Longtime readers of this blog know that I loves me some haiku.via Dan, I see that People for the American Way is having a McCain/Palin Haiku contest. Here are a few I came up with:Alaskan AirheadOl' Grampy McGrumps-a-lotLike a Muppet SketchPalin ethics probeBefore she's even VPCheney impressionKatrina LandfallBirthday cake with his pal BushMcCain AntoinetteNine times out of tenMcCain votes with buddy BushSo much for "maverick"Katrina, IraqAbu Ghraib, torture, wiretapMcCain's buddy BushWitch protection prayerMakes Palin seem kooky, andTicks off Elphalba ...

As I state every fall, I don't like fall. Fall in Michigan is chilly, rainy, gray, and depressing. Even the name is depressing: "fall." Not very uplifting, is it? Plus, the only season I dislike more than fall is winter, and fall is just a prelude to winter, so I dislike fall because of it's proximity to winter. Fall is like the Sunday night of seasons. You know how when you were a kid, Sunday night signaled the end of fun, and the beginning of the new week of school? That's fall.Anyway, here are 3 signs that signal the pending ...

1. Dear Ol' Grampy McCain, I know that modern technology like Blackberries, email, computers, and indoor plumbing sometimes leaves you confounded, but as noted over here, an overhead projector is not the same as a planetarium projector. By the way, in our current political system, it is our representatives' job to get money to their district. That's why so many people hate the Congress, yet re-elect their representatives year after year. And that's why it was a bipartisan group of Illinois reps who asked for the money. Also by the way, that 3 million dollars Ol' Grampy McCain kept ...

"That one." ...

I think sexyblackjetta may have a polt-car-geist, or may be cursed or something. It's been nothing but trouble since I bought it.First, buying the damn thing took about a month and a half because of confusion with the bank, confusion with VW who had the lein, etc., etc., etc. I ranted complained about that here. Let's just say that the experience sort of soured my happiness with getting a new-ish car.Then I found out that the extended warranty that was supposed to be part of the deal was actually a dealer warranty that can be transfered to other owners, ...

In science education there's this idea of naive conceptions, sometimes called naive theories, or misconceptions. These are the theories that children develop about how the world works before they receive any formal education on a topic. They're notoriously difficult to dislodge, even when you challenge students with multiple experiences that demonstrate that these misconceptions are wrong. There's an entire literature in science education on these misconceptions across disciplines.For example, if you ask a child why is it warmer in the summer and colder in the winter, they'll often tell you it's because the Earth is closer to the Sun in ...

McCain pulling out of Michigan. ...

The background: In 2005, Reverend Janet Edwards, a Presbyterian minister presided at the wedding of two women. After the wedding announcement was published in a local newspaper, some Presbyterian busybody decided to file ecclesiastical charges against her for conducing this ceremony. However, the charges were filed too late and therefore were dismissed. The fundies in the church howled that the dismissal on a technicality was simply the Presbytery's way of getting out of making a decision. However, the statute of limitations is clearly described in our Book of Order (part of our denomination's constitution.) No one knows why it ...

Anyone else notice this in the John McCranky interview with the Des Moines Register? "Sacriledge" Random occurrence, or message from God? Clearly God is unhappy with the McCranky campaign. ...

You know all those clips of Tina Fey mocking Sarah Palin that are floating around the intertubes? Apparently people find them funny. I don't. Tina is just phoning it in. She doesn't even bother to make up amusing dialogue, she just repeats, nearly word for word, the bat-sh*t crazy stuff Palin actually says. It isn't satire, it's more like the video equivalent of photocopying.Anyway, enjoy this little bit of satire (I think) from the Onion: Palin Brushing up on Foreign Policy at Epcot. Satire. Yeah. Right. Let's hope so. These days it's hard to tell. ...

Bummer.The Hubble repair mission that I mentioned here is being delayed until next year. Over the weekend, the Hubble had another equipment failure, so the Shuttle repair mission has to be retooled to figure out a way to fix that, and then train the astronauts to do the repair. There are actually two up sides to this delay: 1) if they'd gone up, and *then* the command and data-handling system broke, they'd never send another shuttle up to fix it, and 2) that means that this will not be the last time we see two shuttles on two ...