Links for 21 May 2009

Politics:
The Colbert Report Word - I Know You Are But What Am I? (If the Republicans really want people to go against the Democrats, they'll need a name that instantly turns people off. "Chrysler?")

Why is Cable TV airing Cheney's speech opposite of President Obama's? ("They want this to be Frazier and Ali, but it's about a liar and a sadist getting free airtime to attack a president who is trying to restore the country's footing after eight years of "compassionate conservatism." Wars, death, torture, wiretapping, loyalty oaths and moles planted in every department of the government which includes the OLC (the arm of the government that the Bushies used to try and give them legal cover for the crimes they committed) are part of Cheney's legacy. Isn't this just what the country needs? To hear a man trying to repair a record of death and destruction with blood dripping from his hands.")

O’Reilly: ‘I Consider Myself A Middle Class Guy’ Even Though I Make $10 Million A Year


Economics:
Performance of the Singapore Economy in 1st Quarter 2009 and Outlook for 2009 ("The economy contracted by 14.6% on a quarter-on-quarter, seasonally adjusted annualised basis in 1Q2009, less than the 19.7% decline previously estimated.")

Asia Needs to Change Its Model (This won't happen anytime soon.)


Islam/Muslim Blogs:
Restoring American Islamic Relations: Obama's Cairo Speech

Studying Muslim integration in Europe ("Our data indicates that Muslims are eager to contribute and play a more recognised role in advancing the best interests of their nation.")

Why don’t they ever quote this? (Heh.)


Miscellaneous:
Above Earth Fixing Hubble (This pic is almost like the NASA equivalent of "Where's Waldo?" ;) )

New 'broadband' cloaking technology simple to manufacture (This was a very interesting article: ""Instead of being reflected as normally would happen, the light flows around the object and shows up on the other side, like water flowing around a stone," Shalaev said. The research falls within a new field called transformation optics, which may usher in a host of radical advances, including cloaking; powerful "hyperlenses" resulting in microscopes 10 times more powerful than today's and able to see objects as small as DNA; computers and consumer electronics that use light instead of electronic signals to process information; advanced sensors; and more efficient solar collectors. ... Recent cloaking findings reported by researchers at other institutions have concentrated on a technique that camouflages features against a background. This work, which uses metamaterials, is akin to rendering bumps on a carpet invisible by allowing them to blend in with the carpet, whereas the Purdue-based work concentrates on enabling light to flow around an object.")

Links for 13 May 2009

Politics:
The Daily Show: Excuse Me Your Dick is Out

The Daily Show: Bill Bennett Finds Comedians More Offensive Than Waterboarding

Detainee-abuse photos about to be released, Fox's Smith and Herridge report (Abu Ghraib 2?)

Bristol Palin Has Miraculously Transformed Herself Into the Abstinence Fairy!

Colbert uncovers an Alpha Dog counting gonad wrinkles in Montana (Perhaps the dumbest person ever to try to get out of jury duty.)

Liz Cheney on waterboarding: It's not torture, and besides, the end justifies the means (You'd think some people would get the hint and lie low somewhere. Antarctica, maybe?)

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

Feingold says Cheney is wrong: ‘Nothing I have seen’ in the CIA memos proves torture was necessary.

Cheney: For diplomacy to work, U.S. must threaten to bomb Iran. (The man's a madman.)

Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter to speak at ‘anti-Islamist’ conference. (The man's a DINO.)

‘Smokey’ Joe Barton: Regulating CO2 Could ‘Close Down The New York And Boston Marathons’ (Remember, kids: If you're the dumbest one in your class, you can still become a Republican politician!)

Wilkerson on Cheney: He's Destroying What's Left of the Republican Party ("He's destroying what's left of the Republican party. I think the latest polls show we're down to 21% of Americans who identify as Republicans. ... I suspect that if Cheney continues it will be down in the low teens. He's destroying the party. There needs to be someone with some ahhh.. as we say in the Army some intestinal fortitudes, some guts who steps forward and tells this man to go home and shut up.")


Economics:
Tracking the recession

De-globalization and Development

Energy Update


Islam/Muslim Blogs:
Yusuf Plays First U.S. Gig In Over 30 Years

Bruthaz of Blogistan (Thanks for the link!)

Richard Pryor As President (Does the younger generation even know who Richard Pryor was?)

Busy (Take your time, dude. Baby and momma come first. Love the pic!)


Miscellaneous:
Rose is Rose

Digitigrade leg extensions will make you taller and let you walk like an animal (This one is very odd; be sure to watch the video.)

Harlan Ellison Rejects Hometown Prize (Good for him: "According to Cleveland.com, the author was offended that he would have to pay his expenses for the trip to the ceremony, apparently calling the award "a fraud and a sham." ... [S]ome members said they had never heard of Ellison, who will be 75 this month, Roberts said. The jury voted to give Ellison the lifetime achievement award anyway.")

Links for 9 May 2009

And be sure to wish your Moms a very happy Mothers Day tomorrow!

