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"In the wake of the devastating tornado in an Oklahoma City suburb, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.)..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:57:52 -0400

“In the wake of the devastating tornado in an Oklahoma City suburb, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) rejected comparisons between federal aid for this disaster and the Hurricane Sandy relief package he voted against. That was a “totally different” situation, Inhofe told MSNBC.”

- Inhofe: Tornado aid ‘totally different’ from Hurricane Sandy aid. “Totally”, dude.

Why I'm Not a Vegan - NYTimes.com

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:51:09 -0400

Why I'm Not a Vegan - NYTimes.com:

Advocates of veganism could make a lot more progress in saving the world from harmful impacts of raising livestock if the practice of choosing a vegetable-based diet wasn’t so often presented as an all-or-nothing choice. So while I think VB6 is a gimmicky way of reducing meat consumption, I applaud whatever works for getting people to think critically about their diet.

A By-the-E-Book Education, for $5 a Month - NYTimes.com

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:50:44 -0400

A By-the-E-Book Education, for $5 a Month - NYTimes.com:

Wow, there’s a lot to like about this novel educational system that’s gaining ground in Kenya. The core concepts are probably applicable beyond the limited scope of the poor rural African settings it was designed for.

The New York Times Told Me to Take This Down — Medium

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:38:06 -0400

The New York Times Told Me to Take This Down — Medium:

Clueless legal counsel is clueless.

A Web Series For Kids Aims To Be The “Elmo for Engineering”....

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:03:04 -0400

A Web Series For Kids Aims To Be The “Elmo for Engineering”. This has potential…

"As the Savage-Giuliano disagreement suggests, maintaining a relatively meaningful organic standard..."

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:14:32 -0400

“As the Savage-Giuliano disagreement suggests, maintaining a relatively meaningful organic standard in the Central American coffee business—one that adds value to both bean and the bean grower’s bottom line—may, under current conditions, require something that’s all too rare in the organic/conventional debate: compromise.”

- Coffee Leaf Rust: It’s Coming for Your Morning Joe - The Atlantic

"The exasperation, of course, is not over the content of the study; it is over the fallacious..."

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:51:49 -0400

“

The exasperation, of course, is not over the content of the study; it is over the fallacious inference that communicating the “97% of scientists believe …” message is an effective way to dispel public controversy over climate change.

If it were, then the controversy would have been solved by now. “Scientific consensus” has been the dominant theme of climate communication for the better part of a decade. And cultural polarization over that time has not abated—it has only intensified.
[…]
But here’s another piece of advice: use scientific methods to test and refine communication strategies.

It’s ironic that it’s necessary to say this. But it is. It really really really is.

”

- What is to be done? — Cultural Cognition Blog

"Flickr Pro is no longer available for purchase, but many of the Pro-only features are now part of..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:42:00 -0400

“Flickr Pro is no longer available for purchase, but many of the Pro-only features are now part of free Flickr accounts.”

- Flickr: Help: Free Accounts, Upgrading and Gifts. Flickr no longer wants my money? Oh great, this bodes well for the long-term future of the service. UPDATE: Looks like I spoke too soon: they didn’t just retire the old paid version, they also introduced a new paid version that costs twice as much. Oh well…

Seriously Yahoo?!? That’s some of the worst rasterized...

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:37:21 -0400

Seriously Yahoo?!? That’s some of the worst rasterized text I’ve ever seen. Not a good omen, coming on the same day Marissa Mayer starts a big announcement with “we promise not to screw it up”.

How Wrong Is The Latest “Dirty Dozen List?” « Biology Fortified, Inc.

Sun, 19 May 2013 23:15:28 -0400

How Wrong Is The Latest “Dirty Dozen List?” « Biology Fortified, Inc.:

TL;DR: “Very wrong”. You should freely buy whatever fruits and vegetables you want, because year after year the USDA tests random samples from supermarkets and verifies that they’re well within the safety limits set by the EPA. That large coffee you had this morning is probably riskier than the worst offender on the “dirty” list, and the beer you had with dinner is way worse. So please, don’t let scaremongers make you afraid of fruits and vegetables: they’re unequivocally good for you, regardless of whether they’re organic or conventional.

