Hummings of a Happy Hurkle

While we’re on the subject of obesity and science vs common knowledge, here are a couple of studies that go against the grain.

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=100704F

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Scientology is a dangerous cult which aims to maximise power and wealth for its
inner circle, with no concern for who it hurts on the way. Stay well clear —
it bites and the bite can be fatal.

Now THAT’s what you need to know about Scientology.

If you want the dirty details, start here.

http://www.xenu.net/

In Australia we are truly lucky to have a strong, independent radio and TV service provided by the ABC.

There is a very good reason not to watch news or current affairs on commercial TV — it’s heavily filtered. Not censored exactly, but filtered. Chomsky has written at length about this.

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One of the great web comics of all time.

http://xkcd.com/386/

But aren’t they all?

Nice article here about the USA quietly moving away from coal:
http://www.celsias.com/2008/02/16/us-moving-toward-ban-on-new-coal-fired-power-plants/

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Alice, Bob, Carol and David are two parents and their son and daughter. The problem is to work out which is which.

You are told that:

* Bob and Alice are blood relatives.
* David is older than Bob.
* Carol is younger than David.
* Carol is older than Alice.

However, two of these statements are not true! Can you figure out this family?

Solution over the fold.
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Just ran across this amazing cross reference of the James II bible:

http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/bibleviz/index.html

The strikingly obvious thing from this visual representation is that the Christian Bible is about Israel, Judah, Jerusalem, David, Egypt and other Jewish and pre-Jewish stuff, and almost anything except Jesus/Christ.

Nothing like a picture to put it in context.

Noam Chomsky is both a god in the linguistics field and a thought-provoking commentator on American politics.

http://chomsky.info/articles/20080101.htm

A quick romp through US military history, Vietnam, Cuba, Russia, China, Iran; some speculation on how the US would behave if it were a democracy, a bit of Orwell. Classic Chomsky stuff.

But the key observation: we (the US) own the world, so of course whatever we do is right. Period.

And that reminds me of the old geek joke…

She: So, what do you do?

He: I teach Unix.

She: Oh.

[pauses]

She: What do you teach them?

Hmmm.

Ever wondered why English translations of Chinese signs and notices are so bad? And in particular, why they may contain words that are simply not used in polite circles?

Here is an article that explains why, with some detailed analysis and absolutely classic examples. In a word: people relying on bad software.
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/005195.html