Friday, November 26

Bruised banana? Worry no more!!!

There is a market for everything. Link

Tuesday, November 23

Gallup: Almost half of Americans believe God created humans 10,000 years ago

Only about a third of Americans believe that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is a scientific theory that has been well supported by the evidence, while just as many say that it is just one of many theories and has not been supported by the evidence. The rest say they don't know enough to say. Forty-five percent of Americans also believe that God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago. A third of Americans are biblical literalists who believe that the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word.
Its unnerving stuff, but the scariest stat in my opinion is the 1/3 of those polled that say they're biblical literalists. And thats only the bible. What about all those Torah literalist or Koran literalist nutjobs? Link

Monday, November 22

Headline of the day: "U.S. Heartland Is Bursting with Corn"

With Thanksgiving around the corner, its worth noting corn's significance as one of our nation's truly crazy vegetables! Corn Link

Sunday, November 21

Republicans Outnumbered in Academia, Studies Find

An article published in the NYT identifies an apparent problem with the outcome of these studies; namely, that conservative faculty (seeking tenure) are subject to discrimination and students are subject to a biased education. How do we know this discrimination and bias is occurring? We don't, but it must be occurring given the overwhelming number of Democrat academics. Such implied causation is disturbing.

The final paragraph of the article, which quotes a disgruntled (Conservative) student, is a case in point:
"I'm glad to get the liberal perspective, but it would be nice to get the other side, too," said Kelly Coyne, the editor of [a Conservative student] magazine and a senior majoring in political science. "I'm really having a hard time finding courses my last year. I don't want to spend another semester listening to lectures about victims of American oppression."
So what is the lesson? There are many, but one that is particularly apt is that many "faith-based" Conservatives operate on the perverted premise that if one disapproves of what the facts teach us (e.g., it might be the case that many important events in our history involve oppression), then a solution is to blame the teacher, and accuse the teacher of a political agenda. It could be bias, or in the infamous words of Colonel Nathan Jessep, it could be that those faith-based pinheads can't handle the truth. There is an interesting irony in quoting Colonel Jessep, which one can only appreciate by reading entire the quote.

Saturday, November 20

Royal Rumble at the Palace

Coach Brown sums it up: "That was the ugliest thing I've seen as a coach or a player." My prediction, rightly or wrongly, Detroit fans are going to take the fall for this one. Link

Addendum: For a video clip of the brawl, click here. For some reaction to the brawl, click here. And for some really nasty reactions, see the Drudge Report here.

Thursday, November 18

New Scientist interview with The Enforcer

New Scientist has an interesting interview with Michael Koubi, the former chief interrogator for Israel's Shin Bet. Arbitrary excerpt:
Q: Did you ever have a detainee you couldn't break?

A: It has happened, but very seldom. I could count them on one hand.

Q: Why were they so difficult?

A: They were very primitive people, not literate and not well educated.

Q: Why does that make it harder?

A: Because I cannot use some of my systems. For example, I cannot show him written papers because he does not know how to read or write. They behave differently. I cannot speak about it. I cannot teach you all my tricks.
Link

Monday, November 15

Detroit Real Estate

I received a call from my old friend Rich Borer. He tells me that he and his wife, Laurie, are considering a move to Detroit proper. Just yesterday, he got the day off from work (apparently, the first day of hunting season is a "holiday" at GM!), so they went to the Boston Edison neighborhood to see what was on the market. (Boston Edison is an old neighborhood that at one time was where the wealthy auto execs resided. Today, well, not so much.)

Rich's description of the places he saw piqued my curiosity, so I went to Realtor.com to have a look. Holy Cow! The following are two examples of what you'll find:

For $1,100 per month, you can have your very own 6 bedroom, 3.5 bath, 4.6K square feet Playboy mansion.

Or cough up $1,300 per month, and you can have
this 5 bedroom, 3.5 bath, 5.8K square feet castle.

Now for perspective, here is an example of what you can get in rockin' Skokie, IL for the same or similar amount:

For $1,200 per month, you can get this: a stunning piece of architectural genius.

Sunday, November 14

Hurricane Prep 101

Ok, here is the situation. A hurricane is heading your way. Your life will soon be in jeopardy. Hence, you head off to the local Wal-Mart to stock up.

Question: What are you likely to buy? Be honest, now.

Answer:
a box of strawberry pop-tarts; and

a six pack of beer.

I shit you not, these are the two items Wal-Mart found to peak in demand just prior to a hurricane. Yeeee-haaaaw, ain't that America! Link

Saturday, November 13

O.D.B.: 1968-2004




The rap artist O.D.B., whose utterly unique rhymes, wild lifestyle and incessant legal troubles made him one of the most vivid characters in hip-hop, collapsed and died inside a recording studio Saturday. He was 35.
...
To the public he was known as Old Dirty Bastard, but to me he was known as Rusty. The kindest most generous soul on earth.
A moment of silence, please. Link

Tuesday, November 9

F*ck the South

The power of profanity. I enjoyed this. Link (Be sure to click the hyperlinks; there is some good stuff on the other side, too.)

Monday, November 8

Stupid in, stupid out

Last Wednesday I conjectured that the election results seemed to confirm that more than half of voting Americans are firkin stupid.

You'll be saddened to know that there appears to be empirical support for this belief. Or, at least, apparent support for the belief that voting for Bush is correlated with lower IQ. Link

Happy Birthday, Oliver

Say goodbye to the "terrible twos." Today Oliver turns the big three-dot-0!


A Pictoral Tribute to the Birthday Boy

The many faces of ODB...

You say you ready to rock!



Boo-yah!



Says who?!

Saturday, November 6

This afternoon at the park

What a nice day!

Watch out, coming down...



No really, move Dad!



