Pansynthesis

[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. --L.]

"First" Picture of Planet Orbiting Sunlike Star Confirmed

[National Geographic News]

A team of astronomers says it holds bragging rights to releasing the first ever direct picture of an alien planet around a sunlike star.

Pictures: Hurricane Alex Pushes Oil on "Cleaned" Beaches

[National Geographic News]

Rough seas churned up by Hurricane Alex are pushing oil onto cleaned Louisiana beaches that hadn't seen oil since mid-May.

Houdini Kitteh

[I Can Has Cheezburger]

Who participates online, by age

[FlowingData]

Stem cells from blood a 'huge' milestone

[Science News]

Advance may prove easier, cheaper and faster than other harvesting methods

Subconscious Motivation

[NeuroLogica Blog]

Neuroscience research has been increasingly fleshing out the fascinating and complex relationship between the subconscious processing of the brain and our conscious awareness. We all labor under the illusion that our decisions, feelings, and behaviors are all conscious. When we do something, it seems, it is because we wanted to do it. We are very good, in fact, at retrofitting a logical explanation for why we consciousness did something. [sic]

[linky goodness redacted]

…When I discuss this topic with people, while fascinated, many people will recoil a bit from the implications of this research. It makes us sound more like automatons than moral agents. This is not strictly true – we still have hierarchical conscious control over our behavior. In fact, awareness of how our brains work might give us more control because we won’t assume that our “default” decisions are completely our own conscious choices. Realization of how our brains work should motivate us to step back and consider our more important decisions more deeply, and not just rationalize what we feel.

Having BFFs brings longevity to female baboons

[Science News]

Levi’s Selects WordPress for Pioneer Sessions

[WordPress Publisher Blog]

Exciting news that Levi’s has just launched a new site, Pioneer Sessions, using WordPress to showcase "pioneering musicians from rock, pop, soul, and rap to re-craft the classic songs that inspired their sound"…

[Headtilt. -L]

Blogging Pitfalls: Courting Libel

[Blogging Pro]

One of the great things about the Internet is that it has enabled almost anyone to become a publisher and reach an audience of millions.

One of the bad things about that is that most people don’t have the understanding of media law to know how to avoid being sued while publishing on the Web.

Plinky

* How does Plinky work?
* Every day we provide a new prompt (like a question, or a challenge), and everyone gets a chance to answer.
* It's simple to add photos, maps, playlists and more. You can easily share your Plinky answers on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and most major blogging services.
* We know you've got something interesting to say. Plinky is here to help you say it in a fun and compelling way. Sign up below to get started!

[via Matt Mullenweg]

Torture by Any Other Name: UK Officials Let Fear, Politics Trump Morality

[Firedoglake]

Yesterday, I posted on a Harvard study showing that the press, after an established tradition of referring to waterboarding as torture, stopped doing so once it became clear the US engaged in the practice. Our press, in other words, refused to tell what they had previously presented as “the truth” (that is, that waterboarding was unquestionably torture) when it became politically contentious to do so.

Now I want to focus on one detail of the documents Craig Murray released yesterday in anticipation of the British inquiry into whether it was complicit with torture. The Brits are debating among themselves whether the question will be, “Did the UK order up torture?” or “Did the UK knowingly use information gathered using torture?” (Rather, the powers that be are trying hard to limit the inquiry to the former question.) So Murray posted a series of British Foreign Office communication set off when he asked both whether it was legal to receive information known to have been collected using torture, and what civil servants and Ministers thought about receiving information gathered using torture…

Duffield is claiming to acknowledge the moral problems of torture, but suggests that the “moral” (and ethical) necessity to piece together intelligence on terrorism–not to keep the country safe, but to piece together intelligence–balances out those moral problems…

The string of communications that Murray published not only show the British government institutionally deciding that it would accept information collected using torture. But also–at least in that one paragraph–prioritizing the collection of intelligence, per se, over the collection of reliable intelligence and placing that, but not protecting the country, in moral counterweight to torture.

Cruelty is in — the new American nightmare

[Hullabaloo - Digby]

What Has Happened To This Country?

I don't mean that rhetorically. I'm genuinely curious to know exactly when this culture took this latest turn into selfish cruelty.

Now, it's legitimate to argue that we've always been a cruel country and we have. We've always treated certain people, racial minorities and immigrants particularly, worse than others, our prison population today huge and their treatment is medieval. But I'm old and have been paying close attention for a long time and there are some disturbing social and political trends in our culture right now that are taking us waaay back to a time before most of our grandparents walked the earth.

Our history is littered with cruelty and injustice, but in my lifetime the open and widespread cultural acceptance of torture and imprisonment without trial is new. They used to have to hide these things and now we are institutionalizing them. And now this…

[redacted: Congress thinks long-term unemployment benefits are bad.]

I'm guessing some of it has to do with wealth inequality and the resulting distance between the haves and have nots in everyday society. When the people who do your nails and bag your groceries and bus your table aren't fully visible in your busy world of IPods and Blackberries, perhaps you begin to think of them as pets who need training or children who require discipline. I don't know. But something has gone terribly wrong…

[I tend to think of USian cruelty in relation to the media that I've watched. You know, I saw the first Die Hard movie when I was a kid, and about ten years later I finally realized that it portrays the fictional John MacLaine as a torturer. As a successful torturer. Not only does that movie perpetuate the notion that under some circumstances torture can be heroic, it also perpetuates the false notion that torture can successfully be used as an information-gathering tool.

-L]

Broadband 'legal right' for Finns

[BBC News]

Finland becomes the first country to make broadband with a speed of 1Mbps a legal right for every citizen.

[Paraphrasing Lois Bujold, who wrote a character explaining why poor people (on fictional planet) have computers: "It's in the Constitution. Access to information shall not be abridged."

Finns winninate today.

-L]

The Trouble With Al

[Alas, a Blog]

Al Gore has done a lot of good during his long career in public service. His work on global warming, for example, has been exemplary. His work as Clinton’s vice president to streamline government and make it run more efficiently was outstanding. And it’s hard to argue that America would not have been better off with President Gore than President Bush Jr.

And so it’s tempting, when allegations are raised that Gore sexually assaulted a masseuse in 2007, to dismiss them. To argue that they’re clearly politically motivated. To assume the best, not the worst, of a politician who one has agreed with over the years.

This is a temptation that must be resisted.

I do not know whether Gore committed sexual assault in a Portland, Oregon hotel room three years ago. Indeed, only two people do: Gore himself, and the complainant. But as Hanna Rosin notes, the woman’s very detailed statement rings true. And Emily Bazelon cites the complainant’s own words explaining why she didn’t immediately seek out the authorities…

…having read the complaint, I have to say that my gut tells me that it’s more likely Gore is guilty of sexual assault than not guilty. He may not be convicted. Indeed, he likely won’t be charged. But my gut tells me that Al Gore did something illegal and immoral in a Portland hotel room in 2007, and that is something that should not be taken lightly, and should not be minimized.

[...I really need to fix the last sentence here, as I believe the author meant it to read as:

"my gut tells me that Al Gore did something illegal and immoral in a Portland hotel room in 2007, and [if it is true that he did it, then] that is something that should not be taken lightly"

-L]

The Link(s): Thu, Jul 1st, 11am by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.