February 2012
69 posts
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Project Icarus: Laying the Plans for Interstellar... →
wildcat2030 via Scoop.it - Knowmads, Infocology of the future:
Andreas Tziolas is drafting a blueprint for a mission to a nearby star. Here, he discusses how we’ll get there — and why we try. We humans have known for a very long time that going to the stars will be difficult, if not impossible. The motto of NASA, Per Aspera Ad Astra, a latin phrase meaning “through hardship to the stars,”...
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In Heavy Waters: Iran’s Nuclear Program, the Risk... →
The dramatic escalation in Israel’s rhetoric aimed at Iran could well be sheer bluff, a twin message to Tehran to halt its nuclear activities and to the international community to heighten its pressure to that end. Or not. As Israel sees it, the nuclear program represents a serious threat; the time when Iran’s putative efforts to build a bomb will become immune to a strike is fast...
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10 Excellent Reasons To Attack Iran →
disobey:
Iran has threatened to fight back if attacked, and that’s a war crime. War crimes must be punished.
My television says Iran has nukes. I’m sure it’s true this time. Just like with North Korea. I’m sure they’re next. We only bomb places that really truly have nukes and are in the Axis of Evil. Except Iraq, which was different.
Iraq didn’t go so badly. Considering how lousy its...
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"A kind of reverse Groupon" →
A new phenomenon, called “Cash Mobs,” is spreading across the country, changing the way people view local businesses. Similar to flash mobs, Cash Mobs organize customers to spend money at struggling locally owned businesses to support their community.
…The idea is the brainchild of Buffalo blogger and engineer Chris Smith, who said that Cash Mobs are sort of a reverse Groupon....
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Chris Christie Top Choice in "Brokered" Convention... →
kopoint:
There has been a lot of talk as of late as to what happens if the GOP reaches the convention and someone is lacking the appropriate number of delegates. Well, there are a lot of options some might say, one of which is what is called a “brokered” convention, though many claim this is highly unlikely. However, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, if things did end up...
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“They say that President Obama is a Muslim, but if he isn’t, he’s a secularist...”
– E.J. Dionne Jr. (via washingtonpoststyle)
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Death by denial: The campaigners who continue to... →
As each of their followers dies, those who campaign against HIV treatments simply move on to the next level of denial
Brian Deer, Guardian »
According to Peter Duesberg, the scientist who fathered this philosophy, about 6% of deaths in the over 50s are from pneumonia…it was on 1 March 1987 that, in a 22-page paper, he set out his case that HIV is harmless.
“It is...
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Michigan Knee Deep in Santorum →
Guardian »
As little as a week ago Michigan’s vote on 28 February was seen as a “firewall” for Romney ahead of the vital “Super Tuesday” contests on 6 March. It was a virtually guaranteed victory that would allow him to wrap everything up a week later and become the presumptive nominee. Instead Michigan is threatening to turn into a defeat. Former ...
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Iran stops oil sales to British, French companies... →
“Exporting crude to British and French companies has been stopped … we will sell our oil to new customers,” spokesman Alireza Nikzad was quoted as saying by the ministry of petroleum website.
The move appeared to be in retaliation for a decision by the European Union in January to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1 over its disputed nuclear program […]
Iran’s oil minister said on...
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“The unpredictable Republican presidential race has taken another surprising turn...”
– Romney Straining to Get to the Right of Genghis Khan (via azspot)
Beautiful. It really strains credulity to imagine how this race could get much more interesting
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The New Inquiry: Predictive analytics and... →
thenewinquiry:
By Rob Horning
…Duhigg’s article focuses mainly on Target’s efforts to figure out which customers are about to go through a major life change (like pregnancy) so that it can take advantage of their flux and vulnerability to change their shopping habits.
“Consumers going through major life events often don’t notice, or care, that their shopping habits have...
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Movie Examines Journalists' Battle to Report... →
The documentary “Reporting… A Revolution” tells the story of six intrepid Egyptian journalists who watched in horror from their Cairo hotel as security forces attacked protesters near Tahrir Square during last year’s revolution. The film, which screened at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, delves into how reporters react when their home city turns...
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Texas Federal Judge responds to the idiocy of Newt... →
underthemountainbunker:
I like this. So much.
Texas Federal Judge Demagogued By Gingrich Fights Back — ‘You Should Be Ashamed’
Texas federal Judge Fred Biery is a key villain in GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s narrative about why federal judges are out of control and must be intimidated into submission. Gingrich routinely cites a previous decision by Biery holding that the...
