All posts from 2010.
originally shared via google talk
http://scarygoround.com/sgr/ar.php?date=20080325 Elodie explains the story of the Easter bell to Eustace.
originally shared via google talk
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/house_gop_crushes_bill_that_would_protect_against.php?ref=fpa House Republicans stop bill that protects against child marriages.
originally shared via google talk
http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2007/09/the-catholic-ch.html The Catholic Church argues that child molestation is path of the Catholic Church’s doctrine, and so protected by the first amendment.
originally shared via google talk
http://satwcomic.com/language-lesson
originally shared via google talk
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=12371796 Cable from wikileaks reveals that the Vatican was offended by Ireland disrespecting their “sovereignty” when an Irish commission attempted to ask questions to Vatican officials as part of an investigation into 170 Irish priests suspected of child rape.
originally shared via google talk
NYT (courtesy of Marena) A Swedish city of 80000 has almost entirely stopped using fossil fuels for energy.
originally shared via google talk
(5.81 MB) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Windmills_D1-D4_(Thornton_Bank).jpg off-shore wind power plants
originally shared via google talk
YouTube TED talk on data visualization. The first example illustrates just how expensive the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been, as well as the world economic crisis.
originally shared via google talk
originally shared via google talk
Right now, I am writing this status and you are reading it.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.wimp.com/buildsinstrument/ (courtesy of Doris) Guy plays medley on home-made pvc pipe instrument.
originally shared via google talk
Airport security has been killing 520 people a year since 2002, more than died in the WTC attacks.
NYT Additional airport security leads more to drive, directly causes increased fatal road accidents, approximately 520 additional deaths a year since 2002.
originally shared via google talk
NYT Republicans have every incentive to shut down government to harm Obama. Obama buys into Republican talking points.
originally shared via google talk
“WARNING: TO BE SAID BY A PRIEST ONLY” http://www.catholicdoors.com/prayers/english/p01975.htm (see facebook for context) The original news article was http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1004582.htm , which is about there being a shortage of exorcists in the US for the Catholic Church.
originally shared via google talk
http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/ Zoom out, look only for Earth, Sun, distance between Earth and Sun, Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud, and distance between Sun and Proxima Centauri….
originally shared via google talk
I don’t know how you manage without trains I was astonished to realize how big of a difference there is between the US and Europe train systems.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.waste.org/~oxymoron/cards/ratscrew.html “This isn’t superstition, this is pyromania.”
originally shared via google talk
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap101109.html A galaxy seen edge on.
originally shared via google talk
YouTube Carl Sagan reading his “Pale Blue Dot”
originally shared via google talk
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090312115133.htm American adults fail basic science – 21% of adults correctly identify how long it takes the Earth to go around the sun, whether or not humans and dinosaurs lived together, and how much of the Earth’s surface is covered by water (answers of 65% to 75% were considered correct).
originally shared via google talk
NYT The Democrats needed a larger stimulus to avoid these losses in the midterm election.
originally shared via google talk
Songs stuck in my head YouTube
YouTube Mika - Rain and Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains beyond Mountains)
originally shared via google talk
NYT Krugman predicting disaster if the Republicans take congress.
originally shared via google talk
“Vlad the astrophycisist”, performed by Peter Mulvey.
originally shared via google talk
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2010/10/20101027132136220370.html People are falling ill and dying of chemical poisoning caused by the dispersants released by BP during the spill.
originally shared via google talk
YouTube The Flight of the Valkyries, with animated breakfast foods.
originally shared via google talk
NYT The deficit is caused by falling revenues, not rising spending.
originally shared via google talk
NYT (courtesy of Caleb via Brandon) though Friedman shouldn’t make fun of money invested in infrastructure, for it should be a much higher priority right now than it is
originally shared via google talk
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/milkyway.html A diagram of the milky way and the evidence we have for its structure.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LI11Df02.html (courtesy of Marena) Prime minister of India decides not to give food that would otherwise rot to the starving.
