Florida Gay Rights History Blogging

Florida's role in "Don't Ask Don't Tell" was not particularly noteworthy until 2009 when Alsee Hastings, a Congressman from southeast Florida, stated that he planned to add language to the defense appropriations bill to eliminate the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. However, in July he received pressure from the White house and congressional Democrats and he withdrew the amendment.

Hastings removal of the amendment reignited the firestorm over whether or not President Obama is truly committed to changing federal gay rights policy that erupted after the White House legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act that contained extremely negative comments about gays.

Current Knitting

One of the funny things about being a knitter, is how many projects the Viscount has going at one time. He currently has two different pairs of socks on the needles, is planning a sweater, and is working with the Chevalier on some knitwear designs for a new collection. In the midst of all of this, he ran into a new local yarn shop and fell in love with the place. The shop is called Fiber Art Inc. and is hardly the industrial sounding place its name implies. The shop is divided into different themed rooms. Living with a designer, the Viscount was particularly impressed by the variety of specialty yarns. The Viscount wanted to buy the silver yarn to make socks for go-go chrome high-heeled sandals. But, stayed his impulses and bought some nice Noro sock yarn and some fuzzy shiny silver, olive, and grey mohair that would go well with the Chevalier's upcoming disco meets the sea collection.

Perhaps the nicest part of the experience was the overall warm welcome the Viscount received in the store from those working their and the knitters who just happened to be present. It is unusual for a man to knit and he is often received oddly in knitting stores. Not so at Fiber Art Inc. The Viscount almost whipped out his needles and began working.

Friday Science Blogging

Since his early years, the Viscount has never been a fan of automobile pollution. One of his earliest memories was of writing a charming haiku about the dangers of carbon dioxide. Since then, he has dedicated a portion of his life, albeit a small portion, to fighting the dangers of pollution. Growing up in a small charming rural villiage, he was not subject to the noxious exhaust fumes, that at the time, carried poisonous lead along with many poisonous gases. Of course, now all the rage is to concern ourselves with carbon dioxide and its impact on climate change. It is easy to forget that the exhausts remain a poison.
Upon this era of gaseous concerns for climate change emerges a study demonstrating the impact of automobile exhuast on childrens' intelligence. These types of study are difficult to conduct. Does one take a test group of children and expose them daily to a set dose of poisonous gas? While this would be an interesting approach, it is entirely unethical and inappropriate. Instead, these studies are often done through epidemiological analysis. There are many confounding factors that must be examined through these studies such as schools, family life, and income. However, in the study under discussion today, the researchers gave air samplers to pregnant women and examined the exposures they had during their last trimester of pregnancy. The researcher then studies the eventual health outcomes of the children, including IQ. Of course, there still could be confounding factors to the study, but it is clear that the children exposed to high levels of automobile exhaust developed lower IQ's. Intersting stuff, and a confirmation of the Viscount's early efforts at poetry.

Wednesday Florida Gay Rights Blogging

Gay Days organizers at Disney parks in Orlando began in 1991 to celebrate gay pride on the first Saturday in June. As most people know, Disney is a relatively gay friendly company and there are many GLBT brothers and sisters who work for this organization. The first Gay Days attracted several thousand people. Today, over 100,000 attendees each year attend. The event has gone off without too many protests or complaints. Attendees wear red shirts to designate them as members of the tribe. Straight folks who happen to wear a red shirt and are uncomfortable are given free shirts by Disney.

Friday Science Blogging - Black Carbon Dust

There is growing evidence about the significance of carbon dust on cold temperature ecosystems. Dark materials absorb solar energy and heat up relative to lighter materials which tends to reflect solar energy. In cold temperature ecosystems where there is an abundance of reflective snow, a great deal of solar energy is reflected back into the atmosphere. In contrast, darker environments, such as tropical rain forest, absorb the sun's energy. In recent decades, dark particulate dust has fallen in great concentrations across all ecosystems around the earth including areas of permanent snow pack. In these cold alpine and arctic areas, the particulate matter causes a heating and subsequent melting of the snow leading to ecosystem changes while adding to the troubles associated with global warming.

Tuesday Florida Gay Rights Blogging

The start of the modern Florida gay rights movement is often credited to Richard A. Inman. Inman, like many gay activits in the 1960's, became frustrated with the lot of gay people after being arrested twice for being in a gay bar. In 1963, he founded the Atheneum society. This was a state chartered organization focused on fighting for justice for gay people. This was a difficult time in Florida as there were several powerful anti-gay political leaders including Charley Johns of the notorious Johns Commission. Eventually, Inman's group became part of the broader national Mattachine Society. Inman dropped out of public life in the 1960's and died in 1985. Born in 1926, Inman had the opportunity to see many positive changes in Florida as a result of his initial efforts.