The debate in 1 minute

Miss the first debate? Here it is, edited down to one minute.

Friday poll results

How many (non-URMA) magazines do you receive per month?

• none: one vote (5%)


• one: one vote (5%)


• two: one vote (5%)


• three: four votes (20%)


• four: one vote (5%)


• more than four: thirteen votes (65%)

Somebody just haaaaad to have it.

Ancient Petroglyph Stolen From Cliff (kpho.com)

Conrad & Co., have you guys heard anything more about this?

Rubber Ducky, you're the one.

Rubber ducks aid in NASA study (CNN.com)

"In the name of climate change science, researchers at NASA have dropped 90 rubber ducks into holes of Greenland's fastest moving glacier: the Jakobshavn Glacier in Baffin Bay."

Old, grizzled, third-party candidate may steal support from McCain

Old, Grizzled Third-Party Candidate May Steal Support From McCain

The Big Picture

Scenes from India (boston.com)

Sam Harris on Palin

"Ask yourself: how has 'elitism' become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080/output/print

Teach the Controversy shirts

Get your very own wearable evolution statement over at Teach the Controversy. I vote these go in the swag bags at the next URMA conference!

This is the blurb from their site:

'Big Science is always suppressing The Truth with their blatant pro-evolution anti-wacko agenda: from the fact that UFOs built the pyramids to the reality of creationism and fact the universe is "Turtles All The Way Down." It is time to fight back and urge schools to Teach The Controversity with these intelligently designed t-shirts. All designs by Jeremy Kalgreen and are available in a variety of colors and styles, or feel free to create your own with our custom designer.

Sept. 19, 1982: the birth of :-)

Wherein we learn where those little rascals came from.

Friday poll results

How do you take notes in interviews?

• laptop: 1 vote (2%)


• recorder: 27 votes (77%)


• pen and paper: 26 votes (74%)


• other: 1 vote (2%)

Friday poll results

Your university is rocked by a controversy. Could you run a fair and balanced story about it without risking your neck?

• Yes, we've done it before: 5 votes (45%)


• Not sure...I'd have to talk to my boss: 3 votes (27%)


• I wouldn't even try it: 3 votes (27%)

Poe's "The Raven," translated into 50s hipster argot

From jazz poet Lord Buckley's "The Bugbird," a translation into the "semantic of the hip," circa 1950. (via boingBoing)

Eddie Allen Poe was a swinger.
He loved to en-joy that good whiskey
and chase them little ladies all over the place,
undstand what I mean?
Now, you see Poe didn't want that bird,
he didn't need the bird,
he didn't dig the bird,
he didn't send for the bird,
he didn't even know what aviary the bird came from.
If they've knocked the bird on him post paid
he wouldn't have dug it.

LHC FAQ PDQ (OK?)

Large Hadron Collider: Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios (wired.com)

Let pupils giv up spelling rules. There to hard.

Someone please let me be the first to string this guy up by his Buster Browns:

Children are being held back at school because they are forced to memorise irregular spellings and learn how to use the apostrophe, a leading academic will claim this week.... Professor Wells said that the apostrophe was an equal waste of time. "Instead of an apostrophe we could just leave it out (it's could become its) or leave a space (so we'll would become we ll). Have we really nothing better to do with our lives than fret about the apostrophe?"

Let pupils abandon spelling rules, says academic

Science education fail

Rainbows aren't just around our sun and our moon anymore. Now they're in the water supply. "We as a nation have got to ask ourselves: what in the hell is going on?"



Oh God, I haven't laughed that hard in... well, maybe ever.

Friday poll results

Do you edit your sources' quotes?

• Never (it's blasphemous): 2 votes (8%)


• Sometimes (to make them more clear, concise, etc.): 9 votes (39%)


• All the time (they're incoherent otherwise, and they get to approve their quotes anyway): 12 votes (52%)

Doctored Photos

Doctored Photos: 20 Memorable Picture Fakes (telegraph.uk)