Bush or McCain: Which is Which? Can You Tell?

First, take the challenge for yourself, see how you do. (I did very poorly; so do many others; so don’t be embarrassed.)

Bush-McCain Challenge

OK, whether you took the test or not, watch these results. It’s quite humorous.

McCain: A Climate Disaster

First read this article from the New York Times, McCain Differs With Bush on Climate Change. One thing is clear from this article, all of the remaining candidates want to reduce carbon emissions.

However, what is not clear from this is the magnitude of their differences on the point. Take the following paragraph that I believe to be very poorly written on the part of an otherwise fairly good news source.

In his speech, Mr. McCain advocated cutting emissions 60 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050; Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama propose cutting them by 80 percent in the same time frame while the Lieberman-Warner bills calls for a 70 percent reduction. Scientists say reductions of that magnitude are needed to slow and then reverse production of the gases, chiefly carbon dioxide, which are heating the atmosphere and causing long-term climate changes.

This last sentence is patently false. Scientists say that a reduction of emissions to 80% below 1990 levels is required to avert catastrophic warming and to avoid a tipping point. The planet will not negotiate on politics. So, let’s see just how different are 60%, 70%, and 80% reductions?

Why do atheists care about religion?

This one is so well done that I have nothing to add.

Thanks to Seth for a great find!

Interesting Unrelated Evolution Aricles

Here are three very interesting articles about evolution. They are not in any other way related to each other, except that each is interesting news. The first talks about a possible split in the human species at a time when there were just 2,000 of us on the planet. *

Hilarious Republican Senate Leadership Survey

When did you stop beating your wife? This is one of the classic examples of a loaded question. This survey is a mix of both leading questions and loaded questions and probably some that are both. I’ve seen Democratic Party surveys and have never reacted this way to one. Perhaps this is because I’m a liberal.

However, I tend to be pretty fair about such things and would likely notice if they had questions that were this deliberately targeted toward proving that the constituency wants what the party is already feeding them rather than trying to find out what the constituency really wants. Of course, the next Democratic Party survey I get will likely prove me wrong since I’ll be looking at it more closely after seeing this shocker.

Note that I checked for copyright notices as well as admonitions regarding the reproduction of this document and found none.

CO2: Even Our Lowest Targets Are TOO HIGH!!

Well, if this new report is correct, and it likely is, then even the lowest targets set by any of the governments of the world, are a recipe for disaster. According to this peer reviewed report, the target set by the European Union, 550 parts per million is not only the strictest and lowest global CO2 target anyone is trying to reach, it’s way too high.

Climate Target Not Radical Enough — Popular press article paraphrasing the study.

Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim? — The peer reviewed article, a 15 page PDF.

Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim? (Supporting Data) — This is the supporting data to the peer reviewed article, a 21 page PDF.

Aristocratization

Another great article from theonion. As usual, this one has an edge of near truth to it. I know they didn’t mention New York in particular in this. But, as a New Yorker, I just couldn’t help thinking that this was definitely about New York. How many other cities must be the same in this respect? I can’t say. It just seemed worth sharing and my blog was in need of some humor again. Enjoy.

Report: Nation’s Gentrified Neighborhoods Threatened by Aristocratization

More Gore

Here’s another incredibly persuasive, inspiring, and informative video from Al Gore. He’s such an excellent speaker and offers real analysis and solutions to the crisis of our time, climate change. This is the big one. There is no problem facing humanity today that approaches the seriousness and certainty of climate change left unchecked. Please watch this enlightening, empowering, and uplifting video. Watch for his analogy regarding tar sands and shale; it’s a classic.

TED: Al Gore: New thinking on the climate crisis — Note: I recommend downloading the mp4. I had problems trying to watch it on the web page. It’s under 100M. Your mileage may vary.

Condi Chose Torture Tactics

I’ll let this video speak for itself.

If you think this is unacceptable and that Condi should resign based on this, here’s a link to sign a petition demanding that Rice resign, if you think she should. I signed it, but then, I think everyone in the current administration should be forced out of office immediately as a way to restore our country’s once great image as well as a way to take back our nation.

I’m not trying to persuade anyone with this, just passing on information.

Dharma Jazz: Blending Many World Musical Styles Together Beautifully

I’m not a serious music aficionado. However, I do know when I hear something I like. I also know that in a couple of hours yesterday at the Philoctetes Center, I learned a lot about music.

These guys are incredibly talented jazz improvisation’s. They are blending music from India, Asia, and Africa with Blues and other musical styles. Spend a little time listening to their music on the web. Unfortunately, they do not yet have a CD available for sale.

Read their bios on the Philoctetes site regarding the event Living in the Musical Moment. (Hopefully, a recording of the event will be available on the site. I was under the impression they were filming and would post it, but do not see it yet.) Also, give them a listen on the Dharma Jazz myspace page, which also lists their bios.

