What if every scientist (and every author) had a unique identification number?

The March 27, 2009 edition of Science explores the issue of personal identification numbers for scientists. Why? Because it's getting difficult to tell authors apart.

A universal numbering system could aid scientists trying to stay on top of the literature, help universities more readily track staff productivity, and enable funding agencies to better monitor the bang they're getting for their buck. An effective identification number might also make it easier to find information about an author's affiliations, collaborators, interests, or simply their current whereabouts.
This article indicates that published scientific papers are growing in quantity by 3% annually. Many authors are getting married or divorced and therefore changing their names. Some journals have varying style rules for noting first names and initials. Chinese authors often transliterate their names using opinion. "At least 20 different Chinese names, many of them common, are transliterated as "Wang Hong." And, of course, there are many scientists not of Chinese descent who have common names who don't want to be confused with others.

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Rush Limbaugh IS a “Brainwashed Nazi.”

I’ve long subscribed to a rule which says that in political discourse whichever side calls the other side a “Nazi” first loses. The “Nazi rule” means that if you use it, you lose it. The “Nazi rule” holds true almost universally. I say “almost” because the one calling the other a “Nazi” first loses unless the first one using the term “Nazi” has it right. Recently, a caller on Rush Limbaugh’s show identified himself as a Republican voter, a veteran and opposed to torture and blamed Rush and his ilk for the recent electoral woes of the Republican Party. The caller, ”Charles from Chicago”, called out Limbaugh for his support of torture and blamed Limbaugh and others which supported torture for why the American people have left the GOP in droves. Rush begged to differ and Charles called Rush a “brainwashed Nazi.” Rush blamed people like Charles for the Obama win, and didn’t stop there but, called Charles “ignorant” among other things. First, “Brainwashed” is the intensive forced indoctrination of new beliefs to have them supplant old beliefs.

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The inevitable march toward equality continues

Iowa & Vermont just became the third and fourth American states to legalise gay marriage. They join Massachusetts and Connecticut in a small but no doubt slowly growing club: states who are no longer bound to bigotry against their own citizens. Running score: Humanity - 4; Dark-Aged superstitious bollocks - 46. But the human beings are making ground. Also, it seems DC is now willing to recognise same-sex marriages performed in other states. Do I hear a tide turning here? Sploosh, sploosh. Yes. Yes, I do. I'm willing to take bets on how long it takes the remaining 46 to come around (in the case of Calfiornia, to come back around). It might take a decade or even a few decades, but one thing's for sure: it's inevitable. Fighting this is as effective as Canute attempting to hold back the ocean. Predictably, various proponents of the "gay marriage = slippery slope to hell in a handbasket where everyone can marry their sister" or "omg the liberal ay-leet are a-tryin' to dess-troy Jeee-zuss with their The Gay Agendas!" arguments are coming out of the woodwork, riding their highest horses onto oversized soapboxes and, well, bitching and moaning like a pack of moaning bitches. Some make the arse-backwards claim that The Gays are trying to destory marriage itself! Well, somebody needs to explain that to me. Gay couples want to be a part of something that they've been excluded from for their entire lives - how does that equate to wanting to destroy it? All gay people want is the same thing everyone else gets: the right, bestowed at birth, to marry the love of their life. They don't want to ruin it for anyone, including themselves. Of course (and as usual) when it comes to fundamentalist hand-wringing loons, the reality of the situation is something completely different. They say it'll destroy the institution of marriage, they say it'll mean the end of the family, some even seem to think it's all part of The Gay Agenda's plan to have The Gay taught in every schoolroom in the country (and by "The Gay" these people mean "have sex with anything, anywhere, anytime"). However, what they really mean is "Wah. Sob. We're losing our grip on an exclusive Christian heterosexual privilege that we didn't earn (but got really, really used to having, puh-raise Jee-zuss) and have really only held onto through laziness/reluctance/fear of losing votes on the part of the legislature and disproportionate fundamentalist representation & lobbying in government going back two or three decades. Oh noes! People are waking up and realising that not only will they not go to Hell for giving The Gays equality, they're also starting to realise we in the Religious Right are not as numerous or important as everybody used to think we are (and they may be onto the fact that we're hyper-reactionary & paranoid with delusions of persecution - or perhaps they've just realised we're full of shit)! And not only that, it's all happening democratically and we on the nutjob fringe don't have the numbers to stem the tide forever! Oh, and thinking about gays just makes me feel ... icky ... so they shouldn't get to marry each other. It's unnatural ... or something. There's even something in Leviticus about them being, well, icky, in the eyes of God (but we won't discuss the other parts of the Bible that make selling my daughters into slavery or killing the children of my enemies or massacring, with bears, children who tease bald people just fine - they're just metaphors, outdated tribal moralities or other things that can be described by various phrases designed to both support our bigotry and deflect criticism of it)." Tough cheese, brethren. You've had it your way for long enough and it's time to let the other kids play. Time for equality - not "special rights", not privileges above and beyond those of good ol' God-fearin' straight folk - just the same rights and the same privileges everyone who happens to like the opposite sex gets. Hell, some would argue that it's straight people who've had the special treatment for so long and that it's simply time to level the playing field for everyone. As any childcare worker or nanny could tell you, the kid who gets spoiled rotten his whole life and suddenly gets asked to include other kids in his sandbox is always going to throw a tantrum. So what do you do? Give him a cuddle and make the others go away? Or tell him to harden up and deal with reality? You can't insulate yourself from stuff you find objectionable forever. After all, people here in the real world have been tolerating bleating fundie idiocracy and its accompanying rise to inordinate levels of power and influence for years. Well, it's time for a dose of reality. Time for all hysterical homophobes to harden up and deal with the inevitable progress of fairness & equality - or be remembered in a similar light as those who opposed Rosa Parks sitting where she damn well pleased.

