Firesign Theater Podcasting!

It's not cool enough that iTunes 4.9 (released today, I think) has support for podcasting, but there's a Firesign Theater podcast available, too!

JebBush wants more information on Schiavo's collapse

Apparently Jeb's going back to the well for more Schaivo action. Can't lleave that family alone, apparently.

Bush wants more information on Schiavo's collapse; call to 911

Technical Manual Poetry

In the course of renovating the bathroom on the house, I had to buy a new, more powerful Hitachi cordless drill to complete the mission. The manual contained several breakdowns in english usage and word choice that indicated that it was really, really poorly translated, but I think that this one, from the manual for the flashlight that came with it, was the tops:

"Do not leave the torchlight in the car or the like that tends to be exposed to the searching heat of the sun. Otherwise, troubles can result."

I think that might be the source of a lot of my troubles.

Downing Street Memo Hearings

I have listened to much of the Downing Street Memo hearings this afternoon, and was kind of blown away. There may actually *BE* an inquiry into whether or not the Bush administration misled the Congress and the people in the lead up to the war. OK, hell could freeze over, too.
But Pacifica.org has made the audio of the hearings available onine, and it was quite interesting:
Pacifica.org - Downing Street Memo Hearings Special Broadcast - John Conyers

Robots on Yahoo! News Photos

Wait, it gets better: ROBOT PICTURES!

Robots on Yahoo! News Photos

Robots Put on Show at World Expo in Japan

I posted this especially for Gary, but I think all of us will find it cool...

GeekInformed.com | - Robots Put on Show at World Expo in Japan

The Downing Street Memo

Of course I've hears about the Downing Street Memo (I hope that you have too, although press coverage here has been somewhat scarce). If you haven't heard, this is the internal British government document that contains information that implicates the Bush information in intentionally misleading the public into war in Iraq, understanding fully that "Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran".

It also mentions that the invasion was "timed to begin 30 days before the US Congressional election" (Now the speed to which we went to war makes sense, it was politically motivated) and that "There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action", which says volumes aboutthe mess we're in now.


If you haven't read the text of it yourself, that's a good idea. It's pretty shocking:

The Downing Street Memo :: The text

Watching New Love as It Sears the Brain - New York Times

An article about Functional MRIs on the brains of epople falling in love -- apparently the parts of the mental "hardware" that "light up" when people are falling in love are being mapped. Some very, very interesting observations (with my own emphasis added):

In an analysis of the images appearing today in The Journal of Neurophysiology, researchers in New York and New Jersey argue that romantic love is a biological urge distinct from sexual arousal.

It is closer in its neural profile to drives like hunger, thirst or drug craving, the researchers assert, than to emotional states like excitement or affection. As a relationship deepens, the brain scans suggest, the neural activity associated with romantic love alters slightly, and in some cases primes areas deep in the primitive brain that are involved in long-term attachment.

And...

Still, said Dr. Hans Breiter, director of the Motivation and Emotion Neuroscience Collaboration at Massachusetts General Hospital, "I distrust about 95 percent of the M.R.I. literature and I would give this study an 'A'; it really moves the ball in terms of understanding infatuation love."

He added: "The findings fit nicely with a large, growing body of literature describing a generalized reward and aversion system in the brain, and put this intellectual construct of love directly onto the same axis as homeostatic rewards such as food, warmth, craving for drugs."

Neato burrito.

Watching New Love as It Sears the Brain - New York Times

'Godless America' on This American Life

I was driving over to pick up Gary Saturday night and I heard the last portion of This American Life -- it was a woman (Julia Sweeney was her name, I found out) retelling the story of how she changed her mind about her faith -- from being a Catholic, to being an atheist. Although it was years ago that I did the same (although I consider myself agnostic for epistemological reasons), I am fascinated by the process of (as she calls it) "Letting go of God" and a lot of the questions that led me down that path remain with me. She walked through all of the really personal and sometimes gut-wrenching emotions that I had to go through in the process. It hit close to home. It can be awkward living in a culture where Christian fundamentalism is more prevalent than ever when you're not Christian at all.

Some of the most compelling portion of the "testimony" was the section in which she tells the seminal event - a bible study that she was participating in where she actually read the bible and discovered the mean and vindictive side of her diety and his son. This is not the god we talked about in my youth group, either.

Anyway, I found it riveting and wanted to point you towards it-- I haven't heard the first half of the show which probes the question of why we want a separation of church and state in the first place. I'm about to go do that. But I suggest you skip on over there and listen to at least the last half of that fantastic show. Christians will certainly relate to her struggle, if not her conclusions.

If this link to the RealAudio file doesn't work, you'll need to look up the RealAudio file for June 3rd on the This American Life The WHOLE show is about an hour -- I think she's in the last 1/4 of the show if you want to skip ahead.


Found out that Julia Sweeney is the comedian who played "Pat" on saturday night live, and was a cast member there for 4 years. This section that she did is from her one-person show "Letting go of God"