AP Story out of San Francisco - 'nuff said
SAN FRANCISCO Americans know more about basic science today than two decades ago, good news that researchers say is tempered by an unsettling growth in the belief in pseudoscience such as astrology and visits by extraterrestrials. uhhh and global warming
In 1988 only about 10 percent knew enough about science to understand reports in major newspapers, a figure that grew to 28 percent by 2005, according to Jon D. Miller, a Michigan State University professor. He presented his findings Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The improvement largely reflects the requirement that all college students have at least some science courses, Miller said. This way, they can better keep up with developments through the media.
A panel of researchers ... arriving in their hybrids
... expressed concern that people are giving increasing credence to pseudoscience such as visits of space aliens and horoscopes. In addition, these researchers noted an increase in college students who report they are "unsure" about creationism as compared with evolution.
More recent generations know more factual material about science, said Carol Susan Losh, an associate professor at Florida State University. But, she said, when it comes to pseudoscience, "the news is not good." One problem, she said, is that pseudoscience can speak to the meaning of life in ways that science does not. For example, for many women having a good life still depends on whom they marry, she said.
"What does astrology speak to? Love relationships," Losh said, noting that belief in horoscopes is much higher among women than men. The disclosure that former first lady Nancy Reagan consulted an astrologer resulted in widespread derision in the media, but few younger people remember that today, she said. Had to get in the obligitory Reagan dig.
Miller said most readers of horoscopes are women, contributing to the listing of "female" as a leading negative factor in science literacy. Women also tended to take fewer college science courses, he said. But they run the House OK
Belief in abduction by space aliens is also on the rise, Losh said. "It's not surprising that the generation that grew up on 'Twilight Zone' and early 'Star Trek' television endorsed a link between UFOs and alien spacecraft," she said.
Pseudoscience discussion is often absent from the classroom, Losh said, so, "We have basically left it up to the media."<
SPAN CLASS=HILITE>Yikes!!!
Raymond Eve of the University of Texas-Arlington had mixed news in surveys of students at an unidentified Midwestern university. The share that believed aliens had visited Earth fell from 25 percent in 1983 to 15 percent in 2006. There was also a decline in belief in Bigfoot and in whether psychics can predict the future.
But there also has been a drop in the number of people who believe evolution correctly explains the development of life on Earth and an increase in those who believe mankind was created about 10,000 years ago.
Miller said a second major negative factor to scientific literacy was religious fundamentalism ... uhhh allans people???
... and aging.
#1
The disclosure that former first lady Nancy Reagan consulted an astrologer resulted in widespread derision in the media, but few younger people remember that today, she said.
Odd how the good associate professor didn't notice that the younger people were generally born after Nancy Reagan's husband was in office. I recently learnt that one of the mid-century presidents was in the habit of swinging his dogs by their ears. I only hope they were beagles and not german shepherds.
#4
In 1988 only about 10 percent knew enough about science to understand reports in major newspapers, a figure that grew to 28 percent by 2005, according to Jon D. Miller, a Michigan State University professor.
There are two ways to interpret this. Since we know from test scores that Americans aren't learning as much math and science as they used to (indeed, imperiling our status as a world leader), I think we can deduce that the level of science reporting has declined.
In addition, there is a much lower threshold for scientists pontificating to the press about tenuous theories which have no experimental basis whatsoever. Example: string theories involving alternate universes in adjacent dimensions. This is close to pseudoscience.
When professional scientists rush to publish highly tentative theories in the press, it becomes harder for them to push back against pseudoscience.
#6
...The late Carl Sagan was a world-class moonbat - his Nuclear Winter studies were some of the most badly twisted facts masquerading as science anybody's ever seen, worse than the curent Global Warming crap - but towards the end of his life he began to realize that people were turning away from science and turning toward superstition. Get his last book, The Demon-Haunted World and tell me that everything he sees in it hasn't come true.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/18/2007 18:24 Comments ||
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The late Carl Sagan was a world-class moonbat
Not compared to Chomsky and his ilk. Sagan was dissed by the scientific community for his approach to popularizing science. IIRC, the nuclear winter theory was based on some Soviet computer models that turned out to be wrong. The basic idea - that dust in the atmosphere has a cooling effect - is sound. Remember the Mount Pinatubo volcano eruption?
