My answer is most definitely a 'yes.'

That was my favorite movie for years. Seriously.

Whoa.

1. Yay. Let's just hope it has even the tiniest effect. [Dead link.]

2. What "new evidence" are you offering to show that women aren't fit for war?
The evidence comes from the field of evolutionary psychology, which recognizes that the human mind is a product of our evolutionary history. The reason men don't like women comrades in dangerous situations is they don't trust them when the shooting starts, and that is probably because women don't possess whatever cues evoke trust in men. And trust is central to combat cohesion. Men don't say, "This is a person I would follow through the gates of hell." Men aren't hard-wired to follow women into danger. It is largely an emotional reaction.

So men are willing to trust women to bear and raise their children -- the single most important thing to them as far as evolution goes -- but not to make good decisions while in danger? I call bullshit. I'd like to see the sources/research/credentials for this "evolutionary psychology."

Is it just me, or does the one on the left look immensely self-satisfied?

Harold and Maude gone terribly, terribly wrong. (Not that it could ever really go in any way right.)

She was his guardian??

1. Sad.

2. I'm fine with studying the Bible in school, if it's treated like any other piece of text. Analyzed. Questioned. It's an important part of American cultural history and obviously still effects current events.

I'm a little worried about the authors of this particular textbook, but I'll -- for once -- try to stay optimistic and just assume it's all right....

3. This article didn't particularly hold my interest, but I love this sentence:

Psychologists Nathan DeWall of the University of Kentucky and Roy Baumeister of Florida State University ran three experiments to study existential dread in the laboratory.

4. The Best Club Ever.

5. An article discussing people with disabilities patronizing prostitutes. I have no problem with it (the article or the concept), but I'm disappointed by the comments from people claiming that prostitution automatically constitutes violence toward women. Pfft. And what about male prostitutes? Somehow I don't think these people would see them as poor, put-upon victims. (I am aware that some women in sex work are there against their will or preference, but obviously they don't comprise the entirety of the industry....)

1. A glove that translates ASL into text? Too good to be true?

Looks like it. Though the article doesn't specify, the video makes it look like all the glove can do is translate the manual alphabet. Which is pointless, because anyone who can use the manual alphabet can just as easily use a keyboard.... And that still means the signer is using a second language -- English -- and not ASL. I'd imagine it'd be a hell of a lot more difficult to make a glove/program that could recognize and translate actual ASL signs (which generally require two hands). And even then, such a device still wouldn't pick up on non-manual cues, which are often essential pieces of grammar. Maybe it can be done, but this device doesn't look like the solution. At least not yet.

2. I saw the words "dense data" here and inwardly cringed. I feel sorry for the poor sucker who has to transcribe that data. While transcribing in general (and transcribing dense data, in specific) gave me a lovely feeling of accomplishment, it was at a bit higher price than I'd prefer to pay on a regular basis.

3. Today's submission to Headlines of the Obvious:

Kids With Obsessive-compulsive Disorder Bullied More Than Others, Study Shows

4. I was a bit concerned about this technology as well until I saw the video. Thankfully they're not expecting people to get all excited about captioning on a PDA they would then have to awkwardly hold up in front of themselves in order to get the proper sightline.

5. It's a shame that this article didn't address the fact that most deaf drivers are not, in fact, raging morons who've had their common sense glands removed. That piece tacitly implies that being deaf is automatically a deficit for a driver, which it isn't.

6. I am not a happy bunny today.

1. This looks interesting. Not only due to the fact that Adrien Brody narrates it.

2. Um, I'm essentially doing the same thing, but I manage to live on my own.... More or less....

3. "The word 'God' is carved into the walls of both chambers of Congress," Turner said in a statement. "The Architect is the custodian of the Capitol and currently maintains several religious symbols in the building. If permitted, removing 'God' from the Capitol flag ceremonies will be the precedent for removing 'God' from the Capitol, and this cannot be permitted."

Why not? I mean, logistically I can see it would be a pain in the ass. And possibly even inadvisable because it is a part of our country's history. But that doesn't mean it has to be a part of our future. Foolish consistency and hobgoblins and all that.

4. Today's Headline of the Obvious:

Playground Politics: Lack Of Athletic Skill Often Means Loneliness And Peer Rejection

5. I understand the anti-disability-awareness-workshop viewpoint -- as these events do tend to inadvertently dwell on differences rather than commonalities -- but if this isn't an argument for a little basic education, I don't know what is....

