Archive for March 2007
34% of American College Grads Stupid
A Newsweek poll reports that 34% of college graduates surveyed believe that “the Biblical account of creation” is a fact.
Other poll results:
On Religion:
- 48% of Americans surveyed reject the theory of evolution.
- 73% of Evangelical Protestants believe that God created humans less than 10,000 years ago. 39% of non-Evangelicals and 41% of Catholics agree.
- 10% of Americans have “no religion”, but only 6% don’t believe in any god at all. 3% admit to being atheist.
- 62% of voters wouldn’t vote for an atheist candidate (so much for there not being a religious test for candidates).
- 32% of respondents believe that organized religion plays too large a role in politics. 31% disagree so it’s pretty much split.
If the survey is accurate on a larger scale, if it is representative of all Americans, the evolution statistic is pretty discouraging.
On Bush and Iraq:
- 57% of respondents support the Democrat’s plan of setting a “goal” for withdrawal of troops in the recently passed supplemental spending bills.
- President Bush’s approval on Iraq is at 28%. His overall approval rating is at 33%.
- 66% of respondents are “dissatisfied” with the direction in which our country is headed.
Poll finds 90% believe in God – Newsweek Beliefs – MSNBC.com
links for 2007-03-31
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Nifty shirts for dl.tv fans. http://dl.tv
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“In October 2006, Bush signed into law the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007. Quietly slipped into the law at the last minute, at the request of the Bush administration, were sections changing important legal principles,
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“Cheerleaders suffer more catastrophic injuries than athletes in all other sports combined.”
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“In a remarkable op-ed column, published today in the Charlotte Observer and by several other newspapers across the country earlier this week, Stephen E. Wright, editorial page editor of the San Jose Mercury News, describes sending his 18-year-old son off
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“An imitation volcano at the center of a swimming pool at a hotel and waterpark here developed delusions of grandeur Thursday, forcing guests to flee into the parking lot in their bare feet and swimsuits.”
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” More than half a century after 14-year-old Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman, his family sat down with federal investigators. They discussed the final autopsy on the boy’s exhumed body and to heard about th
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“The White House today lashed out at Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for daring to visit Syria in the coming days. “
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“President Bush’s $15 billion plan to fight AIDS globally is seriously hampered by restrictions imposed by Congress and the administration, a panel of medical experts said.”
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“And it’s been confirmed by a local reporter posing as a gay couple. They turned away an inter-racial gay couple, and told them it’s because they’re gay.”
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“Roy teaches a satirical lesson in cosmology. Performed at the Skeptics Society conference.”
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” Police say a Kearney woman went to extremes to avoid working the weekend. Brandy Killin faces a felony charge of threatening to use an explosive after she allegedly phoned a bomb threat in to her employer to get out of work.”
links for 2007-03-30
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“Scientists at the MIT Media Lab have invented a way to reversibly silence brain cells using pulses of yellow light, offering the prospect of controlling the haywire neuron activity that occurs in diseases such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.”
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“At this point, Mugabe has nothing left to offer Zimbabwe besides excessive violence so it is no wonder that there are rumors circulating about a coup. People want to get back to eating, working and living a normal life, none of which are on Mugabe’s agen
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“The deluge of applicants — a reflection of the region’s sagging economy — has come in the nearly three weeks since MGM Grand announced its hiring goals for the new entertainment complex at Third and Bagley streets.”
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“Does believing that “God is on our side” make it easier for us to inflict pain and suffering on those perceived to be our enemies? If we think God sanctions violence, are we more likely to engage in violent acts?”
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“While the apology for slavery has been grabbing all the headlines, it’s the regret for the legacy of slavery that really matters.”
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The National Organization for Women endorsed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, for president and pledged to raise money for her from its 500,000 members.
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“Researchers in Mexico say compounds from the fruit used to make tequila may provide a more effective way to treat diseases of the colon.”
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“An FBI agent was warned to keep quiet about the dismissal of a U.S. attorney after he told a newspaper her firing would hurt the agency’s ongoing investigations and speculated politics was involved, a U.S. Senate panel heard on Tuesday.”
