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Good morning, all. Hopefully, everyone had a pleasant spring experience (whenever you have celebrated it within the last two months). Because of the major one this past Sunday, we have Peep dioramas for viewing. Thankfully, you don’t have to watch TVLand airing The Cougar, a show that wanted to be The Bachelor's equal and opposite. And if you indulged a bit too much in the sweet stuff, that’s okay - humans aren't really wired to exercise self-control, and to do so costs us energy.
Before beginning, a short primer on how to think about this post and any other thing you may come across in the world - The Critical Thinking Field Guide offers a fairly light but powerful package for using the scientific method to decide whether claims are worth your time, can be proven, and are proven, and thus worthy of belief. Plus, we lie with statistics all the time, and where we should be making adversarial arguments, we often make interpersonal ones, which can lead to Shouty X, Cowardly Y, and Spineless Moderator problems.
We’ll start today’s material with a couple instance that would receive an internet stamp of FAIL. A polish politician is furious because a local zoo spent a lot of money to build a big elephant pen and then got an elephant that prefers the companionship of other males, making it unlikely for him to reproduce. Forehead, sir, please. Receive your stamp for caring about the orientation of your elephant. I am sure there will be others that can enjoy the pen as well in the future. Of course, such a development would not escape The General's panopticon.
Number two: The Bishop of Rome took his Jesus is Dead, long live Jesus sermon to declare that the increasingly secular parts of Europe and America may drift into "a desert of godlessness", with all the implications of brutal and depraved behavior that it would entail. The pontiff joins James Dobson in admitting that the religious side is losing the culture wars while encouraging his troops to continue fighting.
The last one is actually serious failure on someone’s part. The apparent removal of sales ranks from GLBT-related material in Amazon rankings, happened over the weekend. Depending on who you believe, it was possibly a glitch in the software or a cross-site scripting hack targeted at LGBTQ authors, which may or may not actually do what it says it does. Most likely, however, the difficulty stems from the fact that Amazon automatically excludes "adult"-tagged material when you search, indicating a policy decision in place that has no opt-out option. Suffice to say, there will be sorting-out, hasing-out, and then there will be apologies and fixing the problem. Possibly in the same way that Robot Chicken’s Mr. Rogers sovles the problem of electrified water. Or not. apaprently, someone was editing their local categorizations for one of the international Amazons, and their changes were saved and propogated across the entire site. Global value editing is something to be done with care. And, I might add, in a sandbox first, to make sure that everything works properly before committing changes that can affect everyone.
Beyond that point, something serious, a partial explanation as to why many women and men stay in abusive relationships. It’s solid and sound and explains in great detail why the victim of abuse is often deprived of the very thing he or she needs to make the decision to get out of the abusive relationship.
Internationally, a tour of Star City, where cosmonauts are trained, whcih kind of makes you wonder why the U.S. government is abandoning their shuttle program and only using Russian craft to go up in the interim. Russia also successfully test-fired an ICBM to ensure that its nuclear arsenal is in good working order.
The piracy situation resolves with three pirates sniped, a pledge from the President to help, and revenge sowrn by the dead pireates' colleagues. And possibly having to pay even mroe attention to the area because of other extremists. All told, the WSJ is pleased with the results and hopes for more ends that involve pirate deaths.
Iran's bloggers continue to be an unauthorized look into the country, one that the authorities are trying to stomp out or at least censor so that they are nonpolitical. OFficially, Iran now claims that it can go through the entire nuclear fuel cycle.
Domestically, a possible fail stamp in order for Governor Palin's pick for Alaska Attorney General might believe in the value of marital rape, and has made remarks to such, according to material attributed to a Leah Burton. The General is quick to praise this latest development, while The AG defends himself by saying he never said it and there was someone claiming to be him saying those things, and the letter that accuses him of such is replete with lies and falsehoods.
A true failure for the State of Oregon, which subsidized Wal-Mart 3.7 million dollars by letting Wal-Mart purchase an energy tax credit from a solar power manufacturer at less than the full value of the credit.
And one for Goldman Sachs, who hired on a firm to do a hit job on a blogger and shut him down.
A panel of judges declared Al Franken the winner in the Minnesota Senate race, but the Governor of Minnesota has said he will not certify until all legal challenges have been exhausted. So no Senator from Minnesota yet.
