where is the love?

Today's thought: It's good to be a cat.

I've been staring at the computer screen for a good 30 minutes and have yet to come up with any coherent, meaningful post. Which, I may add, is highly frustrating to me because this is the perfect night for me to add to my blog. DH is off at class, the kids are quiet and watching some documentary on TV (I have the documentary king and queen in my family), I'm halfway finished with my beer so I'm feeling mellow, and tonight begins my THREE WEEK vacation from work. And yet my mind remains a vast wasteland of mostly useless thoughts. Sigh.

Here's what I've also been staring at:



The woods in back of our house are most definitely moving closer every year. They're nice and lush and green and gorgeous, but the fact that we are slowly being enclosed could creep me out if I thought about it too much.

I've also spent most of the day today irritated with our current administration. (now there's a suprise...not.)

My coworker (WONDERBOY) and I have been spent the last several weeks digging through data from the last flight campaign and have been running and rerunning our model trying to make sense of things, but have mostly ended up with our heads in our hands while we stare forlornly across the office trying to come up with that epiphany that will suddenly change the world. Damned data. Just when you think you have a handle on how things work, we have to go and have some reality injected into the mix, which invariably complicates things.

WONDERBOY is awesome - he's is one of those excellent scientists with a penchant for finding the truth. He's incredibly curious about how things really work, as am I. We spend our days scrabbling for understanding. We are frustrated and exhilarated and adore our work and, always at the core, is honesty. I have the best job in the world.

But none of that matters so much when you've got an administration that has decided that it is perfectly acceptable to toss away science if it doesn't fit in with your political goals. The number of ways that the government is abusing and twisting and disregarding science is frightening. I don't understand why they are able to get away with it. Does the public not realize what is going on? The Union of Concerned Scientists has pages of examples of this misuse, and it just breaks my heart. Yes, I take this personally. I know WONDERBOY and I are not unusual or unique. Scientists, as a whole, are totally geeky and weird, but for the most part, they are honestly curious, and have dedicated their careers to understanding the facts. Why? Does it even make any difference now?

The Union of Concerned Scientists is running a scientific integrity editorial cartoon contest.
If I was at all artistically talented, I'd be tempted to enter. If you have any ideas, or enter yourself, let me know.