Weekend Open Thread: Winter Wonderland

Which is why (4.00 / 1)

the melting of the arctic ice is such a problem.  Changes the albedo.  Your dawn albedo is most beautiful, thank you.


We believe in prosperity & opportunity, strong communities, healthy families, great schools, investing in our future and leading the world by example. We are Democrats; we are the change you're looking for.

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by: bloomingpol @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 07:52:32 AM CST

Thanks - learn something new every day! (0.00 / 0)

I've seen albus, a, um - white a million times, but did not know there was an abstract noun in Latin formed off of it - albedo, albedinis, f. - whiteness, or what it means in scientific terminology today.

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by: Dean Barker @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 08:02:54 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Always glad (0.00 / 0)

when I can bring a bit more light to the issue that scares me the most, climate change.  I am part of a network that measures precipitation around the country, among other ways I try to help increase knowledge of what James Hanson in his new book The Storms of My Grandchildren calls global weirding.  

It is just amazing and terrifying to look at where we are, and how we got here, and who put us here, and realize all the time we have wasted trying out the tax cutting, government hating, soak the middle class that made the country what it almost was.  I fear we might not be able to save ourselves.  And I consider myself temperamentally an optimist.  

We believe in prosperity & opportunity, strong communities, healthy families, great schools, investing in our future and leading the world by example. We are Democrats; we are the change you're looking for.

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by: bloomingpol @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 08:38:31 AM CST

[ Parent ]

I always understood that word (0.00 / 0)

to be a measure of the amount of total light a planet reflects from its star?

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by: kestrel9000 @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 09:04:28 AM CST

[ Parent ]

It is a bit more encompassing (0.00 / 0)

than simply the reflectivity of a planet, according to widipedia which says, "The albedo of an object is the extent to which it diffusely reflects light from light sources such as the Sun."  

We believe in prosperity & opportunity, strong communities, healthy families, great schools, investing in our future and leading the world by example. We are Democrats; we are the change you're looking for.

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by: bloomingpol @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 10:51:33 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Jobs. (4.00 / 1)

Jobs jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs  jobs.

Jobs.

The worst president ever threatens to affect yet another election cycle.

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by: Dean Barker @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 09:45:23 AM CST

Alternative energy (0.00 / 0)

could be an enormous source of jobs.  And work on climate as well.  But the Senate doesn't seem to inclined to pass the bill.  Gotta do something about that Senate, or we all go down the tubes.
Corporate personhood, campaign finance reform, etc., etc., all connected to jobs and climate change, and on and on.  Ah, Grannie D.  
I've been cleaning out the debris of 10 years of work for pay combined with political activism both locally and state and national.  Closets, office, etc.  where I just put it in a pile. Something I hate to do.  But it seems better than contemplating this mess of a country we have.  Or, I might possibly be clearing the decks for another election year.  

We believe in prosperity & opportunity, strong communities, healthy families, great schools, investing in our future and leading the world by example. We are Democrats; we are the change you're looking for.

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by: bloomingpol @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 10:48:29 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Someone sent me this (4.00 / 1)

I got an e-mail this morning with a link to a synopsis of the differences between the Democratic and Republican administrations regarding economic activity.  It is worth repeating over and over again that the economy, including the stock market, which is the field I get my pay from, works better under the Democrats.  I say it over and over, but it goes in one ear and out the other, apparently.


We believe in prosperity & opportunity, strong communities, healthy families, great schools, investing in our future and leading the world by example. We are Democrats; we are the change you're looking for.

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by: bloomingpol @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 11:37:35 AM CST

[ Parent ]

A Working Class Hero Is Something To Be (4.00 / 2)

In America, we have an archetype hero of the "Working Man." Keep your nose to the grindstone and things will be alright. Half true, imo.

I'm no Socialist. But the more my good will and work ethic are exploited, the more I become an Anti-Corporatist. Bush/Cheney Corp. systemically undermined the working class. They dangled the brass ring in the most nefarious way. The wreckage of our economy stands as a testament.

The game is not new, only adapted to fit the times. This is how they used to hold us down:
Sixteen Tons

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you
Then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

www.KusterforCongress.com  

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by: Jack Mitchell @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 13:25:13 PM CST

[ Parent ]

we play that one n/t (4.00 / 1)

"Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does." Allen Ginsberg

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by: JonnyBBad @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 16:41:09 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Bless your little pea-pickin hearts. (4.00 / 1)

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by: elwood @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 17:57:03 PM CST

[ Parent ]

good for something n/t (0.00 / 0)

"Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does." Allen Ginsberg

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by: JonnyBBad @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 20:58:15 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Best (0.00 / 0)

Yglesias post ever?

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by: Dean Barker @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 20:33:02 PM CST

Newly minted GOPer's staff bails (0.00 / 0)

SWEET!

As his staff, we wish him only the best, and we all remain committed to the citizens of the Tennessee Valley. But we cannot, in good conscience, continue working for him. It is with deep sadness that we leave our work for the Fifth District. But because we are unwavering in our own principles, we have no choice but to move on. We do not know what the future holds, but we are taking a leap of faith with the belief we will soon find ourselves in the employment of principled public officials."

www.KusterforCongress.com  

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by: Jack Mitchell @ Mon Jan 04, 2010 at 11:48:37 AM CST