Dictionary.com/Word of the Day Archive/edacious

Dictionary.com/Word of the Day Archive/edacious: "edacious"

Software flaw? County clerk threatens to resign over issue

Salt Lake Tribune - Software flaw? County clerk threatens to resign over issue:

"Funk invited in representatives of Black Box Voting, a Washington state-based nonprofit voter rights group, to inspect the machines earlier this month. Black Box has yet to issue a final report on the machines that are slated to replace Utah's punch card system of voting at a cost of $27 million.

By the end of the Monday meeting, Diebold engineers convinced the county commissioners the discrepancies in the machines' memory are the result of testing and of additional printing fonts.

But Diebold told the commissioners that allowing unauthorized people access to the machines had violated their integrity. "

What a fucking mess! In an ideal world, all these voting machines would be open source and subject to any tests anyone wanted to do to them.

NPR : A Year to Live, A Year to Die

NPR : A Year to Live, A Year to Die: "Stewart Selman had just been told he had a malignant brain tumor, and he said he wanted to keep an audio diary."

My mom died of one of these nasty things, called glioblastoma, which has an infinitesimal survival rate. Since so much of the effects depend on where in the brain the tumor is located, experiences differ vastly.

Mozilla Update :: Extensions -- More Info:Tab X - All Releases

"Mozilla Update :: Extensions -- Tab X: "Adds a close button to each of the browser tabs, and removes the close button at the end of the tab bar."

Pretty themes for Firefox, mac only.

Is Whole Foods Wholesome? - The dark secrets of the organic-food movement. By Field Maloney

Is Whole Foods Wholesome? - The dark secrets of the organic-food movement. By Field Maloney: "Wal-Mart, with its simple "More for Less" credo, might do far more to democratize the nation's food supply than Whole Foods. The organic-food movement is in danger of exacerbating the growing gap between rich and poor in this country by contributing to a two-tiered national food supply, with healthy food for the rich. Could Wal-Mart's populist strategy prove to be more "sustainable" than Whole Foods?" (In general, I agree. My biggest complaint with whole foods is also in this piece: that it privileges this "organic" nonsense over local food in season.)

NPR : Study: Statin Drug Reverses Coronary Artery Disease

NPR : Study: Statin Drug Reverses Coronary Artery Disease: "Researchers at eight U.S. hospitals say they've been able to remove artery deposits with a high dose of a statin drug that cut 'bad cholesterol' levels by half and raised 'good cholesterol' more than any other study has shown. But more research is needed to see if patients suffer fewer heart attacks or deaths."

Independent Online Edition > Science & Technology

How Islamic inventors changed the world
Exhibit site.

Party Like It's 1994 - New York Times

Party Like It's 1994 - New York Times: "It's true that the Democrats have been vowing to retake Congress every two years, while the Republican majority merely waxes and wanes. But 2006 feels different."

Defenders of the Faith - New York Times

Defenders of the Faith - New York Times: "Fundamentalists do what they perceive as good deeds in order to fulfill God's will and to earn salvation; atheists do them simply because it is the right thing to do. Is this also not our most elementary experience of morality? When I do a good deed, I do so not with an eye toward gaining God's favor; I do it because if I did not, I could not look at myself in the mirror. A moral deed is by definition its own reward. David Hume, a believer, made this point in a very poignant way, when he wrote that the only way to show true respect for God is to act morally while ignoring God's existence."

The Physics of Friendship

The Physics of Friendship: "By comparing people to mobile particles randomly bouncing off each other, scientists have developed a new model for social networks. The model fits with empirical data to naturally reproduce the community structure, clustering and evolution of general acquaintances and even sexual contacts."
The paper. (PDF)

The Way We Eat: Rabbit Is Rich - New York Times

The Way We Eat: Rabbit Is Rich - New York Times: "In St. Louis last fall, I finally tracked down some fryers (or young rabbits) at the old Soulard Farmer's Market, and the purveyors, whose stall also included a box of skinned coons and a fresh beaver tail that looked like a prehistoric fish, seemed surprised that I had actually shown up after phoning."

Spanish Architecture - Why does one country seem to have all the coolest buildings?

Spanish Architecture - Why does one country seem to have all the coolest buildings?: "How did modern architecture in Spain get so good?"

Family Fuse - Why the rules about gay parenting are changing under your nose. By Dahlia Lithwick

Family Fuse - Why the rules about gay parenting are changing under your nose. By Dahlia Lithwick: "To defend the current adoption and custody regimes, then, you need to subordinate the practical and emotional interests of these children to the moral preferences of lawmakers. That is precisely what family law prohibits."

CNN.com - New animal resembles furry lobster - Mar 8, 2006

CNN.com - New animal resembles furry lobster - Mar 8, 2006

Many Couples Must Negotiate Terms of 'Brokeback' Marriages - New York Times

Many Couples Must Negotiate Terms of 'Brokeback' Marriages - New York Times

Study: In-flight cell calls pose risk to planes

Study: In-flight cell calls pose risk to planes: "In the past, the FAA has found nothing to indicate that the use of passive devices like laptops or game-playing electronics poses a threat to the aircraft. However, the CMU study concluded otherwise. While the researchers looked primarily at cell phone use, they also discovered that emissions from other portable devices proved 'problematic.'"

Dictionary.com/Word of the Day Archive/doula

Dictionary.com/Word of the Day Archive/doula: "Doula derives from Greek doula, 'servant-woman, slave.'"

Visualizing black holes

A Thrill Ride to 'the Other Side of Infinity' - New York Times: "The show is built on the crunching of numbers that even a black hole might envy: some segments produced by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois required 90 hours of supercomputer calculation for each second on screen."