What happens when nerds get promoted to public positions

"There is no substantive news here, just because some disparate groups of advocates have come together for an event reminiscent of the bar scene in the first 'Star Wars' movie."

AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham in response to MoveOn, the conservative activist group RightMarch.com, the U.S. Humane Society, labor and environmental groups and online medical communities such as the Association of Cancer Online Resources coming together to fight AOL's plans to introduce a service that would charge businesses and other bulk e-mailers a fee to route their e-mail directly to a user's mailbox without first passing through junk mail filters.

There's some kind of science vortex surrounding this administration.

So here's something from an article in the WaPo describing a study of Roberts' rulings since he was appointed to the DC court of appeals. A quote in the article from the study's author:

"An overall comparison of Judge Roberts' decision-making indicates that he is somewhat more conservative than the average appellate court judge, though not dramatically so," writes the study's author, Kenneth L. Manning, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts's Dartmouth campus. [WaPo]

And here's text from the study itself:

I find that Roberts is very conservative in his decision making in criminal justice disputes, and the data suggest that he is exceptionally conservative in civil liberties and rights cases (though the limited numbers of cases in this area restrict the ability to draw any firm conclusions). In labor and economic disputes, however, Judge Roberts has been more liberal than the appellate court average. [UMass Dartmouth PoliSci Dept]

So my question is, what kind of math are you doing to get "very conservative" in 1 category + "exceptionally conservative" in 1 category + "more liberal than average" (which sounds kind of small) in 1 category and have that = "somewhat more conservative than average...though not dramatically so?" Plus, Bush has been stacking the judiciary with ultra conservative judges so I don't see how being "not dramatically" more conservative than the average appeals court judge really means anything.

Whoops.

About 4 percent of men may unknowingly be raising a child that really belongs to the mailman or some other guy, researchers speculate in a new study.

Researchers pawed through a host of scientific articles published around the world from 1950 through last year. The perceived "paternal discrepancy rate," as it is called, ranges from less than 1 percent to as high as 30 percent in the various studies. Most researchers believe the rate is less than 10 percent.

The author's settled on four percent -- one in 25 families -- in a new article in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Surprise! 1-in-25 Dads Not the Real Father [LiveScience.com]

Makes you wonder who some people's real father might be.


real father ?

Tenured Nomadic Networkers

Some interesting tidbits from a study called "The State of Consumers and Technology: Benchmark 2005" from Forrester Research:

• Broadband Internet surfers in North America watch two fewer hours of television per week than do those without Internet access.


• Broadband Internet users watch just 12 hours of TV per week, compared with 14 hours for those who are offline.


• The study separates consumers into categories that include technology "optimists," "pessimists," and "tenured nomadic networkers."


• The definition of a "tenured nomadic networker" is someone who has had Internet access in their networked homes for at least five years and owns a laptop computer. These nomads watch just 10.8 hours of TV each week.


• The study defines a tech optimist as believing technology will make life more enjoyable, while pessimists are indifferent or even hostile to technology. Pessimists outnumber optimists 51 percent to 49 percent.

Ok first off, "tenured nomadic networker" sounds so much sexier than "Internet addict," so thank you, Forrester Research. Secondly, what I want to know is, how on earth do people (especially people with high speed Internet connections who have so many options for things they can do online) manage to fit 12 hours of TV per week into their schedule? Maybe I need better time-management skills because I can barely manage to fit in the ~4 hours per week that I do (Meet the Press, Saturday Night Live, plus maybe a couple hours from a pool that includes Monk, CSI, Grey's Anatomy, The Daily Show, The Situation with Tucker Carlson, and since I feel like being honest, Desperate Housewives and the Medium.)

Study: Technology 'optimists' turn off TV [CNN]

Ana Marie Cox to leave Wonkette?

Apparently, the Roberts decision isn't the only announcement we'll be waiting for in September. Harry Jaffe of the Washingtonian is reporting that Ana Marie Cox is one of four finalists for the WaPo's "Reliable Source" gossip columnist position.

We'll be sad to see her leave Wonkette, of course, as we're quite sure the WaPo will not let her..um..insert nearly as many jokes about anal sex into her column, but we can appreciate her desire to move on to bigger and brighter (and better paying) things.

(We also notice from The Antic Muse that she's currently reading Harry Potter which makes us feel so much better about having to walk into KramerBooks and ask someone for a copy when we couldn't find it anywhere on the shelves. Actually, we had a friend ask for it while we hid our face behind an opened copy of a Chuck Palahniuk hardback, but then we had to pay for it ourself and the gig was up!)

Sun-averse malcontents get bent

Computer security conference aims to erase stereotypes...

But in line with its anarchic reputation, organizers have made a parody of their own security arrangements, asking attendees to screen their own belongings at an unmanned baggage scanner. Rubber gloves for a "do-it-yourself body cavity search" are provided free of charge.

...by creating new stereotypes of the nerdy pervert obsessed with anal! Woohoo!

Geeks gather at 'What The Hack' [CNN]

Because you asked so nicely...