Powerful god protects atheist??!!?

No. That can’t be it. Perhaps the tantrik death spell is just a bunch of horseshit. Yeah. That must be it.

The Great Tantra Challenge

I have to give credit to the tantrik.  At least he was honestly trying to use only spells (for most of the time) without attempting simple physical means like using the knife to cut out the atheist’s heart.

How Would Jesus Vote?

OK. I’m an atheist. I do not even truly believe that Jesus as a flesh and blood human ever walked the planet. However, this fictional character plays a large part in many people’s lives and, unfortunately, their voting decisions. Perhaps, if people really think about Jesus when voting though they just might come up with different answers. So, I address this post to the believers.

So, contrary to my usual rants where I take a radical and non-standard stance in order to point out the violence in the Bible. In this post, I am going to hypothetically take the more mainstream view of Jesus. First, I’m going to pretend that I believe he actually existed. Then, I’m going to cherry pick the Bible, not in the way I did in my Thou Shalt Kill post, but instead, in the way that most religious people do when they respond to my usual assertions about the mythical character.

So, in short, I’m going to point to the nice things Jesus is supposed to have said. And then, given the mainstream view of Jesus, I’m going to discuss his political views and see how well they align with today’s religious right. Then, I’m going to attempt to address the issue of how Jesus might vote in an election if he were alive today. Finally, I will point out that if Christianity is about people attempting to be Jesus-like to the best of their ability, then religious Christians should vote that way. Let’s see how this goes.

Sock It To Me Nixon You Lefty Liberal

I doubt anyone thinks of Richard Nixon as a liberal. I know I don’t. However, the United States has shifted so far to the right today that many of the actions taken by staunch conservatives a few decades ago appear liberal by today’s standards. And, that is the point of this post. Many of today’s conservatives, especially the neocon right wing nut jobs, but even today’s relative moderates think that today’s definition of conservative is the same as it ever was.

This is not the case. This nation has shifted so far to the right that we can’t even see the center anymore.

McCain a Moderate? Not Even Close!!

The press portrays John McCain as a moderate. However, check this record.

1. McCain has literally never shown up for any vote on the environment. This has given him a well-earned score of zero from the League of Conservation Voters and the moniker McWho from me.

Earth The Sequel

There is also a description of Earth the Sequel on EDF’s website. There’s a book signing in Manhattan. Details below pasted from an email I received from EDF.

Slumburbs!!

Damn!! I wanted to be the one to coin the term when I thought of it this morning after reading this Atlantic Monthly article The Next Slum. However, I found that the term was already in the Urban Dictionary. Oh well. Regardless of the fact that I didn’t create the term even though I had not heard it before, it seems to describe the coming situation all too well. The urban dictionary does not seem to note that this has two wonderful interpretations though, one is that the suburbs will become slums. The other expresses their sleepy and boring deathstyle in terms of slumber.

More Evidence of Surprisingly High Non-Human Animal Intelligence

When people think of highly intelligent animals, most think of primates, dolphins, and possibly elephants. Some will add parrots and members of the crow family, but only if they’ve read quite a bit on the subject. Most of us also sort of intuitively get that most predators are smarter than most herbivores, despite exceptions like elephants.

However, even though I have read quite a bit about animal intelligence, I was still surprised by the level of intelligence, especially social intelligence, being shown by spotted hyenas.

Hyenas — Sociable and Smart

I hope this will also provide yet another bit of strong evidence for our moral responsibility toward the other intelligences with whom we share this beautiful and unusual planet. Please see my Moral Considerability post for a further and ongoing discussion of interspecies morality.

Science of Chocolate Podcast from NYAS

The New York Academy of Sciences has released the podcast of its excellent lecture The Science of Chocolate. Unfortunately, I cannot publish you the chocolate on a blog site. Sorry. However, I assure you it was delicious. The lecture was really great, explaining a variety of health benefits of chocolate and some of its history. Then, it went on to tasting technique and some details of various chocolates. I’d highly recommend this if you have any interest in the subject matter. Yum!! A delicious way to stay healthy.

Global Warming Skeptic Proves Global Warming is Real?!

Well, not really. A simple blog post is never going to be much proof of anything. *

However, this blog post has four graphs. Two of the graphs, the third and fourth, are really quite useless. However, despite the author’s assertion, the first two graphs are actually quite a good demonstration that global warming is real. Of course, a longer trend would actually be better. But, even with this 140 year graph, the trend is abundantly obvious. The author has merely misread his own data.

Assorted Quips

I especially love sentences with definitions that really make the point. Here are a couple of my favorites and some other quips that I like for other reasons, sometimes shock value.

