More Texans in the #fracking PR tank, but no salamanders!

Norm Augustine thinks deep
fracking thoughts/Wikipedia

It turns out that not just University of Texas professor Charles Groat is "in the PR tank" on a study that claims fracking is no environmental big deal. So is his overseer.

In case you don't remember, the Energy Commission at UT that used Groat as its principle investigator said that fracking didn't contaminate groundwater. Then, it came out that he had been paid, last year alone, more than $400,000 by Plains Exploration, and that Plains was doing fracking in a site he had touted, too. There were other problems with the study, including claims of peer review that didn't stand up.

The chairman of the board of that commission is in that same tank, too. If you're a well-read progressive, you know that Norm Augustine has "issues," including being a big, big businessman in the defense industry. And ... was on the board of directors at oil biggie ConocoPhillips.

Here's the key points:

ConocoPhillips, whose work includes natural gas and hydraulic fracturing, donated $1.5 million to the Energy Institute in 2010. The company’s own fracking website cites the 2012 University of Texas study to stave off claims of environmental problems, as reported by Texas State Impact. 

While Augustine no longer serves on the board of ConocoPhillips, he continues to be paid by the company. According to a 2009 proxy statement, he elected to defer compensation of roughly $3.1 million in 10 annual installments beginning in July 2009. (More information on page 62 of that proxy statement.)

So, he's got a personal financial stake in a misleading report, too.  And, as "connected" as he is, he wasn't operating in a non-Big Oil vacuum.

Meanwhile, speaking of environmental problems, Texas' highest-ranking political numbnut, Sen. John Cornyn, is leading the opposition to more environmental protection for four salamander species north of Austin.

"Instead of hastily proposing these listings based on limited data, the administration should allow conservation efforts underway to continue without hindering Central Texas from creating jobs," Cornyn said Tuesday in a statement. "We'll press forward with our efforts to block this foolish plan." 

"Limited data" means "any amount of data that doesn't agree with modern Republican anti-environmentalism." (Trust me, or else go to Google Translator and try for yourself!)

#Autism — blame "dear OLD dad"?

There's more evidence coming in, topping some preliminary early findings, that paternal age is a definite contributor to autism.

It's not surprising. In the future, I hope we revisit more genetic syndromes that have been blamed on maternal birth age and ask to what degree dear OLD dad is at fault.

Because this surely applies:

The research team found that the average child born to a 20-year-old father had 25 random mutations that could be traced to paternal genetic material. The number increased steadily by two mutations a year, reaching 65 mutations for offspring of 40-year-old men.

In other conditions as well.

Autonomy, humanism and a sleep like unto death

Trust me, I'll tie all of this together in just a few paragraphs.

Secular humanism is, among other things, about human autonomy and choice (to the degree there's an "I" which has a conscious choice, which is by no means likely to be the case, but that's a whole nother issue).

And, where are two cases where such autonomy comes most clearly to mind? And, brings in other issues of secular humanism, namely, social justice and equality?

Assisted suicide and sleep patterns.

Dr. Richard Wesley/New York Times

The New York Times shows that, despite fear-mongering that largely was driven by religious conservatives, the assisted suicide laws in Oregon and then Washington state have not seen their use primarily by poor, often minority poor, who might be getting pushed into a final decision by relatives who couldn't afford their care, either financially or timewise.

Rather, it's largely white, upper middle class folks who are opting to take the final step into their own hands.

Including, in Washington, a physician who pushed for its law.

Dr. Wesley is emblematic of those who have taken advantage of the law. They are overwhelmingly white, well educated and financially comfortable. And they are making the choice not because they are in pain but because they want to have the same control over their deaths that they have had over their lives. 

And, it's also not about fear of one big issue related to dying.

Dr. Linda Ganzini, a professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University, published a study in 2009 of 56 Oregonians who were in the process of requesting physician-aided dying. 

“Everybody thought this was going to be about pain,” Dr. Ganzini said. “It turns out pain is kind of irrelevant.” 

A proposed similar bill in Massachusetts may be attracting some conservative support. Meanwhile, the AMA opposes such ideas, while many individual doctors, the ones who have shed the Superman idealism, favor them. That too makes it clear this is an issue of autonomy.

So, too, is sleep comfort — at least if you're a minority.

Moleendo Steward, sleep-challenged./New York Times

I think this issue is almost certainly nurture-driven. I simply cannot imagine any great evolutionary environmental pressure, or even the likelihood of evolutionary drift that got selected for, that would say why black Americans such as Moleendo Stewart have more trouble sleeping than their white counterparts. 

I deliberately don't say "peers" because of the higher poverty rates, which often mean housing situations less adequate for quality sleeping. Beyond that, the story notes that minorities often have less structured bedtime patterns for children, another environmental effect.

Of course, there's an easy way to study this. Take two or three relative "primitive" groups, from different ethnic backgrounds, such as the San! people of the Kalahari's edges and Siberian reindeer herders, and compare their sleep patterns.

Ultimately, the different socioeconomic groups in America have different degrees of autonomy.

And, true secular humanism still has its work cut out there. That includes "friendly fire" from confrontationalist Gnu Atheists, or Center for Inquiry suck-ups like Ron Lindsay, unworried about high income inequality, which directly undercuts autonomy.

The second story, in addition, is a reminder of how little we still really know about sleep, and why it, or its lack, has the effects it does.

Reporters to be paid by the page read at new #NOLA?

There's been speculation for several years within the newspaper world that some newspaper might eventually, in its online version, base at least a part of reporters' salaries based on how many page hits their stories get.

And, now, this job ad at the "new" New Orleans Times-Picayune makes me wonder if that day isn't now upon us.

