tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34525582012-01-31T09:44:33.363-08:00Nunquam praescriptos transibunt sidera finesRogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.comBlogger26571100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-76486748729075685502012-01-27T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-27T08:00:00.178-08:00

The NY Times reports: In the fight against childhood obesity, communities all over the country are banning the sale of sweets and salty snacks in public schools. But a new study suggests that the strategy may be ineffective. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University ... compared children’s weight in schools where junk food was sold and in schools where it was banned. The scientists also

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-26878657733635413512012-01-24T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-30T17:04:25.135-08:00

Anthropologist Agustín Fuente attacks the study in SciAm: Recent publication in PLoS ONE by psychologist Del Giudici and colleagues [i] has reignited the debate about just how “naturally” different men and women are. Del Giudici et al. state that their findings of a “pattern of global sex differences…may help elucidate the meaning and generality of the broad dimension of individual differences

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-68158479361742295922012-01-22T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-22T08:00:00.956-08:00

Ilya Somin tries to explain why Jews vote Democrat. He disagrees with other Jewish explanations, such as Norman Podhoretz's and Irving Kristol's. These opinions confirm that American Jews have been voting overwhelmingly Democrat for a century, but their theories are filled with contradictions. Jews hate the Religious Right, but that could only explain the last 30 years or so, at most. The cause

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-15122848379344813172012-01-20T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-20T08:00:11.251-08:00

Princeton University has a token conservative on the faculty (Robert P. George), drawing this alumnus praise: Especially in light of the heavy liberal bias that exists on the current Princeton administration and faculty, it is refreshing to learn that “it’s not unusual to find Professor Robert George engaged in a dialogue about constitutional issues,” and that “it’s a major focus of his classes.”

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-33765221558644718242012-01-19T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-31T09:44:33.405-08:00

Now that Neanderthal DNA has been sequenced, scientists are getting bolder with their analysis. NewScientist reports: But while Neanderthals would have had a variety of personality types, just as we do, their way of life would have selected for an average profile quite different from ours. Jo or Joe Neanderthal would have been pragmatic, capable of leaving group members behind if necessary, and

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-14186872211900872922012-01-18T14:31:00.000-08:002012-01-21T22:02:19.625-08:00

Wikipedia and a lot of other web sites have gone dark today to protest SOPA, a proposal to limit lookups to pirate web sites. Google uses a rare ad on its home page to recruit people to its political cause. What Google does not say is that it makes billions of dollars from indexing pirate web sites, and that limiting piracy is a threat to its business model. SOPA may have been a bad idea, but

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-65089412351106055052012-01-17T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-17T08:00:03.350-08:00

Lee Siegel writes for the NY Times blog: There has yet to be any discussion over the one quality that has subtly driven Mitt Romney’s candidacy: his race. ... Contrast that with Mr. Romney’s meticulously cultivated whiteness. He is nearly always in immaculate white shirt sleeves. He is implacably polite, tossing off phrases like “oh gosh” with Stepford bonhomie. He has mastered Benjamin Franklin

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-17419487204670161262012-01-16T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-16T08:00:04.943-08:00

Last night CBS TV 60 Minutes reported: Jake Barnett is one in 10 million. The Indianapolis 13-year-old has been acing college math and science courses since he was eight years old. Now Jake is a college sophomore taking honors classes in math and physics, while also doing scientific research and tutoring fellow students. No one could have predicted that Jake would even make it to college. At age

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-33306223212105150012012-01-15T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-15T08:00:04.360-08:00

Criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz writesGilad Atzmon was invited to attend a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Friends Meeting House happening late this week... I cannot overemphasize how serious this matter is. ... I cannot imagine an overtly homophobic, sexist or racist musician being invited “solely for his musical accomplishments.” Dershowitz, a professor at Harvard Law

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-87455647677822116792012-01-14T13:00:00.000-08:002012-01-14T13:00:06.875-08:00

Google copyright lawyer Bill Patry claims to tell how to fix copyright, part 3 and part 2. I would respond in the comments on that blog, but my comments were deleted. He does not explain it, but a large part of Google's empire is based on the difference between opt-in and opt-out. Copyright law protects an author's exclusive right, and no other system can use his works unless he opts-in to the

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-27706082468310704832012-01-14T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-14T08:00:04.219-08:00

NPR reports: The already shaky case for the anti-aging powers of resveratrol, a substance in red wine, is looking a little shakier. After a three-year investigation, the University of Connecticut Health Center has told 11 scientific journals that studies they published by resveratrol researcher Dipak K. Das may not be trustworthy. In 2008, the university got a tip about irregularities in Das'

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-73384568209246185402012-01-13T12:30:00.000-08:002012-01-13T12:30:02.083-08:00

I will know that California is low on funds when I stop reading about 6-figure pensions. The Santa Cruz newspaper reports:SANTA CRUZ - Mike Rotkin, who has spent nearly two-thirds of his life at the City on a Hill, has finally and officially retired. The five-time former mayor, who holds the record for City Council service, retired from UC Santa Cruz at the end of December, nearly 43 years after

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-26103464252562695792012-01-08T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-08T08:00:07.828-08:00

Computer chess has gotten too good. In 1996, a computer beat the human world chess champ. In 2005, a state-of-the-art chess program was released as GPL open source, and the field got a lot more competitive. Now the good computers are far better than the best humans. One program wins every year: On December 4, 2005 a free, downloadable chess program named Rybka 1.0 Beta was initially released

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-20392220821998779542012-01-07T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-07T08:00:02.792-08:00

A new psychology paper says: The idea that the sexes are quite similar in personality – as well as most other psychological attributes – has been expressed most forcefully in Hyde's “gender similarities hypothesis” [9]. The gender similarities hypothesis holds that “males and females are similar on most, but not all, psychological variables. That is, men and women, as well as boys and girls, are

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-90236696972725432022012-01-05T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-05T08:00:10.120-08:00

Harvard law prof and Jewish identity political activist Alan M. Dershowitz writes: The Brian Leiters of the world are an important part of the reason why anti-Semitic tropes are creeping back to legitimacy in academia. His knee-jerk defense of an admitted Jew hater — who, according to Leiter is not a despicable anti-Semite but an acceptable "cosmopolitan" — contributes to the legitimization of

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-68892066165833952062012-01-03T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-03T08:00:05.995-08:00

I pointed out here that evolutionists like to cite the human appendix as bad design, even tho there is a good theory that it is useful. Now there is clinical evidence as well. Those with an appendix recover from certain intestinal infections better.

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-33537449021460288332012-01-02T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-02T08:00:02.887-08:00

I am making a list of things that I learned in 2011. One is that no one believes in innocence until proven guilty. Between people I know, people on TV, etc, I have yet to meet a single person who believes it. Every single one of them jumps to conclusions that people are guilty based on the flimsiest of evidence. Herman Cain. I had an otherwise sensible woman tell me that Cain must be guilty of

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-14291579083695283412011-12-31T08:30:00.000-08:002011-12-31T08:30:00.801-08:00

After posting some retracted science stories, here are some true ones. SciAm reports: Nonetheless, some studies really take the cake in the "duh" department, discovering things that were already obvious. Here are findings from this year that should come as little surprise. 1. Unsafe sex is more likely after drinking 2. Men appear confident by suppressing fear, pain and empathy 3. Smoking pot

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-5882240033295093942011-12-30T09:00:00.000-08:002011-12-30T09:00:00.875-08:00

2011 had several big stories of previous science stories being wrong. Lists are at NPR and MSNBC. For more, see Retraction Watch. Some fields are more vulnerable than others. Most big medical studies are not replicated. Many psychology studies are bogus. Even physics may soon be retracting the story about neutrinos going faster than light.

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-58760353487602488942011-12-30T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-30T08:00:08.189-08:00

The Wash. Post reports: Across the Washington area, black students are suspended and expelled two to five times as often as white students, creating disparities in discipline that experts say reflect a growing national problem. ... Experts say disparities appear to have complex causes. A disproportionate number of black students live below the poverty line or with a single parent, factors that

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-11896456886157656892011-12-26T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-26T08:00:02.966-08:00

NewScientist reports: THE name Sigmund Freud is inextricable from psychoanalysis. And vice versa. But why? And how did the two wind up in the same cultural basket as Copernicus and Darwin? In The Freud Files, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen and Sonu Shamdasani have a tangled tale to tell but their mission is clear: "We should hurry to study psychoanalysis whilst we can," they write, "for we will soon no

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-3271000007961840642011-12-22T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-22T08:00:00.678-08:00

I criticized a Cal Berkeley evolution web site in 2004:I guess these evolutionists think that it is okay to use religion to promote evolution, but unconstitutional to allow religious criticism of evolution. Now leftist-atheist-evolutionist Jerry Coyne attacks the same web site: Now I’m sure that when the NSF gave money to the Cal Museum of Paleontology, it had no idea that taxpayers’ money would

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-7077523004239639542011-12-21T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-20T22:57:58.509-08:00

Liberals like to deny that people have any innate differences, but the NY Times reports: Social behavior among primates — including humans — has a substantial genetic basis, a team of scientists has concluded from a new survey of social structure across the primate family tree. The scientists, at the University of Oxford in England, looked at the evolutionary family tree of 217 primate species

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-19818634055068136422011-12-20T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-20T08:00:05.393-08:00

Here is research claiming that we have an unconscious mind, and no free will. Scientific American Mind says: Sigmund Freud popularized the idea of the unconscious, a sector of the mind that harbors thoughts and memories actively removed from conscious deliberation. Because this aspect of mind is, by definition, not accessible to introspection, it has proved difficult to investigate. Today the

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-87665965022696776832011-12-19T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-19T08:00:06.112-08:00

Statistician Andrew Gelman documents what's wrong with Freakonomics: The nonfiction publishing phenomenon known as Freakonomics has passed its sixth anniversary. The original book, which used ideas from statistics and economics to explore real-world problems, was an instant bestseller. By 2011, it had sold more than four million copies worldwide, and it has sprouted a franchise, which includes a

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-85016589531723605272011-12-17T08:00:00.001-08:002011-12-17T08:00:00.716-08:00

