Read it.

The issue of taboos is a central aspect of perhaps the most important book to be published in this still young century, Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate, which came out ten years ago next month.

In it Pinker mentions a study that “asked about a hospital administrator who had to decide whether to spend a million dollars on a liver transplant for a child or use it on other hospital needs”, and which found that “not only did respondents want to punish an administrator who chose to spend the money on the hospital, they wanted to punish an administrator who chose to save the child but thought for a long time before making the decision”.

That’s why people don’t touch taboos; yet as Pinker argued in the book, the great taboo of today is that of human nature and the blank slate is a sacred doctrine. Despite the book’s impact, 10 years later the blank-slate model of human nature is still routinely discussed as fact, rather than fantasy, and continues to have serious implications for society (one of which may be that we are rushing towards the sort of projects suggested by Saveluscu).

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The biology of aphids is bizarre: they can be born pregnant and males sometimes lack mouths, causing them to die not long after mating. In an addition to their list of anomalies, work published this week indicates that they may also capture sunlight and use the energy for metabolic purposes.

Read it.

 People’s moods on Mondays are actually no worse than on any other week day barring Friday, a survey of more than 300,000 people found.

The popular fixation on the idea of “Blue Monday” should be given the status of a “cultural myth”, the team behind the new findings wrote in the Journal of Positive Psychology.

“Despite our global beliefs about lousy Mondays, we conclude that this belief should be abandoned,” said lead researcher Prof Arthur Stone, of Stony Brook University in New York state.

Hey, tenure doesn’t grow on trees, you know.

“The perception of Blue Mondays is likely prevalent due to the extreme contrast in mood from Sunday to Monday, even though there is no real difference in mood with Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Don’t worry! Be happy!

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Could the only cash payment so far from a credit rating agency in shareholder litigation stemming from the financial crisis go entirely to plaintiffs’ lawyers?

It’s entirely possible, based on documents filed this week in consolidated shareholder derivative litigation against Moody’s. Moody’s agreed to settle the cases last month, in a deal that requires the rating agency to institute corporate governance reforms but nets not a penny for shareholders. The only money Moody’s agreed to pay is $4.95 million to the plaintiffs’ firms that filed the suit, including Morris and Morris, Greenfield & Goodman and Kahn Swick & Foti. On Monday, the firms asked U.S. District Judge George Daniels of Manhattan to grant final approval to the settlement and fee award.

‘Great news! We won the case!’
‘Great news indeed! How much did we win?’
‘Well, the lawyers won $4.95 million.’
‘Uh, okay. What did the shareholders win?’
‘Moody’s promised not to do it again.’

And there you have modern American justice, boys and girls.

Greenfield, however, said the corporate governance reforms Moody’s agreed to adopt are worth a lot to shareholders and justify the fee request. “The nature of the relief is of substantial value,” he said.

Just not the sort of ‘value’ you can spend.

Read it.

In his inaugural address, Obama promised “not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.” He promised to “build the roads and bridges, the electric grids, and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.” He promised to “restore science to its rightful place and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.” And he promised to “transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.” Unfortunately the president’s scorecard on every single one of those bold pledges is pitiful.

That Obama is losing such a Voice of the Crust as Newsweek does not bode well for his re-election. Unfortunately, you have to work with what you’ve got, and Obama’s record isn’t much to work with.

Gates of Vienna reveals the Truth That Dare Not Speak Its Name.

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Five Nobel laureates (Gary Becker, Robert Lucas, Robert Mundell, Edward Prescott, and Myron Scholes) signed the statement which, in part, reads, “We enthusiastically endorse Governor Mitt Romney’s economic plan to create jobs and restore economic growth while returning America to its tradition of economic freedom.”

The economists also denounced Obama’s economic ideas, claiming they led to an “an anemic economic recovery and high unemployment.” They further assert, “his future plans are to double down on the failed policies, which will only prolong slow growth and high unemployment.”

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Despite nearly four years of environmental study and two separate permit applications, TransCanada has been unable to lay a single foot of pipe for the Keystone XL project in the United States. The delay in this project has spanned the publication of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement, a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement, a Final Environmental Impact Statement, no fewer than five national comment periods and the input of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Now, as the State Department closes the latest of these public comment periods – this one asking Americans what the scope of its newest environmental review of the project should be – we are about to start this entire process all over again. The delays and forced route changes that TransCanada has been forced to endure have added more than a billion dollars to the cost of the project, suspended tens of thousands of high paying jobs, delayed relief at the pump for millions of American drivers and prevented the project from pumping more than $20 billion into the U.S. economy.

Your tax dollars at work.

Paul Rahe blows the whistle.