#8
You meant "without" thinking like that, didn't you TW?
Nope. Everyone of us here does not think like that, excepting, of course, poor Mr. Arabi. I did mean affecting, though, not effecting. PIMF.
Separately, part of the cause of the populace thinking so poorly about science is that the reporters don't know enough science to judge what they're being told, or to report about it intelligently... and I hate to think how many degreed journalists believe in the validity of astrology, and don't understand the critical difference between Darwin's theory of evolution and creationism.
#10
ART BELL last nite vv Call-in > "I agree that Science, despite all the advancements ever made since the turn of the last century, CAN NOT ANSWER/RESOLVE EVERYTHING".
Widespread desertions from Zimbabwe's army and police are weakening Robert Mugabe's security forces as large strikes loom because of the country's deepening economic collapse. With inflation now at a global record of 1,600 per cent, The Observer can reveal that soldiers and police officers who cannot feed their families are leaving their posts in large numbers.
Striking doctors is one thing, when the police and army decide not to support the head cheese, things are going to happen.
Flyers of army officers who have gone missing are posted in the hallways of the King George VI headquarters in Harare and the 1 Commando quarters near the airport, according to journalists. 'There are Awol notices up in the barracks, our reporter saw them,' said Bill Saidi, editor of the Standard newspaper. 'Discontent is very high up to mid-level officers. They do not earn enough to buy basic groceries. They are suffering the hardships all of us suffer now, yet they are the ones Mugabe depends upon to be ruthless in putting down any opposition. It adds up to trouble for Mugabe.'
Zimbabwe is also plagued by widespread power blackouts, often lasting more than eight hours.
Unhappiness is also rife among police. More than 10 per cent of officers have resigned and will leave next month, according to a report by Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, leaked to the Harare press. Many are joining the flood of the more than two million Zimbabweans estimated to be in South Africa.
Mugabe can ill afford weakening security forces as popular unrest is growing. A strike of doctors and nurses at government hospitals is in its eighth week and threatens to spread to teachers and civil servants. Trade unions are considering calling a nationwide general strike, despite the beatings and torture meted out to labour leaders last September.
Zimbabwe is also plagued by widespread power blackouts, often lasting more than eight hours. A breakdown in municipal water treatment is blamed for an outbreak of cholera in Harare's Mabvuku township. Life expectancy has plummeted to 36, the world's lowest, the economy has shrunk by 50 per cent since 2000 and inflation hit its record last week. The International Monetary Fund predicts it will soar to above 4,000 per cent this year.
Yet Mugabe's supporters - now trying to raise more than £1m to stage lavish celebrations to mark his 83rd birthday on Wednesday - appear unperturbed. The funds and advertisements praising him will come from the same state-owned utilities that are failing to provide clean water, electricity and transport. 'Mugabe is acting as if nothing is amiss and everyone should be happy to celebrate his birthday. He is not picking up the signs of growing unrest,' said Saidi.
And he won't until he has his Mussolini moment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/18/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I doubt that Bob will have a Mussolini Moment™. More likely he and a couple of planeloads of gold, diamonds, and all of Zim's remaining hard currency will soon be landing in Caracas or Havana....
#4
This is one of those rare moments in time where an agent with a suitcase of money can overthrow a country : about 10-15 million dollars in Rands or Pounds Sterling passed out to the right people, and Mugabe would be swinging from a light post by morning.
Of course if the CIA under President Bush were to overthrow this piece of sh!t, the Left/Dems in Congress would impeach Bush. BDS is so thick in DC today, that no good deed will go unpunished, if performed by Bush, the military, the CIA, or similar protectors of the American public.
