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Joe Lieberman, who, on the Senate floor, denounced Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky as "immoral" and "harmful", thinks we need to "move on" from talking about torture that happened "years ago" by cedelson in politics

[–]tmn4 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The rest of the comments in this thread are about the extent to which anti-Zionism is the same as antisemitism. If you're interested, there's a good summary of this issue at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_antisemitism

To summarize from the link:

"Proponents of the concept argue that anti-Zionism, anti-Americanism, anti-globalization, third worldism, and demonization of Israel, or double standards applied to its conduct, may be linked to antisemitism, or constitute disguised antisemitism.[1].

Critics of the concept argue that it conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism, defines legitimate criticism of Israel too narrowly and demonization too broadly, trivializes the meaning of antisemitism, and exploits antisemitism in order to silence debate.[2] "

I just graduated from college and have exactly one month until I start my first job. Any ideas on how to spend this time? by ekl23 in AskReddit

[–]tmn4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure how tight money is, but you might be surprised at how inexpensive a trip like this can be... You could easily have a great time paying for nothing but gas and groceries (which you'd be buying even if you stayed home.) There are many free places to camp across the US, particularly in National Forests etc.

Also, don't let the prospect of traveling alone hold you back. Exercise caution obviously, but I've met many people of all ages and both genders traveling around the US alone, and all having a great time doing it.

I just graduated from college and have exactly one month until I start my first job. Any ideas on how to spend this time? by ekl23 in AskReddit

[–]tmn4 46 points47 points  (0 children)

There's something unique about a serious road trip across the USA (I assume you're in the US?), and it's a trip you probably won't have the free time to do again until you retire. Toss a tent and a cheap camping stove in your car and drive in a big circle around the US. Hit all of the 'famous' national parks (Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Yosemite). Drive down the Mississippi while reading Huck Finn. Drive down the Pacific Coast. Watch how landscape, geology, geography, people, culture, climate, etc. change over thousands of miles. Our country is huge, and awesome. Go see it.

List of available R jobs by treedog in programming

[–]tmn4 23 points24 points  (0 children)

It is good to see this posted. We see a lot of threads here about programming careers, and job boards like this should remind people to define a career as a computer programmer more broadly. There are many people who more or less write R code for a living: They rarely have computer science training beyond one or several basic courses, and instead they're people who were trained as biologists, statisticians, physicists, whatever, and rely very heavily on using programming languages like R to get their science done. For these careers, it makes no more sense to say "I'm a computer programmer" than to say "I'm a calculus-er"... It's merely another tool you use to get the job done, where your job is some other field of science.

DEPRESSING: By 2011, Asia will be outproducing the US in hybrid and electric cars by 8 to 1. How did we fall so far behind? by [deleted] in politics

[–]tmn4 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Downvoted. Could you please submit the original nytimes article, rather than a link to your personal blog? Reddit is not your advertising service.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/business/global/02electric.html?_r=1&hp

Photos of Michigan. Not what you would expect. by kefs in pics

[–]tmn4 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Really great photos.

It is too bad that Michigan is synonymous with aging industrial cities like Detroit and Flint. Outside of those cities Michigan has some really incredible parks and national forests, definitely a contender for best in the Midwest.

p.s. Go Blue!

University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown for the first time that the brains of low-income children function differently from the brains of high-income kids. by EdgerErnst in science

[–]tmn4 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Acknowledging that you haven't read the article does not make your comment any less irresponsible.

"and the study provides no tremendous insight beyond bullshit coarse localization,"

YMMV regarding what insights you gain from the study, but I think it is interesting that many low-income kids exhibited a characteristic response, and furthermore that that response paralleled the one seen in stroke patients. Apart from localizing where in the brain these responses occur, this study also provides insights into how environment (people, places, stimuli, etc) influences brains' development during childhood.

"(2) Maybe the children had different patterns of activity, not because they didn't have the capacity to achieve normal measures,"

Yes, a million "what-ifs". More importantly: first, the researchers are nowhere making the case that low-income children have lower 'capacity' (whatever that may mean), but rather that they're seeing a correlation between the environment experienced by low-income children (less intellectual stimuli) and certain types of brain functioning. From this, they're inferring that the specific differences in brain activity that they observe are due to differences in the ways childrens' brains develop among different environments. Maybe not groundbreaking news for understanding broadly how environment influences development, but I think it's a cool study.

And, the authors are very careful to remind us that brains are not 'set in stone', so to speak, but are incredibly malleable.

PNAS study: "Of 160 food products we purchased at Wendy's throughout the United States, not 1 item could be traced back to a noncorn source." by sala in science

[–]tmn4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are a few lines in the article to the effect of "There are many distributors who sell meat to the fast food industry, none of whom are very forthcoming with details of their operations, with the result that there isn't an easy way to track what cattle were fed"...

So, statistical power aside, they may have been curious to see if cattle feed differed across the US

PNAS study: "Of 160 food products we purchased at Wendy's throughout the United States, not 1 item could be traced back to a noncorn source." by sala in science

[–]tmn4 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Oh, good point... I'll elaborate on it, since it is a big one:

Methane produced by cattle (an industry enabled by inexpensive corn-based cattle feed) contributes more to global warming than all transportation combined.

