2009-01-14 at 2:49am
Richard Neuhaus has died. Someone get me a microscopic violin.
Joe the Plumber really is stupid. I’m slightly confused: why is this guy reporting on the events in Israel rather than, say, someone with some knowledge of the history, politics and culture of the region? Strange.
Harry Lewis: Copyright law is the new frontier of censorship. In response to panic in the recording industry about music file sharing, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998. The DMCA seems to have made hardly a dent in the sharing of songs and movies, but it has justified a nasty war between recording studios and the teenagers on whom the industry depends.
Freeman Dyson has been suffering from Linus Pauling Syndrome - going from being an excellent scientist to being a total kook.
Ophelia Benson: It’s good to question conventional wisdom, except when it isn’t. Conventional wisdom holds that a bridge designed by engineers and built by reputable builders is safer to drive across than one designed by shamans and built by hairdressers. Questioning that conventional wisdom is not really all that productive, and if anyone listens to the questioning, it’s downright lethal.
The AIDS denial community sure is crazy. How crazy? Very crazy. Like September 11 conspiracy theories, I don’t get why people would want to believe that AIDS isn’t caused by HIV. Surely, us knowing the cause of AIDS is better than the alternative. The only purpose of AIDS denialism so far as I can see is to get people to stop taking anti-retrovirals and other anti-AIDS medication that has been shown to work and to replace it with herbs and homeopathy and other assorted quackery.
Disgusted Beyond Belief: Virginity is overrated. I think it is better to focus on real relationship issues. Instead, it acts as a distraction when you are young and is used as a bludgeon against the young when you are old.
The Vancouver Sun has an interview with the producer of Expelled, possibly the worst documentary movie (in general release) ever.
New professionalism in action. Next time you use public transport, be thankful if (a) you aren’t black and (b) the police don’t have guns. I seriously don’t understand how the police in this situation can get away with this - it’s a murder, not a “mistake”.
Tom Scott’s post about the BBC, the “web as CMS” and linked data is excellent and is showing that the BBC is facing in the right direction.
Episcopal priest suspended for ‘flamboyant NY partying’. Not a headline you read every day.
The Labour MP for Blackley thinks dyslexia doesn’t exist, prompting the good folks at Liberal Conspiracy to coin the term the ‘Dorries Effect’ to refer to idiotic bullshit peddled by back-benchers to court the media. Nadine Dorries being an equally unknown and barely literate Conservative back-bencher who is basically the Parliamentary pawn of the Christian right.
Malet Street, London, England
