Thursday's Brain has no finesse...

[elfs]

Goddess, this gets long. But I've promised myself that I will not fire up the RSS reader more than twice a day, and the second time only for those items that are NSFW, like Fleshbot (remember, NSFW!) or Tokyo Library.

Here's todays news in two digestible sections. I've put today's Fafblog link into the shrill section as he has certainly lost SAN staring at the cold, uncaring stars, but he's become so funny about it.

Shrill

Congress kills 802.11x

Apparently, this is not an April Fool's joke, given the date. Denny Hastert told us goddamn freeloaders to get off the 802.11 spectrum and pay a good ol' American company for our use of the airwaves if we want our Internet, dammit.

[Edit: Sigh. This is apparently an April Fool's joke that was posted one day late. I guess John Dvorak, already known as one of the Stupidest Men Alive, can't read his goddamn calendar.

John McCain disses good science, good science fires back.

McCain's current stump speech includes a riff in which he ridicules the US Geological Survey for spending $3 million studying bear DNA. He jokes that he's not sure if it's "a paternity case or a criminal case," but he's sure it's a waste of taxpayer money.

Apparently, though, everyone involved in the project disagrees with McCain. The project called for the assessment of bear populations in the Glacier National Forest Region, and the health of the bears is a critical indicator of the health of the forests as a whole. McCain apparently thinks that's a waste of time.

He doesn't understand economics. He doesn't know the difference between the Shia and the Sunni. Now he doesn't understand how our national parks and forests are supposed to work. And he wants to be president? He is so far out of his league compared to Hilary and Obama it's just not funny.

Have you ever been reprimanded for comments critical of Darwinism?

What's so weird about this press release is how it assumes that if you're "Christian Educator" you must be "critical of Darwinism" and that you need this group's help to fight for your right to spew nonsense in a science classroom. Most precious line?

In light of the new dogmatic evolution standards recently passed by the Board of Education, ("Evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of evidence.") do you feel that you are free to give critical analysis of evolution in the classroom and not be confronted or disciplined?

If only these fools knew the difference between honest critical analysis and spewing the ridiculous lines of people like Behe or Wells.

Michael Behe Screws Up Again

Hehe. Michael Behe, who so damningly destroyed his own side's case in the Kitzmiller vs. Dover "Intelligent Design" case, has done it again. There's a case in California in which some Christian schools are suing the University of California. UC is insisting that certain textbooks the schools use do not qualify as sufficient for credits in biology and history, and Behe was called as an expert witness.

Behe told the court, "it is personally abusive and pedagogically damaging to de facto require students to subscribe to an idea … Requiring a student to, effectively, consent to an idea violates personal integrity."

(Have you ever noticed that creationists use language terribly? I don't think Behe means "consent" there; I think he means "assent.")

Anyway, the judge picked up that ball and ran with it, pointing out that the schools required students to affirm: "'Whatever the Bible says is so; whatever man says may or may not be so,' is the only position a Christian can take," "If conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong, no matter how many scientific facts may appear to back them," and "Christians must disregard scientific hypotheses or theories that contradict the Bible."

Way to go, Behe. You'll get your Evil Atheist Conspiracy badge yet!

Fafnir on Why We Fight

"In solemn memory of that hypothetically terrible day when Saddam Hussein sent pretend terrorists to attack fictional buildings with weapons of mass imagination." This is why we love Fafblog. All hail Fafblog!

There they go again.

I have very mixed feelings about Ishmael Reed. He says lots of sensible things, but every once in a while he buys into a conspiracy theory that encourages us to discount everything he says. In amidst the crazy, though, he's right about the way a certain Catholic White Guy has gotten more airtime on MSNBC to discuss the Rev. Wright than all the blacks combined. And MSNBC is inviting frikkin' Moonies to discuss Wright's "cultish" rantings! WTF?

Oklahoma: One Step From Doom

A school district shall treat a student's voluntary expression of a religious viewpoint, if any, on an otherwise permissible subject in the same manner the district treats a student's voluntary expression of a secular or other viewpoint on an otherwise permissible subject and may not discriminate against the student based on a religious viewpoint expressed by the student on an otherwise permissible subject.

Oh, if only we did have The Machine! Sponsored by, among others, Sally Kern, the last clause would allow a student to claim in a science class that the Earth was 6000 years old and the teacher would be forbidden by law from marking the claim as wrong. That's insane. That makes the California case look like a walk!

Fun and Useful

Internet Addiction is a Psychiatric Disorder

Ya think?

Hate the game, not the player

A brief, but fascinating article from a former Las Vegas card counter who eventually discovered that there were better ways to spend his time. His biggest revelation: card counting teams always failed because they lacked character, not skill.

Skyscrapers of the future

Coming to an SF novel near you!

The road train

It's amazing how serendipity works. Just this morning I was working on the chapter where Caprice traverses the Martian landscape in a "Marstruck-train" and I was trying to figure out how to describe the damn thing, when this just literally dropped in my lap this morning. Way, way too cool.

Cooking with the microwave.

Contains great basic guidelines. Anything you might parboil or steam, you can do just as better and perhaps tastier in the microwave.

Yale's Endowment Officer's Guidelines to Investing.

A few months ago I challenged my financial advisor on whether or not what he was doing for us was worth the full 60 basis points a year he was charging us. As it turned out he wasn't. This article makes the point that you can (and should) do your own investments. You're better off picking up Personal Finance For Dummies than going to an advisor.

16 Things I Wish They Had Taught Me At School

Some of these I've mastered, like the 80/20 rule, or batching. On the other hand, the "assume rapport" is one I'm good at when talking to women, but not men. I wonder why that is.

The power of contentment

Zen Habits makes me happy again.

Comments

[irismoonlight.livejournal.com]

The Wi-Fi auction article, "Congress kills..." is in fact an April Fool's joke. click on the "Action you can take" link at the bottom of the article. I suppose you knew that, but it got me good enough to forward to someone, who pointed out my error.

I HATE April Fool's Day. *sigh*

[elfs.livejournal.com]

What I especially loathe about this one is how it's dated "April 1st," but
it seems to have shown up on everyone's radar a day later. What, did he post it at 23:59 just so he could claim it was an April Fool's joke but somehow carry it into legitimate territory?

Maybeit's juts me, but I see people like Dvorak and Robert Reich as abusing their authority when they pull shit like this. Even on April 1st. I think next year I'll take it off and go hiking in the woods, as far away from the grid as humanely possible.

[(Anonymous)]

Well there is an old tradition in some parts of the world (at least here) that if you pull an April Fools gag after noon then you're considered the fool. Not sure why, but it certainly makes people think twice.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

he last clause would allow a student to claim in a science class that the Earth was 6000 years old and the teacher would be forbidden by law from marking the claim as wrong. That's insane.

Not necessarily insane really, but definitely annoying. However I remember lots of test questions growing up that started out as "According to the theory of evolution the earth is a) 900 years old, b) 6,000 years old, c) a gazillion years old...". The student answering 6,000 years to that would clearly be wrong and no discrimination applies. Just depends how teachers word a question.


The trucks look alot like the mining vehicles my Dad used to build.


Hiking on April 1st! Take me with you? Pretty please? Not just 'cause of the 1st, but also because by that point my feet are getting real itchy after a long no-hiking winter. You can leave me on a stump somewhere when I wear out and get me on the way back. ;p

[elfs.livejournal.com]

April 1st was a few days ago, sadly. Next year, it's a date. Maybe we can find a weekend sometime soon.