January 2012

Tweeting for Liberty

by Michelle Minton on December 3, 2009

in Odds & Ends

Let’s face it, in this era, liberty-minded folk are in the minority (as if there was a time we were the majority). However, just because we aren’t the dominate voice in congress, the white house, or popular media, doesn’t mean that freedom has to remain voiceless or facebook-less. While these are the days of Obamanomics, bailouts, tax-and-spend, they are also the days of the social network (twitter, facebook, digg, myspace, etc). As recent events (like the Tehran election and the Tea Party phenomenon) have shown, web technologies increasingly inform public thought, and have to potential to displacing traditional media. So, even though times may seem dismal for liberty-minded organizations, the current state of new media offers us an opportunity to reach out and communicate with potential supporters like never before.  Twitter, one of the newest new media platforms available, is proving to be particularly useful.  Below are a few twitter-usage tips I picked up at a recent luncheon meeting held at the Cato Institute, featuring former CEI employee Cord Blomquist, now at the Mercatus Center.

Much of Cord’s presentation was based on this blog he wrote for his personal website: http://cordblomquist.com/2009/11/10/how-to-dominate-twitter/

Basic twitter principles:

The more people you follow, the more followers you are likely to have

The more you tweet the more followers you’re likely to have

Tweeting at intervals separated by at least 90 minutes is preferable to tweeting several times in a short span of time. The idea is to consistently remain in someone’s peripheral consciousness, to remind them you are there, not to annoy them by flooding their twitter feed (the collective “tweets” of everyone they follow) once a day or once a week.

Some twitter tools:

HootSuite is a free platform for using twitter: This service allows us to schedule tweets, enter in an RSS feed, so new blog posts and other new publications are posted automatically along with a shortened URL link to the post, and very importantly the URL shortening function also allows for click-through tracking unlike other platforms so you can know at what rate people are clicking on links in your tweets.

Twittermass: allows you to automatically follow people based on words they use in their tweets, limit follows to people using those words in your geographical area, and follow people who follow another person (such as followers of Catoinstitute or Reasonmag).

Socialoomph: is sort of like the free version of twittermass, which allows you to bulk follow people or bulk unfollow

If you want to keep up with the latest news and development in social media online check out: Mashable, and ReadWriteWeb

Other interesting twitter tools we discussed included the twitter search widget which allows you to create a “widget” code that you can add to a website which will scroll the tweets of people talking about the terms you specify (for example, cei.org).

Twittercounter was also discussed as a useful way to collect statistics on how you are utilizing your twitter account over time.

TwitterKarma: Is a tool I have personally found pretty useful for bulk following or unfollowing people.

Lists: Lists are very helpful when trying to connect with like-minded people or for finding potential new followers. For example TLOT (Top Libertarians on Twitter) will enable you to see who the most active “tweeters” are in your particular field.

Best of luck to all you libertweeters out there and don’t forget to connect with CEI and me on twitter!

Connect with CEI http://twitter.com/CEIdotorg

Connect with Me: http://twitter.com/michelleminton

Following the scientific method: an example

by Fran Smith on December 2, 2009

in Environment, Global Warming, International, Natural Resources, Sanctimony

Experiments in science that don’t reinforce scientists’ hypotheses can be vitally important in understanding complex systems. Serious scientists don’t fudge the results or hide the data.

Here’s a recent example of a global warming study to show the effects of CO2-caused ocean acidification on the shells of crustaceans.  Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found that, contrary to their expectations, many of the crustaceans built tougher shells in waters that were more acidified from higher levels of CO2.

According to the press release,

“We were surprised that some organisms didn’t behave in the way we expected under elevated CO2,” said Anne L. Cohen, a research specialist at WHOI and one of the study’s co-authors. “What was really interesting was that some of the creatures, the coral, the hard clam and the lobster, for example, didn’t seem to care about CO2 until it was higher than about 1,000 parts per million [ppm].” Current atmospheric CO2 levels are about 380 ppm, she said. Above this level, calcification was reduced in the coral and the hard clam, but elevated in the lobster.

The “take-home message, “says Cohen, is that “we can’t assume that elevated CO2 causes a proportionate decline in calcification of all calcifying organisms.” WHOI and the National Science Foundation funded the work.

Sounds like a useful project to add to the knowledge about CO2′s effects. Also, sounds like they’re following the scientific method.