#5
Zimbabwe is also plagued by widespread power blackouts, often lasting more than eight hours. A breakdown in municipal water treatment is blamed for an outbreak of cholera in Harare's Mabvuku township. Life expectancy has plummeted to 36, the world's lowest, the economy has shrunk by 50 per cent since 2000 and inflation hit its record last week. The International Monetary Fund predicts it will soar to above 4,000 per cent this year.
Is that whurring sound in the distance Zacatas or Locusts?
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has accused Britain of refusing dialogue with its former colony, and said he expects ties to improve after Prime Minister Tony Blair steps down later in 2007, state media said on Saturday.
They said that Mugabe, who had been at odds with Britain since he ordered the seizure of white-owned farms in 2000, had asked former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa to try to broker talks with Britain in a bid to resolve their differences. But in an interview with Harare's official Herald newspaper on Saturday, Mugabe said he had asked Mkapa to step down because the task was "insurmountable".
"The Blair government is a queer government, and Blair behaves like a headmaster, old fashioned, who dictates that things must be done his way: 'Do it or you ... remain punished and an outcast,'" the newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying. "But we are hoping that with the departure of Blair, there will be a better situation there and they can be talked to," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2007 00:00 ||
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The Blair government is a queer government, but well fed...
Turkmenistan opened its first two internet cafés on Friday as new President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov moved to fulfil promises of limited reform in the Central Asian nation.
The curtailing of the internet was one of the hard-line moves ordered by late dictator Saparmurat Niyazov. There was no immediate rush to the two cyber-cafés opened in the capital, Ashgabat, though the order issued by Berdymukhammedov within hours of his inauguration on Wednesday was seen as a sign of willingness to carry out some degree of liberalisation. "Our aim is not only to save the results achieved since independence but [also] to reinforce ... state policies and to implement them in the interests of the country's prosperity and people," Berdymukhammedov told Chinese journalists.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2007 00:00 ||
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Turkmenbashi must be rolling in his grave..
Did they bury him? Or is he preserved and displayed in a case like Lenin and Mao?
Posted by: John Frum ||
02/18/2007 10:01 Comments ||
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Ima hoping they stuff him and put him on display. The man was a piece of work.
Proving we have world class lunatics here in Perth.
AUSTRALIAN of the Year Tim Flannery is sticking by his warning that Perth could become the first ghost metropolis of the 21st century. But the outspoken environmental scientist says it's our addiction to coal, not just water, that is jeopardising our future.
Dr Flannery said he originally made the dire prediction about Perth based on its scarce water supply. "When I said Perth could become the first ghost metropolis, that was true, but the Government acted and got a desalination plant going,'' he said. "The city could have run out of water if it wasn't for the desal plant.''
While the immediate crisis is over, Dr Flannery said water worries would continue to plague southern WA more than other parts of Australia. He said the problem for Perth was that it had to accommodate the bulk of the state's population, which was growing on the back of a booming economy, at a time when the area was limping through 30 years of dwindling rainfall.
You'd think a booming economy could afford to fix the problems, including more desalination plants, bringing coal in, building a nuclear generating plant, etc, but Dr. Flannery is on a roll --
The greener pastures of the South-West were also under threat because of climate change, with scientists estimating that the fragile eco-system was particularly susceptible to changes in rainfall and temperature.
Fragile eco-systems usually are susceptible to climate change, that's why they're called fragile ...
He said there were no signs that Perth's once-abundant winter rainfall would return any time soon, and even a small drop in rainfall had huge knock-on effects for the region. "You get a little drop in rainfall and then plants are under more stress and there is less flow into streams,'' he said. "In 1976, when Perth first lost about 15 per cent of its rainfall, that equated to a 50 per cent loss of water into dams.''
While the desalination plant had eased some of the shortfall, Dr Flannery said WA had to keep working on other ways to reverse climate change. "I think that all the prognoses for climate change is that the South-West is going to keep drying out and getting hotter,'' he said.
