I SPENT THE AFTERNOON AT THE LIBRARY, doing actual research involving actual books. I also walked around campus for a while, because the weather was pretty nice for February: sunny, and nearly 60. Students were walking around in shorts and t-shirts, trying to pretend it was spring, and the weather made it almost plausible.

That’s one thing I like about Knoxville. It can get cold here, but even a bad winter has a few breaks like this one that remind you that it isn’t permanent. One of the things I disliked about living in places like New Haven or Cambridge was that winter seemed to settle in forever.

One thing that I always find amusing about the change of seasons is the way different students react to it. Some stick to shorts and t-shirts until December, then break them out again at the least provocation. Others dress in down starting in November, and don’t give it up until April.

The weather will go to hell again tomorrow, if the forecast holds, with rain and thirtyish temperatures. But at least we got a break. And, as you can see, I managed to walk around campus a bit before and after my research.

UPDATE: Large image formerly at top removed out of mercy to dialup users; still visible here if you’re interested.

OIL-TRUST UPDATE:

WASHINGTON–Former Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond said Saturday that President George Bush should make an Alaska-like dividend for Iraqis a central element of his re-election campaign. . . .

He noted that Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, at his request, proposed to President Bush that the U.S. push for an Alaska-style dividend program after the Iraq war.

“Ted, incidentally, wrote me back after that and said ‘I talked to the president. He’s very much interested. Stay tuned,'” Hammond said.

Interesting.

WAS THE GUARDIAN the victim of a cruel practical joke?

UPDATE: Tim Blair has more, including a link to the “suppressed” report, in handy PDF format. . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Phil Bowermaster notes that although The Guardian looks bad here, the Global Business Network doesn’t deserve the blame for The Guardian’s gullibility and alarmism.

ED CONE REPORTS on John Edwards’ Internet operation.

HAITIPUNDIT has lots of news on goings-on in Haiti (pretty much all bad), and links to John Engel, who’s blogging from Haiti. One observation: “The conflict is incredibly complex. The rebels for the most part, are baddies. In my opinion, Aristide and his regime are also baddies.”

JUAN COLE is starting a project to translate American political thought into Arabic. As one Cranky Professor observes:

I can’t imagine a better thing for intellectuals to do than pay semi-employed Iraquis with good English to translate (the translator should indeed be a native speaker of the destination language).

Cole has more on his project here.

“DUBIOUS ACCOUNTING” AT THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS: The entire nonprofit sector is ripe for scrutiny.

Read this, too.

STEPHEN GREEN says that CNN muffed it in its coverage of the Iranian elections.

HERE’S RALPH NADER’S CAMPAIGN WEBSITE — but there’s no blog. Come on, Ralph — this is the 21st century!

THE LANCET has retracted a study on autism and vaccination:

Editor Dr. Richard Horton said Dr. Andrew Wakefield and a team of British scientists who conducted the study on the triple measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine didn’t reveal that they were being paid by a legal-aid service looking into whether families could sue over the immunizations.

Horton called it a “fatal conflict of interest.”

More importantly, the study has been discredited by other research. Still, this should put paid to the notion that drug companies are the only source of conflicts of interest where this sort of thing is concerned. If more people get sick because this study has led to fewer vaccinations (as seems to be the case) should the scientists and the legal-aid people be liable? (Via Howard Lovy).

IT’S OFFICIAL: Nader’s running. Best observation: “Whatever the effect of Nader’s campaign on the 2004 election, if it invigorates efforts to improve ballot access for third parties, it will be a plus for the nation.”

UPDATE: Dave Winer is happy:

By trying to hold back Nader (good luck) maybe you’re preventing exactly the kind of transformation we need. I think Nader is a patriot. Give him a medal. And think instead of being part of the herd.

Oliver Willis and Jeff Jarvis are, um, less enthusiastic.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Prof. Bainbridge disagrees with the ballot-access point. And Robert Tagorda thinks that a Nader candidacy might help the Democrats.

JOHN KERRY IS ASHAMED OF HIS FOREIGN POLICY POSITIONS: He must be. Why else would he be trying to take them off the table?

It won’t work, any more than George H.W. Bush’s war record let him take issues off the table.

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus observes: “If Kerry’s response to every substantive GOP charge about his record as a Senator is going to be ‘I served in Vietnam,’ it’ll be a long campaign. [You mean “long”=”tedious” or “long”=”losing”?-ed Both!]”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Kevin Aylward looks at some polls on this subject.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Tim Blair:

In 1992, defending Vietnam war draft-dodger Bill Clinton, Kerry said: “We do not need to divide America over who served and how.” Now Vietnam division is Kerry’s major policy. Move on, Senator. There’s a new war.

Ouch.

“RIGGED POLL PUTS IRAN’S HARDLINERS IN POWER:” This headline tells it like it is. So does this Iranian:

Imad Nemaatallahi, an engineering student, said: “The talking will stop, the newspapers will be closed down and we will either end up richer or there will be another revolution.”

I don’t think “richer” is a viable option. There are already violent protests in southern Iran over vote rigging. I don’t know if they’ll turn into something bigger — I kind of doubt it — but it seems clear that any hope of peaceful democratic change in Iran is gone.