• In order to understand recursion, one must first understand recursion.
• In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there often is.
• Mammals suck. Cetaceans blow. [ed. note: The former is mine. The latter was added by a friend. Thanks rit.]
• American Nonsequitur Society: We don’t make sense. But, we love pizza.

Subprime Primer — Hilarious AND Mostly True

Watch the slideshow at this link first. Then read below for a description of a minor inaccuracy.

Subprime Primer

The only very minor inaccuracy I’m aware of is that the “good” the “not so good” and “the ugly” should be renamed into five buckets named A through E tranches. Also, when the bank is left with the E tranches, they group the E tranches together and just cut them into more tranches so that they can sell the A through E tranches of the E tranches. Of course, this doesn’t make it better. It makes it worse.

Thanks to Stephanie for forwarding me the PowerPoint version of this.

Journalism: A Photographic Negative of Reality

That title is a paraphrasing of one important statement out of many in this Skeptic’s Society article by Steve Salerno. Click the link below for the article.

Journalist-Bites-Reality!

Though the article is lengthy, it points out so many things wrong with the state of journalism today that it is a very important read. Since we get so much of our information from the sources discussed in this article and rely on this information for our daily lives, I found it definitely worth the time to read to its conclusion. My personal favorite sections were the sentence paraphrased in my title and the capsule summary near the end.

I choose to believe (i.e. possibly delude myself) that some sources of information are more real than the ones discussed in this article. Mother Jones and The Atlantic come to mind as examples of better reporting. Your mileage may vary.

Let the Voters Decide

Check this out on Democracy for America’s site. For those who were not aware, the Democrap candidate will likely be decided without much input from the voters. If this bugs you more than a tad, you may want to sign the petition.

Let the Voters Decide

I think the whole idea of super delegates is pretty damn disgusting. In case you think you can be less concerned because you’re a registered Repugnican rather than Democrap, check out this wikipedia page that hints at equal problems in the Repug camp and suggests a complete page. In fact, if you know enough about the way the other camp works, you may want to help wikipedia out on the subject.

Seriously Power Walking!!

This is really cool!!

Taking People Power to a New Level

I was expecting at the beginning of the article that the device would require more effort while walking, else where is the power coming from. However, if you read the article, the claim is that it is actually reducing your effort while walking since you need the effort to slow your leg down at the end of the stride.

Managing Senior Developers is Like Herding Cats!!

That was a statement that had already been made for years. Then, EDS did this old stupor bowl commercial. They did a really excellent job on the cat herding theme. Watch for the little details in it. It’s a classic. If you haven’t seen this before, just trust one of the cats that we really do behave this way. Although, EDS did it about various technologies rather than about developers, it still works.

It’s sort of odd to admit it given my anti-corporate bias. But, I do love good advertising … almost as much as I hate bad advertising.

When insults had class…

I got these via email, of course. I had seen many of them before and love them. Since my blog is about ready for some more humor, they came at the perfect time. If you haven’t seen these before, read and enjoy.

These glorious insults are from an era when cleverness with words was still valued, before a great portion of the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words!

The exchange between Winston Churchill & Lady Nancy Astor: She said, “Winston, if I were married to you I’d put poison in your coffee.” Churchill replied, “Nancy, if I were married to you I’d drink it.” [ed. note: This sounded odd from the email I received, so I checked up on the exact wording and corrected it based on the text from The Churchill Center]

One Day == $720,000,000

How would you like it spent?

Here’s the link for anyone who wants to sign the petition.

Cult is a Bad Word

It has been said that the differences between a cult and a religion lie in duration and number of followers. This isn’t really a bad way to think about it and points to the obvious conclusion that all religions began as cults. However, in my opinion, we should abandon one word or the other from our normal discourse.

Why do I think so?

Israeli Electric Cars

Good news!! At least someone is thinking about global warming and actually taking some action. Israel is planning to aggressively replace gasoline burners with electric cars. And, they’re even openly making the obvious statement that the oil economy is funding terrorism, making it doubly important to Israel to get off the gasoline. Now, if only Israel’s greatest ally and world leader in carbon emissions would follow suit. Check out these two articles from that liberal rag, Business Week.

The Electric Car Acid Test

Israel: Cradle of the Electric Car

Presidential Humor

Here are a few unrelated jokes about presidents and/or the presidency. None are new, unless you haven’t heard them before, which is all that matters. At least one shows it’s age in the punch line.

Nukes Are NOT The Answer!!

If, like many, you believe nuclear power to be the solution to global warming, you need to read this. If you think France has solved the problem of what to do with nuclear waste, you need to read this.

[ed. note. My first link to this article went bad. I'm now putting links to the same article from three different sites. Reading any one of them will be good enough, no need to click all three. The third is a PDF if you want high quality printing. Thanks - M.S.]

Nuclear revival rekindles waste concerns
Nuclear revival rekindles waste concerns
Nuclear revival rekindles waste concerns

Minimum Essentials Test

These questions are deliberately “trick” questions in that they require one to pay attention to exact wording and use some logic.

