onegoodmove

January 05, 2006
Automatism

The Edge Annual Question — 2006

WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?

The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?

One of my favorite philosophers, Andy Clark, has taken part his essay is on The quick-thinking zombies inside us It sounds spot on to me. What do you think?

So much of what we do, feel, think and choose is determined by non-conscious, automatic uptake of cues and information.

Of course, advertisers will say they have known this all along. But only in recent years, with seminal studies by Tanya Chartrand, John Bargh and others has the true scale of our daily automatism really begun to emerge. Such studies show that it is possible (it is relatively easy) to activate racist stereotypes that impact our subsequent behavioral interactions, for example yielding the judgment that your partner in a subsequent game or task is more hostile than would be judged by an unprimed control. Such effects occur despite a subject's total and honest disavowal of those very stereotypes. In similar ways it is possible to unconsciously prime us to feel older (and then we walk more slowly).
Continue reading "Automatism"
The Daily Show - They're Back

Jon Stewart is back, and telling it like it is. Spreading Dub's message that there's an enemy that lurks, opining on big brother, and lamenting the fact that a surprise party was spoiled. It's my first fix of the new season and already the shakes are subsiding, and I'm feeling good.




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Links With Your Coffee - Thursday

Who's afraid of a couple of gay cowboys?

Lets all stop beating Basil's car
Ask people why they support the death penalty or prolonged incarceration for serious crimes, and the reasons they give will usually involve retribution. There may be passing mention of deterrence or rehabilitation, but the surrounding rhetoric gives the game away. People want to kill a criminal as payback for the horrible things he did. Or they want to give "satisfaction' to the victims of the crime or their relatives. An especially warped and disgusting application of the flawed concept of retribution is Christian crucifixion as "atonement' for "sin'.

Retribution as a moral principle is incompatible with a scientific view of human behaviour. As scientists, we believe that human brains, though they may not work in the same way as man-made computers, are as surely governed by the laws of physics. When a computer malfunctions, we do not punish it. We track down the problem and fix it, usually by replacing a damaged component, either in hardware or software.
Gangster garb, or pious religious dude Bag News Notes provides the analysis.

Lest we let the culture wars wane Did Jesus exist? Court to decide thanks Yank

An Italian court is tackling Jesus -- and whether the Roman Catholic Church may be breaking the law by teaching that he existed 2,000 years ago.
Mad Kane latest a song parody 'Say Goodbye to Tom Delay'

January 04, 2006
Letterman 1 - O'Reilly 0

"I have the feeling that 60% of what you say is crap..." and with that Dave Letterman captured the essence of what is Bill O'Reilly. Earlier in the segment Bill O'Reilly said, "The Soldiers and Marines are noble they are not terrorists and when people call them that like Cindy Sheehan; called the insurgents freedom fighters we don't like that. " This quotation is a perfect example of O'Reilly's sophistry. Notice where he pauses, not after that, but rather after Cindy Sheehan, implying not only that does she view the insurgents as freedom fighters but that she views the troops as terrorists. It is exactly the same technique Bush used in linking Iraq and 9/11. It wasn't simply an awkward sentence but a device O'Reilly uses frequently to smear others. You don't debate with someone who has no respect for the facts, for someone who quotes out of context. You point out as Dave did that it is crap. You don't argue the fine points you can never win that sort of argument with a LIAR. When someone flings shit like O'Reilly does, you don't need to identify it point by point you can smell it.




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One of O'Reilly's Lies last night

January 03, 2006
Jack Abramoff Going Down

G.O.P. Lobbyist to Plead Guilty in Deal With Prosecutors - New York Times

Jack Abramoff will plead guilty to three felony counts in Washington today as part of a settlement with federal prosecutors, ending an intense, months-long negotiation over whether the Republican lobbyist would testify against his former colleagues, people involved with the case said.

Links With Your Coffee - Tuesday

Well it's a new year and I'm ready and looking forward to happier times, the Rove indictment, more Democrats in congress, and to finish off the year the impeachment of George W. Bush. Speaking of which, the Salt Lake Tribune ran a contest for the headlines people would like to see in 2006. There were 101 responses and twenty of them included something about a Bush impeachment. Do you have any headlines you'd like to see in the coming year? Bush Spies On Himself Discovers He's An Idiot has a nice ring to it.

Howard Zinn on after the war we should work to end all war, he writes:.
There is a persistent argument against such a possibility, which I have heard from people on all parts of the political spectrum: We will never do away with war because it comes out of human nature. The most compelling counter to that claim is in history: We don’t find people spontaneously rushing to make war on others. What we find, rather, is that governments must make the most strenuous efforts to mobilize populations for war. They must entice soldiers with promises of money, education, must hold out to young people whose chances in life look very poor that here is an opportunity to attain respect and status. And if those enticements don’t work, governments must use coercion: They must conscript young people, force them into military service, threaten them with prison if they do not comply.
Jeb Bush On Evolution
The Watchdog Report asked a follow-up question: Does the governor believe in Darwin's theory of evolution?

Bush said: "Yeah, but I don't think it should actually be part of the curriculum, to be honest with you. And people have different points of view and they can be discussed at school, but it does not need to be in the curriculum."
Onions Top Stories of 2005

Every OS Sucks (video tip to Jim)

Pushy Christians

I know, they do it because they love the poor and the downtrodden, and they want everyone to be just like them. It seems to me it's a little too much be like me and not enough about love. They want to be paid not for their 'charity' not in immediate cash anyway, but in advertising their religion.

January 02, 2006
Wounded In Combat

You can always count on George to make it all about him.




