Bush vs. University of Michigan

I just don’t understand the reaction to the Bush administration’s decision to oppose the University of Michigan’s “affirmative action” admissions program.

When Trent Lott makes a statement approving of government-enforced racial discrimination, he was criticized for such backward views by pretty much everybody. But when George W. Bush comes out against government-enforced racial discrimination, Tom Daschle and others complain about the administration’s failure to support such policies. Dick Gephardt even announced plans to file a brief on behalf of state-supported racial discrimination in the University of Michigan case.

Apparently state-supported racial discrimination isn’t such a bad thing after all. Who knew?

Source:

Bush criticizes university ‘quota system’. CNN, January 15, 2003.

What If It Were a Pro-Life Teach In?

Imagine if an entire school system of 46,000 students decided to set aside one day and have a pro-life teach in. You know, invite people in to talk about how having an abortion stops a beating heart, show kids pictures of fetuses that don’t look all that different from newborns babies, and bring in a couple of fire and brimstone conservatives to talk about the evils of our death worshipping culture.

But Oakland, California, sees nothing wrong with this sort of approach for indoctrinating children about a possible war with Iraq.

As an aside, the interesting thing is how these things also tend to backfire. My daughter attended one of those Project D.A.R.E.-style events at her school which was supposed to warn them about the evils of drugs, alcohol and smoking. Instead, she and her friends were apparently very impressed by the image of a smoking doll that one of the presenters used. Thanks a lot, folks.

Speed of Gravity Measured

New Scientist has a report about two researchers who apparently have become the first to directly measure the speed of gravity. The measurement confirms Einstein’s contention that gravity traveled at the speed of light.

The scientists used an interesting method to measure the speed of gravity,

[Fomalont] Kopeikin found another way. He reworked the equations of general relativity to express the gravitational field of a moving body in terms of its mass, velocity and the speed of gravity. If you could measure the gravitational field of Jupiter, while knowing its mass and velocity, you could work out the speed of gravity.

The opportunity to do this arose in September 2002, when Jupiter passed in front of a quasar that emits bright radio waves. Fomalont and Kopeikin combined observations from a series of radio telescopes across the Earth to measure the apparent change in the quasar’s position as the gravitational field of Jupiter bent the passing radio waves.

As New Scientist notes, one of the main effects of the discovery is that it will undercut theories that postulate additional dimensions in the universe beyond the usual three.

Source:

First speed of gravity measurement revealed. New Scientist, January 7, 2003.

Hypocrisy Over Lebron James’ Ride

When it comes to exploiting top athletes, some high schools are no better than colleges. The nonsense over high school hoops sensation LeBron James’ expensive ride is a good example of that.

The idea that James should be punished for capitalizing on his fame is ludicrous — after all, everybody else in Ohio is getting a piece of the action, why shouldn’t James?

I assume, for example, that St. Vincent-St. Mary got a nice phat cut when ESPN decided to air a couple of James’ games. After all, the school was paying a sports marketing company to hawk the games to ESPN and other sports networks. Where was the Ohio State Athletic Association then with all of the hand wringing about somebody capitalizing on James’ fame and freak-like abilities?

As Jim Rome put it, “Everybody’s into the kid. Everybody’s making money off the kid except the kid himself.”

So please spare us the false outrage over this young man violating some Byzantine code about amateurism that the administrators at his school openly flouted (and cue up the commercials about how LeBron James helped fund terrorists who bomb nightclubs in Indonesia).

Dispute Over McDonald's Lawsuit Settlement Gains Momentum

The dispute over how to spend $6 million McDonald’s agreed to pay to non-profit vegetarian organizations gained steam and national coverage with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals weighing in against a proposed award to a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill researcher.

Those opposed to the current settlement have petitioned the court to reject the current disbursement plans. For its part, McDonald’s has filed briefs with the court overseeing the settlement that attacks the characterizes the animal rights groups leading the charge against the proposed settlement as “zealous radicals.”

Much of the national media coverage focused on opposition to UNC nutrition researcher Steve Zeisel. Here’s how Jeff Nelson of VegSource.Com sums up the case against Zeisel,

VRG [Vegetarian Resource Group] submitted the only declaration in support of the proposal, even endorsing the money earmarked to go to the anti-vegetarian animal researcher at University of North Carolina — a researcher who seeks to prove his personal hypothesis that the vegan diet is very unsafe for pregnant women who need to eat eggs when pregnant in order to get sufficient choline.

PETA’s Hannah Schein told the Associated Press that,

The money is supposed to be earmarked for vegetarian groups. He doesn’t represent a vegetarian gruop. If anything, he recommends that pregnant women not be vegetarian.

What exactly are Nelson and PETA afraid that Zeisel might find?

Zeisel wants to use the money he would receive to study whether or not pregnant vegetarian women receive enough choline.

Choline is a vitamin-like substance that is crucial in the body’s production of an important nerve messenger chemical. In 1998 the National Academy of Sciences? Institute of Medicine recommended choline be recognized as a crucial human nutrient.

Choline is found mainly in eggs, meat and milk, so it would hardly be surprising to find choline deficiency in pregnant vegetarian and vegan women. You’d think that VegSource.Com and PETA would want such a study (especially since adequate choline can probably be obtained from vegan sources). As Zeisel told the Associated Press,

Pregnancy is a time that women have to be careful about their diet and be sure they are well-balanced. This is not a time to be a careless vegetarian. If we’re going to learn something about the science of this, you need to go to the places that can do the science.

Of course neither PETA nor VegSource.Com have ever been particularly careful about vetting their statements to ensure scientific accuracy. Much better to simply push the ideology and hope nobody notices the man behind the curtain.

Sources:

McDonald’s Attacks Vegetarian Leaders. Jeff Nelson, VegSource.Com, January 6, 2003.

Grant for UNC researcher riles animal activists. Associated Press, January 10, 2003.

Lawyer hits McD on suit settlement process. Sandra Guy, Chicago Sun-Times, January 10, 2003.