NEW YORK, April 28 -- Climate scientists armed with new data from the ocean depths and from space satellites have found that Earth is absorbing much more heat than it is giving off, which they say validates computer projections of global warming.

...the scientists calculated the oceans' heat content and the global energy imbalance. They found that for every square meter of surface area, the planet is absorbing almost one watt more of the sun's energy than it is radiating back to space as heat -- a historically large imbalance. Such absorbed energy will steadily warm the atmosphere.

In other news,

well, there is no other news. I'm on call, I got up at 6AM, I'm sleepy. Trying to think of ways to give my job and my summer a badly needed motivation injection... should I take a class? Join a gym? Actually looking forward to cleaning my house this weekend, may even get to my car if I can hold out til Sunday when its supposed to be sunny.

What else planned? I'm gonna watch french buffy at the boy's house, hang out with him, sneak into a trauma conference, you know. Stuff.

Ciao,

Ms. Bling.

Budget 2006:

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R) and House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R) have been in private talks for weeks to explore the possible elements of a compromise FY 2006 budget resolution.

Staffers say the compromise budget resolution is likely to allocate about $70 billion in five-year tax cuts.

They add that Medicaid cuts of about $10 billion are likely in the package as are overall entitlement savings of $40 cuts.

And thats not all.

Who gives a flying fuck about the filibuster, Bolton, Justice Sunday, Delay, all of that.

They're cutting Medicaid to give tax breaks to the rich.
They're cutting Medicaid to give tax breaks to the rich.
They're cutting Medicaid to give tax breaks to the rich.

Had a funny moment at work today. I was sitting there, working on a study, listing to Randi Rhodes on Air America joke about the Secret Service putting her in 'stress positions.' And for no reason at all, I checked in. Had one of those moments - This is my life. This is what I do. I go to work, I follow the news, I work on stupid projects, I go home. This is it.

Had a funny moment at the boy's work today too. Went across town to drop off some stuff with a co-author of a study I'm working on, and the boy invited me to his end-of-semester pizza thing.

When I got there, he was talking to some old guys and and couldn't say more than hi to me. I was tempted to pull a, 'hey, do I know you? Cuz you look really familiar. Are you the guy who slept next to me last night?' But I was good, stayed for a minute, then left.

Went home and listened to NPR for a minute. There was a special on t-shirt manufacture in China. Then they spoke with a laid-off factory worker in Alabama who used to make clothes before the factory went out of business. He said he first realized his job was in trouble while he was shopping with his wife at Walmart. Just on a hunch, he checked the labels of the stuff on the rack beside him.

So I got a list from ABCs the note about the Bush administrations top priorities and thought I'd think about each. 3 days later, here goes.

Iraq war completion

No idea whats going on in Iraq. I hear of the bombings, the elections, but have no idea where the country is in terms of self sufficiency.

Economy, oil, and Saudi Arabia

Good luck kids! Its all going down the tubes. Why?

1. oil demand is going to outmatch any supply increases because of China/India.
2. Oil prices reflect buyers' expectitions about political stability in the region, which isn't going to improve next month.

So Prince Bandar can't do much except hold Bush's hand on this one.

Rising oil prices are just one thing that doesn't look good about the economy:

1. Current account balance is worsening, in part due to chinese imports - longterm trend which is financed by...
2. Individual debt. When did it become cool to pay for groceries and beer with a credit card? I see it all the time and the numbers show. Part of this willingness to put groceries and beer on credit cards comes from
3. (over)appreciation in the housing market, which sustained consumer spending through the 2000 recession and, by many measures, is a bubble waiting to burst. If the housing market burst, a lot of people would find themselves with lowered creditworthiness, high mortgage payments, or in other words...
3. personally bankrupt. Not a good thing to be now that...
4. Bush just signed new bankruptcy law written by the credit card companies (call it pre-emptive strike) and
5. back to the first point, gas prices are over $50 a barrel - which doesn't just hurt SUV owners, but also cuts into job-creating activities on the part of corporations, resulting in
4. anemic job creation and...
5. rising threat of inflation, which the fed responds to by
6. raising interest rates, which drives even MORE people into
7. personal bankruptcy.

Anyways, its way to complicated for me to even think about, but, you know, burn your credit card, stop shopping at walmart and start making your own clothes and buying organic, or better yet, BUY GOLD. Thats what I think.