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“Like most of their neighbors in the sprawling, ramshackle Oasis Mobile Home Park, the Aguilars have no heat, no hot water. On cold nights, the family of eight stays warm by bundling up in layers of sweaters and sleeps packed together in two tiny rooms. B
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“A region of Japan devastated by a 1995 earthquake donated $200,000 to the New Orleans Museum of Art to help this city’s children cope with post-Hurricane Katrina devastation.”
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‘According to Iraqi who pulled down Saddam’s statue, “the Americans are worse than the dictatorship…”‘
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“New research has identified the first genetic evidence of Africans having lived amongst “indigenous” British people for centuries. Their descendants, living across the UK today, were unaware of their black ancestry.”
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“Tony Lagouranis is a 37-year-old bouncer at a bar in Chicago’s Humboldt Park. He is also a former torturer.”
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“Molecular oxygen has finally been discovered in interstellar space. The result is important for understanding the chemistry in large interstellar clouds where new stars are formed, and the processes behind star formation.”
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“Scientists have created the world’s first human-sheep chimera – which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.”
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“Apple may have a means of reversing hacks made to its own devices, according to reports.”
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“First it was California, Illinois, and Vermont. Then Minnesota. And then New Mexico and Washington. Now it’s Missouri and Texas. Yes, Missouri and Texas.”
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“”He has insurance”, Tony Snow is lucky. In the United States, having insurance is really all that matters. The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee healthcare as a basic right of citizenship.”
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“The growing opposition by some of Indiana’s largest employers to a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriages seems more rooted in the state’s image than any legal concerns about the loss of domestic-partner benefits.”
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“Egged on by a 17-year-old, two 10-year-old boys joined in the attack of a homeless man, leaving him bruised and bloody Tuesday, Daytona Beach Police said. The incident highlights an upswing in violent crime across the U.S. against the homeless.”
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“A new study from the World Economic Forum claims that for the first time, the US has lost the #1 position in terms of technology innovation. Now Denmark has the top spot, with the US slipping all the way back to #7.”
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“The news that no national ceremonies are planned once the last of three World War I veterans has died prompted the National World War I Museum on Thursday to make plans for a national tribute.”
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“The Census Bureau turned over confidential information including names and addresses to help the Justice Department, Secret Service and other agencies identify Japanese-Americans during World War II, according to government documents released today.”
links for 2007-03-29
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“The following is an overview of the startup sequence, error conditions, and behaviors for all Intel-based Macintosh systems.”
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“More than two-thirds of the world’s large cities are in areas vulnerable to global warming and rising sea levels, and millions of people are at risk of being swamped by flooding and intense storms, according to a new study released Wednesday.”
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“Yahoo plans to offer unlimited e-mail storage to its roughly quarter of a billion users, starting in May.”
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“Lawrence Roach agreed to pay alimony to the woman he divorced, not the man she became after a sex change, his lawyers argued in a Florida court Tuesday in an effort to end the payments. But the ex-wife’s attorneys said the operation does not alter the ag
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The US Capitol or the Great Pyramid at Giza?
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“From California to Florida, a string of Creation “Science” museums are springing up across the country as part of the Christian Right’s attempt to rewrite the past and make it conform to the Bible.”
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“More than 20 young women from a religious school in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, have broken into a brothel and kidnapped the owner.”
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“An Australian schoolgirl, a Chinese adulterer and several South Korean celebrities have one thing in common: all have been victims of cyberbullying, a modern version of mob cruelty.”
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“The policemen began roaming the town’s Sunni neighborhoods on foot early in the morning, shooting at Sunni residents and homes.”
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“A Canadian-led study of major 1811-12 central U.S. earthquakes has identified a possible driving mechanism for intraplate seismicity.”
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“Package delivery company United Parcel Service said on Monday it has launched a new service allowing customers to intercept or reroute sent packages before they are delivered.”
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Stupidity museum opening soon…
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“The United Nations on Wednesday endorsed male circumcision as a way to prevent HIV infections in heterosexual men and said it should be made more easily available in African countries.”
