25 November 2005
Today's reading list
- The Man Who Sold the War [ via Rolling Stone ]
- Crisis in Cosmology [ via In Defense of Marxism ]
- TiddlyWiki
The CIA paid the Rendon Group more than $23 million dollars to help bring down Saddam Hussein through propaganda and media manipulation. That propaganda, fed to Judith Miller among others, once reported was used by the administration to bolster support for the war. In one breath John Rendon criticises the media for reporting unflattering and incorrect information about the war, in the next he boasts of feeding incorrect information to that same media. Jackass.
It reminds me of the essay "Astroturf: How Manufactured 'Grassroots' Movements are Subverting Democracy" from The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003. In it, Jason Stella outlines how propaganda--lies--from the Kuwaiti government was used to push lawmakers to vote for the first Iraq war.
First, I find out that string theory is in question, now the big bang too? My head is spinning. All of those problems that still exist with the theory could eventually bring it down--and in the process describe a universe that is at least 70 billion years old instead of 13! This is big. At the center of the dispute is plasma cosmology.
The article is, however, absolutely dispicable in the way it presents modifications that occured in the big bang theory. At several points, scientific adjustments are presented as some sort of weasling out on the part of the scientists. Look: theories are meant to adjust as new facts are presented. That's what science is. If the theory eventually falls apart--which the big bang may-or-may-not--then the theory that best represents the new facts will replace it. Too much sensationalist science reporting. Jackasses.
This, oddly, makes me wish Brian Greene had a blog. I wonder what the discussions are in the physicist and cosmologist circles...
And, bravo to Eric Lerner for his vigilance in keeping the Wikipedia entry on plasma cosmology unmolested by rabid graduate students. New science is new science and it needs to be presented with fact and not ridiculed with emotion.
Self-contained wiki based on JavaScript contained within the HTML pages. Basically, you can save your entire, functioning wiki to a single HTML file. Client-side scripting at its best. Now I have to think about porting my development wiki, and maybe even my blog, to this.
- It's not him, it's us posted by sstrader on 5 May 2016 at 9:26:33 PM
- More political transcriptions posted by sstrader on 20 March 2016 at 10:19:06 AM
- Health cost posted by sstrader on 18 September 2015 at 10:39:05 AM
- Assassination dept. posted by sstrader on 18 December 2013 at 11:58:24 PM
- Repeat posted by sstrader on 6 September 2013 at 8:19:58 PM Other entries categorized in Programming:
- Techniques after using Swift for a month posted by sstrader on 26 August 2015 at 11:41:51 PM
- Some thoughts on Ruby after finishing a week (minus one day) of training posted by sstrader on 15 December 2011 at 8:59:30 PM
- Links on the singleton pattern posted by sstrader on 9 December 2011 at 9:19:50 AM
- Phonebot posted by sstrader on 29 October 2011 at 6:37:05 PM
- The labeled break in Java posted by sstrader on 4 September 2011 at 11:27:56 AM Other entries categorized in Science & Technology:
- Posthuman dystopia posted by sstrader on 22 March 2015 at 10:21:25 AM
- Today's reading list posted by sstrader on 19 January 2014 at 12:10:54 PM
- Closing posted by sstrader on 18 January 2014 at 9:51:27 AM
- Info wars 2010 posted by sstrader on 13 February 2010 at 11:50:50 AM
- Limiting noise posted by sstrader on 15 December 2009 at 9:58:00 AM Other entries categorized in Today's reading list:
- Today's reading list posted by sstrader on 6 March 2010 at 4:51:50 PM
- Today's reading list posted by sstrader on 8 February 2010 at 8:23:12 PM
- Today's reading list posted by sstrader on 2 January 2010 at 11:53:18 AM
- Today's reading list posted by sstrader on 23 December 2009 at 9:51:03 AM
- Week's reading list posted by sstrader on 28 August 2009 at 2:44:16 PM