Matt Yglesias breaks down a hypothetical algorithm to explain why the NSA datamining could be problematic.
My Turn For Meming
Looks like John has tagged me with the meme of fours. Read my answers in the extended text. To keep this moving I tag (more or less randomly) four of the great bloggers who hang out hereabouts: Confederate Yankee, Ron Beasley, Pooh and In Search of Utopia Anderson.
Four jobs you’ve had in your life: Summer-camp counselor, carpet machine operator, forklift driver (summer jobs), teaching assistant (grad school).
Four movies you could watch over and over: Contact, Fellowship of the Ring, Whale Rider, Spirited Away.
Four places you’ve lived: Boston, MA; Pittsburgh, PA; Colorado Springs, CO; Groton, CT
Four TV shows you love to watch: Daily Show, Firefly, South Park, SG-1.
Four places you’ve been on vacation: France, New Zealand, Ireland, Barcelona.
Four websites you visit daily: Carpetbagger, Kos, Josh Marshall, Boing Boing.
Four of your favorite foods: My wife’s stewed rabbit over fettuchine, Mexican-style wet burritos, habanero peppers with the seeds in, unagi (eel sushi).
Four places you’d rather be: The Sharp Edge Beer Emporium, New Zealand, a certain hacienda in the Sandia mountains of New Mexico, anywhere that you find vineyards.
Four albums you can’t live without: Yo Yo Ma, Cello Suites Inspired by Bach; The Battlefield Band, Happy Daze; Eliades Ochoa, Sublime Illusion; Various Artists, Reconquista: the Latin Rock Invasion.
***Update***
It helps to check whether somebody’s already been tagged. Post in the comments if anybody else has gotten this more than once.
Yet Another Op-Ed on ID
James Q. Wilson explains it as clearly as is possible:
The other meaning of theory is the popular and not the scientific one. People use “theory” when they mean a guess, a faith or an idea. A theory in this sense does not state a testable relationship between two or more things. It is a belief that may be true, but its truth cannot be tested by scientific inquiry. One such theory is that God exists and intervenes in human life in ways that affect the outcome of human life. God may well exist, and He may well help people overcome problems or even (if we believe certain athletes) determine the outcome of a game. But that theory cannot be tested. There is no way anyone has found that we can prove empirically that God exists or that His action has affected some human life. If such a test could be found, the scientist who executed it would overnight become a hero.
Evolution is a theory in the scientific sense. It has been tested repeatedly by examining the remains of now-extinct creatures to see how one species has emerged to replace another. Even today we can see some kinds of evolution at work, as when scholars watch how birds on the Galapagos Islands adapt their beak size from generation to generation to the food supplies they encounter.
***Proponents of intelligent design respond by saying that there are some things in the natural world that are so complex that they could not have been created by “accident.” They often use the mousetrap as a simile. We can have all of the parts of a trap–a board, a spring, a clamp–but it will not be a mousetrap unless someone assembles it. The assembler is the “intelligent designer.”
***What schools should do is teach evolution emphasizing both its successes and its still unexplained limitations. Evolution, like almost every scientific theory, has some problems. But they are not the kinds of problems that can be solved by assuming that an intelligent designer (whom ID advocates will tell you privately is God) created life. There is not a shred of evidence to support this theory, one that has been around since the critics of Darwin began writing in the 19th century.
Some people worry that if evolution is a useful (and, so far, correct) theory, we should still see it at work all around us. We don’t. But we can see it if we take a long enough time frame. Mankind has been on this earth for about 100,000 years. In that time there have been changes in how people appear, but they have occurred very slowly. After all, 1,000 centuries is just a blink in geological time.
Of course, those observations are pointless when dealing with the ‘young earth’ crowd, and all ID proponents are doing is providing creationists with cover. Thank goodness, people are beginning to see through it.
As a side note, did any of you have to read James Q. Wilson’s texts as an undergrad?
Favorite Gifts & the Meme of Fours
I don’t want to leave on a down note (see the post just below), so an open thread. Put the favorite gift you gave and the favorite gift you received in the comments.
*** Update ***
Guess I am not out of here yet- I got tagged by Ezra:
Four jobs you’ve had in your life: Teacher, soldier, probation officer, waiter/busboy
Four movies you could watch over and over: Airplane, Harold and Maude, Breaking Away, Goodfellas
Four places you’ve lived: Bethany, WV; Morgantown, WV, Fulda, Germany; Millbrook, NY
Four TV shows you love to watch: Boston Legal, 24, BTVS, Monday Night Football.
Four places you’ve been on vacation: France, Austria, Spain, Bavaria.
Four websites you visit daily: Check my blogroll.
Four of your favorite foods: Mexican (any type- really), Pad Thai, sushi, a blood-red steak with fresh horseradish
Four places you’d rather be: I like where I am.
Four albums you can’t live without: Little Feat- Waiting For Columbus, Frank Zappa-Live at the Fillmore East ’71, DAG- Righteous, James Brown- Make it Funky.
I tag Bill, Hubris, and Dorkafork at INDC Journal, and Tim F.
Time Flies
I am having a hard time believing the tsunami happened just a year ago.
It sure seems to me that even though an enormous amount happened this year, it was still a REALLY fast year. Just seemed to speed by.
The Season of Giving
Kevin Drum lists a number of conservative blogs he reads on a daily basis (we don’t make the cut, which means there is room to grow next year!), and I thought it would be interesting to list the liberal/progressive/Democratic blogs I read on a daily basis. These are in no particular order:
The Carpetbagger Report– While these are in no particular order, The Carpetbagger Report is a first stop for both me and Tim F.
The Daily Kos– If you want to know what the left is up to, the first place to check is the Daily Kos. And not just the front page stuff, but the recommended diaries as well. At over a half million hits a day, dKos does not need any advertising, but since this is what I read, I thought I would list it.
TalkLeft– If you are interested in liberal viewpoints on all things policy and all things crime, check out TalkLeft.
Mark Kleiman and friends– Almost as cranky as me, Mark Kleiman is always up to date on the Republican policy scandal du jour (from a liberal perspective).
Crooks and Liars– John Amato’s leftwing blog is one your one stop shop for video from the MSM.
The Daily Howler– Bob Somerby actually is crankier than me, and the most tenacious critic on the web.
Ezra Klein– Formerly of Pandagon, Ezra struck out on his own and is a worthwhile daily stop.
Sadly, No!– Complete and total smartasses, and this description won’t offend them.
The Whiskey Bar– The best writer of the Kos alums, and an acerbic and full-throttle liberal, Billmon is always worth your time.
The Bull Moose– My kind of Democrat.
Ain’t No Bad Dude– He doesn’t blog enough, but I check out Brian Linse every day regardless.
Feministe– Just to see what the ‘chicks’ are up to.
This isn’t a complete and total list, because I read far more than these (including Kevin Drum’s Washington Monthly), but these are some of my daily stops. I actually read more liberal/left blogs than conservative ones, because I am a member of the VRWC and get Karl Rove’s memos. I already know what the Republicans are thinking.
At any rate, there is my list. If Tim has a list of conservative blogs he checks out, I will put that up later.