Politics:
The Colbert Report: Let's Get Ready to Humble!!!

The face of naked eliminationism (You're just going to love the guy who carved a Nazi swastika on his forehead.)

Pete Hoekstra: The Terrorists at Gitmo Are a Bigger Threat Than the Nazis Were (Another Republican moron.)

Swine flu genes traced to North Carolina factory farm (Remember how the Republicans were running off at the mouth about how it was the Mexicans who brought swine flu to America? It turns out that the original source of the virus comes from "an industrial hog farm in Sampson County, North Carolina's leading hog producer.")

Hating America (More on Sean Hannity: "I get it, Sean. You're too much of a pussy to eat spicy food. Next thing you know they are going to call [Obama] an elitist for washing his hands after using the bathroom, or weak for apologizing after burping.")

Worst Person in the World indeed: CBS sports analyst fantasizes about soldiers shooting liberal leaders


Economics:
Male Unemployment Rates At Or Near Post-War Highs


Business:
David Simon on the Death of Newspapers: 'My Industry Butchered Itself'


Islam/Muslim Blogs:
US Army: "We hunt people for Jesus" (The comment section is mostly between Naeem and myself so far.)


Miscellaneous:
Galaxies of the Perseus Cluster

The Top Five Awful Star Trek Tattoos (Includes a grinning George Takei (Mr. Sulu) pointing at a tattoo of his face on some guy's back.)

Meep! (Very cute photo.)

Links for 7 May 2009

Politics:
Ed Shultz Show: Michelle Bachmann Earns Another Spot on Psycho Talk (I'm truly amazed this woman won re-election last year. What were her constituents thinking?)

Graham: ‘If we’re going to let the bloggers run the country, then the country’s best days are behind us.’ (“My hope is that our Democratic colleagues — if you start listening to the bloggers — if we’re going to let the bloggers run the country, then the country’s best days are behind us.” Heh!)

Limbaugh Responds To Powell: He Needs To ‘Close The Loop And Become A Democrat’ (Please do!)

Colbert Report: Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger to Byron York

Islam/Muslim Blogs:
Muslims, Islam Channel and QF: who represents who?

Miscellaneous:
Crazy mum fills her house with stuff bought from eBay (IZ Reloaded links to a website about a woman who has an obsessive buying compulsion from Ebay. The original webpage can be found here. I actually remember seeing this webpage back in the 90s; it's been around quite a while, and it's just as scary now as it was then. These people do need help but the best thing one can do for them is just to start throwing the $#|+ away!)

The Irony of Satire

Several political blogs have noted an Ohio State University study about the TV show, The Colbert Report. The study has found, in essence, that Republicans lack a sense of humor:

...we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups [liberals and conservatives] in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert's political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion. (Emphasis mine.)

Of course, the fact that Republicans do indeed lack a sense of humor was seen in the unlamented Faux News program The 1/2 Hour News Hour.

But seriously, I'm not that surprised that conservatives might find programs like The Colbert Report difficult to understand. Two years ago, I commented about a Psychology Today article, The Ideological Animal, which reported, among other things, that "...conservatives have less tolerance for ambiguity..." Is it, then, that conservatives live in an alternate reality (as Crooks & Liars suggests) or that they are unable to fully understand the world they live in?

Stephen Colbert vs. NASA: Democracy in Orbit

I suppose this means we can call Stephen "a node" to his face and there's not a thing he can do about it. ;)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Space Module: Colbert - Democracy in Orbit
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

Update: NASA decided to name the new node on the ISS "Tranquility," which is a little bit odd as it came in eighth in NASA's poll. As The Register, a British website, noted:

Tranquility wasn't the second most popular vote behind Colbert, or even the fourth. The chosen name was in fact a distant eighth in the list of public write-ins, begging the questions: what was the point of the poll anyway?

(The name "Serenity" came in second.)

As for Stephen Colbert's bid to have his name used for the node:

"We don't typically name US space station hardware after living people and this is no exception," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations.

However, NASA has shown it has a sense of humor by naming a new treadmill for the ISS "COLBERT," for "Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill." There's even a new patch for the treadmill:



NASA has invited Stephen to try out the treadmill for himself and to attend the launch when "COLBERT" goes into space aboard Endeavour in February 2010. Apparently Stephen is OK with the idea:

"I think a treadmill is better than a node, you know why? Because the node is just a box for the treadmill. Nobody says 'Hey, my mom bought me a Nike box.' They want the shoes that are inside."

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Space Module: Colbert - Sunita Williams
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

Juan Cole on The Colbert Report

Juan Cole of Informed Comment has been on a tear over the past few days, talking to a lot of the media about his new book, Engaging the Muslim World. Dr. Cole was recently on The Colbert Report, and I've embedded the video clip for the interview below. Be sure to read his post, Blogging Colbert, about what it's like to be on the show; it's quite an interesting read.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Juan Cole
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford