Danny Yee >> Pathologically Polymathic (blog)

November 2007

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smart kids? effort is more important than "talent" - SciAm [via /.]
on this topic, see my review of Genius Explained
how big pharma creates new medical conditions - NYROB
Denmark puts t-shirt terrorists in prison - Guardian
a good thing Che Guevara is dead, or they'd have to lock up tens of thousands
veterans' benefits are a long-term cost - MonkeyGate
"as of 1967, 1,353 dependents of [American] Civil War veterans were still drawing benefits"
the 12 days of Kitschmas - SoF [via MLite]
the Australian Democrats lose official party status - ABC
I voted for them in every election except 2004; now their only hope is probably mass defection by the liberals in the Liberal party
the age of sail is back? - NWW [via /.]
"A kite the size of a football field will provide most of the power for a German heavy freight ship set to launch in December"
undercover restoration of the Pantheon clock - Guardian [via CT]
overseas commentators say "good riddance" to John Howard - Salon - MotherJones - Guardian
the British Library has 262km of new storage for "low use" books - Guardian [via CR]
I'll be happy with 50 metres of shelf space, say 6 metres of bookcases
poor results for Islamists and democracy in Jordan - Economist
is there a firetruck gene? - Toybox [via CT]
Kevin Rudd's Labor sweeps to power, evicting John Howard - AEC - ABC
but with only half the senate changing, that looks like being hung - 37 Labor+Greens, 37 Liberals+Nationals, 1 independent (Xenophon) and 1 Family First (Fielding)
anti-sexist/anti-consumerist childrens books - Toybox [via CT]
background on Waziristan - Far
desperately need money? - Predatory Lending Association [via Majik]
unexcited by the prospect of a Labor victory in Australia - RtoS
"Over the last century, Labor has been the party of social reform in this country. That appears no longer to be the case. It’s lost stomach for the fight."
the Taliban are closing in on Kabul?! - SMH
France has low carbon emissions, but its own clueless global warming deniers - RealClimate [via Deltoid]
amusingly, some of them have "factor of 4" errors in solar forcing, from forgetting the Earth is a sphere and not flat!
nonsense about race and intelligence just won't stop - Delong [via Cosma] - jewcy [via CT]
Bela Zsolt's memoir/novel of the Holocaust in Hungary - Nine Suitcases [review]
will our clocks be decoupled from the movement of the sun? - Cam [via /.]
leap seconds and the attempt to do away with them
Google is taking on Verizon, AT&T, and "Vailism" - Slate
which "might be compared to trying to start a new waste management firm on Tony Soprano's street"
Martin Amis is a fascist, and clueless about Islam - SocialistUnity [via CT]
John Howard's record of lies - Australian
Africa's banking is improving - Economist
"Millions of Africans stash money under their mattresses or keep their savings as cattle."
amusing review of new Beowulf movie - RogerEbert
"If I were 13, Angelina Jolie would be plenty nude enough for me in this movie, animated or not. If I were 12 and British, who knows?"
David Williamson: time to end John's party - Crikey
Sun to build server farm in a Japanese coal mine - TechWorld [via /.]
"The coolant will be ground water and the site's temperature is a constant 15 degrees Celsius, meaning no air-conditioning will be needed outside the containers."
the IPCC synthesis report - IPCC [6MB PDF]
the EU interferes with pig-killing in Romania - Economist
Bangladesh cyclone: thousands dead, hundreds of thousands in danger - BBC
England's villages face change - Tele
fun-sounding guide to Australian literature - Australian [via CR]
steady progress towards a police state in Australia - SMH
clear conservative bias in Australia's leading newspapers - Crikey
criminal profiling doesn't actually work - NYer [via Schneier]
profilers use the same tricks as astrologers and psychics - vague and general predictions
benthic bacteria spoof sucks in clueless climate change deniers - Deltoid
pork-barreling governments give $100m to Church, racing - SMH
materialism goes hand in hand with low self-esteem - DailyGalaxy [via ProRev]
"By the time children reach early adolescence, and experience a decline in self-esteem, the stage is set for the use of material possessions as a coping strategy for feelings of low self-worth"
Susan Faludi on myths of 9/11: cowboys and sewing machines - Guardian
reviews for the US$199 Linux computer - Walmart [via RW]
photos (mostly flowers) from a recent bushwalk - Wog Wog
a medical innovation prize fund instead of drug patent monopolies? - CPtech
Warren Buffet continues to campaign for keeping an estate tax - CNN
the WWI persecution of Hutterites in the US - Plough [via Barista]
more on still government-less Belgium's fault-lines - Guardian
George W. Bush worst ever president for economic management - VanityFair
on translating Tolstoy - NYROB
effective amateur counterterrorism online - Wired
the BBC claimed 500 Linux users, but now admits to 50,000 or so - Register
their science is often pathetic, but it seems they have numeracy problems too
protestors in Malaysia demand electoral reform - CNN
"elections have been sullied by vote-buying, the use of public resources by the ruling parties and accusations of bias against the Election Commission"
anthropologists and university presses serving the military - CP [via Majik]
We are not French!: Language, Culture and Identity in Brittany [review]
courts rein in Australian law enforcement - SMH
confessions obtained under threat of electrocution and rape aren't acceptable
a history of Asterix in English - Asterix [via Barista]
meet Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano in - The Terracotta Dog [review]
Australia's Freedom of Information laws are crippled - SMH
religion and public life - Economist [multi-page]
Bollywood does condom promotion - YouTube [via ProRev]
(ok, this is in Telugu, so it's not literally Bollywood)
Musharraf suspends constitution, declares state of emergency - MSNBC
US diplomats are unwilling to serve in Iraq - Guardian
an idea for cataloging books - BradIdeas [via JWalk]
fancy OCR software that will interpret a photograph of an entire bookshelf
video of cars on ice in Portland storm - YouTube [via MLite]
poor food and lack of exercise are responsible for 1/3 of cancers - Economist
"the best ways to prevent cancer look remarkably like those needed to prevent obesity and heart disease"
on retiring early - Phil Greenspun
maybe Harvard could buy five aircraft carriers and then secede from the United States?
rich people corrupt society - 3q [via ProRev]
10 bizarre experiments - Goodshit [via Barista]
the war on the unexpected - Schneier
Seafarers, Merchants and Pirates in the Middle Ages [review]
covering the Baltic, the North Sea, the North Atlantic and Russian rivers
Orkut takes off with Indians, linking them with Brazilians - CNN
on reasons is that it works better on dialup than Facebook or Myspace
Spanish parliament formally condemns Franco - BBC
rehabilitates victims and "requires all statues, plaques and symbols of the dictatorship to be removed from public buildings"

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Pathologically Polymathic (blog) << Danny Yee