Ryan Cooper

Josh Marshall : But for future reference let's remember that the entire concept of a debt limit ceiling is ridiculous. If the Congress votes to spend more than it will take in in tax revenues, that is a vote to borrow money . Period. For Congress to vote once to borrow the money and then have to vote again to borrow the same money is silly. That's not to say this has any constitutional relevance; Congress has broad latitude to do stupid things. But this was always a silly way of doing business -- which is the reason why no other major country has a similar procedure -- a time bomb waiting for one of the two parties to decide to play Russian Roulette with the nation. Right now, the House is moving to reject Harry Reid's stupendous giveaway to conservatives before it is even passed (assuming they can get past a Republican filibuster).  There seem to be two easy fixes to this: the President invokes the 14th amendment , or mints a couple trillion-dollar platin...

I'm really looking forward to abandoning the camera on my phone. This crappy picture is of a bunch of textbooks my host sister is currently reading.  They're for a correspondence course in several subjects having to do with school administration and the like, obtained from North West University, and I helped her download several supporting documents.  Paging through the books, the courses seem at least somewhat legitimate—not obviously a diploma mill-style efforts, at least.  There are repeated instructions to help people avoid common South African mistakes, like copying the textbook verbatim.  My sister applied for course because if she passes, she will get a R1000 salary increase. She has no chance of passing.  The courses assume a passing familiarity with the academic gearshifts—computer and internet skills, ability to parse legal and academic language, and most importantly good writing skills.  My sister did not know the meaning of the word "legis...

It looks like a praying mantis, but with some kind of weird upturned abdomen. Any guesses?

Well, these aren't really good news... 1. Hillary Clinton is an excellent Secretary of State . 2. Terrible pictures from the famine in East Africa . 3. An anti-gay preacher is suing Rachel Maddow and MSNBC for $50 million . 4. How to deliver the smackdown to the Mexican drug cartels . 5. A sane conservative meditation on the Oslo killer . 6. A Korean rap star from Stanford was the victim of a crazed denialist persecution .  A bizarre story, but similar to the the anti-vaccine or anti-global warming movements.

[ This is an onion-style piece from my dad. ] Dateline June 24, 2011. Washington, DC. Reports that climate scientists have been apprehended igniting cataclysmic forests fires in 14 states have been difficult to confirm. “ Many of these science types are actually quite clever,” said Senator James Inhofe, chief the upper chamber’s climate change deniers. “They’ll be up in Minot breaching dikes in the morning and lighting a 60,000 acre wildland fire in Florida the afternoon. Senator John Kyl noted that he a personally chased off a suspicious person dressed in a lab coat and carrying a test tube when he went to see if his cabin had been consumed by the fire that has blackened 900 square miles of Arizona and continues to burn. Sarah Palin’s blog reported that climate scientists have discovered a way to cause the formation of class 5 tornadoes by use of a top-secret “cyclotwistorator” device that is about the size of a toaster. The machine was accidently plugged in at a top-s...

One of Sullivan's readers makes a good point about white roofs, which I explored myself awhile back: Another points to a post by Duke scientist Bill Chameides, who says that "if white roofs became ubiquitous [worldwide], the extra energy needed for heating in the winter would exceed the energy savings in the summer." An innovative solution: A group of recent M.I.T. grads, as  reported  on the school’s web site, has developed a temperature-sensitive tile — it’s black when temperatures are cold and white when temps are warm. It’s a chameleon roof tile — so adding the Greek word for  heat  to the English word for the colorful lizard, they named their invention Thermeleon. It's true, a white roof doesn't make sense for every climate.  I reckon it would work best in a very hot place like Phoenix that requires little or no heating during winter.  My village in the Kalahari is actually rather temperate—yesterday it was freezing cold—but given that mos...

I was sort of hoping I'd hit 1000 posts before I went home, but that looks pretty unlikely.  Still, 900 isn't too bad.  Here are some links to celebrate! 1. A train ride with history .  Dude made it through Stalingrad! 2. Towards wrenching the US system in a parliamentary direction . 3. The campers that saved dozens in Norway . 4. A video game as a religion ? 5. Seven really creepy, but possibly useful, experiments .