originally shared via google talk
YouTube Riven easter egg – opera.
originally shared via google talk
A good analysis of the question whether not polling cell phones biases poll results in the favor of Republicans NYT
originally shared via google talk
(4.24 MB) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Guisard_-_Milky_Way.jpg Gorgeous image of the milky way as seen from Earth.
originally shared via google talk
Wikipedia I learned recently that the solar system is slightly closer to the Canis Major Galaxy than to the center of the Milky Way. Figure showing the Milk Way, with the solar system and galactic center marked, as well as the position of the Canis Major Galaxy and its stream, which trails behind it as it orbits the Milky Way.
originally shared via google talk
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8252705102362324792&q=sdss#docid=4094602439481326500 The image is of the famous “fingers of god” phenomenon. The video is the product of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, showing what is currently known of the surroundings of our galaxy all the way to the edge of the visible universe, the cosmic microwave background radiation.
originally shared via google talk
“Joanna was two of Charles’ 16 great-great-great-grandmothers, six of his 32 great-great-great-great-grandmothers, and six of his 64 great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers.” From Wikipedia , about the incest in the family of Charles II, who was mentally and physically disabled.
originally shared via google talk
Wikipedia It’s amazing to think how much detail we know about the activities of the Greeks over 2500 years ago, even the names of the people who won their olympic games.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,720513,00.html “Berlin researchers crack the Ptolemy Code”. This ancient Greek map of Germany was just “cracked”, meaning that it was determined which settlements on the map correspond to which modern day cities. This shows that many modern German cities, whose roots have been lost to time, were far older than previously suspected.
originally shared via google talk
Best explanation of the Socratic dialogs: “By pretending ignorance, Socrates lured others into propounding their views on such abstractions. (This is called ‘Socratic irony,’ for Socrates knew very well that he knew a great deal more than the poor souls he was picking on.) Socrates then, by a series of ignorant-sounding questions, forced the others into such a mélange of self-contradictions that they would finally break down and admit they didn’t know what they were talking about.” From an article ( http://hermiene.net/essays-trans/relativity_of_wrong.html ) by Isaac Asimov, which I think adds helpful insight to the theory of paradigm shifts advocated by Thomas Kuhn.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2652714/ “Graveyards on the Move: The Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Dead Ophiocordyceps-Infected Ants”. A mildly interesting study on the distribution of ants infected by a particular fungus; the scientists “examin[ed] every leaf in 1360 square meters of primary rainforest” in southern Thailand. I found this via some decently interesting blog on parasites – cool.
originally shared via google talk
“Consequently, this lemma is sometimes referred to as the lemma that is not Burnside’s.[3] This is less ambiguous than it may seem: Burnside contributed many lemmas to this field.” From the Wikipedia article on Burnside’s Lemma, which was not originally discovered by Burnside.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.nowscape.com/atheism/Imagine_no_religion_Edgar_Dahl.htm The author has an interesting story about seeing Christians for the first time at the age of 10.
originally shared via google talk
http://robertreich.org/post/1121362907 “The Republican Threat to Shut Down the Federal Government”. Robert Reich on the Republican plan to shut down the government if they enter power in November.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.nathanieljohnston.com/2009/06/11630-is-the-first-uninteresting-number/ Apparently 11630 is the first number not to appear in the OEIS.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.nucalc.com/Story/ The Macintosh Graphing Calculator software was made by non-employees out of sheer determination to make a good product that helps people.
originally shared via google talk
“The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.” http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/choke-it-starve-it-shrink-it-what-government-shutdown-hints-are-really-about.php?ref=fpblg Really, everytime I read something like this I have no sympathy for any who votes for Republican senators. It’s not a secret what you get.
originally shared via google talk
http://blog.givewell.org/2010/08/25/our-advice-re-donations-for-pakistan-flood/ In short: If you do donate for the Pakistan floods, give cash and not physical goods, be careful about the effectiveness of the organization that you donate to, and keep in mind that there are other causes that may be able to accomplish more good with your donation.
