“It is a very civilized way to end your life, and I don’t understand why the legal position in this country doesn’t allow it.” (New York Times )
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‘Kids these days! [A reader] writes, “My lectures about financial responsibility appear to have failed: yesterday [my teenaged daughter] charged $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 at the drug store.” You would think Visa would have caught the error and addressed it, if you were high. What Visa actually did was slap a $20 “negative balance” fee on it, of course.’
And this, from the comments to the post:
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“Maybe the bank mistakenly converted the charge into Zimbabwe dollars?”
(Consumerist)
“Loren Coleman defines cryptozoology and says, once and for all, that it is science. On the one hand, Loren Coleman is a skeptic, firmly grounded in scientific principles. On the other hand, his particular branch of science, cryptozoology, gives equal credence to suspected bird species, say, and near-mythical creatures like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. Cryptozoology—the search for and study of animals whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated—is frequently treated as an easily dismissed bastard child of science. If that’s the case, then Coleman is the unrepentant modern father of the field. Besides authoring nine books on the topic, he also owns the International Cryptozoology Museum, which he runs out of his home in Portland, Maine. A former psychiatric social worker and university professor, he now makes his living writing, lecturing, and consulting about cryptozoology, which he’s studied since before the word existed in English. Coleman’s out to show that there’s much more to cryptozoology than chasing down Bigfoot or plumbing the depths of Loch Ness for its most famous resident.” (The New York Review of Ideas)
![[Image 'http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/fijibottledwater-copy-61.jpg' cannot be displayed]](http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/fijibottledwater-copy-61.jpg "To boldly go where no town has gone before...")
“Remember when you could buy barbiturates for the baby? Cover your house with asbestos? Or get heroin from the doctor? Okay, probably not, but thanks to the immortal beauty of advertising, you can take a trip back in time. Here's our pick of some of the most ironic ads in American history.” (Consumerist )
This six-minute short by Neill Blomkamp appears to be the basis for his much-awaited feature-length film District 9. Set in South Africa, the gritty faux-verite sci-fi film seems to be a recapitulation of apartheid with ghettoized aliens as the oppressed but powerful race.
District 9 opens August 14; here is the theatrical trailer.
Blomkamp is also directing the Halo flick.
Rafe Coburn: “James Fallows said the following in 1995 when Robert McNamara wrote his memoir expressing his regrets about the Vietnam War:
In the cycles of life, the desire to square accounts is natural, but Robert McNamara has forfeited his right to do so in public. You missed your chance, Mr. Secretary. It would have been better to go out silently, if you could not find the courage to speak when it would have done your country any good.
And today Fallows adds:
My tone then was harsher than I would be now. Perhaps that’s just because I’m older; perhaps because McNamara has now died; perhaps because he had fifteen more years to be involved in worthy causes, mainly containing the risk of nuclear war or accident. But mainly I think it is because of Errol Morris’ remarkable 2003 film The Fog of War, which portrayed McNamara as a combative and hyper-competitive man (in his 80s, he was still pointing out that he had been top of his elementary-school class) but as a person of moral seriousness who agonized not just about Vietnam but also the fire-bombing of Tokyo during World War II, which he had helped plans as a young defense analyst.
I think that there’s another reason for Fallows to leaven his tone, which is that it was not too late for McNamara to help his country. Had the Bush administration taken McNamara’s memoir to heart, the war in Iraq could have been avoided. Had President Obama done so, maybe we would be taking a different course in Afghanistan. Rarely does a week go by where we don’t hear about unarmed drones blowing up dozens of Afghans or Pakistanis. We are still failing to take the lessons McNamara learned too late to heart. But because he did eventually talk about the mistakes he made, we do have the opportunity to learn.”
via rc3.org.