Rick Warren's stock just took a dive, after he appeared to have said that he didn&aopos;t support Proposition 8. He said that he didn’t endorse it, despite a congregation video to the contrary. Pastor Warren cancelled an appearance on "The Week", where he would have been able to explain himself, citing Easter preparations as the reason, but told the Washington Times and CNN that he was being exploded into the poster-boy for anti-homosexuality based on the one video message where he said that his church supports Prop 8. Considering the size of his church and his standing, yeah, I’d say that’s a big deal. The church has since clarified that the Pastor really meant that he hadn’t gotten involved in the campaign to pass Prop 8, but that he still supported the measure. Just answer the question, Pastor Warren - do you agree with the content and substance of Proposition 8 or not?
The economic recession makes getting an advanced degree a difficult choice, mostly in the “can I really afford this” department. The career avisors say “go, go” because once the recession turns around, the people with the advanced degrees will be in demand and ready to make money. The people who are really hurting are the ones without degrees at all, because their already limited prospects are vanishing underneath the rising waters.
Justice Ginsburg expounded a small amount on why she believes it completely appropriate for United States justices to cite foreign laws and justice opinions in rendering their decisions, dismissing the idea that citing foreign law means the United States is bound by it, and instead comparing it to reading articles and opinions by learned professors of law.
In the opinions, Austin Cline and Musings & Migraines' red rabbit take the Obama Administration to task for not only failing to repeal warrantless wiretapping authorizations, but taking them to new levels of depravity. What possible need does the Administration have of such powers? They should easily be able to obtain warrants for their tasks. Needing extralegal abilities tells me that intelligence and law enforcement admit they can’t catch the people they need to within the bounds of the law. If that’s the case, they should be lobbying for changes in the law.
Mr. Stokes continues on the "Obama is weak and will be laughed at" foreign-policy talking point, believing that the current administration doesn’t have or will not use the big stick to back up soft speech with. (And, of course, that NATO won’t fight radical Islam for fear of pissing off Turkey.) Mr. Goldberg concurs, thinking that the words and talking done by the current administration is all they will do, giving us cute euphemisms for serious things, understimating just how evil our opponents are, and getting nothing done. Mr. Prelutsky fears more serious consequences. Mr. Queenan satirizes the move, going to as ridiculous of extremes as he can to find the appropriate reclassifications. They’d probably all agree with Mr. Rubin's assessment of Iran, where Iran plays others in a fiddle-esque manner, making insincere promises to renege on once it has what it wants, and are wondering how long it will take before Iran nukes us or launches on Israel.
The Renegade Futurist has the rules of Capitalism, for handy use when someone worries about how socialism is so popular these days, thinking they have an insight into how it works. It might also apply to those who think the government will coerce everyone into abandoning private health insurance and selecting the government option because government cannot truly compete in a free market, with the taxpayer as their backer, those who believe that the current administration's policies will discourage too much success for fear of government takeovers, higher tax brackets, or the loss of their subsidies,
Elsewhere economically, Mr. Joerres suggests that keeping workers on for longer will help everyone out, both for businesses in retaining enough workers, for the older popualce, for whom retirement might be a curse, not a blessing, and for young workers, who can tap the experience of their predecessors to good effect, not having to relearn everything.
Mr. Fleischer, a press secretary for the previous administrator, weighs in on his tax belief - everyone pays income taxes in a progressive system, and all government expenditures are funded from those taxes, instead of payroll taxes, and most of the tax credits vanish. It will supposedly mean tax rates fall for everyone, they move in sync, and people will want less spending because they want to pay less in taxes. And that way, the top percentile who have been supporting us all with their heavy tax burden will have their burdens lightened as everyone has to pay in now, including those who may not make a whole lot at all and thus can’t pay taxes because they’re too busy spending the money to survive.
Mr. Connor wants us to focus not on that Ted Stevens got off, but that there was severe prosecutorial misconduct, which, if allowed to continue, would undermine the fabric of the country and our confidence in the justice system. He’s right - for the snake that Stevens may have been, he needed to be convicted in a manner that was lawful. We do not say “Anything to get a conviction” for a reason.
Last out, why not establish a low-hanging fruit arm of a nonprofit foundation, to take care of the small issues that still need fixing? Nobody may be interested in it, because it’s small fry stuff, but the effects they could have might be impressive.
In technology, Twitter got stalked by a worm, a strange situation where a post-stroke woman believes, manipulates, and uses an imaginary third arm, although it isn’t present all the time, a Galapagos volcano euption will upset the wildlife balance, printed supercapacitors making power-hungry devices smaller, the possibility that the subaudible noises of our ear could be used as biometric passwords, yet more solar cell efficiency improvements, using solar power as a propulsion for nanodevices, and an implantable device providing an early warning for cardiac arrest, and more reasons to get a good night's rest - it improves the immune system.
