Friday 16 August 2013

Friday Morning Ramble: The ‘Who Is Spying on You Right Now?’ Edition

Just Who Is Spying on You Right Now? Who the hell knows. But what a comprehensive grasp of detail on this issue the Prime Minister showed the other night, especially when he’s otherwise managed to forget every detail of who he’s ever met and when, and what he promised them.
Fluency, ease of manner - and Norton Antivirus – Russell Brown, HARD NEWS
Key pledges to restrict spy agency's probe rights – Audrey Young, NZ HERALD
All glory to the hypnotoad – DIM POST
GCSB Bill remains flawed despite proposed changes – LAW SOCIETY
Key vs Campbell: the transcript – THE STANDARD

Just Who Is Spying on You Right Now? American Edition.
The NSA: And Who Will Watch the Watchmen? – Doug Hornig, CASEY RESEARCH 
They Know Much More Than You Think – James Bamford, NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

We couldn’t persuade a National Government to do it in a Christchurch that desperately needs it, but an Australian Labor Government wants to give it a crack. “Speaking in Darwin, [Kevin Rudd] unveils plans for a special economic zone in the Northern Territory.”
Labor pledges lower company tax in new Northern Territory economic zone – THE AUSTRALIAN

Supplementary Question: How do you think Christchurch would be doing now if this had happened thirty months ago?  
Make Christchurch an Enterprise Zone not a Ward of the State. – NOT PC, Feb 2011

So, how is that great National-led Government policy to encourage first-home buyers into affordable housing going to work out?  “It will have an entirely predictable outcome: higher house prices and higher debt.” Oh dear.
First home buyer help – lets repeat others’ mistakes – Shamubeel Eaqub, THE VISIBLE HAND

"Ah, if only all of life were like the first sip of your second martini."
- unattributed

Fair question.
Is Macroeconomics Really Economics? – Robert Higgs, CIRCLE BASTIAT

Did the Soviets have a man in the White House during the War and the Great Depression?
FDR's Traitor? – Andrew Bostom, AMERICAN THINKER
An Unambiguous Example of Harry Hopkins’s Pro-Soviet Perfidy, Revealed – ANDREW BOSTOM
Diana West’s Attempt to Respond – Ron Radosh, FRONT PAGE

Isn’t that thoughtful of the Argentine President.
Cristina Fernandez Wants You To Have An ErectionZERO HEDGE

Fresh from discovering Amanda Palmer has breasts, the UK Daily Mail has been plagiarising articles on a regular basis without consent.
A quick story about plagiarism, starring the Daily Mail! – BRANDON SNEED

Atheists in Bible Belt Georgia, USA, have been placing copies of the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible in holiday cabins…

So, let’s get this right. All scientists agree that mankind is responsible for global warming and that it will be catastrophic. Well, except for the overwhelming majority of earth scientists, engineers, meteorologists, geologists…
Peer-Reviewed Survey Finds Majority Of Scientists Skeptical Of Global Warming Crisis – James Taylor, FORBES  [Turns out on closer investigation the survey is unreliable.  My apologies for wasting your time.]

Because the earth has experienced massive CO2 pulses and  recovered before.
An illustration that CO2 won’t roast the Earth in a runaway tipping point…WATTS UP WITH THAT

“I was a denier, before denying was cool.”
- Sen. Frank Nicely

Hydraulic fracturing has been one of the most remarkable innovations in recent decades. Yet so-called environmentalists and hardcore progressives are still determined to take as gospel the deliberately misleading documentary Gasland.
Another nail in the Gasland coffin – HOT AIR

Brain scans reveal all that right-brain left-brain mumbo jumbo has about as much credibility as the science of phrenology.
Researchers Debunk Myth of 'Right-Brained' and 'Left-Brained' Personality Traits – SCIENCE DAILY

