Math Trek: Crowdsourcing peer review

[Re nature and significance of P vs NP; crunchy but lucid to layperson me. -L]

[Deolalikar's attempt to prove that P != NP] spurred an intense, open, Internet-based effort to understand it and pursue its ideas… a new model of research…

…problems in P are the ones that can …be solved with computers….

“NP is a very interesting class…because it includes almost anything you’d hope to do,” …so if someone manages to prove that P equals NP, he or she could imaginably walk away with not just one million dollars, but six…

Computer scientists are nearly certain [that P != NP]. Proving it…requires pinning down all possible polynomial algorithms — including all those no one has thought of yet — and showing that none are sufficient to do the job.

…most participants found the discussion galvanizing. The process… [sucked] logicians into learning statistical physics and mathematicians into grappling with computer science… “It was like the Nerd Superbowl.”

math_is_really_philosophy interdisciplinary

dw_news: Weekly Update: 8 September

[Upcoming platform improvements, getting/giving invite codes, Dreamwidth 101 and best new features, getting/giving technical help, finding stuff, meeting people, etc.]

…Six Apart has recently announced that their Vox service is closing doors as of September 31. If you or a friend would like to move your Vox blog to somewhere that has the fine-tuned privacy controls that other options such as TypePad or Wordpress doesn't have, Dreamwidth would be a perfect fit! You can use the account creation code "VOX" to create an account.

Our account importing tool doesn't currently work to import Vox blogs, but we're going to be doing our best to add it in before the 31 September deadline.

…We've seen a lot of people wondering how they can know that we're a real, legitimate business that'll be around for a while and won't just disappear with your money and your data, and the answers are there for your perusal! [link to appropriate FAQs]

dreamwidth blogging_platform

The future of self-service banking

[FlowingData - Nathan Yau]

Too many slots. Too many buttons. Spanish bank BBVA and design consultancy IDEO rethink the ATM…

design

The future of self-service banking

[FlowingData - Nathan Yau]

Too many slots. Too many buttons. Spanish bank BBVA and design consultancy IDEO rethink the ATM…

design

FBI, Everyone Else Trying To Convince Jones Not To Burn Korans | TPMMuckraker

[Okay, 1) Mr. President, don't call him. He needs to get over himself.

2) If he goes through with the Quran-burning? Arrest the fuckneck.

-L.]

islamophobia religious_tolerance asshattery

As California goes, so goes the nation?

[O'Reilly Radar - Alex Howard]

When California secretary of state Debra Bowen endorsed open source voting systems at the Gov 2.0 Summit, the validation naturally struck many people in O'Reilly's community as significant, given the size and prominence of the Sunshine State.

"Open source election software saves us a ton of money, and can be re-used in other states," she said. Bowen's interview with Tim O'Reilly at Gov 2.0 Summit, embedded below, featured a wide-ranging discussion of trust, digital literacy and the future of electronic voting in thousands of California's precincts. While open source voting poses challenges in implementation, Bowen's perspective on the subject is worth reviewing.

[video]

democracy open_source

Sharron Angle’s ‘Second Amendment Remedies’ Considered Mainstream Now?

[Crooks and Liars - Heather - video, transcript]

After Sharron Angle…reiterated…that if Republicans don't like the election results, they may end up turning to…armed insurrection, Rachel Maddow asks, just what does a Republican political candidate have to say these days to finally be considered out of the mainstream?

[GOP lies about majority public opinion help legitimize armed revolt, and the pretence that violence is an expression/restoration of democracy, rather than its greatest enemy. Our leaders have long pretended that bloodletting is more civilized than, say, actual voting.

Dem leadership too, by pretending to be moderate and bipartisan when dealing with rabid authoritarians and plutocrats, have allowed words like "democracy" to be hijacked by the most depraved and cowardly tendencies of humanity; they are revolting in their hypocrisy/spinelessness, and are unworthy of the name of a Democratic Party.

...I just needed to get that off my chest.

-L]

democracy war_what_is_it_good_for

Terror Alert over Koran Burning

[Talking Points Memo - Josh Marshall ]

Interpol has issued a global terror alert warning of an increased risk of terror attacks if the Koran burning in Florida goes ahead as planned.

islamophobia terrorism

The Day Our Democracy Died

[Shakesville - Melissa McEwan]

When the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which granted corporations, unions, and nonprofits the latitude to donate freely to political campaigns [...] I grimly mused: "It is not hyperbole to say this decision is paving the way for America to become a fully-fledged corporatocracy [...]"

Today, under the ominously blunt headline "Super PACs Multiply to Sway Election as Companies Freed to Give," Bloomberg reports on the proliferation of Super PACs, political action committees which can accept unlimited donations from corporations, unions, nonprofits, and individuals, and can "explicitly urge voters to support or oppose candidates, unlike ordinary PACs and nonprofit groups."

At least 25 of these Super PACs have already formed, one of which is linked to conservative mastermind Karl Rove and has already raised more than $17 million since the SCOTUS decision earlier this year.

corruption plutocracy

Teeny Tiny Mongeese

[ZooBorns - Andrew Bleiman]

Two Dwarf Mongoose Pups, each the size of a chocolate bar, have been spotted enjoying the September sunshine in Chester Zoo. Squeaks were heard by the keepers three weeks ago but the pups were not seen until they ventured outside…

cute_animals

All Political Mud-Slinging Ads Should Be This Adorable

[Daily Squee - Cute Baby Animals - bradofarrell]

Give that porcupine his job back! This is a video of a porcupine at the unemployment office!

cute_animals

Microsoft Releases Free Cyber-Security Ebook

[Lifehacker - Jason Fitzpatrick ]

Microsoft has released a free—and lengthy—ebook covering a wide range of security topics. Although intended for teenagers, the book offers a solid enough look at using the internet safely, and it's suitable for anyone looking for a primer on internet security.

security computers resource

Guy Lands Face-First on Third Rail, Takes 625 Volts to the Head, Survives

[Runnin' Scared - Jen Doll]

We would not show you this if he didn't live. In two words: Holy crap.

none

Terror Alert over Koran Burning

[Talking Points Memo - Josh Marshall ]

Interpol has issued a global terror alert warning of an increased risk of terror attacks if the Koran burning in Florida goes ahead as planned.

islamophobia terrorism

The Day Our Democracy Died

[Shakesville - Melissa McEwan]

When the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which granted corporations, unions, and nonprofits the latitude to donate freely to political campaigns [...] I grimly mused: "It is not hyperbole to say this decision is paving the way for America to become a fully-fledged corporatocracy [...]"

Today, under the ominously blunt headline "Super PACs Multiply to Sway Election as Companies Freed to Give," Bloomberg reports on the proliferation of Super PACs, political action committees which can accept unlimited donations from corporations, unions, nonprofits, and individuals, and can "explicitly urge voters to support or oppose candidates, unlike ordinary PACs and nonprofit groups."

At least 25 of these Super PACs have already formed, one of which is linked to conservative mastermind Karl Rove and has already raised more than $17 million since the SCOTUS decision earlier this year.

corruption plutocracy

Teeny Tiny Mongeese

[ZooBorns - Andrew Bleiman]

Two Dwarf Mongoose Pups, each the size of a chocolate bar, have been spotted enjoying the September sunshine in Chester Zoo. Squeaks were heard by the keepers three weeks ago but the pups were not seen until they ventured outside…

cute_animals

All Political Mud-Slinging Ads Should Be This Adorable

[Daily Squee - Cute Baby Animals - bradofarrell]

Give that porcupine his job back! This is a video of a porcupine at the unemployment office!

cute_animals

Microsoft Releases Free Cyber-Security Ebook

[Lifehacker - Jason Fitzpatrick ]

Microsoft has released a free—and lengthy—ebook covering a wide range of security topics. Although intended for teenagers, the book offers a solid enough look at using the internet safely, and it's suitable for anyone looking for a primer on internet security.

security computers resource

Guy Lands Face-First on Third Rail, Takes 625 Volts to the Head, Survives

[Runnin' Scared - Jen Doll]

We would not show you this if he didn't live. In two words: Holy crap.

none

And Yet Another Entry From the “No Shit” Department

[Balloon Juice - John Cole]

This is the least surprising thing you will read all month:

"We now have clear evidence that there’s a direct link between public anti-Islam sentiment and public opposition to the construction of Cordoba House, a.k.a. the 'Ground Zero mosque.'”

islamophobia

9th Circuit: Government Can Kidnap and Torture You, Then Hide It Under State Secrets

[Firedoglake - by emptywheel]

This–a decision in the Jeppesen Dataplan suit upholding the government’s invocation of state secrets–is really bad news.

torture

Burying Kumbaaya — the speech

[Hullabaloo - digby]

…I'm hopeful that [today's speech] signals that [Obama has] "turned the page" on his quixotic crusade to bridge the unbridgeable bridge between red and blue, at least for the time being. This was a speech in which he formally threw in the towel on kumbaaya, which is not only the best politics for the moment, it's long overdue. [link]

barack_obama

Mining the Truth on Coal Supplies

[National Geographic News]

A new study challenges the belief that the globe holds vast stores of coal, the world's leading and most carbon-intensive electricity fuel.

green_energy

Civic Commons Helps Municipalities Share Code

[ReadWriteWeb - Curt Hopkins]

At the Government 2.0 Summit today, Code for America, DC's OCTO and OpenPlans introduced a new code-sharing project, Civic Commons.