Last for tonight, Cracked looks at the 5 most "badass" presidents in the history of the country, as well as six tiny nations that whomped on their bigger invaders, and a poster to put in your TARDIS. Right next to the surreal art.
Before beginning, a short primer on how to think about this post and any other thing you may come across in the world - The Critical Thinking Field Guide offers a fairly light but powerful package for using the scientific method to decide whether claims are worth your time, can be proven, and are proven, and thus worthy of belief. Plus, we lie with statistics all the time, and where we should be making adversarial arguments, we often make interpersonal ones, which can lead to Shouty X, Cowardly Y, and Spineless Moderator problems.
We’ll start today’s material with a couple instance that would receive an internet stamp of FAIL. A polish politician is furious because a local zoo spent a lot of money to build a big elephant pen and then got an elephant that prefers the companionship of other males, making it unlikely for him to reproduce. Forehead, sir, please. Receive your stamp for caring about the orientation of your elephant. I am sure there will be others that can enjoy the pen as well in the future. Of course, such a development would not escape The General's panopticon.
Number two: The Bishop of Rome took his Jesus is Dead, long live Jesus sermon to declare that the increasingly secular parts of Europe and America may drift into "a desert of godlessness", with all the implications of brutal and depraved behavior that it would entail. The pontiff joins James Dobson in admitting that the religious side is losing the culture wars while encouraging his troops to continue fighting.
The last one is actually serious failure on someone’s part. The apparent removal of sales ranks from GLBT-related material in Amazon rankings, happened over the weekend. Depending on who you believe, it was possibly a glitch in the software or a cross-site scripting hack targeted at LGBTQ authors, which may or may not actually do what it says it does. Most likely, however, the difficulty stems from the fact that Amazon automatically excludes "adult"-tagged material when you search, indicating a policy decision in place that has no opt-out option. Suffice to say, there will be sorting-out, hasing-out, and then there will be apologies and fixing the problem. Possibly in the same way that Robot Chicken’s Mr. Rogers sovles the problem of electrified water. Or not. apaprently, someone was editing their local categorizations for one of the international Amazons, and their changes were saved and propogated across the entire site. Global value editing is something to be done with care. And, I might add, in a sandbox first, to make sure that everything works properly before committing changes that can affect everyone.
Beyond that point, something serious, a partial explanation as to why many women and men stay in abusive relationships. It’s solid and sound and explains in great detail why the victim of abuse is often deprived of the very thing he or she needs to make the decision to get out of the abusive relationship.
Internationally, a tour of Star City, where cosmonauts are trained, whcih kind of makes you wonder why the U.S. government is abandoning their shuttle program and only using Russian craft to go up in the interim. Russia also successfully test-fired an ICBM to ensure that its nuclear arsenal is in good working order.
The piracy situation resolves with three pirates sniped, a pledge from the President to help, and revenge sowrn by the dead pireates' colleagues. And possibly having to pay even mroe attention to the area because of other extremists. All told, the WSJ is pleased with the results and hopes for more ends that involve pirate deaths.
Iran's bloggers continue to be an unauthorized look into the country, one that the authorities are trying to stomp out or at least censor so that they are nonpolitical. OFficially, Iran now claims that it can go through the entire nuclear fuel cycle.
Domestically, a possible fail stamp in order for Governor Palin's pick for Alaska Attorney General might believe in the value of marital rape, and has made remarks to such, according to material attributed to a Leah Burton. The General is quick to praise this latest development, while The AG defends himself by saying he never said it and there was someone claiming to be him saying those things, and the letter that accuses him of such is replete with lies and falsehoods.
A true failure for the State of Oregon, which subsidized Wal-Mart 3.7 million dollars by letting Wal-Mart purchase an energy tax credit from a solar power manufacturer at less than the full value of the credit.
And one for Goldman Sachs, who hired on a firm to do a hit job on a blogger and shut him down.
A panel of judges declared Al Franken the winner in the Minnesota Senate race, but the Governor of Minnesota has said he will not certify until all legal challenges have been exhausted. So no Senator from Minnesota yet.
Rick Warren's stock just took a dive, after he appeared to have said that he didn&aopos;t support Proposition 8. He said that he didn’t endorse it, despite a congregation video to the contrary. Pastor Warren cancelled an appearance on "The Week", where he would have been able to explain himself, citing Easter preparations as the reason, but told the Washington Times and CNN that he was being exploded into the poster-boy for anti-homosexuality based on the one video message where he said that his church supports Prop 8. Considering the size of his church and his standing, yeah, I’d say that’s a big deal. The church has since clarified that the Pastor really meant that he hadn’t gotten involved in the campaign to pass Prop 8, but that he still supported the measure. Just answer the question, Pastor Warren - do you agree with the content and substance of Proposition 8 or not?
