Danny's Pathologically Polymathic: February 2010

now the tobacco industry is intimidating historians - Nation [via Chapati]

update on Simon Singh v Chiropractic Association libel case - JofK

today Oxford was overcast and sleeting

(after a cold but bright and sunny weekend)

vandalising the UK economy? a chartalist perspective - Bilbo [via @stubbornmule]

I'm shutting down Australian operations for three years

my next update should be from the United Kingdom

statistical analysis of age preferences in dating - okcupid [via @TwistedSifter]

Midnight Convoy and Other Stories [my review]

tales of alfalfa, the 1948 war, and moments of inspiration

now using netbook hooked up to monitor, external drive, mouse, keyboard, etc.

surprisingly usable - if I replaced the ultra-crappy 8GB SSD with a big fast SSD, this would actually be fine for most of what I do

going off-line to transfer my computer to my mother

if all goes well I should be back sometime this evening using my little netbook as a replacement

an iPhone app for debating climate delusionists - SkepticalScience [via Deltoid]

Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial [my review]

The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century [my review]

a history of modern classical music

Vietnam 1946: How the War Began [my review]

a political study of French-Vietnamese relations

A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin, and Reward - The (Mis)behavior of Markets [my review]

how trackable is your browser? - EFF

Vietnam: A Portrait of its People at War [my review]

Faber, Taleb, Hendry discuss investment and risk for 2010 - YouTube

this cartoon makes me think of Lord Monckton - xkcd

An Inspector Chen Mystery - A Case of Two Cities [my review]

I don't want a mobile phone, but a small tablet computer? - TemporaryLand - SmartPhoneDaily

Illustrated Poetry of the First World War - A Corner of A Foreign Field [my review]

one reason why the NYT's Middle Eastern coverage is so biased - FAIR

Hugh Hendry on China's economy - Telegraph

an Englishwoman visits Ottoman Turkey - The Turkish Embassy Letters [my review]

"Between 1716 and 1718, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu accompanied her husband during his appointment as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire."

Monckton debating Lambert? delusional fantasy versus rigorous analysis - Deltoid

but Lambert has to deal with Alan Jones as the moderator and an audience full of nut-cases

a mystery set in rural post-war Germany - The Murder Farm [my review]

the social and psychological effects of unemployment - Atlantic

a sea slug which steals chloroplasts - CreatureCast

how the climate change deniers are funded - Independent

human use of insects - Fireflies, Honey, and Silk [my review]

a fifth poverty trap for Africa: the rich set the rules - Owen [via @Michael_Keizer]

China's reckless use of antibiotics threatens the whole world - Telegraph

UK academics stop courses on terrorism - Guardian [via @NewtonMark]

the texts they need to use have been made illegal to possess

having trouble finding proponents of Net censorship - iq2oz

they have three anti-censorship speakers for a debate and no advocates

a brief bio of activist priest Ivan Illich - AmericanConservative

I've finished "Wordpressing" my - Australian Bookshop Directory

if anyone has any contributions that would be great!

a social history of post-war Britain - Austerity Britain, 1945-1951 [my review]

a US corporation runs for Congress - MillerMcCune

if corporations have rights as persons, why shouldn't they vote and stand for office?

more anti-science from the Australian - and the SMH joins in - ClimateShifts - Loonpond [via Deltoid]

Aus ISP iiNet wins copyright infringement case - EFA

straight UK couple wants a civil partnership - Guardian [via CT]

claims restriction to gay couples violates European human rights convention

Lake Chad declared wetland of significance under Ramsar Convention - WWF [via @MargaretKinney]

Lancet retracts Wakefield vaccine-autism paper - BMJ

to be decided: whether Wakefield and coauthors were guilty of professional misconduct and should be struck of the medical register

a backgrounder on Internet censorship - Civil Liberties Australia

teaching Islam at German universities is important - DW [via Chapati]

but non-believers will probably teach it better in most cases

UN finds evidence Israel lied to discredit the Goldstone Report - Guardian

the iPad is a threat to creativity - DiveIntoMark [via RW] - AlexPayne

phylogenetics, bubbling mud, Mt Doom - a New Zealand North Island travelogue

our goods are in transit to the UK on the Maersk Gironde - VesselTracker

a call for moderation in child sex offence legislation - StubbornMule

"counterterror" in Afghanistan - TomsDispatch

the Dzud is hurting Mongolia - ReliefWeb

the UK is about to get a new high street bank - Guardian