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“Absent anything else to talk about, you can’t go wrong beating up on gay people. It’s the Christian thing to do.”
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“The U.S. Postal Service turned to the characters of “Star Wars” for inspiration on Wednesday as it unveiled 15 new first-class stamps featuring the whole gang from Chewbacca to Darth Vader.”
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“The last known surviving American female World War I veteran, a refined Civil War buff who in 1916 met with the secretary of the Navy to promote women in the military, has died. She was 109…. Her death leaves just five known surviving American World W
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“Town mourns death of abandoned newborn as California authorities search for mother”
links for 2007-03-28
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“The numbers are in, and the Playstation 3 is tearing up the Folding@Home charts like Michael Jackson on the 1983 Top 40. Check out the latest numbers, and you’ll see what I’m talking about:”
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“A southeast Missouri man who drew global attention for his documentary about how methamphetamine hopelessly ravaged his body died Monday still optimistic his film steers others from the highly addictive stimulant.”
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“As web developers, we need to be able to meet our users’ needs. And if we’re really sharp, we can do it without them even realizing it.”
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“My family is Sunni, Christian, and Shi’ia. I lost more family in the past four years than I did under 30 years of Saddam Hussein” (paraphrased)
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“Doors will soon open to reveal one of the mysteries of the Great Pyramid in Giza, Dr. Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Discovery News in an exclusive interview. Hawass, one of the world’s leading Egyptologists, said he
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‘”And now would you please choose a number from one to 10 describing your pain — one being almost no pain and 10 the worst pain imaginable.” The ER nurse’s voice seemed to trail off as she got to the end of the mandated recitation.’
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“Baby darker than either parent; judge allows malpractice case to proceed”
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N”EARLY A decade and a half ago, this condemnation of fundamentalism was issued: “The fundamentalist approach is dangerous, for it is attractive to people who look to the Bible for ready answers to the problems of life . . . instead of telling them that t
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“[A] welcome return to earlier, more moderate views on helping our fellow citizens, a less friendly attitude toward the use of coercive force to achieve political ends and a declining expression of strong religious commitment.”
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“Rising sea levels and melting polar ice-sheets are at upper limits of projections, leaving some human population centers already unable to cope, top world scientists say as they analyze latest satellite data. A United Nations report by the Intergovernmen
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“The erosion of civil rights across our nation over the past six years is the result of willful neglect and calculated design. The Bush administration continues to use the courts and the judicial appointment process to narrow civil rights protections an
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“Here’s some of the email exchange between Corey Andrew of Jersey City and Sgt. Marcia Ramode on Feb. 27 and March 1 as provided to The Jersey Journal by Andrew. Misspellings, capital letters and grammatical errors are as they appear in the emails:”
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“Lung cancer patients who are not candidates for surgery now have another safe and effective treatment option: radiofrequency (RF) ablation, according to a new study published in the April issue of the journal Radiology.”
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“Harvard Medical School researchers are working on a new, simpler way to distinguish malignant tumors from non-cancerous masses when screening for breast cancer.”
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“With creationism now coming in Christian and Muslim versions, scientists, teachers and theologians in France are debating ways to counteract what they see as growing religious attacks on science.”
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Kamilat Mehdi was walking home after dark with her two sisters when a man stepped out of the shadows and threw sulphuric acid in her face.
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“As I type this, I am supposed to be in San Diego, delivering a workshop at the ETech conference. But I’m not. I’m at home, with the doors locked, terrified. For the last four weeks, I’ve been getting death threat comments on this blog.”
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“Sen. Shawn Womack’s anti-gay bill died in House committee today.”
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“A woman who lost her husband in the 2004 Madrid train bombings displayed an infamous cartoon mocking the Prophet Mohammad on her T-shirt in front of 29, mostly Muslim, suspects on trial for the attacks on Monday.”
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“I have speculated for several months that the eventual nominees for both parties are flying below the radar and not among the high-profile candidates currently being discussed. Could Fred Thompson and Al Gore be those candidates?”
