Inauguration

Check out the wordle that my wife made from President Obama's inauguration speech.

Recommend a car?

My 10 yr old American sedan is showing its age. The power windows fail yearly ($400 to replace each motor), the paint is faded, the suspension bounces like a Jumpy Castle, and the mileage (21 city) is criminal for a midsize car. Plus, no recent safety features like side airbags or anti-lock brakes.

Replacement suggestions? Breaking from my past as a loyal Big 3 customer, I'm willing to buy a Japanese car if >50% is manufactured in the US.

Needs to be a wagon or hatchback with folding seats, for surfboard & crap-hauling.

Good op-ed piece from P. Krugman

Paul Krugman's column about Ponzi schemes is good. Two highlighted quotes:

"In recent years the finance sector accounted for 8 percent of America’s G.D.P., up from less than 5 percent a generation earlier. If that extra 3 percent was money for nothing — and it probably was — we’re talking about $400 billion a year in waste, fraud and abuse."

"Meanwhile, how much has our nation’s future been damaged by the magnetic pull of quick personal wealth, which for years has drawn many of our best and brightest young people into investment banking, at the expense of science, public service and just about everything else?"

When I was finishing my B.S. in Physics, I felt a bit foolish heading off to Astro grad school -- when my classmates were off to jobs at Wall Street investment banks, large consulting firms, and internet start-ups. And several of the junior scientists I'd met left academia for hedge funds.

Then came the tech bust, the accounting scandals, and now the financial meltdown. So now my choice looks less obviously financially dumb than it did. But it would be nice if young scientists were paid at levels that allowed, as Krugman says, "our best & brightest young people" to go into science. A post-doc salary in L.A. doesn't go far....

Long article on LGBTQ scientists from "Science"

There's a long article on LGBTQ scientists in Science Magazine's "Science Careers", linked for your reading pleasure.

Thoughts?

(Pictured is Stanford's Ben Barres.)

Prop 8, the musical

I guess it was only a matter of time... But wait, that's Allison Janney! And Margaret Cho! And Doogie Howser!

(Amazing how Allison Janney's still gorgeous, even dressed up as a homophobe.)

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Light a candle, march in the streets, and remember the souls we've lost to hatred and fear.

There's a Hollywood protest tonight at 6pm.

Anyone have a link to memorial times & locations around the country?

Looking back on Prop. 8

Shortly after the election, I volunteered at a public school "star party" -- just a few telescopes showing off Jupiter, the Moon, and star clusters to hundreds of school kids and parents. The students were full of questions, the parents were so enthusiastic they yoga-contorted themselves down to the kid-level eyepieces to see what the kids were yammering about. It was a rousing success -- the principal says they've never had such high turnout for an after-school event.

Despite being bone-tired and still in disbelief over passage of Prop 8, I stayed on my feet, slewed my telescope, and adjusted the eyepiece so kids of all sizes could reach. I explained how the stars in an open cluster are drifting away from their birthplace, out into the galaxy at large.

The parents in line with their children, waiting for a look through my telescope -- how many voted for Prop 8? How many realized that we, the volunteers sharing the stars with their kids, were gay? Did anyone notice my small No on 8 button, and second-guess their vote? How many parents stood up for equality & voted No, even if they weren't sure why?

Morning conversation at the Rose Bowl

...
The wife: "Angelinos don't trust pedestrians."
Me: "Why do you say that?"
The wife: "People look at us funny when we're out walking."
Me: "They do?"
The wife: "Yeah, some people."
Me: "Because we're dykes, or because we're walking?"

Prop 8 -- waiting for a full count

Prop 8 is ahead, though provisional and absentee ballots haven't been counted. So we wait, and hope, and know that we did what we could to create a fairer California where everybody is treated equally.

Here's a snapshot of me yesterday, outside a suburban LA polling place, asking voters to vote NO on 8. (Taken to demonstrate that I was standing outside the 100 ft line.)

We tried HARD, we really did.

Beautiful to see Obama win, though. I went to one of the afterparties in LA, tired and grubby from a day at the polls. The ballroom was full of delighted people, many with homemade t-shirts, plurality of African-Americans but with many races represented, dancing & smiling & looking around in wonderment. My wife and I saw both a dark-skinned woman wearing a chador, and a dignified elderly queen dressed in pink. Which is quite a Big Tent.

Update: Can we PLEASE kill the myth that black voters passed Prop 8? They didn't. Old voters and religious voters passed Prop 8. Go read 538's analysis.

Go, Go, Go