A CNN columnist writes: There are various reasons why we have statutes of limitations for crimes, other than the worst felonies, and for torts. Memories fade. Witnesses die. Evidence goes bad. We want to encourage plaintiffs to bring suit as quickly after the alleged injury as possible. Potential defendants should be able to get on with their lives without worrying about getting charged or sued

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-59817102704414948072011-12-16T12:15:00.000-08:002011-12-16T12:15:00.530-08:00

Baseball hero Barry Bonds was sentenced today: The Barry Bonds case is over. Bonds, as we speak, is being sentenced. The penalty: 30 days of house arrest, two years of probation and 250 hours of community service. This, by the way, is what the probation office recommended. Prosecutors were seeking a 15 month jail term. In handing out her sentence, the judge observed that she agreed with the

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-10537979408880450632011-12-15T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-15T08:00:13.573-08:00

The leftist-atheist-evolutionist Jerry Coyne writes: I keep looking for the “moderate” form of Islam in the Middle East, but have trouble finding it. I guess its main home is elsewhere. But I’ve recently come across four items that bear witness to the hatred of Muslims for Jews (I’m not claiming it’s not reciprocal), and to the fact that religion poisons everything. ... Here’s a twelfth-grade

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-45963057508120911322011-12-13T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-16T15:13:10.328-08:00

A study on distrust of atheists was widely reported in many newspapers, including USA Today: Psychologists at the University of British Columbia and the University of Oregon say that their study demonstrates that anti-atheist prejudice stems from moral distrust, not dislike, of nonbelievers. "It's pretty remarkable," said Azim Shariff, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-82823328950134888552011-12-12T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-12T08:00:11.003-08:00

Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature is one of the better-selling science-related books of the year. As noted below, it claims that violence has declined over history in spite of Christianity. Pinker's quantitative analysis seems to based on the assumption that violence should be expected to scale linearly with population size. So he compares the Mongol invasion to recent wars by

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-38385302954819984592011-12-10T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-10T08:00:06.583-08:00

The Houston Texas newspaper reports: Sentenced to life in prison in November for armed robbery, LaDondrell Montgomery insisted he was not the shadowy figure on surveillance video. He swore the eyewitness identifying him were flat wrong. If only the 36-year-old habitual offender had an alibi. If only he could remember exactly where he was that day of the robbery. A week after jurors sentenced

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-72311609930975733502011-12-09T11:30:00.000-08:002011-12-09T11:30:00.197-08:00

Steve Jones complains about Moslems walking out on evolution lectures in medical school, and explains the value of such lectures: A few years ago I had an operation to repair a hernia. In that I shared the experience of about one in four British men of my age, in whom a section of intestine breaks through the body wall to form an unpleasant, and potentially dangerous, bulge in the groin. The job

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-18640346560011144052011-12-07T14:40:00.000-08:002011-12-08T11:21:52.336-08:00

AP reports: Rod Blagojevich, the ousted Illinois governor whose three-year battle against criminal charges became a national spectacle, was sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday, one of the stiffest penalties imposed for corruption in a state with a history of crooked politics. Blagojevich's 18 convictions included allegations of trying to leverage his power to appoint someone to President

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-36045801469490474512011-12-06T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-06T08:00:04.479-08:00

Here are the 25 most common passwords: password 123456 12345678 qwerty abc123 monkey 1234567 letmein trustno1 dragon baseball 111111 iloveyou master sunshine ashley bailey passw0rd shadow 123123 654321 superman qazwsx michael footballAnd the popular baby names: The top 10 girl's names of 2011: Sophia Emma Isabella Olivia Ava Lily Chloe Madison Emily Abigail The top 10 boy's names of 2011: Aiden

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-60723770661616249402011-12-05T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-05T08:00:09.272-08:00

The WSJ reports: This is one of medicine’s dirty secrets: Most results, including those that appear in top-flight peer-reviewed journals, can’t be reproduced. “It’s a very serious and disturbing issue because it obviously misleads people” who implicitly trust findings published in a respected peer-reviewed journal, says Bruce Alberts, editor of Science. On Friday, the U.S. journal is devoting a

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-80503297045825200962011-12-04T10:00:00.000-08:002011-12-04T10:02:13.277-08:00

Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz attacked The Wandering Who? by Gilad Atzmon on Fox Business TV. His main purpose was to shame and intimidate anyone associated to the book. He is particularly upset about this endorsement by John Mearsheimer: “Gilad Atzmon has written a fascinating and provocative book on Jewish identity in the modern world. He shows how assimilation and liberalism are making

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-28957245744357211992011-12-02T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-02T08:00:05.210-08:00

Leftist-atheist-evolutionist Jerry Coyne praises Pinker's new book: I’ll include just one excerpt that I liked, for it bears on recent discussions we’ve had on this website. I particularly like his characterization of “science” in the second sentence, which is how I construe oue discipline broadly: (p. 181) Though we cannot logically prove anything about the physical world, we are entitled to

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-66407625948407479992011-11-30T08:00:00.000-08:002011-12-01T16:46:18.992-08:00

The Jewish Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker has a big new highly-promoted book on violence that has many anti-Christian claims: First, the premise that Nazism and Communism were “atheist” ideologies makes sense only within a religiocentric worldview that divides political systems into those that are based on Judaeo-Christian ideology and those that are not. ... Nazism received extensive

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-38246318136668426322011-11-29T08:00:00.000-08:002011-11-29T08:00:06.176-08:00

A WSJ op-ed says: How do religions die? Generally they don't, which probably explains why there's so little literature on the subject. ... Still, Zeus and Apollo are no longer with us, and neither are Odin and Thor. Among the secular gods, Marx is mostly dead and Freud is totally so. Something did away with them, and it's worth asking what. Consider the case of global warming, another system of

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-46439918185076355312011-11-28T10:00:00.000-08:002011-12-10T18:44:06.912-08:00

There have been lots of examples of men convicted of horrible crimes, and later proved innocent by DNA evidence. Legally, some appellate court grants the convict a new trial because of evidence not considered in the original trial, and the district attorney decides not to prosecute. But here is such a story where the man was prosecuted again, and convicted again! The jury decided to believe the

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-61511181678316040982011-11-24T11:00:00.000-08:002011-11-24T16:31:17.255-08:00

Ever wonder what happens when atheists try to form a community? If so, just google atheist elevator and you will find thousands of messages arguing about some silly incident at an atheist convention a few months ago. You will wonder how they ever cope with ordinary human interactions. Now there has been another convention and another silly incident. Just google atheist gelato, and read about how

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-68296434496957627912011-11-23T12:20:00.000-08:002011-11-23T12:20:00.047-08:00

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (CBS Washington) – A Portsmouth woman faces up to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to beheading her boyfriend’s piglet. According to court documents, Ashley Fowler, 22, was breaking up with the piglet’s owner Zach Sawyer and wanted to play a prank first. Sawyer’s mother told the Virginian-Pilot last year that the piglet’s head freaked her out when she let her puppy

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-24460552222051939382011-11-21T08:00:00.000-08:002011-11-22T08:28:57.556-08:00

A NY Times op-ed says: HOW do people acquire high levels of skill in science, business, music, the arts and sports? This has long been a topic of intense debate in psychology. ...what seems to separate the great from the merely good is hard work, not intellectual ability...Malcolm Gladwell observes that...snip “Once someone has reached an I.Q. of somewhere around 120,” he writes, “having

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-28511368882319359992011-11-20T08:00:00.000-08:002011-11-20T08:00:04.314-08:00

In 2007, Google published this explanation: Our search results are generated completely objectively and are independent of the beliefs and preferences of those who work at Google. Some people concerned about this issue have created online petitions to encourage us to remove particular links or otherwise adjust search results. Because of our objective and automated ranking system, Google cannot be

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-67126187176440573042011-11-19T13:00:00.000-08:002011-11-19T13:00:02.732-08:00

New research claims that there is an empathy gene that determines trustworthiness, and that others can spot it from a couple of glances: Strangers can "see" a persons trustworthy genes through their behaviors, suggests a new study finding that a single genetic change makes a person seem more compassionate and kind to others. The gene in question is the "love hormone," or oxytocin, receptor. A

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-5582554390790926742011-11-16T13:30:00.000-08:002011-11-16T13:30:58.947-08:00

David Brooks writes: Let’s All Feel Superior First came the atrocity, then came the vanity. The atrocity is what Jerry Sandusky has been accused of doing at Penn State. The vanity is the outraged reaction of a zillion commentators over the past week, whose indignation is based on the assumption that if they had been in Joe Paterno’s shoes, or assistant coach Mike McQueary’s shoes, they would have

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-75935280952409747072011-11-16T08:00:00.000-08:002012-01-18T23:12:15.936-08:00

Leftist-atheist-evolutionist Jerry Coyne writes: Now that materialism is the dominant paradigm in all the sciences, what on earth do we do about free will? If all of our “free” decisions are really predetermined—perhaps long in advance—by a combination of our biology and our environment, and our brain is simply a concatenation of cells that must obey the laws of physics and chemistry, how can

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-87204204545196023382011-11-14T10:30:00.000-08:002011-11-14T10:36:29.103-08:00

David Brooks’s column tries to define American egalitarianism: Fitness inequality is acceptable. It is perfectly fine to wear tight workout sweats to show the world that pilates have given you buns of steel. These sorts of displays are welcomed as evidence of your commendable self-discipline and reproductive merit. Moral fitness inequality is unacceptable. It is out of bounds to boast of your

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-37865613735322817882011-11-12T18:00:00.000-08:002011-11-12T23:23:42.656-08:00

I have a few observations about the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. Media stories do not mention homosexuality because there are psychologists who claim that men raping underage boys has nothing to do with homosexuality. They say that pedophiles only have an age attraction, in spite of ample evidence of homosexual pedophiles. Sandusky is a sick pervert, but McQueary is a moral

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-69369542678846009492011-11-11T08:00:00.000-08:002011-11-11T12:43:59.903-08:00

There are psychologists and economists, such as Daniel Kahneman, who have made their reputations on the thesis that humans are irrational. He got famous with a Bank of Sweden prize for it. Here is an example: 2. A team of psychologists performed personality tests on 100 professionals, of which 30 were engineers and 70 were lawyers. Brief descriptions were written for each subject. The following

