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Could Alzheimer's be a form of diabetes?
Well, I'm not looking forward to taking those insulin shots....via Medgadget
comment posted at 8:23 AM on Nov-30-05

The Catholic Church reaffirmed its opposition to gay priests yesterday when it published long-awaited guidelines. But has it really faced up to the issue? The church considers homosexuality a "serious personality disorder", and the Pope's views are well documented. But according to the guidelines, it is a "tendency" that can be overcome in as little as three years. (The Guardian's Emily Wilson brilliant compares it to smoking: "a few years off the fags and you're nice and pure again".) The guidelines only applies to future priests, not the many existing closeted priests. And what exactly has it got to do with the endemic child abuse, which the report was originally conceived to address?
comment posted at 7:32 AM on Nov-30-05

...lights, sounds, rhythms, pulsating your bones, moving your body, we all know this language, we can all sing and dance...
comment posted at 1:21 AM on Nov-30-05

For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president's men. If convicted, they'll have plenty of time to mull over their sins.

Costly Withdrawal Is the Price To Be Paid for a Foolish War
Martin van Creveld, a professor of military history at the Hebrew University, is author of "Transformation of War" (Free Press, 1991). He is the only non-American author on the U.S. Army's required reading list for officers.
An interview with Martin Van Creveld. See also Nowhere To Run
comment posted at 6:46 PM on Nov-29-05

At dawn on Friday Singapore time, young Australian Nguyen Tuong Van will be hanged by the State executioner, Darshan Singh. His sentencing has raised an extensive debate in Australia on the death penalty, on our regional relationships and the compassion of our fearless Rodent. Like virtually all advanced nations, Australia has generally held a principled stance against the death penalty, though filtered by realpolitik. Yet again, New Zealand is a bit more principled than us, of course. We would of course never protest to the US about its extensive use of the ultimate State sanction.
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comment posted at 2:27 AM on Nov-30-05

The wait is over : Firefox 1.5 is out, to be found on the brand spanking new mozilla.com.
comment posted at 4:43 PM on Nov-29-05

"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgement of his peers...is the foundation of totalitarianism" Perhaps Tony Blair and George W. Bush regard Winston Churchill as a bleeding heart lefty. But what Churchill's view represents is an old, very basic principle of Anglo-American warfare and justice: fight war with ferocity, but never lose your democratic soul.
comment posted at 10:02 AM on Nov-29-05
comment posted at 1:06 PM on Nov-29-05

Q-Unit: Greatest Hits is an outstanding collection of mashups of 50 Cent and Queen. The mocked-up album covers alone are worth it, but I think I've listened to "Crazy Little P.I.M.P. Called Love" about three times already this morning. (Mirror here if main site craps out)
comment posted at 9:24 AM on Nov-29-05

"'We want that shock. We want that awe. But at the same time, we don't want people to feel their rights are being threatened. We need them to be our eyes and ears'.... [Police] officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats." While there have been no specific threats of terrorism against Miami, "'[t]his is an in-your-face type of strategy. It's letting the terrorists know we are out there,' [Deputy Police Chief Frank] Fernandez said."
comment posted at 5:30 PM on Nov-28-05

“They weren’t ever intended to be sexual creatures. It’s simple, Daleks do not do porn.” (NSFW)
comment posted at 3:41 PM on Nov-28-05

Bush Approval Rating Map Plus various other Bush-related state by state analyses. Kos via Plastic, but it's just so pretty and blue...
comment posted at 2:18 PM on Nov-28-05
comment posted at 3:12 PM on Nov-28-05

How to Draw a Straight Line - Until 1873, virtually all mathemeticians and engineers agreed that it was impossible to build a linkage that could convert circular motion to perfectly straight motion. In that year, Lipmann Lipkin rediscovered the Peaucellier cell which had been quietly created a decade earlier. Although much simpler to build, it was predated by Pierre-Frederic Sarrus' non-planar solution. Nowadays, though, linkages can do some extremely complex things. (via)
comment posted at 11:24 AM on Nov-28-05

Our desire for the freakshow is on the wane, or at least it seems that way based on some recent closings. Is it the difference in admission costs? If the EH's relative value calculator is to be believed, that 1841 dime museum should only cost about $2.10 to get into in 2003, not five bucks. Even for free on MetaFilter only about twenty people care to discuss freaks. Perhaps we've just gotten used to seeing this kind of thing on sponsored television and don't want to travel to see it. It's certainly not because our tastes have gotten so much more evolved. Perhaps our threshold for how whack something has to be before we consider it freakish has been raised somehow...
comment posted at 9:07 AM on Nov-28-05

"Global Gag Rule" extended. The Mexico City Policy now applies to AIDS relief: reversing a previous 2003 exemption, the Bush Administration has linked $193 million in AIDS grants to Kenya with its policy of forbidding any funding, or provision of information, about abortion services in exchange for U.S. funds. In Kenya, complications from illegal abortions are a leading killer of married women in their 20s and 30s.
comment posted at 9:02 AM on Nov-28-05
comment posted at 10:09 AM on Nov-28-05

