Walking Towards Peril Is A Cool Band Name - Has Nothing To Do With This Post

You may recall some false stories published by the New Republic I previously mentioned back in August that I used as an example of why I don't trust the media with political stories. Michael Yon has weighed in with a thoughtful defense for the author that is perhaps overdue.

Scientists find the "grow another eyeball gene". Ah, the possibilities...

New hottest pepper found, weighing in on the hotness scale with a score of 1 million SHUs. Which is apparently five times as hot as police grade pepper spray. I know what I'm bringing to the next company pot-luck.

Our galaxy may potential get a chance at a second life, if it can find a smaller weaker galaxy to steal it from. Neat.

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Soon to Become My Least Favorite Topic

I recently watched 10 ways the world could end, and was disappointed that total existence failure didn't make the list. Overall I think it's a pretty good list of things we need to take steps to be prepared for, I believe I may have mentioned my interest in species survival previously. One thing it made me think about, was global warming, which I think could be added as number 11 to the above list.

A couple people have asked about my views on global warming recently (or misstated them), and while I've mentioned that I'm not happy with the way it's being portrayed to the public, creating a public sentiment that accuses the Washington Post of being tied to "big oil" when they ran a story on some of the problems a UK court found in Al Gore's movie, even though the IPCC generally agrees with them....

Ahem, where was I? Oh yes, my views. Well, here's the thing, I can't make heads or tails out of the science of climatology (the real science, I have mentioned that what the public is being told is oversimplified to the point of meaninglessness haven't I?). Of course, most of the people who do have opinions on what we should be doing, also can't make heads or tails out of the science of climatology. There was actually a day last month during which bloggers were supposed to give other people advice on what they could do to solve global warming. You may have noticed I didn't participate. I did however spend the day contemplating why it's a problem at all, when every Tom Dick & Jane apparently knows how to fix it.

I believe we should understand what the problem is, before trying to come up with a solution. The "solution first, ask questions later" scenario is one I'm presented with almost daily, and I've perfected the half-amused half-annoyed half-raised-eyebrow response. However, there are some pretty smart people out there that believe they have a good understanding of the problem, and I'm prepared to listen to them. I particularly like Bjorn Lomborg, whose view that focusing on carbon emissions is a mistake, as it's not the best way to prevent the problems that are being predicted (I highly recommend the linked article). Scott Adams recently had a post on Bjorn's appearance on Bill Maher's Real Time, and how he was practically called a global warming denier, even though he believes global warming is occurring and that humans are causing it. He just doesn't think that driving a hybrid is going to change anything. I think that sums up my position pretty well, I'm just not as convinced on the reasons behind the temperature changes.

Political Instinct

Apparently, the initial impression made from how a politician looks can swing the vote by about 10%. And, while I didn't plan to link to an Onion video (nsfw) again so soon, this was too perfect to pass up.

Memories

FactCheck had an interesting response to a Washington Post article about how trying to fight against misconceptions may enforce them. How belief and memory are intrinsically linked. The description of how some symbols in memory might be forgotten more easily is one of the best descriptions I think I've ever heard for the fallibility of memory. I think instead of having a "Negative" symbol that detaches from memories, I have a "This was a dream" symbol that becomes unassociated with my memories of my dreams over time. This means that you can tell me completely fabricated and outlandish stories about yourselves under the "I had this dream the other night..." pattern, and there's a good chance I'll believe it's true one day.

From this point forward, I will now be suspicious of your motivations when you tell me about your dreams.

David Bohm on Perception

I came across this video, which shows a physicists take on perception.

David Bohm on Perception

More Research Is Needed

Study: Multiple Stab Wounds May Be Harmful To Monkeys

Giant Fossils

Filling the dearth of giant animal stories, comes news of the discovery of what may be a new giant sized dinosaur. Much like George Washington (NSFW), this lizard was four stories tall and made of radiation. The animal has been named the Futalognkosaurus Dukei, which is not much fun to say. I'm starting an online petition to change the name to Ginormasaurus.

Since this story disappointingly comes with no pictures, giant catfish.


update: Apparently the first site I linked to is trapped in the early 90's and doesn't want anyone linking to them. Because, you know, then people might find their website on the intertubes, or they might get listed on "The Google". The link has been pointed to a different giant catfish.