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-57383563293689498372011-11-10T16:30:00.000-08:002011-11-11T12:06:04.238-08:00

Penn State coach Joe Paterno was just fired in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. I am surprised by the rush to judgment. Doesn't anyone believe in "innocent until proven guilty"? The main accusation against Paterno is that in 2002, a graduate assistant told him that he saw Sandusky abuse a 10-year-old boy in a campus shower the previous day. Sandusky was an assistant coach who

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-86148208309959384762011-11-09T12:00:00.000-08:002011-11-09T12:00:05.020-08:00

The current SciAm says that you are likely to be a moral relativist if you can solve this problem: The green blocks problem There are five blocks in a stack. In this stack, the second block from the top is green, and the fourth is not green. Is a green block definitely on top of a non-green block? A) Yes B) No C) Cannot be determinedThis seems like just a typical IQ test question to me.

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-55509846168899737062011-11-03T14:00:00.000-07:002011-11-03T14:07:52.558-07:00

I commented before that case against Assange is based on denying him his right not to incriminate himself, a right that Americans have. Assange just lost his British extradition appeal, with this ruling: Although it is clear a decision has not been taken to charge him, that is because, under Swedish procedure, that decision is taken at a late stage with the trial following quickly thereafter. In

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-89283745141369791772011-10-29T08:00:00.000-07:002011-10-29T08:00:03.114-07:00

The UK announces that it is changing male primogeniture:He has written to the prime ministers of Commonwealth countries outlining how he wants to change laws dating back centuries, but which are now discriminatory. In the letter, Mr Cameron says it is “an anomaly” and goes against “gender equality” that women have to take their place behind younger royal males in the line of succession. He

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-70143810486765862152011-10-26T08:00:00.000-07:002011-10-26T08:00:03.372-07:00

Here is someone who proposes that mandatory social media service can save America by increasing empathy towards other populations: Whether his assessment is right or not, two facts emerges as crystal clear. Each of us – blue, red, old, young, urban, rural, black, white, gay, straight – tends to care disproportionately about those with whom we share empathy and interdependency. And as our country

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-48313127758267349262011-10-22T08:00:00.000-07:002011-10-22T08:00:00.158-07:00

AP reports: WASHINGTON (AP) — America's long and deeply unpopular war in Iraq will be over by year's end and all U.S. troops "''will definitely be home for the holidays," President Barack Obama declared Friday. ... This was, in essence, the third time Obama had pronounced an end to the war, allowing him to remind the nation he had opposed it all along — a stance that helped his White House bid

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-25801481579347788332011-10-21T12:30:00.000-07:002011-10-21T12:30:01.701-07:00

The Sacramenta Bee newspaper reports: California's birthrate tumbled last year to its lowest point since the Great Depression, new state figures show, yet another indication that the difficult economy is reshaping everyday life. California families are looking at their personal finances, their job security, their prospects for the future – and increasingly deciding now is not the time to have a

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-10495385471887760652011-10-17T12:00:00.000-07:002011-10-18T12:25:23.899-07:00

Physicians are the ones most eager in our society to tell people what to do, without having to explain themselves. People often mistakenly assume that physicians' advice is backed up by scientific evidence, but usually not. Eg, you might think that if they recommended marijuana, then they would have some evidence that it is beneficial. AP and the LA Times report: California’s largest industry

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-28244787276794848712011-10-16T08:00:00.000-07:002011-10-16T08:00:00.917-07:00

Wired magazine says: The tributes to Dennis Ritchie won’t match the river of praise that spilled out over the web after the death of Steve Jobs. But they should. And then some. “When Steve Jobs died last week, there was a huge outcry, and that was very moving and justified. But Dennis had a bigger effect, and the public doesn’t even know who he is,” says Rob Pike, the programming legend and

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-40768135400388649092011-10-12T08:00:00.000-07:002011-10-12T08:00:02.484-07:00

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- An 18-year-old man was charged with animal cruelty and resisting an officer after witnesses reported the suspect had a headless duck in one hand and a knife in the other. ... According to the report, witnesses said Main was attempting to show off when he captured and killed a duck, saying he planned on cooking it. Officers said there was a barbeque grill with a fresh fire

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-24780458008288792132011-10-11T09:30:00.000-07:002011-10-11T09:44:59.835-07:00

NPR Radio's Nina Totenberg is rehashing the Clarence Thomas hearings: Thomas was accused of violating the very laws he was charged with enforcing as chairman of the EEOC. Right out of the starting gate, the hearing was white hot, as Anita Hill, a black 35-year-old law professor, described how her one-time boss had pressured her to go out with him and how he subjected her to sexually explicit

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-81602862195769034492011-10-10T08:00:00.000-07:002011-10-10T08:00:04.987-07:00

Free software guru Richard M. Stallman writes: Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom, has died. As Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said of the corrupt former Mayor Daley, “I’m not glad he’s dead, but I’m glad he’s gone.” Nobody deserves to have to die - not Jobs, not Mr. Bill, not even people guilty of bigger evils than theirs

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-43056390663924275342011-10-09T08:00:00.000-07:002011-10-09T08:00:04.846-07:00

