ovoblog

Colin Barras: $7.5 trillion for a 'transitional' fossil?

2008-10-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

Palaeontologists: this could be your lucky day. Turkish creationist Adnan Oktar has just offered ten trillion lira - a mouth-watering $7.5 trillion - to "anyone who produces a single intermediate-form fossil demonstrating evolution".

[Article continues at link. How about this one? Or this one? Or this one? Or this one? Or this one? Every one of those links includes several examples. Should any of my readers cash in on the $75 trillion, I ask for a 1% finder's fee. - Trevor Blake]

Drone: Strange Craft

2008-10-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

Pat Condell: Stop Sharia Law in Britain

2008-10-07T06:43:00.000-07:00

John Keilman: Muslims to pray for Cubs at Wrigley

2008-10-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

As far as Ricardo Pena is concerned, rescuing the Cubs' teetering season will take a lot more than rally caps. So at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, he plans to assemble 100 Muslims outside Wrigley Field to pray for Allah to change the team's dim fortunes. [...] A lot of petitioners have been knocking on the boss' door lately, among them the Greek Orthodox priest who blessed the Cubs dugout on Wednesday and countless other fans who have offered up their silent prayers for victory. [...] "We don't know if our prayers work, but it can't hurt," said Lisa Bellows, associate rabbi at Congregation Beth Am in Buffalo Grove. "We've been praying extra hard for the Cubs to win at our house, and so far, [the prayers] have not been heard."

[Article continues at link. In case the Muslim, Christian and Jewish worlds have not been paying attention for the past few thousand years, this article points out two facts they might like to contemplate. First, people pray for things that are at odds with the things other people are praying for. Second, nothing fails like prayer. Having planted those two opportunities to doubt in the mind of the faithful, they might also like to ask themselves why God would care enough to swing a baseball game but not enough to cure a single disease. Or ask themselves why it is within human ability to both swing a baseball game and to cure a disease or two but God, that all-powerful invisible monster that lives in the sky, hasn't been able to get around to it yet. - Trevor Blake]

Trevor Blake: We're Sorry, This Video is No Longer Available

2008-10-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I posted a link to the most recent video from Pat Condell. Here's what that post looks like now if you try to follow the link...

Pat's video is available elsewhere. YouTube is a free service that is privately owned. Pat's video has not been censored, as I see censorship. But I will say that YouTube's decision to make Pat's video no longer available after a few days when something like this is allowed to stay up for months - even after complaints - shows a certain wrong-headed inconsistency. Video using critical thinking to address Islam is removed. Video of Islamic men celebrating around the corpses of US soldiers they have shot and burned is allowed to remain. Nothing breeds wrong-headed inconsistency like religion.

Sam Harris: average isn't good enough

2008-10-01T03:32:00.000-07:00

Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves. President Bush kept his edge on the "Who would you like to have a beer with?" poll question in 2004, and won reelection.

This is one of the many points at which narcissism becomes indistinguishable from masochism. Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages - and loses - both necessary and unnecessary wars.

[Article continues at link.]

John Gray: A shattering moment in America's fall from power

2008-10-01T03:02:00.000-07:00

The fate of empires is very often sealed by the interaction of war and debt. That was true of the British Empire, whose finances deteriorated from the First World War onwards, and of the Soviet Union. Defeat in Afghanistan and the economic burden of trying to respond to Reagan's technically flawed but politically extremely effective Star Wars programme were vital factors in triggering the Soviet collapse. Despite its insistent exceptionalism, America is no different. The Iraq War and the credit bubble have fatally undermined America's economic primacy. The US will continue to be the world's largest economy for a while longer, but it will be the new rising powers that, once the crisis is over, buy up what remains intact in the wreckage of America's financial system. [...] Having created the conditions that produced history's biggest bubble, America's political leaders appear unable to grasp the magnitude of the dangers the country now faces. Mired in their rancorous culture wars and squabbling among themselves, they seem oblivious to the fact that American global leadership is fast ebbing away. A new world is coming into being almost unnoticed, where America is only one of several great powers, facing an uncertain future it can no longer shape.

[Article continues at link. I've lived through a couple 'end of the world' events - anyone remember Y2K? - and I'm having a hard time buying any more. But it certainly does seem that the Bush administration has caused a bankruptcy of the economy and status of the United States. - Trevor Blake]

Pat Condell: Welcome to Saudi Britain

2008-09-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

If you live in Britain please sign this petition against the creeping poison of sharia law before October 4th when it closes.

John Zewizz: Temple Ov Psychic Youth

2008-09-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

In Early 1981 I waz introduced or should I say stumbled across a secret underground cult known az TOPY (Temple Ov Psychic Youth). Through transmissions with the leader at the time, Genesis P. Orridge, we became friendz and in 1982 I met him in Boston where I assisted in organizing a "Psychic TV" performance. (a musical off shoot of TOPY). [...]

Most ov the information I gained in TOPY came to an end. It az a good source for ideas on magick. My interest in magick went into different direction than where Gen waz going. He's very sharp character. Make no mistake. But TOPY grew inconsistent az time went on... last, I mutated my own style ov grammar. I know ov one word we share (the spelling ov and that's "ov")... Neither one ov us accuse either one ov stealing it from the other, and the E[backwards E] are not a negative logo ov the PTV symbol! SC started before PTV was formed! I took the 'Double E' from a form ov Hindu sanscript. The E[backwards E] in SLEEP iz a symbol for "Forever & Eternity"... The last time I met up with Gen waz at a PTV show in Boston 2008. Funny thing... when I joined TOPY my ID card waz 'good' for getting into "all & any" PTV events... yea... 25 dollars to get in...

[Article continues at link. It is criminal that more people do not know about John Zewizz and Sleep Chamber. Exonerate yourself today and learn more at the John Zewizz Appreciation Society. - Trevor Blake]

South Park: Gerbil Science

2008-09-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

Watch the full episode here.

Trevor Blake: Skitterbot 28 September 2008

2008-09-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

Electric razor, nut, beam, glue, coat hangers, wire. Rechargable, loud, can find walls and irregularities in the floor, could be fitted with a pen. Also known as a vibrobot.

Trevor Blake: Aisha

2008-09-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia: Aisha bint Abu Bakr (d. 678) was the second wife of Muhammad. She is quoted as source for many hadith, sacred traditions about the prophet Muhammad's life, with Muhammad's personal life being the topic of most narrations. She has narrated 2210 Hadiths out of which 316 hadiths are mentioned in both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. Aisha was six or seven years old when betrothed to Muhammad. She stayed in her parents' home until the age of nine, when the marriage was consummated.

Bukhari (6:298): The Prophet and I [Aisha] used to take a bath from a single pot while we were Junub. During the menses, he used to order me to put on an Izar (dress worn below the waist) and used to fondle me.

Ayatollah Khomeini: "A man can marry a girl younger than nine years of age, even if the girl is still a baby being breastfed. A man, however is prohibited from having intercourse with a girl younger than nine, other sexual act such as forplay, rubbing, kissing and sodomy is allowed. A man having intercourse with a girl younger than nine years of age has not comitted a crime, but only an infraction, if the girl is not permanently damaged. If the girl, however, is permanently damaged, the man must provide for her all her life."

David Barrett, Nine-year-old Midlands girl rescued from forced marriage: British children as young as nine are being forced into marriage by their families, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal. The disclosure comes as official figures show that nearly 60 children aged 15 or under have been rescued by the Government's Forced Marriage Unit in the past four years. [...] A charity which runs a national helpline on forced marriage and "honour"-based crimes, Karma Nirvana, revealed that in one incident a nine-year-old girl from a Pakistani family in the east Midlands was taken into council care after her parents told her she was to wed. [Note: is there any question about the superstition of choice among Pakistani families? Are any of my readers going to suggest they are Buddhists, or Quakers, or Asatru Folk Assembly? - Trevor Blake]

Wikipedia: The Jewel of Medina is a historical novel by Sherry Jones. It was scheduled for publication by Random House in 2008, but subsequently canceled; it was subsequently announced that it would be published by Beaufort Books in the United States and by Gibson Square in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. The novel tells a fictionalized version of the life of Aisha, one of the wives of the Islamic Prophet, Muhammad, and the person who reportedly accompanied him as he received most of his revelations. The novel tells Aisha's story from the age of six, when she was betrothed to Muhammad, to his death.

