RPO -- Walt Whitman : Song of Myself

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2288.html

        1324Do I contradict myself?

        1325Very well then I contradict myself,

        1326(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Check out: 'Mladic the Monster' on Slate

I thought you might find this Slate article interesting:

Mladic the Monster
By Christopher Hitchens
http://www.slate.com/id/2295807?wpisrc=sl_ipad

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Article: Intel's convertible Keeley Lake concept laptop shows off Cedar Trail, we go hands-on

Intel's convertible Keeley Lake concept laptop shows off Cedar Trail, we go hands-on
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/31/intels-convertible-keeley-lake-concept-laptop-shows-off-cedar-t/

Intel's big problem:  

Alas, Intel says there are no commercial plans for this particular device.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Bruce Bartlett: Are Taxes in the U.S. High or Low? - NYTimes.com

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/are-taxes-in-the-u-s-high-or-low/#

Historically, the term "tax rate" has meant the average or effective tax rate — that is, taxes as a share of income. The broadest measure of the tax rate is total federal revenues divided by the gross domestic product.

By this measure, federal taxes are at their lowest level in more than 60 years. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that federal taxes would consume just 14.8 percent of G.D.P. this year. The last year in which revenues were lower was 1950, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

The postwar annual average is about 18.5 percent of G.D.P. Revenues averaged 18.2 percent of G.D.P. during Ronald Reagan's administration; the lowest percentage during that administration was 17.3 percent of G.D.P. in 1984.

In short, by the broadest measure of the tax rate, the current level is unusually low and has been for some time. Revenues were 14.9 percent of G.D.P. in both 2009 and 2010.

Yet if one listens to Republicans, one would think that taxes have never been higher, that an excessive tax burden is the most important constraint holding back economic growth and that a big tax cut is exactly what the economy needs to get growing again.

Just last week, House Republicans released a new plan to reduce unemployment. Its principal provision would reduce the top statutory income tax rate on businesses and individuals to 25 percent from 35 percent. No evidence was offered for the Republican argument that cutting taxes for the well-to-do and big corporations would reduce unemployment; it was simply asserted as self-evident.

One would not know from the Republican document that corporate taxes are expected to raise just 1.3 percent of G.D.P. in revenue this year, about a third of what it was in the 1950s.

The G.O.P. says global competitiveness requires the United States to reduce its corporate tax rate. But the United States actually has the lowest corporate tax burden of any of the member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Too bad -- Maloney's stroke has killed too many of his brain cells..

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/30/intel-reveals-skinny-ivy-bridge-ultrabooks-moores-law-defyin/

"Computing is taking many forms," said Maloney. "Technology innovation is a catalyst, and we believe the changes Intel is making to its roadmaps, together with strong industry collaboration, will bring about an exciting change in personal computing over the next few years."

The "Ultrabook™"

Intel's vision is to enable a new user experience by accelerating a new class of mobile computers. These computers will marry the performance and capabilities of today's laptops with tablet-like features and deliver a highly responsive and secure experience, in a thin, light and elegant design. The Ultrabook™ will be shaped by Moore's Law and silicon technology in the same way they have shaped the traditional PC for the past 40 years.
---Sent from Steve's iPad...

3quarksdaily: “Is there an answer?” Searching for the meaning of life in The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2011/05/is-there-an-answer-searching-for-the-meaning-of-life-in-the-hitchikers-guide-to-the-galaxy.html

So much of what happens in the world is random or unpredictable or unfair, at least compared to the orderly way we feel like things should work. We expect good deeds to be rewarded and bad deeds punished; we expect hard work to pay off and major events to yield lessons or morals.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Rationally Speaking: Massimo's ethical system, an introduction

http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2005/09/massimos-ethical-system-introduction.html

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Rationally Speaking: Genuinely puzzled: what exactly is Blackford saying about Harris?

http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2011/02/genuinely-puzzled-what-exactly-is.html