Civic Commons will help 21,000 local jurisdictions share code and work out best practices for developing them, all on an open source basis.

In an era of extraordinary economic challenges, Civic Commons believes governmental software development is, among other things, a fertile area for saving money.

…Want to get involved? Civic Commons encourages you to join as "a partner organization or advisor; share your code" or just take part in the discussion.

software open_source

Theater of the Absurd – Part Two « The Donkey Edge

General Electric uses the phrase “corporate citizenship”. That the corporation itself is a citizen and, as you say, has a responsibility as a corporate citizen in the community. [...] back in the ’30s and previous to the ’30s leading up to the Great Depression that there was no such thing as “corporate citizenship” and that management was responsible before the creation of organized labor because they were unwilling to recognize their responsibility and their obligation to their fellow citizens.

[video w/ incomplete transcript. hat tip to digby. -L]

reagan_democrats democratic_party

Tolerance

[Hullabaloo - digby]

Boehner basically defines religious tolerance as not inflaming passions on both sides. What that means in practice is that Christians shouldn't burn Korans and Muslims shouldn't build mosques. Can we see what's wrong with that picture?

religious_tolerance

Faye’s history of lady instrumentalists [part six: Gretta Cohn, Stefanie Drootin, Azure Ray/Maria Taylor/Orenda Fink, Jenny Conlee, Petra Haden]

[Deeply Problematic - faye]

women music

VLC Submits iPad App to App Store

[ReadWriteWeb - Mike Melanson]

software

Blaming The Victim — Only losers have right wing enemies

[Hullabaloo - digby]

I'm glad Kurtz said it's an "established fact in his mind" that Obama isn't a Muslim. That's a good step, considering that he isn't a Muslim! But to simultaneously toss aside what Obama said about … well, basically, the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is just malpractice.

There are reasons why all these millions of people believe that Obama is a Muslim and one of the big ones is the right wing media. Since Kurtz is supposed to be a media critic you'd think he would have followed that line instead of questioning what Obama's doing or not doing to refute what he himself acknowledges is a lie.

racism

Be philosophical: Take part in a thought experiment

[New Scientist]

A Yale University experimental philosopher needs your help – take his online test if you want to find out how your mind works

[I repeat: experimental. philosopher. -L]

survey

Before & After: Wine-Cult Cave Art Restored in Petra?

[National Geographic News]

Offering a window on a likely ancient wine cult, "magical" cave paintings at Petra have been rescued from millennia of soot, experts say.

archaeology

Various ways to rate a college

[FlowingData - Nathan Yau]

There are a bunch of college ratings out there to help students decide what college to apply to (and give something for alumni to gloat about). The tough part is that there doesn't seem to be any agreement on what makes a good college.

education

FourEyesUp Helps You Plan Your Next Nerd Vacation

[Lifehacker - Adam Dachis]

FourEyesUp won't take you to the seven wonders of the world, but instead to the birthplace of the modern computer or the home of the largest Arctic research team. It's a great resources for geeky travel destinations.

geeks

Is Jesus making you overeat?

[PLoS Blogs - Peter Janiszewski, Ph.D.]

An incredibly quirky and yet fascinating study was published in the International Journal of Obesity which investigated the size of the food and plates that have been depicted in paintings of Jesus’ Last Supper over the last 1000 years.

The trend of gradually increasing portion sizes is well documented…

fatphobia junk_science

What Cascading Failures Look Like

[Talking Points Memo - David Kurtz]

Here's a chart from BP's internal report on the eight "critical factors" that contributed to the blowout and destruction of the Deepwater Horizon…

massive_oil_spill bp_is_evil

Find Your Spam Magnets

[Weblog Tools Collection - James Huff]

So, you’ve got WordPress, Akismet, and more spam comments than you can keep track of. Wouldn’t you like to know which posts are drawing the most spam attention? Well, Ozh has the perfect script for you!

Simply upload the script to your WordPress root directory and enjoy a listing of your most prominent spam magnets, complete with “a pretty interactive pie chart.” Use the script to track down and close off your spam magnets, research the keywords catching the spammers’ attention, or just do it for fun.