In the meantime, the straight-talking scientist has turned his guns on WA's love affair with coal, which he said could become the asbestos of the future.
His comments have rattled both the Federal Government and the Opposition, especially when he called for coal-fired power plants to be closed and replaced with renewable energy and clean-coal technologies. He said the technologies existed now to cut carbon emissions by 70 per cent over the next 50 years, just by running our power grids on mostly renewable energy.
Such as ...
His best-selling book The Future Eaters, followed by his own history of global warming We are the Weather Makers, have helped maintain the rage against environmental pollution. His attack on coal, called a "knee-jerk reaction'' by Mr Howard, was nervously received by the federal Labor Party, fearful of alienating the coal industry's 30,000 workers.
Asked this week if he was being alarmist, an unrepentant Dr Flannery said it was time to put WA's abundant sunshine and wind to good use by developing renewable energy such as solar and wind power. "We know that coal is the single largest polluter, so we've got to move on to a new energy future,'' he said. ``The Australia I grew up in rode on the sheep's back, but we've moved on _ it's the same with coal.''
On the question of jobs, he said renewable energies had the potential to create more jobs than the coal industry. He called on WA voters to use their power at the ballot box by voting only for candidates who put up targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. "People need to hold the State Government to account on climate change,'' he said. ``Is WA polluting more or less than it was three years ago? And what are the candidates' targets to reduce this?
"This is the single most important thing Perth people can do on this issue.''
Asked if it was too late to repair much of the damage done to Australia's environment, Dr Flannery said there were no quick fixes. "It think it's going to take years, but if we don't act now we're going to be in even deeper trouble,'' he said. Instead, Australia was in catch-up mode, devising policies now to address climate change that should have been started a decade ago, he said.
#1
I just want to get in an early warning about the year 2100 problem. Many pre 2K systems were fixed with a cure than only let them continue for another 100 years, after than it's Katey Bar-The-Door and make me a sandmich.
#5
Gee I live in Perth, but I am moving south to the coast near Bunbury cause the fishing, lobsters and crabs. I have lot's of water in Perth via a bore, swimming pool and spa. Problem is that vision is needed so we can get water from up North via Ord river. Use the prisoners to build it, but I suppose that is not politically correct......
Posted by: Aussie nt ||
02/18/2007 6:28 Comments ||
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We are frequently told we live on the driest inhabited continent on earth. Yet according to the World Resource Institute, in Australia we have 51,000 litres of available water per capita per day. This is one of the highest levels in the world, after Russia and Iceland, and well ahead of countries such as the US (24,000) and the United Kingdom (only 3,000 litres per capita per day). Of the water that does fall on Australia, we divert only 5 per cent of average annual run-off. About 70 per cent of this water is used for irrigated agriculture which is concentrated in the Murray Darling Basin where relatively little water falls.
Flannery is a moron and the only real problem here is water is ridiculously cheap. You can run your lawn sprinklers every night for next to nothing.
#8
Tim Flannery was an excellent utility player for the SD Padres. This pretender has no utility, and is another book-pushing grant/attention whore. When the Climate Change is proven to be independent from human activities, part of a natural (solar-driven) cycle, hope we kept a list, so we can hang these bastards
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2007 13:21 Comments ||
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#9
I'm planning on moving to Australia when the next ice age hits - somewhere around 2050 or so.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/18/2007 15:00 Comments ||
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#10
Old PatriotI'm planning on moving to Australia when the next ice age hits - somewhere around 2050 or so
Then the Germans won't mind if the US cancels co-development of the MEADS antimissile system.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier criticised the United States on Sunday in a rare public rebuke for failing to inform Russia of an offer to build an anti-missile base on Polish soil. Except that everyone has known about this plan for a European based ABM system for at least three years.
