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- Yeah, in a Minute... is the personal dumping grounds of Paul Landry:
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News Gathering vs. Confirmation Bias
- Remember, if you do not have at least one source of news that you turn to regularly, with which you routinely disagree, then you are not practicing news gathering! You are practicing [confirmation bias].
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Science
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.
— Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996) at p.32.
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
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Tag Archives: government
More Than Just Russia
Jeremy Scahill at The Intercept: Did Trump directly conspire with Vladimir Putin and Russia to influence the 2016 election? That is certainly possible. Will we see concrete evidence of that, especially evidence that would stand up in a court? That also is possible. […] But this much is clear: It is a major mistake to […]
Congress Criticizes FBI Quest for iPhone ‘Backdoor’
Ed Hardy writing at Cult of Mac: Congress has called the FBI on the carpet for its attempt to require Apple to build a backdoor into the iPhone. A letter went out today from a bi-partisan group of representatives accusing the law enforcement agency of over-stating difficulties in unlocked iPhones involved in crimes. The ten […]
Mac OS Ken: Encrypt-a-palooza-2016-mageddon-gate: The Vindication
Ken Ray on his Mac OS Ken podcast for March 29, 2018: At the time the agency (FBI) said Apple was its only shot at getting into the phone. Now, the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General has released a report that says the FBI didn’t do everything it could to find a solution before […]
Trump made it easier for the mentally ill to buy guns…
Annalisa Merelli and Heather Timmons writing at Quartz: In a tweet early this morning, Trump framed the shooting it as he has done in the past, describing Cruz as a disturbed and “erratic” individual. The trouble is, Trump has made it much easier for mentally-disturbed Americans to buy guns in the United States.
Vintage EPA photos reveal what America looked like before pollution was regulated
The Trump administration plans to kill the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration’s main initiative to fight climate change by lowering emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt, said Monday. […] Pruitt has reportedly spent much of his term meeting with executives and lobbyists from companies and industries regulated by the EPA. Many […]
Also tagged environment/environmental, history
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Speaking of collusion (and treason)…
The Vietnam War, Episode 7: The Veneer of Civilization (June 1968 – May 1969) at 51:55-55:42, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick (2017): NARRATOR: But on October 31st [1968], just five days before the election, the president himself made a surprise announcement. He was stopping all bombing of North Vietnam. There had been real progress in Paris, […]
Also tagged collusion, entertainment, history, treason
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News photographer shot by cop
PetaPixel: An Ohio newspaper photojournalist was shot by a police officer last night after the cop mistook the camera and tripod the photographer was holding for a rifle. Wait—that tripod isn’t loaded, is it? I wouldn’t exactly call this a part of the never-ending war on photography, but I do think that this shows […]
Also tagged law enforcement, photography
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Absent warrant standard, police could monitor anyone via location data
ARS Technica: This case, Carpenter v. United States, asks a simple question: is it OK for police to seize and search 127 days of cell-site location information (CSLI) without a warrant? Previously, lower courts have said that such practices are compatible with current law. But the fact that the Supreme Court agreed to hear the […]
Also tagged constitution, freedom, privacy
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Trump decides not to invoke executive privilege, not that he could
John Dean, writing at CNN: As a leading student and expert on the subject of executive privilege, Mark J. Rozell, has written, it is an accepted doctrine when appropriately applied in two circumstances: (1) certain national security needs and (2) protecting the privacy of White House deliberations when doing so serves the public interest. Clearly, […]
Donald Trump Jr., Sub-Master of the Universe
Matt Bai, writing at Yahoo News: Say what you will about President Trump, and I’ve said plenty; you can’t say he ever lacked for what New Yorkers call chutzpah. He had the brass ornaments to risk his modest inheritance, to plow through bankruptcies, to court public humiliation in pursuit of far-flung enterprises. I actually admire […]
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