When I ran this script on my blog, I found two spam magnets that shouldn’t have had open comments in the first place…

wordpress

Pakistan in need

[The Big Picture]

The devastating floods that have rolled through Pakistan for over a month now have left a disaster of massive scale in their wake. For a time, an area the size of England was submerged – one fifth of all the land in Pakistan. Although immediate loss of life remains relatively low [...], damages from loss exceed $43 billion, almost one quarter of Pakistan's GDP. [...] Nearly 9 million acres (3.6 million hectares) of existing crops are gone, 1.2 million livestock and 6 million poultry killed, and 17 million of Pakistan's 167 million people affected. [...] One way you can help is by texting "SWAT" to 50555 from your mobile phone to give $10 to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) – more ways to help linked below entry. (43 photos total)

pakistan natural_disaster

A map of 40,000 termite mounds could help predict African droughts

[io9 - Tim Barribeau]

By using high tech scanners, researchers have mapped the location of thousands of termite mounds in Africa. Their newly-released map of these insect civilizations gives us clues about the future of weather on the savannas.

entomology meteorology

After the media apocalypse, stories survive as patchwork cloth

[io9 - Annalee Newitz]

A solar flare wipes the world's electronic media stores clean. Electricity no longer flows. And a new dark age begins, along with a new form of storytelling. It's all chronicled in a strange art show from the future.

science_fiction

Sarah Palin doesn’t believe in coincidences

[Pandagon - Amanda Marcotte]

Your workaday evangelical fundie doesn’t, as far as I know, have a lot of investment in the idea of predestination. That’s more the world of the Reconstructionists. It’s no small thing that Palin has adopted that as her motto, implying that she shares an interest and faith in the idea of predestination. Maybe she only believes it for herself, that she’s some kind of Chosen One. But as I noted in the Slate article, Palin’s ties to the Alaska Independence Party were alarming for more than the fact than they were a secessionist group. It’s also because they’re a branch of the Constitution Party, which is openly Reconstructionist and demands that America become a Christian theocracy.

fundamentalism

Imam: It Will Be Built

[The Mahablog - maha]

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has an op ed in the New York Times in which he declares the cultural center will be built… It really is a lovely essay, and once again my impression is that the imam is a good-hearted, sincere man who means exactly what he says. [link link and link]

religious_tolerance

Dreamhost: Julygustember 2010 Newsletter

YOU know how great DreamHost's support is. But your friends – who may not be DreamHost customers – don't. This is a way for them to experience what many say is our best feature – our overqualified and eerily-friendly technical support team.

WebAppHelp launches today with technical support for WordPress starting at just $9.95 per month. We'll support WordPress users wherever they are, too. Again, they need not be DreamHost customers – WebAppHelp is an entirely independent service.

Read on to find out how YOU can get six free months of WebAppHelp!

wordpress

Quran Burning: Protected Free Speech?

[Law and Daily Life - Tanya Roth]

Although freedom of speech is one of the most cherished (and sometimes divisive) freedoms we posses, free speech is not the same as completely unfettered speech. The Supreme Court has long placed limits on hate speech, defamatory speech, threats, and obscene speech. The body of law concerning the First Amendment has taken more than a century to build and can be a life-long study.

…when speech crosses over into incitement to hate, it may be limited by law.

religious_tolerance islamophobia

Should Credit Unions Remain Tax-Exempt?

[Nonprofit Law Prof Blog]

As reported in The Capital Times, banks are again questioning the federal and state income tax exemptions granted to credit unions. Credit unions have long enjoyed both federal and state exemption based on their status as mutual benefit organizations…

none

How Canada will become a superpower, making the Northern Rim the envy of the world

[io9 - Alasdair Wilkins]

Although climate change could still have devastating effects for much of the world, some regions stand to benefit immensely. Canada, Scandinavia, and even Greenland could all become economic powerhouses, making "The New North" a very attractive destination.

environment global_climate_change

Brudder From Anudder Mudder

[Cute Baby Animals]

Hey, how about a kitten on Daily Squee? A kitten… making out with a squirrel? Okay that works too!

cute_animals

Tracking firefly trails in the forest

[FlowingData - Nathan Yau]

Physicist Kristian Cvecek hangs out in the forest sometimes to take these beautiful pictures of firefly trails, using slow shutter speeds on his camera. Even better than the long exposure shot of a Roomba.

photography

20 million people may have once inhabited the Amazon rainforest

[ABlogAboutHistory.com - Sevaan Franks]

Archaeologists have found evidence that the Amazon rainforest was home to an advanced civilization with as many as 20 million individuals living amoungst the jungle.

archaeology

Changing one of nature’s constants

[Science News]