Jamie Doward and Mark Townsend, Firebomb attack on book publisher: The London home of the publisher of a controversial new novel that gives a fictionalised account of the Prophet Muhammad's relationship with his child bride, Aisha, was firebombed yesterday [27 September 2008], hours after police had warned the man that he could be a target for fanatics. A petrol bomb is believed to have been thrown through the door of Martin Rynja's 2.5m UKP town house in Islington's Lonsdale Square, which also doubles as the headquarters of his publishing company, Gibson Square. Three men have been arrested on terrorism charges. The Observer has learned that police told Rynja late on Friday night to leave his property. His company recently made headlines when it announced it was to publish The Jewel of Medina.

[Articles continue at link. I wonder what will be happening next. Will there be peaceful protests by Muslims to make a stand against bombing the homes of book publishers? Or will there be rioting and murders by Muslims to make a stand against publishing books? I wonder, but I don't wonder for very long. A visit to The Religion of Peace might make your time of wondering brief as well. Then, like me, you'll wonder what it is that you should do. The choice is being made between accommodating infant rapists, bombers and censors on the one hand and saying LAN ASTASLEM on the other. I keep myself informed about Islam and speak out against it. What do you do? - Trevor Blake]

Trevor Blake: Skitterbot 27 September 2008

2008-09-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

Toothbrush, paperclip, motor, tape, solder, battery. Also known as a bristlebot or a vibrobot.

Trevor Blake: Second Appearance at churchofsatan.com

2008-09-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

In no way am I the main feature in this article, but I am mentioned at the official web site of the Church of Satan for a second time.

Science Daily: Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12, Study Suggests

2008-09-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

Eight-year-old children have a radically different learning strategy from twelve-year-olds and adults. Eight-year-olds learn primarily from positive feedback ('Well done!'), whereas negative feedback ('Got it wrong this time') scarcely causes any alarm bells to ring. Twelve-year-olds are better able to process negative feedback, and use it to learn from their mistakes. Adults do the same, but more efficiently. [...] In children of eight and nine, these areas of the brain react strongly to positive feedback and scarcely respond at all to negative feedback. But in children of 12 and 13, and also in adults, the opposite is the case. Their 'control centres' in the brain are more strongly activated by negative feedback and much less by positive feedback. [...]

Is that difference between eight- and twelve-year-olds the result of experience, or does it have to do with the way the brain develops? As yet, nobody has the answer. 'This kind of brain research has only been possible for the last ten years or so,' says Crone, 'and there are a lot more questions which have to be answered. But it is probably a combination of the brain maturing and experience.' There is also an area of the brain that responds strongly to positive feedback: the basal ganglia, just outside the cerebral cortex. The activity of this area of the brain does not change. It remains active in all age groups: in adults, but also in children, both eight-year-olds and twelve-year-olds.

[Article continues at link. This information touches on so much of interest to me. I work in public schools and so I am around children of these ages. My job in public schools is that of a sign language interpreter. What might it mean if Deaf children get little linguistic feedback as they develop because their parents don't sign with them and neither do most of their peers? I also have a strong interest in evidence for and against the claim that behavior and consciousness have biological roots. I have many questions and few answers, so I think I'm learning. - Trevor Blake]

Wikipedia: Henry Earl

2008-09-25T03:47:00.000-07:00

Henry Earl (born October 24, 1949) is a homeless man from Lexington, Kentucky famous for his extensive police record. Nearly all of his arrests have been for public intoxication, with a few charges of disorderly conduct, third degree trespassing, second degree trespassing, and apparently one count of begging. The Fayette County Detention Center's website, showing Earl's arrest record from 1992 to present, indicates that he has not been arrested for theft or any violent offences. [...] In 2008, Earl was arrested for the 1000th time since 1992.

[Article continues at link. Perhaps a better use of the limited resources of Fayette County could be found. Prohibition is not serving Mr. Earl or the taxpayers of Fayette County well. - Trevor Blake]

Trevor Blake: Sarah Palin and the Prayer Cave

2008-09-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

PRAYER CAVE.