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“An odd, six-sided, honeycomb-shaped feature circling the entire north pole of Saturn has captured the interest of scientists with NASA’s Cassini mission.”
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“To suggest that there’s any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I’d love Sen. McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll.”
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“Police who have raided vice-ridden Mexico City neighborhoods in a push against drug violence hope to take guns off the streets by offering to swap them for computers and video-game consoles.”
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“A Japanese billionaire has bought four homes in Hawaii for needy families. Genshiro Kawamoto had promised to buy the homes in Honolulu and charge just £75 a month rent. But, as he handed over the keys and £500 spending money to each family, he said he
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“A space rock the size of three football fields may have slammed into California more than 35 million years ago, according to a team of scientists that includes a high school student.”
Tony Snow has cancer
CNN is reporting that White House Press Secretary Tony Snow had a growth removed from his abdomen Monday and that it is both cancerous and has spread to his liver.
The story’s not made it to an actual article yet on CNN but it has made it to USA Today.
Presidential spokesman Tony Snow’s surgery to remove a small growth showed that his cancer has returned, the White House said Tuesday.
He may work for the devil incarnate but he doesn’t deserve this. No one does.
Tests show Snow suffering from recurrence of cancer – USATODAY.com
links for 2007-03-27
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“In other words, the more you post, the less I’m gonna care about any given post. I’ve only got a small, finite amount of “attention capital” to spend. I’d rather see bigger, more valuable posts than “penny posts.””
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“If you ask us, both Andrew and Ramode should be ashamed of themselves. Don’t people get it? Racism, homophobia (and, in fact, all forms of bigotry) are so 20th century.”
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” Filing this information electronically would not only save taxpayers money, but it would also get this information to the public much sooner.”
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“Knife-wielding smugglers forced 450 Somalis and Ethiopians overboard into stormy seas along a remote stretch of Yemen coastline at Ras-Alkalb in the Gulf of Aden last Thursday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.”
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“Rackable Systems, a company that focuses on high-performance computing, announced on Monday a data center packed into a storage container. “
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“Is there ever a good enough reason to deny life-saving medicines to an entire country’s citizens? I say no. But it seems pharmaceutical giant Abbott begs to differ.”
Updated: Apple/iTunes should give credit for partially purchased albums
Update:
MacNN reports that Apple is going to begin to credit users for the singles they’ve purchased if they buy the whole album within a certain amount of time:
Apple, in conjunction with several music labels, is planning to offer iTunes users credit for songs already purchased when they choose to buy an associated album within a certain time frame, according to the New York Times.
MacNN | Apple may credit iTunes album purchases
Original post:
Another post about the iTunes Store.
I’ve previously bought four tracks from an album. The album costs $9.99. I’ve paid $3.96 already, but if I want to go and buy the whole album (instead of buying each track individually), I’ll be charged a full $9.99 and then have duplicate tracks. To avoid the duplicate tracks I’ll have to buy each track separately for a total of $8.91. When you total what I will have paid, I’ll have paid $12.87 for a $9.99 album.
iTunes knows what you’ve purchased already (it warned me when I clicked “add album” that I had already purchased portions of the album), and it should just go ahead and subtract those tracks from the total price of the album and prevent you from re-downloading them. How hard could that be?
Perhaps it’s my own fault for not buying the whole album in the first place, but I didn’t want the whole album then. I do now and I’ll probably wind up paying the extra money for the whole thing, I just don’t think I should have to.
For anyone who cares, the album I’ve partially purchased is The Grascals.
Rumors for Star Trek XI
There’s a poll on SciFi Wire this week asking if the viewer approves of a rumor that the new Star Trek movie will be “reimagined” to have more action to “appeal to a broader audience” (read: neanderthals) and “less McCoy”. I for one disapprove. McCoy was more than just a doctor. He was my favorite character in both The Original Series and the movies. A crotchety fellow who didn’t mind speaking his mind. I liked that and I liked him.
Maybe if they’re going to “reimagine” the TOS universe, they should reimagine a new audience, too.
JeffSay... 
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