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Media outraced by Bloggers, Kerry appeal to netroots galvanizes suprise drive against Alito On Google News, you'll read how US Democratic Senators Obama and Biden are against a filibuster. Old news. They've agreed to support it. Encouraged by direct appeals by Senators. Kerry and Kennedy to internet activists, a blizzard of calls, emails, and faxes, organized via the Daily Kos and other blogs - with tactical direction from Kennedy - have helped flip the positions of several Democratic senators, and as of Saturday some claimed the push was already within 2 votes of forcing continued Senate debate on the Alito nomination. In fact, the pro-filibuster bloc might have started with 37 votes Meanwhile, today, Morning Edition, which declined to run the filibuster push as a top story and failed to mention the internet effort, asked Senator Kennedy on Senator Hillary Clinton's opposition to the filibuster: actually, she joined the effort last Friday [ see main link ] : D'oh !
comment posted at 7:41 AM on Jan-30-06
comment posted at 7:43 AM on Jan-30-06

"Who's afraid of evolutionary biology?" (I've linked Bede before, but this piece bears a much more important message to Christians who feel it their biblical duty to get hot and bothered over evolution and origin-of-life issues.) Also see a Christian response to "Young Earth" apologetics, and the Young Earth Argument Index, both from "Old Earth" Creationists who disagree with 6-Day biblical literalism. (Note that Old Earthers may still be Intelligent Design advocates. Heaping spoonsful of salt all around.) If that's still too "Christian" for you, Talk.Origins has a summary of other Genesis interpretations.
comment posted at 7:30 AM on Jan-30-06

Welcome to the churches of some spiritual nontheists.
comment posted at 7:51 AM on Jan-28-06

What Do You Know About The Separation of Church and State ? The Freedom From Religion Foundation has created this handy 21 question online multiple choice test. How good are your church/state separation Constitutional knowledge chops ? Could influential GOP member, Bush 2004 campaign consultant, and "America was founded as a Christian Nation" cheerleader David Barton pass ?
comment posted at 8:05 AM on Jan-27-06
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comment posted at 12:42 PM on Jan-28-06

The PacMan Frog! What is it about this most saffronly rotund of amphibians that has inspired so many hideous web sites? (Don't even bother clicking on this one. It goes right to a geocities site.) Perhaps it's their tendency to try to eat anything they could get their oversized mouths on. They are, in fact, so ready and willing to consume anything within biting distance that it is recommended that owners feed these frogs with spoons. Pac man frogs will tend to bite anything that moves. Never use you [sic] bare hands when feeding to avoid bites. Many frogs are killed when a hand is quickly drawn away from a bite and the horned frog is flung against a wall. This one, apparently, just put a bounty out on Han Solo.

Whether you love them or hate them, all pacman frog owners agree: there's no tidy way to wrap up a post about pacman frogs. (Warning: almost inhumanly annoying website behind link. embedded qt midi music (really, though. what if God WERE one of us?) and horrific purple color scheme.)
comment posted at 11:46 PM on Jan-25-06

"Culture of life" vs. Culture of Profit ? Today, by phone, George W. Bush addressed the anti - Roe v. Wade protestors gathered at the Washington D.C. mall : in support of the crowd gathered in expectation that Samuel Alito - if nominated - would vote to overturn Roe. Meanwhile, Mr. Bush's administration is proposing EPA rules that would allow testing of pesticides on pregnant women and children. How very curious.
comment posted at 8:21 PM on Jan-23-06
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Devo is back! But in kid form.
comment posted at 2:27 PM on Jan-23-06

How cocky was your great^10 grandfather? Up to 3 million men may be descended from an Irish King. Impressive but still well short of the estimated 16 million ancestors of Genghis Khan. Does the alpha male mojo that drives leadership also make a man a horndog or does being a high status male simply give one the opportunity that all men would gladly have? If you aren't constantly on the lookout for a new hen, perhaps you're not presidential material.
comment posted at 5:25 AM on Jan-23-06

Songs of Brazilian Birds A fantastically diverse collection of .au files, including the beautifully evocative Organ Wren or Uirapuru, the mooing of the Capuchinbird, the sci-fi minimalism of the Short-tailed Antthrush and a duet of Laughing Falcons (they'll make you laugh at the end).
comment posted at 4:40 AM on Jan-23-06

Academics question the official explanation for the WTC collapse. This paper, with internal links to assorted videos and stills, argues that WTC 7, the 45-story companion building to the towers, appears to have been demolished by planted explosives, not the fire from the twin towers.
comment posted at 2:43 PM on Jan-22-06
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comment posted at 5:16 AM on Jan-23-06

As of today, world oil reserves are five percent lower than previously thought. Well informed early toppers like Jeremy Leggett (previously discussed here) won't be surprised by the news, though they may be disappointed that it didn't make bigger headlines.
comment posted at 4:28 PM on Jan-20-06
comment posted at 4:42 PM on Jan-20-06

The conference at Wannsee occurred on January 20, 1942.
The Holocaust had been going on for at least one year; the camp at Dachau had been in operation for several years. The Final Solution was already underway. At issue at Wannsee, in the relaxed and distinctively upper middle-class atmosphere of that SS guest-house for the fifteen highly placed Nazis was the best strategy for genocide. Less than one year after the conference a little girl who had been hiding in Holland is sent to the Bergen camp in northern Germany. She spends more than six years looking for four perfect pebbles
comment posted at 4:40 PM on Jan-20-06

Challenging Christian Zionism "We are a group of evangelical pastors, academics and mission executives who have been disturbed by the growing influence of Christian Zionism on the political scene in America..." Detailed critique of the Christian Zionist movement includes a look at Hal Lindsey, "the Father of Apocalyptic Christian Zionism."
comment posted at 6:27 AM on Jan-17-06

Sharkey's wife/friend may not be able to do her job anymore. You remember Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey, the undead, bloodsucking candidate for Minnesota governor, don't you? Julie Carpenter's association with her husband/friend and Wicca affiliation makes her unsuited to drive the school bus, according to the Princeton Schools Superintendent. [by]
comment posted at 12:51 PM on Jan-31-06
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James Lovelock, inventor of the Gaia hypothesis believes that global warming has passed the point of no return. The feedback mechanisms that have regulated the planet are now working against us, accelerating the warming process. Can civilisation survive? Not according to Lovelock. The celebrated planetary scientist believes billions will die leaving the human race reduced to a few breeding pairs living in the Artic. Gloomy stuff.
comment posted at 6:55 AM on Jan-17-06

National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Sometimes, its the unheralded steps, that take you most quickly to your destination. On October 7, 2005, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and their associated domains announced the first release of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Version 0.1. NIEM "establishes a single standard XML foundation for exchanging information between DHS, DOJ, and supporting domains, such as Justice, Emergency Management, and Intelligence." The release of this specification, and the development of the systems that utilize it may actually be the cataylst for more 'progress' in information mining on the individual than most other, well publicized efforts. NIEM Mission: "To assist in developing a unified strategy, partnerships, and technical implementations for national information sharing — laying the foundation for local, state, tribal, and federal interoperability by joining together communities of interest." When you say it like that, it sounds sort of cool!
comment posted at 7:57 PM on Jan-12-06
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Networks are everywhere. Connectionists think of our brains as neural networks. Some people think networks are changing society. Some people would like to use networks to change society. Others think of the earth as a self-organising network.
comment posted at 7:59 PM on Jan-12-06

Voters in the US state of Minnesota may find a self-proclaimed vampire on the ballot for the office this year when Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey of the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party announces his plan to run for Governor, expected later today. Acknowledging that "politics is a cut-throat business", Sharkey has let voters know that whilst he is a Satanist, he dosen't hate Jesus, "just God, the Father."
comment posted at 8:01 PM on Jan-12-06

Dogs trained to sniff out cancer. In this study which will be published in the March 2006 issue of the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies published by SAGE Publications, researchers reveal scientific evidence that a dog's extraordinary scenting ability can distinguish people with both early and late stage lung and breast cancers from healthy controls. A BBC Four documentary will be aired soon in the US, an article and a clip from the documentary can be found here.
comment posted at 8:03 PM on Jan-12-06

Why does the Supreme Court Make Justices More Liberal? Does it? If so, why, and why more liberal not more conservative?
comment posted at 8:22 PM on Jan-12-06

So with global warming being linked to all sorts of bad things lately, and our illustrious leaders doing nothing about the problem because they don't want to slow down the economy, its good to see someone doing something about the problem, Whole Foods is the first fortune 500 company to go 100% green. And I for one am happy as a clam. This just goes to show you that you can have a wonderful, profitable business, without raping the earth, your customers, or your employees.
comment posted at 9:08 PM on Jan-11-06

Your tax dollars at work this Sunday in Philadelphia, where luminaries such as Dr. Jerry Falwell, Dr. James Dobson, and Senator Rick Santorum will gather to rally support for the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. The Greater Exodus Baptist Church, which is graciously hosting the event, has received over $1 million taxpayer dollars in the form of “faith-based” grants from the Bush administration.
comment posted at 10:37 PM on Jan-7-06

Zoo Burglars Steal Baby Penguin
Toga, a baby Jackass penguin, was "birdnapped" this week from Amazon World on the Isle of Wight. Zookeepers surmise that Toga was stolen as a result of someone wanting to give him as a gift this Christmas -- following the popularity of the hit documentary 'March of the Penguins.' A reward of £5,000 is being offered for his return.
comment posted at 8:43 PM on Dec-21-05

Our Domestic Intelligence Crisis Federal Appeals Court Judge Richard Posner imagines a world in which US citizens are constantly under electronic surveillance.... and is totally okay with it. Once you accept Posner's premise that "machine collection and processing of data cannot, as such, invade privacy," how far are we from cameras and microphones in private homes. After all, there is no privacy invasion so long as it is only a computer flagging "suspicious" activity, right?
comment posted at 8:55 PM on Dec-21-05
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comment posted at 9:29 PM on Dec-21-05

A few years back ASCAP, the performing rights agency that collects fees on behalf of songwriters and publishers, attempted to collect licensing fees from summer camps for songs sung around the campfire by Girl Scouts. This week, PRS, the UK equivalent of ASCAP, flexed its muscles by demanding a licence fee from a guitar shop owner for customers who play copyrighted riffs while testing instruments. Jimmy Page must be rubbing his hands together.
comment posted at 4:02 AM on Dec-19-05

Congressional Resolution To "Defend Christmas" meets The History Channel... H. RES. 579: "Whereas the Framers intended that the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States would prohibit the establishment of religion....Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives-- (1) recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas; (2) strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas; and (3) expresses support for the use of these symbols and traditions.". The bizarreness of that statement aside, what were US Christmas traditions at the time of the "framers" ? : see the History Channel for the real story of [ American ] Christmas.
comment posted at 1:57 PM on Dec-16-05
comment posted at 4:12 AM on Dec-19-05

Is the Pentagon spying on non-violent American protesters?
comment posted at 8:20 PM on Dec-13-05

The first Transhuman Conference On the Law of Transhuman Persons: Whether or not you believe humans are set to evolve into gods, or AI is destined to achieve self-awareness the idea of the Transhuman is a thought provoking concept. Philosophers have debated the nature of the self, of the human for millennia. Is it time to start drafting new laws to govern all possible sentient beings on this planet? or is it all just a science of fiction? a comfortable humanist illusion?
comment posted at 8:45 PM on Dec-13-05

Tzintzuntzan was the capital city of the Purépecha Empire (also known as Tarascan). Culturally (scroll to middle of page) isolated from the rest of precolumbian Mexico, the origins of the Purépecha is still unknown. Their language is one that is not even provisionally linked with any other language and is still spoken by about 200,000 natives around Michoacan. The Purépechas were the only state to become an empire in the Western Mexico cultures.
comment posted at 8:28 PM on Dec-13-05

"Richard Rainwater made billions by knowing how to profit from a crisis. Now he foresees the biggest one yet". Rainwater discovers peak oil and wants to profit from it. Among other things, "he's thinking about opening a for-profit survivability center". Admittedly, his peak oil obsession goes beyond profiting:

But there may be something more important than making money. This is the first scenario I've seen where I question the survivability of mankind. I don't want the world to wake up one day and say, 'How come some doofus billionaire in Texas made all this money by being aware of this, and why didn't someone tell us?'

comment posted at 12:33 PM on Dec-13-05