Pinboard

Some pretty depressing summary numbers in the changes from 2009 to 2010. The recession really has hit the bottom percentiles the most.

Some deeply disturbing trends obscured by the 15% national average.

I like the water cooler/gas tank for refilling gas-powered laptops.

It's almost comic book.

A counter argument to the neo-interventionist Responsibility to Protect doctrine, mostly on the "we don't know yet" grounds.

"The nature of sovereignty itself is thus changed: legitimate governments are defined not only by their control of a territory and a population but also by how they exercise that control." I think this is the right direction to eventually have a united federalist state-of-states world government.

Astronomers using ESO’s world-leading exoplanet hunter HARPS have today announced a rich haul of more than 50 new exoplanets, including 16 super-Earths, one of which orbits at the edge of the habitable zone of its star. By studying the properties of all the HARPS planets found so far, the team has found that about 40% of stars similar to the Sun have at least one planet lighter than Saturn.

The Washington Post's religion section covers faith and spirituality news wherever it exists, from politics to parenting, from sex to sports. Look for news, analysis and opinion to keep you up on daily conversations about faith, spirituality, ethics and values.

David Petraeus might be retiring from the Army today, but he won't really be gone. Petraeus practically reforged the Army in his image. And even as he skirted the line between executing strategy and creating it, as a general, Petraeus really was just that good.

I knew there was a better way. I assumed it would be to have all window seats march in in order, but their alternating method spaces boarding even better.

The current view on the Establishment Clause has years of judicial interpretation behind it. I'm not sure how connected it is to the states' rights version of the Civil War.

I think a lot of people like predicting an end to Apple's success, but they miss a key point: The Steve is still present, just not publicly visible as CEO anymore.

I don't think I buy his argument, but I suppose it's at least a testable hypothesis.

I think he's the most interesting, least crazy, Republican candidate, but his position on some issues is still too far right for me.

I definitely didn't follow all of this, but it was interesting to see the different categories of luck that they model.

Questioning widely accepted conclusions of the scientific community means you question science as a way of answering questions, which is not away to lead in modern society.

It pays to make friends, if you're a fleeing dictator?

I am shocked, shocked, that error bars aren't properly used in reporting data.

I like the "mirror" quality of this brief there-and-back-again.

Hilariously snarky review of the patriotic symbolism in this year's campaign logos. A taste: "For Obama, our most voweled president, the O works perfectly: you get the elegance and cohesion and completion in a way that no other letter in the English language could match."

Communities in Vermont and upstate New York dug out from under debris, and houses were swept away.

Interesting point that prominent atheists may have more in common with literalist evangelicals than other religious people.

Definitely bad PR to have your new ratings system give a near-failing grade to your newest rated protections.

It descends a bit into a rant about academia, but I think it makes a good point about where extreme relativism can lead.

A follow up to that NYT opinion piece on ideas pretty much syncs with my long tail view: "The fact that, say, The Economist will pay me to write at all and the fact that writers no longer get paid very much are effects of the same technological developments."

I think it's unfair to label current conservatives as a whole as racist, but it's hard to deny that the desire to return the US to an earlier form is about returning to white male dominance.

Points for using the word "effluvium", but this is just another slightly different take on the now typical "intellectual overload is ruining our brains" screed. I think what he doesn't realize is that it's more accurate to say we're in the long tail of ideas.

I hope that the current anti-reality trend dies out before it has dangerous consequences.

I still think Citizens United will go down as the worst Supremes decision in recent memory, but I'm glad Colbert is there to mock it.

Le gran sigh. The actually useful programs are small enough and obscure enough to be vulnerable to "waste saving".