The Evidence Against Me

Sometimes people ask me if I'm worried about my bosses reading my blog, or a future employer looking up my blog after an interview. That really isn't something I've worried about much, as any employer that wouldn't hire me because of the things I've written here is a company staffed by idiots, and I don't want to work there. However, Overlawyered linked to an article about lawyers using social media as evidence. Now, I don't expect that I will end up in a custody battle or anything, but really, who puts that in their five year plan? If I do someday end up in a nasty lawsuit, would I want the things I've written or will write here to be used as character evidence? In a way, that's partly why I'm doing it, as a way to show people part of my character that they might not normally see. But really, how can this do anything but hurt me if it ends up in a court of law? I don't think I'll change anything in what I write because of it, but that's just me and I'm late to the game.

I suppose it will be pretty common place now to do an internet search for the name and email address of anyone you interview, sue, go on a date with, or bump into on the elevator. Even though I already knew that, it seems a bit different, when there is something that might be returned now. I wonder how many people aren't aware of it? It's certainly one of the unintended side effects of the internet, and one that might turn out to be pretty big.

Knowledge

I've come across some good resources for learning online lately, that I thought I would mention.

Mango, has free language courses online. LiveMocha has the same, but with online chat so that you can practice with others.
hat tip: lifehacker

UC Berkeley is putting their course lectures on YouTube.

And here's MIT's OpenCourseWare.

Happy Thoughts

I decided to contribute to the "Happy Thoughts" white board at work. My happy thought got erased in about 15 minutes. Apparently, I am not very good at happy thoughts. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

Misplaced Words

When I was writing more frequently, I would often grab a piece of paper, and write down stray thoughts as they came to me. These notes would often be put the side, and then forgotten. There would be notes left on end tables, the floor near the TV, the couch, the kitchen counters, my pillow... well, you get the idea, pretty much anywhere I happened to be when something came to me. This was a bad habit, especially when I had room mates.

Click for full size

A couple of times I would come home to find that my roommate had company over, and that the first impression they had of me, was seeing something like the note on the left. I'm not sure that's the way I would choose to introduce myself to someone. His visitors rarely come over more than once. However, I'm a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to weird looks from strangers, and generally just found this amusing.

The thing that ended up getting me to break this habit, was notes like the one on the right, that were specifically addressed to someone. I remember that one specifically, I was in my bedroom with the girl this was written about, and I noticed it out of the corner of my eye. I thought I had indiscreetly turned the note over while she was looking at something else, but when she turned back she said "I already read it." A few more of those encounters I thought had cured me of this bad habit, but of course, now I'm putting everything on the internet.

Is it Legal to Clone a Neanderthal?

Scott Adams recently had a post about cloning Homo Erectus. The post was funny, but got me thinking (I believe he calls this "philosotainment"), would it be illegal to clone one of our ancenstors? Obviously, cloning laws are different depending on which state/country you are in, but generally "human cloning" is not allowed. I couldn't track down the actual text of the law, but I suspect the law itself uses the word "human". That's not as specific as Homo Sapien, but what else does human mean? Is a neanderthal a human? If it is, even though they're a different species, where do you draw the line? Pretty far back according to some.

If woolly mammoth hair has good DNA, chances are that there is some pretty good caveman dna out there. You know it's going to come up at some point.

More Random News Items

I've mentioned FactCheck before as a good resource for verifying political statistics. There are a couple other fact-check-like resources, that I found out about from FactCheck.

PolitiFact
FactCheck had this to say about them:

The new site does something we don't. It offers a "truth-o-meter" that rates statements by the 2008 presidential candidates on a scale from "true" through "half true" to "pants on fire." We tend to leave "truth" to theologians and philosophers and aspire to nothing more lofty than sorting out mundane facts and figures. We admire their panache.

And the Washington Post's Fact Checker. These may be valuable resources, especially over the next year.

A friend's car died recently, and this seemed timely: How to buy a car without getting screwed

The California judicial system showed it wasn't completely crazy, by throwing out a lawsuit aiming for the pockets of car manufacturers over global warming. Their return from bizarro world didn't last long, as two days later there was a story that Santa Cruz decided to overturn a smoking ban in a local park for one day, so that medical marijuana users could light up. Chances are good that one of those will be appealed, and possibly overturned. Want to guess which one?
Hat tip: Overlawyered

These bugs pretend to be a different sex, both the males & the females. Apparently they evolved that way to avoid their odd form of breeding, which sounds very unappealing. Seems like an evolutionary dead end to me.

32 AA batteries for $5? Lifehacker has a battery hack round-up, which could save money if you don't mind a little prying.

Here is an article about honesty. Is being honest all the time empowering and uplifting, or just a good excuse to be a jerk? Read the article, then get back to me.

Also, giraffe fight.