NOTE: Bonus question added 1/13/2008.

I have obscured the answers using ROT13, an “encryption” mechanism that is completely insecure and is best for obscuring punch lines of jokes and answers to questions. It’s a simple cypher where the letters of the alphabet are assigned values from 0 - 25. Since there are 26 letters, adding 13 to the value for each letter and using modulus 26 will provide both “encryption” and “decryption”. If you need the answer to any of these questions, just paste the funny looking text under the question onto the ROT13 page below, click Cypher, and appreciate that someone has a URL even shorter than would be generated by tinyurl. All answers will be spelled out, even when numeric due to the cypher algorithm used.

http://rot13.com/

Note: If you look up the answer, expect a snarky one.

1. A ship standing in one of the locks of the Panama Canal extends 42 feet above the water line. The water rises in th elocks at a rate of 6 feet per minute. After 3 minutes, how far above the water line does the ship extend?

A) Sbegl-gjb srrg, nffhzvat vg vf abg fvaxvat.

Religiosity Makes the U.S. a Third World Nation

A couple of reports indicate that religiosity correlates strongly with violent crime and infant mortality. All of which are things that the U.S. is at or near the top among developed democratic nations. See my full post on Dvorak Cagematch, where, as previously noted, I am doing a stint as a guest moderator.

Internet Hell Desk

If you haven’t seen this before, it’s hilarious and definitely worth watching all the way through.

Expensive White Powder Addiction? What a Rush!!

Of course, I’m talking about skiing. I don’t know what you were thinking of.

See the rest of this post over on Dvorak’s Cagematch where, as previously noted, I am doing a stint as the Guest Moderator Of the Week. Thanks for reading.

GMOTW!!!

I am honored to be given the privilege of being the first ever Guest Moderator Of The Week over on the Dvorak Cagematch blog. Please watch for my posts and great thought provoking posts from others there. Mine are on the GMOTW category.

I’m not sure just what I’ll post there. I have tagged this post with my expected topics, but may post others as I think of them.

Thanks!

High Noon In The Age Of Bacteria

It occurs to me that the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old and will be engulfed by the sun in another 4.5 billion years. Bacteria have been around since almost the beginning. The oldest fossilized bacteria being from around 3.8 billion years ago. I do not know whether bacteria will continue to survive right up until the sun goes nova. So, we’re roughly at the mid point for life on this planet.

So what? (Please keep reading. I’m coming around to a very important point in my long-winded way.)

Stuff for the Holidays

I’m probably a tad late on this one. However, as you do your last minute shopping for the holidays, please consider this. This is just a short piece of a twenty minute video, which I highly recommend, called The Story of Stuff. Please take the time to view the full length version, It’s really worth it.

Bush Shatters 2000 Year Old Record

Biblical scholars agree that Samson killed 1,000 people with the jawbone of an ass. This number has stood the test of time, being uncontested until the present day. In 1997, the The Guinness Book of Records recognized Samson’s triumph with an entry in the book. Today, no weapons of mass destruction have been discovered in Iraq. Intelligence reports show a decreased level of safety from terrorism in the U.S. since the war began. The current death toll since 2003 in the Iraq war is 28,629 Americans and 78,743 – 85,813 Iraqis, or well over 100,000. This week, no longer in book form, Guinness World Records has recognized President Bush’s prowess in shattering the two millennia old death toll record by two orders of magnitude using exactly the same weapon.

Best Nigerian 419 Scam Ever!!

Wow!! Just noticing my site is getting just a tad depressing at the moment, even more so than usual. Time to add some more humor again. Check out this Plea For Help. It’s a classic.

Life After the Tipping Point (i.e. Today?)

If this article, Beyond the point of no return, is correct, we’ll be seeing even more really bad effects of climate change very soon. I’m still hoping to live out my life before the start of the Great Human Die-Off. This article gives a number of reasons not to be so hopeful. However, it also advocates some real and significant changes to the human mind-set.

This is not something I had considered previously.

Toxic Ocean Resembles the Precambrian

You’ve probably already heard that the ocean fish stocks on which we depend are already 90% depleted. Well, this L.A. Times article, A Primeval Tide of Toxins, not only confirms that, but also discusses the effects of this on the rest of the ocean. The chemical and biological content of the ocean is even beginning to make people sick just from getting hit by a nice sea breeze. What the hell are we doing to this poor planet and the rest of its inhabitants? Is the current mass extinction so bad that we are reverting the planet or even just large swaths of it to their Precambrian state? Read the article and find out.

Black Balloons for the Holidays

I’ve tried to keep my blog from becoming one big current events show and tell type blog. I’m going to break that rule here and just post a good video. Enjoy. Feel free to comment, of course.