If the study is correct, it would force physicists to reconsider many of their most cherished ideas about the universe, including the notion, touted by Einstein, that the laws of physics are the same everywhere in the cosmos.

physics

Light-harvesting complexes do it themselves

[Science News]

New technique could yield self-assembling solar cells

green_energy

No "dead zone" from BP oil

[Science News]

Deep sea mixing kept microbes from creating suffocating parcels of water in the Gulf

massive_oil_spill environment

What It Means: Google, Yahoo Come Together With OpenID

[ReadWriteWeb - Mike Melanson]

Google has announced that Yahoo users will now be able to quickly and easily sign up for Google products using their Yahoo email address. The feature, according to some in the industry, will be a boon for Google and OpenID, the Internet standard behind the feature. But what benefit does this provide for Yahoo?

Will making it easier for Yahoo users to sign in to Google – a direct competitor – draw users away from the portal, search and mail provider or will it help create an overall better user experience? According to Yahoo, making a process that users were already engaged in simpler will provide a better user experience and keep users interested in one of its most solid products – Yahoo Mail.

none

Alien – Use Any Package On Any Distribution

[Linux Journal - Michael Reed]

[This sounds like a fun way to create new computer problems. -L]

linux

Big Banks Don’t Learn

[Move Your Money]

Winning the lottery may seem like a great way to make a quick buck, but a recent academic study showed that, for many people, winning the lottery has no effect on how they manage their finances, and just pushes problems further down the road. The same is true for Wall Street megabanks and the government bailout…

none

4000 Years for Choice: A Visual History With the Power to Transform

[RHRealityCheck.org - Heather Ault]

[This] project draws from a rich and collective history of women controlling their reproduction for thousands of years. As early as Ancient Egypt, medical tablets contained detailed instructions for abortion and contraception procedures. In every culture studied since, evidence of reproductive control practices has existed. …abortion was legal in the U.S. up until the mid-1800s…

reproductive_justice

ACLU Responds to AZ Gov. Jan Brewer’s Ridiculous Comments on U.S. Human Rights Record

[ACLU Blog - Suzanne Ito]

You might've heard last week that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer was shocked — just shocked! — that the State Department mentioned S.B. 1070, Arizona's new "papers please" racial profiling law, in its first-ever Universal Periodic Review report (PDF) to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Finding the mere mention of her law "downright offensive," Gov. Brewer fired off a letter (PDF) to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing her "concern and indignation" and asked Secretary Clinton to remove the mention of the law…

arizona_sb1070 racism

Crisis Not Averted: Krugman and Wells Offer Econ 101 on the Great Recession

[Firedoglake - David Dayen]

If you want to understand the financial crisis of 2008, this is an excellent place to start, to bookmark, to send along. Krugman and Wells list four reasons for the housing bubble – the Fed’s low interest-rate policy, the “giant pool of money” globally invested into mortgage-backed securities and the like, the exotic financial instruments like MBS which hid risk, and the failure of regulatory authority. They come to the conclusion that securitization actually has created more of a problem AFTER the crisis than before…

recession

4000 Years for Choice: A Visual History With the Power to Transform

[RHRealityCheck.org - Heather Ault]

[This] project draws from a rich and collective history of women controlling their reproduction for thousands of years. As early as Ancient Egypt, medical tablets contained detailed instructions for abortion and contraception procedures. In every culture studied since, evidence of reproductive control practices has existed. …abortion was legal in the U.S. up until the mid-1800s…

reproductive_justice

ACLU Responds to AZ Gov. Jan Brewer’s Ridiculous Comments on U.S. Human Rights Record

[ACLU Blog - Suzanne Ito]

You might've heard last week that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer was shocked — just shocked! — that the State Department mentioned S.B. 1070, Arizona's new "papers please" racial profiling law, in its first-ever Universal Periodic Review report (PDF) to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Finding the mere mention of her law "downright offensive," Gov. Brewer fired off a letter (PDF) to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing her "concern and indignation" and asked Secretary Clinton to remove the mention of the law…

arizona_sb1070 racism

Crisis Not Averted: Krugman and Wells Offer Econ 101 on the Great Recession

[Firedoglake - David Dayen]

If you want to understand the financial crisis of 2008, this is an excellent place to start, to bookmark, to send along. Krugman and Wells list four reasons for the housing bubble – the Fed’s low interest-rate policy, the “giant pool of money” globally invested into mortgage-backed securities and the like, the exotic financial instruments like MBS which hid risk, and the failure of regulatory authority. They come to the conclusion that securitization actually has created more of a problem AFTER the crisis than before…

recession

Conservatives Turn on Petraeus over Koran-Burning Comments

[Firedoglake - David Dayen]

Apparently the Koran-burners’ constitutional right to desecrate an object means more than Petraeus’ constitutional right to say it’s a pretty bad idea. After all, when has that general ever fought for freedom?

religious_tolerance

Petraeus warns over Koran burning

[BBC News]

The US commander in Afghanistan warns troops' lives will be at risk if a Florida church goes ahead with its plan to throw copies of the Koran into a bonfire, but the pastor behind the stunt defends it.

religious_tolerance

Howto: Stop Worrying About Female Brain Hard-Wiring and Get Smarter

[Geek Feminism Blog - Restructure!]