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The Darkest Day in Australian Sport, courtesy of the Essendon Football Club? Whose only defence against doping their players in last year’s AFL season—creating what their own internally commissioned report called “a pharmacologically experimental environment—is going to have to be based on their (intentionally?) sloppy paperwork. “We didn’t know what was going on, guv”? Please.
Words of defiance baffling – Caroline Wilson, REAL FOOTY
Admission may have saved Hird's mates – Caroline Wilson, REAL FOOTY
'It's tough to break people's hearts' – Adrian Proszenko, BRISBANE TIMES
Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts – Peter Baulderstone, FOOTY ALMANAC
John Harms on AFL Round 21 – John Harms, TATTS

Wasn’t Microsoft’s dominance of the operating system market supposed to control for ever its share of the browser market?  So much for the mainstream theory of monopoly, I guess.

Is Nevil Shute’s Jean Paget one of the most admirable female characters in fiction? [spoilers]
Trade Is Made of Win – THE FREEMAN

45 evocative photos. (Part 20 of a weekly 20-part retrospective of World War II)
World War II: After the War – THE ATLANTIC

Like optical illusions? Like graffiti?
The 20 Best Graffiti Optical Illusions – NOAH TUNES

Power naps!
Healthy Living: How To Maximize Napping – APARTMENT THERAPY

The stiff upper lip in action.
18 Ways British People Have Of Saying “Go F**k Yourself” – BUZZFEED

Just some of the shit you’ll find in bad beer.
CHEMICAL vs ORGANIC: Wine & Beer - CONSCIOUS LIVING ACADEMY

So one can only celebrate.
Profits dip at DB – NZ HERALD

And finally, a message to Egyptians from Friedrich Hayek’s generation of Austrians:

[Hat tips to On Liberty Street, Will Manning, Geek Press, Hem, Heartland Institute, Andrea Vance, N.o.a.h, Kevin McKeever]

Thanks for reading.
You have a great weekend, now.

PC
PS: Go the ABs.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had to laugh at the Skeptics Bible. It makes the same mistake as many Christians in assuming that the understanding of science 3,500 years ago was as it is today so when they talk about the firment that means it exists rather than that's what the early Hebrews believed existed. It also ignores all the cultural stuff that impacted civilsations then as now and flavours their writing.

Must try harder.

3:16

Peter Cresswell said...

I always thought the book was supposed to be the inerrant Word of Jahweh. Good to hear then than his knowledge has increased over time.

Dolf said...

Ah yes. When you agree with it, the Bible is the one and only truth, but when the going gets tough, one has to realize that its not literal and all about interpretation and context.

3:16: just another intellectually dishonest Christian.

Anonymous said...

http://news.yahoo.com/galaxy-anatomy-early-universe-cosmic-zoo-153805552.html

"The Hubble photo survey found that the assorted range of galaxy types seen today were also present about 11 billion years ago, meaning that the types of galaxies seen today, which astronomers described as a "cosmic zoo," have been around for at least 80 percent of the universe’s lifespan. The universe is estimated to be 13.82 billion years old."

"The Hubble Sequence underpins a lot of what we know about how galaxies form and evolve — finding it to be in place this far back is a significant discovery," Lee said.

What Lee didn't say was "back to the drawing board."

gregster

Sam said...

Did you read the paper linked to in the Forbes article? It was a self-selected survey of a thousand members of APEGA, the professional body representing geoscientists and engineers from Alberta, whose oil industry is the largest source of carbon emissions in Canada. The purpose of the paper was to investigate how these professionals dealt with the possibility that their industry was doing serious damage to the environment.

It undermines your (sometimes very legitimate) points when you seem to willfully misrepresent evidence in your own "anti-warming" sources, although you could rightly argue Forbes started it.

Peter Cresswell said...

Hi Sam, Yes, you make a fair point. In fact I'd only skimmed the article before posting it, on the recommendation of a friend.

But you're right, it doesn't say what it purports to say. I shall withdraw it, with my apology for poor quality control.

Sam said...

Much appreciated Peter, keep the interesting stuff coming