Arguing with Non-Skeptics

Scientific American and the Journal Nature have a great podcast#1 , podcast#2 regarding how you discuss science with folks that simply don't get it. It's a good, thoughtful, and funny discussion about working strategics like finding common ground, and being friendly. (and also knowing when it's just not worth it.)

"A panel discussion on arguing with non-skeptics at the recent Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism in New York City featured James Randi, George Hrab, D. J. Grothe and podcast host Steve Mirsky. Julia Galef moderated." - Scientific American

Nuances of a Veggie World

Food Inc. is a very fantastic movie, and one of those "must sees". Of it's issues, it shines the light on the entire industrialization of food and explains how the current solution is not in our best interest. The industrialization of livestock is the most vile subject, but they don't condone meat, only point out how the current system for producing it is very bad.

On that thread, NewScientist has a good article titled "Veggieworld: Why eating greens won't save the planet" about the boons to having livestock and how a purely vegan world would not be the ideal solution either. It points out how the industrialization of meats does not help us, but that a complete elimination is also not the right solution either.

Like the old adage reminds us, Everything in moderation, including moderation.

I want an iPhone

ok, so It' got a great ui, great apps, and it looks really slick. But what the hell is the big deal with the iphone4?

Free Mickey

Nothing new, but realized that I never posted this....
Lawrence Lessing, who is a hero of mine, made this presentation about copyrights. It's about how our copyright laws have changed since the birth of the country, and how this change has affected our culture.

A presentation given by Stanford Law professor and founder of Creative Commons, Lawrence Lessig, about his book "Free Culture".
OSCON July 24, 2002

Very worth the time to watch.

Also a very good example of how to do a good presentation, not a death by powerpoint presentation.

Update: Jan 2018: ArsTechnia notes Why Mickey Mouse’s 1998 copyright extension probably won’t happen again.

"Guy in Clock" clock

This has got to be the coolest clock ever. Make has a piece on a "Clock [that] shows video of dude erasing and redrawing hands every minute" It is a great piece of art by artist Maarten Baas.



As a nice runner up, there is a clock that tells time with words.

Cool Business Cards

Stumbled across a metal business card for Kevin Mitnick that I thought was totally cool. did some googling on it and found a graphic artist who was doing something similar.

FYI: Lock Picking is a hobby/sport that has become popular among the DYI folks. Its fun to understand the mechanics of the lock, and then see how quick you can crack it.