Social Security

This is dead, at least til '06, when, if the republicans have better majorities and the white house hasn't completely lost control of congress, they'll try again. Tom Delay's joined the 'Strengthen Social Security' tour, which is funny, but is basically in line with the idea that Bush is going to try again in 2006.

Budget negotiations

uhhh... hopeless.

Bolton nomination

I'm just gonna make predictions on this one: unless he hired an illegal immigrant nanny or something and we find out in the next three weeks of evidence finding, Bolton will prob get confirmd 10-8 in committee and pass the Senate.

Whats at stake is...
1. how damaging this will be to the republican's in the nations subconcious
2. what kind of effect this'll have on the white house's hold over congress republicans.

Looks like the debate is going to shift slightly from 'anger management' issues to republican's iffy relationship with facts (bullying CIA analysts) and the white houses' foreign policy in general.

I'm not sure theres grounds for denying Bolton on any 3 of these. My personal opinion? You know, I really like the UN. I'm a multilateralist. I believe in soft power. And I also think congress and the president should really fight each other over foreign policy issues - there should be a real separation of powers conflict every time. So I hope Bolton goes down.

Filibuster face-off

Not looking so good. See Josh Marshall - he's been tracking Dem and Repub efforts to 'spin' this as nuclear vs. constitutional options. Dems have not been reading their talking points.

Reid is doing a good job, but I think they've got to block this. I care about the 3 judges they're blocking now, but what I'm worried about is the Supreme Court Justice coming down the pike.

DeLay's fate

You know, if he goes down, I hope the white house pushes him, so that republican congressmen get a little pissed off at their heavy handed ness when it comes to separation of powers. I like that Lott was chipping in with Delay last week - that association can't hurt.

I've been a news junkie for 2 weeks now. Starting to think maybe I should get into ATL politics instead. The national stuff is interesting, but... the storyline dries out because theres only so much daily news.

OK, back to work. Ciao,

- Ms. Bling

And I found my people! Wait a second, this isn't Samoa, it's... earthy, asian-inspired dinnerware with a "cast iron" appeal. Hmm. For serving deep-fried missionary to your guests, perhaps?

Thank you for the orientalist-inspired mention, Crate & Barrel. But flattery will get you nowhere. When the oceans rise and WWIII is done and gone and your great grandchildren come adventuring to our ocean paradise for shelter and conquest, we're gonna grind your weak white bones to make our bread.

Just ask the French.

Happy Monday!

- Ms. Bling

Samoa

$74.95-$328.95
reg. $87.80-$411.20

Earthy, Asian-inspired dinnerware is both chic and soothing in luscious, graduating hues of moss green. Minimal modern styling allows the color drama to take center stage. Unique shapes are both casual and elegant; the inviting reactive glaze ensures that no two pieces are exactly alike. Satin exterior finish has a “cast iron” appeal. Quality and integrity of design, only from one of France’s original ceramic factories.

•	Unique coupe shapes

•	Dishwasher- and microwave-safe

•	Made in France

President Announces Wetlands Initiative on Earth Day

Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve
Wells, Maine
12:12 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Before I start going on too long about Mother Earth, I do want to recognize my mother on Earth. Thanks for coming, Mom. (Applause.) I hope you're up the road making my bed. (Laughter.)

Earth Day has become a great tradition in our country. It's a day that reminds us that we must be good stewards of the land around us. That's what this day says to us. And we're lucky to live in America, because we're blessed with such unbelievable lands.

The importance about Earth Day is that it reminds us that we can't take the natural wonders for granted.

The continued retreat of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula has been widely attributed to recent atmospheric warming... The pattern is broadly compatible with retreat driven by atmospheric warming, but the rapidity of the migration suggests that this may not be the sole driver of glacier retreat in this region.

That's what Earth Day says to me, and I hope it says to you, as well, that we have responsibilities to the natural world to conserve that which we have and to make it even better. These have been tough times for America, but we're doing the right thing. We're spreading

Removal of other areas of floating ice could further increase this imbalance and thus make a substantial contribution to sea level rise.

freedom and peace, so that our children can grow up in a peaceful world. (Applause.) What's interesting about this year's Earth Day

Is that we know that the loss of floating ice shelves can cause acceleration of inland glaciers, these observations suggest that the cumulative loss of ice at the fronts of these glaciers may be leading to an increased drainage of the Antarctic Peninsula that is more widespread than previously thought.