What do you think? Were McNamara’s mistakes unforgiveable? Is there any sense yet that we learn from history?
 |
Every so often, when I get around to checking in at The Null Device, I am amply rewarded. Recent interesting goodies include:
Related:
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…There’s growing evidence that jumping up and down about millions of lives at stake can even be counterproductive. A number of studies have found that we are much more willing to donate to one needy person than to several. In one experiment, researchers solicited donations for a $300,000 fund that in one version would save the life of one child, and in another the lives of eight children. People contributed more when the fund would save only one life.
“The more who die, the less we care.” That’s the apt title of a forthcoming essay by Paul Slovic, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon who has pioneered this field of research.
Yet it’s not just, as the saying goes, that one death is a tragedy, a million a statistic. More depressing, appeals to our rationality actually seem to impede empathy.
For example, in one study, people donate generously to Rokia, a 7-year-old malnourished African girl. But when Rokia’s plight was explained as part of a larger context of hunger in Africa, people were much less willing to help.
Perhaps this is because, as some research suggests, people give in large part to feel good inside. That works best when you write a check and the problem is solved. If instead you’re reminded of larger problems that you can never solve, the feel-good rewards diminish.” (New York Times op-ed)
Rules for elegant writing from David Smith, expanding upon an idea by William Safire.
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Photo by my friend Abby (thanks!) from Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Maspeth NY.
Xeni Jardin: “Filmmaker Dianna Dilworth emailed me last week with a link to her documentary about hardcore Michael Jackson fans like the fellow above: We are the Children.
“It's a look at the lives of the fans during the trail a few years back,” she says — specifically, trufans out showing support for their idol during the pop star's 2004-05 trial on child molestation charges.
As folks who follow me on Twitter already know, I find the cable news MJ-death-marathon spectacle to be a sad reminder of the state of — well, the pathetic state of American cable news. I mean, what was that? Nine days of wall to wall “Michael Jackson: STILL DEAD”?
But thoughtful works like Dilworth's film, works that examine the lives of the “happy mutants” who are utterly devoted to this pop culture figure, I find fascinating. Do yourself a favor today: turn off the TV, stream this instead.
You can view Diana's film online for free at SnagFilms, a new ad supported film content site (Flash embed).
Or, you can buy a DVD here.” (Boing Boing )
![[Image 'http://www.juxtapoz.com/images/stories/Intro1.jpg' cannot be displayed]](http://www.juxtapoz.com/images/stories/Intro1.jpg "Banksy")
“Banksy finally unveiled his highly anticipated summer show at the Bristol Museum in the UK today. His largest collection to date, this exhibit has expanded upon the notions of animal cruelty seen in his last showing in New York City, Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill, and included commentary on human worker’s rights.
Bristol's City Museum & Art Gallery presents this unique collaboration between the city's foremost cultural institution and one of the region's most infamous artists, tilted Banksy Versus Bristol Museum. Banksy has gained notoriety in recent years by using stencils to paint images on a diverse array of outdoor locations, always pushing boundaries but somehow managing to remain anonymous. This is the first exhibition in a three storey Edwardian museum.
For this massive show, Banksy worked in tandem with the museum's director. Banksy filled three stories of the building with his art in just 36 hours under tight security, as only a few museum staff were aware of the shows' imminent arrival. In fact, apparently many of the museum guides only discovered that they would be working in a Banksy exhibition on Thursday (two day’s prior to its public opening) after being employed via the Job Centre…” (Juxtapoz)
Tomorrow we have a moment that can be described as: 12:34:56 7/8/9. [via abby]
“Weapons inspector David Kelly was writing a book exposing highly damaging government secrets before his mysterious death.He was intending to reveal that he warned Prime Minister Tony Blair there were no weapons of mass destruction anywhere in Iraq weeks before the British and American invasion.He had several discussions with a publisher in Oxford and was seeking advice on how far he could go without breaking the law on secrets.Following his death, his computers were seized and it is still not known if any rough draft was discovered by investigators and, if so, what happened to the material.Dr Kelly was also intending to lift the lid on a potentially bigger scandal, his own secret dealings in germ warfare with the apartheid regime in South Africa.US television investigators have spent four years preparing a 90-minute documentary, Anthrax War, suggesting there is a global black market in anthrax and exposing the mystery “suicides” of five government germ warfare scientists from around the world.” (Daily Express UK)
A torrent download of Anthrax War is available at this link.