In an interview to appear in Monday's Handelsblatt daily, Steinmeier said it was vital to keep all partners fully informed due to the sensitive nature of the project. "Because the sites for the stationing are quite near Russia, one should have talked about it with Russia beforehand," Steinmeier said in remarks released ahead of publication. "In view of the strategic nature of this sort of project, I urge one to act with caution and to engage in an intensive dialogue with all the partners directly and indirectly involved," he added. So Germans would rather live under the threat of instant death from End of World muslim cultists and pipsqueak KGB agents turned president.
Steinmeier, a leader in the Social Democrats (SPD), was chief of staff under former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder -- a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an outspoken opponent of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The United States has asked Poland and the neighboring Czech Republic to host elements of its multi-billion dollar global defense system designed to counter missiles potentially fired by what Washington calls rogue states. The Polish base would supplement existing missile-shield installations in the U.S. states of Alaska and California and intercept hostile missiles from the Middle and Far East.
Russia has threatened to install medium-range ballistic missiles in its Baltic Kaliningrad region neighboring northern Poland if Warsaw agrees to host the U.S. base in its territory.
New Polish Defense Minister Aleksander Szczyglo said on Sunday Poland would reply within two weeks to the U.S. offer. Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski favours the anti-missile shield saying it would bring Poland greater security. But public opinion is divided and misgivings have emerged in his ruling coalition.
In Berlin, the parliamentary floor leader of the opposition Greens party Fritz Kuhn said the U.S. plans had not been discussed with NATO. "What the United States is doing can only be seen in Russia as a provocation," Kuhn said in an interview with the Saarbruecker Zeitung newspaper. If you don't want it. Better for us. It will save the long suffering American taxpayer several billion dollars. Just don't expect Americans to continue buying so many cars from a place that could go up in a fireball at any time.
Posted by: ed ||
02/18/2007 15:03 ||
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#1
Okay. If they're inbound to Berlin, we won't use it.
Happy now, Fritzy?
#2
Steinmeier, a leader in the Social Democrats (SPD), was chief of staff under current GAZPROM gasbag Gerhard Schroeder -- a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an outspoken opponent of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2007 15:49 Comments ||
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#4
In a DW article, Steinmeier also dismissed the Iranian missile threat:
Steinmeier, however, dismissed any potential threat posed by Iranian rockets, saying Tehran did not possess the technology to make such an attack. He also spoke out against any immediate new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear policies.
"The most recent resolution of the UN Security Council does not contain any automatic mechanism for the situation where Iran does not fulfill its obligations," he said.
VICENZA, Italy - Tens of thousands of Italians under heavy police guard marched on Saturday through the city of Vicenza to protest against the expansion of a US military base that has divided the centre-left government.
Leftists who last year voted for Prime Minister Romano Prodi, an Iraq war opponent, turned out in droves to decry his approval for US plans to expand the military base in Vicenza, home to the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Pacifists waved rainbow-striped peace banners while some protesters carried anti-American slogans like Yankees go Home as they marched through the city and gathered in a main square. There is no reason to have this base here, said Antonio Faitta, a 25-year-old gardener who travelled from Genoa.
In a way I agree with Tony. Perhaps the 173rd Airborne should be based in South Carolina?
Prodi appealed to demonstrators to refrain from violence, following warnings from the interior minister that the protest march which began shortly after 2 p.m. (1300 GMT) could attract people hostile to the forces of law and order. The US embassy had warned Americans to steer clear of the small northern Italian city of 115,000, where officials also shut schools normally open on Saturday as a precaution.
But the protests were peaceful. Police estimates pegged the crowd at more than 50,000 people. The leftist Communist Refoundation Party (Prc), part of the ruling coalition, boasted the number could top 100,000 and said Prodi should listen up.
The base expansion is the latest headache for Prodi, who has faced revolts by his broad leftist coalition partners on everything from gay rights to the budget and the presence of Italian peacekeepers in Afghanistan. Today, Prodi has been given a vote of no confidence by his own majority. He should step down, said Isabella Bertolini of the centre-right opposition Forza Italia party.
