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October 28, 2006
Cryogenic expiration date
iTunes gave me video credits because they lowered the price of Battlestar Galactica after I bought it.
You have redeemed your video credit, valid for 5 free videos priced at $1.99.You must use this credit before Dec. 31, 9999.
I think I might be able to handle that.
Posted by b-applegate at 11:13 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 17, 2006
Only in England
Local council spends 10,000 pounds to find the man who won't stop saying "Baa" during meetings. I love it. It's like a real-life episode of the Goon Show.
Posted by b-applegate at 12:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 11, 2006
Evolution and uninformed Americans
I was talking to my dad about macroevolution a while back and thought I would collect some links about it.
This is a list of observed instances of speciation or failed attempts to induce it, evidence that macroevolution does take place. One of the most dramatic and interesting is Dodd's experiment under 5.3.6, where the scientist raised four populations of fruit flies on maltose and four populations on starch. After many generations had passed, Dodd put the populations back together. The starch-fed fruit flies would only mate with other starch-fed flies, and the maltose-fed flies would only mate with maltose-fed flies. See the different kinds of speciation here.
The U.S. was second to last in a recent survey of 32 European countries, us and Japan on how much of the adult population accepts evolution. Only Turkey scored lower, an interesting little commonality between the effects of American Christian fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism, sez a guy in this article.
But this evolution crap is actually hard. The real problem is that most Americans don't know where Ohio is and they know as much math as Latvians do. And these people think they know enough to vote. Sometimes I really don't see why there shouldn't be a test for voting. I know there's a sordid history there vis-a-vis race relations, but California bases everything else -- what quality of education you receive (GATE, STAR), what college you go to (SAT) and whether you graduate from high school -- on standardized tests of young people. There's no reason you shouldn't have to pass a test to register to vote when you turn 18.
Posted by b-applegate at 4:14 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 9, 2006
A shirt with this thing Ben said one time on it
Everyone should buy this shirt with this thing Ben said one time on it.
Also I am a copy editor at the business desk now. Moving up (sideways?) in the world. At least I have more leg room under my desk now.
And it turned out I had mononucleosis and a strep infection at the same time. What an overachiever I am, huh?
Also this is super-funny if you speak Japanese -- Shoko Nakagawa teaches Otakugaku.
The significance of the North Korean nuclear test depends on China's reaction, and to a lesser extent Russia's. If China cuts off trade and/or aid it will mean major consequences for the regime. If not, this is just another insane thing to add to Kim Jong-il's pedigree of crazy, and we go back to stalemate. The second scenario seems distinctly more likely to me, and probably more in my personal interests vis-a-vis physical safety.
Finally, it looks like I'm skipping the Tokyo Int'l Film Fest this time, since one of the two films I wanted to see (Paprika) is going to be at Pusan this weekend and I'm going to Tokyo next month to meet the brother anyway. I'll just have to suck it up and see Tekkon Kinkreet later.
Posted by b-applegate at 8:32 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack