I’d never heard of Hanna Rosin before this morning, when some random tweet-following led me to three of her articles for The Atlantic. This is not an endorsement of The Atlantic, or Hanna Rosin, or the articles, but rather my noting that I found each of them rather interesting and that I don’t quite know what to think about some of the questions raised in them.
This evening I was asked a few times about whether or not writing was fun, and why I write. I’m not completely sure about the answers.
[more...]
While I tend to be skeptical of scientific claims to understanding the workings of human brains and particularly human emotions, it’s clear that science is improving in this area, and that pharmaceutical behavior/mood modification is increasing in efficacy. So when scientists claim a chemical understanding of love (paywall-protected full version here), and the ability to induce it under some circumstances, it’s definitely interesting.
[more...]
That’s how much the “fingerprint all foreigners at the border” program costs. Not only is it completely wrong-headed, it’s amazingly wasteful an expensive! Bruce Schneier and Jim Harper weigh in.
A judge today dismissed indictments against (among others) Gonzales and Cheney, brought by a Texas grand jury last month. That’s not too surprising, sadly. The Associated Press article paints the prosecutor, Juan Angel Guerra, in a rather poor light.
[more...]
Maroni should do what I did when I was secretary of the interior. He should withdraw the police from the streets and the universities, infiltrate the movement with secret (provocateurs) agents, ready to do anything, and, for about 10 days, let the demonstrators devastate shops, set fire to cars and lay waste the cities.
—Francesco Cossiga (former President of Italy), Retribution and revenge, Roberto Mancini, guardian.co.uk 24 Nov 2008
Assuming some degree of “democracy” in a state, it should be rather obvious that those in power will do anything that they can get away with in order to sway public opinion in their favor. This clearly implies that they will do what they can to discredit any popular movement they don’t control, and this in turn explains quite a lot of the “extremism” on display at large rallies/marches/demonstrations, where there are suddenly lots of ‘protesters’ doing more or less exactly what would be guaranteed to stoke mass desire for crackdown/repression in the name of security. This also explains why those particular protesters don’t tend to get arrested: many of them are agents provocateurs.
[more...]
I doubt this will go anywhere, but a South Texas grand jury has indicted VP Dick Cheney and former AG Alberto Gonzales on prisoner abuse charges. When I first heard about this, I thought it was related to Guantanamo Bay, and hence an overreach by some eager locals, but in fact it appears quite related to their jurisdiction. It would be lovely irony if, after all they’ve pulled, they did get punished by a group of Texas citizens outraged over local crimes.
Somehow, I can’t bring myself today to write about something other than a completely ridiculous call to action from some religious nuts. Via Who is IOZ comes this piece of utter insanity, opening of course with a classic spam-like statement:
Dear friends:
THIS IS EXTREMELY SERIOUS.
Minutes ago I spoke with friend Dr. Norman G. Marvin, M.D. and he is so concerned at what he has learned about Barack Obama’s family in Kenya that he is calling a special prayer meeting in his home to pray against the witchcraft curses attempted by them against John McCain and Sarah Palin.
—Block African witchcraft curses against McCain and Palin NOW!, Jim Bramlett, Sep 28 2008
I came across this clip at random today, thought it was worth sharing… it should be obvious that someone who is likely the greatest tennis player of all time has a lot of competitive drive and pride, not to mention that it should be clear never to assume it’s over until you’ve actually won.
[more...]
In light of their somewhat zealous security plan for the new development at the World Trade Center site, one could accuse the NYPD of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. After all, the towers are already gone, is heavy security now going to make much difference? Is the new development really the most strategically important location in New York City? (Apart from the stock exchange, which gets the heavy duty security treatment as well.) On the other hand, you could also point out that the proposed security measures aren’t fighting the last war at all, since they won’t do anything against planes.
[more...]
[A]t one point, two of the top lawyers from the Justice Department developed this system of talking in codes to each other because they thought they might be being wiretapped. [...] By their own government. They felt like they might be kind of weirdly in physical danger. They were actually scared to stand up to Vice President Cheney.
—Jane Mayer talking to Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal, 25 July 2008
One of the things that makes tennis such a great game is its scoring system, which can be considered apart from the rest of the rules of the game, concerned as they are with valid ways of scoring points and procedural issues.
[more...]
What freaks me out is not so much that people like Roger Stone exist, is that there also seems to be a social milieu in which they exist, in which their attitudes and actions are considered normal, even admirable. That freaks me out.
[more...]
I’m pretty tired at the moment, so this is going to be a short post, mainly a reference to this Mark Morford column about meditation.
[more...]
I’m still conflicted about this meme, but this particular reworking is too funny not to highlight—Hitler responding to news that he’s become an Internet meme…
[more...]
What shows up in the op-ed pages of American newspapers should no longer surprise me, but somehow it still does. Last Thursday, “conservative” commentator Kathleen Parker wrote a truly awful column that was syndicated throughout the US, essentially trying to defend racism as patriotism.
[more...]
Donald Rumsfeld, in 2006, took part in an analyst(i.e. propagandist)’s luncheon, a recording of which has become available via FOIA requests. Some excerpts have been made available at Newsvine.
[more...]
I recently read the graphic novel The Nightly News (thanks Dave!), and while there’s plenty of interest in it, what I feel like posting about comes from the author’s comments at the end, about how he succeeded as a comics creator.
[more...]
So all those nefarious plots, the terror cells under the bed, the scheming evildoers whose awful engines of destruction needed to be rooted out by spying on, well, everyone? The extra surveillance has yielded few prosecutions, a tremendous shocker I’m sure.
[more...]
I’m deeply conflicted about this little piece of video reworking. Partly because it’s unbelievably inappropriate on a bunch of levels—comparing the Democratic nomination struggle to World War II and comparing Hillary Clinton to Hitler, for example. Partly because it relies upon the audience not understanding German, which disturbs me for other reasons (and since I understand German to an extent, it’s also jarring). But the fact remains that, despite its being just wrong, it’s still funny—at least it is today. It’s extremely context-dependent, and months from now I suspect this piece will be regarded as something of an embarrassment. (The other context that makes it more acceptable somehow is that apparently the piece in question has been re-subtitled many times already for other things, and already constitutes a meme that is here being reapplied.)
[more...]
Short post tonight, because I’m way too tired. But I thought I’d leave you with this piece of choice propaganda: John Hagee claiming that it’s easier for students in public schools to get abortions than aspirin. See that link or after the jump for the video.
[more...]
The New York Times writes about the rising wave of cognitive enhancement pharmaceutical use, bringing to mind Alan Glynn’s novel The Dark Fields, which explores the territory in an interesting and disturbing way.
[more...]
Researcher Joshua Klein created a vending machine for crows.
[more...]