One chart that says a lot

While Apple's profits have soared, their aggressive tax avoidance strategies have sharply limited a corresponding increase in the taxes they pay:

According to the New York Times, those strategies include channeling most of their profits through small subsidiaries in places like Reno, Nevada (to avoid paying California taxes) and Luxembourg (to avoid federal taxes).

Legal? Yes. But one more example of how the rich and powerful have lobbied to create a system that they can artfully game to avoid paying their fair share.

Song of the day

My friend Romaine are going to see Bonnie Raitt at the Edgefield on September 7th... which just happens to the 25th anniversary of my coming out. And that makes Bonnie's new video of "Right Down the Line" very timely. :-)

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Wicked with Wanda

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And thanks to Broadway Cares for caring all these years... it made a difference. It makes a difference.

Spring has sprung

And I listened to Boston's "More Than a Feeling" about ten times at the gym today. :-)

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I guess this gives new meaning to the term "barfly"

Interesting stuff:

Fruit flies apparently self-medicate just like many humans do, drowning their sorrows or frustrations for some of the same reasons, scientists reported Thursday. Male flies subjected to what amounted to a long tease — in a glass tube, not a dance club — preferred food spiked with alcohol far more than male flies that were able to mate.

It's not too late

I read Kathy Martin's story yesterday, and I have to say... it inspired me:

Life can bestow unexpected gifts, and sometime in her late 40s, Martin, a real estate agent living on Long Island, a busy working mother who had never been in a track meet, discovered a glorious secret hidden away in her body. Not only was she a good runner, she was also an outstanding one. In fact, she was one of the most remarkable female distance runners in the world.

This discovery of greatness in her legs came too late for the kind of dreams a younger woman might have: intercollegiate championships, Olympic glory, being the absolute fastest of the fast. As decades pass, maximum heart rate slows, aerobic capacity wanes, muscle mass tends to dwindle.

But Martin has been redefining what is possible for an older body, setting a string of formidable national and world records.

Before I rode in the week long AIDS/LifeCycle five years ago, I'd hardly spent anytime on a bike since high school. And after only putting in the bare minimum amount of training, I wasn't too sure midway through day 2 (my first 100+ mile ride) if I was going to survive the experience. But I got a second wind in the afternoon; by day 5, I was flying. I thought to myself, "This would have been the sport I'd have excelled at had I thought to try it when I was younger."

And now Kathy Martin comes along to remind me that it's not too late.

The latest on vitamin D

It's not just for bone density anymore.

Believe it or not: moving towards energy independence

The Romney/Gingrich crowd would never admit it, but America is actually moving towards energy independence:

Taken together, the increasing production and declining consumption have unexpectedly brought the United States markedly closer to a goal that has tantalized presidents since Richard Nixon: independence from foreign energy sources, a milestone that could reconfigure American foreign policy, the economy and more. In 2011, the country imported just 45 percent of the liquid fuels it used, down from a record high of 60 percent in 2005.

“There is no question that many national security policy makers will believe they have much more flexibility and will think about the world differently if the United States is importing a lot less oil,” said Michael A. Levi, an energy and environmental senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “For decades, consumption rose, production fell and imports increased, and now every one of those trends is going the other way.”

As President Obama stated in January, oil production in America is at an eight year high.

Danger, Will Robinson!

Romney now has the physics community worried:

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