At Random, 2/13/06

Northern Pork:

There is apparently a perception that Alaska is greedy. From NYT:

Gov. Frank H. Murkowski says it is time for an image makeover. He wants the state to hire a public relations firm to change the perception of Alaska and its people as greedy for federal money and too willing to plunder the environment for profit.

Ultimately, Mr. Murkowski, a Republican, wants to sway public opinion in favor of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

Most Alaska politicians favor drilling in the refuge, which would fill the state's treasury as the trans-Alaska oil pipeline has done for decades. But environmentalists have fought back for a quarter-century, and in December the state was thwarted again in Congress.
. . .

Alaska is one of the top recipients of federal largesse. In 2003, the latest year for which figures are available, Alaska received $1.89 in federal spending for every $1 the state paid in taxes to Washington, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research organization. The state ranked second, behind New Mexico. Alaska ranked highest in per-capita money received from the federal government that year, the group reported.

Maybe the answer is not to hire a public relations firm to convince everyone that Alaska is not greedy. Maybe the answer is just to stop being greedy. Y'know, there is such a thing as "enough."


Fact-Checking

I thought this story was a stitch. From NYT:

But the editors of Science were not alone in telling the world of Dr. Hwang's research. Newspapers, wire services and television networks had initially trumpeted the news, as they often do with information served up by the leading scientific journals.

Now news organizations say they are starting to look at the science journals a bit more skeptically.

I find it highly ironic that the science editors of newspapers are so much more sceptical of journal articles than the political editors have been of White House press releases. Fraud in science is relatively rare. Misleading the public has become this administration's SOP. (I'm sure we all remember the NYT's coverage in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq and how carefully it was vetted.. Well. Can you say "Judith Miller"?)


Feedback:

Check out this post at cabanaboyscoot. Ideas have a way of proliferating.


Did He Do It On Purpose?

Headlines of Cheney accidentally shooting a fellow hunter are eclipsing other, more important and more interesting news items, such as the report by a Republican study committee in Congress that slams the administration for its response to Katrina.

I guess they figured a terror alert was passe.


Responds to Positive Reinforcement:

My review of Avram Davidson's Adventures in Unhistory got a blink at Locus Online. It's a good book. And I certainly appreciate the recognition.