I dont want any more Americans here and I dont want a new base. They should just leave us alone, said Pucci Mori, a resident of Vicenza, who lives near the proposed base expansion. Wherever they go in the world, Americans cause trouble.
No problem, Pucci, and you Y'urp-peons should settle the next outbreak of violence on your continent without us. Ciao.
The Pentagon wants to double the size of the base to unite its 173rd Airborne Brigade and expand its 2,750 military personnel to 4,500. At present, the rapid reaction unit is divided among the base at Vicenza, about 400 km (250 miles) north of Rome, and bases at Bamburg and Schweinfurt in Germany.
The new barracks would be on the other side of the city from the existing one. That has raised worries about new roads to handle military traffic linking the two parts, loss of green space and strains on public services. Residents fear it could even put Vicenza in danger.
South Carolina or Kurdistan, but move it out of Italy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/18/2007 00:00 ||
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To be fair, the Italian campaign in WWII was a botch. Thank you, Gen. Mark Clark.
I am not sure which is worse: 1) when the Italians have no respect for law and order, like now, or 2) when the Italians have too much respect for law and order, like 1930–1943.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/18/2007 7:45 Comments ||
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#2
Reminds me of the old war joke
Whats the difference between an Italian and a piece of toast ?
#3
Was stationed at Caserma Ederle in the mid 70s. It was an old Italian Army post on the east side of the city, taken over by the Germans when the eyeties flipped in 43 and occupied by the Americans since 45. Its a small installation hemmed in by what goes for the burbs in that part of the world. The main entrance is off the main street. Its like trying to enter a busy mall entrance with the traffic. Not my concept of a secure location with all sorts of threat scenarios to cause considerable damage among both the military and civilian population. Considering the less than excellent support by the locales, its better to take potential targets elsewhere for improved force protection.
Yes, American interests need better and bigger facilities. However, geographically and operationally, Vicenza is more a comfortable habit rather than a good location. [When I was stationed on the base, there was a nice three star restaurant just outside the main gate and a half mile east and over the railroad bridge]. Its the old generals and admirals whining again like they did about the Philippine bases as being absolutely positively necessary. Guess what, they werent.
It would be better to build new elsewhere. Best to use this as an excuse the make it happen. If they insist for political reasons to keep something in Italy, then by all means look to Sardinia and an arrangement like the Brits have in Cyprus. The Sardinians need the economic boost and will be less likely to whine. The American forces will get new decent facilities that address the force protection nightmare that Vicenza presents. Land should not be a problem.
#4
Agree with Procopius... it's more of a habit. I stopped over there in 1985: a tiny and charming small post, entirely surrounded by suburbs.
Also, NPR had a story this AM on the protests with all the local luvvies in full whine, all about those narsty, narsty Yankee warmongers blighting their nice little neighborhood... since after all, the Cold War is over.
And the NPR reporter mentioned a sign reading "Help us Nancy Pelosi!" (barf)
Got to admit, they have a point about the Cold War being over, though. Damned if I know what we are still doing with large permanent bases in Europe.
#5
No big deal. They hate us until they need us, like P said about the Philippines. We should pull pitch the hell out of that country as fast as we can. They will be calling us back in five to ten, begging.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/18/2007 11:36 Comments ||
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#6
3 gets you 5 that the 173rd ends up living in Kurdistan.
#7
Best to pull the airbase out too. That way we won't get suckered when the Balkans blow up again.
Posted by: ed ||
02/18/2007 12:31 Comments ||
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Steve,
South Carolina or Kurdistan, but move it out of Italy.
Hell, put the damn camp in South Carolina. There's more than sufficient room close enough to major airfields, and Americans will welcome them.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/18/2007 12:32 Comments ||
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#9
3 gets you 5 that the 173rd ends up living in Kurdistan.
gotta love the Kurds great folks and they need our support... they are among the few groups of Arabs that seem to get it... support yes but not the 173rd, ima in favor South Carolina for the 173rd.