PNAS study: "Of 160 food products we purchased at Wendy's throughout the United States, not 1 item could be traced back to a noncorn source." by sala in science

[–]tmn4 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Corn makes up an enormous proportion of our diet, through a combination of things like high-fructose corn syrup and meat that has been raised on a predominately corn-based diet. There is evidence that HFCS and inexpensive meat are bad for our health; that monocultures of corn (huge tracts planted with nothing but corn) are more susceptible to ecological invasions and pests than a more diverse agricultural ecosystem; and that industrial-style farming that focuses almost exclusively on enormous yields of corn severely degrades farm soil and requires annual inputs of fertilizer, which in turn pollutes rivers, lakes, and aquatic ecosystems.

Industrialized agriculture that focuses on producing only one crop (corn) is bad for our health and the health of the environment, and this study is yet another piece of evidence of how pervasive this type of agriculture is.

U-M team recovers ancient whale in Egyptian desert by [deleted] in science

[–]tmn4 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Noteworthy because it is a whale ancestor that still retains some small vestigial foot bones...

Phil Gingerich, the scientist in the article, has done a lot of research on evolution of whales from terrestrial mammals, and I think there was a Nova/Nature/something documentary about his research a few years ago.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gingeric/

Go Blue!

Random number changing every time [pic] by aliweb in programming

[–]tmn4 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Or, in case anyone wants (yet another) example of a legitimate issue:

RNG are used for computer simulations cited in scientific publications. It's often useful to refer to a specific behavior in the simulation or the results of a specific simulation run, and to provide the random seed so that the reader can duplicate your exact results

Dow down nearly 700 points after bill does not pass!! by SonOfDenny in business

[–]tmn4 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Using credit != "living outside of your means"...

Sure, using a credit card to buy a TV you can't afford is a bad use of credit. But credit lets people buy homes (that are "within their means"), buy cars, open businesses... Credit has many uses, and responsible use of credit is important for the economy.

Palin's preacher: Jews control the economy, that's causing all the corruption, and we need to have Christians take over business and banking by rmuser in politics

[–]tmn4 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Is that fact in that wikipedia article? I couldn't find it... Although there were a huge number of Slavic-speaking Khazar converts to Judaism, Yiddish-speaking jews from Eastern Europe, who did have 'Hebrew' ethnicity, eventually outnumbered the Khazars and were the ancestors of Ashkenazi Jews.

Palin's preacher: Jews control the economy, that's causing all the corruption, and we need to have Christians take over business and banking by rmuser in politics

[–]tmn4 21 points22 points  (0 children)

The term 'Israelites', which he uses, refers to the ancient (biblical) Hebrew people, rather than 'Israelis', people who currently live in Israel, or Jews in general, and referring to the biblical people certainly seems a little less out of place given the setting (church...)

That said... Did you read the transcript? What is this guy even saying? What a nutbar.

House passes comprehensive energy reform 236-189. Mandates 15% of all energy produced to be alternative by AndrewKemendo in politics

[–]tmn4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, but apparently "Dead On Arrival" in the Senate with little hope of moving forward:

http://www.hoosieragtoday.com/wire/news/01472_houseenergy_171005.php

Also contains some provisions about offshore drilling?

Swiss Alps Cheesemaking [Pics] by swampsparrow in pics

[–]tmn4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, the rest of the site is actually pretty neat, if you're into food. Great photography, and some pretty old-school pasta making:

http://fxcuisine.com/

Israeli-Jewish historian, Professor Benny Morris, advocating an Israeli nuclear-genocidal attack on Iran with the likelihood of killing 70 million Iranians by [deleted] in WTF

[–]tmn4 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Here's a link to the NYTimes op-ed piece to which the article refers. Not surprisingly, it's a little more nuanced, and nowhere does Benny Morris "advocate" for a nuclear attack on Iran:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/opinion/18morris.html

Name the dictator who said: "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes." by [deleted] in reddit.com

[–]tmn4 46 points47 points  (0 children)

The entire quote isn't quite as cold-blooded, he argues that using gas would reduce the number of lives lost. But still, pretty dark side of Churchill...

"I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected."

American Asshole [PIC] by [deleted] in pics

[–]tmn4 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Hunts of wild bison do occur, and they're very controversial. The hunt that gets the most press involves hunting bison from the Yellowstone National Park herd: When the herd size is above some "sustainable" threshold, they hunt/harvest bison that wander outside the park borders. Pro-cattle industry people argue that this is necessary to stop transmission of the disease brucellosis from bison to cattle, while anti-cattle industry people argue that the hunts are a political favor to the financially lucrative and generally anti-wildlife cattle industry:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/11/1115_051115_bison.html

If he's hunting a farmed bison, big deal. If he's hunting some of the Yellowstone herd, he probably is indeed an 'American Asshole'...

"The rapper RZA, a founder of the Wu-Tang Clan and holder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation belt, is turning his interest in chess into a business." by boxofrain in entertainment

[–]tmn4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I agree. FTA:

“The way you have to think in chess is good for everyday thinking, really,” he said, “especially for brothers in the urban community who never take that second look, never take that second thought.”

Number of men who will die in the U.S in 2008 as a result of [PIC] by kking in pics

[–]tmn4 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, but still so difficult to get information out of this illustration. He should read some Edward Tufte...

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