In other words, in order to make sure the restoration works, it requires more than just government. It requires a buy-in by community partners. It requires a buy-in by corporate America. See, corporate America has a responsibility to the communities in which they live. They've got the responsibility to tell the truth when it comes to their balance sheets, and they've got the responsibility to contribute the quality of the communities in which they live.

Right. OK, Mr. President. Anyways, wanna read the rest? Not me, but here you go -

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040422-4.html

Or better yet, http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/308/5721/541

I'm grumpy today. Was up late with Umbrella and Allycat and Leo and the boy.

But its Friday, and I can be happy for that.

- Ms. Bling.

Been following the Bolton nomination. For a while I was thinking about it in terms of checks and balances. Constitution gives Executive broad powers re: ambassadors, splits treaties and warmaking between the Legislative and Executive. Thats not current practice, and I was wondering if maybe - with the White House perhaps pulling a Trent Lott on Delay and Legislature and Executive in general going after the courts - if maybe this was some congressional pushback on a checks and balances level.

But no, seems like its just partisan politics, and some tweaked consciences rebelling against the jerks under Bush, Rove, Cheney, et. all. So now I'm watching mostly because its fun to see people heap dirt on someone.

All sorts of funny stuff comes up. Some of the discussions have hinged on arcane distinctions between normal and abnormal procedure among CIA analysts - get quotes as follows...

normally what we work with is code word. But when we in the more traditional sense, where we are seeking to demarche a country perhaps. Related to a transfer of a commodity, with proliferation concerns, we might ask that certain points, or certain information can be conveyed at the secret level and releasable to particular government, or governments. And all of us in the community play in the process fo finalizing that language. Such that we can then put it into a cable and send it through the state systemn to our posts abroad who can then deliver it as either a non-paper or as a demarche. "

Derrida would have a field day. And then the change in language when Bolton enters stage left...

he was quite angry and basically told me that I had no right to do that. And he got very red in the face and shook his finger at me... he just told me to get out and get Tom Fingar, he was yelling and screaming, and red in the face, and wagging his finger. I'll never forget the wagging of the finger. Thats perhaps his style.

is just dramatic. Love it.

Had my first hospital visit on Tuesday too. Everything went well, hospital was hard though, and I can see how it would get to me after a while.

Talked with an ER doc a few weeks ago who was really struggling with a sense of anger and impotence. He said he was getting very angry at patients, very sick of their demands. They seemed to want him to cure their problems, to heal their congenitally defective children, their addictions, their old age. And he knew that the absolute best he could do was restore someone back to how they were before they entered the clinic. So if they were totally f*cked up before they had an accident/stroke/OD, all he could do was put them back to being totally f*cked up.

We were at the Flat Iron with the boy and umbrella, enjoying margaritas and beer. My first thought was that his mistake was thinking of his patients as real people. He should take advantage of the typical doctors coping mechanism, which is to look at patients as bodies that present interesting opportunities for learning and problem solving. And then I realized that that was kind of evil, and wouldn't help him beyond short term.

Anyways, that gets somewhat to how I feel about the hospital experience for rape victims. From what I've seen, I wouldn't recommend the rape kit, the police interview, unless you want to put your perpetrator behind bars, or at least preserve the court option for yourself in the future. Without that goal in mind, I can't imagine its anything more than a harrowing experience.

ER's - at least the ER here has done a lot for rape victims. They've gone past the days of blaming people, etc. The folks who treat rape victims are extremely experienced, and dedicated to putting perps behind bars.

But still, the nature of the experience is fundamentally inhuman, nothing one can do to change that. In the words of the experts, "excellent care for survivors of sexual assault requires the coordination of clinical medicine with forensic science, law enforcement, and victim advocacy."
And thats what I see.

As soon as you walk in the door and tell triage you've been raped, you're a a crime scene, a defendant, a witness and a patient.

Anyways, no sense going into it here - thats my overall observation though.

In other news, weathers fine. I'm sad because Passovers off - no introduction to Elijahs cup and Afikomen and 4 questions for me this year. Looking forward to May, to sunshine, to going to the ocean. She-ra did something sneaky yesterday - went home for lunch and as I was washing my hands, she ran into the bathroom and deposited a live chipmunk at my feet. The chipmunk immediately scrabbled up my pant leg, and I screamed like Nancy Kerrigan until the damn thing ran off. She-ra chased the chipmunk and I chased She-ra, grabbing a colander on my way through the kitchen. I caught them both in the living room and snapped the colander over the chipmunk. She-ra, having no theory of mind, couldn't figure out how the chipmunk dissappeared, even though she watched the colander descend over the poor creature. She meowed, I threw the chipmunk outside and disenfected the place for an hour. Good kitty. Thank you.

