This is an excellent viewpoint to consider.

Could the conventional wisdom about education be wrong?

"A Pentagon investigation last year by Major General George Fay reported that in January 2004, a leashed but unmuzzled guard dog was allowed into a cell holding two children. The intention was for the dog to "'go nuts on the kids,' barking and scaring them."

Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, formerly in charge of Abu Ghraib, told Fay about visiting a weeping 11-year-old in the prison's notorious Cellblock 1B, which housed prisoners designated high risk. "He told me he was almost 12," Karpinski recalled, and that "he really wanted to see his mother, could he please call his mother."

Children like this have been denied the right to see their parents, a lawyer or anyone else. They were not told why they were detained, let alone for how long. A Pentagon spokesman told Hersh that juveniles received some special care, but added, "Age is not a determining factor in detention."

Children, too, are abused in U.S. prisons

This thread just hit me as totally hilarious. How post-modern can your get? I found myself singing "What if God was one of us? Just a blogger like one of us..."

Channeling God on the Internet with math challenges

Chinese state-controlled oil and gas company CNOOC Ltd. is waging a high-stakes public relations campaign to focus its bid for U.S. energy producer Unocal Corp. on shareholder value, and away from politics.

Even before making public its $18.5 billion for Unocal last week, competing with a $16.6 billion deal with Chevron Corp., members of Congress sent President Bush a letter warning him of the threats posed by China's "pursuit of world energy resources."

"This is a commercial deal, a commercial bid from one New York Stock Exchange listed company to another New York Stock Exchange listed company designed to improve shareholder value for both," said Mark Palmer, a managing director at Public Strategies Inc. of Austin, Texas, one of two public relations firms hired by CNOOC.

Paul Krugman thinks we should be worried about this.

Two things that have been said often apply here. First, Chinese foreign policy consists of one word: oil. Second, its likely that any conflicts with China would be fought out on an economic battlefield.

So what does everything think? Should we be concerned about this?

I agree. I'm worried about this. Our dependance on oil is our biggest weakpoint. Its like having a insecure modem pool bypassing your firewall.

CNOOC: Unocal Bid Not About Politics - Yahoo! News

Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter's land.

Justice Souter's vote in the "Kelo vs. City of New London" decision allows city governments to take land from one private owner and give it to another if the government will generate greater tax revenue or other economic benefits when the land is developed by the new owner.

Lost Liberty Hotel

Public health officials like Ms. Ehresmann, who herself has a son with autism, have been trying for years to convince parents like Ms. Rupp that there is no link between thimerosal - a mercury-containing preservative once used routinely in vaccines - and autism.

They have failed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Institute of Medicine, the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all largely dismissed the notion that thimerosal causes or contributes to autism. Five major studies have found no link.

I know more than one lady that swears her child was vas doing well and bright before vaccines, at which time the child seemed to regress.

I don't know - I vaccinated my child, but I myself am highly allergic to thimerisol, having experienced a near anaphalactic reaction after a vaccine that I took in my twenties.

I don't trust it.

On Autism's Cause, It's Parents vs. Research - New York Times

Well, I guess you do what you have to do. Very creative.

Need furniture? Build it out of free shipping supplies

pjammer wrote:
Looks like a link-farming site. A few 'articles' that regurgitate obvious facts, and a bunch of advertising. What is this?! :P

That's because essmeier is a piece of shit link spammer. Memestreams has implemented measures so the Google bot doesn't follow his links, or anyone's links who doesn't have a "good" reputation (ie their memes are read/recommended by others). Link spamming Memestreams does nothing for him now.

Memestreams is constantly improving. Personally I am working on several security issues with the site, and plan to move to enhancing the Memebox. Decius and I have talked in the past about a kind of killfill for Memestreams, where you simply wouldn't see assholes like essmeier. Regardless of whether he ultimately decides to do this, there are 3 simple ways you can get rid of his posts now:

-Don't read anything he posts if you see it.

-Meme nteresting articles, that people will read and thus are placed on the front page. Link spam only gets to the front page when there aren't any more popular stories to display.

-Get more legitimate users for Mememstreams. The more users we have, the more data Memestreams' presentation and recommendation algorithms have to work with. Shit like essmeier will sink to the bottom and you will not see their posts.

Link spammers are the sux.

"Oil prices have reached an unthinkable $150 a barrel. In Philadelphia, Miami and Kansas City, Mo., gas prices reach $5.74 a gallon. Now it takes $121 to fill that midsized SUV.

You get the picture. The scenario is intended to show how vulnerable the U.S. and world economies are because of dependence on oil from places where political instability threatens orderly production and distribution."

Simulated oil meltdown shows U.S. economy's vulnerability

I nearly peed on myself when I saw that kettle.

eBay Barbie & A Pope, Ghost, Some Toast & Runaway Bride