Abuse in Iraq Now Worse Then Under Saddam 'People are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse,' [Iraq Prime Minister] Ayad Allawi told The Observer. 'It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.' Let's see ... no WMDs, no al-Queda ties, and now this. I'm so glad that we are making Iraq a better place.
comment posted at 9:39 PM on Nov-27-05
comment posted at 9:47 PM on Nov-27-05

Military Ethic's "War is the hardest place to make moral judgments." Col. Ted Westhusing, a military ethicist who volunteered to go to Iraq, was upset by what he saw. His apparent suicide raises questions (L.A. Times) When the military's own moral compass gives up, should we continue?
comment posted at 2:27 PM on Nov-27-05

HOOAH! "The world's most powerful military has devoted its considerable resources to making an energy bar, and the results are impressive." Finally, you too can enjoy the delicious cuisine of the U.S. Military without having to join.
comment posted at 2:33 PM on Nov-27-05

The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities There are a lot of great freeware products out there. Many are as good or even better than their commercial alternatives. This list features my personal pick of the "best of the best."
comment posted at 4:48 PM on Nov-25-05

Michael Brown starts Disaster Planning Firm After doing a "heck of a job", the former Commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association teaches others how to avoid stepping in shit.
comment posted at 9:56 AM on Nov-25-05

Despite the vast number of religions, nearly everyone in the world believes in the same things: the existence of a soul, an afterlife, miracles, and the divine creation of the universe. Recently psychologists doing research on the minds of infants have discovered two related facts that may account for this phenomenon. One: human beings come into the world with a predisposition to believe in supernatural phenomena. And two: this predisposition is an incidental by-product of cognitive functioning gone awry. Which leads to the question ...

Is God an Accident ?
This is a fascinating essary from the current Atlantic reprinted apparently in full for non-subscribers
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comment posted at 8:43 AM on Nov-28-05

We love you best when you're snarky, Roger. Perhaps the best reviews from the venerable Roger Ebert are when he gives 1 or fewer stars to a movie (a good example being his review of Just Friends, which comes out this weekend). He has more to say about the industry, the process of film making, and the way people think when they pay to see these things. Now, we've discussed Ebert before, but it's worth a read of his reviews by searching for movies rated from Zero to One star.
comment posted at 8:04 AM on Nov-23-05

Happy Thanksgiving 2005 -scientifically speaking, also the last Day of the Oil Age ...according to Kenneth Deffeyes, geologist and Emeritus Professor at Princeton University. .."I wind up saying that world oil is going to peak in production on Thanksgiving Day, 2005." Drink a toast to some of the other of Earth's horn O' plenty resources as we herald in the Green Age. ...sure, this is sensational, but perhaps blog worthy...
comment posted at 8:30 AM on Nov-23-05

Cheap oil for the masses. "Officials from Venezuela and Massachusetts have signed a deal providing cheap heating oil to low-income homes in the US state. The fuel will be sold at some 40% below market prices to thousands of homes over the winter months. Local congressman William Delahunt described the deal as "an expression of humanitarianism at its very best". [Newsfilter] Why do you hate America, Hugo?
comment posted at 7:36 PM on Nov-22-05

NES Synth covers of classic songs by those goons at Something Awful. Previous NES music stuff: 8bitpeoples' "Axel F" and "The 8 Bits of Christmas", The Video Game Pianist and his famous videos, A Capella NES Themes, SMW Soundtrack, etc. On the Marimba, too, just a few minutes ago. (via BB...via waxy)
comment posted at 12:30 AM on Nov-22-05

Folder Share is an online service that synchronizes multiple pcs, or just specific folders in multiple pcs, by creating a localized p2p network. You could use it, for example, to keep your work & home mp3 collections identical. Until recently, the service cost $50/year, thanks to corporate largesse (and doubtless, evil intentions on the part of the new owner, Microsoft), it's now free. Unless you place some value on not letting Microsoft catalog what's on your PC.
comment posted at 3:20 PM on Nov-21-05

Horrible acts of human behavior. Via: First Rule.
comment posted at 11:35 AM on Nov-21-05

Quitting France: French Jews are leaving the country in ever-growing numbers, fleeing a wave of anti-Semitism. They are moving to Israel, the United States, and increasingly, Montreal -- where the mostly English-speaking Jewish community is preparing for its greatest demographic change in decades. An interesting if slightly anecdotal look at the situation for Jewish people in France from Canada's National Post.

Part 1 - Barricaded in Paris, Part 2 - Taking leave of 'the fear', Part 3 tomorrow deals with the impact of the influx of French Jews in Montreal.
comment posted at 10:42 AM on Nov-21-05

Link Wray has left us. Link Wray, one of the greatest and most influential guitar players of all time, has died in Copenhagen at age 76.
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