ReducingStereotypeThreat.org, a web site by two psychology professors from Columbia University and CUNY, lists methods to reduce stereotype threat aimed at other psychology researchers who want to reduce stereotype threat in their participants, but the web page is still useful to everyone else and research-backed.

sexism

Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Regina King

[Women & Hollywood - Melissa Silverstein]

racism

Today’s Must Read

[Talking Points Memo - David Kurtz]

…Timothy Noah on income inequality and check out the cool visuals he's put together.

Best takeaway from today's installment: "[I]ncome distribution in the United States is more unequal than in Guyana, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and roughly on par with Uruguay, Argentina, and Ecuador."

income_disparity

Add Subheadings to Your Blog Posts with the SubHeading WordPress Plugin

[Blogging Pro - by Splashpress Media]

wordpress

Bob Shrum to Democrats: Stop the Catfood Commission or Lose Congress

[Firedoglake - Jane Hamsher]

[Longish and crunchy. -L]

fake_deficit_crisis

Charles Darwin performed the world’s first terraforming experiment

[io9 - by Alasdair Wilkins]

Nearly two centuries ago, famed scientists Charles Darwin and Joseph Hooker transformed the barren volcanic island of Ascension into a lush artificial ecosystem, unwittingly inventing terraforming. Now, Darwin's incredible achievement could help us transform Mars into a livable environment.

ecology

Pacifism and first-person shooters

[kottke.org - Jason Kottke]

Glen McCracken is attempting to complete the first-person shooter game Modern Warfare 2 without killing anyone.

war_what_is_it_good_for

Paul Begala Calls Out Ari Fleischer for the Lies He Told That Got Us Into Iraq

[Crooks and Liars - Heather]

[video and transcript]

illegal_invasion iraq

Facebook just asked me if I wanted to be friends with a dead person!

[Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog]

A few minutes ago, I signed on to my Facebook page and was greeted with a message asking me if I wanted to "friend" a person whom I know is no longer functioning as a carbon based biological unit…

facebook_is_annoying

3rd District Rejects Attempts to Force State Appeal of Marriage Decision

[Calitics - Brian Leubitz]

Thing is, the two elected leaders have a fairly wide level of discretion in this case. If they don't feel that there is a strong case on appeal, which they pretty clearly showed by not bothering to defend [Prop 8] in the first place.

marriage_equality

The Basic Guide to Troubleshooting Common Windows PC Problems

[Lifehacker - The How-To Geek]

Your Windows PC might be designed to make your life easier, but they often have a non-stop list of problems. Today we'll walk through some of the more common problems and how to troubleshoot them.

windows tutorial

Keep your goals to yourself: Derek Sivers on TED.com

[TED Blog • by Shanna Carpenter]

After hitting on a brilliant new life plan, our first instinct is to tell someone, but Derek Sivers says it’s better to keep goals secret. He presents research stretching as far back as the 1920s to show why people who talk about their ambitions may be less likely to achieve them.

[video]

gtd

You are Feeling Very Sleepy…

[Daily Squee - Cute Baby Animals]

[I. This. THIS is the most ridiculous kitty pic I've ever seen. -L]

cute_animals

Baby Chin Has Great Balance

[Daily Squee - Cute Baby Animals]

[Chinchilla]

cute_animals

I know that, from a certain angle, this is just facilitating what was already possible.  However, from MY angle–Facebook is already a nightmarish mishmash of insecure and confused semi-communication.  Strangers subscribing to my public posts on Dreamwidth or Livejournal?  Sure, bring it on!  My born-again cousins subscribing to my Facebook activities?  HELL NO.  Or at least, I’d say hell no if I actually used Facebook more than once in a blue moon.

Thank goodness I’ve never been stalked by an ex.

On Tuesday, General Petraeus Achieved Victory in Oceania; On Wednesday, He Led Us to War against Eastasia

[Firedoglake - by emptywheel]

Forgive me if I dismiss what are real measures against a genuinely dangerous organization. But I can’t help but suspect this lays the ground work to ensure we have a war against terror to fight (and with it, expanded executive powers) beyond July 2011.

