Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Top rates – Silly rational person … the point isn’t that what the top marginal tax rate will return to is still less than Reagan, Nixon, Eisenhower, or FDR … is that it’s TAXES ON THE RICH. And that simply will not do!
- O’Donnell warned of “orgy rooms” in college dorms – War Room – Salon.com – Dagnabbit — I was in college in time for coed dorms, but I missed out on the inevitable orgies. Not fair!
- An Ecofascist Crescent Moon Near Ground Zero – “Blending environmentalism with Islam can only serve to strengthen the totalitarian ideals of the green movement. With modern environmentalism’s fixation on ecological holism that strictly views people and their economic activities as expendable, unbalanced, unsustainable and cancerous—this will only be greatly bolstered and strengthened by the totalitarian will of Allah. If modern western man is way out of line with regard to the environmental movement, just think what it will mean when Allah enters into the equation.” Muslims! Greem! Nazis! Malcolm X! Van Jones! Islamo-Eco-Terrorism! DOOOOOOM!
- Glenn Beck To Fat People: ‘I Say Let Them Die’ – Because that is, of course, just what Jesus would have suggested.
- Christine O’Donnell’s Website Stripped Of All Information – But … but … I thought she was all about Telling the Truth No Matter What?
- Media Treatment of Waterboarding: Is it Torture? – Our so-called liberal press …
- U.S. State Prison Population Decreases for the First Time in 38 Years – For a nation so dedicated to freedom and liberty, we sure do have a crapload of folks in prison.
- What if the Earth had rings? – Just as the oceans proved not too big to fill with junk, so, too, with space.
- On the Advice of the FBI, Cartoonist Molly Norris Disappears From View – Page 1 – News – Seattle – Seattle Weekly – I try to respect people’s sensibilities. But threatening someone with death for not doing so means you’re valuing an abstract idea and your emotional attachment to it more than a human life. And that’s just plain old wrong in my book.
- AMERICAblog Gay: DNC drops Obama’s promise to repeal DOMA, fails to mention marriage, then gets all weasel-y on DADT repeal – There’s no question that the cause of gay rights will suffer worse under the GOP and under the Democrats. But by taking these sorts of weaselly actions to try and not be a target for right-wing criticism, the DNC palpably reduces the enthusiasm (and activist support) of an important part of their base. It’s not that progressives are going to vote GOP — they’re just not, in aggregate, going to vote, or going to harangue their friends and family and co-workers to vote, or donate to the DNC. The party whose most famous and successful president talked about the greatest thing to fear being fear itself is, far too often, acting out of fear.
- I hate to be shrill and all, but the tea bagging GOP nominee for NY governor is a pig. (No offense to pigs.): noreply@blogger.com (digby)
- More Evidence Our Memory Stinks – With clear (and, among experts, understood) implications in both science and criminology.
- Anthropogenic Climate Change: It’s for real. – There is a significant consensus amongst scientists in appropriate fields — thousands of them — that this is real. Whereas the vast majority of the dissent comes from (a) scientists in unassociated fields who are (b) supported by parties (businesses) with a vested interest in denying that this is real. It’s certainly supported by enough evidence to try and act upon it.
- Aspartame – Truth vs Fiction – It’s sometimes interesting when “skepticism” collides with “skepticism.” Which just goes to show one should never grant a “skeptic” authority, but weigh the evidence for oneself. Which a true skeptic would appreciate.
- Dropping Kilometers From Highway’s Signs Divides Arizona – NYTimes.com – The US adherence to English units of measurement (which the English themselves have long since abandoned) is … sadly indicative. We’re exceptional, all right — but not all exceptions are a good thing.
- ‘Just As Much, If Not More, Evidence’ – Makes you wonder what Senatorial committee she wants to be on.
45 view(s)
KM vs miles. Sorry to correct you, but we still mostly use miles/mph – I think mostly becasue of the cost of replacing them all (you can’t do it gradually! – “50, does that mean 50, or is this an old 30?”).
Almost everything else is metric (litres of petrol – though remember even before that you have tiny gallons compared to our man size ones, food served by grammes, DIY stuff). However beer comes in pints. Shandy on the other hand, is a soft drink and theoretically must be served in metric. However ask for a pint of shandy and that’s what you get. If the worst comes to the worst, I dont see why we couldn’t just define a measure of 568ml, called “the Pint”!
It does mean you get some odd sizes in the DIY shops – I recently bought hardboard that was 610mm by 1220mm. Why not 600×1200? Well, it just happens to be as close as dammit to 2’x4′! There’s method in this madness – what now we call “bckward compatability”. However, as my house was built in 1935 I still have to take a plane to any new doors to get the extra mm/sixteenths off.
Riiiiight, I remember the miles thing in the UK. But you converted over for temps and most other units.
About the only common thing we’ve managed to convert (probably because of imports) is booze (750mL bottles of wine, etc.) and 2L bottles of soda. I suspect it will only ever change once it starts costing us real money.
To quote Terry Pratchett. “The English understand that water freezes at 0 and boils at 100, but still think 70 is a comfortable temperature”. While forcasts use centigrade, lots of people think in Fahrenheit for upper temperatures. However even the older generations use 0 for freezing, because it seem right that 3 below freezing is -3.
Maths is easier in Metric – computers and calculators can multply 546mm easier than 1 foot 9 1/2 inches. Reasons I am glad to be born in 1969, and not too much earlier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling#Pre-decimal
Well, we were smart enough to convert to decimal money from the get-go, but since then we have sadly lagged behind in easy math for measurements.