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SOPA is an awful bill that needs to be stopped

Alas, it's the darling of the Hollywood Lawyer set, which the government loves to accommodate. The thing is so full of unintended (?) consequences, it makes the DMCA look good.

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Proposed Copyright Bill Threatens Whistleblowing and Human Rights | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Proposed Copyright Bill Threatens Whistleblowing and Human Rights. In the past week, the larger Internet community has joined EFF in sounding the alarm about the new copyright bill, now known as the S…

The true cost of commuting

Y'know, even if my company stopped subsidizing my transit pass, it would still be worth it to take the light rail in. Especially since it gives me a 30-40 minutes of reading time to and from the office.

Cops and Protesters

I don't envy police who are sent to contain or control protests, especially since there are usually protesters (some of them even not agents provocateur) who are looking for trouble in even the most peaceful settings. And sometimes cops are ordered to do things that they might not otherwise be inclined to do.

But there are clearly cops who enjoy the power, who enjoy striking back, who have anger management issues, who hate damned hippies, who don't suffer taunts or protests well, and/or who, in this Internet/mobile phone age, keep getting caught on camera …

Bye-bye, Birth Control

There's long been folks in the pro-Choice movement who've suggested that anti-abortion folks were interested not just in ending abortion, but birth control as well. This has been denied by most mainstream anti-abortion organizations and proponents, but the current "personhood" law movement demonstrates that, at least in the anti-abortion fringe, elimination of most forms of birth control is seen as a feature, not a bug.

The "unintended" consequences of personhood proposals are remarkable — and I use the quotations because, like with birth control, it's unclear how "unintended' some of them are.

I'm pleased as punch that a similar proposal was soundly defeated in Colorado. My condolences to the people of Mississippi, where it looks likely to pass.

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Personhood USA Confirms That Mississippi Abortion Ban Would Outlaw Birth Control Pills
Next Tuesday, Mississippians will go to the polls to decide on Initiative 26, a personhood amendment to the state constitution that defines a person as “every human being from the moment of fertilizat…

Money finds a way, but why make it easy?

The cynic in me knows that money always finds a way in the electoral process. Decades of campaign finance reform made that clear. But with the SCOTUS decisions that (a) money = free speech and (b) corporations are people who should have unlimited spending ("free speech"), affairs have gotten completely out of hand.

I'd rather see that corporate personhood fiction be revised, but I think regulation of campaign spending is a perfectly reasonable proposition.

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Senators Introduce Constitutional Amendment To Overturn Citizens United
One of the overarching themes of the 99 Percent Movement is that our democracy is too corrupted by corporate special interests. This corruption was worsened last year by the Supreme Court’s Citizens U…

Joss Whedon on why he writes strong female characters

Yes. This.

Reshared post from +Tom Thomas

Retro posters

These movie, et al., posters are a lot of fun. I particularly like the Roger Rabbit one.

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mental_floss Blog » 10 Retro Illustrations of Pop Culture Icons
Everything you need to feel smart again.

Glad the House is done with all its real work

When a chamber of Congress passes a "non-binding resolution" on a 396-9, it's usually a good indication that it's a Mom & Apple Pie kind of thing. And that the GOP House felt they needed to take the time to speechify on such a resolution about "In God We Trust" makes it clearly a Mom & Apple Pie with Machine Guns kind of election season folderol. "Vote for this or get accused of being commie / socialist / liberal / atheist scum"-style electoral politics.

Have to wonder about the 9 who voted against.

To my mind, "E Pluribus Unum" not only has a much better claim to being our founding national motto, but is much more meaningful as a national statement. Indeed, the only people it excludes are the States Rights, who've always preferred the "Pluribus" to the "Unum".

I trust in God, in a variety of ways, but I don't need everyone chanting it in unison beside me, or to have it engraved in public buildings or on money (!) as a reminder.

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House reaffirms 'In God We Trust' as US motto | AP | 11/02/2011
The House on Tuesday passed a non-binding resolution reaffirming "In God We Trust" as the national motto.

