Blue Mass Group

That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway. Not necessarily for the artists, though, but for everyone else. MIchigan State study findings: The study found that arts and crafts activities – such as painting, dancing and filmmaking – are closely related to success of the scientists, engineers and other innovators who create new companies and inventions that stimulate the economy. …. “Politicians often strip funding for arts and cultural assets, assuming they are expendable ‘extras,’ but this may be a serious policy error based on false assumptions,” said Rex LaMore, lead researcher on the project and director of MSU’s Center of Community and Economic Development .According to the study, there was a close relationship between arts and crafts experiences and graduates who went on to produce patentable inventions and create new companies. … Based on the findings, the researchers recommend that policymakers: – Recognize the importance of arts and crafts in supporting innovation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. – Recognize that funding of arts and crafts is critical in supporting Michigan’s economic transformation. – Support research into the best ways to provide arts and crafts exposure. This is the kind of thing Richard Florida has been saying for ages. You [...]

This isn’t the world’s worst whopper — Ezra Klein does a brilliant takedown of Paul Ryan’s misrepresentation of Clinton on Medicare — but it’s the small stuff that adds up. Reporting on George Pataki’s campaign to focus on the national debt, Shira Schoenberg quotes Pataki: “President Obama has the worst fiscal record of any president in the history of our country.” Problem is, that’s demonstrably untrue. He doesn’t even have the worst fiscal record of the last two presidents. Here’s a handy chart: There is no definition of worst that can attribute to Obama a fiscal impact worse than Bush’s. So long as reporters like Schoenberg allow figures like Pataki to spew such nonsense without consequence or correction, the public discourse is distorted and demeaned. (Note, Schoenberg’s piece was posted by editor Glen Johnson.) Pataki’s comment is nothing more than propaganda posing as factual analysis and the Globe enables it.

Five Massachusetts leaders in public health will be recognized by the Massachusetts Public Health Association at MPHA’s s 9th Annual Spring Awards Breakfast. Hundreds of health officials and community leaders from across the Commonwealth gather Friday, June 3 at 7:30 am at the State Room, 60 State Street Boston to honor: PAUL FARMER, MD, PhD Kolokotrones University Professor and Chair, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Chief, Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Co-founder, Partners in Health; UN Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti, Paul Revere Award, for his groundbreaking leadership and inspired pursuit of global health equity as well as his commitment to the education of the next generation of community health workers, doctors, and activists.  His work around the world has focused on providing those living in resource-poor settings with high-quality community-based healthcare while working to alleviate the root causes of disease and poverty. LAUREN SMITH, MD, MPH, Medical Director, MA Department of Public Health, Public Health Leadership in Medicine Award, for her work linking the practice of medicine with public health and public policy.  In her work as a clinical director, pediatrician, researcher, and advocate, she has tirelessly worked to combat [...]

Boston City Council potential candidates as of Wednesday 25 May 2011 [ Updates available, email john.donovan at cityofboston.gov ] http://www.cityofboston.gov/elections/ http://www.cityofboston.gov/boardsandcommissions/elections.asp POTENTIAL CANDIDATES PRELIMINARY MUNICIPAL ELECTION SEPTEMBER 27, 2011 POTENTIAL CANDIDATES for COUNCILLOR-at-LARGE 1. Abdillahi Mash Abdirahman 14 Guild Street Roxbury, Ma 02119 617-438-9087 2. Felix G Arroyo 93 Wachusett Street Jamaica Plain, Ma 02130 617-635-4205 3. John R Connolly 12 Shaw Street West Roxbury, Ma 02132 617-635-3115 617-447-1302 4. Will Dorcena 63 Gordon Avenue Hyde Park, Ma 02136 617-899-4076 5. William B Feegbeh 251 Cambridge Street Allston, Ma 02134 857-237-6649 6. Michael F Flaherty 1726 Columbia Road South Boston, Ma 02127 617-269-4673 7. Stephen J Murphy 141 Warren Avenue Hyde Park, Ma 02136 617-635-4376 8. Ayanna S. Pressley 1910 Dorchester Avenue, Dorchester Ma 02124 617-635-4217 9. Sean H Ryan 264 Lamartine Street Jamaica Plain, Ma 02130 617-504-3133 DISTRICT ONE 1. Salvatore LaMattina 76 Montmorenci Avenue East Boston, Ma 02128 617-635-3200 DISTRICT TWO 1. Bob Ferrara 1776 Columbia Road South Boston, Ma 02127 2. Suzanne Lee 1 Nassau Street Boston, Ma 02111 617-566-9992 617-935-1211 3. Bill Linehan 128 G Street South Boston, Ma 02127 617-635-3203 617-224-6911 POTENTIAL CANDIDATES for DISTRICT CITY COUNCILLOR DISTRICT THREE 1. Frank Baker 43 Grampian Way [...]

