Combining two posts here because the first item is short, and I've got a meeting with a client in 20 minutes. The new app I'm working on is coming along quite nicely. I'm pretty happy with it so far, other than a few minor bugs that have been causing me headaches. A brief preview of what it's going to look like on the web side is here. That doesn't include the other, non-web features, though, but I should have more on that soon.

Secondly, I can't say I'm surprised by this, but the State of Alaska is going to sue the federal government for listing the polar bear as a threatened species. After all, they are blatantly trying to fund pseudo-scientific research which will support their ultimate goal... money.

The state of Alaska will sue the U.S. government to stop the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species, arguing the designation will slow development in the state, Gov. Sarah Palin said on Wednesday.

Palin said the state will file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington challenging U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's decision to grant Endangered Species Act protections to the polar bear.

And finally, a thought on gas prices. While many of us in the environmental movement quietly cheer higher gasoline and oil prices, myself included to some extent, there are bad things that come along with it. While it would be great for our climate if people were forced to drive less, high fuel prices are causing the price of food to continue to rise as well, even with a bumper crop of rice expected. That's fine if you can afford it, but a lot of people can't. Like so many other things, high fuel prices impact the poor in ways many people don't think about, and we have to make certain one of those impacts is not an increase in hunger.

Some people simply don't get it. When it comes to science, you don't begin a study already knowing the outcome. Generally, you begin a study by asking a question, then conducting tests to determine whether or not you were correct. But to far too many politicians, science is simply another tool to advance a political agenda.

In this case, it's politicians in Alaska, mainly Republicans, who want to hire "scientists" to disprove studies already conducted by the state's Interior Department.

See, the politicians don't like the idea that scientists are showing polar bears are threatened by climate change, and need to be named as a protected species. Actually doing that would mean one thing... less windfall profits for their buddies in big oil.

The Alaskan government wants to find scientists who will study polar bears to prove they are not threatened by global warming, officials say.

Republican legislative leaders in Alaska say the current scientific stance that polar bears are being "threatened" by global warming could potentially have a negative impact on Alaska's economy and arctic oil development, The Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday.

"We want to have the money to hire scientists to answer the Interior (Department) scientists," House Speaker John Harris, R-Valdez, said of the scientific fight.

Unfortunately, these politicians will most likely get their way, and in the process all they'll accomplish, other than further oil profits, is to confuse the public even more about the realities of climate change.

You know, it's news like this that really makes me hate getting up early on Monday mornings. I apologize for the short diary before heading out for work, but seeing this story really annoyed me this morning, and I just couldn't leave the house without sharing.

What bothers me the most, however, is that these politicians are openly calling for junk science so that they can continue their political agenda, and they feel absolutely no shame in doing so. That, my friends, is what I call disgusting.