So I'm on call today for the rape crisis center.

Its so funny, I could never, ever rouse myself out of bed at 6:30 in the morning to go to work, but for this, no problem.

After I checked in with the answering service, went out to Starbucks and chatted with the staff, got my daily jolt. Drove back home and stood on the sidewalk for a minute, watched my cats roll around in the twigs. Dirty birds. It was a gorgeous Georgia morning, sky coral pinks and lavenders, the air full of flowers and green stuff and bugs.

I was hoping to do a load of laundry in the NEW LAUNDRY ROOM THE LANDLORD JUST BUILT, YAY! then be in by 9, but until 10:30 the phone kept ringing. The answering service calls me, tells me I have a message. I call and listen to the conversation on the answering service. Play it again. Then I look at my notes, and call back the client, lend them some optimism and some tangible next steps and advice.

Its a funny situation. All these phones.

But so far so good. I don't know if its the weather or feeling like I'm helping people out or just getting up early, but I feel a hint of my old mischevous self coming back. Its nice.

- Ms. Bling

-----Original Message-----From: Jamek

Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 2:17 PMTo: Tanisha; Lisa; Patricia; Lan; Nat; Ms. Bling; Wang

Subject: Re: It's a Surprise!

I don't mean to bother or pressure anyone but, will you let me or Tanisha know if you plan on contributing any money for Moses new rocking chair. Tanisha is placing the order tomorrow and needs a heads up on how much money she has to place the order. I would rather have an answer than the order is placed and someone try to give their money and it's too late. Thanks and again I am not pressuring anyone.

-----Original Message-----From: Ms. Bling

Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 2:17 PM
To: Tanisha; Lisa; Patricia; Lan; Nat; Ms. Bling; Wang
Subject: Surprise!

Jamekia, Tanisha, Lisa, Patricia, Lan, Nat and Wang!

Glad to hear there is no pressure.

I regret to inform you that I am an incurable deadbeat and poor money manger and by the time I have $12 again, it will be too late.

- Ms. Bling

Nice weekend. Sat, went to the Dogwood festival. We were there to support LL, who was promoting her hula-hooping business, but we never saw her - just crowds of people, a Christ the King Bud Lite Karaoke tent, kids singing country on the big stage, and lots and lots of artists booths. Didn't see any dogwoods, either. Maybe they've been cleared for the new parking deck.

I was trying to convince the boy that these summer festivals are an English thing, and even the park - another Olmstead - is a remnant of the English Commons. Not so sure about that claim, though. Poking around the internet, looking for Olmstead's philosophy - seems like he was more influenced by private, bourgeous gardens - the English Picturesque, which I know little about except from reading Jane Eyre in high school, taught by an English nun who'd somehow found herself in Saudi Arabia teaching a bunch of fanatic muslims.

And, when I look at Samuel Pepys description of the Bartholemew Fair, in 1661, well... seems like it was a different affair, possibly more fun.

At home and the office all the morning, and at noon comes Luellin to me, and he and I to the tavern and after that to Bartholomew fair, and there upon his motion to a pitiful alehouse, where we had a dirty slut or two come up that were whores, but my very heart went against them, so that I took no pleasure but a great deal of trouble in being there and getting from thence for fear of being seen. From hence he and I walked towards Ludgate and parted. I back again to the fair all alone, and there met with my Ladies Jemimah and Paulina, with Mr. Pickering and Madamoiselle, at seeing the monkeys dance, which was much to see, when they could be brought to do so, but it troubled me to sit among such nasty company. After that with them into Christ’s Hospitall, and there Mr. Pickering bought them some fairings, and I did give every one of them a bauble, which was the little globes of glass with things hanging in them, which pleased the ladies very well.

Somehow, the boy and I ended up leaving the park on a yellow tandem bike, which did not go so well. The boy is not the best bicycler - he tends to lean all his weight on the pedal he is pushing down, and counterbalance by steering in the opposite direction. So he wobbles. A lot. At one point we almost fell, I cracked up, and he jumped off the bike and said, 'I hate this thing!' But slowly slowly, we made it home.

Sunday, went to J's play, Steel Magnolias, played by 5 southern divorcees with genuine accents. I cried because I'm a big softie, when it all comes down to it. Had a nice time.

