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data tube redux May 31, 2007

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Sure, there’s the data site I’ve already mentioned — but as the man sung, ‘too much is never enough,’ right?

So, via Freakonomics, there’s also Data360. Data is always good. I think. Maybe.

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deification May 29, 2007

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I just read through “The Apotheosis of American Democracy” — available here — and found James Montayne’s take on the conflict of selfishness vs cooperation and its result for politics to be a fairly decent summation and elaboration of lots of other stuff I’ve come across. He makes a good case for fighting our own tendencies and for championing reason over faith; but I always find myself wondering after reading such arguments if the idea that we have to overcome our own natures is just another facet of our natures…

Oh, well; I suppose I just think too much.

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weekly photo #33: China Hill May 28, 2007

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China Hill
Here’s another photo from San Fran — this one, of course, from China Town, and titled “China Hill”. I suppose that someday I’ll have to see more of the orient than just Tokyo. Until then, though, I’ll keep making it a point to stop by all the chinatown’s I can manage.

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mindful May 28, 2007

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If you haven’t checked out the TedTalks site lately (linked over there on the right under ‘podcasts’), I strongly advise you to check out this one, where Jeff Hawkins talks a bit about brains and the theory thereof (or lack of one). I, for one, would be quite interested in what the nuero-minded members of the forums think about it - Interesting? Blah? Completely off the wall, or yeah, we know that already?

Also, he notes some things that a handful of great theories have in common — the fact that they contradicted an “intuitive, strongly held, but incorrect” idea of how the world works. Another thing those theories have in common is that they are all subjected to denialists (almost always from the religious camp) such as creationists. In other words, the reason why there are groups of people who insist that Darwin was wrong, but no such anti-Newtonians, is that Darwin’s work violated such a belief about the world, and Newton’s didn’t.

Oh, and back to brains, you might want to look at this article from the Economist, if for nothing else than the cool picture.

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anniversary May 26, 2007

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Ugh — it’s been a long week, and so the dearth of posting continues. But I have time to note an anniversary. For ’twas one year ago, on the 25th of May 2006, that a phrase was coined.

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weekly photo #32: Golden Span May 21, 2007

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Golden Span
I was in San Francisco on Saturday — and got really lucky with the weather, as you can see. I’ve decided to call this one “Golden Span” — here’s the obligatory link to its official site. I don’t get up to San Fran as much as I’d like, even though I’m so close. At any rate, I’ve got a few more pics to slap up, and they’ll be coming up over the next few weeks.

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evocation May 18, 2007

Posted by ocmpoma in : society , 7comments

Kamikaze has a post up titled “The Unbeatable Force” with a category tag of ‘Fiction with a point’. After reading it, several thoughts hit me almost simultaneously.

The first two were quotes: one from La Pasionaria (at Bartleby.com) –

“It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees!”

and one indirectly from The Catcher in the Rye*, where Wilhelm Stekel is quoted –

“The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”

After that, it occurred to me that the option to fight against impossible odds is exactly what quite a few Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups have chosen to do…

*Originally, I thought this was from Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Turns out I was mistaken — perhaps I was thinking of the bit where Montag says, “That’s the good part of dying; when you’ve nothing to lose, you run any risk you want.”

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refutation May 18, 2007

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It’s a common argument that “Darwinism” is directly responsible for racism and eugenics. Good ol’ Johnny Wells says, for example, that “…Darwinsim’s connection with eugenics, abortion and racism is a matter of historical record.” (At least, that what is says on the Starbuck’s cup.)

Obviously, the first response of an informed person to such an idea is to ask what, exactly, Darwinism is.

However, PZ has come across a nice example that creationsim’s connection with racism and eugenics is a matter of historical record, which he features in this post.

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weekly photo #31: Luisenplatz May 16, 2007

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Luisenplatz
Been doing some reading lately, which is good because it’s the first time in a few months that I can read something that’s not for a class. Always nice. Anyway, this week’s photo is uninspiringly called “Luisenplatz” — because it’s a picture of the Luisenplatz, in Darmstadt. Have I ever mentioned that I miss Germany?

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