AND PEOPLE WONDER WHY THE NEW YORK TIMES HAS CREDIBILITY ISSUES? Compare this quote from the Times a couple of weeks ago:

“I don’t think I could vote for George Bush again when I think of the 500 people killed in Iraq and what’s happened to the economy in this country,” said George Meagher, an independent, who runs the American Military Museum in Charleston and said he now favors Mr. Kerry.

with this quote from today:

George Meagher, a Republican who founded and now runs the American Military Museum in Charleston, S.C., said he threw his “heart and soul” into the Bush campaign four years ago. . . . “People like me, we’re all choking a bit at not supporting the president. But when I think about 500 people killed and what we’ve done to Iraq.”

This looks suspiciously like the same quote, recycled and relabeled. But thanks to the Internet, we can fact-check your ass. (Originally spotted here, with what I think is an appropriate comment: “Shame on the NYTimes….but then, it says alot that they have to keep interviewing the same guy over and over for different stories, to gather the right soundbite.”) Or, more likely, recycling the original quote in a different story.

And as for relabeling the source guy from “independent” to “Republican” to fit the slant of the story, well, that’s pretty lame — especially as the stories are by the same reporter.

LT SMASH has a roundup of reactions to the prospect of a Nader candidacy.

UPDATE: A bunch of the Dean folks are getting together at Joe Trippi’s farm this weekend. Wonder if Nader’s candidacy, and what to do for/about it, will be on the agenda? If Dean’s feeling shafted by the Democratic Party, a Nader endorsement isn’t out of the question.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a collection of Nader stories, courtesy of The Command Post.

UNSOPHISTICATED GERMAN DIPLOMACY leads Der Spiegel to ask: “Are we a nation of failures, not fit for the future, governed by bungling amateurs?”

AFTER A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF PRODDING, Virginia Postrel is addressing the issue of economic change and the relationship between productivity and employment. She even mentions massage therapy!

On a more serious note, it’s very important that business writers start looking at this question in precisely the way that Virginia does, or protectionist sentiments are likely to grow.

UPDATE: Here’s an interesting piece from The Economist saying that the “jobless recovery” is a myth.

ONE WORD — HEH:

The White House press corps yesterday scrambled to figure out why a hastily-arranged “conversation” between President Bush and some regular Americans about the economy was suddenly closed to reporters — and what went on behind those closed doors.

Little did they know that behind those doors, one of the regular Americans whom Bush was meeting was a blogger.

Heh, indeed. The press seems a bit unhappy about being scooped. Get used to it, guys. More here.

HERE’S A VIDEOBLOG REPORT from Iran on the Iranian elections. (Via Jeff Jarvis).

EDWARD FESER GIVES THANKS TO HIS CRITICS for proving his point.

UPDATE: There’s more on related subjects here and here.

CATS AND DOGS, LIVING TOGETHER:

PIERRE – Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., on Thursday praised the Bush administration’s war and nation-building work in Iraq and said he has no serious concerns about the lack of weapons of mass destruction.

Daschle told state chamber of commerce representatives meeting in the South Dakota capital that he is satisfied with the way things are going in Iraq.

“I give the effort overall real credit,” Daschle said. “It is a good thing Saddam Hussein is no longer in power. It is a good thing we are democratizing the country.”

He said he is not upset about the debate over pre-war intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, an issue that has dogged President Bush as Democratic presidential contenders have slogged through the primary season.

I wonder what polls he’s seen?

UPDATE: Or maybe Daschle is just dishonestly telling different stories to different groups, in the hopes they won’t notice. Your call.

ANOTHER UPDATE: In response to the “what polls?” question, reader Matt Edens emails, “the ones in South Dakota.” Seems likely, and in fact that’s consistent with what reader James Somers writes:

The story you linked to about Daschle’s recent pro-Administration remarks on Iraq is likely a sign of things to come. The Democrats have had a fun primary season bashing the Administration by playing to the anti-Bush hysteria of their base. But we are reaching a time where they may not be able to deliver that message safely anymore, because most of the competitive Senate races this year are in the “red states.” The Democrats are trying to hold open seats in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana, and they have sitting senators up for re-election in the Dakotas, Arkansas and Nevada. They also hope to pick up seats in Oklahoma and Alaska. None of those states are places where naysaying about Iraq or demands for deference to the U.N. are likely to play well. Consequently, as in 2002, the Democrats will have to be very careful with their foreign policy message as November nears, or risk down-ballot disaster that solidifies the GOP’s hold on the Senate.

This would work better, though, if the Internet didn’t make it easy for people to compare statements across both temporal and geographic lines.

Of course, maybe Daschle has changed his mind in response to the facts. It could happen!

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: The polls question is answered, at the Daschle v. Thune blog.

I HAVEN’T LISTENED TO IT YET, but the audio of John Kerry’s antiwar testimony from 1971, broadcast by Hugh Hewitt earlier, is now online.

UPDATE: A reader emails that this tape has been “sanitized” and omits the most inflammatory Kerry remarks. I haven’t listened, but here’s a link to what I think is a complete transcript if anyone wants to make the comparison.

DONALD SENSING has thoughts on marriage, gay marriage, and much more. Just keep scrolling.

JOHN ELLIS: “One of the prevailing myths of this campaign season is that Democrats are fired up as never before, eager to slay the evil Bush. Well, maybe so, but they’re not voting. Overall, turnout in last Tuesday’s Wisconsin Democratic presidential primary was down by 183,000 votes from 1988. Kerry trailed Dukakis by 150,000 votes.”

Interesting. (Emphasis added.)

Hey, maybe Ralph Nader will add some excitement!

D’OH! I think I forgot to mention this week’s Carnival of the Vanities. Well, it’s mentioned now.