Hehe, eindelijk, na de aanslag op Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) door een gestoorde jongeman met een semi-automatisch geweer, denkt iedereen in de VS mee over hoe het geweld in te dammen dat dagelijks door de straten van Amerika trekt.
William Galston van denktank het Brooking Institute (tegenwoordig vooral bevolkt door ‘Bush-men’) heeft de oplossing.
Zoveel mogelijk wapens uit de handen van mensen houden, verwacht je dan, op zijn minst uit de handen van gekken. Nou nee, dat is niet de oplossing die deze grote denker voorstelt. Hij stelt voor om iedereen die zich raar gedraagt op te sluiten. En ook mensen die niet rapporteren dat iemand zich raar gedraagt - familie en vrienden bijvoorbeeld. Zijn argumentatie is simpel, de Tucson-killer gedroeg zich raar, dus sluit alle mensen op die raar doen. Ook al hebben ze geen misdaad begaan.
Je staat er echt van te kijken in wat voor rare bochten Amerikanen zich wringen om maar niet te zeggen wat ieder normaal mens weet. Houdt dodelijke wapens uit de handen van burgers. Als in Nederland iemand gek wordt van woede, gebruikt hij zijn vuisten of hij pakt een knuppel of in het ergste geval een mes maar geen semi-automatisch geweer. Dat heeft hij niet, en zijn buren en zijn vrienden evenmin.
Ook Glenn Greenwald windt zich er over op.

The reflexive call for fewer liberties

William Galston — former Clinton adviser and current Brookings Institution Senior Fellow — has a column in The New Republic about the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. [..]The lesson of the Arizona tragedy, he argues, is that it’s too difficult to force citizens into mental institutions against their will. This, he says, is the fault of “civil libertarians.” [..] As a result, Galston wants strict new laws imposing a litany of legal obligations on the mentally ill, their friends and family, and even acquaintances, as well as dramatically expanded powers to lock away those with mental illness. [read on] (more…)

Geloof wat je wil geloven
het maakt totaal niks uit.
De een gelooft in iets hierboven
en ik geloof in fruit.

Plopje

Weet u het nog? De carchase in Fort Worth waar heidense stadsbussen dagelijks op de hielen worden gezeten door een goddelijk truckje.
Op de bussen staat: ‘Millions of Americans are - Good without God’.
Op het truckje: ‘I still love you - God’.
Het is het front in de, door Fox News bedachte, ‘War on Christmas’. De oorlog die er omgaat of in de VS ‘Gelukkig Kerstfeest’ mag worden vervangen door ‘Prettige Feestdagen’ of niet.
Deze week vond er een discussie plaats tusen Bill O’Reilly en de Amerikaanse atheist David Silverman op Fox News waarin O’Reilly uitlegt hoe hij zo zeker weet dat God bestaat.

This week Bill O’Reilly explained on his Fox News show how he knows there is a God.
He was discussing religion with David Silverman of American Atheists who, according to O’Reilly, are running ’insulting’ ads calling religion a ’scam’.
Like: ‘Millions of Americans are Good without God’.

O’REILLY: I’ll tell you why [religion’s] not a scam, in my opinion: tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can’t explain that.SILVERMAN: Tide goes in, tide goes out?
O’REILLY: See, the water, the tide comes in and it goes out, Mr. Silverman. It always comes in, and always goes out. You can’t explain that.

Well Billo, we’ve known about this ‘water comes in and water goes out’ for some time now. In fact since Isaac Newton first accurately described and predicted tides by lunar cycles in his Principia, published in 1687.

Days after a number of dead birds appeared to fall from the sky in America a similar event has happened in Sweden. Tests are being carried out in a bid to find out what happened. Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, residents of Falkping, southeast of Skvde in southern Sweden, found 50 to 100 jackdaws lying in the street.
[read on] (more…)

De reactie van ©©,®? en DSR op de wetenschappelijke bewering dat door het eten van groente vrouwen een meisje zouden krijgen en bij de consumptie van aardappels en bananen, een jongetje.

Het enige dat werkelijk invloed heeft op de geslachtsverhouding is oorlog… (©©,®?)

Dat is zo - en uiteraard het dragen van een hoge hoed door de aanstaande vader tijdens de verwekking van zijn kind, dat in zo’n geval een jongetje wordt. (DSR)

Voor een meisje - eet geitekaas, groente en rijst. Voor een jongetje - aardappels en bananen. Hier moet echt even kansberekening op los gelaten worden. Maar die verschillen lijken me wel significant. Verbazend.
Dus er zijn ook significante verschillen tussen landen waar veel en weinig groente wordt gegeten? Ik bedoel hoeveel groente eten de eskimo’s? Vergeleken met bijvoorbeeld de Italianen?
JdeW is wel onmiddelijk short gegaan op futures rijst. Als de Chinezen hier lucht van krijgen!

Green diets for daughters, bananas and potatoes for sons?