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Assorted sordid thoughts about the big new casino in town.

I decided to take a walk this afternoon, an exercise break from a work routine which too often requires that I be hovered over a keyboard and phone. On a lark, I headed toward the northeast corner of downtown St. Louis to check out a well-promoted "Burger Bar," which happens to be located in the largest casino in St. Louis, the Lumiere. Everyone in St. Louis knows about the Lumiere Casino thanks to its huge electronic sign right in front, only a few feet from busy Interstate 70. On that huge video screen, you can often see pictures of buxom women beckoning you to have fun at the casino. Some of them are showing you to your room, showing you the bed on which you may sleep once you have been relieved of your money downstairs. I've often wondered how many accidents have been caused on Highway 70 by people who were watching the gorgeous women instead of watching where they were driving. Image by Erich Vieth I'd never been inside the Lumiere Casino until today. I wasn't prepared for what I saw: slot machines and other gambling stations as far as my eye could see. The muscle-bound greeter (or was he a bouncer?) told me that there are 2,000 gambling machines and 80 gambling tables on the 75,000 square foot floor. The Lumiere, which has only been open for a couple of years in St. Louis, is quite a step up from the smaller casinos previously serving St. Louis area gamblers. This is definitely a major league casino. As I stood there, transfixed by the thousands of blinking lights decorating the thousands of slot machines, the Greeter told me that business has been good, even in these difficult economic times. With a stiff smile, he advised me to come by if I had any further questions, and to otherwise go have a good time.

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New regressive laws in Afghanistan

As reported by Marie Cocco at Alternet:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has just signed a law that forces women to obey their husbands' sexual demands, keeps women from leaving the house -- even for work or school -- without a husband's permission, automatically grants child custody rights to fathers and grandfathers before mothers, and favors men in inheritance disputes and other legal matters. In short, the law again consigns Afghan women to lives of brutal repression. . .

The ugly truth is that Afghanistan has long been sliding back into the violent chaos that is friendly political ground for the Taliban and other extremist groups. Women have, as usual, been among the chief victims.

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