September 29, 2004
transitive relations
Atomic Lasers: America's Savior
This November help get an Electric-American elected into the White House. Vote Robocratic!
What if we voted on issues? - The Next Generation
Remember "They booed the results of their vote. They were upset that they had voted for the 'wrong guy'"? Well, now our so-called third graders are all grown up. (via Kos)
"Facts are stupid things"
There are some questions that social scientists should be able to answer. Either executing people cuts the homicide rate or it does not. A fascinating look into statistics and the death penalty.
ID
The Crusade Against Evolution. How the next generation of "creation science" is invading America's classrooms, and peer reviewed biology journals. [Via The Panda's Thumb.]
campaign contributions
Who is funding a candidate and for how much. You can search by name or zip code to find out. Here is a link to prominent pittsburgh people that have contributed.
Give a goat. Send a sheep. Lend a Llama.
Judge Rules Against Part of the Patriot Act
Judge Rules Against Patriot Act Provision
In what can only be described as "a good thing", a US District judge has found that "Surveillance powers granted to the FBI under the Patriot Act, a cornerstone of the Bush Administration's war on terror, were ruled unconstitutional".
In what can only be described as "a good thing", a US District judge has found that "Surveillance powers granted to the FBI under the Patriot Act, a cornerstone of the Bush Administration's war on terror, were ruled unconstitutional".
Leave No Voter Behind.
MoveOn's "Leave No Voter Behind" campaign takes off. Tonight, MoveOn.org is starting what is expected to be the world's largest phone bank campaign, using the Internet to coordinate hundreds of thousands of volunteers to get people to register and vote on Election Day. Are the polls getting it wrong as some suggest? Will grassroot phonebanking work in swing states, or will this election be won by "Bible-believing women" instead?
Who shot first?
Greedo and Han Solo: Who shot first? Let the court decide
What the Bubble Got Right
What the (Internet) Bubble Got Right Paul Graham has written a thought-provoking essay on the positive lessons we should have taken away from the Internet bubble of the late 90s.
It all starts by looking a baby right in the eyes
Language started with emotional signaling. That's the thesis of a new book, The First Idea: How Symbols, Language, And Intelligence Evolved From Our Primate Ancestors To Modern Humans, by Stanley I. Greenspan and Stuart G. Shanker.
Lived emotional experience is key to language learning, the authors suggest. "Mathematicians and physicists may manipulate abstruse symbols representing space, time, and quantity, but they first understood those entities as tiny children wanting a far-away toy, or waiting for juice, or counting cookies. The grown-up genius, like the adventurous child, forms ideas through playful explorations in the imagination, only later translated into the rigor of mathematics."The book is very ambitious, and I don't think we'll ever know where language came from, but this sounds like a more fruitful line of thinking than Chomsky's deus ex machina "language gene" mutation.
Seems legit-- where do I sign?
Ze Frank, nigerian 419 scammer. [Quicktime]
Be a foreign correspondent, see the world blow up
Foreign correspondence that the readers haven't seen... The New York Observer writes today about a memo, purportedly written by a Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent (although that's in dispute.) The vivid writing is part travelogue, part horror story -- and wholly different than any foreign story I've read since the war started. (And I work for a newspaper.) But this has reportedly seen the halls of the Journal and the New York Times.
John Kerry throws like a girl
The evidence is compelling: John Kerry responds to George Bush's GOP acceptance speech with the following opening remarks: "I'll tell you what happened tonight that will be remembered. The Boston Red Sox moved to within 2.5 games of the New York Yankees."
At the time of Kerry's speech, however, the Red Sox had not moved up in the standings. While they won that night, so did the Yankees, and the Sox remained 3.5 games back.
And John Kerry accuses Bush of misleading the American people?
At the time of Kerry's speech, however, the Red Sox had not moved up in the standings. While they won that night, so did the Yankees, and the Sox remained 3.5 games back.
And John Kerry accuses Bush of misleading the American people?