I remember when liberals sported on their automobiles bumper stickers reading, “Hatred is not a Family Value.” Then, back in 2003, in The New Republic, Jonathan Chait wrote an essay explaining why it was legitimate to hate George W. Bush, and the dam burst. Civility is no longer a liberal ideal. And now – as yesterday’s armed attack on the Family Research Council in Washington, the five-hour delay in President Obama’s condemnation of the act as he calculated whether it was in his interest to comment or not, and the mainstream media’s initial reluctance to report on the event, much less highlight the activist LGBT connections of the shooter suggest – left liberals are willing to wink at violence. It may be regrettable, they think, but, like stealing elections, it is all in a good cause – and before figuring out how to respond to an outbreak of violence on the part of their allies, they pause to calculate the political consequences. You will not hear liberals arguing for a crackdown on the use of force by animal-rights activists, environmental activists, union thugs, and the Occupy movement. Instead, you will find in them a desperate hankering to pin on the Tea Party responsibility for conduct the Tea-Partiers abhor and a willingness to engage in race-baiting and talk of class warfare on a stunning scale.

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It’s not what you think.

A year earlier, Dubai’s police made the region’s largest narcotics bust when they intercepted a container, carried on a Liberian registered-ship, that had originated from Pakistan and transited through what Ethan Zuckerman has called the “ley lines of globalization,” that constellation of dusty, never-touristed entrepôts like Oman’s Salalah Port or Nigeria’s Tin Can Island Port. Acting on an informant’s tip, police searched the container’s cargo—heavy bags of iron filings—to no avail. Only after removing every bag did police decide to check the pallets on which the bags had rested. Inside each was a hollowed-out section holding 500 to 700 grams of heroin.

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Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

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Poor baby.

Again, hearing this side of the story doesn’t make the behavior of Holland’s mayor excusable. If anything, it makes the whole thing more shocking: The city has repeatedly insisted that its behavior is justifiable because they are providing protection to the people and businesses who pay more in taxes. Meanwhile, Nathan Duszynski is out of work and out of his house.

Must be something in the water in Michigan that makes their public officials corrupt assholes.

Read it.

After ten months of investigating Obama campaign bundler and former MF Global chief Jon Corzine’s role in the loss of $1.6 billion of customer funds, the New York Times is reporting that Eric Holder’s Department of Justice is unlikely to file any criminal charges against Corzine or top MF Global executives.

Of course not. Perish the thought. The Crust takes care of its own, especially if they are well-connected Democrats.

As Breitbart News has reported, the case is riddled with serious conflicts of interest.

My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Read it.

My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Read it.

When there aren’t any Jews or Americans handy, Muslims will cheerfully murder each other.

That’s some fine Religion o’ Peace™ you got there, Mohammed.

Read it.

Trust people from Harvard to do something brilliant in a totally useless say.

Read it.

Not that any of the Global Warming crowd care about the quality of their data — it means cancelling the Industrial Revolution, so they’re all for it. But it’s good to know for the rest of us.

Read it.

Australian scientists have come up with a clever way of storing hydrogen that they feel could make it a viable portable fuel source.

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Apparently Obama is not sufficiently socialist for some.

For positive change in the issues that affect our daily lives — not only food but also jobs, income, housing — we need active political leadership. But until President Obama is pushed more strongly by the left, the coming presidential election represents a choice between a full-fledged attack on government services and a continuing slide into the gloomy and depressing world of austerity economics. That’s a real choice, but it’s not a happy one.

The New York Times is possibly the only place where you can see what Obama does characterized as ‘a continuing slide into … austerity economics’. If adding trillions to the national debt in less than three years counts as ‘austerity economics’, what is the language coming to?

Mark Bittman, the author, allegedly writes ‘on food and all things related’, so I guess there is nothing that the Left doesn’t think relates to politics. These people need to get a life … preferably not at taxpayer expense, although I realize that is asking a lot.

The cartoon “Not Invented Here” has ceased to be funny and so has been expunged.

Anyone who has a problem with that, say so in the comments and I’ll bring it back. But know that you will live in ignominy.

Taki has a birthday.

Hundreds of years of armed neutrality have kept the Swiss out of European wars and—unlike the neocon-inspired American foreign disasters—the Swiss mind their own business and do not engage in faraway adventures trying to introduce democracy and other such alien notions to people who chop off thieving hands and cover up their women.

Read it.

A hostage negotiator is said to be speaking with a small group of protesters who, arms linked, locked themselves inside the Oakland office. It appears they may have entered the building during normal operating hours but have since remained inside beyond the office’s regularly scheduled closing time. Police have been on the scene and were arresting the protesters at the time of this writing.