When I see the word "metrics" for a position like this, especially with a newspaper that has just decided to become a non-daily in its hardcover operations, that’s the first thought that comes to mind. This line from the job's description only reinforces that:

As the Staff Performance Measurement and Development Specialist, you will be responsible for developing and implementing performance objectives to keep members of the team motivated and our organization on target and productive. Working closely with the Director of Digital Operations in this high profile, consultative role, you will leverage your strong knowledge of content objectives and data analysis tools to shape actionable goals and metrics for performance. 

Let’s translate and unpack that, while noting that, per the job ad, this is a newly-created position.

Here's what it really means:

1. The person in this role will monitor page views.
2. The person in this role will use tools like Google Analytics to see where such page views are coming from, for different stories, different reporters, etc.
3. The person in this role will, in conjuction with the director of digital operations, discuss how to use SEO keywords in the body of the story and SEO search population boxes, Twitter-trending words in headlines, etc., to maximize page hits.
4. The person in this role will “train,” that is, push reporters and online editors toward doing this.
5. The person in this role will use these metrics to “motivate” the “team,” whomever the team is, that is, will use metrics to tell reporters and editors, if you’re not on target, you’re not here.

In other words, NOLA is now going to be Demand Media. Or maybe even something worse.

That, in turn, explains why there's still no paywall at NOLA. Because they know that nobody would want to pay.

Enjoy!

And, mourn.

Rioger Clemens — worse than Michael Jordan?

Can somebody please chloroform Roger Clemens, or something, rather than him pitching minor league baseball?

Please, please, somebody, just make him go away. Especially before Barry Bonds gets any similar ideas in his head. 

I have no idea why he is doing this, and he didn't say so in the story. That said, I'm not sure I want to know why. 

Oops, maybe we do know ... this could be his entree back to the big leagues. Please, please, somebody stop the madness. Seeing him back on a big-league mound would be too much. Plus, if he does halfway well, it just starts the roiding accusations all over.

And if so, there may be some deviousness behind that. By coming back to the big leagues, Clemens wouldn't be eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot this year, but would have to wait five years until he re-retired.

So, he wouldn't come up for consideration at the same time as Bonds. In fact, he wouldn't come up into the roiding issue had gotten a fair hashing out.

Oh, and Baseball Reference? Clemens hasn't weighed 205, nor Bonds 185, for 15 years or more. Please update your stats to at least reflect late-career playing weight, not rookie numbers.

1968 — the election I wish we had had

Bobby Kennedy/Wikipedia

Yesterday, I blogged about the “fun” election we missed having in 1968 — Tricky Dick vs. LBJ, with George Wallace still in there, and ideally, the race winding up in the House of Representatives.

Well, now, as I work through a new book about Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, let me tell you about the campaign that, as a true progressive, I wish we had had — Bobby Kennedy vs. Tricky Dick.

Let’s throw in an additional twist or two. Let’s say that Reagan actively campaigned earlier than he did in reality, and got enough delegates to, in combination with Nelson Rockefeller, prevent Nixon from a first-ballot nomination.

So, Nixon has to deal. But, with whom? Remembering how conservatives soured on him in 1968 for the “Compact on Fifth Avenue” and tapping the relatively moderate Henry Cabot Lodge as his Veep, he decides it can’t be Rocky. And, so, reluctantly, he turns to Reagan. Reagan and Nancy debate it, and finally decide to accept. Reagan knows that, if he doesn’t, Nixon will either tap Rocky, or else find another, younger conservative than him, and if he gets elected, campaign for that person for the presidency in 1976.

Now, on the other side, let’s say that Bobby Kennedy isn’t shot in L.A., of course. Let’s say that it’s true that Mayor Richard Daley at least promises to turn an open mind to Bobby. Let’s say that he crushes McCarthy in the New York primary, enough to persuade Daley’s mind further.

So, after a first ballot with Humphrey barely ahead, the machines start moving toward Kennedy in the second round. McCarthy is stubborn, but it doesn’t matter. RFK gets the nomination on the third ballot.

Humphrey certainly doesn’t want to be Veep again, and Bobby doesn’t want him, due to his LBJ connections. McCarthy keeps his stubborn grudge, so he’s out of the picture. With almost no black or female politicians of close to prominence, Bobby doesn’t have that angle.

One obvious choice is the man who ran himself in 1972 and who was a strong Bobby supporter — George McGovern. It shores up his support with at least some McCarthy supporters and in the Midwest. Or, trying to appeal to liberals in the South, he names Texas Sen. Ralph Yarborough, a choice sure to piss off LBJ. Yarborough was also a war opponent and a strong supporter of Bobby.

And, let’s have Bobby win the general election.

Results?

1. Not neoliberalism of today, or even of Jimmy Carter, but, some next step beyond the New Deal and an affirmation of the better elements of the Great Society get a stronger footing.

2. Richard Nixon really isn’t around to be kicked around any more. Or to try to rehabilitate himself.

3. Mistrust of an executive presidency, etc., never gets started.

4. Reagan takes a ding, too. He would, in this scenario, run himself in 1972, blaming Nixon for not being conservative enough in 1968. He loses, convincingly, after flirting with making a rapproachment to Wallace. (In this scenario, Wallace isn’t shot in 1972, but, does no better in the general election than in 1968.) Reagan tries again in 1976, but moderates coalesce around ... say, Howard Baker.

5. Bobby signs the SALT treaty with the USSR. He does some sort of approach to China, but not the same as Nixon’s.

6. We never help overthrow Salvador Allende in Chile.

7. If not full-blown national health care, Bobby at least expands Medicare and Medicaid.

I'm not saying America would have been "everything," but given Bobby's encouragement to people of different income levels to look beyond the Gross National Product would have definitely worked toward a "more perfect union."