Nothing grabs me lately that is of note to write about. Nothing automatically fleshes itself out in my mind as I'm walking to work, or puttering, etc. Just a few words and phrases. So, I guess I'll write and see what happens.

Do-over. Repetition. Sometimes you're not sure or you're not done or you're not ready, so you try something again, until you come to an outcome, resolution, transformation, synthesis, decision, what have you.

Been looking at decision making sciences, articles about how people make decisions in repeated trials with imperfect information.

In the article I've been reading, they're thinking about Bayes theory, which is a form of probablity forecasting which probably powers your spam filter by 'learning' what spam looks like each time you mark a new message as spam.

For me, the article has something to do with memory, and the heart of those axioms in my brain that help me make decisions. I know its not Bayesian theory, its something else, to do with optimism and pragmatism.

And that brings me to article #2 I read - about trust and attributions. Its in the identity theory line of thought. The crux of it is that people define causality differently depending on their assumptions about the benevolence of the person they are evaluating. It goes like this:

When someone is evaluating the cause of something negative someone else has done:

1. If they have high trust, they write it off as a mistake, a blip, etc.
2. If they have medium trust, they're not sure whether they're seeing the tip of the iceberg or a mistake.
3. If they have low trust, they say it was a mistake, but secretly they think tip of the iceberg.

The other trust article I read had to do with different strategies for regaining trust based on whether the mistake involves competence or integrity.

If one has broken trust on a skill level - say, a doctor has a poor outcome, then regaining trust can come in the form of an apology. Others are quick to regain faith in someones skill despite mistakes if they see someone perform a skilled maneuver once.

However, if the breach of faith involves integrity, it is better to deny, shift attention, etc. People generally think someones basic integrity as the 'floor' of activities they will engage in.

Do-over. Repetition. Sometimes you're not sure or you're not done or you're not ready, so you try something again, until you come to an outcome, resolution, transformation, synthesis, decision, what have you.

In other news, its sunny and humid. In the afternoon, there's been hints of storms broiling, anr it reminds me of Samoa, that amazing fragrant humidity that hits you when you get off the plane, letting you know where you are.

Its a lovely day today for not working, and I'm glad its the weekend, though I've got nothing special planned. April is slipping by, and busy May is coming up, and then it will be Summer, Summer, Summer. Looking forward to it.

Cute site, 'we watch Fox so you don't have to.'

Laugh of the day comes from the transcript of FOX News' Big Story w/John Gibson:

Gibson, who supports the USA PATRIOT Act, says "Well, I don't know about you, but I haven't seen any terror attacks here. It must be working good. Why change it?"

Napolitano says that both Attorneys general Ashcroft and Gonzalez said they needed it to prosecute terrorist but to date not one single terrorist has been caught or prosecuted using the powers of the act. Other criminals and crimes have been, including prostitution, pornography, and political corruption in Las Vegas. Gibson interjects about the horrific crime where a woman stole another woman's growing fetus and the powers were used to track the killer; Napolitano says they have not used it as they said they need it, to prosecute terrorists.

Gibson then says the totally puzzling "Well we didn't find WMDs either" and Napolitano says "right."

In other news, nice weather these days. Rock climbing some, playing violin some, cleaning not a lot. Life goes on.

Ciao ciao,

- Ms. Bling

Les mots que je vais te dire sont bizarre, peut-etre incroyable. Mais ils sont completement vrai.

Au jour d'hui, je me suis réveiller. Ma tete blessait.

Lentement, j'ai ouvert mes yeux. J'étais sur un grand lit, a cote de un grand fenetre, dans un chambre bleu. Il y avait deux chats sur un chaise. Sur le table, Il y avait un violon, des livres. Avec moi, sur le lit, un beau jeune homme, nu, dormait. Quelque chose était différente.

J'ai ajouté les faits. Lit, chaise, des chats. Ma tete, l'homme. "Je suis - je crois que je suis - chez moi. Ces chats céla, ils sont mes chats. Et le lit, cest ma lit. Et l'ange qui dors?"

J'ai réveillé le jeune homme et j'ai essayé de lui parler.

"Où suis-je?"

"Qui es-tu?"

L'ange a parlé dans un langue étrange.

Puis, comme un deuxieme coup a ma tete, j'ai su. Je ne peut parler, penser sans en francais. Francais mal.

"Merde!"

J'étais dans l'enfer.