Advice from Bill McKibben in yesterday’s Washington Post regarding the extreme weather events over the last year or so: you might find your thoughts wandering to, oh, global warming, and to the fact that climatologists have been predicting for years that as we flood the atmosphere with carbon we will also start both drying and flooding the planet, since warm air holds more water vapor than cold air. It’s far smarter to repeat to yourself the comforting mantra that no single weather event can ever be directly tied to climate change. There have been tornadoes before, and floods — that’s the important thing. Just be careful to make sure you don’t let yourself wonder why all these record-breaking events are happening in such proximity If you aren’t picking up on Mr. McKibben’s sarcasm, read the whole article. In it he lists some of the extreme events we’ve seen lately: Tornado outbreaks in the midwest and (in April) the south Wildfires in Texas Drought in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and the Amazon Record snow and rain in midwest Record floods in Australia, New Zealand, and Pakistan Drastic Arctic ice melt Pine forests disappearing in the western US And regarding this year’s [...]

KIRWAN: Former Patrick budget chief Leslie Kirwan is expected to testify today at the corruption trial of former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi. (AP) There are only ten more prosecution witnesses to go (WBUR), with the last spot set aside for the Governor himself. TUNNEL TROUBLE: A two-foot piece of fireproofing material fell from the ceiling of the Rt. 90 tunnel last month, the Herald reports. Legislative transportation overseers aren’t happy. WENT TO A FIGHT AND A HEARING BROKE OUT: The Left’s favorite possible Senate candidate draftee, Elizabeth Warren, had a rough time of it yesterday while defending the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before a Congressional panel (MSNBC). It had all the ingredients that make for a great Congressional hearing: scheduling conflicts, interruptions, accusations of lying, a request to “simmer” and a post-hearing statement from the chair. But she doesn’t rule out running against Scott Brown. (PI) SINKING: Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua’s chief of staff has quit for “personal reasons.” (Eagle Trib.) The Globe spotlights the Lawrence P.D. Read the rest of the MASSterList, including the Mitt Monitor, today’s legislative headlines, transportation news, new health care headlines, today’s Best of the Blogs and more by signing up for daily email [...]

In America, today, there are three kinds of drivers: those who look at the other gas pumps down at the ol’ gas station and think: “Oh my God, I can’t believe how much that guy’s spending on gas”, those who look at their own pump down at the ol’ gas station and think: “Oh my God, I can’t believe how much I’m spending on gas” – and those who are doing both at the same time. Naturally, this has brought the Sarah Palins of the world back out in public, and once again the mantra of “Drill, Baby, Drill” can be heard all the way from the Florida coast to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But what if those folks have it exactly backwards? What if, in a world of depleting oil resources, the last thing you want to do is use yours up? To put it another way: why isn’t all our oil part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Consider the inexorable logic of the Big Lie. If a man has a consuming love for cats and dedicates himself to the protection of cats, you have only to accuse him of killing and mistreating cats. Your lie will have [...]