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

El Sol Bakery and Mexican Food

http://elsolmexicanfood.com/index.html

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Roy Spencer’s Latest Silver Bullet

http://www.skepticalscience.com/roy-spencers-latest-silver-bullet.html

Since I launched my blog a year ago, I've had the chance to examine the claims of a number of climate contrarians.  One thing that has surprised me is how often the contrarians seem to think they've come up with a "silver bullet" to shoot down mainstream scientific views about how sensitive the climate is to forcing by greenhouse gases, etc.  By "silver bullet" I mean a very simple, direct, and clear demonstration that the mainstream is flatly wrong.  Why is this so surprising?  Because even though climate response is a complicated subject, overall sensitivity has been estimated at least nine different ways, and many of these methods are based on paleoclimate data, rather than model output.  Since all of these methods have produced roughly the same answer, the vast majority of climate scientists have concluded that the climate is pretty unlikely to be insensitive enough to avoid major problems if we continue to burn fossil fuels like we have been.  In other words, the possibility of a silver bullet in this case seems remote.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Article: Religion and Sex Quiz - NYTimes.com

Religion and Sex Quiz - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/opinion/22kristof.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

(Sent from Flipboard)

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Hit hens, with a bit on rapture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqK4TM97ZCE&sns=em

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Check out: 'Prophecy Fail' on Slate

I thought you might find this Slate article interesting:

Prophecy Fail
By Vaughan Bell
http://www.slate.com/id/2295099?wpisrc=sl_ipad

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Article: A Fountain of Maggots: Rob Marshall's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | The House Next Door

A Fountain of Maggots: Rob Marshall's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | The House Next Door
http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2011/05/a-fountain-of-maggots-rob-marshalls-pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides/#respond

(Sent from Flipboard)

I looked closer. And, there they were: Two ravenous maggots had crawled out of their cocoons of flesh, and were gently, yet hurriedly, traversing this vast expanse of food, harbingers of their ravenous brothers who were only just waking up. There's nothing more terrifying, to me at least, than looking at one's food, and seeing on it larval insects. I gagged. I gagged again. I threw out the food in the dumpster immediately, and took out the bag and dumped it in the skip outside my building. Then I made myself vomit for an hour. This, my friends, was one of the worst experiences of my life. Well, Rob Marshall's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was worse.

One of the worst films of all time, On Stranger Tides has absolutely and utterly no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I wanted to say it's like watching an enema, but even that's a good thing: you get rid of the filth. Instead, here, you are force-fed shit, then made to regurgitate it, and then eat it again. It's as if you were cloned, and the clones shared the same consciousness, and then were turned into the human centipede, but instead of three, this centipede is endless. It's not so much pain, though there's that, too, but, instead, nausea.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Intel smartphone push questioned | Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20063799-64.html

Behind the doubts is a history of lousy execution. Intel has been promising smartphones with its chips since 2009, when an LG smartphone failed to materialize. More than two years later, no smartphones exist yet with Intel chips.

While optimistic about Intel's upcoming "Medfield" processor for smartphones, Mike Feibus, principal analyst at TechKnowledge Strategies, said there is concern. "It's a little disappointing...because I thought they would be farther along than they are now," he said.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Microsoft: Intel Exec Was Wrong About Windows 8

http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-says-intel-exec-was-wrong-about-windows-8-2011-5?op=1

Renee James: blowing smoke as usual.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Article: Oreskes and Switzer on The Drum : Deltoid

Oreskes and Switzer on The Drum : Deltoid
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2011/05/oreskes_and_switzer_on_the_dru.php?utm_source=combinedfeed&utm_medium=rss

And how much did temperatures rise from 1990 to 2010? Look at the graph below -- it's about 0.3°C.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Victor Stenger: The Folly of Faith

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victor-stenger/the-folly-of-faith_b_863179.html

At the current stage of scientific development, we can confidently say that there is no need to introduce supernatural forces in understanding the universe.

Allow me to give some of the reasons why I believe that science and religion are fundamentally incompatible. And then I will show why it matters.

All religions, even Buddhism, teach that a reality exists that goes beyond -- transcends -- the material world that presents itself to our senses and scientific instruments. Many believers and nonbelievers alike claim that science has nothing to say about the supernatural. But they fail to acknowledge that if the supernatural exists and has effects on the material world, then those effects should be observable and subject to scientific study.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Article: The Fundamental Inconsistency of Ron Paul's Libertarianism : Mike the Mad Biologist

The Fundamental Inconsistency of Ron Paul's Libertarianism : Mike the Mad Biologist
http://scienceblogs.com/mikethemadbiologist/2011/05/the_fundamental_inconsistency.php?utm_source=combinedfeed&utm_medium=rss

Private fee-simple property is, after all, an institution established and enforced by the government. You can hardly get the government out of what is, fundamentally, the government's core business.