Wikipedia: Missing in action

2008-09-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

Missing in action is a status assigned to a member of the armed services who is reported missing following combat. The person in question may have been killed, wounded or captured by the enemy. [...] In May of 1991, the Minority Report of the Senate Foreign Relation Committee concluded that "any evidence that suggested an MIA might be alive was uniformly and arbitrarily rejected... " A resolution to create a Senate Select POW/MIA Committee, introduced by U.S. Senator Robert C. Smith, was passed in the Senate months later. Senator John Kerry was eventually named chairman, and was joined on the committee by Senator and former POW John McCain, who had been a strong opponent of the creation of a Senate Select POW/MIA Committee. Six live sighting investigators hired by the committee unanimously concluded that the live sighting intelligence through 1989 showed Vietnam and Laos were still holding American prisoners. [...]

In 2006, the National Alliance of Families found 1992 documents discussing the admission by Vietnam of capturing a number of missing Americans. The National Alliance contacted the families they could locate, and found that the Vietnamese admissions had been concealed from the families by the U.S. government. The U.S. and Vietnamese governments had given every indication to the families that the men had been killed in their loss incidents. However, at least one MIA, San Dewayne Francisco was reported to be alive by a North Vietnamese newspaper which was confirmed by radio transmissions by Francisco immediately after his aircraft crashed. A bill including criminal penalties for deliberately withholding POW/MIA records in violation of the law unanimously passed the House of Representatives in the 1990s. However, penalties were stripped from the law due to the efforts of former POW John McCain.

[Article continues at link.]

Trevor Blake: Skitterbot

2008-09-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

21 September 2008. Toothbrush, motor, tape, wire, solder, screw, battery - put it all together and you have a tiny robot. Changes direction, can clear a path through small objects. Future versions will have a smaller battery, on/off switch, and more.

Trevor Blake: Fish House Synergetics

2008-09-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

Trevor Blake (left) and Sam Lanahan. Photograph by Kirby Urner.

Kirby Urner was the first webmaster of the Buckminster Fuller Institute. Doug Jacobs is the author and director of R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe. Sam Lanahan was Fuller's assistant while he lectured in the Philippines. On Sept 17 2008 Kirby, Doug and Sam and I had dinner together. Kirby took some photographs of the evening, which can be found here.

Trevor Blake: The Pope and Euthanasia

2008-09-18T06:51:00.000-07:00

Angela Doland, Pope Says Accept death 'at the hour chosen by God': "People must accept death at "the hour chosen by God," Pope Benedict XVI told ailing pilgrims Monday in an anti-euthanasia message at Lourdes, the shrine that draws the desperate, sick and dying. At the chilly open-air service outside the sanctuary reputed for its curative spring water, some faithful lay on gurneys, tucked into quilts and comforters. A few breathed with oxygen tanks. The 81-year-old pontiff administered the sacrament of the sick to 10 people, most in wheelchairs, gently anointing their foreheads and palms with oil. While several European countries permit euthanasia, the Vatican vehemently maintains that life must continue to its natural end. The pope said in his homily that the ill should pray to find 'the grace to accept, without fear or bitterness, to leave this world at the hour chosen by God.'"

Jeff Israely, Was John Paul II Euthanized?: "In a provocative article, an Italian medical professor argues that Pope John Paul II didn't just simply slip away as his weakness and illness overtook him in April 2005. Intensive care specialist Dr. Lina Pavanelli has concluded that the ailing Pope's April 2 death was caused by what the Catholic Church itself would consider euthanasia. She bases this conclusion on her medical expertise and her own observations of the ailing pontiff on television, as well as press reports and a subsequent book by John Paul's personal physician. The failure to insert a feeding tube into the patient until just a few days before he died accelerated John Paul's death, Pavanelli concludes. Moreover, Pavanelli says she believes that the Pope's doctors dutifully explained the situation to him, and thus she surmises that it was the pontiff himself who likely refused the feeding tube after he'd been twice rushed to the hospital in February and March. Catholics are enjoined to pursue all means to prolong life."

BBC, John Paul's last words revealed: "Pope John Paul II's last words before his death were 'let me go to the house of the Father,' according to documents released by the Vatican."