The Dutch study asked 32 women who already had boys to try a special “little girl diet” high in calcium and magnesium.
This meant eating foods like goat’s cheese salad, vegetable stew and rice pudding. Foods like potatoes and bananas, which have high levels of potassium, that is believed to lead to boys, were restricted.
The result of the five-year project was that 26 women had girls and only six gave birth to boys. [read on] (more…)

a) Omdat het glad is.
b) Pure zuinigheid.
c) Omdat het weekend er op zit.

Have you ever debated a fundamental Christian or anyone who strongly believes in Allah, Nirwana, clearvoyants, spiritual healing, the Mayan calendar, ghost’s, ufo’s, astrology…?
Or are you planning to debate someone who strongly believes in something not accepted by regular science or common sense, than print out this diagram and hand it over to the person to be signed before you start arguing!
[read on] (more…)

by brian fairrington, cagle cartoons

As greenhouse continues to build in the atmosphere, 2010 is entering the history books as the hottest year on record. And a year of unprecedented extreme weather which killed tens of thousands of people and affected millions. The year is ending with yet more climate disasters, from winter tornadoes across America to floods in Australia.
Australia is being ravaged by unprecedented flooding, following tremendous rainfall for months. Floods now cover an area “the size of France and Germany combined.” Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced millions of dollars of relief funding as she described the record-breaking floods:
[read on] (more…)

There has been a long time study of changes in eating patterns in America.
Here the remarkable results that founder and director of the NPD Group’s annual Eating Patterns in America, Harry Balzer, found:

“In the long run,” he says, “the top three foods we ordered in 1978, when I first started — were (in order) carbonated soft drinks, french fries and hamburgers.
“And yesterday, the top three foods we ordered at restaurants were carbonated soft drinks, hamburgers and french fries. … We’ve changed so much!” he joked.

All the snow falling down in North America and the Northern part of Europe is really consistent with global warming. Judah Cohen explains how more heat can result in more snow:

As global temperatures have warmed and as Arctic sea ice has melted over the past two and a half decades, more moisture has become available to fall as snow over the continents. … the Eastern United States, Northern Europe and East Asia have experienced extraordinarily snowy and cold winters since the turn of this century. Most forecasts have failed to predict these colder winters, however, because the primary drivers in their models are the oceans, which have been warming even as winters have grown chillier.

Uw groenteboer heeft 100 kilo komkommers die hij ’s ochtends buiten zet. De komkommers bestaan voor 99 procent uit water. Hij verkoopt er die dag niet een. Op het eind van de dag zijn de komkommers wat uitgedroogd. Ze bestaan dan nog maar voor 98 procent uit water. Hoeveel kilo komkommers heeft de groenteboer over?

a) 50 kilo.
b) 98 kilo.
c) 97,89 kilo.

Hoeveel ouder? Daarover zijn de geleerden het niet eens.
Mensen die nu 65 jaar oud zijn, hebben nog 17,6 jaar (mannen) of 20,8 jaar (vrouwen) te gaan. Anderen denken weer dat mannen van 65 gemiddeld 84 jaar worden en vrouwen 87 jaar. Maar zeker is, we worden net zo lang ouder tot we doodgaan.

Dutch men and women now 65 will live an extra 19 and 22 years

IPE, Netherlands – Statistics Netherlands (CBS) has estimated a less drastic increase in longevity for the Dutch population than previously forecast by the Actuarial Society (AG). The new prognosis suggests that men and women aged 65 in 2010 will live an additional 17.6 and 20.8 years respectively.
However, the CBS admitted that the method employed to calculate these figures usually underestimated the real life expectancy.
[read on] (more…)

by olle johansson, sweden

What I would like to know is if it matters what kind of an accent people have. Why didn’t they compare a Scandinavian accent, with an Italian accent, with a Middle Eastern accent, with an African accent.

A foreign accent undermines a person’s credibility in ways that the speaker and the listener don’t consciously realize, new research at the University of Chicago shows.
Because an accent makes a person harder to understand, listeners are less likely to find what the person says as truthful, researchers found. The problem of credibility increases with the severity of the accent.
“The results have important implications for how people perceive non-native speakers of a language, particularly as mobility increases in the modern world, leading millions of people to be non-native speakers of the language they use daily,” said Boaz Keysar, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago and an expert on communication.
[read on] (more…)

Big Oil and Big Coal have poured vast amounts of money into American politics to ensure that they don’t have to pay for the pollution they’re responsible for. Fossil fuel-burning industries like Peabody and Koch Industries have funded a vast network of “libertarian” and “conservative” front groups to spread the lies that climate change isn’t real and that regulations on pollution destroy the economy. And now it’s time to pad the profits of the polluters. Last night teabagger Bill Flores explained that Republicans as a whole want to shut down the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):
[read on] (more…)

Nog geen twee van de tien Amerikanen (zestien procent) gelooft dat de mens zich heeft ontwikkeld zonder enige hulp van God. Vier van de tien Amerikanen gelooft dat God zo’n tienduizend jaar geleden de mens heeft geschapen als het misbaksel dat het nu nog altijd is. En zo’n 38 procent gelooft in een compromis: een beetje God, een beetje evolutie. Dat blijkt uit een peiling die Gallup Poll in december hield onder Amerikanen.

