linkedy links xiii

Carnivalea and Culture Wars Galore

Carnival of Space 104

Carnival of Space 103 - at Chandra Blog

Chandra Blog also has a neat post on what is hidden in headers of astronomical images

Built on Facts considers the traffic jam problem - he considers the phase transition to jams as a statistical physics problem with growing correlation lengths - needs to show more work.
I personally prefer the continuum picture where traffic jams appear as breaking non-linear waves.
Advantage of that model is that it tells you how you ought to drive to minimize jams... if only it were safe...

Office of Special Investigator raids banker offices and homes
- in Iceland.
First result of the Special Adviser appointed as an independent investigator.
Eva Joly is an interesting person - we'll consider a transfer request by Obama in a year or two...

New SciBling at Christina's LIS Rant

FSP fires a return broadside in the Culture Wars - good 'ritin'

God Talk and God Talk Part 2
- this is a really bizarre anti-atheist, anti-science rant in the NYT.
Punch line seems to be naive existentialism thinly veiled in literati, with the traditional swiped a strawman editions of naive positivism and sneers at prominent scientists who presume to comment on issues better dealt with by their devout betters.

finally...

Followup on last week's "Personal Credit Crisis story:

Megan McArdle at The Atlantic digs out more details

the Protagonist Responds to Megan

these are an interesting leisure read if you saw the original NYT story but haven't seen this followup yet.
Comments are worth reading also for some insights into the human condition...

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