gregladen | May 13, 2008We all know torture is bogus. There is no scenario in which we will torture the guy with the launch codes for the missile aimed at the orphanage. That whole scenario is just a bunch of crap.
However, torture has been used, by American officials, and since we do have, despite BushCheney's best efforts, something left, even if tattered and torn, of our constitution, it is likely that captives who were heavily tortured at Gitmo (or elsewhere) will have to either be set free or to have important charges dropped against them.
That is likely to happen with what we presume are many inmates who…
gregladen | May 13, 2008There are many versions of Linux. At the deepest level, there are a few fundamentally different Linuxes, and each of these may appear in one or more, sometimes many, different "distributions." So, most Linux distributions are based on either Debian, RedHat/Fedora, Gentoo, and a couple/few others. Off hand, I'm not sure how many different core systems one has to add together to reach 50%, or 80%, or whatever you like.
Ubuntu is based on Debian. Debian is part of the GNU project, and is in some ways the philosophically purest, or main distribution. Many, many people will hate that I said…
gregladen | May 13, 2008There is an interesting and important follow up related to a TED Talk that a lot of readers of this blog found interesting (Sherwin Nuland: A history of electroshock therapy) at The Corpus Callosum:
Grappling With Stigma: Influence of Social Media
A while back, Gred Laden and Dr. Shock independently linked to a remarkable video. In it, a famous author-surgeon-professor reveals that he had had an episode of severe depression. Moreover, he underwent treatment with electroconvulsive therapy. It worked, he got back to work, and went on to have a distinguished career. The video can be seen…
gregladen | May 13, 2008Carnival of the Liberals is at SIr Robin Rides Away
Carnival of the Green #127 is at Evangelical Ecologist
Encephalon #45 - Life Is Good, Brains Are Better is at PodBlack Blog
gregladen | May 13, 2008There is a point that I've been trying to make for the last few weeks now, off and on, and it is not working. So I'm going to try something new. Please bear with me, and consider the following three scenarios regarding the idea that the Earth is Round (or, possibly, flat):
Please ask yourself: Which of these scenarios is best? Which is least desirable?
Scenario A: Divided Opinion
Maureen: "I think the world is round."
John: "I think the world is flat."
A public opinion poll indicates that fifty percent of those polled believe the world is round, the other fifty percent believe the world…
gregladen | May 13, 2008Apparently, Google has been running a contest among K - 12 students in the US to come up with a replacement logo. And now they have 40 finalists and you can vote for the one you like.
These are my favorites:
Go HERE to vote.
hat tip: Natalie
gregladen | May 13, 2008Is a semi-organized effort to 'crash' obnoxious internet polls ethically acceptable? Is it boring? Is it stupid? I sometimes ask myself that question.
But it's complicated and will take a while to work out. In the mean time, PZ Myers points out this poll regarding the recent suggestion by a Maine school board member to drop evolution from the science classroom in his district.
(Left side bar, two-thirds of the way down)
gregladen | May 12, 2008
And a few sexist remarks to boot.
Is this a famous person?
[Hat Tip: Hilde Knustad!]
And now, let's see how YOU do under pressure:
gregladen | May 12, 2008In the 1970s and 80s, a number of law suits and other actions began to change the rules for hiring firefighters. There was a moment in the 1980s when a documentary was made (starring the very annoying John Stossel) pieces of which I still use when teaching on Gender. It shows Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, and others arguing in favor of women being firefighters, and others (including, of course, one woman who is already a fire fighter) arguing against. One of the interesting things about the film is the way it is biased against women being fire fighters while at the same time trying really…
gregladen | May 12, 2008Despite the fact that the presidential candidates will not accept the invitation extended by Science Debate 2008 for a nationally broadcast science forum in May there is ample evidence to suggest that they should: A new poll ... a real poll .. indicates that 85% of US Adults agree that there should be a debate.
The poll results can be found here.
Here is a summary of the poll:
WASHINGTON--May 12, 2008-- A new poll shows that 85% of U.S. adults agree that the presidential candidates should participate in a debate on how science can be used to tackle America's major challenges. The poll…
gregladen | May 12, 2008
Audubon California has announced that it has reached an agreement with a farmer to safeguard a single colony of about 80,000 Tricoloured Blackbirds Agelaius tricolor - nearly a third of the world's population of this Endangered species.
The estimated global population of Tricoloured Blackbirds is 250,000 to 300,000 birds, with at least 95% of these occurring in California. Tricoloured Blackbirds have declined dramatically in the past century as native wetland habitat has been lost and the species has consequently been classified as Endangered. Tricoloured Blackbirds form just a few large…
gregladen | May 12, 2008Deconstructed and Constructed, but not in the same sentence.
Philip Guston's "Sea," a lithograph on handmade paper from 1980, the year the artist died. Students at Cornell have constructed an exhibit of the art of human body disassembled or otherwise rearranged called Exquisite Corpus: Interacting with the Fragmented Body which is on exhibit through June 15th (details here).
"In contemporary art right now, there are no limits, no boundaries," Hirsch said. "We wanted to show contemporary work, and show that art can be anything, maybe even vulgar."
The title and concept refer to the…
gregladen | May 12, 2008With all the interest in tornadoes, I thought it would be helpful to provide some contextual data (focusing on US tornadoes).
Damaged houses along Grace St. in St. Peter. (Photo courtesy of St. Peter Kiwanis) One thing that has to be said is that tornadoes are very powerful, but very small and short lived meteorological phenomena. They are like bullets being fired from cheap handguns by incompetent shooters. There are many stories of two gang bangers aiming their rods at each other at short distance, emptying them out, and failing to harm each other. In the mean time, a stray bullet…
gregladen | May 12, 2008Evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald drags us into the sewer to discuss germs. Why are some more harmful than others? How could we make the harmful ones benign? Searching for answers, he examines a disgusting, fascinating case: diarrhea.
gregladen | May 12, 2008It is estimated that between 3 and 5 thousand people have been killed by an earthquake in Beichuan County, Sichuan Province, China. That is about one in ten residence of this county.
ADDED: This number is increasing quickly.
In at least three cases, schools appear have collapsed trapping hundreds of students. About 900 students were trapped in a school in Dujiangyan city.
Teenagers buried beneath the rubble of the three-storey Juyuan Middle School building were struggling to break free, while others were crying out for help, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Parents were watching as…
gregladen | May 11, 2008Well, it's like this... "Like many people in Minneapolis' Bryant neighborhood, Patty Crawford was outside minding her business on a sunny Mother's Day afternoon. Then she looked up to see an SUV barrelling through her front yard at freeway speed. ... Through the flying chunks of what had been her lawn, a screaming flock of squad cars soon appeared. ... She quickly called for the kids to take cover. Then there was the deafening smash and the tinkling of shattered glass. ... "We all just stood there and whimpered," Crawford said later Sunday afternoon. "Really, any of us could have been in…