August 31, 2006
Munch paintings recovered
"The Scream" and "Madonna" appear to be mostly intact.
When all else fails, crackdown on "crime" online
Zimbabwe plans to use Chinese technology to monitor telecommunications. It does seem to be the refuge of failed dictatorships and nascent ones perhaps as well...
August 28, 2006
How well does abstinance-based sex education work?
Just look to the 65 pregnant high school students at Timken High in Canton, OH.
From coast to mountains...
The New England salt marshes are dying for unknown reasons. I remember almost yearly biology, ecology, or similar field trips to these marshes. Very unusual systems, and lots of fun for kids, knee-deep in muck and all.
A look at the dead-zone off of the Oregon coast.
August 25, 2006
Havre, MT and the war on terror
That Amtrak stop has become the base for the "northern patrol" of the Border Patrol. But the real story is how there is now a zone a hundred miles deep inside the US border where the constitution doesn't apply. Probably cause? Not needed. ID? Needed. Remember when this nation criticized the former Soviet Union for requiring internal visas? Passports required to travel and all. We now have the same phenomena within our country.
¡No Pasarán!
There hasn't been much coverage in the US of what has been happening in Mexico since the presidential elections there. This relatively poorly written article at least gives a feel for what it's like on the ground.
Global warming in easy units
Spring is arriving 6-8 days on average earlier than it did 30 years ago and Autumn about 3 days later. I think those are more striking figures than the 1-2 degrees of temperature change. We have a week's work of change at the beginning of the summer and 1/2 a week at the end.
Junk science in the courtroom
Polygraphs, dental forensics, sloppy labwork.
The continuing struggle of science & education against theocrats & ignorance
Lawrence Krauss has a decent, albeit brief editorial in the New York Times after the Kansas School Board skewed back towards reality. I'm not sure in what forum his disagreement over "scientifically inappropriate attempts by some scientists to discredit the religious faith of others" appeared. Will have to take a look. Though I can see tactically why scientists might feel that, I think that it is hypocritical to argue for a reasoned, scientific approach in all matters other than other people's theology. The logical holes are there along with the incoherence of major religions, their ahistoricality, and their pernicious nature in practice (and perhaps in theory). I see little benefit in doing this, but little harm either. Deeply-held beliefs, whether sensible or not, are not likely to be changed by simple logic.
Just the other day, we see an evolving piece of the religious attack on reason and science. Due to a "clerical" (hmmm...that has two meanings...) error, evolutionary biology has disappeared from a federal list of university majors approved for federal student grants. Yup, follow the link and you can still (8/25/06) see the missing line, a blank line, for 26.1303. What a coincidence.
August 24, 2006
Foie Gras in Chicago
Sing while you may, because some alderman may stop that too.
August 23, 2006
August 22, 2006
Flying problems for musicians
Obviously you can't check a 200 year old Italian violin.
Perelman declines the Fields Medal
This is the gentleman who appears to have proven the Poincare Conjecture.
August 21, 2006
Woman fired for being female
After 54 years, this woman was fired because she's a woman and therefore can't teach men. And the man who fired her? A city councilman as well as church minister. The Taliban appears to be staging a comeback.
Interesting little bit in the NYT on Devon Avenue
When I lived in Chicago I thought of it mostly as a place to find good Indian food. The article discusses how this Pakistani-American neighborhood differs from the terrorism incubators similar neighborhoods in England have become.
Hey Joe, where you going with those Republican dollars
The "Democrat" that the Republicans got to defeat a Republican got defeated by a Democrat. The continuing unholy alliance of Lieberman and Rove.
August 19, 2006
Low-end Ferraris
Having been thinking about Magnum, PI recently (don't ask!)...I just came across this excellent history of Ferrari's low-end mid-engined cars. You can ask me about my Maserati experiences. :)
August 18, 2006
Oddity at the MSP airport
Unless my jeg-lagged eyes were completely deserting me, an SR-71/whatever-NASA-calls it was sitting out at the airport with an engine sitting next to it. Weird sight to fly in and see.
Aha! It's one of the surviving A-12 Blackbirds, and had just been rolled out or some such. Normally on display at MSP, I never knew! See here for details.
August 2, 2006
Religion and politics
An interesting article about one church which has separated fundamentalist Christian beliefs from support for fascism. It's interesting to see how controversial this is. We'd really have to look to Franco's Spain to see such an antimodernist, pro-statist movement so closely associated with theology. Hmmm...that's following the Christian model of course, we could also look to Iran or the Taliban's Afghanistan for a comparison with the US religious right.
In good news, Kansas school board members opposed to the real world lost out. It amazing that in 2006, the school board is only 6-4 against superstition and nonsense. Guess it poins out the need for better education.
MGM
Dara Moskowitz's reviews for food at the Midtown Global Market.
More about the development here.
Internationalist republicans, Abe Ribicoff, Lowell Weicker, and the CT senate race
It will nice to see no more of Joe Lieberman and his Forbes buddies. A compromised and desperate Lieberman indeed.
August 1, 2006
Rare clouds over Antarctica
Nacreous Clouds photographed from Mawson Station.
"Because I wanted to kill people"
Just why do soldiers want to go to Iraq? The interviewee has since been charged with rape and murder. Unlike his fellow soldiers.