[Crunchy. -L]

war_on_abstract_nouns police_state

Seven Myths That Cloud Immigration Debate

[ImmigrationProf Blog]

immigration

The Most Insane Zero Tolerance Story Yet

[FreeRangeKids]

…it’s not even that Zero Tolerance is an awful thing that prevents people from using their heads, it also looks only to certain cues and completely ignores kids with real problems who pose a very real physical threat to others around them.

safety_dance

Beam me up

[I Can Has Cheezburger]

lolcat startrek

The Southern Strategy lives on

[Pandagon - Amanda Marcotte]

…In order to establish their claim that the country belongs to angry white conservatives and not to everyone, they need to make appeals to history…

[Also, ancestor-worship fits well into the authoritarian worldview.

Authoritarianism comes from clinging to a leader for protection, as children do with their parents. Parent-worship gets a little complicated, though, since living people tend to present you with first-hand evidence that they aren't all-powerful. Much better to revere the dead; even if they treated women and people of color like cattle, it doesn't matter, since not caring about things that you can't see/sense is a common cognitive error.

-L]

…it’s literally undeniable that racism was a major factor in creating the modern Republican party [...] Republicans at the time were pretty open about this… [blockquote - Lee Atwater]

The reason to rewrite history is that the Southern Strategy is still in play.

tea_party racism

Conservapedia: The theory of relativity is a liberal plot « Climate Progress

[Climate Progress - h/t to Pandagon]

I would have filed this under Signs of the Apocalypse, but we are way past that. This is more like, Signs that the Apocalypse happened a long time ago but we were all too busy watching American Idol to notice.

…how can you possibly quote astrophysics to refute relativity? Why even bother?

science politics

Zombie cat listens

[I Can Has Cheezburger?]

lolcat

The Moral Case For Catfood

[Hullabaloo - digby]

…the Tea Party/GOP Senate nominee Joe Miller from Alaska is just the latest to join a parade of Republican candidates who are taking a a very far right position on everything, but perhaps most surprisingly on Social Security and Medicare…

Kilgore suggests that Democrats take their views seriously and make sure that Americans are correctly informed of them because historically this has been a losing game for the right.I think this is largely correct, but I think we have to watch Democrats just as closely. They seem oddly willing to join this crusade under the illusion that they will be saving the programs by chipping away at them.

The logic of this escapes me, particularly in view of the fact that the right is pushing a moral case [against these programs]…

Update: Posner reminded me of this scary article about the crossroads of Christian Reconstructionism and the tea party, which speaks to this more directly. [link]

fake_deficit_crisis social_security healthcare tea_party

Corporate Pension Deficits in the US Reach An Ominous Milestone

[Workplace Prof Blog]

As pressure mounts on employers to terminate retirement income programs, I and others believe the case is becoming stronger for a mandatory, national pension program which may be based on employer contributions, an expansion of Social Security, or something in between.

social_security

Draconian Solutions to Phony Problems

[The Mahablog - maha]

After years of hysteria that included calls to trash the 14th Amendment, we learn there are two-thirds fewer illegal immigrants in the United States today than there were ten years ago. The mighty flood was more of a swollen creek.

…I submit this is illustrative of most “issues” emanating from the Right in the past several years. Time and time again, real crises are ignored while the Right gins up phony ones for which they propose radical solutions. [bullet points redacted]

fake_crises

Fighting Back Against Copycat Immigration Laws Like Arizona’s: Helpful Materials for Opposing Similar Legislation by Henry Fernandez

[ImmigrationProf Blog]

immigration arizona_sb1070 racism legal_process resource

California Border Schools to Ask Students for Papers

[ImmigrationProf Blog]

immigration papers_please racism

More Death on the Border: Migrants say Arizona worth risk of crossing

[ImmigrationProf Blog]

immigration arizona_sb1070

More GOP Islamophobia… and its ugly consequences

[People For the American Way blogs - Ben]

islamophobia religious_tolerance

Maddow blasts Obama’s praise for Bush

[Crooks and Liars - by David]

[video]

illegal_invasion iraq barack_obama

Banks Make Pre-Crisis Profits As They Prepare to Hand Out Bonuses Early

[Firedoglake - David Dayen]

Yesterday we got wind of an extended whine by the elites of the financial world, angered by the President… calling them mean names, or suggesting they might have had a role to play in the crashing of the economy, or something. Certainly, they could not be lamenting about the Administration hindering their profitability, because that’s going along just fine, thank you…

recession let_them_eat_cake profiteers taxes

Illegal immigration declines sharply in California, across the country, report says

