Catching Up

This past week-plus, since last I updated, have been filled with:

Turning another year older, an important personal holiday.
Observing the other extremely important personal holiday of "Papa's Birthday".
Attending The Role of Law Schools in Fostering Commitment to Pro Bono Publico, which I believe to have been a very useful conference.

Finding out information about the new federal loan forgiveness act.

Students, take out federally-funded or federally-guaranteed loans (i.e., Stafford, GradPLUS), and then when you graduate, go to the Dept of Education website for the form(s) to consolidate everything into a *federal* direct consolidation loan. Look up your (federal) loan info here. If you already have a private consolidation loan, you may have to fill out an extra form, or otherwise affirm that the private deal isn't good enough, to re-consolidate with a federal one, and unless it has loan forgiveness, it ain't good enough. You may even need to use the contact number for the Dept of Ed's Ombudsman, which is 1-877-557-2575. Then, if it's not 2009 yet, sign up for Income Contingent Repayment, to keep your payments down. Payments will be based on your adjusted gross income. In 2009, sign up for Income Based Repayment, to keep your payments down even further, *and* get loan forgiveness after 25 years . If you work in public service (govt job, any 501(c)-type org) for 10 years (non-consecutive!!), from the time you sign up for IBR, you'll get loan forgiveness after the 10 years instead of 25. If you make shitloads of money, you may not want ICR or IBR, because a payment schedule based on your income may mean higher payments than the standard repayment schedule. This advice is for the rest of us. You go enjoy driving your expensive car.

There's a third-party ICR & IBR calculator here, among various other calculators and financial aid related tools.

Having the easiest walk through security at an airport, ever.
Reading Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year and wondering if a similar book using Hurricane Katrina would make sense or not.
Visting one set of friends, and missing a visit from another set of friends.

Interesting Discussion of How We Consider Exercise and Weight

The Scientist and the Stairmaster: Why most of us believe that exercise makes us thinner—and why we're wrong.

Huh.

The Haven Foundation - Supporting Freelance Artists

The Haven Foundation.

Supporting Family Values -- and Valuing Families

Way to go, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. Embracing same-sex marriage, for all the right reasons.

How to Make a Foxhole Radio

That's just cool. Here's how. (PDF instructions here.)

Petraeus says US surge has 'not worked out'

Petraeus says US surge has 'not worked out'. I think that's pretty self-explanatory. How 'bout you?

Local Memorial Planned to Honor Fairbanks Musical Legend

My dad[*] is heading up for Fairbanks next week to participate in the memorial performance for the late, great, Jim Bell. He was a Boom-dee-yay Boy for Jim in his time.

I wish I could be there. Jim was a legend, and, of course, as a kid in Alaska at the time, I didn't appreciate what I was seeing, watching a show at the Palace Saloon in Fairbanks, AK.

Jim's obit -- written with a great sense of humor -- may be read here.

[*](living, as opposed to my father, who's not.)

One Woman Tells the Truth About Iraq

Blogger Riverbend of Baghdad Burning has fled the country, with her family.

This is what we did to Iraq:

Made armed incursions and death at the hands of masked men "normal".
Made roadblocks, checkpoints, and vehicle explosions commonplace.
Ripped families apart.
Denied women any autonomy.
Killed.
And Killed.
And Killed A Nation.

Leaving Home, by Riverbend, who had to leave her home, because of what George Bush did to it. What *you* and *I*, and every American, let him do to it.

Newsflash: Global Warming is Real, and We Cause It

NOAA Study Says Greenhouse Warming Was Main Cause of Unusual Heat in 2006

Warming caused by human activity was the biggest factor in unusually high temperatures recorded in 2006 in the United States, according to a report by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The analysis, released Tuesday, is being published in the September issue of Geophysical Research Letters, published by the American Geophysical Union.

Mankind to blame for warming but can slow damage

The report gives a first overview of 3,000 pages of research by the U.N.'s climate panel already published in three installments this year about the science, the likely impacts and the costs of slowing climate change.

The authoritative summary, obtained by Reuters and meant to guide governments in working out how to slow warming, reiterates that humans are to blame for climate change but that clean technologies are available to offset the most harmful emissions.

"Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (from human activities) greenhouse gas concentrations," it says.

UN Issues Desertification Warning

UN issues desertification warning

"Desertification has emerged as an environmental crisis of global proportions, currently affecting an estimated 100 to 200 million people, and threatening the lives and livelihoods of a much larger number," the study said.

The overexploitation of land and unsustainable irrigation practices are making matters worse, while climate change is also a major factor degrading the soil, it says.

The report can be found at the BBC website (PDF).

Katrina, Then and Now

First: A Katrina Timeline

Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake wrote For the Love of Cheney, two years ago, and now, For the Love of Cheney — The Second Anniversary Edition.

Author Poppy Z. Brite refused to leave the city, though she doesn't live in the same area anymore:

• Not OK
• We Are Still Not OK

There's also a New Orleans community on livejournal.

And, of course, there's Digby: What, Me Worry?

Bush, Katrina, and the Shame of a Nation -- Two Years Later

Fool me once... Fool me twice...

The Great Iraq Swindle

It was an awful idea, perhaps the worst America has ever tried on foreign soil. But if you were in on it, it was great work while it lasted.

C'mon, everybody! Let's line our pockets while Baghdad burns!

Reckless Abandonment

Reckless Abandonment

Unfortunately, one of the biggest misperceptions the American public harbors is that Katrina was a week-long catastrophe. In truth, it's better to view it as an era. Remember, the Dust Bowl of the 1930s lasted eight or nine years. We're still in the middle of the Katrina saga.

Bold action has been needed for two years now, yet all that the White House has offered is an inadequate trickle of billion-dollar Band-aids and placebo directives. Too often in the United States we forget that "inaction" can be a policy initiative. Every day the White House must decide what not to do.

Speak From the Heart

Because that's how people connect with you.

The Political Brain

"Respecting Copyright"

I'm making these remarks spurred by a brief article about Prism, an astroturf org apparently devoted to restricting knowledge by "respecting copyright".

At least in the US, copyright isn't a natural, god(s)-given right that must be guarded by the state. Rather, it is a tool, to keep scientists and inventors at the task of invention, by rewarding them, personally (not their heirs ad infinitum), for their efforts. Copyright is a *tool*, a means. Not an end.

To promote the progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.