The Tedder P. Schoenhopfer Policy Exchange

Here’s a fun article about when blue eyes first popped up among humans: roughly around 6,000 - 10,000 years ago. Here’s a quick quote:

Blue eye colour most likely originated from the near east area or northwest part of the Black Sea region, where the great agriculture migration to the northern part of Europe took place in the Neolithic periods about six–10,000 years ago.

“That is my best guess,” he said. “It could be the northern part of Afghanistan.”

The mutation affected a gene called OCA2 and “literally ‘turned off’ the ability to produce brown eyes”, he says.

…
“They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA. From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor,” said Prof Eiberg, who reports the work in the journal Human Genetics.

Article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml;jsessionid=APJEN0U2XRMFFQFIQMGCFFWAVCBQUIV0?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/01/30/scieyes130.xml

Although the delegation from D.C. is often overlooked (due to the fact that they aren’t allowed to vote), this little article shows why they are still lovable:

DC Vote staged a protest last Sunday to commemorate the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party and the ongoing Taxation Without Representation in Washington. Instead of dumping 45 tons of tea into the Boston Harbor, however, protesters tossed a few crates of old leaves into the Potomac River. Or at least they tried to — wind gusts kept a lot of the foliage ashore.

“That’s King George saying, ‘In your face!’ ” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.).

“I don’t want to give King George too much credit,” said Paul Strauss, one of D.C.’s shadow senators. Strauss stressed that they did a noble thing by using an environmentally friendly medium to get their message across. “Our enemy is tyranny, not the beautiful Potomac,” he said.

If a person were playing that drinking game, what would be the bingo words or phrases?

Also, do you think the president will sign autographs as he leaves the chamber, like a star baseball player, or a Nascar driver?

Here is the column of our famous columnist sister. Also link on left - It hink it’s her 8th one but not sure.

Excerpt:

A couple of campaigns ago, I called Ross Perot a Chihuahua. In the spirit of good political fun, we’ve all used our favorite metaphors — animal, vegetable or otherwise. So why do I take such personal offense at the pot shots directed toward Hillary Clinton? It’s not as if she has suddenly become a target; Hillary jokes are almost as old as … John McCain.

And Hillary is no victim. Every description, no matter how denigrating, includes the word power. Even her enemies (especially her enemies) wield this term as a cautionary tale — give her an inch and look at the powerful mile she took. That power is a result of ambition, cunning; perhaps subterfuge, but mostly ambition.

No one can discuss Hillary without a strong opinion. My question is, why is this subject so personal? more

Haha! These guys suck at jumping jacks! Pick out the individuals and watch how dumb they look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbK76okexVk

I was reading a book recently that made an interesting point: that American conservatives are very pro-life if the life happens to be that of a fetus. Texas has the strongest pro-life support and, at the same time, has by far and away the highest death penalty rate. Is this somewhat hypocritical?

I hope you’re doing something fun.

This is a super good column by Stanley Fish explaining why it’s stupid to say “I vote for the person, not the party. Excerpt:”

“Floating independently above the fray and inhabiting the marketplace of ideas as if were a shopping bazaar rather than a battlefield is an unnatural condition. The natural condition is to be political. To be political is to believe something, and to believe something is to believe that those who believe something else are wrong, and after all you don’t want people who believe (and would do) the wrong things running your government. So you organize with other like-minded folks and smite the enemy (verbally) hip and thigh. You join a party.

What do independent voters do? Well, most of all, they talk about the virtue of being an independent voter. When they are asked to explain what that means, they say, “I can’t stand the partisan atmosphere that has infected our politics” (forgetting that politics is partisan by definition); or “we like to make up our own minds and don’t want anyone telling us what to do (as if Democrats and Republicans were sheep eager to go over whatever cliff the leadership brings them to) or (and this was a favorite of those interviewed in Iowa and New Hampshire), “We vote the person rather than the party.”

The writing on this site gets a little annoying sometimes (they love cursing), they the insects themselves are fascinating and just downright scary:

http://www.cracked.com/article_15816_5-most-horrifying-bugs-in-world.html

I’ve gotten emails from two people, linking to this Hillary movie. People really don’t like her, do they?

http://www.breitbart.tv/html/27944.html

Just wondering, how are you? Gramma says you are fine but you know how she edits the reports, sometimes.

