Science Friday: Well, stocky dinosaurs. Check it out here and below.

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Please check out my story about youth unemployment at Youth Today, which also recently re-did its website. Here is the lede:

"Unemployment among teens and young adults is the highest it has been since the government started keeping records and represents conditions of a depression rather than just a deep recession. Perhaps more troubling, the effects of these depression-like conditions could have broad implications for these young people, including lower future wages, that could persist for a decade or more."

I doubt my few readers get their political junk from Blog Alley, but if you do, the polling guru Nate Silver (previously of the sole-proprietor blog www.fivethirtyeight.com) has now been co-opted by the New York Times. This is pretty great because it seems like Nate gets to do his 'stats thang'--which is quite reliable in terms of polling analysis--in front of a much, much bigger readership.

Go Nate!

Here's the page to bookmark for rational polling analysis:

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com.

"Two weeks ago, America's final combat brigade in Iraq -the Army's Fourth Stryker Brigade -journeyed home in the pre-dawn darkness. Thousands of soldiers and hundreds of vehicles made the trip from Baghdad, the last of them passing into Kuwait in the early morning hours. Over seven years before, American troops and coalition partners had fought their way across similar highways, but this time no shots were fired. It was just a convoy of brave Americans, making their way home.

Of course, the soldiers left much behind. Some were teenagers when the war began. Many have served multiple tours of duty, far from their families who bore a heroic burden of their own, enduring the absence of a husband's embrace or a mother's kiss. Most painfully, since the war began fifty-five members of the Fourth Stryker Brigade made the ultimate sacrifice -part of over 4,400 Americans who have given their lives in Iraq. As one staff sergeant said, "I know that to my brothers in arms who fought and died, this day would probably mean a lot."

Those Americans gave their lives for the values that have lived in the hearts of our people for over two centuries. Along with nearly 1.5 million Americans who have served in Iraq, they fought in a faraway place for people they never knew. They stared into the darkest of human creations -war -and helped the Iraqi people seek the light of peace.

In an age without surrender ceremonies, we must earn victory through the success of our partners and the strength of our own nation. Every American who serves joins an unbroken line of heroes that stretches from Lexington to Gettysburg; from Iwo Jima to Inchon; from Khe Sanh to Kandahar - Americans who have fought to see that the lives of our children are better than our own. Our troops are the steel in our ship of state. And though our nation may be travelling through rough waters, they give us confidence that our course is true, and that beyond the pre-dawn darkness, better days lie ahead."

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Jane Mayer of the New Yorker talks with "Fresh Air" about her report on the Brothers Koch, who use their huge big-business bank accounts to undermine democracy and quite possibly the health and safety of all of us. Follow Jane, one of the most even-handed journalists working today, as she tracks the Koch corporate money into Tea Party and other "astro turf" causes, including Glenn Beck's disgusting "rally" in DC this weekend.

Listen below and read the full article here.

Science Friday: Psych yourself out of fear of bed bugs. Check it out here and below.

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The District of Columbia today joined nine states in winning a round two Race to the Top grant, which will funnel up to $75 million in federal dollars into the city to continue Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s education reforms. The District tied with Maryland for sixth place. Tennessee and Delaware were the only two states that won round one awards.

Read the winning plan here.

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The Washington area gets a public school named after Barack Obama and it’s not in the District. I’m offended. Michelle Rhee, what is up?

Kidding, of course. Welcome back to school everyone (at Prospect Learning Center in particular :).

A teacher at the Prospect school across the way got locked inside the gates of her campus on Sunday; the custodian didn’t know she was in there getting her classroom ready and he locked up and went home. The police were confused as we neighbors brought over two ladders to get her over the wrought iron fence. The empty boxes of school supplies she carried with her were not enough to dissuade the copper and his paddy wagon compatriots from obnoxiously asking for her ID and questioning her incessantly … just. in. case.

Really cops? Nothing better for you to do on a Sunday?

It was a farcical start—a little weird start—to a hopefully promising school year.