http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/a-rocky-first-review-for-a-climate-paper-warning-of-a-stormy-coastal-crisis/?_r=1
Science by its very nature celebrates attempts to overthrow established results, which unavoidably makes our work look "noisy" and confusing to a non-specialist, obscuring for those outside a field what is actually well-founded inside the field. To overcome this difficulty, governments and the broader society have established assessment mechanisms in which the full range of scientists, volunteering in the public eye for the public good, provide up-to-date information on what is solid, what speculative, and what silly. The assessment results are inefficient at generating headlines, he-said/she-saids, and "clicks" on web pages, but the assessment results are far better than the latest press releases at generating reliable, useful, policy-relevant understanding.
---Steve
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Lafayette shooter showed some extreme views
Check out this article from USA TODAY:
Lafayette shooter showed some extreme views
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/07/24/lafayette-shooter-said-he-entrepreneur/30616071/
---Steve
Lafayette shooter showed some extreme views
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/07/24/lafayette-shooter-said-he-entrepreneur/30616071/
---Steve
Friday, July 24, 2015
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Shall or will in contracts? | IP Draughts
Ken Adams, in his book a Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, recommends the use of the word shall for contractual obligations, but only for contractual obligations. Thus, if a contract refers to something happening in the future but is not a contractual obligation, will may be the appropriate word to use.
---Steve
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Do Fetuses Feel Pain? - Reason.com
http://reason.com/archives/2013/07/12/do-fetuses-feel-pain
In reviewing the neuroanatomical and physiological evidence in the
fetus, it was apparent that connections from the periphery to the
cortex are not intact before 24 weeks of gestation and, as most
neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain
perception,
---Steve
In reviewing the neuroanatomical and physiological evidence in the
fetus, it was apparent that connections from the periphery to the
cortex are not intact before 24 weeks of gestation and, as most
neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain
perception,
---Steve
Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway—With Me in It | WIRED
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/
And thanks to one vulnerable element, which Miller and Valasek won't identify until their Black Hat talk, Uconnect's cellular connection also lets anyone who knows the car's IP address gain access from anywhere in the country. "From an attacker's perspective, it's a super nice vulnerability," Miller says.
---Steve
And thanks to one vulnerable element, which Miller and Valasek won't identify until their Black Hat talk, Uconnect's cellular connection also lets anyone who knows the car's IP address gain access from anywhere in the country. "From an attacker's perspective, it's a super nice vulnerability," Miller says.
---Steve
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Monday, July 20, 2015
I-10 in California closed after bridge collapses
Check out this article from USA TODAY:
I-10 in California closed after bridge collapses
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/07/19/i-10-collapse-california/30399815/
---Steve
I-10 in California closed after bridge collapses
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/07/19/i-10-collapse-california/30399815/
---Steve
Sunday, July 19, 2015
I’m giving away MILLIONS of FREE Microsoft eBooks again! Including: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Office 2013, Office 365, SharePoint 2013, Dynamics CRM, PowerShell, Exchange Server, Lync 2013, System Center, Azure, Cloud, SQL Server, and - Microsoft Senior Sales Excellence Manager - Eric Ligman - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
Saturday, July 18, 2015
The ear of David Brooks
This "American dream" is a lie. It's propaganda spawned in the Gilded Age, when plutocrats wanted warm bodies to throw into the bonfires of foreign wars. It's a lie that was whipped into a fervent froth in the 1950s, when we were told to consume, to feed the capitalist beast, or the Communists would eat us. The apotheosis of the American dream were the suburban communities that metastasized at that time…communities built from white flight, communities that were often sundown towns, communities that would rise up in outrage at the idea of desegregation. It is a lie that the already comfortable tell themselves, and try to pawn off on the rest of us. Apparently, our reality is too excessive for a sinecured apologist for the American right.
---Steve
Friday, July 17, 2015
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Monday, July 13, 2015
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Saturday, July 11, 2015
23 things that will give you extreme Italia 90 feelings · The42
We prepared properly. We had a little bit of sun. We ate well. And we drank very little. We're gonna change that tonight.
---Steve
In Conversation With… Steven Pinker
http://www.socialsciencespace.com/2014/03/in-conversation-with-steven-pinker/
Human nature or no human nature," Pinker says, "it's just a brute fact that we don't throw virgins into volcanoes any more. We don't execute people for shoplifting a cabbage. And we used to."
---Steve
Human nature or no human nature," Pinker says, "it's just a brute fact that we don't throw virgins into volcanoes any more. We don't execute people for shoplifting a cabbage. And we used to."
---Steve
Ethical Failures « Science-Based Medicine
The opposite of good is not evil. The opposite of good is good intentions.