Four in ten Americans, slightly fewer now than in years past, believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago. A little less (38 percent) believe God guided a process by which humans developed over millions of years from less advanced life forms, while 16%, up slightly from years past, believe humans developed over millions of years, without God’s involvement. [read on] (more…)

How did Israel Finkelstein an Israeli archaeologist and academic reach the conclusion that there never was a Kingdom of King David and King Solomon?
Is science finally coming to religion? Even in Israel?:

Biblical archaeology has often been heavy on textual analysis and slow to adopt scientific methods such as radiocarbon dating. Attempts to prove the accuracy of biblical accounts or to legitimize Jewish claims to the region have dogged the field.
Now archaeologist Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University and structural biologist Steve Weiner of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot are revolutionizing the region’s archaeology by applying a host of new technologies. Their 5-year, $4 million effort, funded by the European Research Council, includes more than 40 collaborators from many disciplines working at an array of sites, primarily in Israel.
Finkelstein says the goal is to overcome the “strong ideological agenda” pervading the field.
The team has adopted state-of-the-art methods, including analyzing human and animal DNA and ancient pollen, to resolve controversial questions about the pace and timing of migrations and construction, such as the size and power of 10th century B.C.E. Jerusalem in the time of David and Solomon (Science, 2 February 2007, p. 591).

a) Ja, maar alleen als het goed heet is.
b) Nee, ijzer komt van ijs, het woord zegt het al.
c) Men kan geen ijzer met handen breken.

American politicians should keep their dirty hands of science. That’s what the Obama-administration is trying to achieve. Yesterday it publisehd it’s long-delayed scientific integrity guidelines. It is a respons to the Bush administration who distorted scientific work and limited access to information on a variety of issues ranging from climate change to lead poisoning and mountaintop removal mining. All to make rich people richer of course.

McClatchy - The White House on Friday released its long-delayed scientific integrity guidelines, intended to ban political interference in science.

Francesca Grifo, a scientist and the director of the Union of Concerned Scientists integrity program, said the new document contained strong statements that would require big changes in government agencies. Still, it remains to be seen how the agencies implement the guidelines, she said. “We will be watching them every step of the way.”

Doctors in Berlin, working with an American patient, have declared that they believe they have cured the patient of both HIV and leukemia. It would be the first time an HIV patient has been cured. While the stem cell therapy is “creating a buzz” in the academic community, experts called for caution.
“‘Cured’ is a strong word. But this is very encouraging,” said co-director Scadden of the Harvard University Stem Cell Institute.

HIV patient ‘cured’ with stem cell procedure

[..]”Cured is a strong word. But this is very encouraging,” said Dr. David Scadden, co-director of the Harvard University Stem Cell Institute. “From all indications, there was no residual virus. It’s as good an outcome as one could hope.” [read on] (more…)

U weet het misschien nog. Er stond al twee keer eerder iets over op drasties. Bladeren drogen uit en sterven af als ze maanden in de buurt van wifi-routers staan die signalen voor draadloos internet uitzenden. Nu besteedt in de Wall Street Journal er weer aandacht aan.
Wetenschappers van Wageningen Universiteit plaatsten essen in een ruimte met zes draadloze routers. Ze deden het al snel een stuk minder goed dan bomen in een ruimte zonder draadloos internet. Maar meer onderzoek is nodig, aldus wetenschapper Dr. Andre van Lammeren. In dit stuk komt ook Niek van ‘t Wout (verantwoordelijk voor de openbare ruimte in Alphen aan den Rijn) aan het woord die als eerste zieke bomen in Alphen aan den Rijn onderzocht en het onderzoek van de Universiteit Wageningen initieerde.
Voorlopige conclusie: er kunnen geen conclusies worden getrokken. Behalve wellicht dat er door de essen in de ruimte met wifi een stuk meer wordt gelachen!

Dutch reports on Wi-Fi and sick trees off the mark

Wall Street Journal - There were really two separate reports. One was conducted by the Dutch municipality of Alphen aan den Rijn, of some troubling abnormalities in the city’s trees. The other, funded by the town, was a laboratory experiment pitting some trees exposed to Wi-Fi signals to others that weren’t. This study found some damage to the Wi-Fi-exposed trees, though the nature of that damage was different than the damage seen in the city’s trees.
Niek van ‘t Wout, who heads Alphen aan den Rijn’s green space, is the driving force behind these studies. His town examined 600 trees and found 70% had abnormalities — which led to articles world-wide claiming that 70% of urban trees are sick. Another investigation of the city’s trees found a lower, though still alarming, figure of 39%. [read on] (more…)