Miss USA contestants have been asked for the upcoming beauty contest if evolution should be taught in US schools. In a seemingly unrelated question, they are also to be asked if they would ever pose nude for photographers. It is not clear what the correct answer to either question is supposed to be.
Continue reading Miss USA Contestants: Is Evolution OK for US Schools?
NASA’s Dawn space ship is getting closer to the asteroid Vesta, and has produced a very short movie. The movie is a compilation of 20 frames, shown here repeating several times:
I agree that a gay judge should not rule on a gay marriage issue. He’s biased. He’s gay, and in a gay relationship and will therefore be biased in favor of gay rights.
Of course, non-gay judges should never be allowed to rule on issues of straight marriage or other private matters, legislatures should not be allowed to introduce legislation limiting or proscribing behavior related to gayosity or straightosity related to anyone like themselves, and voters should never, ever be allowed to vote on things that have anything to do with individual relationships, sexual behavior, sexuality, or anything else private where the voter her/himself could be somehow analogous to the individuals affected by the laws or amendments. And, the inverse must be true as well. A gay judge might be anti-straight, and therefore should never rule on straight-marriage issues, for instance.
The rules I just laid out in the previous paragraph would not apply, of course, to the rare and extreme cases where individuals’ private behaviors cost large amounts of government money or have very negative tangible side effects on others. Squeamishness, moral indignation, annoyance, or modest visual disruption of the landscape do not count as negative tangible side effects except in the possible case of visual disruption of the landscape in national parks.
Opponents of gay marriage are challenging notions of judicial neutrality in a San Francisco courtroom on Monday. They’re arguing that a federal judge who struck down California’s ban on same sex marriage last year was biased because he’s in a same-sex relationship*.
I fully support this initiative, and I hope it progresses and is recognized as case law. The consequences would be astounding. Women would no longer be able to legislate, enforce laws, or rule as judges on, say, abortion rights. Following the inverse principle, neither would men. Issues related to state laws regarding any kind of marriage or probate, if brought to a federal judge, could not be ruled on by judges who are in, or not in, those circumstances. Only judges who are (not were, but are) foster children could rule on laws about foster children. Or not. Only Judges who have Down’s Syndrome could rule on, say, execution of offenders with Downs. But they would not be allowed to do so. And so on.
Furthermore, the sexual orientation, karyotype, and other personal information of each and every judge will have to be determined and perhaps placed on the judge’s bench using some sort of symbol so everyone knows what the potential biases are if any issue related to that state of being comes up in any courtroom, ever, anywhere, from now on.
That is all, you are now free to return to reality.
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Version 4 (whole camera approach, video cameras)
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Even though some time back Netflix fixed their interface exactly as I wanted them to do it, and within hours after I asked them to (see this), they have now developed a new web interface to their site that many people appear to hate. I tend to agree with the haters.
What I found is that when I view it with Google Chrome the site breaks in about a half second and I can’t see a thing. Then, when it comes back it looks much like their on-Roku inteface, which is OK, but requires mouse movements that I find unnatural and annoying. And, mostly, impossible to use. At this point, it would almost be easier to re-up with Blockbuster and physically go there to see and rent the movies. It would take less time to do that than to navigate through this new Netflix interface.
My new wishlist for Netflix interface: 1) A CLI and 2)
We often drive on a stretch of Minnesota State Route 10 that runs from Elk River to Big Lake and eventually to a point past Saint Cloud that takes about an hour to drive on a normal day, and we see trains. The railroad track runs along this route, and during the hour it takes to drive it, we never fail to see at least one train in operation. Usually there are two or three. Often, maybe every tenth time, one of the southeast bound trains is carrying coal; Dozens and dozens of cars loaded with coal come down this track from somewhere far away, because there is no coal anywhere near here.
And speaking of Ed, don’t forget this!
This happened not far from me:
Continue reading Look Out Below!
I assume he means Linux …
Continue reading Damon Horowitz calls for a “moral operating system”
It is very likely that Sarah Palin’s political career will end in a few hours from now.
Continue reading Will there be wieners in Sarah Palin’s gubermail?
Apropos Linux in Exile losing his Linux System to a Predatory Windows Install the other day (see Windows killed my laptop, again) I’ve been thinking about and beginning to do something about cleaning house. See below for my latest Windows mini-horror story (not as bad as LIE’s). But first, a word about Cthulhu. Who lives in my blog cave.
Continue reading Cthulhu Lives in The Blog Cave
Netroots Nation is coming up in a few days, and there will be a Science Policy panel that will include scienceblogger Joshua Rosenau (representing the NCSE), John Abraham (St. Thomas), Darlene avalier (Science Cheerleader), Heidi Cullen (Climate Central) and Rick Loverd (Summet on Science).
Details are here. The panel itself is on June 17th.
Continue reading Netroots Nation in Minneapolis
Please join Abbi Allan and me at the black Dog Cafe next Tuesday.
Art and Human Evolution – June 14, 20116:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Are humans the only creatures who create art? At what point in human evolution did artistic creations become separate from tools, become art for arts’ sake? What in us is so driven to create?
Dr. Greg Laden is a biological anthropologist who has done research in human evolution as well as eco-tourism in South Africa. In his own words: “I think of myself as a biologist who focuses on humans (past and present) and who uses archaeology as one of the tools of the trade.” .
Abbi Allan is a visual artist and sculptor whose work is “an expression of the fragility of living things inspired by the world’s biological forms.” She received her MFA in sculpture from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and has exhibited in galleries across the U.S. Read more about her at abbiallan.com and view her work online.
This is not an Onion story, this is for real.
Continue reading Gingrich Campaign Implodes