J. S. Bach Coffee Cantata. I'm surprised that Starbucks never picked up on this piece as a marketing tool, although most classical musicians are hooked up to coffee machines.

Arnold Schoenberg Verklaerte Nacht (Transfigured Night). Usually we think of this guy as the father of serial technique, using a matrix to help him employ all 12 chromatic tones in his compositions before repeating another one, as well as sprechstimme, that eerie sing/speak voice that help express out darkest inner feelings. Not so with Transfigured Night; this sounds completely romantic - more like Richard Wagner, sans the anti-semitism lurking in the background.

Gustav Holst Savitri. When most people think of Holst, they think of The Planets and anything sounding remotely like it, with British folk song leading the way. Ah, but the man's sadly well-kept secret is that he dug eastern culture. This terrific piece is based on Mahabharata. Totally worth changing your perspective on England's World War II hero-composer.

And, as a little extra no one expects the Spanish Inquisition (see anonymous composer). OK, see this as well!

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• Library workers fired for colluding to keep graphic novel from being checked out by 11-year old girl
• Evidence in Medicine: Correlation and Causation

  Much of scientific evidence is based upon a correlation of variables – they tend to occur together. Scientists are careful to point out that correlation does not necessarily mean causation. The assumption that A causes B simply because A correlates with B is a logical fallacy – it is not a legitimate form of argument. However, sometimes people commit the opposite fallacy – dismissing correlation entirely, as if it does not imply causation. This would dismiss a large swath of important scientific evidence.

  For example, the tobacco industry abused this fallacy to argue that simply because smoking correlates with lung cancer that does not mean that smoking causes lung cancer. The simple correlation is not enough to arrive at a conclusion of causation, but multiple correlations all triangulating on the conclusion that smoking causes lung cancer, combined with biological plausibility, does.

  Correlation must always be put into perspective.



• Darwin's finches tracked to reveal evolution in action


• Covering Alternative Medicine — Another Perspective





• I finally finished reading Auslander's Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir I found this dialogue hillarious.
  

  —What are you reading? she asked, pointing at the book on the passenger seat.

  —Crime and Punishment, I said.

  —Is it good?
  
  —It’s funny, I said.

  —What’s it about?

  —It’s about a guy who murders an old lady.

  —And?

  —And he worries about it for three hundred pages.

  —That does sound funny.
  

  I know, I'm easily entertained.

tip to Max

My estimate of Bill goes down every time he opens his mouth about vaccines. He backs away from a couple of his more outrageous claims, but doesn't get it that 90% of what he says is outrageous. Yes Bill, we know, exercise, eat a balanced diet, and smoke a joint to keep the deadly mosquitoes away.

Orac has promised a thorough fisking for tomorrow. I'm looking forward to some not so respectful insolence. It's here and while your at it read Steven Novella's takedown

But I simply must disagree with Bill about the seatbelt analogy.

By the way, when Scott Pelley asked the government spokesman about the fact that only one percent of people who get the flu find it to be anything other than a typical, mild flu, the answer was an analogy to seatbelts, that "only 1 percent of people riding in a car will be in an accident, but you don't want to take a chance on being that 1 percent."

That went unchallenged, which is sad, because what a horrible analogy! I would think vaccines containing many different dicey substances shot directly into the bloodstream have a slightly greater chance of secondary effects than a piece of fabric lying across your waist. Maybe if you had to swallow the seatbelt this would be a good analogy.

Bill, as usual, missed the point. It's a great analogy because vaccines, like a seatbelt may on occasion cause harm but 99 percent of the time they're beneficial. They cause harm in different ways Bill, so your comment about ingesting a seatbelt is just stupid. A seatbelt might on a rare ocassion kill someone who would have survived had they been thrown free, but like vaccines using them is the odds on way to increase your chances of survival.

• Police worker fired for backing psychic investigations claims religious discrimination

  The judge wrote: "I am satisfied that the claimant's beliefs that there is life after death and that the dead can be contacted through mediums are worthy of respect in a democratic society."



• Norwegian, 18, Is Youngest to Be Ranked No. 1 at Chess

  The chess world has a new No. 1 player, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, and he is only 18 years old — the youngest player ever to hold the rank.



• The Caveman Fallacy


• Sarah Palin’s book has no index; Maybe because she can’t alphabetize?


• COMPLEXITY EXPLAINED: 9. How Did Complex Molecules Like Proteins and DNA Emerge Spontaneously?

  How could the blind forces of Nature create large and highly information-laden molecules like DNA and proteins just by random processes? DNA carries information for the synthesis of proteins, but it requires the prior availability of certain protein molecules for performing its genetic duties. Such proteins help the double-helix DNA molecule to uncoil itself and split into two strands for replication purposes. Therefore, DNA and certain proteins must have emerged independently, by some efficient (and therefore reasonably likely) chemical processes. But how? The answer has to do with the chemical evolution of autocatalytic sets of molecules, which could consume energy-rich molecules and other precursors (’food’) to ‘reproduce’. These molecules were the predecessors of proteins and DNA etc., and thence of life.

• Godless Billboard Moved After Threats



• The Decade is not even over and already we have top hundred lists here and here.



• Race and Intelligence: A sorry tale of shoddy science.
• Learn to Speak Tea Bag (Mark Fiore Animation)
• Splash! NASA Moon Crash Struck Lots of Water

  Suddenly, the moon looks exciting again. It has lots of water, scientists said Friday — a thrilling discovery that sent a ripple of hope for a future astronaut outpost in a place that has always seemed barren and inhospitable. . .

  "Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit. We found a significant amount," said Anthony Colaprete, lead scientist for the mission, holding up white gallon water buckets for emphasis.



• Triangulate Your Position From the Ocean

• Of Fruit Flies and Drones

  I hadn’t thought much about the relationship between fruit flies and Predator drones before visiting the California Institute of Technology, but Caltech, which boasts more than 30 Nobel laureates, teaches many things, not least about the fast-growing field of robotics and war.



• Spiritual Healing

  Yesterday I wrote a satirical post calling for the exclusion of erectile dysfunction treatments in the health care plan because of my moral objections to men defying God's edict to stay flaccid. It created a good chuckle around the blogosphere, my favorite being General JC Christian's post "First they came for the boners" (and his hilarious comment section --- "They'll pry my boner from my cold dead hands.")



• Marking computer says no to lazy Dickens and dull Austen

  As you know, children, we have run all of your mock A-level English papers through the government's official examination marking computer. You will have read in the Times this morning of the fiasco when Ernest Hemingway, William Golding, Winston Churchill and Anthony Burgess failed so spectacularly – frankly confirming my own view that they should have come to me far earlier to discuss their subject choices. I wish them well, obviously, but I fear their subsequent career experiences will amply bear out my reservations.



• I’m a Culture Critic … Get Me Out of Here!
  

  Amid the smoldering wreckage of the popular culture, the author blames Reality TV, which has not only ruined network values, destroyed the classic documentary, and debased the art of bad acting, but also fomented class warfare, antisocial behavior, and murder.



• The Simplest Justification for a Public Option


• Larry King and Carrie Prejean — Not Headed To The Altar