![[Image 'http://estb.msn.com/i/D5/36C93EE35B16D38BDE40358784336.jpg' cannot be displayed]](http://estb.msn.com/i/D5/36C93EE35B16D38BDE40358784336.jpg "Whining about whiners")
“Sarah Palin has largely stayed under the radar since her surprising and rambling press conference Friday announcing that she will resign as Alaska Governor on July 26th, barely halfway through her first term. However, she has resurfaced a couple times in the form of messages: One on her Facebook page, the other a statement released by her lawyer. Both have taken hard shots at the media for what Palin perceives as unfair coverage.
In her Facebook message, Palin slammed the press for their “predictable” coverage of her resignation and for applying “different standards” when covering her…
Understandably, much of the media coverage has focused on Palin's reasons for resigning, as her lengthy goodbye speech did nothing to clear up the confusion. One oft-repeated theory is that there is a new scandal looming; talk of ethical problems has been swirling around in Alaska for weeks. Palin's lawyer released a statement threatening to sue various media, including the Huffington Post, for what he called “defamatory rumors.”
Palin is known for her hostility towards the media. But she has not been so quick to decry tough scrutiny when it is pointed at other female targets: Hillary Clinton, example. In August 2008, Palin lamented Clinton's complaints about unfair media coverage as 'whining' that is bad for female candidates everywhere.” (Huffington Post)
What stuntmen think are the best stunt films of all time. (Slate [via walker])
“So much for Al Franken’s 60th vote. A coalition of renegade Democrats stands ready to defy the president, writes Matthew Yglesias, and could damage his legislative agenda.” (The Daily Beast)
Related:
- He’s “Lord Of The Flies”; Obama That Is (middletownmike.blogspot.com)
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“A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.
Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another.
The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.” (BBC)
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“Dans Le Noir translates to English as “In The Dark.” The restaurant is named this for a very good, if on-the-nose, reason: It’s completely, pitch black on the inside. The entire wait staff is completely sightless, and ushers patrons to their tables in completely darkness. The food and drinks are prepared by sighted staff in separate, lit rooms.
But the entire meal is eaten (and all drinks poured – think about that) with no light whatsoever. If you’ve got an Indiglo watch, they take it. All cell phones are confiscated. And don’t even think about going there with LA Lights.
The idea here is to deprive your body of its visual input in order to heighten all the other senses you use to eat: most notably the senses of touch, smell and taste. This means you pour your wine with a finger down the glass, so that you stop when you feel wetness. It also means you don’t know what you’re eating until you’re eating it (and even then, you might not guess).
Although Swiss culinary innovation may seem like a contradiction in terms, the idea of blind dining originated with a blind clergyman from Switzerland, Jorge Spielmann. He wanted diners to be able to better understand his world.”
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she’d come out ahead if she went one-on-one with fellow jogger President Barack Obama in a long run.
“I betcha I’d have more endurance,” she told Runner’s World magazine in an interview published online Tuesday.
“My one claim to fame in my own little internal running circle is a sub-four marathon” in Anchorage, she said, referring to her 2005 sprint in the Humpy’s Marathon in which she beat the four-hour mark by 24 seconds.” (WCVB )
Telecom firms back standard phone charger in Europe: “The agreement by Nokia, Sony Ericsson and other industry majors will mean phones compatible with standard charging devices are available in Europe from next year, said the EU executive, which has pushed for such a deal.” (Reuters Technology)
And the reason we cannot do this in the US? Comes down to either greed or stupidity; I can’t see any other possibilities.
Dreamed the thong of my sandal broke.
Nothing to hold it to my foot.
How shall I walk?
Barefoot?
The sharp stones, the dirt. I would hobble.
And–
Where was I going?
Where was I going I can't
go to now, unless hurting?