A blog reports: Around 18% of statistical results in the psychological literature are incorrectly reported. ... To obtain a better understanding of the origins of the errors made in the reporting of statistics, we contacted the authors of the articles with errors in the second study and asked them to send us the raw data. Regrettably, only 24% of the authors shared their data, despite our

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-38154382768555207022011-10-08T08:00:00.000-07:002011-10-08T08:00:04.383-07:00

Politico reports: Over the past decade, homeownership has dropped by the largest margin since the Great Depression, the Census Bureau said Thursday. I am getting a little tired of all these stories about how our economic crisis is the worst since the Great Depression. The Census Bureau said that the drop was 66% to 65%, compared to a drop from 48% to 44% in the 1930s. We had govt policies that

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-19349755403590806142011-10-06T08:00:00.000-07:002011-10-06T08:00:00.523-07:00

Wired mag reports: Danger Room has acquired a 2010 PowerPoint presentation compiled by an intelligence analyst working for the U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Reminiscent of FBI training materials exposed by Danger Room in September, the PowerPoint warns of a “Civilizational Jihad” stretching back from the dawn of Islam and waged today in the U.S. by “civilians, juries,

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-34341575959416715822011-10-05T10:00:00.000-07:002011-10-05T10:00:05.068-07:00

The Ken Burns alcohol prohibition story is fascinating, but one-sided. The main point of the show seems to be to argue that Americans were foolish and hypocritical to try to ban alcoholic beverages. The show does acknowledge these two facts, but does not draw the obvious consequences: Pre-prohition alcohol comsumption was much heavier than today. Prohibition was led by leftists and women, and

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-28342054476826148652011-10-04T08:00:00.000-07:002011-10-04T08:00:00.061-07:00

USA Today reports: At a time when many infectious diseases are making a comeback, about 13% of parents are skipping or delaying their children's immunizations and following an "alternative" vaccination schedule that puts kids at serious risk, a new study says. And many parents who follow their pediatricians' advice have doubts about vaccines' safety, according to a study in Monday's Pediatrics.

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-46671826910674345692011-10-02T20:20:00.000-07:002011-10-02T20:20:11.369-07:00

The new PBS Ken Burns documentary Prohibition is showing. I heard Burns interviewed promoting it, and he said that before Prohibition, Americans consumed 5 to 7 times as much alcohol as we do today. He says that we were a nation of drunkards: CORNISH: At the beginning of the documentary, you set the stage with a voice-over reading from a gentleman named Captain Frederick Marryat and his views on

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-90533005591057670532011-09-28T17:00:00.000-07:002011-09-28T17:00:01.617-07:00

It is the latest fad. CNN reports: Berkeley, California (CNN) -- One of the first things Thomas Lobel told his parents was that they were wrong. The 3-year-old had learned sign language because he had apraxia, a speech impediment that hindered his ability to talk. The toddler pointed to himself and signed, "I am a girl." "Oh look, he's confused," his parents said. Maybe he mixed up the signs

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-72607060885814424692011-09-27T11:40:00.000-07:002011-09-27T11:40:00.222-07:00

Chris Mooney is a science journalist who writes a lot about promoting a leftist-evolutionist-environmentalist agenda without alienating Christians. He is an atheist himself, but believes that strident atheists are undermining the cause. He writes: Dan Kahan’s latest motivated reasoning paper (forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review), which applies this core insight about human psychology and

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-50097473257858312102011-09-26T08:00:00.000-07:002011-09-26T08:00:10.169-07:00

The NY Times reports: In his current circumstance, the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is more hunted than hunter, fighting extradition to Sweden on accusations of sexual misconduct while struggling to maintain the influence of WikiLeaks even as he remains here at Ellingham Hall, ... In December, Mr. Assange was unable to meet the terms of bail because he had no permanent address — he is an

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-76040796140656092182011-09-25T11:00:00.000-07:002011-09-25T11:00:05.054-07:00

The FBI announced: The incidence of crime nationwide decreased again, according to our just released Crime in the United States report. Overall, the estimated volume of violent crimes in 2010 dropped 6 percent compared to the 2009 figure, the fourth consecutive year it has declined. For the eighth consecutive year, the volume of property crimes went down as well—2.7 percent. The report was

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-40526543908930675622011-09-23T16:20:00.000-07:002011-09-23T16:20:00.042-07:00

Texas has ended the last meal: Before Mr. Brewer was executed by lethal injection in the Huntsville Unit on Wednesday, he was given the last meal of his request: two chicken-fried steaks with gravy and sliced onions; a triple-patty bacon cheeseburger; a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapeños; a bowl of fried okra with ketchup; one pound of barbecued meat with

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-24652850887741716312011-09-22T08:00:00.000-07:002011-09-22T08:00:04.389-07:00

The NY Times has a friendly profile of Prof. Richard Dawkins: Professor Dawkins’s great intellectual conviction is that evolution is progressive, and tends to lead to more and more complexity. Species, in his view, often arrive at similar solutions to evolutionary puzzles — the need for ears, eyes, arms or an octopus’s tentacle. And, often although not invariably, bigger brains. So the

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-86984346883582507412011-09-19T08:00:00.000-07:002011-09-19T08:00:16.750-07:00

