Links for you. Science:
The Largest Snake in the World Has Invaded the United States
Social Scientists Hit Back at NSF Grant Rules
William Pollack Dies at 87; His Vaccine Saved Infants
Large NIH projects cut
Philadelphia Children’s Hospital Bars Herbs And Supplements
Other:
Why We Are Allowed to Hate Silicon Valley (excellent)
Talking Points for the 99% (Part 1)
DonorsChoose Stabs Teachers in the Back
A Teacher Discouraged by Large Class Size
What You Need to Know About New York City’s Charter Schools
Biggest Tax Break In U.S. History May Not Be Enough For Boeing
Cisco’s disastrous quarter shows how NSA spying could freeze US companies out of a trillion-dollar opportunity
The government’s human price scanners
State Department Offers $1 Million For Information On Poaching Group
TSA blows a billion bucks on unscientific “behavioral detection” program, reinvents phrenology
Americans’ personal data shared with CIA, IRS, others in security probe
Farewell and Thanks for Reading (important about author ownership)
Jason Babin Tore Out A Handful Of Andre Ellington’s Hair But Opted Not To Keep It (I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often)
mikethemadbiologist
Normally I find your recommendations to be well reasoned, even if I don’t agree with them. (I come from the school of listen/read to understand, not to refute.) However, to give a crank, yes crank, like Evgeny Morozov the imprimatur of writing something worth reading is, well, just not well advised. I came across this blithering earlier, and found that I could not finish it. Since you gave it a rating of ‘excellent ‘ I worked my way to the end. I found it to be the typical nonsense spouted by him.
His arguments hinge on the premise that all humans are emotional beings unable to consider things in a rational manner. While I constantly state that we are a nation of morons aspiring to imbeciles, because we look to idiots for leadership (Congress) and exalt fools as demi-gods (Reagan, Obama, et al). However, it is mostly because people don’t want to think, it’s just easier for them to go on gut (emotional) decisions. This doesn’t preclude people from accidentally selecting the best course or acquiring the habit of thinking. Morozov lives in some Stalinist fantasy world where people are not allowed to think, or are driven by overwhelming forces to follow one path. Until he shows his paranoia filled blithering has any empirical data to base it on I will continue to ignore him, and recommend others do the same.
BTW – I am not on Facebook. I use Chrome with Ad blocker and and Ghostery (not because I’m paranoid, rather because I find i get a better experience). I’ve been in the technology sector longer than Morozov has walked the planet. So what if Google guesses who my neighbors are, or Spokeo thinks I still live in SillyCon Valley, I’m not going to devolve into these paranoia delusions that this information is going to send jack-booted thugs to my virtual door and force me to buy something I don’t want or that by bombarding me with information I will lose the ability to think. Yeah, I admit this little dweeb puts a burr under my saddle, but it’s because this dweeb like Chopra, and McCarthy, is able to dupe normally rational people into believing his nonsense.