The Eternal Gaijin

Somewhere between the outrage of torture and the creepiness of the Scientology navy comes this little number: Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > The Death Ship Have they given up trying? Is there any way that this could be justified? "Well, we don't have a law banning floating prison torture ships if they're blue."

I'm just going to give you a link and say "me too." Bronze Dog devotes attention to a jackass here . Do they just cut and paste from each others' emails or what? I mean, Darwin's deathbed conversion? Is jackass serious? Powered by ScribeFire .

Is torture effective? From Andrew Sullivan : I applaud you for standing up on this torture principle. [snip] [The incident detailed in the snip] brought to mind the training I had received on POW handling a decade before as a 2ndLt in Quantico . We were told not to torture because (1) it was wrong and (2) it didn't work.  I remember our instructors noting that even the Soviets didn't torture for information. because it didn't yield reliable information.  The Soviets tortured for retribution, to make an example, maybe just for kicks, but not for information.  That contention was borne out for me on the streets of Fallujah.  Torture doesn't work.  In fact, in a counterinsurgency it works against you because it turns the locals against you.  That is why the Marines took that guy back to his house.  Because they knew we were trying to win that neighborhood's trust, and torturing one of their own was not the way to do it, even if he was w...

Saturday Saturday's commute went a bit better; I arrived and registered fairly easily, got my breakfast and sat with Friend DEG again. Michael Shermer's talk basically covered a few of the ways that thinking goes wrong especially with regards to the idea of agency in happenings. Apparently some of the work Sam Harris has been doing in neuroscience has shown that credulity is a default position for the human brain. We'll take what we hear at face value and to not believe it takes a bit more work.  Bad news for fighting the various folk beliefs in astronomy, biology, psychology, economics, politics, conspiracy theory, et cetera, that we need to. Susan Begley gave an excellent informative talk that strayed close to a depressing talk. The upshot it that in the fight against creationism and pseudo-science we can't count on the media. it would be a mistake to think that the role of the press is education, and as such it's important to know they're not our ally...

Bounty offered to anyone who can prove homeopathy outperforms placebos - Boing Boing Powered by ScribeFire .

So on Friday and Saturday I attended The Amazing Meeting 6 in Las Vegas. Originally I was going to attend merely the Friday, but it turned out that my wife got bored of listening to me talk about it and sent me back for the second day so she could relax on her own. Vegas, it seems is designed intentionally to make sure you don't actually get anywhere, as this would allow you out of the casino. A few times on the way to the Flamingo this became intensely, frustratingly apparent. The Luxor with its size, floor plan, and emergency lack of tram service to the nearest monorail station seemed to be actively conspiring to keep me where I was. And let's not even try to discuss the idea of cashing a traveller's cheque with a Japanese driving license. So my Tilley adventure clothing started to come in handy, as I was going to be safari-ing my way to the TAM venue, almost a full kilometre away. Meeting up with Friend DEG (man the bridges, brave Horatius) I took my seat two-thirds ...

All the facts in the world don't amount to a hill of metaphors when it comes to influencing people. Comedians often understand this. The funnies and best comedy exists at the edge of taste and acceptance because through comedy we can look back on ourselves and reflect in a way that you can't with fact. Comedians can truly get to the point with a quip in a way that no-one else can. You've often heard 'it's funny because it's true.' Follow the link for 7 great moments in creationism critique through comedy: Top Te... er, Seven Comedians on Evolution vs. Creationism | The Lay Scientist Powered by ScribeFire .