A UK newspaper reports: A wealthy family man was arrested on suspicion of murder yesterday after allegedly stabbing a burglar to death with his own knife. Businessman Vincent Cooke, 39, was relaxing when he heard a knock at the front door of his detached home. When he answered he was confronted by two men, at least one armed with a knife, who threatened him and tried to force their way into the

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-6263823255392748702011-09-17T10:00:00.000-07:002011-09-17T10:00:00.341-07:00

The Wikipedia AIDS article says: A more controversial theory ... According to scientific consensus, this scenario is not supported by the available evidence. I believe that this type of thinking is a disease among science promoters. There is evidence for the theory, known as the oral polio vaccine (OPV) AIDS hypothesis. The first known AIDS cases came from Congo around 1959, at the same time as

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-27000584996687311642011-09-16T22:40:00.000-07:002011-09-16T22:40:00.159-07:00

I like Google products, but the company is frustrating to deal with. Google mail does an excellent job of filtering spam, but it tags as spam the messages I get from Google itself. I just got an email from "The Google Books Team", confirming a financial transaction, and Google mail not only marked it as spam but also put it behind a giant red anti-phishing warning: Warning: This message may not

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-70437755439549410392011-09-15T09:26:00.000-07:002011-09-15T09:27:44.660-07:00

Wired reports: The FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that “main stream” [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a “cult leader”; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a “funding mechanism for combat.” At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more “

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-86757015066032158242011-09-10T16:50:00.000-07:002011-09-10T16:52:11.282-07:00

I have been reading Dilbert this week. Click to get the full comics from 2011-08-31, 2011-09-05, and 2011-09-10.

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-41068395638426925942011-09-09T08:00:00.000-07:002011-09-09T08:00:06.160-07:00

NPR radio reports on a new missing link: A pair of fossils from a South African cave have scientists both excited and puzzled. Scientists say the fossils — an adult female and a juvenile — could be the long-sought transition between ape-like ancestors and the first humans. The bones belong to creatures related to the famous Lucy fossil found in Ethiopia in the 1970s, but their owners lived more

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-81087419937828470022011-09-08T08:00:00.000-07:002011-09-08T08:00:10.734-07:00

The Ninth Circuit ruled 3-0 in Diaz v. Brewer that it is unconstitutional for Arizona to limit health benefits to employees, spouses, and children, and exclude opposite-sex and same-sex domestic partners. The Ninth Circuit affirmed, concluding that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause, because it isn’t rationally related to a legitimate government interest (the so-called “rational basis”

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-3787050592097142011-09-07T11:03:00.000-07:002011-09-07T11:03:06.184-07:00

Statistics professor Andrew Gelman writes: The scientific consensus appears to be that, to the extent that acupuncture makes people feel better, it is through relaxing the patient, also the acupuncturist might help in other ways, encouraging the patient to focus on his or her lifestyle. A friend recommended an acupuncturist to me awhile ago and I told her the above line, to which she replied: No

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-84472379624014357152011-09-05T08:00:00.000-07:002011-09-05T08:00:08.770-07:00

Antibiotic resistance is always given as the biggest example of the relevance of the theory of evolution to medicine today, such as here and here. But AAAS Science magazine reports: A new study concludes that bacteria have been resistant to modern antibiotics for far longer than humans have actually used these drugs. Indeed, the researchers isolated resistance genes from bacterial DNA preserved

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-62497190506648632192011-09-04T18:10:00.000-07:002011-09-04T18:10:00.494-07:00

Tobacco company seeks access to secret data on smoking habits. Govt sponsored research data ought to be in the public domain. However much smoking is controversial or undesirable, that is all the more reason why the data should be public, so public policy is made in an open way. Agency to consider endangered listing for US research chimps. I can understand listing a wild animal as endangered if

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-78236976812393357412011-09-04T08:00:00.000-07:002011-09-04T08:00:02.462-07:00

The Steve Jobs eulogies are starting, such as this NPR radio opinion: There is a lot of talk about DNA since Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple this week. Mostly in terms of what Jobs has infused into Apple's DNA: impeccable taste, innovation, persistence, attention-to-detail, hard work, different thinking. All of this talk is great. It's reassurance to all of us Apple fanboys and girls that

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-36423508938771525462011-09-03T14:00:00.000-07:002011-09-03T14:00:00.330-07:00

Here is proof that you cannot trust the mainstream media. The UK Guardian newspaper announces: A statement from the Guardian said: "It's nonsense to suggest the Guardian's WikiLeaks book has compromised security in any way. "Our book about WikiLeaks was published last February. It contained a password, but no details of the location of the files, and we were told it was a temporary password

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-11909130563775663342011-09-03T08:00:00.001-07:002011-09-03T08:00:01.873-07:00

Yesterday's Dear Annie advice column says: Dear Annie: My husband and I have been married for 21 years, and we have five wonderful children. "Tom" is 50, and I am 39. In the past few years, Tom has developed an annoying habit. He openly ogles attractive women ... Tom says he finds skinny women with large breasts and tattoos a turn-on. I don't look like that. ... He says I'm the one with the

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-32398651263159862682011-08-31T08:00:00.000-07:002011-08-31T08:00:13.216-07:00