TiVo, based in Alviso, California, has announced plans to insert symbols that identify advertisers during commercial breaks, making them more visible even when a customer is fast forwarding through them.

TiVo to encourage viewers to watch commercials [CNN]

Up next, Hostess announces plans to encourage children to eat their broccoli.

Special deliveries

Hollywood star Harrison Ford or musician Moby could soon be turning up on US doorsteps to personally deliver Amazon products as part of the online vendor's 10th birthday celebration.

The world's biggest Internet retailer said that for 10 days from Wednesday, randomly selected customers across the United States will open their doors to find more than they were expecting when they placed their order.

Each special delivery will be webcast on Amazon.com and the celebrations will climax on July 16, when the site will show live performances by Bob Dylan and Norah Jones.

Now we all know that one of the glorious things about Amazon is its ability to allow people to shop for and receive deliveries of goods while still in one's pajamas, so this just seemed like a surefire recipe for disaster to me. I've been waiting to see these train wrecks webcasts of people, unshowered and wearing ratty tank tops and sweatpants, opening their doors to Hollywood celebrities, wondering who would be more surprised.

Unfortunately, it looks like they really cherry picked the delivery locales - Manhattan and Chelsea in NYC, Hollywood and Beverly Hills in Cali, Martha's Vineyard, Jackson Hole. Where's the fun in that?? (I have to say after watching a couple of them, though, that you can still delight in the fact that no one really seemed to know what the whole point of the thing was. Also, I would hate Amazon if they did that to me.)

Amazon promises special celeb deliveries for 10th anniversary [Yahoo News]

Cell phone common sense

Cell phone service disabled in New York tunnels
Authorities fear terrorists could use devices to set off bombs

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

NEW YORK (AP) -- Cell phone service was disabled inside the four tunnels leading into Manhattan after the terrorist bombings in London, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg questioned Monday whether the move "makes the most sense."

Cell phones have been used to detonate explosives in Madrid and elsewhere.

Now the problem with this is how exactly cell phones were used to set off the bombs.

In the Madrid explosions, alarms in cells phones were set on vibration, which sent electric impulses to the copper detonators connected to the explosives, Spanish authorities said.

Turning off cell service isn't going to stop a phone from having an alarm set to vibrate.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

The latest Pew Internet and American Life Project study contains this nifty little statistic:

• 81% of internet users say they have stopped opening email attachments unless they are sure these documents are safe.

Um, yeah. I think a more accurate statistic would go something like this:

• 70% of internet users now know not to admit opening unsafe email attachments.


• 10% of internet users have stopped opening email attachments unless they are sure these attachments are safe; however, their definition of safe is probably a little wonky.


• 1% of internet have truly stopped opening unsafe email attachments.

Also, left out of the report was this statistic:

• 89% of internet users report clicking willingly and often on anything containing the words "naked" or "free."

Wireless Power Supplies

So about a week or so ago, I was having a conversation in which I made this statement, "What we really need to do is focus our efforts and attention on coming up with a wireless power supply." My remarks were met with a "don't be silly/crazy" look.

Well guess what I JUST read in June's Discover magazine?

R&D - Moving $pirits
By Anne Casselman
DISCOVER Vol. 26 No. 06 June 2005

Last year’s $10 million Ansari X Prize to the first nongovernmental team to launch a rocket into space has inspired two spin-offs:

• Centennial Challenges - NASA has added two contests to stimulate exploration of the solar system, both aimed at developing a space elevator (see Discover, July 2004). The Tether Challenge dares teams to develop superstrong string, while the Beam Power Challenge encourages ideas for transmitting power wirelessly. Each has a purse of $50,000. NASA hopes to spend $80 million on technology prizes over the next five years.

HA! So I'm only as silly/crazy as those guys over at NASA trying to build a space elevator.

Beijing clinic ministers to online addicts

Beijing clinic ministers to online addicts:

A soft-spoken 21-year-old man from northeastern Heilongjiang province who had been in the clinic for 10 days said his addiction had helped him escape from family pressures about his studies.

"I would stay up for 24 hours. I would eat only in front of the computer," he said.

I'm guessing they would say drinking while blogging qualifies as a problem, as well. Someone better schedule that intervention for Ana Marie Cox.

Pervy Geeks

It's hard not to imagine some pervy geek over at Wired scanning the news and thinking to himself when he saw this headline, "Heh, he said lesbos." I can't think of any other reason why this story would make the breaking news headlines section of a TECHNOLOGY NEWS website.

"LONDON (Reuters) - A love poem written 2,600 years ago by Sappho, the greatest female poet of ancient Greece, was published on Friday for the first time since it was rediscovered last year.

Sappho's verses expressing love for her female companions on the Greek island of Lesbos have either shocked or delighted generations of readers ever since they were first composed."

See the poem itself here.

This is just so wrong.

The whole world's gone mad. "Deep Throat" Mark Felt is being called a traitor. Meanwhile, G. Gordon Liddy, one of the architects of the break-in is being voted on as the World's Sexiest Vegetarian!