1. Found this terrifying quote here:

"No, I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God."
-George H.W. Bush, 41st president of the United States

I'm sure everyone else and their brother has seen this, but I'd managed to remain blissfully ignorant until now.

2. A somewhat legitimate discussion of Word Hate.

3. If I led a parallel life, it'd likely involve working here.

4. I'm strangely comforted knowing this organization exists. Maybe because they can be kept track of more easily this way.

5. At times incensed over what he described as long-winded theological speeches given by a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett nonetheless dismissed two of the five counts against the church and three of its leaders, saying in part that their statements, no matter how incendiary, amounted to protected speech.

Sad.

We're Back To Lists Now...

1. Your Linguistic pedantry Purity Test Results

You answered "yes" to 17 of 36 questions, making you 52.8% pedantically pure (47.2% pedantically corrupt); that is, you are 52.8% pure in the pedantry domain (your linguistic pedantry level is 47.2%.

Not as bad as I thought. Thank god. I'd have to turn in my Devout Descriptivist badge.

2. Apparently being "in love" and having OCD share some neurochemical similarities. They sure as hell don't feel the same. And what happens when someone with OCD falls in love? Extra extra low serotonin?

3. If anyone's ever heard me rant about Scientology and wondered what the hell I was talking about, here's a pretty good summary.

4. I really, really want one:

Pangolins spend most of their daytime hours sleeping, curled up into a ball.

I can relate to that.

5. ABSL. Carol Padden strikes again. She's everywhere, man.

Also, Some Fucking Huge Chard

(Credit where credit is due.)

Whee!

I suppose it's one way to wash a small pet.

Again

Glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this way:

Since the tendency toward faith and credulity is natural at this point in human evolution, we presuppose that theists have, or think they have, valid reasons for believing. By doing this, we are choosing to call the theist sincere in his or her belief (though not necessarily honest in their evangelistic methods, as discussed below). In other words, we do not consider theists stupid or brutish simply for being theists. The spiteful, vindictive brand of atheism popularized by Madalyn Murray O’Hair and others is thankfully passé. (Even the organization she founded, American Atheists, has changed its tune in this respect since O’Hair’s unfortunate demise.) This change was inevitable because racial slurs have replaced four-letter words as the taboo language in the West. We may not think we’re being bigoted, but it sure is easy to sound bigoted if we’re not extremely careful in our approach to atheistic activism.

We atheists, being one of the most widely despised ideological minorities in the United States, cannot afford to give people legitimate reasons to call us bigoted. The most effective way we’ve found to avoid this label is to start dealing with all theists according the above presupposition. We grant each theist this one benefit of the doubt — on an individual basis — unless and until that theist gives us sufficient reason to think otherwise. And we won’t have reason to think otherwise unless that theist begins to evangelize us because, in presupposing that they have valid reasons for believing, we’re not out to change them.

[From here.]

Though I do detect a bit of a pitfall for arrogance in the claim that faith is a natural part of human evolution. It implies that atheists are perhaps more evolved, being past the point of needing faith. Sigh. But I agree with the "benefit of the doubt" and "innocent until proven guilty" concepts. I can't help but think any other viewpoint would be hypocritical.

Language vs. Abstract Thought

This article is really interesting, but I got tripped up by this:

Human mind needs human cognition and human cognition relies on human speech. We cannot envisage humanness without the ability to think abstractly, but abstract thought requires language.

I can't find anything in his references that talks about this language requirement for abstract thought. Is this common knowledge that I somehow missed out on? I've certainly run across intelligent people who mistakenly believed that language is required for all thought. It sounds right at first, but everything I've learned about language and cognition in the past two years makes me think otherwise....

Kill Your Television?

Rules:
- Bold all of the following TV shows of which you've seen 3 or more episodes.
- Italicize a show if you're positive you've seen every episode.
- Asterisk if you have at least one full season on tape or DVD
- If you want, add up to 3 additional shows (keep the list in alphabetical order).

