24 May 2012

The backstage info on the last elections in the US

Koch Operative Steered $55 Million To Front Groups Airing Ads Against Democrats; Ads Assailed Candidates Over Abortion, 9/11, Medicare

"The disclosure suggests that a very wide variety of Republican groups active in the last major election, from pro-life organizations that ran ads on abortion to shadowy fronts that aired partisan commercials with the infamous Ground Zero Mosque conspiracy, have been highly dependent on Koch money. The document also reveals that the Koch’s political network spent much more on electing the current Congress than previously known."

http://www.republicreport.org/2012/55million-koch-fronts/

24 May 2012

Interesting analysis of parliamentary activity in the US

Here. In a nutshell: GOP adopted scorched earch tactics, and got away with it.
23 May 2012

Academic (dark) humour

Department of Omnishambles.

(H/T to Ben Goldacre)

23 May 2012

Oracle vs. Android: the verdict is in

No patent infringements, and Oracle is exposed for what it is (at least as far as this case is concerned): another sorry patent troll.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/23/jury-google-oracle/

Addendum from Groklaw: "And now to the media: Here's a homework assignment for you, if you are willing. I want you to think about those $6 billion damages headlines. Where did the "information" come from? Was it an accurate tip? Remember all those articles about Google and how they were hopelessly in a mess because they had no patents to use in a counterclaim against Oracle? Where did that come from? Was it an accurate analysis? Was it expert? Think: If someone is being paid by a party to litigation, what is he likely to say? There is a difference between information and propaganda."

22 May 2012

Three examples of a poor excuse for a human being

19 May 2012

This is huge

The NAACP endorses gay marriage: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/19/naacp-gay-marriage_n_1530029.html

At some point, all the little struggles will once again coalesce in one great struggle against all the things that diminish any of us.

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternté - once more, and for all. :)

19 May 2012

Miles Davis & Nancy Reagan

From the Guardian:

His explosive wit

Davis was a man of few words. When he did speak, his words often had a similar effect to a hand grenade being lobbed into the room. In 1987, he was invited to a White House dinner by Ronald Reagan. Few of the guests appeared to know who he was. During dinner, Nancy Reagan turned to him and asked what he'd done with his life to merit an invitation. Straight-faced, Davis replied: "Well, I've changed the course of music five or six times. What have you done except fuck the president?

(got there via BoingBoing)

18 May 2012

Wow. Just wow.

Crooks & Liars has a post on rep. John Lewis, an icon of the struggle for civil rights in the US, dealing with the fight against voter disenfranchisement (tremendously important in itself), and gay rights as well.

The whole thing is amazing, but I was really amazed by this quote: "My position is very, very simple. That I fought too long and too hard against discrimination based on race and color, not to stand up and fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation. If you’re going to provide civil rights and equality for everybody, you cannot draw a line, you cannot build a wall. We must respect the dignity and the worth of every human being whether they are gay or straight."

Rep. Lewis still has it, if there was any doubt about it. :)

18 May 2012

The "job creators" are in the middle class, not among the rich

The TED Talk TED tried to censor.

After seeing how the TED people tried to justify their censorship, I call "BS". It's the most misleading and disingenuous pseudojustificaton I have seen in a while. "Too partisan" my derrière.

If you read this, please help to disseminate it.

18 May 2012

Indian man who unmasks charlatans is sued by the Catholic Church...

From the New Humanist.

 

Kenneth Camargo's Space

Ken Camargo
A graduate professor and researcher in Brazil.
My citations on Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wbRHZxAAAAAJ