Waiting and seeing on the open-sourced Google Reader replacement

I certainly applaud the effort. Though I'm enjoying my new time on Plus, it's limitations vs Reader irk me.

On the other hand, one guy is throwing this together in his spare time, and clearly needs assistance in paying for the server space / power. So I have my concerns.

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The Sharebros Are Building a Google Reader Replacement

One code-savvy, soon-to-be-former Google Reader user would rather create a new site for the RSS-feeds than switch to Google+.

Lovely!

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Five Story Art Nouveau Mural
Five Story Art Nouveau Mural: This is what five guys with 500 cans of spray paint can accomplish in sixteen days. What have you…

NaNoWriMo – And we're off to the races!

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And we’re off to the races! :: Doing Write
Kay and I started our Day 1 NaNoWriMo effort late, but we managed to push through regardless. I cranked out 1,746 words, vs the 1,667 I “owed”. Kay did 197 vs her 167 (the mathematical advantage of o…

This is why science is so cool

People have theories. People make observations that challenge those theories. Those observations in turn are challenged. And then a bunch of people work to prove or disprove the observations and develop their own theories to encompass what was known before and what may be known know.

It's science. It works.

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Faster-than-light neutrino update: What's going on behind the scenes? – Boing Boing

I believe I saw most of these at the last Comic-Con.

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Fifteen People You’ll See At Every Geek Convention [Pic]

"To respect the dignity of every human being"

Good for them.

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Minnesota Episcopalians Oppose Marriage Inequality Amendment
At this weekend’s annual conference of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, members passed a resolution opposing the proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Bishop Brian N. Prior ex…

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The Citizen Legislator?

I suspect that there's always been a significant gap between the average income and net worth of Congresscritters vs the folks they represent. But it's a real issue in terms of their perspective on average citizens' problems, on legislation that helps themselves vs their constituents, on legislation that helps their fellow wealthy as a social group, and as an effective barrier to letting "just plain folk" become Representatives (let along Senators).

It's not a problem that has an easy (if any) solution — but it is a problem.

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The Median Net Worth Of A Member Of Congress Is Five Times Higher Than The Median American Household
Part of the reason the richest 1 percent of Americans have captured our politics is because they are able to finance political races, issue campaigns, and lobbyists. But the other reason some of the r…

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Why we love to make fun of Mister Spock

It's not because Spock is wrong, but because he's so irritating. Because he doesn't do These Things. (Actually, sometimes, he does, which goes to show that maybe he's not quite as logical as he thinks he is, neener-neener!)

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5 Logical Fallacies That Make You Wrong More Than You Think
The Internet has introduced a golden age of ill-informed arguments. You can't post a video of an adorable kitten without a raging debate about pet issues spawning in the comment section. These days, e…

Huzzah for Simon's Cat!

I love these.

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Comma chameleon

Some of these are a bit persnickety (or require knowledge of the context), but it’s still an amusing exercise.

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A 10-Point Comma Quiz
Here’s a quiz: Do the following sentences require an additional comma (or perhaps two), the omission of an existing one (or two), or both? Answers and explanations follow.

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I Feel the Need to Read the Speed

I think my favorite speedometer design of old was on my grandparents' Oldmobile (late 60s/early 70s?), which was a horizontal bar that extended to the right to go under the different MPH markers — and changed color from green to more ruddy tones as you passed different milestones.

But these are fun, too.

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Chevrolet speedometer design
The evolution of Chevrolet speedometer design. From analogue meters from the 1940s to the digital versions from the 2010s.

The (Urban) Legendary Candidate

The question, of course, is whether he's simply sloppy about fact-checking (or, rather, that his staff is sloppy about it), or whether he figures that getting some snappy sound bites are what he needs to drum up support, and that only policy wonks and Yankee liberals will cry foul about whether those sound bites are reality-challenged.

Neither speaks well for his ability to serve as governor, let along president.

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Rick Perry keeps falling for urban legends
In August, Rick Perry complained about a new regulation that would require farmers to get commercial drivers licenses if they drive their tractors across the road. It’s a common urban…

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