This is why people should learn statistics — Saturday Morning...

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:17:16 -0400

This is why people should learn statistics — Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

The Carcinogenic Potency Project (CPDB): “The common...

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:08:00 -0400

The Carcinogenic Potency Project (CPDB): “The common exposures to natural chemicals in the diet that cause cancer in rodent tests cast doubt on the importance for human cancer of synthetic pesticide residues or pollutants. We have estimated that 99.9% of the chemicals humans are exposed to are natural, and we find that they are as frequently positive in rodent cancer tests as synthetic chemicals. Many ordinary foods would not pass the health criteria that have been used to regulate human exposures to synthetic chemicals based on results of animal cancer tests.”

iTunes security hole lets users download any pre-release album stream for free | The Verge

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:18:57 -0400

iTunes security hole lets users download any pre-release album stream for free | The Verge:

“Users record broadcast media so that it can be replayed later. News at 11.”

People have been ripping shoutcast streams for years. And RealAudio streams before that. And MTV videos before that. And radio broadcasts before that.

Just because you get something without paying doesn’t mean it was “free”. Try “stolen”.

I had ignored the recent headlines about markets vs morals,...

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:00:00 -0400

I had ignored the recent headlines about markets vs morals, assuming it was a silly study confirming someone’s preconceived notions one way or the other, but after hearing one of the authors describe the experiment I realize that there’s some good, valuable science going on here.

Everything we eat causes cancer…sort of — Science-Based...

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:36:50 -0400

Everything we eat causes cancer…sort of — Science-Based Medicine. I know that’s a pretty dense chart, but would it have killed them to include the confidence intervals? It’s almost useless without them.

"I have a few acquaintances (and one friend) who are HFCS-phobic and use agave syrup instead. I think..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:23:25 -0400

“I have a few acquaintances (and one friend) who are HFCS-phobic and use agave syrup instead. I think I’m going to start telling them that they’re still ingesting HFCS, they’ve just changed the C-word to “cactus.””

- From a comment on High Fructose Corn Syrup: Tasty Toxin or Slandered Sweetener? — Science-Based Medicine

"Many botanists doubt the existence of plant species, viewing them as arbitrary constructs of the..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:19:00 -0400

“Many botanists doubt the existence of plant species, viewing them as arbitrary constructs of the human mind, as opposed to discrete, objective entities that represent reproductively independent lineages or ‘units of evolution’ … We show that although discrete phenotypic clusters exist in most genera (> 80%), the correspondence of taxonomic species to these clusters is poor (< 60%) and no different between plants and animals.”

- The nature of plant species : Nature. So it turns out that even if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, chances are it still isn’t really a duck.

"Our holding today is limited—addressing the situation before us, rather than every one involving a..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:45:06 -0400

“Our holding today is limited—addressing the situation before us, rather than every one involving a self-replicating product.”

- SCOTUS on BOWMAN v. MONSANTO CO.. This was such an open and shut case that I wonder why the court took it up at all, rather than simply letting the lower court ruling stand, if they didn’t intend to issue a more broadly applicable opinion?

The Laboratorium : Computer Crime Law Goes to the Casino

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:30:57 -0400

The Laboratorium : Computer Crime Law Goes to the Casino:

Very astute analysis of a legal issue that has serious implications for hacker culture.

"All these students come to me from high school, and they think art equals painting, and painting..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:04:09 -0400

“All these students come to me from high school, and they think art equals painting, and painting equals realistic painting. They’re being set up to believe they need superhuman powers.”

- 1 | Kickstarting: A $30 Optical Tool For Drawing With Camera-Like Accuracy | Co.Design