December 10th | Flight of the Conchords

December 10th | Flight of the Conchords: "While the characters Bret and Jemaine will no longer be around, the real Bret and Jemaine will continue to exist."

Canada's Nisga'a: Home-owning nation

Canada's Nisga'a: Home-owning nation | The Economist: "THE Amerindian peoples of Canada, where they are known as First Nations, like those in Bolivia (see article), have traditionally held land in common. So the decision by the Nisga’a First Nation of north-western British Columbia to grant private property rights to its members, insignificant though it might seem to most Canadians, has potentially revolutionary implications."

Innovation: The military-consumer complex

Innovation: The military-consumer complex | The Economist: "Military technology used to filter down to consumers. Now it’s going the other way"

Sniping and Squatting

Sniping and Squatting - Cheap Talk: "We found that these two effects almost exactly canceled each other out for auctions of DVDs. We expect that this would be true for similar objects that are homogeneous and sold in many simultaneous auctions. So the next time you are bidding in such an auction, don’t think too hard and just bid your value."

Take This Paradigm and Shove It

Take This Paradigm and Shove It | Psychology Today

Editorial: Losing the right to be Right

Editorial: Losing the right to be Right - The Jewish Star: "All of this truly makes us wonder where the Right wing has gone. Leaders like Sarah Palin, Joe Wilson, and Dick Cheney are more embarrassing than inspiring. The conservative movement, as Sam Tanenhaus writes in The New Republic, and like punk rock before it, is dead. This Chanukah we know what we want: a rebirth.
We want the right to be Right."

Asking For Orange Juice On American Airlines May Violate Federal Law

Asking For Orange Juice On American Airlines May Violate Federal Law - The Consumerist: "The real terrorists can be found flying first class, drinking orange juice."

'Small wind' market to double by 2013, study says | Green Tech - CNET News

'Small wind' market to double by 2013, study says | Green Tech - CNET News: "The niche industry of small wind turbines, which saw $165 million in revenue in 2008 and $203 million in 2009, will grow to $412 million by 2013, according to Pike's 'Small Wind Power' report."

Cadman will break Tory ranks, vote against HST

Cadman will break Tory ranks, vote against HST: "Dona Cadman will cast her vote against the controversial harmonized sales tax."

Primate study halted by US university

Primate study halted by US university: Scientific American: "Administrators at Oklahoma State University (OSU) in Stillwater have abruptly cancelled an anthrax vaccine study that would have killed dozens of baboons.

The project, funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and led by Shinichiro Kurosawa of Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts, had been approved by the OSU animal-care committee in September and was awaiting review by the biosafety committee when OSU president Burns Hargis vetoed it in October, calling the study 'controversial.'"

Extinction Countdown: Indonesia's Palm oil economy drives human fortunes--And orangutan misfortunes

Extinction Countdown: Indonesia's Palm oil economy drives human fortunes--And orangutan misfortunes: "The net worth of Indonesia's 40 richest men has doubled to $42 billion in the past year, driven in no small part by the growing demand for palm oil, according to Forbes magazine's annual examination of the country's top richest people.

Global demand for palm oil is now more than 40 million tons per year, making it 'central to the economies of Malaysia and Indonesia,' according to the Jakarta Globe."

Diplomacy That Will Live in Infamy

Op-Ed Contributor - Diplomacy That Will Live in Infamy - NYTimes.com: "In a secret presidential cable to Tokyo, in July 1905, Roosevelt approved the Japanese annexation of Korea and agreed to an “understanding or alliance” among Japan, the United States and Britain “as if the United States were under treaty obligations.” The “as if” was key: Congress was much less interested in North Asia than Roosevelt was, so he came to his agreement with Japan in secret, an unconstitutional act.

To signal his commitment to Tokyo, Roosevelt cut off relations with Korea, turned the American legation in Seoul over to the Japanese military and deleted the word “Korea” from the State Department’s Record of Foreign Relations and placed it under the heading of “Japan.”"

Kyoto accord was dumb 12 years ago -- and it's dumb now

Kyoto accord was dumb 12 years ago -- and it's dumb now | John Snobelen | Columnists | Comment | Toronto Sun: "The folks who created the protocol not only wanted to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, they also wanted to create a new global currency and a new economic world order. The protocol didn't limit itself to environmental standards. It sought to address social change by punishing the rich and helping the poor.

Think of it as the Environmental Robin Hood Protocol.

The problem with this sort of Robin Hood thinking, as Margaret Thatcher once observed, is sooner or later you run out of rich people to rob."