H/T Julian Morris on Facebook

Daily Show’s Jon Stewart on Climategate rejection of “inconvenient” data

by Michael Fumento on December 2, 2009 · 2 comments

in Global Warming

After playing a news clip stating, “University scientists say raw data from the 1980s was thrown out” Daily Show host Jon Stewart declared, “Why would you throw out raw data from the ’80s? I still have Penthouses from the ’70s! Laminated!”

Scholarships to Study Free-Market Ideas

by Brian Simpson on December 2, 2009

in Odds & Ends, Zeitgeist

National University of La Jolla, CA has a limited number of scholarships available for three online, undergraduate courses that focus on free-market economics and the philosophical foundations of capitalism. These scholarships are being funded by a grant from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. The scholarships cover the full tuition for the courses plus the application fee to NU. These courses can be taken from anywhere in the world, as long as one has access to the internet. The courses incorporate live chat sessions in which the professor and students interact in a virtual classroom, much as they would in a traditional classroom. For descriptions of these courses, see the following websites:

ECO 401 – Market Process Economics I

ECO 402 – Market Process Economics II

ECO 430 – Economics and Philosophy

To apply for one or more of these scholarships, send your name, transcripts from your high school or university, and an essay of no more than 750 words discussing why you believe you deserve a scholarship and your future education and career plans to Dr. Brian P. Simpson.  He can be contacted at:

Email: bsimpson@nu.edu

Mail: 11255 North Torrey Pines Rd.
La Jolla, CA 92037.

Please indicate which course or courses for which you are applying for a scholarship.

Notes: There is no deadline for these scholarships; applications will be accepted until all have been awarded.  The next time the courses will run is in the late spring of 2010.  To receive the scholarship you will have to apply to National University and enroll in the course(s). If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Simpson.

Regulation of the Day 77: Banning Toys in Happy Meals

by Ryan Young on December 2, 2009

in Health and Illness, International, Nanny State, Personal Liberty, Regulation, Regulation of the Day

Roberto Zabrido, a government official in Spain, is “adamant that the Happy Meal and its ilk pose a risk.”

The solution? Legislation that “would ban restaurants and food manufacturers from including toys and prizes with their products.”

If Happy Meals – Happy Meals! – are Spain’s most pressing national problem, then that country is either the most trouble-free place on Earth, or else busybodies such as Mr. Zabrido have too much money and power. My bet is on the latter.

(Hat tip: Jacob Grier)

Myron Ebell Debates Climategate on Fox News

by Richard Morrison on December 1, 2009

in Video, Zeitgeist

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C70EK4RfPgA 285 234]

Where did the global warming-caused hurricanes go?

by Michael Fumento on December 1, 2009 · 3 comments

in Environment, Features, Global Warming, Zeitgeist

Whoa! Did we just have a hurricane season? Doesn’t seem that way. “2009 hurricane season ends quietly with fewest storms since 1997,” declares one headline. “The season featured nine named storms, the fewest since 1997, and for the first time since 2006 no hurricanes made landfall in the United States,” states the article.

That’s quite a change since 2005, when the coincidence of two major hurricanes striking the U.S. and causing lots of damage, Katrina and Rita, led to a storm of allegations that global warming was causing cyclones to rise up in revenge against man. Most notable was far-left science writer Chris Mooney’s Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming, which Amazon.com informs us is “bargain-priced” and probably for good reason. Mooney not coincidentally is also author of “The Republican War on Science” and “Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future.” Perhaps it threatens our future, but in the meantime it’s very good for his wallet.

Not that Mooney was alone by any means. In my 2005 Scripps Howard column “Green Hotheads Exploit Hurricane Tragedy,” I provided what in retrospect proves an interesting blast from the past.

“The hurricane that struck Louisiana yesterday was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service. Its real name was global warming.” So wrote environmental activist Ross Gelbspan in a Boston Globe op-ed that one commentator aptly described as “almost giddy.” The green group Friends of the Earth linked Katrina to global warming, as did Germany’s Green Party Environment Minister.

Granted, as I’ve written recently there’s been no warming in the last decade. But there’s been no cooling since 2005, either. Same temperatures, far fewer hurricanes.

So as the Kingston Trio might sing, “Where have all the hurricanes gone . . . ? And where are all these blowhards now? Presumably blaming global warming for some sort of disastrous problem caused by a lack of hurricanes.

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