ODB and the Fonze




Friday, November 5

The concept of marriage

This speaks for itself...
Our Traditional Non-traditional Wedding

by Steve Silberman

As I read through the post-mortems of the 2004 election speculating about whether the gay marriage issue cost John Kerry his presidency -- with many Democrats supporting this view -- I have the disoriented feeling of reading about my sweet, ordinary life with Keith distorted through funhouse mirrors. When writer Bill Bennett places gay marriage in opposition to "ethical values" and a "decent society," as he did in the National Review the day after the election, does he mean us? Apparently so. By now, the concept of marriages like ours has been twisted into such an abstract threat to so many otherwise fine and compassionate people -- and so divorced from the humble blessing of two souls caring deeply for one another -- it's time for a national reality check.

Keith and I are not political activists. His family has traditionally voted Republican, and his parents voted for Bush in the recent election. Until recently, Keith's father was the mayor of a small town in the Midwest; the first time I met him, he took me aside and said, "I know that you are very special to Keith, so that means you are very special to us." There was such simple, human, Midwestern forthrightness in that statement. No banner-waving, no Biblical injunctions, no soapboxing. Just a clear and compassionate message: We love our son and trust his ability to make the most personal decision of all.

Keith and I didn't get married to commit a pioneering act of civil disobedience, to "redefine marriage" as President Bush claimed during his campaign, or to outrage the religious right. We took our vows because getting hitched seemed like the sane next step of our commitment. We figured the best way to defend the sanctity of marriage was to have one and live up to the promises we made to one another.
Link

"Read Books, Get Brain"

That is the ad slogan of some hip hop clothier in NYC. It turns out the word "brain" has multiple meanings.

'It's sad that a company and its advertising agency would appear to be promoting a good cause while instead using vulgar street phrases to demean women,' fumed MTA spokesman Tom Kelly.
You learn something new everyday. Link

Thursday, November 4

War More Years

More admiration from abroad...

Can I quote that?

"Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt."
--Clarence Darrow

"Facts do not cease to exist just because they are ignored."
--Aldous Huxley

"In a mad world only the mad are sane."
--Akira Kurosawa

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety."
--Benjamin Franlin

"The church says that the earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow on the moon and I have more faith in the shadow than in the church."
--Ferdinand Magellan

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my church."
--Thomas Paine

"Question with boldness even the existance of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear."
--Thomas Jefferson

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one."
--George Bernard Shaw

"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new west. You know... morons."
--"Jim" from Blazing Saddles

World dismayed as US voters give Bush 2nd term

Then again, only girlie men worry about international consensus and opinion. From the Intl. Globe & Mail:
For the past four years, many people around the world have been able to convince themselves that George W. Bush was a fleeting spectre who did not really represent his country or its people.

Yesterday, national leaders and ordinary citizens in dozens of countries were forced to change that assessment.

For some, it meant downgrading their view of the American people. By giving Mr. Bush a strong majority in a fair and well-attended election, Americans convinced the world that they really meant it -- and the world wasn't always happy to hear that.

'I had previously told my friends that I support the American people but that I do not support their leader, who they did not truly choose and who did not represent their beliefs,' a Parisian student said on Radio France last night.

'Now I understand that there is truly unity in their beliefs, and I am not so confident about America.'
Link

Addendum: Here is a T-shirt, if you plan to travel abroad.

Wednesday, November 3

Post Mortem: more than half of American voters are just stupid

So much for them rumors on the internets. Why were the exit polls so screwed up? Well, there are some interesting post-mortem comments over at my favorite blog "Boing Boing" sponsored by the one and only Xani J. Two comments that hit home are noted below, with a third also noted b/c it effectively articulates my bewilderment. Link

The first rings true b/c it sounds similar to the advice Euge would give me:
8:15am: Four more years of a nation led by criminals. I was making coffee with one eye on CNN when the news broke, and I called my dad, a man who's spent many years fighting for good things, sometimes at great personal cost.

"Get over it," he said, "The way you feel now is exactly how I felt when Nixon won a second term -- crushed. I just couldn't believe America was that stupid. But remember what happened to Nixon that term."

"Change comes from discontent," he said. "And right now, there's a lot of discontent."
The second rings true, being a Jew (well sort of), with children (well certainly), from a "secular"/"blue" state (THANK GOD!). I note that Kerry won Illinois by a landslide and we elected Obama to the Senate and we have a democrat as governor. Anyway here is the second excerpt:
I've been Jewish, not very observant, my whole life. I'm one of the first generations of Jews to not fear assault as they went to school or lived their lives in secular or religious ways. To not worry about slaughter. I have only met a handful of concentration camp survivors, including a teacher in college. I don't know what it is to be oppressed or insulted for my ethnic and religious heritage.
Today is the first day I am afraid in America because I am Jewish.

Today is the first day I fear for my new son, who is not, but has a Jewish father.

I'm lucky to live in Washington State, and specifically in Seattle. A haven of secular and broad-spectrum religious views in a sea of red. We went strongly, even among Republicans, to Kerry, and maybe I just won't leave this state much for the next four years.
And finally, this one speaks for itself:
"As a British citizen, I just can't understand why. Does the British media unfairly portray Bush, or are more than half of American voters just fucking stupid? I write this as an appeal to BoingBoing - please, please help me understand how this could have happened, and why, why on God's earth would so many Americans support Bush?"

Tuesday, November 2

Rumors on the internets

Based on my extensive investigation of the internets - I've been at it for, say, 15 minutes or so - it appears that exit polls favor Kerry in the key battleground states. However, as far as I can tell this info eminates from a single (or near single source): The Drudge Report.

On the other hand, the markets are taking this information seriously. The Dow and the dollar dropped big on this news. Read on: Link