[L.A. Times]

After years of rapid growth, illegal immigration is slowing down in California and across the country, with the state's share of the nation's estimated 11.1 million undocumented immigrants dropping.

immigration

Delicious team +1 (you)

[delicious blog - nosivadnomis]

Got mad web engineer skills? Comfortable with HTML5, CSS3 & PHP? Built any mobile apps? Want to work at Yahoo! and lead the global social bookmarking battle? You might be the perfect fit for the Delicious engineering team.

job_lead programming social_media

Fox News vs. Hipsters: A First-Rate Lesson in Hate Speech

[Runnin' Scared - Foster Kamer]

hate_speech

Long-Tailed Macaque Adopts Abandoned Kitten

[I Can Has Cheezburger?]

cute_animals

Things to come

[slacktivist - Fred Clark]

In 2037, the oldest baby boomers will be 92 years old. They will have been collecting Social Security benefits in full for 27 years. Those benefit payments will have added $0 to the federal budget deficit.

[Slacktivist puts the Deficit Commission into perspective. -L]

alan_simpson fake_deficit_crisis social_security

Hints of altruism among bacteria

[Science News]

E. coli defend against antibiotics with a little help from their friends

microbiology kindness_is_natural

This Could Be You

[Hullabaloo - digby]

The police entered his home without a warrant or permission and told him they were forcibly taking him to a hospital [...] then shot him repeatedly full of electricity when he failed to comply, even after his wife told them he had a heart condition. He broke no law, appeared fully in control, was sitting on his couch talking to the officers. [...]

Just watch the video. You'll especially enjoy the part where they taser him repeatedly while he's screaming and writhing in pain on the ground, as they tell him to "stop resisting."

tasers police_brutality

Afghanistan, August, 2010

[The Big Picture]

With four months left in the year, 2010 is already the deadliest year yet for U.S. troops. 321 have been killed so far (out of 485 total coalition deaths), compared with 313 deaths in all of 2009. [...] Collected here are images of the country and conflict over the past month, part of an ongoing monthly series on Afghanistan. This month marks the 12th entry in the series – I've been putting these together for one year now, and see no reason to stop any time soon. (42 photos total)

u.s._military_in_afghanistan photography

Physicists build a "quantum cat" out of light

[io9 - by Annalee Newitz]

The purple-and-blue blur you see above is a representation of light in a perfectly quantum state, or "cat state," where particles exhibit opposite properties simultaneously. Now scientists have created a highly stable quantum cat – using lasers, of course.

physics

Markos Is Very Very Shrill… Paul Revere Was Very Shrill Too

[Hullabaloo - digby - commenting on a review of Markos's new book, American Taliban]

The inconvenient truth here is that these people are dangerous because their worldview is dangerous. Lethal even. And somebody has to have the guts and to call them on it in their own terms. This "tired genre" of "our opponents are monsters" has been decidedly dominated by one side and the consequences have been grave. We have a fight on our hands and the only real question left is whether anyone on our side is willing to wage it.

religious_right fundamentalism

GOP Governors Try to Defund Health Care, Pit Teachers Against the Poor

[Firedoglake - David Dayen]

The health care question stands in for the political mood, which cuts against Democrats at the moment. Whether or not that holds depends on the implementation process. I don’t know that the public will be willing to wait until 2014 when the whole program comes on-line, and then evaluate it on the merits. But even if they do, at least a couple Republican Governors have decided to stoke their most committed partisans by deliberately trying to distort and defund the law.

healthcare

Time to Raise Hell About the Catfood Commission

[Firedoglake - by Rayne]

More than 31,000 people signed our petition to Can the Catfood Commission. Sadly, the White House says that Alan Simpson will remain as co-chair of the President’s deficit commission.

Simpson says that Social Security is “like a milk cow with 310 million tits.” He and other members of the commission are determined to cut the deficit by slashing Social Security benefits.

The time to raise the red flags is now, before the November election. But many people who care very much about this issue don’t know what’s going on.

We want to micro-target likely voters in key districts with online ads, and let them know that now is the time to protect their future by raising hell.

Can you help us run these online ads and sound the alarm so Americans will know that the Catfood Commission wants to cut their Social Security benefits?

let_them_eat_cake social_security fake_deficit_crisis

I think I’ll stay on this page until politicians everywhere learn to read it.

[Hullabaloo - digby]

Oh, and I don't think I'll be turning the page any time soon on this one and this is why. [link] Trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives wasted and ruined for nothing doesn't seem like something to be swept under the rug.

iraq illegal_invasion barack_obama