21 Jump Street
24
7th Heaven
8 Simple Rules
Adam-12
Aeon Flux
Airwolf
ALF
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alias
American Idol/Pop Idol/Canadian Idol/Australian Idol/etc.
America’s Next Top Model
Angel
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Arrested Development*
Babylon 5
Babylon 5: Crusade
Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
Baywatch
Beavis & Butthead
Beauty and the Beast
Beverly Hills 90210
Bewitched
Big Love
Blackadder
Bonanza
Bones
Bosom Buddies
Boston Public
Boy Meets World
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Bug Juice
Caitlin’s Way
Chappelle’s Show
Charlie’s Angels
Charmed
Cheers
Clarissa Explains It All
Columbo
Commander in Chief
Coupling
Cowboy Bebop
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dallas
Dancing with the Stars
Danny Phantom
Dark Angel
Dark Shadows
Dark Skies
Davinci’s Inquest
Dawson’s Creek [Hey, I was 14. Give me a break.]
Dead Like Me
Deadwood
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women
Desperate Housewives
Dharma & Greg
Dinosaurs
Different Strokes
Dirty Jobs
Doctor Who (1963)
Doctor Who (2005)*
Doctor Who (2006)*
Dragnet
Due South
Earth 2
Emergency!
Entourage
ER
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Facts of Life
Family Guy
Family Ties
Farscape
Father Ted
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly
Flash Forward
Forever Knight
Fraggle Rock
Frasier
Freaks and Geeks
Friday Night Lights
Friends [Not my fault....]
Futurama
Get Smart
Gilligan’s Island
Gilmore Girls [Again, not my fault. Damn roommates....]
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Greek
Green Wing
Grey’s Anatomy
Growing Pains
Gunsmoke
Hannah Montana
Happy Days
Hardcastle & McCormick
Heroes
Highlander
Highlander: The Raven
Hogan’s Heroes
Hillstreet Blues
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
House
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Instant Star
Inuyasha
Invader Zim [Highly recommended.]
Invasion
JAG
Jackass
Joey
John Doe
Just Shoot Me [D'oh.]
Keen Eddie
Knight Rider
LA Law
Laverne and Shirley
Lexx
Life on Mars
Life With Derek
Little House on the Prairie
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost
Lost in Space
Love, American Style
M*A*S*H*
MacGyver
Magnum PI
Malcolm in the Middle
Mama’s Family
The Man from U.N.C.L.E
Married... With Children
Melrose Place
MI:5
Miami Vice
Millennium
Miracles
Mission: Impossible
Monk
Mork & Mindy
Murphy Brown
My Life as a Dog
My Name is Earl
My So-Called Life
My Super Sweet 16
My Three Sons
My Two Dads
News Radio
NCIS
Night Court
Nip/Tuck
North Shore
Northern Exposure
Numb3rs
One Tree Hill
Oz
Perry Mason
Phil of the Future
Pokemon
Power Rangers
Prison Break
Profiler
Project Runway
Psych
Quantum Leap
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (UK)
Red Dwarf
ReGenesis
Relic Hunter
Remington Steele
Rocko’s Modern Life [Sad, crying clown in an iron lung.]
Rescue Me
Road Rules
Robotech
ROME
Roseanne
Roswell
Salute Your Shorts
Saved by the Bell
Scarecrow and Mrs King
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
Scrubs
Seinfeld
Sex and the City
Six Feet Under
Skins
Sliders
Slings and Arrows
Smallville
So Weird
South Park
Spaced
Spongebob Squarepants
Sports Night
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1
Superman
Supernatural
Surface
Survivor
Taxi
Teen Titans
That 70’s Show
That’s So Raven
The 4400
The Addams Family
The Adventures of Pete and Pete
The Andy Griffith Show
The Apprentice
The A-Team
The Avengers
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Bionic Woman (the old one)
The Brady Bunch
The Cosby Show
The Daily Show
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
The Dead Zone
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dresden Files
The Famous Jet Jackson
The Flintstones
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Golden Girls
The Honeymooners
The Invisible Man
The Jeffersons
The Jetsons
The L Word
The Love Boat
The Lucille Ball Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mighty Boosh
The Monkees*
The Munsters
The Muppet Show
The Mythbusters
The O.C.
The Office (UK)
The Office (US)
The Pretender
The Real World
The Sentinel
The Shield
The Simpsons
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Sopranos
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
3rd Rock from the Sun
Third Watch
Three’s Company
Top Gear
Torchwood
Touched By an Angel
The Twilight Zone
Twin Peaks
Twitch City
Two and A Half Men
Ugly Betty
Veronica Mars
The Vicar of Dibley
The Waltons
The West Wing
Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)
Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)
Will and Grace
Wings
Wiseguy
Without a Trace
WKRP in Cincinnati
Wonder Woman
The Wonder Years
The X-Files
Xena: Warrior Princess

Goodbye, Birdie.



You helped a lot of people enjoy riding. And you made a damn good baby. I hope your last day was peaceful and happy.