[Articles continue at links. "Let me go to the house of the Father." And so it was done - the Pope did not pursue all means to prolong his life, he requested death, and it was granted to him by his physicians. Just don't you kids try this at home! Can the Pope be morally infallible if the Pope holds contradictory moral views? More importantly, why do millions venerate the Pope when clear evidence of his inhumanity and hypocrisy are at hand? - Trevor Blake]

Emperor Joshua Norton: Proclamation of September 17, 1859

2008-09-17T06:43:00.000-07:00

At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last 9 years and 10 months past of S. F., Cal., declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these U. S.; and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different States of the Union to assemble in Musical Hall, of this city, on the 1st day of Feb. next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in our stability and integrity.

NORTON I, Emperor of the United States.

Trevor Blake: At Every Turn in Its Thought...

2008-09-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

In March 2008 I listed a number of times I copied a link from somewhere or another that was then copied by boingboing a few days later. The trend continues!

Mark Frauenfelder posted about the Stabilized bigfoot film on September 16, 2008. I posted about the Stabilized bigfoot film on December 26, 2007.
Mark Frauenfelder posted about Jill Greenberg's Photoshopped McCain out-takes on September 15, 2008. I posted about Jill Greenberg's Photoshopped McCain out-takes on September 13, 2008.
Mark Frauenfelder posted about a stop motion film by PES on September 12, 2008. I posted about a stop motion film by PES on July 11, 2008.
Cory Doctorow posted about an animated spider Flash toy on September 8, 2008. I posted about an animated spider Flash toy on September 5, 2008.

As I quoted J. R. "Bob" Dobbs saying back in March, If you want to be known as a creative, original person, make sure you imitate the right people. I know I do.

Trevor Blake: Delicious

2008-09-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

I use delicious.com every day, all day. Sometimes when the service is updated I like it better, sometimes not. Here are two tools that work around some recent changes I don't like while preserving those that I do like.

Hugo's popup posting bookmarklet for del.icio.us applet restores text selection to enter a description, something removed from the current plugin for delicious on Firefox.

Rentzsch.com clued me in that the URL http://del.icio.us/api/posts/all followed by my login and password would give me an XML file of all my links. Currently, delicious.com times out if one tries to back up one's links and one has a large number of them. Me, I have 13,000+.

Delicious is a trail of my Web use, a place I can put all my links, a way to share what I find interesting, and a means to quickly pull together what I have seen online on a single theme (trevorblake) or two themes (music+video) or more. Not everyone wants or needs to do these things, so not everyone will want or need to use delicious. I do.

Trevor Blake: Food and Crime

2008-09-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

Fergus Walsh, Can nutrients improve behaviour?: One thousand young offenders from three prisons in England and Scotland are being recruited for a major trial to see if nutritional supplements can improve behaviour. [...] Professor [John] Stein believes that food supplements 0 Omega 3 fish oils in particular - can improve reduce the anti-social behaviour of prisoners. [...] Prisoners on the trial will take four capsules a day with their main meal. Half the volunteers will get the micro-nutrients and half placebo or dummy capsules. [...] A smaller, pilot study at Aylesbury Young Offenders Institute in 2002 showed that inmates receiving the supplements committed a third fewer offences. Professor Stein believes the trial, which will report in two years, will prove a success.

Science Daily, Criminals Who Eat Processed Foods More Likely To Be Discovered, Through Fingerprint Sweat Corroding Metal: The inventor of a revolutionary new forensic fingerprinting technique claims criminals who eat processed foods are more likely to be discovered by police through their fingerprint sweat corroding metal. [...] Dr [John] Bond said: "On the basis that processed foods tend to be high in salt as a preservative, the body needs to excrete excess salt which comes out as sweat through the pores in our fingers. So the sweaty fingerprint impression you leave when you touch a surface will be high in salt if you eat a lot of processed foods - the higher the salt, the better the corrosion of the metal."

[Articles continue at link. If food is linked to crime, and if culture is linked to food, are some cultures more or less criminal than others? If food is linked to crime, should some foods be discouraged or outlawed? Or should some foods be mandatory? If we use free will to eat or not eat foods that limit our free will to not commit crimes, where is our real free will? - Trevor Blake]