– Kurt Tucholsky
---SteveFriday, July 10, 2015
http://scientiasalon.org/
applied ethics rarely takes up the softer, more nuanced normative concepts that one finds in, say, virtue theory, favoring instead the hard, black and white language of obligation — and more often than not, the lens is either Utilitarian or Kantian, which means that the approach is maximally black and white, un-nuanced, and abstract
---Steve
Thursday, July 09, 2015
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
Cosby
Jones: How Bill Cosby betrayed black community
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/08/opinions/jones-bill-cosby/index.html
---Steve
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/08/opinions/jones-bill-cosby/index.html
---Steve
These Are the Largest Employers in Your State | TIME
Wal-Mart is the only company to claim the top employer spot in more than one state. In fact, the nation's largest retailer employed the most people in 20 states.
Understanding Out-of-Wedlock Births in Black America - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/06/understanding-out-of-wedlock-births-in-black-america/277084/
But while the number of unmarried black women has substantially grown, the actual birthrate (measured by births per 1000) for black women is it the lowest point that its ever documented.*
---Steve
But while the number of unmarried black women has substantially grown, the actual birthrate (measured by births per 1000) for black women is it the lowest point that its ever documented.*
---Steve
Other People's Pathologies - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/other-peoples-pathologies/359841/
Confronting the black experience means confronting the limits of America, and perhaps, humanity itself. That is the confrontation that graduates us out of the ranks of national cheerleading and into the school of hard students.
---Steve
Confronting the black experience means confronting the limits of America, and perhaps, humanity itself. That is the confrontation that graduates us out of the ranks of national cheerleading and into the school of hard students.
---Steve
Why Dads Matter - The Atlantic
There is a great deal of evidence that children from single-parent homes have worse outcomes on both academic and economic measures than children from two-parent families," wrote scholar Elaine C. Kamarck and Third Way president Jonathan Cowan in the introduction to Wayward Sons, a report produced for Washington think tank Third Way. "There is a vast inequality of both financial resources and parental time and attention between one- and two-parent families."
---Steve
---Steve
‘This Is How We Lost to the White Man’ - The Atlantic
The accepted wisdom is that such studies are a comfort to black people, allowing them to wallow in their misery. In fact, the opposite is true—the liberal notion that blacks are still, after a century of struggle, victims of pervasive discrimination is the ultimate collective buzz-kill. It effectively means that African Americans must, on some level, accept that their children will be "less than" until some point in the future when white racism miraculously abates. That's not the sort of future that any black person eagerly awaits, nor does it make for particularly motivating talking points.
Last summer, I watched Cosby give a moving commencement speech to a group of Connecticut inmates who'd just received their GEDs. Before the speech, at eight in the morning, Cosby quizzed correctional officials on the conditions and characteristics of their inmate population. I wished, then, that my 7-year-old son could have seen Cosby there, to take in the same basic message that I endeavor to serve him every day—that manhood means more than virility and strut, that it calls for discipline and dutiful stewardship. That the ultimate fate of black people lies in their own hands, not in the hands of their antagonists. That as an African American, he has a duty to his family, his community, and his ancestors.
If Cosby's call-outs simply ended at that—a personal and communal creed—there'd be little to oppose. But Cosby often pits the rhetoric of personal responsibility against the legitimate claims of American citizens for their rights. He chides activists for pushing to reform the criminal-justice system, despite solid evidence that the criminal-justice system needs reform. His historical amnesia—his assertion that many of the problems that pervade black America are of a recent vintage—is simply wrong, as is his contention that today's young African Americans are somehow weaker, that they've dropped the ball. And for all its positive energy, his language of uplift has its limitations. After the Million Man March, black men embraced a sense of hope and promise. We were supposed to return to our communities and families inspired by a new feeling of responsibility. Yet here we are again, almost 15 years later, with seemingly little tangible change. I'd take my son to see Bill Cosby, to hear his message, to revel in its promise and optimism. But afterward, he and I would have a very long talk.
---SteveEvaluating the Moynihan Report on the Negro Family 50 Years Later - Online Library of Law & Liberty
http://www.libertylawsite.org/liberty-forum/evaluating-the-moynihan-report-on-the-negro-family-50-years-later/
Moynihan proceeded to a sweeping historical and sociological analysis of the African American family. The strain of chattel slavery in this country was uniquely dehumanizing, destroying the families that labored under it. Jim Crow was equally degrading, especially to male pride. The result was a matriarchal structure out of sync with a broader society dominated by male authority.
---Steve
Moynihan proceeded to a sweeping historical and sociological analysis of the African American family. The strain of chattel slavery in this country was uniquely dehumanizing, destroying the families that labored under it. Jim Crow was equally degrading, especially to male pride. The result was a matriarchal structure out of sync with a broader society dominated by male authority.
