Read More: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Read Miranda Rights In Bedside Proceedings (TRANSCRIPT)

Read More: The First Glimpse Of The Federal Case Against The Alleged Boston Bomber

Read More: Number Of People Injured From Boston Bombings Rises To 282

Quick Takes …

WaPo: Baucus To Retire, Won’t Seek Re-Election In 2014

Poll: Colbert Busch Opens Up 9 Point Lead Over Sanford

Republicans Who Voted Against Sandy Aid Ask For Aid To West, Texas After Explosion

Interrogatories

It’s National Picnic Day. What would your ideal picnic basket contain?

What would be the perfect picnic location?

Do you remember the New Coke? Did you try it? Was it bad?

If you could kill any one Federal law, which one would it be?

If you could create one Federal law, what would it be?

The Twitter Emitter

The best thing about atheists is they never blame Me.

— God (@TheTweetOfGod) April 16, 2013

Protip: If you keep saying over and over in public that you’re living in tyranny and no one stops you, you’re not living in tyranny.

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) April 17, 2013

Editing a thing. Author uses two spaces after periods. Sometimes three. THE SLIPPERY SLOPE IS REAL, PEOPLE!!!

— Evan Mintz (@evan7257) April 17, 2013

There’s no crime in being ignorant. Problems arise when people whodon’t know they’re ignorant rise to power.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 18, 2013

It takes a big man with a gun to stand up to an emotionally-bullying woman who has been shot in the head. #newNRAslogan

— TBogg (@tbogg) April 18, 2013

The criminals who killed 3 people in Boston were caught. Those who killed 15 in West, TX (by cutting safety&inspections) are still at large.

— Jorge Stolfi (@JorgeStolfi) April 20, 2013

.@joshtpm The only reason gold tanked is that investors had to sell it off to cover their Bitcoin margin calls.

— Fake Alan Bostick (@FakeAlanBostick) April 20, 2013

These Republicans say no so much I’ll bet they wake up with morning wouldn’t.

— Lizz Winstead (@lizzwinstead) April 20, 2013

The early bird waits in line for two hours for the artisinal worm at that new brunch place in NoLita.

— Nate Silver (@fivethirtyeight) April 21, 2013

Liz Cheney is angry the Boston suspect may be read his rights. Millions are angrier her dad was never read his.

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) April 22, 2013

I hope nothing happens this week. NOTHING.

— kara vallow (@teenagesleuth) April 22, 2013

What’s with Canada using “detective work” and “police procedure” to nab terrorists, instead of panic and bigotry? bit.ly/1259o5U

— Zandar (@ZandarVTS) April 22, 2013

  Make sure you let your peeps know where to find you!  

From Billboard magazine:

Richie Havens, a veteran folk singer and a star of the Woodstock festival and film, died this morning at his home from a sudden heart attack. He was 72.

A bit more after the jump ….

Today’s post is emitting a high-pitched squealing noise that sounds suspiciously like an alarm. But the sound it is making is a little too much like your neighbor’s car alarm that goes off at 10:00pm every night and that you have learned to ignore.

NASA’s photo.  

Three international journalists asked to leave Bahrain

The Bahraini government ordered three journalists from the British television network ITV to leave the country today, according to news reports citing an ITV spokesman. The journalists, who were also briefly detained on Thursday, are in the process of leaving the country.

The ITV crew was composed of correspondent Rageh Omaar, and a cameraman and producer, who have not been identified, according to news reports. The journalists were covering the political unrest in Bahrain that coincided with a major Formula One race this coming weekend, the reports said.

An ITV spokesman said in a statement on Thursday that police stopped the crew from filming on Thursday and took them to a local police station. She said the police held “discussions” with them before saying they could continue to film. The ITV journalists filed a story on the protests later that day.

Committee to Protect Journalists:  14 dead journalists in 2013.  

I was up before dawn one morning in the fall and gazed out the front window across the lawn. It was still dark. The streetlight added a little illumination to the scene. Out the corner of my eye on the left a small figure dashed across the drive between bushes. It was followed by another and another until five raccoons were in view. As soon as they reached the lawn, they walked a few steps and stopped to probe and feel the grass for a moment. Then, a few more steps, they stopped to check again and again. I have seen patches on golf courses where raccoons have torn up large areas of turf in search of grubs. They can be very destructive as you can see in this photo. Fortunately, they found no grubs in our yard this time.

What does one call a crowd, or herd, or fleet, or flock, or gaggle, or bunch of raccoons. The San Diego Zoo calls them a “gaze.” The gaze made its way across to the right and out of sight between my house and the neighbor’s. I went to the back window to see if they would come around to that side of the house. None showed up. But, in the dark of the trees in back, a deer gazed up at me and quietly munched her way across the back enjoying the last of the greenery.

We headed out for a walk that morning. As we cut through a tall weedy path we came across some milkweeds we had been watching for a couple of weeks. Their pods were beginning to open up to release the multitude of seeds. Nature’s packing expertise with these things is amazing. I have never tried counting them. According to this Ohio State Univ. site, there can be as many as 450 seeds in a pod.