Here’s a cause you can support. Donate your used or unwanted science books and help improve poor school libraries. Reader To Reader, Inc., a public charity which collects and distributes free books to economically disadvantaged libraries throughout the United States, needs donations of science books for school libraries that lack even the most basic books in all areas of science. Since its founding in 2002, it has distributed more than 35,000 books to 75 schools. The group’s Web site has instructions for donating books or money. See it at: www.readertoreader.org. Thanks to James Randi for the heads up.
Archive > March 2004
At present, the only place in the United States that a same-sex couple can get a legally recognized marriage is Portland, Oregon. Basic Rights Oregon is the organization that made it happen and made it stick. Take a look at some of their pictures. The latest news is that (a) same-sex marriage is illegal in the state of Oregon BUT (b) the laws making it illegal are themselves unconstitutional and must be changed. Keep up with the story at Portland Communique.
Terra Nova is a collaborative weblog experiment. It is about “virtual worlds” — computer-generated, persistent, immersive, and representational social platforms. Currently, the most popular virtual worlds are massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs), such as Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies. However, there are many other old and new varieties of virtual worlds.
Big old list of live linux CDs.
From a recycling bank in Ashby-de-la-Zouch to a small Zambian village hut, follow the journey of a £50 blouse donated to charity.
Blog Epidemic Analyzer is a demonstration website for our recent research on information dynamics in blogspace. You may type in a partial substring of a URL you would like to track.
“Unless these parts of the brain are properly wired together, they’ll never communicate effectively. They’ll never result in appropriate behavior.” Never is a pretty strong word, especially when it comes to the intersection of public policy and medical research.
Only two states – Maine and Vermont – follow the European pattern of allowing all inmates and ex-convicts to vote. As far as the rest… well, read on.
Theocracy Watch. Nuff said.
Sir Karl Popper – No Man Should Be Considered Educated If He Does Not Take an Interest in Science
And in our day no man should be considered educated if he does not take an interest in science. The usual defense that an interest in electricity or stratigraphy need not be more enlightening than an interest in human affairs only betrays a complete lack of understanding of human affairs. For science is not merely a collection of facts about electricity, etc.; it is one of the most important spiritual movements of our day. Anybody who does not attempt to acquire an understanding of this movement cuts himself off from the most remarkable development in the history of human affairs.
Sir Karl Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies Volume II.
Hey! Buy some of my nice posters at E-bay! Bucky Fuller, The Residents, Philip Glass, and an anarchist poster from the CNT.
Everybody knows that when US veterans from the Vietnam War returned home, some of them were spat on by hippies. Trouble is, there is not a single documented case of this happening, ever.
Thanks to the Smirking Chimp for bringing to my attention H.R. 3799 and S. 2082, the “Constitution Restoration Act of 2004.” Initial sponsors of the bill include Rep. Robert Aderholt (AL), Rep. Michael Pence (IN), Sen. Richard Shelby (AL), Sen. Zell Miller (GA), Sen. Sam Brownback (KS), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC). At the heart of H. R. 3799 is the following: “Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Supreme Court shall not have jurisdiction to review, by appeal, writ of certiorari, or otherwise,any matter to the extent that relief is sought against an element of Federal, State, or local government, or against an officer of Federal, State, or local government (whether or not acting in official personal capacity), by reason of that element’s or officer’s acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government.” This means, that the federal judiciary would be prohibited from interfering with any expression of religious faith by any elected local, state, or federal official. Which religion, you ask? Sen. Shelby has the answer: “our government and our laws are based on Judeo-Christian values and a recognition of God as our Creator.” What sort of expressions of religious faith might that include? Take a guess.
Before 1985 mankind will enter a genuine age of scarcity in which the accessible supplies of many key minerals will be facing depletion. Lead, zinc, tin, gold, and silver will all be gone by 1990. All the known world supplies of zinc, gold, tin, copper, oil, and natural gas will be completely exhausted in 1992. The price of oil in 1995 will be $40 per barrel in 1979 dollars. Humanity will totally run out of copper by 2000.
Who says things like that? The Club of Rome, the Government of the United States, Scientific American magazine, author Paul Ehrlich – that is, the people who make political and economic policy and try to shape public opinion. Death sells, and if you can sell that the world is about to end then people will buy more.
Thanks to Science and Public Policy by Ronald Bailey for the facts.
Kinky Friedman for Governor!
After getting married, television personality has critical words for the President. Or to put it another way…
Looking for that list of 1,049 rights granted to married couples? Here you go. All 1,049 of these rights are denied same-sex couples lacking access to legal marriage. Is your spouse sick and you need time off work? Too bad. Getting on in years and wanting to take advantage of Medicare? Tough luck. Hoping to inheret the property of your caregiver? So sorry.
The Human Rights Campaign writes: “As history has repeatedly proven, institutions that fail to take account of the changing needs of the population are those that grow weak; those that recognize and accommodate changing needs grow strong. For example, the U.S. military, like American colleges and universities, grew stronger not weaker after permitting African Americans and women to join its ranks. Similarly, granting same-sex couples the right to marry would strengthen the institution of marriage by allowing it to better meet the needs of the true diversity of family structures in America today.”