originally shared via google talk
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48794000/gif/_48794122_us_troops_iraq_624.gif Troop levels in Iraq have fallen significantly, as Obama declares the end of the occupation.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.theonion.com/articles/millions-of-barrels-of-oil-safely-reach-port-in-ma,17875/
originally shared via google talk
YouTube Endless Flight, from the Babel soundtrack
originally shared via google talk
YouTube Rachel Maddow: Every Republican Senator votes against unemployment benefits.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-august-4-2010/i-give-up---9-11-responders-bill John Stewart on the 9/11 responders bill, which would pay for the medical bills for first responders at the collapse of the World Trace Center (many of them suffering from long term medical problems caused by their actions there, which happened at a time that the government intentionally lied to claim that the air was safe). The bill was funded by closing a tax loophole that allowed large corporations to evade taxes by nominally having all their money overseas. Of course, Republicans opposed it.
originally shared via google talk
plus or minus one and two standard deviations shown
On average, we are losing 3500 cubic kilometers of arctic sea ice per decade, for the last three decades – and the rate of loss has been increasing recently.
originally shared via google talk
NYT More on Obama’s PR problems – the administration is emphasizing how things are looking up, when everyone knows more economic stimulus is needed desparately.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/netherlands-first-nato-member-leave-afghanistan The Netherlands pulls all forces out of Afghanistan.
originally shared via google talk
12 distinct Dutch words:
http://www.dutchgrammar.com/sound/fier_vier_wier.mp3
Another 10 distinct Dutch words:
http://www.dutchgrammar.com/sound/gaan_haan_goed_hoed.mp3
originally shared via google talk
YouTube Daniel Dennett’s TED talk on memes, evolution, and human society.
originally shared via google talk
“While the highest-paid 400 Americans had an average income of $345 million in 2007, as a result of Bush tax policy they now pay an effective tax rate of 16.6 percent, the lowest on record.”
http://www.thenation.com/article/37889/no-oligarchy
originally shared via google talk
Wikipedia Why war actually doesn’t help the economy.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/the-quiet-revolution?page=0,0 Obama’s scientific approach to regulation.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,707231,00.html
originally shared via google talk
originally shared via google talk
YouTube Ameno
originally shared via google talk
Washington Post Netanyahu, and manipulating the US.
originally shared via google talk
originally shared via google talk
http://climateprogress.org/2010/06/09/cheney%E2%80%99s-culture-of-deregulation-and-corruption/ The Bush administration crippled regulation and oversight, a problem far understated.
originally shared via google talk
“If [Dick Cheney]’s not listed for a heart transplant, his days are seriously numbered. Life on an LVAD [Left Ventricular Assist Device] isn’t something I’d wish on my worst enemy… an axiom that this situation really tests.” –tpm
originally shared via google talk
http://www.bprepublicans.com/page/content/bprepublicans Republicans who see nothing wrong with BP.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h2f5f1yyGD-mTk_3xFIpWm_RyWoQ It may cost Britain 20 million pounds for the pope to visit for a few days. The Catholic Church is a 250 million euro/year business.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.theonion.com/articles/obamas-weekly-video-addresses-becoming-increasingl,17649/ Courtesy of Caleb Obama’s weekly addresses becoming surreal.
originally shared via google talk
“The worst heatwave in recent years happened in August 2003 when record-breaking temperatures led to 2,000 excess deaths in the UK. Northern France bore the brunt of the hot weather that year when three weeks of unprecedentedly high temperatures resulted in 15,000 excess deaths. By the 2080s, it is predicted that an event similar to that experienced in England in 2003 will happen every year.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/10567678.stm
originally shared via google talk
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/829921--i-will-not-forget-what-they-have-done-to-me Accounts of police abuse at the Toronto G20 summit.
originally shared via google talk
BBC Frustration with unreliable electricity in Baghdad.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.financialpost.com/Avertible+catastrophe/3203808/story.html The Netherlands offers substantial help with BP spill, the US declines it, and the coast suffers.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/6/29/880179/-Research-2000:-Problems-in-plain-sight “Research 2000” shown to be producing fraudulent polling data. Cool statistical analysis!
