The explosion, which would have the force of a nuclear bomb, constitutes the moral high point of the movie, the moment of climactic cleansing, as the Pure One clad in white merges with the great white mass of the huge terminal wall, at which point the screen goes pure white. And reverently silent.

Absurd. Fabulous job missing the point entirely and then dressing it up as you wish. That is, as an anti-american, pro-terrorism screed. As if it's that simple. The audince is supposed to like that character so that they are devastated when they see what he becomes. We're meant to follow the path of a good-natured man who is changed into something else. Certainly, we're meant also to understand how certain actions and policies of our government provide fodder for the radicals to convert people like this kid. But I think we're supposed to see that, regardless of what actions precipitated it, the truly pernicious element is that terrorists are created, not born. To stop and consider that perhaps some of America's activities could be aiding in that creation isn't anti-american. It's called *thinking*.

Ideologues like Krauthammer would prefer to believe in a black and white world of good vs. evil where you're always either one or the other and born that way, because it simplifies morality. If there's any one thing that a liberal does believe in it's that morality (among other things) is not necessarily simple in every case. That we're willing to self analyze in the pursuit of truth isn't treasonous. It's what allows people, and nations, to locate and correct their own faults. I categorically refuse to accept this propostion, that my willingness to admit fault is equivalent to moral ambiguity, which is, in this America, tantamount to self-loathing, america-loathing. It's a ridiculous and simple minded cast, put forth by fools who can't tolerate even the notion of complexity. "We need labels and boxes!" their minds scream. "Us" "Them" "For" "Against" "Good" "Evil" "Right" Wrong" "Left" "Right". That's all bullshit. The average man seeks out simple answers as a way to cope with an overwhelming world (see, for example, Religion). The Right plays on this dishonest viewpoint, to the detriment of our way of life, to the deaths of our soldiers and to the utter dissolution of what our country once stood for.

For shame.

Oscars for Osama

So, what would Steve Jobs do?
We asked last week, and we took your answers in the form of over three hundred and fifty photoshopped mockups. We had a
couple of Newtons, a ton of tablets, and a huge swarm of video iPods -- and a ton of miscellaneous stuff that both
amused and bemused us during the hours we spent judging. While it's always hard hard to pick winners in these things,
we thought first place took it with a bullet -- but one entry was so good, we had to give out a second place prize for
the laugh.

There are some really decent jobs here. I laughed out loud at the iPod yocto, but some of the dual screen mockups are pretty sweet.

WWJD 3 - Results! - Engadget

The dispiriting drumbeat of these events - punctuated by the savage sectarian violence convulsing Iraq - are causing even temperate voices to wonder if the world is really careening into some fundamental clash of civilisations.

It's easy to predict the impact if the US decides it does not trust a company owned by even an ostensibly friendly Arab government to operate facilities at US ports. Many in the Islamic world would surely take that as a sign that America sees itself in a clash of civilisations, - and in that interpretation, the Islamic world might well be correct.

How fear is controlling US thinking - Opinion - theage.com.au

So I'm looking at some of my recent referrals (that is, webpages that have links to my page that people have used recently to come here) and I see a referral from godhatesfags.com, the webpage of the vile and repulsive Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church of evil bastards. Specifically, their news page linked to this post about the Muhammed caricatures and flag burning. Why did they link to me? I have no idea. But if you're a follower of Phelps and you clicked over here, let me welcome you and let me express my one sincere wish for you: I hope you die a long, slow, painful death filled with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. And then I hope people show up at your funeral with protest signs identifying you as the vile, disgusting human being that you are. And that I will call justice.

Ed Brayton doesn't tend to pull punches.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars

John Scalzi's "The Ghost Brigades," the sequel to Old Man's War, is in print and on shelves today.

I described Scalzi's Old Man's War as "The Forever War with better sex, Starship Troopers without the lectures."

Cory's not far off with that description. It's a fabulous book, I think, so I've ordered the sequel without hesitation. I actually read it without knowing a single thing about the plot, which I thnk made it better, truthfully... you'll learn a little bit even by clicking thru to the boing-boing blurb, so fair warning.

Boing Boing: Sequel to Scalzi's Old Man's War: The Ghost Brigades

In case you haven't already seen it, Sony has finally released an official image for Spider-Man 3 featuring Spider-Man wearing his black costume. For those of you who didn't spend your childhood reading comic books and mastering the NES, the black costume implies that Spider-Man will be facing his archrival Venom, who sports an alien symbiote that merges with its host to give them that black costume with all its alien symbiote powers. And now if you'll excuse me, I have go find some women to have sex with to wash the taste of nerd out of my mouth. Damn you, childhood. Damn you to hell.

I too am excited by the implied appearance of Venom. I always kind of thought Spider man was wack (with the possible exception of Seth McFarlane's work, that is), but Venom added some spice. I want to se some bad-ass alien symbiote cg.