And if Ron Paul had had his way, the South would still be segregated. Because those who owned property in the South (along with many who didn't) liked segregation, and were more than willing to use the state to enforce those property rights (with the occasional assistance of the Klan). Paul is someone who thinks freedom and liberty start and stop with property ownership (and the more property you have, the freer you get to be).

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

New IMF head

Now that the Lakers are out of the playoffs, perhaps Kobe can be the
new IMF head now that Strauss-Kahn is in lockup..sounds like the have
similar qualifications.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Song for Strauss-Kahn

Oh, sometimes I wonder what's gonna happen
To my poor wife and child
She made me love her
Now I can't be satisfied

You know you shook me, you shook me all night long
You know you shook me, pretty mama,
you shook me all night long
Oh, you kept on shakin' me darlin',
oh, you messed up my happy home

Muddy Waters' You Shook Me

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Top 5 Non-Religious Books on Living a Good Life at Skeptical Science

http://www.skeptical-science.com/critical-thinking/top-5-nonreligious-books-living-good-life/

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Osama bin Laden terrorism law: U.S. justified in killing Osama Bin Laden - latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rubenfeld-bin-laden-20110516,0,6451265.story

International lawyers today see the law of war as "humanitarian law." That's what they call it. They see the waving of a white flag as the exercise of a human right. This is moral and legal confusion. Surrender isn't a human right. It's a privilege of lawful combat. Terrorists don't lose all legal protections — for example, they can't be sadistically tortured, even if they torture their prisoners — but they forfeit the special rights earned by lawful combatants, including the right to stop the shooting by raising one's hands in purported surrender.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

25-Lecture Course: Human Behavioral Biology (Stanford BIO 250) | Virtual Professors

http://www.virtualprofessors.com/stanford-bio-250-human-behavioral-biology

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

The Great Debate Articles

http://www.thegreatdebate.org.uk/GDarticles.html

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Ron Paul: Angry White Man | The New Republic

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/angry-white-man

What they reveal are decades worth of obsession with conspiracies, sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry against blacks, Jews, and gays. In short, they suggest that Ron Paul is not the plain-speaking antiwar activist his supporters believe they are backing--but rather a member in good standing of some of the oldest and ugliest traditions in American politics
---Sent from Steve's iPad...

‘New York’ Magazine Critique of Libertarianism Has Positive, Unintended Consequences

http://blog.heartland.org/2011/01/new-york-magazine-critique-of-libertarianism-has-positive-unintended-consequences/

That's a good observation — if one puts aside the part that calls the retention of current tax rates a tax cut. But it reveals a misunderstanding about the nature of the liberty sought by libertarians and others on the right: We believe in negative liberty, not positive liberty. Negative liberty is freedom from coercion by other people, whereas positive liberty is freedom from social structures and other limitations of one's station in life. Positive liberty is ironically a pretext for big and oppressive government.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Snuggle for existence

http://edge.org/responses/what-scientific-concept-would-improve-everybodys-cognitive-toolkit

I doubt many realise that, paradoxically, one way to win the struggle for existence is to pursue the snuggle for existence: to cooperate.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Responses | 2011 Annual Question | Edge

http://edge.org/responses/what-scientific-concept-would-improve-everybodys-cognitive-toolkit

Fascinating

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Science explains the end of the world - On Faith - The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/science-explains-the-end-of-the-world/2011/05/10/AFaLvBiG_blog.html

I won't waste any more time on that, but I do want to mention a less trivial point arising from the question posed by the Washington Post: 'What does your tradition teach about the end of the world?' It's that word 'tradition' that should raise our critical hackles. It refers to a collection of beliefs handed down through generations – as opposed to beliefs founded on evidence. Evidence-free beliefs are, by definition, groundless. What my 'tradition' (or your 'tradition' or the Dalai Lama's 'tradition' or Osama bin Laden's 'tradition' or the bad-trip 'tradition' of whoever wrote Revelation) says about anything in the real world (including its end) is no more likely to be true than any urban legend, idle rumor, superstition, or science fiction novel. Yet, the moment you slap the word 'tradition' onto a made-up story you confer on it a spurious dignity, which we are solemnly asked to 'respect'.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

The Year's Highest Paid CEOs - WSJ.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703992704576307332105245012.html

