• Weekly Ezine for Democrats

• Google vs Apple vs Exxon: A Reminder of Scale

• Bt cotton farming revolutionizes women's employment in India: Study

• What the hell were we thinking? (tip to Amy)

• WikiLeaks Obtains Copy of Tony Hayward’s Resignation Letter, Shares It Exclusively with The Daily Goat

• Details on the Dirty Dozen

As you may already know, the Environmental Working Group is a 501(c)(3) NGO with the goal of protecting “kids from toxic chemicals in our food, water, air and the products we use every day”. One of their major efforts is the yearly Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides™.

EWG gives many many reasons why they think you should use the guide, specifying that you (the consumer) should eat organic or at least choose the Clean 15™ over the Dirty Dozen™:

• Calcium and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Biological systems are extremely complex. This nugget of wisdom may seem trivial but it is a lesson the scientific and medical communities have been learning over and over again for a couple of centuries. Every time we think we understand a biological system we find there is a deeper level of complexity, or another layer of interactions we had not previously taken into consideration.

This is why we need high quality clinical trials to feel confident about the net health effects of any intervention. A treatment may make sense based upon our current understanding of human biology, but that’s not enough. We need to know what it actually does to people.

This is a lesson, however, that the supplement industry has not learned (and does not appear interested in learning).

Posted by Norm at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Hitchens is his usual self in this debate. As stated before, I hope his silence is short.

Via Atheist Media Blog

Posted by RedSeven at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by RedSeven at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Stephen's refreshing tax cut with lime will work its way through the system and trickle down like a racehorse.

Posted by Norm at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

• In Price War, New Kindle Sells for $139

If you buy one consider using this link and supporting onegoodmove. And while I'm at thanks to those who use the Amazon link on the sidebar.

• Closing the Gap: How Desire Affects Perceptions of Distance

We often assume we see our physical surroundings as they actually are. But new research suggests that how we see the world depends on what we want from it.

• Food: Inside the hothouses of industry

• The Evolution of Chess Computers

On a separate note, I must be getting old I mentioned Bobby Fischer in conversation the other day and the person said, who's that.

• A science section for the Huffington Post? More like a pseudoscience section! (2010 edition)

Posted by Norm at 7:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Discuss here

Posted by Norm at 9:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

• New York Times to readers: of course you have free will

Surely our ever-increasing understanding of how the brain works and how it affects behavior must play an important role in how we see “free will.” People like Egginton, who see those advances as mere annoyances, are akin to theologians who constantly revise what the Bible really means in light of our increased understanding of physics, geology, and biology. Indeed, studies of the brain are pushing back notions of free will in precisely the way that studies of evolution have pushed back the idea of a creator-god.

We simply don’t like to think that we’re molecular automatons, and so we adopt a definition of free will that makes us think we’re free. But as far as I can see, I, like everyone else, am just a molecular puppet. I don’t like that much, but that’s how it is. I don’t like the fact that I’m going to die, either, but you don’t see me redefining the notion of “death” to pretend I’m immortal.

• Court: breaking DRM for a "fair use" is legal

A federal appeals court has just ruled that breaking through a digital security system to access software doesn't trigger the "anti-circumvention" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Any other interpretation of the DMCA, declared the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, would permit infringement liability for tapping into a work simply to "view it or to use it within the purview of 'fair use' permitted under the Copyright Act."

• In defence of secularism

The United States, Turkey and India all have secular constitutions. However, none of them contains the definitive "secularism". There is no such thing.

But these constitutions have a common aim: to protect religion. By not permitting the establishment of any particular faith, secularism seeks to ensure that the state cannot be used as an instrument to persecute minority religious communities, and that no religion can be imposed by law on an unwilling populace.

Secularism works both ways - while it does not permit religion to interfere in affairs of state, it also forbids the state from seeking to control religion. This is surely the best way to ensure that those with faith can pursue their beliefs unencumbered.

• California Breaks Ground on Nation's Largest Wind Farm

• Oregon faith-healing parents fight to get baby back, face criminal charges

More evidence that there is an endless supply of religious nut-jobs.

• He's Back

Posted by Norm at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I love that religios folks think this is what a war on religion looks like. Disrespect is our most powerful weapon.

Posted by RedSeven at 9:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

I got closer this time. The last time I saw a Cooper's it was quite far away and the picture I posted suffered. I found this one in my own backyard. I watched him for at least a half-hour and got within ten feet of him several times. He didn't seem to mind being photographed, and so I shot pictures until my shutter shuddered. I watched him as he watched nearby birds, but he didn't go after any while I was watching. Maybe he had his eye on our Maltese who was on the deck barking at him, though I'm told the Hawk is partial to other birds and I have nothing to worry about.

click on picture for larger version

Posted by Norm at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)