Update: I’m adding photo so you can all see. There’s a tiny spot on the end of my nose — I can’t take the bandage off until Tuesday.

This is an absolutely f-ing hilarious video about a kid who threw a party in Australia while his parents were away. The more I watch it the more hilarious it is. Everything from the way the kid looks, the responses he gives, how the news lady is hot, the guy’s sunglasses, the intermittent video clips of the party…and the very end is the absolute best part!

http://www.break.com/index/funny-kid-isnt-sorry-about-huge-party.html

Anyone gone to the movies lately?

I’ve seen more good movies in the theater in the past month or two than I have in years combined. So, this post is an exhortation for everyone to go to the movies and check some of these out:

- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. If you’ve heard about it, your instinct might be to think that it is boring and pretentious; after all, it is in French, and it’s about a paralyzed guy. But it really was a pleasure to watch and ultimately a “triumph of the human spirit” kind of movie. Even though the subject matter was depressing, I found the movie to be very uplifting. It’s really about imagination and creativity and what makes life important.
Dad rating (as opposed to MPAA): No sex, no violence, minor interpersonal tension.

- Juno. I saw this last night and it was just great. Usually developed characters with actual personalities are reserved for more serious movies, but this was definitely a romantic comedy, and the humor was actually based on the characters and scenarios, not just physical or gag comedy, so it was much more real and more memorable. It’s about a high school girl who gets pregnant and decides to carry the pregnancy to term and then give the baby up for adoption. It’s a very happy ending. Oh also, the acting is phenomenal and it’s got a great cast.
Dad rating: One sex incident (obviously) but not at all explicit, no violence, tension in one relationship but it is resolved.

- No Country for Old Men. I don’t even know where to begin with this one. I guess it’s sort of existential, there are a lot of themes about life/ change/ fortuity, but the plot is a serial psycho killer who has been hired to recover some drug money which the protagonist happened upon. Actually, maybe the protagonist is the serial killer; or, it could be the old sheriff who is trying to look after the guy on the run. Anyway, it’s got great visuals - the movie takes place in West Texas in the ’80s, and there are some great sweeping shots. The movie really exploits the use of sound to create ambience. There are a lot of super, super suspenseful scenes and the bad guy is freakin’ scary. The movie is kind of a crazy rollercoaster ride.
Dad rating: No sex, a lot of violence but none of it is gratuitous, lots and lots of tension.

- Kite Runner. If you haven’t read the book you would probably really love this movie. If that’s the case then go read the book immediately. It is one of the greatest books ever. I still enjoyed the movie but it could never parallel the book. Anyway, great visuals again, really gripping plot with a lot of exciting twists. I don’t like to talk about the plot because the surprise element is key to proper enjoyment.
Dad rating: No explicit sex but one scene where it is understood what is going on, some violence but none gratuitous, a fair amount of interpersonal tension but it’s kind of resolved in the end.

- Ratatouille. This is a little old and no longer in theaters (I saw it on TV) but it was great! Yes, it is an animated movie about a rat. But it was funny, poignant, completely enjoyable, great message.
Dad rating: no sex, no violence, minor if any intercharacter (heh) tension.

I also saw I Am Legend, which was horrible. I think that’s it for now but I’ll add others if I remember them.

Add your thoughts!

OK, while the bridges were neat, Scientists have discovered a new black hole in our universe that’s the mass of 18 billion suns. Holy (#%%)$@!

The Schwarzchild radius (the radius of the sphere forming its event horizon) of a black hole is given by the formula Rs = 2GM / c^2. For a black hole of 18 billion solar masses, this gives a radius of roughly 53 billion kilometers, or 363 AU.

Were this black hole centered on our Sun, the ’surface’ of the event horizon would be almost 10 times further away than Pluto.

[note by Mom: The link to this was breaking the site so I put it on the right under "external links" - it was so long it was making the sidebar go down somehow]

[note by Dad: I converted the long link into a short link by using www.tinyurl.com. The short link is given below.]
http://tinyurl.com/2gscoh

Some of these are just fascinating.

http://frikoo.com/18-stunning-bridges-from-around-the-world