Pun Salad

The front page of UNH's primary campus webserver currently (as I type) rotates among six randomly selected displays, but the one I happened to see today is here:

… with accompanying text:

Join others in raising awareness about global warming on April 14 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thompson Hall lawn. Music, speakers, food and bike ride are scheduled.

If you'd like to check this out yourself, go to the page and hit the "refresh" icon until you get it. It will probably remain available for the next few days. You'll also see a "Learn More" link that points to the Step It Up 2007 website.

It's not exactly a sober balanced look at climate science there; they proudly proclaim their "call to action":

"Step It Up Congress! Cut carbon 80% by 2050."

… and detail their supporting organizations, like MoveOn.org and The Nation magazine. The politics span the spectrum from left to hard-left, and the primary purpose is to push the alarmist agenda of draconian environmental regulations, mandates, and compulsion.

Which is bad enough, but by pushing this to the front page of our primary website, UNH is officially engaging in one-sided political advocacy on this contentious issue. I've remarked on this behavior before; but I didn't really expect anything to change, and it hasn't. There's probably nothing here to endanger the University's non-profit 501(c)(3) status, since there's no explicit endorsement of specific political candidates. I still think it stinks, though.

By the way, Accuweather is currently predicting "High: 45 °F RealFeel®: 33°F" for Durham, NH on Saturday. ("Some sun, then turning cloudy and chilly.") Fortunately, the participants in the global warming awareness exercise will have had a couple days to recover from the 1"-3" of snow predicted for Thursday on the Thompson Hall lawn.

• At American.com (whatta great name for a website), Jim Harper offers a short primer on what's wrong with the REAL ID Act and advocates replacement with flexible, creative, free-market innovation, currently stifled by government.

  There is an alternative to the REAL ID Act and the national ID on our near horizon. It's identification systems and credentials that are high in quality, easy to use, and privacy protective. This idea isn't just a feel-good. These systems will be huge enablers of secure but private commerce. Identification and credentialing is a multi-billion dollar market if governments can be made to relinquish control of it.

  The bill to opt New Hampshire out of REAL ID has been passed by the House and will be going before the Senate. The good folks at New Hampshire Liberty Alliance will be happy to point any NHites to your Senator, if you'd like to pester him or her either way on the issue.

• Paul Hsieh of GeekPress rarely ventures into the political realm, preferring to provide pointers to All Things Geeky. But, in real life, he's a doctor in Denver, and he's concerned about efforts to "reform" the health care "system" in Colorado. And today, he posts an open letter to his fellow physicians.

  I completely oppose any form of socialized medicine, regardless of whether it is called "single payer", "mandatory universal coverage", or anything else, because I believe it would be bad for both patients and doctors. Years of experience in the US and other countries have shown that these programs will hurt patients and cause unnecessary patient deaths. As costs inevitably spiral upward, bureaucrats will ration medical services. Eventually, physicians will be forced to practice against their best medical judgment. This is a violation of the fundamental rights of both doctors and patients.

  ("Other than that, though, it's fine!") Paul provides well-reasoned arguments and a host of links to further information. Well worth checking out for those interested in the topic.

• However, geekiness is never hard to find on the Web, even when Paul Hsieh takes a break. For mathematically-literate geeks only: Bob Palias argues that the traditional value of π was a poor choice; the quantity 2π is actually more fundamental, and makes classic equations more beautiful.

  He may be right, but there's a constituency who would vociferously object: the thousands of geeks who have memorized π to a large number of decimal places to impress … uh, themselves, mostly. (Via Poor&Stupid.)