Where am I standing, if I'm
to stand still now?
“Some of the first eerie signs of a potential health catastrophe came as bizarre deformities in water animals, often in their sexual organs.
…Now scientists are connecting the dots with evidence of increasing abnormalities among humans, particularly large increases in numbers of genital deformities among newborn boys. For example, up to 7 percent of boys are now born with undescended testicles, although this often self-corrects over time. And up to 1 percent of boys in the United States are now born with hypospadias, in which the urethra exits the penis improperly, such as at the base…” — Nicholas Kristoff (New York Times op-ed)
‘…[A] collection of a few of the more interesting spheres found around the world.
Sweden Solar System: The world’s largest model of our planetary system centered around the largest spherical building in the world.
The Mapparium: An three story inside-out glass globe built in 1935.
The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory: A gigantic spherical neutrino detector built into the largest man made underground cavity in the world.
Costa Rican Stone Spheres: Mysterious spherical rock formations from an earlier era.
Paris Sewer Museum: Giant wooden balls helped keep the Parisian sewers clean.
The Republic of Kugelmugel: A spherical “micro-nation” in the heart of Vienna…’ [via boing boing]
“Sick of pesky government oversight? Don’t like taxes? Pessimistic about democracy in general? Why not find your build your own island nation and declare yourself king? Modern land-moving technology makes it easier than ever, but hardly an simple undertaking. As part of our May-June cover story, engineer McKinley Conway, How to Start Your Own Country author Erwin S. Strauss, and micro-nation documentarian George Dunford explain the history of the DIY nation.” (The Futurist)
“Why do people choose streets over shelter? For those who have never been without a permanent home, it’s tough to imagine… “SlumJack Homeless” is a former property manager who has been homeless and living on the streets read more about his predicament here. He shared his reasons for choosing to live on the streets…” (Change.Org)
Related:
- New Face of Homelessness (abcnews.go.com)
- Homeless Student Aims For Harvard (takepart.com)
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Now you see it...
“Amnesty International has installed a new anti-domestic-abuse ad fixture in Hamburg, Germany which is equal parts clever and shocking: when you look at the photo, it's a smiling couple; when you look away, it's a dude punchin' a lady.” (Gizmodo )
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A famous person has died...
‘Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around “as high as a kite”, a government official has said.
…Rick Rockliff, a spokesman for poppy producer Tasmanian Alkaloids, said the wallaby incursions were not very common, but other animals had also been spotted in the poppy fields acting unusually.
“There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles,” he added.’ (BBC )
I’ve been sending this Mad TV Bob Newhart Skit with Mo Collins around to all my friends in the psychiatric field. (If it is not what we actually do in dealing with some patients, perhaps it is what we ought to do??). You might find it amusing. It runs around 6 minutes. (YouTube )
There has been much web speculation at times past that he was suicidal (Google search). In a total vacuum about autopsy findings, I wonder if it is reasonable to speculate about whether he took his own life, as troubled as he evidently was mentally, and with incredible mounting financial woes.