originally shared via google talk
YouTube Rachel Maddow: What has Obama done so far?
originally shared via google talk
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-last-post-mcchrystals-bleak-outlook-2011730.html Obama fires McChrystal.
originally shared via google talk
http://climateprogress.org/2010/06/01/record-heat-wave-may/ Heat records increasingly common.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-other-side-of-the-gaza-blockade-1992076.html Israel’s inhumane blockade
originally shared via google talk
http://www.alternet.org/story/147115/the_gaza_blockade_is_illegal_and_the_flotilla_attack_was_an_illegal_act_of_war?page=entire Israel’s inhumane blockade
originally shared via google talk
– Introduction to The Art of Expressing the Human Body Quote by Bruce Lee
originally shared via google talk
Israel’s inhumane blockade.
Ctrl-Alt-Shift film “No way through”.
originally shared via google talk
Bush’s policies and the deficit.
originally shared via google talk
“…War on Arithmetic” http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2010/05/19/gop_doesn_t_get_car_keys_back/index.html Obama needs to stop yielding to the Republicans.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7119887.ece Medvedev denounces Stalin.
originally shared via google talk
The New Yorker (courtesy of Paul) Death of an ant colony.
originally shared via google talk
Best ghc error message: Parser/Pass3.hs:155:4: parse error on input `parse_failure’
originally shared via google talk
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2010/04/28/how_gop_gets_away_with_it/index.html How the Republicans get away with lying through their teeth all the time
originally shared via google talk
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8639769.stm Great Pacific Garbage Patch
originally shared via google talk
NYT Arizona requires people to carry immigration documents at all times
originally shared via google talk
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100503/hari The coming climate crisis and the uselessness of the media
originally shared via google talk
“He was rather given to sneering at anyone who wrote about what he did not fully understand: I remember praising Whewell’s History of the Inductive Sciences to him, and he answered, ‘Yes, I suppose that he has read the prefaces of very many books.’”
originally shared via google talk
“Ground troops can usually tell combatant from non-combatant because the former are shooting at them.”
originally shared via google talk
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/04/evolution-big-bang-polls-omitted.html NSF report on scientific literacy in US omit poll results about acceptance of big bang and evolution.
originally shared via google talk
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7076431.ece Binyamin Netanyahu humiliated after Barack Obama ‘dumped him for dinner’
originally shared via google talk
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100321/FOREIGN/703209910&SearchID=73385481225936 Arab family denied right to rent home (in Nevatim, Isreal)
originally shared via google talk
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/gop-senators-refusing-to_n_511639.html GOP Senators Refusing To Work Past 2PM, Invoking Obscure Rule
originally shared via google talk
From my Philosophy of Science book: “I have paid particular attention to the challenge posed by Quinean epistemological holism, which takes the post-Kantian revolutions in geometry and mechanics (among other things) as grounds for a naturalized empiricism in which there is nothing left of the a priori at all; and to the challenge posed by Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions, which has led, in recent years, to a new style of historical and conceptual relativism based on the incommensurability or non-intertranslatability of succeeding revolutionary paradigms.”
originally shared via google talk
originally shared via google talk
originally shared via google talk
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=242 Gorey covers
originally shared via google talk
“It looked as though the real problem of man in the sea was not because of his breathing, but because he’s man.” http://davidszondy.com/future/underwater/menfish2.htm
originally shared via google talk
Many interesting reads here… http://www.monbiot.com/
originally shared via google talk
Meanwhile in Finland
originally shared via google talk
“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developed democracies, sometimes spectacularly so, and almost always scores poorly.” Skip the text and just look at the y-axis of figures 2,6-8. http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html
originally shared via google talk
“We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada,” Palin said. “And I think now, isn’t that ironic?” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/08/palin-crossed-border-for_n_490080.html
Follow RSS/Atom feed or twitter for updates.