Guess they’re not getting enough free stuff from the gubmint.

If Scott Olsen is Bradley Manning, then putting him in the next cell would appear to be a win-win. (What is this fetish about Bradley Manning? It’s not as if he were an Oppressed Minority or murdered a cop or any of the Usual Excuses.)

It is not yet known what the list included or whether or not the Obama campaign had been made aware of the list or of this evening’s events.

If they want to get on Obama’s radar, they’re going to need to occupy a golf course or Martha’s Vinyard or something that actually forms, you know, a part of his life. Occupying a campaign headquarters is like occupying an ATM machine.

The Portland protest appeared more subdued but consisted of actions similar to that of the Oakland event.

Yeah, well, Portland is all White People so what would they know about breaking the law?

I am not making this up.

Watch the video.

Read it.

 The driver spotted the moose on a country road near Hanestad, 139 miles north of Oslo, around midnight on Wednesday, and tried to go around the animal, not realising that a bear was also nearby.

“The driver had lost a bit of speed as he tried to avoid the moose before hitting the bear,” said Svein Erik Bjorke of the local wildlife authority, who was out in the forest searching for the wounded animal.

Read it.

New Yorkers will shell out an average $5,542 more in taxes next year if President Obama and Congress can’t agree on an extension of the current rates, a study by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation found.

Only taxpayers in neighboring Connecticut would suffer a bigger hike than New York. They’d fork over an extra $5,783 if the tax cuts adopted under President George W. Bush expire Jan. 1.

Which is only fair.

New Jersey taxpayers face the third-biggest hit, up $5,030, followed by Massachusetts ($4,277) and California ($4,242). All are wealthier, Democratic-dominated states.

The state facing the smallest tax hike is Mississippi, a solidly Republican and poor state, where the average tax bill would still go up $1,313.

The other states where residents would feel the least impact are New Mexico ($1,465), Alabama ($1,496), Tennessee ($1,522) and West Virginia ($1,530).

“It’s pretty dramatic,” Tax Foundation economist Will McBride told CNBC. “This is the biggest tax increase that would happen since World War II.”

Not that you’d know that from watching TV or reading newspapers.

Read it. And watch the video.

A female Muslim employed by the Disney Corporation has sued her employer for not permitting her to wear the hijab on the job.

Read it.

In the continuing saga of whether or not Christian student groups violate college anti-discrimination policies, the State University of New York at Buffalo has re-recognized InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) as an official student organization, just in time for the start of the 2012-13 school year.

After being de-recognized as a club amid a leadership scandal earlier this year, IVCF regained official status on July 27. SUNY Buffalo’s Student-Wide Judiciary ruled that it is “common sense, not discrimination” for a religious group to want its leaders to agree with its core beliefs.

Duh.

Read it.

Successful Green Energy Investments
by Barack Obama

My Thoughts on Personal Liberty
by Nanny Michael Bloomberg

Actual Hard Scientific Evidence Supporting the Theory of Human-Induced Climate Change
by Michael Mann

The Relevance of Newspapers in the 21st Century
by NY Times Publisher Pinch Sulzberger

Socialist Policies That Actually Work
by French President Francois Hollande

Read the whole thing.

Read it.

With the first full school year of data available, the NYCLU (whose lawsuit is still pending) analyzed the data released through the law to find that the NYPD’s “School Safety Division” arrested an average of four students a day and handing out about seven citations a day. According to the NYCLU, upward of 95 percent of the arrests were of black or Hispanic students, 74 percent were boys, and a full 20 percent were between the ages of 11 and 14, meaning at least 165 students arrested last year were 14 or younger.

The NYCLU points out there are more than 5,000 police officers in the New York City school system, more than the total amount of guidance counselors and social workers combined and notes a full 64 percent of summonses issued in the school year were for “disorderly conduct.”

Read it.

I’ve always wondered about those jeans….

 Yaman Hamoud, 22, divided his time between university and working in a Gap store in Dubai, before becoming an executioner for the FSA

That’s some fine Religion o’ Peace™ you got there, Mohammed.

Read it.

The question almost answers itself.

Admit it:  when Joe opens his mouth, you feel a lot smarter than you did right before he opened his mouth.

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A campaign has been launched to tackle a growing number of incidents involving young Britons falling from balconies at popular holiday resorts.

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Bet it tastes as good as fresh….

 By placing the ship – La Belle – in a constant environment of up to 60 degrees below zero, more than 300 years of moisture will be safely removed from hundreds of European oak and pine timbers and planks.

