Talking Points Memo brings us the quote of the day out of the mouth of retiring Rep. Thomas Davis, Republican, of Virginia:
The House Republican brand is so bad right now that if it were a dog food, they’d take it off the shelf.
That’s what Cambridge University chemist Sir David King is quoted as saying in this article on Wired.com:
Sir David King, a chemist at the University of Cambridge, says the world would be a greener place if only women didn’t find men in exotic cars so sexy. Taken at face value, it seems outlandish - and some would argue chauvinistic - but King raises a valid point, even if it is obscured by the “sports cars and the women who love men who drive them are bad” tenor of his argument.
King, the UK’s chief scientific advisor, told the Telegraph there’s only so much governments can do to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and real progress will come only through cultural change. People, he said, must take a greater personal role in addressing the issue. He singled out women who find drivers of expensive sports cars “sexy” and said they should instead focus their affection on men in more eco-friendly autos
1. What’s the difference between a cow and a national tragedy?
(more…)
To thoughts of chocolate, that is. At least according to the researchers whose work is described in this Science Daily piece.
The results indicated that there is a clear behavioural rebound among both male and female participants and both males and females who suppressed thoughts of chocolate ate significantly more than those in the control condition. Secondly, for males, actively thinking about chocolate can enhance subsequent consumption of that food.
From an ex-Republican friend of Brad DeLong:
” . . the left-wing Democrats are the party of Jefferson and Roosevelt, the right-wing Democrats are the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower, and today’s Republicans are the party of Bozo.”
Here are a few curiosities I’ve stumbled upon around the ‘net over the last few days:
Should you think twice before getting GM’s OnStar navigation system on your next car or truck? Lauren at the Privacy Forum thinks you should:
Greetings. Ready to turn over the keys of your vehicle to the cops, or that clever hacker in the next lane? How about that creepy guy following you on a lonely country road?
GM apparently plans to perhaps make this all possible. It’s been announced that they’ll be equipping nearly two million of their 2009 model vehicles (that have OnStar installed), with the capability to be remotely shut down to idle via OnStar commands at the request of law enforcement.
. . .This new capability will also create an irresistible challenge to the hacker community — and perhaps criminal organizations — to try find ways into the OnStar system for triggering this fun — one way or another. It’s impossible to hack OnStar? Would you bet your life on that?
And the next terror threat is — Hot Sauce!
Super spicy chili sauce being cooked at a London Thai restaurant sparked road closures and evacuations after passers-by complained that the smell was burning their throats, police said Wednesday.
London Fire Brigade’s chemical response team was called after reports that a strong smell was wafting from the restaurant in the heart of London’s Soho district Monday afternoon, a Metropolitan police spokesman said, speaking anonymously in line with force policy.
Authorities sealed off several premises and closed roads. The Times of London described shoppers coughing and spluttering as firefighters wearing special breathing masks sought the source of the smell.
The paper said firefighters smashed down the door of the Thai Cottage restaurant and seized extra-hot bird’s eye chilies which had been left dry-frying. It said they were being prepared as part of a batch of Nam Prik Pao, a spicy Thai dip.
“The smoke didn’t go up into the sky because of the rain and the heavy air,” The Times quoted Thai Cottage owner Sue Wasboonma as saying. “It’s the hottest thing we make.”
The police spokesman said no arrests were made in the case.
“As far as I’m aware it’s not a criminal offense to cook very strong chili,” he said.
Link courtesy of the Armchair Generalist.
The silence of the Ft. Hunt men is ended:
For six decades, they held their silence.
The group of World War II veterans kept a military code and the decorum of their generation, telling virtually no one of their top-secret work interrogating Nazi prisoners of war at Fort Hunt.
When about two dozen veterans got together yesterday for the first time since the 1940s, many of the proud men lamented the chasm between the way they conducted interrogations during the war and the harsh measures used today in questioning terrorism suspects.
Back then, they and their commanders wrestled with the morality of bugging prisoners’ cells with listening devices. They felt bad about censoring letters. They took prisoners out for steak dinners to soften them up. They played games with them.
“We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture,” said Henry Kolm, 90, an MIT physicist who had been assigned to play chess in Germany with Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess.
Blunt criticism of modern enemy interrogations was a common refrain at the ceremonies held beside the Potomac River near Alexandria. Across the river, President Bush defended his administration’s methods of detaining and questioning terrorism suspects during an Oval Office appearance.
Several of the veterans, all men in their 80s and 90s, denounced the controversial techniques. And when the time came for them to accept honors from the Army’s Freedom Team Salute, one veteran refused, citing his opposition to the war in Iraq and procedures that have been used at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
That’s one of the qualifications listed in this Science Daily piece about two young entrepreneurs’ venture to manufacture and market a more environmentally friendly line of surf boards. Where do you suppose you go to get this degree? It even one-ups Dr. Science of public radio fame.
Fox News has announced they are canceling The Half Hour News Hour, the program that was supposed to be their Jon Stewart killer. The bad news memo reads, in part:
While HHNH performed admirably in the ratings and Kurt Long and Jennifer Robertson did a wonderful job, we are considering ways to retool the show for future scheduling needs. There is still a chance you will see the program at some point in the future.
As TRex at Firedoglake put it, Fox finally realized “the ugly truth about conservatives only being funny when they’re trying to be serious.”
Here’s a test you can take to determine the direction in which your political compass points. It will locate you on a two-dimensional scale, from left to right on economic issues and from authoritarian to libertarian on the social issues axis. h/t to Echidne.
Here’s an idea for some fun. Those of you who’ve been reading Strident Centrist for some time, or who know him personally, take a guess at which quadrant (left authoritarian, right authoritarian, left libertarian or right libertarian) he fell in when he took the test and put it in the comments. I’ll check back in a day or two and tell you where I was.
Here’s the title of a piece on Science Daily: “Molecular Biologists Convert Protein Sequences Into Classical Music.” Apparently it’s not a joke, considering we’re now almost seven weeks past the Day of Spoofs. The research was done by an undergraduate student at UCLA who is also a pianist. From the article it’s not clear to me what the benefit is beyond pure intellectual curiosity and fun. Keep an eye on this come the time for the awarding of the Ig Nobel Prizes.