links for 2009-10-30

"Let's do a quick study of our own. Five people are quoted in this article. Two of them work for Fox. All of them assert that administration officials are either wrong in substance or politically foolish to criticize the network. No one is cited supporting Dunn's criticisms or saying that it could make sense, morally or politically, for Obama to challenge the network's power. It's a textbook example of a biased news story."

"Thanks to a new online market, DeepDyve, I’m never further than a click away from those relaxing and enlightening scientific papers. The site, launched today, offers full-text search of scientific articles along with 99 cent downloads and a subscription service that allows fans of Clinical Chemistry to read as many stories as they’d like" Looks interesting, useful tool for research.

Only reason this is getting is posted is due to the main photo. I love the image of the students being apathetic or ignoring the pledge, real America people.

"The damage to the new Ares I-X rocket, which launched from Florida Wednesday on a short test flight, was spotted by a diving team sent to recover the booster's first stage. The first stage — a giant solid rocket booster — was dented near its base. NASA spokesperson Amber Philman told SPACE.com that the space agency is still awaiting word on what may have caused the damage."

"The department has highlighted six benefits to tackle what it called "misconceptions and misinterpretations" of the existing laws, policies, and regulations. The current rules were written in May 2003."

"Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for attorney general in Virginia, recently made remarks to a newspaper in which he said, “Homosexual acts are wrong.” He declined to commit to a nondiscrimination policy enforced by former attorney general Bob McDonnell, now the Republican candidate for governor." To be polite what an ass.

Really nice looking font.

"It started two years ago as a bare-bones service, offering little more than the ability to post 140-character messages. Then, it outsourced its idea generation to its users. The company watches how people use the service and which ideas catch on. Then its engineers turn the ideas into new features." Best way to build a business let your users decide.

"So, Molly and I decided to do a pre-nup. We told friends that we intended to do a pre-nup and the reactions were, perhaps, unsurprising. Most looked at me with disdain, as if it were something I was forcing her to do. But we held firm because we knew the data: 80% of all divorces are related to money issues. Over half of credit distress issues come from an estranged spouse." I'm totally for pre-nups.

Some very cool Halloween images.

"In the early 1990s before a vaccine was available for chickenpox, about 50 children and 50 adults died from the disease each year. Some deaths still occur in unvaccinated individuals."

"US firm Garmin fell 18% after details of Google Maps Navigation were revealed. Dutch firm TomTom fell 9.5% when markets closed on Thursday. The Google application promises free real-time, turn-by-turn directions for people to follow on their phones."

"Now… Some of these unprepared talks have been wonderful. The spontaneity is great, and if a speaker knows their topic they don’t really have to prepare in the traditional sense. So it’s not the quality of the talks, it’s the qualifier. If you aren’t prepared, or if you hastily put together your presentation, just don’t tell the audience. Just perform at your best and keep the pity and embarrassment to yourself."

"But the older I get, the more comfortable I am in my own skin and with my own ideas, the more I think that's a bullshit sexist paradigm. Of course it's important to be self-aware and manage one's emotions during an argument, but I think pretending as if the issue you're arguing about has no personal significance or emotional resonance is actually a disempowering and, of course, inauthentic place to come from. My power these days comes from combining both intellectual rigor with emotional authenticity."

"Ms Ostrom won the prize with fellow American Oliver Williamson for their separate work in economic governance. The University of California, Berkeley academic has argued that hierarchical organisations such as companies represent alternative governance structures, which differ in their approaches to resolving conflicts of interest."

"Why does an embarrassed, guilty silence descend on the nation each Columbus Day? Because people don’t know how to celebrate the blossoming of Western civilization over the past five centuries without seeming to rejoice in the misery of American Indians. Modern historians have distorted the facts, finding fault with Columbus, America, and Western civilization for evils and tragedies that they did not create—while extolling mysticism and tribalism, which actually are the causes of history’s darkest chapters." How the heck does Columbus Day be a cause for the celebrating the whole entity of Western culture, that and I also love the idea of deciding that Western culture is more important than other.

"A Chinese court has sentenced six people to death for murder and other crimes during ethnic riots in Xinjiang region in July, state media have said." That's what you get for protesting in China.

"There are still plenty of people browsing online, but not so many buyers. In the second quarter, the number of visitors to e-commerce sites who eventually bought something shrank for most sites from the year before, by as much as 30 percent for Zappos.com and 26 percent for Gap, according to comScore."

"What we must understand is that the same factors which lend cultural significance to atheism also make it a part of our identity which many of us view as worthy of celebration. There is a reason that many of us would extend congratulations to someone who told us that they were an ex-Christian who was just beginning to explore atheism. We see it as an accomplishment to have escaped the dominate cultural paradigm and ally oneself with what is real rather than merely what is popular. We atheists may not agree with one another on many issues, but it means something to most of us to know that we share membership in the subculture of atheism."

"The US secretary of state has said that a militant attack on Pakistan's army HQ is evidence of an increasing threat against the authority of the state."

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"Scientists have created part of the jaw joint in the lab using human adult stem cells. They say it is the first time a complex, anatomically-sized bone has been accurately created in this way. It is hoped the technique could be used not only to treat disorders of the specific joint, but more widely to correct problems with other bones too."

"Expressing outrage that a video showing a "defaced flag" with "graffiti splattered all over it" is a finalist in a Democratic National Committee contest, Fox News and Sean Hannity ignored desecration of the flag by Fox News' own Glenn Beck, with Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin declaring that "the defacing of the flag, of course, is well within the mainstream of far-left propaganda tactics." President Bush also previously defaced a U.S. flag."