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POPSThe web that time forgot "Today, Otlet and his work have been largely forgotten, even in his native Belgium. Although Otlet enjoyed considerable fame during his lifetime, his legacy fell victim to a series of historical misfortunes — not least of which involved the Nazis marching into Belgium and destroying much of his life's work. But in recent years, a small group of researchers has begun to resurrect Otlet's reputation, republishing some of his writing and raising money to establish the museum and archive in Mons."
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POPSKrugman: Respect for early war critics Latest column from Paul Krugman. It's an "honor roll" of people who publicly criticized the administration position on going to war in Iraq before it happened. As it turns out, most of their predictions have come true. Remarkably, the Weekly Standard piece that makes fun of "antiwar doomsayers" is still online here: http://snurl.com/14mcf
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POPSThe Science Of The Orgasm "But today, a few scientists are making real progress -- in part because they're changing their focus. To uncover the orgasm's secrets, researchers are looking beyond the clitoris, vagina, penis and prostate, to the place behind the scenes where the true magic happens. They're examining the central nervous system: the network of electrical impulses that zip to and fro through the brain and spinal cord."
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POPSMcCain whiffs on Shi'ites & Sunnis yet again! "and repeated the false claim that Muqtada al-Sadr declared the ceasefire in Basra last week." Would your average armchair news-watcher make that mistake? Again and again? This is important, friends, not as a put-down of McCain, but as an essential part of the evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of candidates for the most powerful elected office on earth. Does he have it together on the basics of foreign policy?
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POPSTen Dubious Clip Tips for Mental Health <<<Transcultural Psychiatrists would certainly have a few dilemmas with the above list. The serious Neuroanthropologist probably does too! But what the heck, I put them here just for fun! Mind you, the list might lead to some interesting questions about what could be considered the definitive TOP 10 FOR BRAIN HEALTH applicable across cultures!>>> (article author). There are grains of truth floating about in this fun , of course. I infer the writer is inviting readers to confirm the state of their own mental fitness by indulging in a healthy demolition of such breezy tips lists. I'd say you should be able to rattle off ten major objections to the list fairly quickly if your mental health is robust.
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POPS"Armchair Archaeology" with Google Earth “Google Earth gives you free access to imagery that would otherwise cost a fortune, and require specialist training to make use of,” says Dr Ur. And being able to pan and zoom the satellite images quickly makes it much easier to spot archaeological features and relate them to each other.
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POPSHoly Furniture of Fertility Maybe for laughs they should move the chair into an actual nunnery, just to see if all the nuns get pregnant. By the way, who would have thought that a fertility goddess would become a Catholic saint?
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POPSAN IRAQ WAR VETERAN, IN HIS OWN WORDS. An Iraq War Veteran, in his own words, tells us what it felt like to fight in an unjust war. To come home and feel shame at what his government ordered him to do. Ashamed of wearing the uniform that stood for imperialism. Then explaining the feeling of wearing this same uniform again and finally, feel pride, at trying to bring about peace instead of war. At long last, to have a sense of his own dignity or value even though, being arrested as a war protester. How pathetic is this, lopsided logic of the neocon gods? When a soldier goes to battle for peace he's considered a nuisance but when forced into combat for an illegal land grab, orchestrated by armchair hucksters of war, he's deemed brave. BHOM!!! :mad:
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POPSStatistics and the Dancing Cockatoo "On each trial he actually dances at a range of tempos," says Patel. But in each case the slower end of Snowball's range seemed to correlate with the tempo of the music. "When the music tempo was slow, his tempo range included slow dancing. When the music was fast, his tempo range didn’t include these slower tempos," Patel explains. A statistical check on these variations showed that the correlation between the music’s rhythm and Snowball’s slower movements was very unlikely to have happened by chance. "To us, this shows that he really does have tempo sensitivity, and is not just ‘doing his own thing’ at some preferred tempo," says Patel. Via Andrew Sullivan
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POPSDavid Corn vs Bob Woodward Corn makes a case that Woodward knew another reason why Armitage would not want to be head of the CIA--because he blew CIA operative Valerie Plame's cover. Woodward did not acknowledge that, though, and instead portrayed Armitage's decision as one of principle. EDIT: Just to be clear, Corn has his own reason to disparage Woodward, since Woodward's book is obviously competing with Corn's book on the Bush administration. Still, Corn has been making these arguments about Woodward's reporting for a while now.
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POPSThe Cost of the Iraq War: A Pundit's Guilt This is a stark moment of humanity for Christopher Hitchens, who I must admit, is not always a lovable character. He has had to soberly (or, maybe not soberly!) face the consequences of his punditry. Political opinions do not exist in a vacuum. These are not simply ideas we are talking about. This nation is overwhelmed with flippant armchair strategists on both sides who have no real understanding of what is actually going on. The Iraq War isn't a failure of American ideals, it is a disaster of well-meaning ignorance.
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POPSWho is responsible for war? As a Vietnam era draft refusenik (convicted, served as teacher of deaf-blind 2 yrs. and pardoned by pres. Ford) I do Not support the troops... there i've said the unspoken...but someone must open this debate, so bring it on (where have i heard that before?)
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POPSThe End of the Innocence Remember when the days were long And rolled beneath a deep blue sky Didnt have a care in the world With mommy and daddy standing by When happily ever after fails And weve been poisoned by these fairy tales The lawyers dwell on small details Since daddy had to fly But I know a place where we can go Thats still untouched by man Well sit and watch the clouds roll by And the tall grass wave in the wind You can lay your head back on the ground And let your hair fall all around me Offer up your best defense But this is the end This is the end of the innocence O beautiful, for spacious skies But now those skies are threatening Theyre beating plowshares into swords For this tired old man that we elected king Armchair warriors often fail And weve been poisoned by these fairy tales The lawyers clean up all details Since daddy had to lie But I know a place where we can go And was away this sin Well sit and watch the clouds roll by And the tall grass wave in the wind J
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POPSGrass Armchair to grow in your backyard I think you could probably make one of these out of old cardboard boxes (beer?) pretty easily. Might be fun to make a bunch of them in a circle around a campfire for those of you with a little land?
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