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Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Posted by RedSeven at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

• Nation Shudders At Large Block Of Uninterrupted Text


• Plausibility in Science-Based Medicine

  A question that arises often when discussing the optimal role of science in medicine is the precise role of plausibility, or prior probability. This is, in fact, the central concept that separates (for practical if not philosophical reasons) science-based medicine (SBM) from evidence-based medicine (EBM).

  The concept featured prominently in the debate between myself and Dr. Katz at the recent Yale symposium that Kimball Atwood recently discussed. Dr. Katz’s treatment of the topic was fairly typical of CAM proponents, and consisted of a number of straw man derived from a false dichotomy, which I will describe in detail below.



• Israel Sandbags Biden

  The far rightwing government of Binyamin Netanyahu in Israel majorly sandbagged Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday, demonstrating once again that it has not the slightest interest in pursuing a just peace with the Palestinian people or in trading a cessation of its colonization of the Palestinian West Bank for a comprehensive peace with the Arab world. . .

  In my view, it doesn't really matter if Netanyahu's slap in the face to Biden derails the proposed indirect talks. The Likud-led government has no intention of allowing a Palestinian state, and there is now no place to put one. Israel-Palestine has unalterably entered the era of Apartheid (actually something worse), and it will spell both the end of dreams of peace in our generation, and probably over time the end of Israel as Netanyahu's generation knew it. The Palestinians cannot be left stateless (the legal estate of slaves as well as of Jews under Nazi rule, i.e. people with no legal rights) forever. If they can't have Palestinian citizenship, then they'll have to have Israeli citizenship. The future of Israel-Palestine is likely to become a multi-ethnic, multi-religious state like Lebanon. Ironically, it is Netanyahu who is in no small measure responsible for this likely outcome, the opposite of the one he aspires to.



• Israel To Build New Settlements, in the West WING!


• Al Kennedy on Writing


• Religion Ban in Public Daycare


• Catholics Dictating Terms

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• Yamani or Your Life

  A nasty attempt to coerce Danish newspapers into apologizing for the cartoons of Muhammad.



• Assholes have rights


• Eyeless hydra shed light on evolution of the eye

  One of creationists' favourite claims is that an organ as intricate as the eye could never have simply evolved. Fresh evidence to the contrary has now arrived, courtesy of a creature related to jellyfish.

  The tiny freshwater hydra has no eyes but it will contract into a ball when exposed to sudden bright light. David Plachetzki and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have found that hydras "see" light using two proteins closely related to those in our own eyes.

  "If you look at something as complex as an eye, you might be at a loss to explain how the whole structure evolved at once," says Plachetzki, now at the University of California, Davis. "But if you look at its components you can start to piece together how it happened." That's especially feasible now that genes from the earliest animals, such as the hydra, are being sequenced.

  Rod and cone cells in the human retina contain proteins called opsins that change shape when light strikes them. This causes another type of protein, an ion channel, to generate an electrical signal along nerves connecting the eye to the brain – a process called phototransduction.

  Hydras have the same types of opsins and ion channels as we do.



• Amusing sign


• Rachel Corrie's Day in Court


• Story of the Week

  LOA goodies. I suggest buying books directly from the LOA but if you dont Library of America books are also available from Amazon

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The Australian tour Continues (Tip to Killbot)

Part 2

Jb, you will note that the bible is explained to be a basis of Western morality at 7:50.

Part 3

Part 4

Posted by RedSeven at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (25)

I saw these on a worst movie list and had to share.

Posted by RedSeven at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

• Nice Sign


• Liz Cheney: Chip off the Old Crock


• Home Schoolers

  For the most part they are leaving the education of their children to idiots.



• LOL


• Hey Jude: Times Square subway sing-along


• National Broadband Plan Crucial For 'Smart' Power Grids


• "Big Supplement" Lashes Out

Posted by Norm at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Thank whoever uploaded this. SBS lacks Embed code.

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New Media Watchdogs from Kimberly Butler on Vimeo.

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• NRA Lobbies For ChatRUSSIANRoulette


• Ken Miller can’t win?


• Randi's Million at risk?


• Everything has Killed More People Than Pot

Posted by Norm at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

• Pigeons Beat Humans at Solving the Monty Hall Problem.


• Do Kinder People Have an Evolutionary Advantage

  Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are challenging long-held beliefs that human beings are wired to be selfish. In a wide range of studies, social scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence to show we are evolving to become more compassionate and collaborative in our quest to survive and thrive.



• Week Ezine for Democrats A weekly must read.


• Reality Rejection Syndrome


• Only in America

Posted by Norm at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So a friend of mine calls today National Parade day (fathom that one). I couldn't bring myself to post 3 marches, but marches are dances, right? So 3 dances it is:

Jean-Phillipe Rameau Rigaudon from Suite in E or Les Fêtes d'Hébé (go to CD 2 track 19). There's also a great transcription played by the fabulous Calefax Reed Quintet (track 15) in an arrangement Suite Le Rappel des Oiseaux. Supposedly the dance song is called J'ai du bon tabac. Either way, a fun little jaunt.

Leoš Janáček III. Allegro from Mládí. This is a cute march, featuring that toy instrument I sometimes play.

The above 2 are short. If you go 1 movement at a time below, those go by fairly quickly as well:

Astor Piazzolla Five Tango Sensations. I'm fighting I. Asleep as I type - gotta get back on a more normal schedule.

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