Archives for November, 2010
Disco. ain’t dead
Posted by Josh Rosenau on November 30, 2010 Bruce Chapman, whose Disco. institute is still playing the greatest hits of the 1880s, writes that San Francisco is New Capital of California: as a result of the recent election the state electorate apparently decided to be governed in its top leadership almost exclusively by San Franciscans. I leave it as an exercise for the…
TSA Backlash: TSA screener edition
Posted by Josh Rosenau on November 30, 2010 In my most recent post on the TSA backlash, I suggested that part of the benefit of National Opt-Out Day was that it would put pressure on TSA staff to push for internal changes. Commenters objected that this probably overestimated the power of individual screeners. Today at Reddit, a TSA screener describes what happens when…
The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag (repost)
Posted by Josh Rosenau on November 30, 2010 Recent news events require a repost of this Classic TfK from March, 2007: As art or as political statement, I have no beef with the installation shown here. It is an artwork produced by John Sims entitled “The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag.” Neo-Confederates disagree. The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science…
Conscience money
Posted by Josh Rosenau on November 28, 2010 Via Ophelia, we get this comment by Christopher Hitchens, addressing the Catholic Church in his debate about religion with Tony Blair: if I was a member of a church that had preached that AIDS was not as bad as condoms, I would be putting some conscience money into Africa too, I must say. I’m not…
What is Genesis?
Posted by Josh Rosenau on November 24, 2010 Turns out slacktivist and I share a pet peeve: I want to mention a pet peeve of mine — a phrase frequently employed by Al Mohler and other proponents of creation-ism. It’s a phrase that bothers me as a lover of the Bible and of stories and of words. That phrase is “the creation account”…
Compulsive centrism and science denial
Posted by Josh Rosenau on November 24, 2010 There’s been a running discussion among a group of journalists about what to call folks who do not accept the scientific finding that the earth’s climate is changing and has already changed because of human activities. “Skeptic,” “denier,” “denialist,” and other contenders are all considered, and generally rejected by the journalists. “Skeptic” is the preferred…
Disrupting the game as such
Posted by Josh Rosenau on November 23, 2010 James Grimmelmann writes an important essay on The Power of the Selectee. He put it under Creative Commons, so here’s the whole thing: If you wish to fly in the United States, you will be scanned by a machine that produces a picture of your naked body. You may ask not to be scanned, but…
Opt-out of gape-or-grope on November 24
Posted by Josh Rosenau on November 23, 2010 Via Cogitamus: A surprising 70 percent of air travelers support National Opt-Out Day: Asked whether they supported National Opt-Out Day, on which air travelers plan to call attention to what they say are overly invasive TSA screening techniques by intentionally refusing the full-body scans at the airport, a surprising 70 percent answered “yes.” The poll…
Al Qaeda isn’t Lex Luthor
Posted by Josh Rosenau on November 23, 2010 Lex Luthor is incredibly evil, and incredibly powerful. He’s a technological genius, and from his research he created an astonishing pile of wealth. He’s so rich, and so powerful, that he can divert resources from his research labs to produce weapons with which to wage war on Superman. Luthor’s labs produce technologies beyond that available…
Enhanced patdowns for Congress
Posted by Josh Rosenau on November 20, 2010 Techdirt explains “Why Congress Isn’t So Concerned With TSA Nude Scans & Gropes: They Get To Skip Them“: Earlier this week, in holding a hearing with the head of the TSA, our congressional representatives didn’t seem too concerned about the public complaints about TSA security procedures: the naked scans and the gropings. Want to know…
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the