[links] Link salad wakes up in freezing Omaha
What An Amazing Dam. Wait… What’s That? Are Those…? No Way! - Yup. Goats. (Via David Goldman.)
Cats Recognize Their Owner’s Voice But Chose to Ignore It - Hahaha.
Stolen cobalt-60 found in Mexico; curious thieves likely doomed
An Artificial Hand with Real Feelings - A new nerve interface can simulate a sense of touch from 20 spots on a prosthetic hand.
At 400,000 Years, Oldest Human DNA Yet Found Raises New Mysteries
Could dark matter be hiding in plain sight in existing experiments? - Particles called axions could be creating noise in superconducting devices.
Wonders in the Antarctic Sea and Sky - Mmm. NASA photos.
Your questions about the new IPCC climate change report answered - Mmm, science. Always with the new questions, never with the final answers.
Katie Couric Gives Anti-Vaccine Ideas a Shot - The real problem with this entire segment on the “Katie” show was the false balance: The idea that there are two sides to this story. That is grossly unfair; the evidence is vastly on the side of the vaccine having extremely little risk, and no solid evidence at all that it causes harm. It’s not as though the research on this is split. Welcome to the world of Your Liberal Media, where ridiculous and harmful fairy tales without any evidence-based support, such evolution denial, climate change denial, supply side economics and the Republican party platform, are all treated with respect in the name of balance. It is the shame of liberal America that the same erratic thinking and willful ignorance that so profoundly characterizes almost all conservative “thought” is legitimized through the fixation on vaccination. We don’t even have the excuse of a consciously reality-denying ideology to stand behind.
Church Sign Epic Fails, “Rapture Hatch” Edition - I’ve written fiction that touches on this issue. That anyone, anywhere, can take this literally is a sad, sad comment on the human condition. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
Pope Forms Commission to Advise on Sex Abuse - It remains unclear if the experts will take up one of the core issues behind the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal: how to make bishops who shelter abusive priests accountable. Therein lies the rub. This is a step in the right direction, but it will do nothing to restore the Church’s moral standing until the princes of the church who sit so righteously comfortable in their gilded chairs are held accountable for the long decades of sheltering of abusers and persecution of the abused in the name of protecting their institution.
Was John Wayne a draft dodger? - Typical conservative, all for sending other people’s kids out to die without ever having put themselves on the line.
GOP: No Climate Change because, Bible - In any sane and civil society, this would be a risible Onion story. In conservative America, it’s business as usual. Sigh.
Is the Government Tampering With Witnesses in No-Fly Trial? - Gee. What do you think? Terrorists killed less than 5,000 Americans in the past decade and a half, and we install an Orwellian security state whilst stripping civil liberties in response. Firearms kill 450,000 Americans in the past decade and a half, and we celebrate our Constitutional rights. Does something about this seem a teeny, tiny bit off to you?
GOP intolerance: “It’s part of their political DNA” - That’s putting it mildly. But when a political party bases their entire political fortunes on generating angry white guys, what the hell else do you expect?
?otD: Got cold?
12/5/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo brain)
Hours slept:9.5 hours (solid)
Body movement: n/a (traveling)
Weight: n/a (traveling)
Number of FEMA troops on my block forging presidential birth certificates: 0
Currently reading: n/a (chemo brain)
Cats Recognize Their Owner’s Voice But Chose to Ignore It - Hahaha.
Stolen cobalt-60 found in Mexico; curious thieves likely doomed
An Artificial Hand with Real Feelings - A new nerve interface can simulate a sense of touch from 20 spots on a prosthetic hand.
At 400,000 Years, Oldest Human DNA Yet Found Raises New Mysteries
Could dark matter be hiding in plain sight in existing experiments? - Particles called axions could be creating noise in superconducting devices.
Wonders in the Antarctic Sea and Sky - Mmm. NASA photos.
Your questions about the new IPCC climate change report answered - Mmm, science. Always with the new questions, never with the final answers.
Katie Couric Gives Anti-Vaccine Ideas a Shot - The real problem with this entire segment on the “Katie” show was the false balance: The idea that there are two sides to this story. That is grossly unfair; the evidence is vastly on the side of the vaccine having extremely little risk, and no solid evidence at all that it causes harm. It’s not as though the research on this is split. Welcome to the world of Your Liberal Media, where ridiculous and harmful fairy tales without any evidence-based support, such evolution denial, climate change denial, supply side economics and the Republican party platform, are all treated with respect in the name of balance. It is the shame of liberal America that the same erratic thinking and willful ignorance that so profoundly characterizes almost all conservative “thought” is legitimized through the fixation on vaccination. We don’t even have the excuse of a consciously reality-denying ideology to stand behind.
Church Sign Epic Fails, “Rapture Hatch” Edition - I’ve written fiction that touches on this issue. That anyone, anywhere, can take this literally is a sad, sad comment on the human condition. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
Pope Forms Commission to Advise on Sex Abuse - It remains unclear if the experts will take up one of the core issues behind the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal: how to make bishops who shelter abusive priests accountable. Therein lies the rub. This is a step in the right direction, but it will do nothing to restore the Church’s moral standing until the princes of the church who sit so righteously comfortable in their gilded chairs are held accountable for the long decades of sheltering of abusers and persecution of the abused in the name of protecting their institution.
Was John Wayne a draft dodger? - Typical conservative, all for sending other people’s kids out to die without ever having put themselves on the line.
GOP: No Climate Change because, Bible - In any sane and civil society, this would be a risible Onion story. In conservative America, it’s business as usual. Sigh.
Is the Government Tampering With Witnesses in No-Fly Trial? - Gee. What do you think? Terrorists killed less than 5,000 Americans in the past decade and a half, and we install an Orwellian security state whilst stripping civil liberties in response. Firearms kill 450,000 Americans in the past decade and a half, and we celebrate our Constitutional rights. Does something about this seem a teeny, tiny bit off to you?
GOP intolerance: “It’s part of their political DNA” - That’s putting it mildly. But when a political party bases their entire political fortunes on generating angry white guys, what the hell else do you expect?
?otD: Got cold?
12/5/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo brain)
Hours slept:9.5 hours (solid)
Body movement: n/a (traveling)
Weight: n/a (traveling)
Number of FEMA troops on my block forging presidential birth certificates: 0
Currently reading: n/a (chemo brain)