The freeze-dryer, located at the old Bryan Air Force base several miles northwest of College Station, is 40 feet long and 8 feet wide – the biggest such machine on the continent devoted to archaeology.

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Wouldn’t mind having one of these. Of course, you wouldn’t dare drive it on Texas roads. (‘Your truck havin’ suspension problems, Steve? Thought I felt a bump there.’) But for a girly-man state like Massachusetts, it ought to be just the thing.

Read it.

Hey, toilets are important. And it’s not as if he’s got a day job or anything.

Gates of Vienna is holding a fundraiser. Stop by and contribute.

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Small businessman Mike Cunningham runs the Bud Beer tent at the state fair but saw the Secret Service shut him down for several hours at a peak sales time when the President came to town.

Yeah, he does that to America, too.

Read it.

Imagine that. Quelle dommage.

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Things in South Africa are a lot more interesting now that those boring white people are no longer in charge.

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Well, on the job might be a bit generous given that some reports are now saying that the USDA has spent $20 million tax payer dollars to inspect zero fish and is on track to spend a jaw dropping $150 million over the next ten years.

Read it.

Well, breaking guitars worked out so well for them….

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Carrying Progressive insurance and getting into an accident does not entitle you to the value of your insurance policy. It just pisses off Progressive’s lawyers. Here I address you, Prospective Progressive Insurance Customer: someday when you have your accident, I promise that there will be enough wiggle room for Progressive’s bottomless stack of in-house attorneys to make a court case out of it and to hammer at that court case until you or your surviving loved ones run out of money.

Which is what Progressive decided to do to my family. In hopes that a jury would hang or decide that the accident was her fault, they refused to pay the policy to my sister’s estate.

The problem with insurance companies is the same basic problem as governments — they have more money than you do, money that you provided, and they use that money to serve themselves rather than you … because they can.

At the trial, the guy who killed my sister was defended by Progressive’s legal team.

If you are insured by Progressive, and they owe you money, they will defend your killer in court in order to not pay you your policy.

Of course. It was cheaper to defend the guy than pay the claim. It’s all about the money.

Don’t buy insurance from Progressive. Not only will you be paying the salaries of people who put my family through the wringer (really a smaller wringer that Progressive attached to the main wringer of my sister’s death), but also when the chips are down, your money will have bought you nothing but a kick in the face.

Amen to that.

Read it.

Low-calorie diets that included high fructose corn syrup yielded the same amount of progress as diets that substituted an equivalent amount of table sugar.

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A heroic pilot at the helm of a doomed plane full of skydivers made sure all of his passengers had jumped to safety before deftly crashing the aircraft in a backyard — where no one was injured

Brandon Sparrow, the brave pilot, was the only one killed in the horrific crash in Taylorville, Illinois, on Saturday morning.

Neighbors and authorities say Mr Sparrow’s efforts saved untold numbers of lives — as the plane went down in a crowded residential neighborhood.

A hero by anyone’s definition.

Read it.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the jungle….

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Finding the right words, however, can often be a tricky proposition. “There are words that can’t be translated,” Mozilla’s Mexico representative Julio Gómez told CNNMéxico. “In Maya, file doesn’t exist. Tab doesn’t exist.” Gómez continues to explain that the group may keep foreign words as-is, or find other terms to represent the same ideas. In addition to software localization, it’s believed that the effort could allow Maya speakers to “recover their identity and their cultural heritage,” according to Wikimedia México president Iván Martínez.

I’m trying to think of something that would be a more complete waste of time and I’m not coming up with anything.

Read it.

Although what reason the U.S. would have to invade their piss-ant country is left as an exercise for the reader, I guess.

What a great idea! Perhaps we ought to train a million-strong guerrilla army to defend the US against a Mexican invasion.

Oops! Too late….

Read it.

The extension of these areas was calculated by MIT and IBM, analysing anonymised call data. The map delineates zones in which people are more likely to call someone inside those areas rather than outside of them. The result is a revelatory re-mixing of states of America. Some split, others merge with their neighbours.

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At Commerce, a restaurant in the West Village in Manhattan, the bar menus read, “Credit cards only. No cash please. Thank you.”

The must not understand what ‘Legal tender for all debts, public and private’ means.

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In the months before a US Presidential election, the quality of political discourse hits new lows. Blue State/Red State tropes dominate the news cycle as the media gins up outrage over perceived injustices in the culture wars. It’s all about our differences. So I started wondering, how do Americans really think about “those people” in other states? What are the most common stereotypes? For each of the fifty states and DC, I asked Google: “Why is [State] so ” and let it autocomplete. It seemed like an ideal question to get at popular assumptions, since “Why is [State] so X?” presupposes that X is true.

The results are quite entertaining.