![[Image 'http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/38000/38985/ISS020-E-09048.jpg' cannot be displayed]](http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/38000/38985/ISS020-E-09048.jpg "Blowin' its stack")
“A fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station allowed the astronauts this striking view of Sarychev Volcano Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain, and it is located on the northwestern end of Matua Island. Prior to June 12, the last explosive eruption occurred in 1989, with eruptions in 1986, 1976, 1954, and 1946 also producing lava flows. Ash from the multi-day eruption has been detected 2,407 kilometers east-southeast and 926 kilometers west-northwest of the volcano, and commercial airline flights are being diverted away from the region to minimize the danger of engine failures from ash intake.This detailed astronaut photograph is exciting to volcanologists because it captures several phenomena that occur during the earliest stages of an explosive volcanic eruption.” (NASA)
“No one could accuse the American Psychiatric Association of missing a strain of sourness in the country, or of failing to capitalize on its diagnostic potential. Having floated “Apathy Disorder” as a trial balloon, to see if it might garner enough support for inclusion in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the world’s diagnostic bible of mental illnesses, the organization has generated untold amounts of publicity and incredulity this week by debating at its convention whether bitterness should become a bona fide mental disorder.” (Psychology Today)
Related:
- I looked You Up – I know what your Problem is!!! (dummidumbwit.wordpress.com)
- REVISING THE DSM-IV INTO THE DSM-V. There are high stakes here – a DSM-sanctioned diagnosis can m… (pajamasmedia.com)
- Update: DSM-V Major Changes (psychcentral.com)
- The Next Attention Deficit Disorder? (time.com)
- At the Doctor’s Office – How Not to Get Sick – TIME (time.com)
- Redefining Crazy: Researchers Revise the DSM (time.com)
- Sadly not insanity: psychiatrists want bitterness classed as a mental disorder (inquisitr.com)
“The mind is not the brain. Confusing the two, as much neuro-social-science does, leads to a dehumanised world and a controlling politics.” (open Democracy)
What Mark Edmundson would like to tell the bores in his life: ‘“There is no more infuriating feeling,” says the classicist Robert Greene, describing this sort of an encounter, “than having your individuality ignored, your own psychology unacknowledged. It makes you feel lifeless and resentful.” That’s exactly how I feel when I have these encounters: lifeless and resentful. But why? Why is this kind of treatment so painful? People do all kinds of aggressive and antisocial things to each other—surely I do a few myself—and talking on and on can’t be the worst of them. Still, being on the receiving end of such verbiage reliably sends me close to the edge.’ (American Scholar)
“…[Howard] Gardner, a professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who won a prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius award” in 1981, has had enormous influence, particularly in our schools. Briefly, he has posited that our intellectual abilities are divided among at least eight abilities: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. The appealing elements of the theory are numerous.
Multiple intelligences put every child on an equal footing, granting the hope of identical value in an ostensible meritocracy. The theory fits well with a number of the assumptions that have dominated educational philosophy for years. The movements that took flower in the mid-20th century have argued for the essential sameness of all healthy human beings and for a policy of social justice that treats all people the same. Above all, many educators have adhered to the social construction of reality — the idea that redefining the way we treat children will redefine their abilities and future successes. (Perhaps that’s what leads some parents to put their faith in “Baby Einstein” videos: the hope that a little nurturing television will send their kids to Harvard.) It would be difficult to overestimate the influence of Gardner’s work, both in repudiating that elitist, unfair concept of “g” and in guiding thought in psychology as it applies to education.
The only problem, with all respect to Gardner: There probably is just a single intelligence or capacity to learn, not multiple ones devoted to independent tasks. To varying degrees, some individuals have this capacity, and others do not. To be sure, there is much debate about Gardner’s theory in the literature, with contenders for and against. Nonetheless, empirical evidence has not been robust. While the theory sounds nice (perhaps because it sounds nice), it is more intuitive than empirical. In other words, the eight intelligences are based more on philosophy than on data.” (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Related:
- Building the 21st-Century Mind (3quarksdaily.com)
- The Eight Intelligences (slideshare.net)
- Episode 90: The Learning Styles Myth: An Interview with Daniel Willingham (thepsychfiles.com)
“This brief survey demonstrates why Israel’s military option against Iran’s nuclear program is so unattractive, but also why failing to act is even worse. All these scenarios become infinitely more dangerous once Iran has deliverable nuclear weapons. So does daily life in Israel, elsewhere in the region and globally.” (WSJ.com)
Related:
- Why Netanyahu should part company with Obama on Iran (powerlineblog.com)
- Obama’s Iran Election Ineptitude Worsens Nuclear Threat (usnews.com)
- Report: Iran could have enough material for nuke in months (cnn.com)
- UN says new uranium traces found in Syria (ctv.ca)
- US: Iran could have nuclear bomb in one year (telegraph.co.uk)
![[Image 'http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/5/16/1242501448097/Neanderthal-001.jpg' cannot be displayed]](http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/5/16/1242501448097/Neanderthal-001.jpg "Dish of the day?")
