Chet Edwards and PMA

Congressional Quarterly shows my Congress critter as one who has obtained earmarks and campaign contributions from the lobbying firm just raided by the FBI.

Prawn cocktail offensive

The Times(UK) on what made New Labor new

A key part of the creation of new Labour was the repositioning of the party as being on the side of business rather than the unions.

Senior figures spent years on a “prawn cocktail offensive”, culminating in Peter Mandelson's declaration that Labour was supremely relaxed about people being “filthy rich”.

Oddly, I don't think of shrimp cocktail as being for the filthy rich in the US. Is prawn cocktail in a different class?

Prawn gives science victory!

Faifax Connection:

Two seniors at Thomas Jefferson were among 40 high school seniors named Finalists for the IntelScience Talent Search 2009, a program of the Society for Science and the Public. The competition is America's oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition. Finalists will travel to Washington, D.C. in March to compete for $530,000 in scholarships, with the top winner receiving a $100,000 scholarship from the Intel Foundation. Each Finalist will receive at least $5,000 in scholarships and a new laptop.
...
Alexander "Alex" Kim, 17, of Fairfax Ridge was selected for his project, "Morphological and Molecular Phylogeography of a Giant American River Prawn, Macrobrachium carcinus." He is the son of Duckju Kim, an artist, and John Kim, a computer networking engineer.

For his project, Alex looked at the variations of the body form and DNA of the largest freshwater shrimp in the Western hemisphere — the Giant American River Prawn. He said he was inspired by the book, "The Crayfish," by Thomas Huxley, which he read at age 13. He's also been involved in independent science research since his freshman year. He worked with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and had a student travel grant to visit Puerto Rico and San Marcos, Texas, to collect specimens and take measurements of the shrimp. And yes, he says he likes eating shrimp, too.

Milestones in crotchetyness

I have a letter in today's BCS Eagle

Hover bacon

Disturbingly catchy