From and Economist poll: Prejudice does not stop being prejudice despite being popular or widely held. And constitutional rights do not loose their force even if they are applied to people, beliefs and behaviors that make many other people squeamish. That’s really the entire point of the bloody thing. Fundamental rights are not subject...
Read More »

Way back in 2004 the Defense Department came out with a “think piece” (PDF document) warning of dire geopolitical consequences of the effects of climate change. At the time the report’s conclusions, that global climate change was real and most likely caused by humans, was utterly at odds with the Bush administration’s line on...
Read More »

Titus Andronicus hails from Glen Rock, NJ (note the Springteen shout-out early in the below clip). This is the lead track from their second album, The Monitor, a bit of a Civil War concept album. But, don’t let that dissuade you from the straight-up rock and roll on this record. In the lead in...
Read More »

Back in the glory days of the daily newspaper getting a scoop meant beating the competition by half-a-day or possibly by a full day. With newspaper boys screaming, “Extra!” on every corner, a good scoop meant thousands of additional newspaper sales. Thus, being first with a story had a huge bottom-line impact. Back in...
Read More »

Stuff I found out about some famous people this week that just tickled me: Dolph Lundgren (yes, him!) has a masters in chemical engineering and was a Fullbright scholar at MIT. Brian May, original member and lead guitar for Queen, was an astrophysics student in London before joining the band. His latest project is...
Read More »

Sorry ’bout that. My domain expired and the good folks at Christmas Island failed to notify me. So, first I knew about it was when everything went blank. All better now and for two more years.
Read More »

If it is indeed true that pro marijuana legalizations initiatives benefit Democratic candidates in the same way that anti gay marriage initiatives benefited Republicans, then I see no reason whatsoever why progressives should not pursue this at every opportunity. Naturally just like the gay marriage “strategy” the party’s elected leaders will pretend to be...
Read More »

Gotta lead with the good stuff. Crank this one to 11. In re: McCrystal. A couple of things that should pop right out as the nut graphs of this whole affair but that (typically) have been totally buried by the media in the whole scandaliciousness frenzy surrounding the Rolling Stone article by , Michael...
Read More »

John Naughton, writing in the Guardian, has penned a wonderful, must-read article about the Internet and its place in our lives. Really, this is fifteen minutes worth of reading that will change the way you look at network technology and the world. Nine things that are Everything You Need To Know About The Internet:...
Read More »

Loving the WordPress app for Android. http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/06/betting-on-longshots.html is funny and serious about how we underestimate the probability and cost of low probability events
Read More »