Dish of the day?
“A fossil discovery bears marks of butchering similar to those made when cutting up a deer.” (Guardian.Co.UK).
A number of scientists argue that we have a so-called ‘behavioral immune system’ that functions to protect us against strangers who might carry germs against which we have no immunity. (Discover)
I have long believed that tribalism is inborn, but I had focused mostly on the cognitive limits of reciprocity and trust. This is another, intriguing, idea.
“It is no myth that repressive regimes are becoming increasingly more savvy in their ability to effectively employ sophisticated filtering, censoring, monitoring technologies (often courtesy of American companies like Cisco) to crack down on resistance movements. In other words, political activists need to realize that their regimes are becoming smarter and more effective, not dumber and hardly clueless.
That said, there are notable—at times surprising—loopholes. During the recent election violence in Iran, for example, facebook.com was blocked but not facebook.com/home.php. In any case, repressive regimes will continue to block more sites impose information blockades because they tend to view new media and digital technologies as a threat.
Perhaps technologies of liberation are a force more powerful?
In order to remain on the offensive against repressive regimes, nonviolent civil resistance movements need to ensure they are up to speed on digital security, if only for defense purposes. Indeed, I am particularly struck by the number of political activists in repressive regimes who aren’t aware of the serious risks they take when they use their mobile phones or the Internet to communicate with other activists.” — Patrick Meier (iRevolution via walker)
Related:
- How the west enabled Iran’s censors (guardian.co.uk)
- Victory requires Facebook friends (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Jessica Olien: Dispatches From a Twitter Revolutionary (huffingtonpost.com)
- Social Media is STILL Stupid (clearcastdigitalmedia.com)
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Via COLOURlovers (thanks to Robot Wisdom Auxiliary April-May links).
The hellbender and Asian giant salamanders (family Cryptobranchidae) are aquatic amphibians found in brooks and ponds in the eastern United States, China, and Japan. They are the largest living amphibians known today. The Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus), for example, reaches up to 1.44 metres (4.7 ft), feeds on fish and crustaceans, and has been known to live for more than 50 years in captivity.[1] The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) can reach a length of 1.8 metres (5.9 ft). (Wikipedia)
An international consortium of researchers is sequencing the 3 billion bases that make up the genome of our closest relative – the Neandertal
The sequence is generated from DNA extracted from three Croatian Neandertal fossils, using novel methods developed for this project.
The Neandertal genome sequence will clarify the evolutionary relationship between humans and Neandertals as well as help identify those genetic changes that enabled modern humans to leave Africa and rapidly spread around the world, starting around 100,000 years ago. (Max Planck Institute)
“A reader writes:
So here's what we have:
They're afraid of murdering too many protesters all at once. Eventually the protesters will come to understand how to work around this.” — The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan (The Atlantic)
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““The zombie genre is at its heart a progressive one, a writer argues. After all, to defeat the flesh-eating hordes, it often takes a multicultural village.” (The American Prospect)
![[Image 'http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/mg20227091.200/mg20227091.200-1_300.jpg' cannot be displayed]](http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/mg20227091.200/mg20227091.200-1_300.jpg "The region of the Sagittarius A supermassive black hole, as seen by Chandra.")
The region of the Sagittarius A supermassive black hole, as seen by Chandra.
Black holes are perhaps the most outrageous prediction of science, and even though we can paint fine theoretical pictures of them and point to evidence for many objects that seem to be black hole-ish, nobody has ever actually seen one.
All that could change in the next few months. Astronomers are working to tie together a network of microwave telescopes across the planet to make a single instrument with the most acute vision yet. They will turn this giant eye towards what they believe is a supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, code name Sagittarius A. (New Scientist)
![[FmH-branded items]](http://theworld.com/~emg/uploaded_images/fmhcap.jpg "FmH-branded items")