---Steve
Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Monday, July 06, 2015
Sunday, July 05, 2015
Friday, July 03, 2015
Thursday, July 02, 2015
Wednesday, July 01, 2015
No, Polygamy Isn’t the Next Gay Marriage - Jonathan Rauch - POLITICO Magazine
I'm not just making this up. There's an extensive literature on polygamy.
Here's a 2012 study, for example, that discovered "significantly higher levels of rape, kidnapping, murder, assault robbery and fraud in polygynous cultures." According to the research, "monogamy's main cultural evolutionary advantage over polygyny is the more egalitarian distribution of women, which reduces male competition and social problems."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/polygamy-not-next-gay-marriage-119614.html#ixzz3eef2cBKO
---Steve
Moral progress
We can beam with pride over the progress our country has now made with marriage equality.
A quick internet search on the humanities sweep of moral arc toward Justice:
Five countries still have a statutory death penalty for homosexuality, while a further 71 countries punish same-sex couples with lesser sentences of imprisonment or corporal punishment.
While women represent half the global population and one-third of the labor force, they receive only one-tenth of the world income
At least 20.9 million adults and children are bought and sold worldwide into commercial sexual servitude, forced labor and bonded labor.
Atheists living in 13 countries risk being condemned to death, just for their non-beliefs
Thank god I'm a member of only the last of these....
---Steve
A quick internet search on the humanities sweep of moral arc toward Justice:
Five countries still have a statutory death penalty for homosexuality, while a further 71 countries punish same-sex couples with lesser sentences of imprisonment or corporal punishment.
While women represent half the global population and one-third of the labor force, they receive only one-tenth of the world income
At least 20.9 million adults and children are bought and sold worldwide into commercial sexual servitude, forced labor and bonded labor.
Atheists living in 13 countries risk being condemned to death, just for their non-beliefs
Thank god I'm a member of only the last of these....
---Steve
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Monday, June 29, 2015
PressTV-Gay marriage declared legal across US
This is your company when you are on the wrong side of the moral arc toward justice:
"Not only the content of this decision, but the way the Supreme Court invented a constitutional right that does not exist, and overthrew the doctrine of the original intent of the Founders, existing state laws, natural law, and British Common Law as the original basis of American jurisprudence (British Common Law was based on Christianity)," he said.
"This was the case in the Roe v Wade decision in 1973 also. And it should not be ignored that the victories for abortion on demand and LGBT rights are reflective of the disproportionate influence of Jewish power, money, and activism in the United States, freely acknowledged by Vice President Joe Biden in Haaretz recently," Dankof stated.
"The key Jewish role played in the mainstreaming of abortion, LGBT, and pornography in the United States may be documented in Google search, especially in looking at the Frankfurt School and its Institute for Social Research," he added.
"The provable Jewish role in destroying the older Christian cultures of the United States and Europe is now a dagger pointed at the Islamic World and the revival of Eastern Orthodox culture in Russia," the analyst noted.
"I believe Russian President Putin understands this, and will resist the cultural, economic, and military coercion of the Anglo-American-Zionist Empire with all of his country's national resources and will," he observed.
"I believe Mr. Putin is a key ingredient in destroying this global threat, and restoring cultural integrity and national sovereignty to his country.."
---SteveSunday, June 28, 2015
‘I Don’t Believe in God, but I Believe in Lithium’ - The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/magazine/i-dont-believe-in-god-but-i-believe-in-lithium.html?_r=0
It was kumquat season and I wanted to be back in New York.
---Steve
It was kumquat season and I wanted to be back in New York.
---Steve
Conservatives should embrace same-sex marriage
https://theconversation.com/conservatives-should-embrace-same-sex-marriage-43970
The social meaning of marriage has altered dramatically over the past half-century - for the better, in my opinion - but note that Obergefell v. Hodges is the culmination of changes that had already taken place during that time. This social, and now legal, result confirms that marriage is a different, a kinder, more companionate, less patriarchal, institution from what it was in the eighteenth century or even, say, the 1950s.
---Steve
The social meaning of marriage has altered dramatically over the past half-century - for the better, in my opinion - but note that Obergefell v. Hodges is the culmination of changes that had already taken place during that time. This social, and now legal, result confirms that marriage is a different, a kinder, more companionate, less patriarchal, institution from what it was in the eighteenth century or even, say, the 1950s.
---Steve
More than 2.7 billion people live in countries where being gay is a crime | World news | The Guardian
Five countries – Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen – still have a statutory death penalty for homosexuality, while a further 71 countries punish same-sex couples with lesser sentences of imprisonment or corporal punishment.
---Steve
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