11% average

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Noam Chomsky on Osama Bin Laden: stupid, inconsistent, and ignorant. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine

http://www.slate.com/?id=2293541

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Article: bin Laden and the evolution of altruism

bin Laden and the evolution of altruism
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/bin-laden-and-the-evolution-of-altruism/

(Sent from Flipboard)

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Christopher Hitchens: Unspoken Truths | Culture | Vanity Fair

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/06/christopher-hitchens-unspoken-truths-201106

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Intel 3-D Transistors: Why and When? | Monday Note

http://www.mondaynote.com/2011/05/08/intel-3-d-transistors-why-and-when/

The x86 mobile devices never materialized. Each new low-power processor promise from Intel was matched by ever more attractive ARM development. Now that the PC market is in its twilight, with mobile devices proliferating and stealing growth from the PC, surely Intel has to get into the race.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death | Common Dreams

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/07-5

We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush's compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Check out: 'Is It "Justice"?' on Slate

I thought you might find this Slate article interesting:

Is It "Justice"?
By Thomas Nachbar
http://www.slate.com/id/2293116?wpisrc=sl_ipad

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Check out: 'Still Stupid, Still Wrong, Still Immoral' on Slate

I thought you might find this Slate article interesting:

Still Stupid, Still Wrong, Still Immoral
By Dahlia Lithwick
http://www.slate.com/id/2293043?wpisrc=sl_ipad

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Article: Surveillance, Not Waterboarding, Led to bin Laden | Danger Room | Wired.com

Surveillance, Not Waterboarding, Led to bin Laden | Danger Room | Wired.com
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/surveillance-not-waterboarding-led-to-bin-laden/

(Sent from Flipboard)

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

New free e-book every month from the University of Chicago Press

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/freeEbook.html

Chasing Science at Sea: Racing Hurricanes, Stalking Sharks, and Living Undersea with Ocean Experts

ELLEN PRAGER

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Cheering a Monster's Death Is Not the Same as Patriotism | World | AlterNet

http://www.alternet.org/world/150808/cheering_a_monster%27s_death_is_not_the_same_as_patriotism/?page=entire

Patriotism is not the same thing as cheering in the streets when your side wins the Super Bowl. Patriotism is truest and best when it is quiet, the acceptance of civic duty, as a kind of fate—never with childish glee, but with mature resolution. I think of Pat Tillman, sitting alone in a football stadium after September 11th, deciding that he needed to abandon the boyish game that he loved and instead enlist as a soldier.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

He Won | The Agitator

http://www.theagitator.com/2011/05/02/he-won/

I'm relieved that bin Laden is dead. And the Navy SEALs who carried out the harrowing raid that ended his life have my respect and admiration. And for all the massive waste and abuse our government has perpetrated in the name of fighting terrorism over the last decade, there's something satisfying in knowing that he was killed in a limited, targeted operation based on specific intelligence.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

The Osama bin Laden Trail Shows Waterboarding Didn’t Work | Emptywheel

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/05/02/the-osama-bin-laden-trail-shows-waterboarding-didnt-work/

Either these men didn't know the true name of their protégé and assistant (which is highly unlikely), or they managed to withhold that information even under torture.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Chris Hedges Speaks on Osama bin Laden’s Death | Truthout

http://www.truth-out.org/chris-hedges-speaks-osama-bin-laden%E2%80%99s-death/1304343151

These groups lear ned to speak the lan guage we taught them. And our re spon se was to speak in kind. The lan guage of viol­ence, the lan guage of oc cupation—the oc cupa tion of the Mid dle East, the wars in Iraq and Afghanis tan—has been the best re­cruit ing tool al-Qaida has been han ded. If it is cor rect that Osama bin Laden is dead, then it will spir al up wards with acts of suicid al ven gean ce. And I ex pect most pro bab ly on American soil. The tragedy of the Mid dle East is one where we pro ved in­cap able of com municat ing in any other lan guage than the brute and brut al force of em pire.
---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Osama Bin Laden's legacy: It will depend in part on what Obama does next. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine

http://www.slate.com/id/2292687/

Theocratic irrationality is not so uncommon that defeats like this are enough to render it unattractive.

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - Memorable quotes

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/quotes

Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. 

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Article: A scurrilous attack on Sam Harris

A scurrilous attack on Sam Harris
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/05/01/a-scurrilous-attack-on-sam-harris/

(Sent from Flipboard)

---Sent from Steve's iPad...