Send your friends some fun TODAY
Fun and free e-cards for all... for the geek, for the addict, for the artist, for the musician, for the conspiracy theorist, for the chef, for the tasteless, for the tactless, for just about anyone. Where do you go for all of your e-card needs?
No debate.
No debate. The Commission on Presidential Debates: the "unconscionable fraud" brought to you by Corporate America.
Dr. Babasahed Ambedkar
The legacy of Dr. Babasahed Ambedkar, Indian Dalit ('untouchable') intellectual and activist who agitated for reform and equality through education for his people. He converted from Hinduism to Buddhism, and encouraged other Dalits to do likewise, based on that religion's casteless nature.
Related :- National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights.
Related :- National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights.
With an eye toward perfection
Utopian Christians, despisers of all ornament, in some rough sense protomodernists, the eighteenth- and nineteeth-century millenarian cult known disparagingly as the Shakers has had an impact on the history of design far in excess of its size. (At most, there were only ever a few thousand, and it's easy to understand why, given their emphasis on "perfection" to the point of celibacy.) Key to the Shaker world view was the perfectability of the material world - its purgation of all decoration, artifice and frippery - as an act of worship. This ethos of design, summarized in these theses toward the improvement of the domestic environment, has gifted us with a legacy of highly esteemed craft objects. None has been more celebrated than that canny apotheosis of domestic utility, the Shaker rail, which survives here in a particularly nice contemporary interpretation. If only half the artifacts we're currently offered were as thoughtfully designed...
English to English
The Internet's Most Accurate English-to-English Dictionary This internet service will translate any English word, phrase or passage into English, or vice versa. Your original grammar, style, and spelling are left intact!
where are the flying saucer buses we were promised?
The galleries of Transportation Futuristics illustrate some of the ingenious things people have dreamt up to solve the basic problem of how to get from here to there. Personal favs: the Bee and the flying saucer bus. via the exploratorium
Frank
Gleemail
Grind. Endless drudgery. Too much in your in-tray, not enough in your out-tray. You put your headphones on, but it doesn't really help. You want a distraction - just for a moment or two. "A happy employee is a productive employee" you justify to yourself, although you're not convinced. Then it happens. A 24 carat nugget of plain text escapism lands in your in-box. You're an alt-tab, double-click away from sheer bliss. DNRC; A.Word.A.Day; FlipFlopFlyin Newsletter; The Plain Text Gazette; and the previously mentioned Snowmail and Newsnight Newsletters, which take a less formal but equally sharp look at the day's news, with anecdotes and observations thrown in. What other quality plain text mail lists are around?
Sigh.
Al Gore on tomorrow's Bush-Kerry duel: The debate tomorrow should not seek to discover which candidate would be more fun to have a beer with. As Jon Stewart of the "The Daily Show'' nicely put in 2000, "I want my president to be the designated driver.''
Roadmap for the Prosecution
Terrorising free speech. Al Lorentz is a reserve Non-Commissioned Officer currently serving in Iraq. His blazingly clear, succinct article on Iraq, titled "Why we cannot win", has raged over the wires (also at MeFi) since it was published on LewRockwell.com. Now, the military chain of command is considering charging Al with violation of Article 134 for making a statement with the intent to promote disloyalty or disaffection toward the U.S. by any member of the Armed forces. The military is also considering charging Al with violation of 1344.10, the conduct of partisan political activity, and violation of Standards of Conduct for unauthorized use of Government assets to create and email stories.
One for the Copper Tops.
Singularity, The. A black hole in the Extropian worldview whose gravity is so intense that no light can be shed on what lies beyond it. "Popular Science" talks about The Singularity, and asks "Is Science Fiction about to go blind?" Also, see previously, here and here.
Hamas meets Photoshop
I Hate Mutants. And before you ask; Yes, I Know You're a Mutant
Pregnancy... 70s style
Historic maps
Historic cities - images and maps. [via monkeyfilter]
Also - historic maps of the UK, and many more. Map overload may occur.
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