All those topics that i wish i had time to pursue more earnestly.

xkcd – A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language – COMPLY:
Escher Bracelet

—

indeed…. these are some of the funniest cartoons i’ve seen in a while.

Greg Mankiw’s Blog: Yes, education, but what kind?:

Reviewing specific programs, Carneiro and Heckman find that preschool education is highly effective, although with more impact on noncognitive than cognitive abilities. Schools are much less productive, and returns are low to increased investments in K-12 education in the form of higher salaries, smaller classes, and so forth. They suggest that structural changes that increase school choice and competition should have higher returns, but are careful to note that returns to increased investment in schools are limited by what families contribute to the production process. They also conclude that added investments in job training and higher education have low rates of return, particularly for lower ability adolescents and adults.

Brooks is right to focus our attention on education, but our aspirations should be modest. Even the best designed human capital policies are unlikely to reverse the rise in inequality observed over the past several decades.

——-

the question here, in my mind, is really about the current system. returns are low because the architecture of learning in the u.s. cannot utilize investments. it is not that making the institutions ‘capitalistic’ will change things either. it is the innate practices of education, the classroom, the sitting in rows, the rote knowledge, it is the way that we make students think, their future mode of thought, that is the real problem. it centers on the wrong sort of structures, mainly it is still factory-based and submission based instead of future-oriented and equality-based. if you invest in an old factory, the money generally is wasted on maintenance, making new technologies fit, etc. huge transition costs and because everyone that worked there is still working there, you haven’t changed the habitus, and thus are impinged significantly by traditions, ideations, and practices that limit change. if you build a new factory, build in new practices, you can sometimes save the transition costs and have huge gains.

‘The Best War Ever’ Publicity Video:
‘The Best War Ever’ Publicity Video
The publicity video for ‘The Best War Ever’

Much more accurate than P2911.

———-

geeze, i hope we don’t get a sequel to this book, or this administration.

Yes, It’s Torture:
Kevin Drum asks (rhetorically), Torture?:

President Bush announced yesterday that 14 “high value detainees” would be transferred from secret CIA prisons to Guantanamo Bay. ABC News describes the interrogation techniques that have been used on on them:

The first — the attention grab, involving the rough shaking of a prisoner.

Second — the attention slap, an open-handed slap to the face.

Third — belly slap, meant to cause temporary pain, but no internal injuries.

Fourth —long-term standing and sleep deprivation, 40 hours at least, described as the most effective technique.

Fifth — the cold room. Prisoners left naked in cells kept in the 50s and frequently doused with cold water.

The CIA sources say the sixth, and harshest, technique was called “water boarding,” in which a prisoner’s face was covered with cellophane, and water is poured over it (pictured above) — meant to trigger an unbearable gag reflex.

Is this torture?

I can’t see how anyone can call waterboarding anything other than torture. I’d also include some of the others on this list — even “open” or “belly” slapping prisoners sounds like a milder form of torture and, whatever you call it, is banned by both the Geneva conventions and every code of practice we use domestically.
And it’s all wrong.
——
to abuse someone, physically or mentally that you have completely in your control is always psychological torture, they have no means of escape, they have no means whatever other than their mind and this will put an immense amount of stress on those people. It is torture. It is banned by the Geneva convention and it should not be used because in using it, the whole nation becomes complicit in its use, and we all must then carry the psychological burden of being a nation of torturers and fundamentally that means that we must be a nation that does not respect the dignity of the human being, the rights of a human being, and the freedoms of mind and conscience that is fundamentally what makes us human. we must instead be a nation that preys on the rights, freedoms and dignities of other peoples and nations in order to get what we want. That is not treating people equally or rationally… it is being a monster. Monsters torture people and as such create monsters.

Computer,September 2006 (Vol. 39, No. 9):

September 2006 (Vol. 39, No. 9)

ISSN: 0018-9162
——–

there are some interesting articles in this month’s issue of ieee computer.

Your daily Rorschach test:

——–

….. its icy.

Wired News: The Ultimate Blog Post:
Metafilter: Unhelpful link text. Extra links added for padding that have little to do with the main topic of the entry. Are extremely loaded rhetorical questions the only thing that can save us now?

——-
a listing of ultimate blog posts…. somewhat funny

Euroscience Open Forum 2006, 15 – 19 July, Munich, Germany:
Prof. Stevan Harnad

Moderator, American Scientist Open Access Forum
Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Sciences,
Université du Québec à Montréal
and
Professor, Electronics and Computer Science,
University of Southampton
harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk

Publish or Perish

As Science is mere structured common sense,
her means but trial-and-error made intense,
the only virtue setting her apart,
and raising her above (some think) mere Art,
Is her convergence ever on consensus:
collective, self-corrective her defenses.
A flagellant, she boldly does defy
Reality her schemes to falsify.

And yet this noble jousting were in vain,
and all this pain would yield no grain of gain
if Science were content, a shrinking violet,
her works from all the world ‘ere to keep private.
Instead, performance public and artistic,
restraining all propensities autistic,
perhaps less out of error-making dread,
than banal need to earn her daily bread.

For showbiz being what it is today,
work’s not enough, you’ve got to make it pay.
What ratings, sweeps and polls count for our actors,
no less than our elected benefactors,
for Science the commensurate equation
is not just publication but citation.
The more your work is accessed, read and used,
the higher then is reckoned its just dues.
Sounds crass, but there may be some consolation,
where there’s still some residual motivation
to make a difference, not just make a fee:
the World Wide Web at last can make Science free.

——-

This one the euroscience poetry prize

Another real-world person experimenting with an entirely different SL persona is Boston-based blogger Andy Carvin. Last fall he joined SL as Andy Chowderhead, but he got “bored with it” and decided to create Abdi Kembla, an African refugee he modeled after photos he found online of former Somalian child soldiers.

“Previously, when I used my old Andy Chowderhead avatar, I found people were more likely to come over, say hello, and start a conversation. But with Abdi, people tended to just act as if I just weren’t even there,” says Carvin, who estimates that he spent between 20 and 30 hours in February and March exploring as Abdi. “The more I traveled through SL, the more I realized I seemed to be the only African-looking character around anywhere.” He adds, “I encountered gnomes, floating beams of light, characters that were shaped like boxes, elves, everything you can imagine — but no African-looking characters.”

National Security Experiment – BREAK.com
:
7/3/2006 – An Australian TV performs a simple and hilarious experiment on bridge security. How long can an average looking white tourist take pictures of security cameras before being bothered?

——

nothing new here….