**
Thanks you State Dept, your policies have rewarded "allies" for decades unconditionally with support/largess in spite of their behavior. Yep your genius has bred full contempt for our our Armed Forces overseas.
Thanks assholes for nothing and for wasting our tax dollars.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Monday claimed to have identified the attackers of its central information secretary Sherry Rehman and demanded an action in this case.
A PPP press release claimed that the woman who had supposedly attacked Rehman was spotted in TV footage recorded by a private channel. The same woman attacker visited Rehman in hospital pretending to be a reporter, it said. Rehman was seen in the TV footage standing with her fellow party workers as Raza Rabbani addressed the rally. She suddenly fell and the suspected attacker was standing on her back, the release said.
It said that Rehman was then seen complaining about something pointing at her neck in a pain. It says the suspected attacker remained calm during the disturbance, which showed that she was confident of the results of her attack.
It said that the suspected woman visited Rehman in hospital after the party had acquired the video tape, adding that the woman told party workers that she was a reporter and come by to ask after Rehmans health. Party leaders including Makhdom Amin Fahim said the attack was carried out after Rehmans campaign against rigging in by-polls in Sindh, during which leaders of other parties had also been targeted.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2007 00:00 ||
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I can't believe point-to-point protocol would attack anyone, much less our Sherry.
#3
Shipman - I traced down PPP attacking circuit based transcoders. I took a major modification in transcoder code to make it deal with PPP's standards.
#4
Shipman - I should point out that's why my library has about 4 books on PPP. (Far too deep - and my e-mail has conversations with the RFC designers..)
The best way to deal with PPP is holy water and a cross in its face.
#5
Don't forget to sharpen the Crosses edges to a razor edge, that'll work far better than any "Holy water". (unless you believe in "Holy Battery Acid)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/18/2007 11:40 Comments ||
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A media exhibit featuring a campaign for a fake drug to treat a fictitious illness is causing a stir because some people think the illness is real.
Australian artist Justine Cooper created the marketing campaign for a non-existent drug called Havidol for Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder (DSACDAD), which she also invented.
Ummm... That'd be media whoring?
But the multi-media exhibit at the Daneyal Mahmood Gallery in New York, which includes a website, mock television and print advertisements and billboards is so convincing people think it is authentic.
"People have walked into the gallery and thought it was real," Mahmood said in an interview.
'Subtle kind of parody'
"They didn't get the fact that this was a parody or satire."
But Mahmood said it really took off over the Internet. In the first few days after the website (www.havidol.com) went up, it had 5 000 hits. The last time he checked it had reached a quarter of a million.
"The thing that amazes me is that it has been folded into real websites for panic and anxiety disorder. It's been folded into a website for depression. It's been folded into hundreds of art blogs," he added.
The parody is in response to the tactics used by the drug industry to sell their wares to the public. Consumer advertising for prescription medications, which are a staple of television advertising in the United States, was legalised in the country in 1997.
Cooper said she intended the exhibit to be subtle.
"The drug ads themselves are sometimes so comedic. I couldn't be outrageously spoofy so I really wanted it to be a more subtle kind of parody that draws you in, makes you want this thing and then makes you wonder why you want it and maybe where you can get it," she added.
Mahmood said that in addition to generating interest among the artsy crowd, doctors and medical students have been asking about the exhibit.
"I think people identify with the condition," he said.
It sounds as if someone just dropped a tricycle into a meat grinder. Im sitting inside a narrow conference room at a research facility in Bristol, Connecticut, chatting with Joseph Longo, the founder and CEO of Startech Environmental Corporation.
As we munch on takeout Subway sandwiches, a plate-glass window is the only thing separating us from the adjacent lab, which contains a glowing caldera of plasma three times as hot as the surface of the sun. Every few minutes theres a horrific clanking noisegrinding followed by a thunderous voomp, like the sound a gas barbecue makes when it first ignites.
