Toon- Profiles in 'Courage'

Seems Like Yesterday....

Toon: Paterno Statue Relocation

Tom Toles Rant: Ashamed!

By Tom Toles
Okay, the GOP has now decided to run on a platform of clever editing. And the manufacuring economy, as in manufacturing complete fabrications. When Obama is talking about how you didn’t build the road that leads to your business, the GOP ad leaves out the “road” part of the quote to manufacture the claim that Obama thinks you didn’t build your business. Is this the terrain we are going to decide our future on? Apparently so. Roadless! You’ll need an SUV!

Obama probably also believes that Fonzi didn’t build the water ski jump he used to jump the shark. Well, he’d be right. This particular jump has been years in the making, and only recently has it become shark-jumping worthy. I’ll use Frank Luntz as shorthand for the GOP strategy in messaging in recent times. Find the loaded, emotion-laden words and phrases and hammer away with them. Credit where due. It’s been very effective. Throw in the occasional dog whistle, and you have yourself a finely-tuned, vote-getting vehicle. Who says we don’t make things here anymore?

But as the evidence and reality sinks in that tax cuts for the rich produce mostly just richer rich people, the Machiavellian messaging machine must become airborne, sharkwise. Now the claims simply defy ANY test of common sense. Here’s another recent gem, right out of the multi-sided mouth of Mitt himself, about Obama. “I’m convinced he wants Americans to be ashamed of success.” Read that sentence and think about it FOR ONE SECOND. Ashamed of success. Ashamed. Obama wants. Romney’s CONVINCED. Can ANY PART of that sentence be true, AT ALL? Somewhere, the sharks are smiling.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/tom-toles/post/ashamed/2012/07/20/gJQA3SrMyW_blog.html

Heavy ion collisions reveal the earliest instants of our Universe

by John Timmer -



The LHC's proton collisions, which have now successfully nailed down the existence of the Higgs boson, get most of the attention, both in the media and at CERN itself. But, for a few weeks each year, the collider is switched over to smashing lead ions. Heavy ion collisions, in fact, are considered to provide such distinct information that the US has kept open the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, which is dedicated to smashing heavy ions, even as it shut down the Tevatron, its dedicated proton/antiproton collider.

Right on the heels of the Higgs announcement, Science is running a review of heavy ion collisions, which nicely explains why they tell us something completely different from what's revealed by proton colliders. Plus it provides a nice picture of how the LHC will provide new data, and upgrades have taken place at the RHIC to help keep it relevant.

The matter we see around us is comprised mainly of protons and neutrons. These, in turn, are composed of quarks and gluons, which mediate the strong force that binds them together. Because the potency of the strong force increases with distance, breaking up a nucleon (proton or neutron) typically requires high levels of energy that basically blast the nucleon in part. That's precisely the sort of thing that happens during the proton collisions that take place at the LHC.

Heavy ion collisions—lead at the LHC, gold at RHIC—involve huge numbers of nucleons, on the order of 400. That creates a very different environment. The quarks and gluons that spill out of a proton collision tend to have nothing but empty space around them. In a heavy ion collision, the large number of nucleons that are broken apart at once means that, instead of flying into empty space, a given quark or gluon will have the opportunity to interact with those pouring out of nearby nucleons. As a result, for a brief instant, the collisions don't look much like an explosion; instead, it looks more like the boundaries between nucleons melting, leaving behind a sea of quarks and gluons that are interacting.

more

http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/07/heavy-ion-collisions-reveal-the-earliest-instants-of-our-universe/

Roubini- We’re Not Even Close to a Robust Recovery

Here are five reasons why.
By Nouriel Roubini|Posted Sunday, July 22, 2012, at 7:30 AM ET


While the risk of a disorderly crisis in the eurozone is well recognized, a more sanguine view of the United States has prevailed. For the last three years, the consensus has been that the U.S. economy was on the verge of a robust and self-sustaining recovery that would restore above-potential growth. That turned out to be wrong, as a painful process of balance-sheet deleveraging—reflecting excessive private-sector debt, and then its carryover to the public sector—implies that the recovery will remain, at best, below-trend for many years to come.

Even this year, the consensus got it wrong, expecting a recovery to annual GDP growth of better than than 3 percent. But the first-half growth rate looks set to come in closer to 1.5 percent at best, even below 2011’s dismal 1.7 percent. And now, after getting the first half of 2012 wrong, many are repeating the fairy tale that a combination of lower oil prices, rising auto sales, recovering house prices, and a resurgence of U.S. manufacturing will boost growth in the second half of the year and fuel above-potential growth by 2013.

The reality is the opposite: For several reasons, growth will slow further in the second half of 2012 and be even lower in 2013—close to stall speed. First, growth in the second quarter has decelerated from a mediocre 1.8 percent in January-March, as job creation—averaging 70,000 a month—fell sharply.

Second, expectations of the “fiscal cliff”— automatic tax increases and spending cuts set for the end of this year—will keep spending and growth lower through the second half of 2012. So will uncertainty about who will be president in 2013; about tax rates and spending levels; about the threat of another government shutdown over the debt ceiling; and about the risk of another sovereign rating downgrade should political gridlock continue to block a plan for medium-term fiscal consolidation. In such conditions, most firms and consumers will be cautious about spending—an option value of waiting—thus further weakening the economy.

more

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/project_syndicate/2012/07/five_reasons_why_we_aren_t_even_close_to_a_real_recovery.html

Monday Toon Roundup- The rest

Warming





Syria







Penn State

Monday Toon Roundup- Repubs

Monday Toon Roundup- Guns

Runner without country to compete in Olympics

LONDON -- Guor Marial ran for his life to escape a Sudanese child labor camp. Now he will get to run at the Olympics.

Marial's heartwarming rise from a fearful kid who hid in a cave, fled his war-torn homeland and finally arrived in the United States as a refugee took another incredible turn Saturday.

Despite having no passport and officially no country -- and at one time very little hope -- the 28-year-old marathoner was cleared by the IOC to compete at the London Games under the Olympic flag.

...

Marial -- who was born in what is now South Sudan, a newly independent African country that doesn't yet have a national Olympic body -- was one of four competitors let in at the London Games as independent athletes. Three others from Netherlands Antilles also were allowed to take part under the Olympic flag, but the case of Marial was the first of its kind at the Olympics, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.

more

http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/2012/trackandfield/story/_/id/8186507/2012-olympics-runner-country-compete-olympics

Pretty cool story