January 2012
7 posts
Are Any Christians Running for President? →
Actually, what these candidates assure their followers is that one can be a devout Christian (which seems for them to center on eliminating abortion and saying “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy Holidays) without manifesting any of the paradigm Christian virtues like humility and peacefulness. As long as we reject pornography and eliminate women’s rights to control their own bodies, it is...
December 2011
2 posts
“I found out three weeks ago I have cancer. I’m 49 years old, have been married...”
– Spike Dolomite Ward, Los Angeles Times (via thedorseyshawexperience)
Brain scanner can recreate movie scenes you've... →
Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have figured out a way of recreating visual activity taking place in the brain and reconstructing it using YouTube clips.
The team used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and computational models to decode and reconstruct visual experiences in the minds of test subjects. So far, it’s only been used to reconstruct movie...
“You are not our customer. You are the product that we sell. For us to say we’re...”
– That’s not really Mark Zuckerberg. (via newsweek)
November 2011
7 posts
“From an evolutionary perspective, considering other social species on this...”
– David Lahti (via azspot)
“A glass tower filled with people carefully selected for the polish and...”
– Chris Hedges (via azspot)
“While the Occupy protests are an encouraging sign that Americans are not...”
– The Rutherford Institute: Occupy America and Friendly Fascism: Life in the Corporate Police State (via greaterthanlapsed)
“We can choose tax structures that underfund our schools, we can believe that we...”
– Anthony Cody, “New data Bill Gates, other ed reformers should care about.” The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post (via scudmissile)
Make study more effective, the easy way →
There’s a dangerous idea in education that students are receptacles, and teachers are responsible for providing content that fills them up. This model encourages us to test students by the amount of content they can regurgitate, to focus overly on statements rather than skills in assessment and on syllabuses rather than values in teaching. It also encourages us to believe that we should try and...
October 2011
8 posts
Moore Award Dissent →
You may argue that Herman Cain had a right not to participate in the Civil Rights Movement, and that may be true. But here’s the problem: he’s holding himself up as an example of, if not the very pinnacle of, the black community. (Just ask him, he’ll be glad to tell you). He has gone so far as to suggest that Black People who do not support him (not give him a fair hearing, mind you, but...
elkiablo:
I would probably be less cynical about Dan Savage’s “It gets better” project if it was titled the more accurate “It gets better but then later it gets worse for different reasons”.
6 tags
STFU, Conservatives: Top 5 Reasons Why the Occupy... →
stfuconservatives:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/10/03/333925/top-5-reasons-why-the-occupy-wall-street-protests-embody-values-of-the-real-boston-tea-party/
In recent years, the Boston Tea Party has been associated with a right-wing movement that supports policies favoring powerful corporations and…
September 2011
4 posts
5 tags
“The truth is that the greatest enemies to the doctrines of Jesus are those...”
– Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams (via danielholter)
4 tags
Does Smart Equal Liberal? →
Surprisingly, this fundamental question has never been examined scientifically—until now. Psychologist Ian Deary of the University of Edinburgh realized he could explore the link between IQ and values using a very large existing data base on kids who were born in 1970. These boys and girls, more than 7000 of them, had all taken IQ tests at the age of ten, so he was able to sort out the bright...
1 tag
August 2011
7 posts
1 tag
Spielberg Meme
There’s a story going around the Internet (source: joblo.com) that a list exists of 206 movies you must see if you ever want to work with Steven Spielberg as a filmmaker. I thought I’d see how I stack up. The ones in italics are one’s I’ve watched.
12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet – Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda)
2001 (Stanley Kubrick – Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood)
400 Blows (Francios Truffaut –...
July 2011
2 posts
“It is another’s fault if he be ungrateful; but it is mine if I do not give. To...”
– Seneca (via azspot)
Farewell Cy Twombly
In 2001 I took a frustrating and ultimately lackluster course in the Philosophy of Art. I vacationed in Germany where my brother and I fought over my understanding of Heidegger and the reality of terms like “mathematically sublime.” In his most angry moment he pointed at the scribbles on the wall and dared me to tell him why they meant anything. In that moment I had a revelation. For...
June 2011
7 posts
“Coontz’s basic thesis is that what we think of as the traditional marriage —...”
– The Marriage Myth (via azspot)
“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either...”
– Stephen Colbert (via thakate)
“I am a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the altar of...”
– Stephen Fry (via shootcocacola)
“As it happened, the political operatives of the Bush administration became aware...”
– George Soros (via azspot)
One way capitalism can make health care worse and... →
DAVID BROOKS had an op-ed in the New York Times yesterday that proclaimed the near impossibility of restraining costs in health care through centralised government efficiency evaluations, which is being justly ridiculed by people (Jon Chait, Jonathan Cohn, Ezra Klein) who note that every single one of the world’s centralised government-regulated health-care systems is far cheaper than America’s...
“We can argue all day about verses (and trust me, I have). I know how this game...”
– Steve Fuller (via azspot)
Apoplectic Skeptic: Is there an argument for the... →
whether God exists or not, this is just really poor argument.
This is essentially what I read: “I found a bagel, it’s a scientific fact that bagels do not suddenly come into existence, so it must have had a creator. This is proof Harry Potter created it, because I read a book that said he has magic powers.”
rainyautumntwilight:
So does belief in God have intellectual...
May 2011
5 posts
Forgetting Why We Remember →
But for the earliest and most remarkable Memorial Day, we must return to where the war began. By the spring of 1865, after a long siege and prolonged bombardment, the beautiful port city of Charleston, S.C., lay in ruin and occupied by Union troops. Among the first soldiers to enter and march up Meeting Street singing liberation songs was the 21st United States Colored Infantry; their commander...
“There are no conservatives in the United States. The United States does not have...”
– Noam Chomsky (via sarahlee310)
“The economy we have today will let you chow down on a supersize McBurger, check...”
– Umair Haque (via azspot)
“Actually, the cliché is “divide and conquer”.
But I don’t...”
– From the comments on an Atlantic webpage,
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/i-feel-like-a-black-republican/238741/#comment-201603946
Thanks Thomas Kaempfen, whoever you are, your thoughtfully constructed comment is a credit to internet commentators everywhere
April 2011
9 posts
Poor Jane’s Almanac →
THE House Budget Committee chairman, Paul D. Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, announced his party’s new economic plan this month. It’s called “The Path to Prosperity,” a nod to an essay Benjamin Franklin once wrote, called “The Way to Wealth.”
Franklin, who’s on the $100 bill, was the youngest of 10 sons. Nowhere on any legal tender is his sister Jane, the youngest of seven daughters; she...