The NY Times reports: Yet another panel of scientists has found no evidence that a popular vaccine causes autism. But despite the scientists’ best efforts, their report is unlikely to have any impact on the frustrating debate about the safety of these crucial medicines. The report is Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality, and NAP reports are now free downloads. The Santa Cruz

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-8349946315670139192011-08-30T17:30:00.000-07:002011-08-30T17:30:09.730-07:00

Colin Powell is upset at VP Dick Cheney: Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI during its investigation into who leaked to the news media that Plame, the wife of a former ambassador critical of the Bush administration, worked for the CIA. Powell said that when Armitage realized he was the anonymous source cited by

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-21867446414433723372011-08-30T08:00:00.000-07:002011-08-30T08:00:03.694-07:00

After Rodney King, you would think that it would be obvious that it is legal to record cops doing their dirty work. Bit it still gets litigated: It's refreshing, therefore, to read that a Federal Appeals Court has found unconstitutional the arrest of a Massachusetts lawyer who used his phone to video-record an arrest on the Boston Common. The court even ruled that the lawyer could sue the cops

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-73391887449882637342011-08-29T09:30:00.000-07:002011-08-29T09:30:02.557-07:00

Steve Landsburg regularly attacks Paul Krugman, such as this NY Times column: Mr. Perry, the governor of Texas, ... said about climate change: “... And I think we are seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change.” ... I could point out that Mr. Perry is buying into a truly

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-44155662133676138232011-08-28T08:00:00.000-07:002011-08-28T08:00:01.420-07:00

A British environmentalist group spent millions on a propaganda video, and then apologized: As you may have heard, 10:10 made a mistake by releasing a short film about cutting carbon which was supposed to be humorous but in the event upset a lot of people. We quickly realised that we had made a serious mistake and took it down from our website within hours. We also issued a statement apologising

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-6616832060646084872011-08-25T08:45:00.000-07:002011-08-26T10:12:04.272-07:00

Paula Kirby writes in the Wash. Post: In the real world, facts are stubborn beasts. ... Evolution is a simple fact. We can choose to remain ignorant of it, we can stick our fingers in our ears and refuse to think about it, we can even rail against it and shout and scream that it is not allowed to be true. But facts are facts, and will not go away just because we don't like them. If it is such a

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-62006215098823092632011-08-21T19:00:00.000-07:002011-08-21T19:00:00.675-07:00

Jonathan H. Adler writes on The Education Bubble: This chart looks like a mistake, but it’s correct. Student loan debt has grown by 511% over this period. In the first quarter of 1999, just $90 billion in student loans were outstanding. As of the second quarter of 2011, that balance had ballooned to $550 billion. Textbook prices are also up: “According to a study (pdf) conducted by the Bureau of

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-82301257234139367302011-08-20T08:00:00.000-07:002011-08-20T08:00:00.632-07:00

The Santa Cruz Sentinel has a page 1 story about a supposed lobbying scandal: Under pressure from a lobbying group for the plastics industry, schools officials in California have edited a new environmental curriculum to include positive messages about plastic shopping bags, interviews and documents show. ... Although the curriculum includes the environmental hazards of plastic bags, the

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-65383141729770416502011-08-16T08:00:00.000-07:002011-08-16T08:00:03.199-07:00

Wikipedia has long articles on Parity of zero and 0.999.... These are completely trivial mathematical points that any 10-year-old should be able to understand. Apparently not. There are also people who confuse a slash with a backslash. I don't know how. The slash has been in common use for centuries. The backslash is an obscure ascii character.

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-9210023627460216892011-08-15T08:00:00.000-07:002011-08-15T08:00:12.494-07:00

An ad for a sperm donor says:I am a 34 year-old single woman ... My ideal donor will: ... Be 5'11 or taller ... Healthy ... Attractive ... be able to demonstrate a fierce intelligence ... identifies as a liberal or progressive ... Race/ethnicity, religious/spiritual background, hair color, eye color, national origin, and occupation are not factors in my decision. I am not sure who is worse, the

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-82583668673156126872011-08-10T08:00:00.000-07:002011-08-10T08:00:01.740-07:00

Recent news stories say Intelligence tests highlight importance of genetic differences, and Math ability born not made, say psychologists. I would not take these stories too seriously. The latter is based on a study of 4-year-old kids, and a math ability at age 4 is not necessarily inborn. But if there is any truth to these at all, then they explain the failure of the No Child Left Behind Act:

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-5757897936199434022011-08-09T11:50:00.000-07:002011-08-09T11:50:00.232-07:00

AP reports: Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Monday that would award all of California's 55 Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote, a move intended to ensure that the winner of the popular vote becomes president. The movement by a group called National Popular Vote aims to prevent a repeat of 2000, when Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote but Republican George W. Bush

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452558.post-57998427044672643792011-08-09T08:00:00.000-07:002011-08-09T08:00:04.589-07:00

Nature magazine reports: Homo floresiensis, dubbed the 'hobbit' of Indonesia, is once again igniting debate. A skull-scanning study supports the idea that the diminutive individual was not a separate species, but simply a stunted human. There are still some unsettled issues, but it was crazy to declare a new human species based on one dubious skeleton.

Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.com0