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Darwin

Charlie Rose interviews Niles Eldredge the curator of the American Museum of Natural History Niles Eldredge has written a book about Darwin and the exhibit it is a great tribute to his Darwin's life and discoveries including many wonderful pictures, Darwin: Discovering the Tree of Life




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Posted by Norm at Permalink 11:38 AM | Comments (8)
January 01, 2006
Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais star of The Office and Extras and one of the funniest men alive is now doing weekly podcasts along with his comedy partner Steve Merchant and their producer Karl Pilkington. You can download them here . They're scheduled to do twelve of them and they have just finished the fourth. Give it a try. You'll either be ROFLOL or you'll think its just plain ridiculous. Here is a clip from the third episode that amused me mightily.

rickykarlsteve.jpg


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December 31, 2005
Igor Ivanov 1947 - 2005

There are thousands of chess-players around the world who knew Igor Ivanov. They opened their homes and their hearts to his brilliant mind, to his kind soul, to his hearty laugh, and to his friendship. He was always respectful of others, and I never heard him utter an unkind word to anyone. He was a Grandmaster while most the the rest of us were patzers, but he treated us as equals. His respect for us didn't dim when we played chess with him. We almost always lost, but we always left the board feeling good. He brought out the best in everyone. It wasn't that he didn't have strong opinions he did. I often disagreed with him about politics, but it was never personal, and we agreed on all the important things in life, a love of music, of literature, of chess, and the value of good friends. I remember that day in March when he called and told me he had cancer, and how it was inoperable. We both knew that he didn't have long, but his spirits were high. I asked him if he'd heard the Monty Python song, "Always Look on The Bright Side of Life." He hadn't but was anxious to hear it. I sent him a copy and a few days later he was back on the phone. . He didn't start with his usual hi Norm it's Igor instead he said "I love that part where they say You come into life with nothing and you leave with nothing, what have you lost nothing." and then that infectious laugh of his. That is how I�ll remember Igor laughing and embracing life while facing death. Igor is gone now, but our memories of him remain. Here are a few of mine, but first a few pictures of Igor, the background music is Chopin�s Fantaisie-impromptu in C sharp minor, a piece I heard Igor play many times. (this is from a recording by Vladimir Ashkenazy)




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Posted by Norm at Permalink 10:37 PM | Comments (4)
Daily Show Fix
I don't know about you but I'm suffering serious Daily Show withdrawal, and with no new shows until January 4th I need a fix. Here is a clip from June of last year that seems as fresh now as it did then. "Three and one half years ago Congress passed what is called the Patriot Act, a sweeping counter-terrorism measure carefully crafted to be just restrictive enough to impinge on civil liberties without actually helping."


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December 30, 2005
Free Speech

Can you imagine the response if these jeans were being sold here. There would be boycotts, Fox News would be going nuts. Hmm, I ought to forward the story to O'Reilly, or Hannity, or that other worst person of the year John Gibson 'Devilish' Jeans a Hot Seller in Sweden

Cheap Monday jeans are a hot commodity among young Swedes thanks to their trendy tight fit and low price, even if a few buyers are turned off by the logo: a skull with a cross turned upside down on its forehead.

Logo designer Bjorn Atldax says he's not just trying for an antiestablishment vibe.

"It is an active statement against Christianity," Atldax told The Associated Press. "I'm not a Satanist myself, but I have a great dislike for organized religion."

The label's makers say it's more of a joke, but Atldax insists his graphic designs have a purpose beyond selling denim: to make young people question Christianity, a "force of evil" that he blames for sparking wars throughout history.

In more religious countries, that might raise a furious response, maybe even prompt retailers to drop the brand.

Not in Sweden, a secular country that cherishes its free speech and where churchgoing has been declining for decades.
Links With Your Coffee - Friday

Dante's Inferno
A horror movie brings out the zombie vote to protest Bush's war
The dizzying high point of Showtime's new Masters of Horror series, the hour-long Homecoming (which premieres December 2) is easily one of the most important political films of the Bush II era. With its only slightly caricatured right-wingers, the film nails the casual fraudulence and contortionist rhetoric that are the signatures of the Bush-Cheney administration. Its dutiful hero, presidential consultant David Murch (Jon Tenney), reports to a Karl Rove–like guru named Kurt Rand (Robert Picardo) and engages in kinky power fucks with attack-bitch pundit Jane Cleaver (Thea Gill), a blonde, leggy Ann Coulter proxy with a "No Sex for All" tank top and "BSH BABE" license plates. Murch's glib, duplicitous condescension is apparently what triggers the zombie uprising: Confronting an angry mother of a dead soldier on a news talk show, he tells this Cindy Sheehan figure, "If I had one wish . . . I would wish for your son to come back," so he could assure the country of the importance of the war. The boy does return, along with legions of fallen combatants, and they all beg to differ.
Showtime clips here The next showing is on December 31st



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Dr. Germ and Mrs. Anthrax Set Free by Robert Scheer asks a damn good question why were Dr. Germ and Mrs. Anthrax released.

Why is it not bigger news that those infamous Iraqi female scientists once routinely referred to in the media as "Dr. Germ" and "Mrs. Anthrax" have been quietly released from imprisonment in Iraq without any charges being brought by their US captors? Don't the newspapers and TV networks that all but pre-convicted them of crimes against humanity owe them--and us--the courtesy of an explanation for the sudden presumption of their innocence?
Video Fun

Delicious Library one of my favorite Mac applications.

Posted by Norm at Permalink 06:18 AM | Comments (9)
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