Spider-Man's new costume revealed - The Superficial - www.thesuperficial.com

If you've ever despaired over getting the last drop of ketchup or detergent out of a plastic bottle -- or happen to be a microfluidics researcher wondering how you'll ever mass-produce a cheap diagnostics chip -- scientists at GE may have a plastic for you.

Company researchers have come up with a way to process a common polymer so that it repels fluid, even drops of honey roll right off. The resulting property is called "superhydrophobicity" -- or extreme repelling of water-based fluids -- beyond even that of a freshly waxed car.

Super-lexan! Pretty neat.

The Impact of Emerging Technologies: Super-Repellent Plastic - Technology Review

A few months ago, Roger Brent, a geneticist who runs a California biotech firm, sent me an unpublished paper in which he wrote that genetically engineered bioweapons developed by small teams are a bigger threat than suitcase nukes.

Brent is one of a growing number of researchers who believe that a bioterrorist wouldn’t need a team of virologists and state funding. He says advances in DNA-hacking technology have reached the point where an evil lab assistant with the right resources could do the job.

Gold Star, but I'm wondering how alarmist this is.

[ That last sentence of the quote quite evokes 12 Monkeys, probably purposefully.

I think the level of concern is as it should be. Nanochick could probably speak 1 million times more intelligently on the subject, but I'm convinced that the equipment and raw materials are trivial and getting more so.

The question becomes skills and training... even if you have the materials for a nuke, putting one together is non-trivial. In comparison, how much schooling would a potential terrorist need to get to work on bioweaponry? A PhD? How likely is that to happen? Still, when it comes down to it, it only has to happen once to be tremendously devastating, and it looks like it's easier than nuke building, all told. On top of which, it's *much* easier to transport and deploy than a nuke...

I think the analogy to computer tech is a good one. 25 years ago people were building computers with wirewrap techniques. Now you can click a couple buttons and have a blog, publush music, make movies, talk to anyone, anywhere.

I agree that bio is much greater potential threat than nuclear, at least in the hands of small actors. I think nations are still gunshy to move that direction because of the potential lack of control you have with bio... at least a nuke has a well defined blast radius. With bio, it's tough to banish scenarios in which you miscalculate the virulence or mutations occur and suddenly instead of killing a bunch of the enemy, you've killed yourself too, and everyone else. Small, independent malefactors may have no such yoke.

Anyway, my 2c.

Paul Boutin : Biowar for Dummies

"In Maine, there aren't many jobs that scream out 'math and science,"' said Cook, who lives in Etna, in the central part of the state. Yes, both topics are important, but "most parents are saying you're better off going to school for something there's a big need for."

There's a lot going on here, I think.

For one, I could discuss how tragically shortsighted people are. That's a common enough refrain though that I'm sick of saying it and ultimately don't think it matters because I don't think people care. The fact is that the majority never look outside their bubbles. The woman's very premise belies a lack of vision : "In Maine, there aren't many jobs..." Fuck Maine. Fuck your home town. We don't live in a world anymore where many people can expect to get a job locally and stay there for their whole life. So when you're discussing education, it's irrelevant to base the conversaion primarily on the needs of a small locality. Yes, i'm considering a state to be a small locality because the market isn't my town and your town anymore. It's the whole planet, give or take a few countries.

Mrs. Cook has a pragmatic notion of educating towards jobs, but completely misunderstands the big picture. In the future, what will there be a big need for? I'm not precient, but I'm pretty sure we're not going to see a *decreased* need for analytical thinkers. Of course, it's possible that the jump I made -- "math and science education" to "critical thinking" -- is not obvious to people. I get the impression that people think of studying math and believe that it's basically only useful if you want to sit in an office or a lab alone struggling with the mysteries of the universe.

Truly, I'm not a biased geek. I hated math as a student and right up until my first day of college I spent 10 times as many hours writing as i did working problems. I loved science in many ways, so I chose Physics in college (and was woefully unprepared for it), in contrast to what I had always been skilled at.

I'm not going to sit here and argue that we need more math and science either, because I reject the notion that quantity is a relevant factor. The goal of pre-college education is, presumably, to provide a baseline amount of knowledge for people that ought to let them move in any direction they want. There are only so many hours available in which to achieve that goal and for me to argue for more of those hours to be spent in math and science is to argue that less should be spent in english, music, history. That's not something I'm comfotable doing.

I'm coming to believe that the very structure of our educational system is flawed. I am not an educator, and haven't studied alternatives, but when I think back to 6-12 grade education I find the analysis unpleasant. I see an overly rigid curriculum that emphasizes specific facts over general capability, memorization over analysis and which provided little prac... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

CNN.com - Parents don't see a crisis over science and math - Feb 15, 2006

12-year-old Jasmine Roberts is a seventh-grade student at Benito Middle School in New Tampa.When it came time for her to choose a science project, she wondered about the ice in fast food restaurants.Jasmine Roberts, 7th-grade student:"My hypothesis was that the fast food restaurants’ ice would contain more bacteria that the fast food restaurants’ toilet water."

The result? It does! UGHHHHH

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