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More wrongs from the right
From the Wall Street Journal, James Taranto on “Why I’m Rooting for the Religious Right“: One can disagree with religious conservatives on abortion, gay rights, school prayer, creationism and any number of other issues, and still recognize that they have good reason to feel disfranchised…. In the past three elections, the religious right has helped…
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UK Election Day – Ballots, not Bombs
Dateline: New York. As a briefly-repatriated expat, I expected to be largely spared the onslaught of election coverage here in the UK. However, I woke up this morning to hear about a small explosion outside the British Consulate in New York. This hits home — the consulate is on Third Avenue and 52d Street, about…
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First we take Manhattan
I grew up with this view over the Hudson River from my family’s apartment in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The George Washington Bridge is on the left; the Empire State Building is a tiny speck toward the right. Update: a better version of the montage, and an even bigger one is available by clicking on…
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Belief vs. Understanding
From a fine dissection of the (religious) right’s view of evolution over at Science And Politics: I do not believe in evolution. It is not something you believe in or not: it is something you understand or not…. Evolutionary biology is sitting on such large mountains of strong evidence collected over the past 150 years…
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There is power in a Union?
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My great-grandfather moved to the US from Russia in the years before the First World War, in part forced out due to his trade union activities. Although working at a University isn’t exactly the equivalent of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, or my great-grandfather’s construction sites in New York City, I was pleased to find out…
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Google maps in the UK
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Google Maps is (are?) up and running in the UK. Here’s where I work, more or less (actually I thought I was in SW7 2AZ, but it can’t seem to find that…). It’s a slick interface, although it will be much cooler when the Satellite maps are available, like they are in the US.
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Outlaws and geeks
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From David Gates’ review of ‘The Outlaw Bible of American Literature’: The Rebel Establishment complete with great quote and weirdly out of place tech reference (extra points if you get it): From Waylon Jennings’s autobiography, … the Platonic country-music anecdote, about Hank Williams: “Faron Young brought Billie Jean, Hank’s last wife, to town for the…
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Followups
Hunter Thompson: Rich Cohen’s Gonzo Nights recounts Thompson’s sad end, subsumed in the persona he created through drinking, drugs — and his words. For Women in Sciences, Slow Progress in Academia: Women applying for a postdoctoral fellowship had to be 2.5 times as productive to receive the same competence score as the average male applicant….…
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Downtime warning
Yet again, the servers will be off this weekend: from about 6pm BST Friday 15 April through 8am Monday 18 April. Get some fresh air.
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Einstein in the Midlands
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Just back from a few days at the University of Warwick (which is actually in Coventry, a city with a such a bad rep that they didn’t want to name the University after it), at the IOP‘s Physics 2005: a Century After Einstein (a bit more information on what I discussed here). An unexpected highlight…
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