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Spinoza’s Vision of Freedom, and Ours →
Steven Nadler »
The ultimate goal of his “Theological-Political Treatise” — published anonymously to great alarm in 1670, when it was called by one of its many critics “a book forged in hell by the devil himself”— is enshrined both in the book’s subtitle and in the argument of its final chapter: to show that the “freedom of philosophizing” not only can be granted “without...
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Busted: Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works... →
climateadaptation:
“The inner workings of a libertarian thinktank working to discredit the established science on climate change have been exposed by a leak of confidential documents detailing its strategy and fundraising networks.
DeSmogBlog, which broke the story, said it had received the confidential documents from an “insider” at the Heartland Institute, which is based in Chicago. The blog...
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“Yes we are men of God. That money cannot be used for contraception. That money...”
– Jon Stewart, The Vagina Ideologues
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“This government hates religious organizations so much it lets them keep a 100...”
– Jon Stewart, Hannity’s holy sausage fest
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“See, conservative politicians and their media mouthpieces have gathered around a...”
– the Rude Pundit
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Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down... →
Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts.
Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this...
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"You get paid to look good, now shut up." →
The ugly truth of fashion’s model behaviour
Sara Ziff (Guardian) »
At 29, I have worked as a model for over half my life, and I’m the first to admit that I’ve been lucky in my career. I have worked with some of fashion’s most talented, creative people as the face of some of the industry’s most recognized brands. I enjoy modeling, a job that not only...
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Iran Worried U.S. Might Be Building 8,500th... →
Onion »
TEHRAN—Amidst mounting geopolitical tensions, Iranian officials said Wednesday they were increasingly concerned about the United States of America’s uranium-enrichment program, fearing the Western nation may soon be capable of producing its 8,500th nuclear weapon. “Our intelligence estimates indicate that, if it is allowed to progress with its aggressive...
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“The truth is that the Republicans have nothing to offer. Not even anything that...”
– Republicans undiscover fire (via underthemountainbunker)
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“How did American conservatism end up so detached from, indeed at odds with,...”
– Krugman, NYT (via magnificentruin)
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Younger Castro steers Cuba to a new revolution →
Independent »
Landscapers are working hard on matters of equally urgent national strategy. Fifteen more golf courses and new marinas are being laid out in Cuba and they can’t be finished quickly enough: golfers from abroad will even be able to lease chalets and timeshares. The island’s hotels are packed. European visitors are pouring in. After decades of US-imposed...
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“…the highest act of reason, which, in that it comprises all ideas, is an...”
– Das älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus Anonymous
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On Ayn Rand →
letterstomycountry:
As I spotted JoeMcCarthyBlues discussing Ayn Rand with spry interlocutors, I was reminded of an article that Whittaker Chambers wrote for National Review in 1957, in which he essentially decimated Ayn Rand’s philosophy and literary bona fides. It is worth quoting Chambers at length. Here, he analyzes Rand’s use of the dollar sign as a symbol of her liberation ideology,...
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“Karl Rove pranced onto Fox ‘news’ to announce his displeasure [with...”
– the Rude Pundit, (via icantbelieveitsalawblog)
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“And doesn’t it seem shameful to you to need medical help, not for wounds or...”
– Plato (Republic III 405c-406a)
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Hacked emails finger pro-Putin group paying... →
Guardian »
The Russian youth group Nashi has paid hundreds of thousands of pounds to a vast network of bloggers, journalists and internet trolls to create flattering coverage of Vladimir Putin and discredit his political rivals, according to a haul of thousands of emails allegedly sent to and from the group that have been released by Russian hackers. >continue<
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Al-Qaida Syrian advisings →
Abu Basir wouldn’t be a true Salafi if he didn’t start by criticising the sect of the al-Asad family, the ‘Alawites, which Salafis (and, to a lesser extent, Sunnis in general) view as deviant or even infidel. He claims that they – among other things – are batinis (i.e. people who believe the Qur’an has an inner, esoteric meaning apart from its outer, exoteric meaning), idol worshippers and...
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“As I looked backward and forward in time, however, I had to face this awkward...”
– David Frum (via azspot)
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There isn't a single logically valid, nonreligious...
spytap:
Not one. And if the only argument you have is that your specific religion disapproves, well, that’s not really an argument at all; at least not in this country.
A good point, and one that indicates the duty of reason and citizenship under our constitutional rubric. If all one can do is to import metaphysically based criteria and narratives into a debate where such terms are not...
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Entire genome of extinct human decoded from fossil →
“The genome is of very high quality”, says Matthias Meyer, who developed the techniques that made this technical feat possible. “We cover all non-repetitive DNA sequences in the Denisovan genome so many times that it has fewer errors than most genomes from present-day humans that have been determined to date”. >continue<