Myanmar Motion Picture Academy Awards

Myanmar Motion Picture Academy Awards - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The significance of the awards has fluctuated along with the health of Burmese cinema. The number of eligible film entries each year has declined dramatically since the 1980s."

Good Samaritan stabbed repeatedly

CBC News - British Columbia - Good Samaritan stabbed repeatedly

"Hey Jon, want to go clubbing on Granville?"
"I don't see why not!"

The enduring influence of architect Christopher Alexander, author of A Pattern Language.

The enduring influence of architect Christopher Alexander, author of A Pattern Language. - By Witold Rybczynski - Slate Magazine: "If Alexander often irritates his critics, it is in part because he is so obviously gifted. Born in Vienna in 1936, he was raised in England; won a prestigious scholarship to Cambridge, where he studied architecture and mathematics; and went on to receive Harvard's first architecture Ph.D. Not yet 30, he published his doctoral thesis as book, on the strength of which he received the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, the first ever awarded for research."

My real name is David Jones

Letters of Note: My real name is David Jones: "I hope one day to get to America. My manager tells me lots about it as he has been there many times with other acts he manages."

Universal or selective human rights?

Stephen Taylor – a blog on Canadian politics - Universal or selective human rights?: "Conservatives are usually criticized for dealing with issues in absolutes, in rights and wrongs, in black and white. Meanwhile Liberals sometimes suffer a charge of moral relativism from their opponents as they are accused of dealing in shades of grey. On their assessment of a nascent democracy suffering in horrific ravages of war, a country attempting to cast off ages of illiberalism and lawlessness, it is evident that Liberals have little sympathy for the harsh realities of an imperfect situation."

The Bottle Genie

small dead animals: The Bottle Genie: "I don't think my friends in traditional news gathering truly appreciate what it is they've done. I don't believe they fully comprehend how gravely they have injured themselves, and how they're driving home the razor into an industry already struggling for survival with abbreviated, dismissive, misleading reports and 'denier' and 'conspiracy nut' slurs.

The bloggers tried to warn them. The opinion columnists tried to warn them, the talk hosts tried to warn them. Their readers, viewers and listeners tried to warn them.

The news media perfected the business of bombshells. They wind them up, drop them, film the explosion, and move on.

They're just learning now that we're in the business of bottle genies."

Nick Carr: The Secret Bowling Alley

Nick Carr: The Secret Bowling Alley

Susan Boyle sets US chart record

BBC News - Susan Boyle sets US chart record: "It is second only to Snoop Dogg's debut Doggystyle, which sold 803,000 in its first week in 1993."

Critic of ‘Climate Oligarchy’ Defends Case for CO2-Driven Warming

Critic of ‘Climate Oligarchy’ Defends Case for CO2-Driven Warming - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com: "Mr Revkin,

The reason why people around the world have any concern whatsoever about AGW is because of how much suffering it would cause. These emails make it seem like the climate scientists were deliberately obfuscating the data to make their case seem more important... diverting much needed funds from elsewhere. How much of the $90Billion in climate research dollars could have gone to help real human suffering?

Your apologetics for the climate frauds will leave you in the trash bin on the wrong side of history.

Science does not alter data to accommodate preconceived notions, unless of course it's political science.

Sincerely,

Jon"

The Ascent, and Fall, of Dubai

The Ascent, and Fall, of Dubai - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com: "Great cities have long been built by great gamblers, and Dubai’s sheik may well be the second greatest city-builder — after the Chinese government — of our age. Many of those gamblers have ended up bankrupt, but their structural legacies remain, providing the space that connects humanity and facilitates the success of our urban world.

Even if Dubai’s real estate prices continue to drop, which is certainly quite possible, there will remain a strong incentive to fill its buildings. If the structures remain occupied, then Dubai, and its sheik’s dream of a great metropolis, will survive."

Let's go to the pub.

small dead animals: "Let's go to the pub.": "The problem is not left/right thinking its lack of life experience. When you are raised in a modern urban environment where everything is artificial you come to understand your world as being an artificial construct that is easy to manipulate. Ask an old farmer who is delivering a calf at -30 what he thinks of AGW warming and you will get a snort of derision. As a urban metrosexual as he steps from his pre-warmed car into his underground parking stall on his way to his air conditioned office what he thinks of AGW and he will tell you not only is it true but its the farmer's fault for raising cattle."

Nullius in Verba

Nullius in Verba - WSJ.com: "No one compelled Thomas Jefferson to swear 'eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man.' If the recent history of science has anything to teach, it is that there is no place in a free society for a self-appointed Central Committee of Scientific Truth. Until the Royal Society comes to grips with the Enlightenment, its baroque motto deserves a rest."