Archive for the ‘Only in the USA’ Category
On a Curiosity Bender
I have two strikes against me as a skeptical thinker: (1) I live in the U.S. of A. and (2) I was raised by direct descendants of both the Puritans as well as one of the early co-founders of the Seventh Day Adventist church. Consequently, in disproportionately large numbers, I am surrounded by loved ones [...]
In: Only in the USA, Religion, Science
Your Doctor is like a Mechanic
The latest in the list of exhibits fueling my astonishment with healthcare reform detractors is Episode #80 on the excellent Planet Money podcast: Your Doctor is like a Mechanic. It costs over $10,000 more per day for medicare patients in Miami versus Grand Junction, Colorado. Why? Because the dang Miami doctors prescribe more tests! And [...]
Consumers aren’t so dumb.
This is a scary graph (the thin line). In January, the outgoing administration released its annual Economic Report of the President as reported in the NYT Economix blog. The chart below–from that report–shows how real consumer spending fluctuates with real wealth. As you would expect, there is some damping. It looks like historically this damping reduces the amplitude [...]
In: Future, Only in the USA
Three Hours that will Change America
A view from my desktop over the last three hours:
I am an Ethical Humanist
Non-theist, Naturalist, Secular Humanist and Tooth-Fairy Agnostic are some of the other monikers for the growing group of secular non-religious individuals in this country. Dawkins probably inspires more discussion on the topic than any other these days: While declaring myself and Atheist, I must say “Reverent Agnostic” was a close second: And while I’ll never [...]
In: Only in the USA, Religion, Science
Expelled Exposed: Stein’s Folly
Continuing with the strange story of the movie Expelled which I first addressed a couple months back… The saga of Ben Stein’s Expelled just gets curiouser and curiouser. The back-channel story here deserves to become a movie in its own right. I have collected several links which tell the story (so far) exceedingly well. Here is my [...]
In: Only in the USA, Religion, Science
Pharyngula
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/ A truly delightful find! I spent this entire evening reading about the hilarious saga of PZ and Expelled (read the responses! esp. #90 Tonight I added pharyngula to my blogroll (in place of the disappointing “The Future and You” which, along with it’s now-weekly podcast, has become very unremarkable).
In: Only in the USA, Religion, Science
“United” States of America
The root of most disunity in the US, I believe, is firmly grounded in the data shown by this map. Every time I come across this, it never ceases to amaze and amuse. It presents many avenues of analysis, but any careful analysis must first recognize the shortcomings of the data visualization. A couple big [...]
In: Only in the USA, Religion
Flying Spaghetti Monster
I first heard of the Flying Spaghetti Monster a couple years ago. He’s back in the news (even local) in a big way: Pasta Monster Gets Academic Attention. Satire, humor, and a very clever and effective argument. I must get a copy of The Gospel (scroll down; don’t miss the posted review ‘One of the [...]
In: Only in the USA, Religion
Full Moon over Long Pong
I used to generate massive (gigapixel) stitched panoramas using an arcane piece of software called PTAssembler combined with an even more obtuse tool — the workhorse underneath — Panorama Tools. This pair of tools is an amazingly flexible powerhouse; but not for the faint of heart. At HP I had grand visions of creating a [...]
In: Art, Life, Only in the USA, Photography