The economic recession makes getting an advanced degree a difficult choice, mostly in the “can I really afford this” department. The career avisors say “go, go” because once the recession turns around, the people with the advanced degrees will be in demand and ready to make money. The people who are really hurting are the ones without degrees at all, because their already limited prospects are vanishing underneath the rising waters.
Justice Ginsburg expounded a small amount on why she believes it completely appropriate for United States justices to cite foreign laws and justice opinions in rendering their decisions, dismissing the idea that citing foreign law means the United States is bound by it, and instead comparing it to reading articles and opinions by learned professors of law.
In the opinions, Austin Cline and Musings & Migraines' red rabbit take the Obama Administration to task for not only failing to repeal warrantless wiretapping authorizations, but taking them to new levels of depravity. What possible need does the Administration have of such powers? They should easily be able to obtain warrants for their tasks. Needing extralegal abilities tells me that intelligence and law enforcement admit they can’t catch the people they need to within the bounds of the law. If that’s the case, they should be lobbying for changes in the law.
Mr. Stokes continues on the "Obama is weak and will be laughed at" foreign-policy talking point, believing that the current administration doesn’t have or will not use the big stick to back up soft speech with. (And, of course, that NATO won’t fight radical Islam for fear of pissing off Turkey.) Mr. Goldberg concurs, thinking that the words and talking done by the current administration is all they will do, giving us cute euphemisms for serious things, understimating just how evil our opponents are, and getting nothing done. Mr. Prelutsky fears more serious consequences. Mr. Queenan satirizes the move, going to as ridiculous of extremes as he can to find the appropriate reclassifications. They’d probably all agree with Mr. Rubin's assessment of Iran, where Iran plays others in a fiddle-esque manner, making insincere promises to renege on once it has what it wants, and are wondering how long it will take before Iran nukes us or launches on Israel.
The Renegade Futurist has the rules of Capitalism, for handy use when someone worries about how socialism is so popular these days, thinking they have an insight into how it works. It might also apply to those who think the government will coerce everyone into abandoning private health insurance and selecting the government option because government cannot truly compete in a free market, with the taxpayer as their backer, those who believe that the current administration's policies will discourage too much success for fear of government takeovers, higher tax brackets, or the loss of their subsidies,
Elsewhere economically, Mr. Joerres suggests that keeping workers on for longer will help everyone out, both for businesses in retaining enough workers, for the older popualce, for whom retirement might be a curse, not a blessing, and for young workers, who can tap the experience of their predecessors to good effect, not having to relearn everything.
Mr. Fleischer, a press secretary for the previous administrator, weighs in on his tax belief - everyone pays income taxes in a progressive system, and all government expenditures are funded from those taxes, instead of payroll taxes, and most of the tax credits vanish. It will supposedly mean tax rates fall for everyone, they move in sync, and people will want less spending because they want to pay less in taxes. And that way, the top percentile who have been supporting us all with their heavy tax burden will have their burdens lightened as everyone has to pay in now, including those who may not make a whole lot at all and thus can’t pay taxes because they’re too busy spending the money to survive.
Mr. Connor wants us to focus not on that Ted Stevens got off, but that there was severe prosecutorial misconduct, which, if allowed to continue, would undermine the fabric of the country and our confidence in the justice system. He’s right - for the snake that Stevens may have been, he needed to be convicted in a manner that was lawful. We do not say “Anything to get a conviction” for a reason.
Last out, why not establish a low-hanging fruit arm of a nonprofit foundation, to take care of the small issues that still need fixing? Nobody may be interested in it, because it’s small fry stuff, but the effects they could have might be impressive.
In technology, Twitter got stalked by a worm, a strange situation where a post-stroke woman believes, manipulates, and uses an imaginary third arm, although it isn’t present all the time, a Galapagos volcano euption will upset the wildlife balance, printed supercapacitors making power-hungry devices smaller, the possibility that the subaudible noises of our ear could be used as biometric passwords, yet more solar cell efficiency improvements, using solar power as a propulsion for nanodevices, and an implantable device providing an early warning for cardiac arrest, and more reasons to get a good night's rest - it improves the immune system.
Last for tonight, Cracked looks at the 5 most "badass" presidents in the history of the country, as well as six tiny nations that whomped on their bigger invaders, and a poster to put in your TARDIS. Right next to the surreal art.