Is it supposed to do that? I ask Longo nervously. Yup, he says. Thats normal.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: John Frum ||
02/18/2007 13:07 Comments ||
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So, are they selling some of these? Is it working in real life?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/18/2007 13:35 Comments ||
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#3
Estimates of break-even costs & total cost of operation tend to be wildly off the mark for new technology. Tune in again in 5 years & see if anything comes of this.
#1
You can take the mosque out of the Arab culture but you can't take the Arab culture out of the mosque.
Islam's ability to morph into a form deemed acceptable by non-Arabs allows for the insidious spread of Arab imperialism by converts who are not even aware that they are serving their new masters.
A prominent Malaysian cleric said his comments that women should wear chastity belts to prevent rape and incest was a joke gone wrong, as rights groups and a top minister blasted his remarks in news reports on Saturday.
Joke only. It was not seriously meant, Abu Hassan Din Al-Hafiz said, according to the New Straits Times. He said earlier this week that women should wear protection to safeguard them from sex maniacs, reports said.
Abu Hassan could not be reached for comment on Saturday. Women, Family and Community Development Minister Sharizat Jalil said it was more important for Muslims to be strong in their faith than to promote ideas like wearing chastity belts to prevent sex crimes. Jemaah Islah Malaysia womens rights chief Harlina Halizah Siraj called Abu Hassans remarks outdated. We have to change the mind-set that any violence against women is caused by women themselves, she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Ah, I see. Misunderstood. Again. For the bazillion and twelfth time.
For some it is a sign that the conservatives are preparing to move into opposition. For others, it represents the right's attempt to reclaim satire from the cosy clasp of the liberal elite.
This weekend Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel, home of all that is "fair and balanced", launches the Half Hour News Hour. As the title suggests, the programme is not entirely serious. Nor is it fair and balanced. Indeed, it is intended to wrench the iron fist of satire away from the liberals on Jon Stewart's the Daily Show and give the right all the best lines.
Regardless of the merits of the gags in the Half Hour News Hour, its appearance may represent something of a cultural shift. With a waning presidency, a drawn out war and an over-familiar group of political targets, viewers may be tiring of jokes about the Bush administration.
The programme is the brainchild of Joel Surnow, the man behind the hit Fox series 24. A self-confessed "right-wing nut job", Surnow recently told the New Yorker magazine that "Conservatives are the new oppressed class".
Surnow says he wants to counter what he sees as the dominance of left-leaning comedy. "You can turn on any show and see Bush being bashed," Surnow told Variety. "There is nothing for those who want satire that tilts right."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2007 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Mike ||
02/18/2007 17:09 Comments ||
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#5
I have to admit - I think the Left will always be better at comedy, which isn't such a tragedy, because the Right will always dominate when it comes to serious debate.
#6
I'm looking forward to this show (in about 10 minutes). The Right has it all over the lefties when it comes to subtle humor. Modern Lib humor is centered around "4-letter words", anarchist-chic jabs at patriotism and religiosity ,fart jokes and "hilarious" ways to murder George Bush. Their attempts at creative, spontaneous humor fall flat due to their repressed guilt and self-loathing. That's only ONE reason they're getting ZERO traction. They're absurd and anyone with half a brain isn't buying their bs.
Posted by: Asymmetrical T ||
02/18/2007 21:42 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Widespread desertions from Zimbabwe's army and police are weakening Robert Mugabe's security forces as large strikes loom because of the country's deepening economic collapse. With inflation now at a global record of 1,600 per cent, The Observer can reveal that soldiers and police officers who cannot feed their families are leaving their posts in large numbers.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has accused Britain of refusing dialogue with its former colony, and said he expects ties to improve after Prime Minister Tony Blair steps down later in 2007, state media said on Saturday.
VICENZA, Italy - Tens of thousands of Italians under heavy police guard marched on Saturday through the city of Vicenza to protest against the expansion of a US military base that has divided the centre-left government.
