Uh oh.
Someone get Fox News on the case.

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Better late than never, right?
As for grievances, I could come up with plenty. But how about the fact that people like this continue to get air time and hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars per year? It’s not right.

You might have missed it–I did–but Knoxville recently attained Honorable Mention status on the League of American Bicyclists list of Bicycle Friendly Communities.
What merited this recognition? Miles of bike lanes and wide-shouldered roads being constructed in West Knoxville? Sadly, not.
According to a press statement:

The honorable mention recognition marks Knoxville’s growing commitment to improving conditions for bicycling. The Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization’s Regional Bicycle Program works with local governments and citizen groups to improve bicycling conditions and promote bicycling as a transportation option. The recent expansion of bike racks in the city, bicycle safety education in the elementary schools, and successful bike-to-work programs are significant factors in earning the distinction for Knoxville.
“The recent improvement for cyclists took Knoxville to the cusp of receiving an award,” said Andy Clarke, executive director of the League. “We applaud how far Knoxville has come in a short amount of time, and we encourage them to continue strengthening their bicycling program.”
League staff and reviewers consider several factors before granting a community Bicycle Friendly Community status, including:
* The physical environment for bicycling — on-street facilities, trails,
parking etc.
* Education programs to promote a “share the road” ethic among bicyclists and drivers
* Promotional initiatives to persuade people to ride or ride more often
* Enforcement of traffic laws for both motorists and bicyclists
* Future plans and evaluation techniques to improve conditions further
The League’s Bicycle Friendly Community program has become a catalyst for positive change in communities across the country. “We encourage Knoxville to continue its steady work to improve conditions for bicycling-they were very close to bronze this time, and we feel confident they can achieve that designation, or better, with more work in the coming years,” Clarke said.

Well, that’s something. From what I’ve seen, the efforts have been more promotional in nature than any changes in physical infrastructure. But I suppose Rome wasn’t built in a day, either. Perhaps someday K-Town may indeed attain that coveted Bronze award.

Uh oh:

A scientist today issued an apology as he resigned from South Korea’s top university after the school announced he had fabricated results in stem cell research that had raised hopes of new cures for hard-to-treat diseases.
. . .
Earlier today, a panel of experts at the university said Prof Hwang had faked results of at least nine of 11 stem cell lines he claimed to have created in the May paper – the first confirmation of allegations that have cast a shadow over all his purported breakthroughs in cloning and stem cell technology.
. . .
The university panel said today it found that “the laboratory data for 11 stem cell lines that were reported in the 2005 paper were all data made using two stem cell lines in total”.
To create fake DNA results purporting to show a match, Prof Hwang’s team split cells from one patient into two test tubes for the analysis – rather than actually match cloned cells to a patient’s original cells, the university said.
“Based on these facts, the data in the 2005 Science paper cannot be some error from a simple mistake, but can only be seen as a deliberate fabrication to make it look like 11 stem cell lines using results from just two,” the panel said.

I’m clearly no expert on this, but isn’t this a little like a suspect in a high speed car chase trying to escape from a helicopter and six police cars? The question being not if he is going to be caught, but when? How long did this guy think he could keep lying indefinitely about his work, and no one find out?

Freedom on the march:

A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung’s tome on Communism called “The Little Red Book.”
Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library’s interlibrary loan program.
The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand’s class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents’ home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.
The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a “watch list,” and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further.
“I tell my students to go to the direct source, and so he asked for the official Peking version of the book,” Professor Pontbriand said. “Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring inter-library loans, because that’s what triggered the visit, as I understand it.”

Mind those terrorist books!
UPDATE: Per comments, the validity of some of the claims in this story has been called into question.