The magic of the Internet brings us the YouTube video of DEA agent Lee Paige shooting himself in the foot while lecturing a class on gun control. I gotta give the guy a hand for trying to maintain control after getting shot. He pulled himself together right quick. Still. Shot himself in the foot. TJIC […]
Here’s to an Old-Fashioned Book Banning
The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (happily abbreviated to the ABFFE) has compiled a list of banned and challenged books (that is, they were, or are in the process of being, challenged or actually banned this year). Some were challenged or banned by school districts, some by retailers, some by public libraries. For each […]
Old Ladies and Evolution
I think of most human activity in evolutionary terms. Our evolutionary past killed off any of us who didn’t act a certain way and encouraged those of us who did. I was chatting with a friend yesterday, who said that she tended to think that without God (and fear of retribution), human society would fall […]
The Poor, the Addicted, the “Unsympatheticâ€
I got into a bit of a debate on Feministe about a program than aims to pay addicts to get birth control. The whole post and articles about the program are there, so I won’t go into it here. [Except to say that while the attention is all about paying addicts to get their tubes […]
Image vs. Type
Kottke.org points us to the front page of the print edition of The Independent. As he points out, you could list the countries in much less space. But this image sure leaves an impression. Note that I’m not talking about politics in this post. Just about a striking way to present information.
Eliminate Tourists from Photos
Boing Boing (linked to from my main page) points out a bit of computer magic to help remove tourists (and other moving objects) from your photos. And it’s free. The idea is that you take a few shots of the same background, while tourists walk around in front of you. Each of your photos will […]
Got a Few Million Lying Around?
In case you’ve booked your tourist trip to the International Space Station (flight, plus room and board: $20,000,000), but were hoping for a little more zing from your vacation, the ever-entrepreneurial Russians have the answer. Scrape your pockets for another $15,000,000, and you could join the club of only 151 humans who have ever actually […]
Wiretap
The University of Minnesota Law School’s alumni magazine has a downloadable PDF with an exchange among its law professors about the legality of the NSA wiretapping without a warrant. Then, there’s a discussion about the exchange on the excellent legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. One of the professors argues that it’s legal. The other two […]
Maybe the Tundra Isn’t Really Less Safe?
My friend Charlie writes to say that my recent post about the Toyota Tundra recall misses an important point. I had mention that Toyota plans to take away the switch that disables the passenger-side airbag when an adult isn’t sitting there. This will make the truck less safe for kids, because the airbag is dangerous […]
Be Good. (You’re Being Watched.)
New research suggests that when people are being watched, even by eyes that they know aren’t real (like Honest Abe above), they tend to behave better than otherwise. The main idea seems to be that our evolution has prepared us to act differently when we see eyes on us. On the other hand, human evolution […]