Jewish date: 17 ’Av 5769.
Today’s quasi-holidays: Hamburger Day, Sea Serpent Day.
Worthy cause of the day: “Tell Republicans to Denounce Rush Limbaugh's Outrageous Comments”, “Whales in Danger”, “Ask the United Nations to End Violence in Schools”, and “Tell Your Senators to Ignore the Scare Tactics”.
Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:
- “Defending the Frum and Blaming the Non Frum”: This article deals with a moral shortcut sometimes made in dealing with conflicts between one or more members of one’s own group and members of another group: to automatically assume whoever belongs to one’s own group is right. Most of us probably have a bit of a bias in this direction, but the author deals with a documented cases in which the assumption was taken to the point of ignoring evidence to the contrary, even constructing elaborate “conspiracy theories”. The author is correct that evidence should always trump preconceptions.
- More religious intolerance and oppression: “Bangladesh: Police Torture Pastor, Two Others”, “Sudanese police beat women opposing Islamic ban on pants” (I do not make stuff like this up; I just report it), “Ahmadiyah followers seek exit from shelter”.
- “CT scans of fossils enable 3-D models of ancient spiders”
- “Aesop's fable not so fantastical: Rooks use rocks to raise floating food”
- “Heart-Lung Machine May Not Be the Culprit in Post-Op "Pump Head" Syndrome”
- “The New York Times: Just the Facts?”
- “American Blacks (1979)”
- “Russian fighter jets sold off for $5”: And you thought the US had problems with government corruption.
Ben Goldacre on Homeopathy from science TV on Vimeo.- “Bing Search Tainted by Pro-Microsoft Results”: Oops.
- “Five Futuristic Interfaces on Display at SIGGRAPH: Some very interesting ideas are being showcased this week at SIGGRAPH ”:
- “Rural Well Water Linked to Parkinson's Disease: California finding bolsters theory linking neurological ailment to insecticides”
Aaron
