Antikythera mechanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

...is an ancient analog computer designed to predict astronomical positions and eclipses.http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

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Gilbert, AZ Censors Biology Books the Old-Fashioned Way

The Gilbert, AZ school board has voted to tear out a page from Campbell's Biology (a standard highly-recommended textbook that many doctors and scientists fondly remember), because it discusses contraception without also discussing adoption. Julie Smith, a member of the Gilbert Public Schools governing board, said that she was a Catholic and "we do not contracept." Smith convinced the board that Campbell's violates Arizona law to teach "preference, encouragement and support to childbirth and adoption" over abortion. The Arizona Education Department decided that the pages didn't violate Arizona law, but nevermind. Rachel Maddow generously risked hassles for copyright violation and posted the missing pages as a service to Arizona honors biology students.

http://m.slashdot.org/story/210423

ABC Reportedly Paid Darren Wilson Six-Figure Fee for Interview

ABC engaged in a bidding war to score the first interview with Wilson.
...  Read more

The Koch 130 | Mother Jones

How the billionaire brothers have spread their web of influence across every sector of American society.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/koch-brothers-web-influence

7 Shockingly Awful Things Rich People Did This Week

"This week we learn that any one of us could succeed in this country and destroy those beneath us..."

http://www.alternet.org/7-shockingly-awful-things-rich-people-did-week

How Dark Money Is Taking Over Judicial Elections | Mother Jones

"...Most people don't think about judicial elections until they find themselves staring at a group of unfamiliar names on the ballot. But judges are selected by voters in 39 states, whether in an initial election or a retention election after being appointed. The explainer below details how special-interest money has increasingly flooded the system over the last several decades—including the first ever set of data on campaign money in lower court races..."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/judicial-elections-dark-money

Five Important Lessons From A Trip To The Apple Store

Want to sell more stuff? Take some tips from the folks who do it best. ...  Read more

Paul Krugman Reveals the Culprit Behind the GOP's Rabid Anti-Environment Stance

Breathing used to be a non-partisan issue. Here's what changed.
...  Read more

The Nature of Science

"...This is the 4th video in our series of classroom supplements. We covered the scientific method in our previous video, but I thought we really needed to explain it a bit more for the high school kids. Because it's very rare that they're told what constitutes evidence, the difference between a theory and a law, between hypotheses and theory and what 'theory' really means. Essentially I'm just repeating my last presentation on epistemology..."

http://youtu.be/zVKhP07mJ7c

Extreme Weather? Blame the End Times

A shocking new report on American attitudes toward climate change reveals just how ignorant we are—and how rationality is withering on the vine. Yet e...  Read more

TIL a European engineer has created a liquid-filled, sun-tracking, energy-harvesting glass sphere

... is so powerful that it can not only collect solar rays as well as reflected lunar light. It can magnify this light by a factor of 10,000, turning illumination into heat energy. Read more

Tip: Instead of saying 'yeah you told me' when someone repeats a story, say 'yes, I remember this.'

Read more

Fox Pundits Horrified Over Obamacare Outreach Program Targeting Black Friday Shoppers

While most of the country took the day off for the Thanksgiving holiday, the propaganda over at Faux "news" never stops. From the Thanksgiving day edi...  Read more

Republicans Mull Barring Obama From Delivering State Of The Union Address

 The poor right-wingers are feeling so impotent they're actually mulling the possibility of telling the President to go home and shut up about the Stat...  Read more

D.C. Police Are Planning Asset Seizures Years In Advance

 Here in Philadelphia, we're confiscating more than any police force in the country and as far as I know, no one on our city council will touch this --...  Read more

UN Committee Blasts US On Police Brutality, Torture

GENEVA (AP) — Police brutality, military interrogations and prisons were among the top concerns of a U.N. panel's report Friday that found the United ... Read more

Religious Wars

Read more

Former leader of 'gay cure' group marries same-sex partner

"I believe that due to my former notoriety, my marriage will definitely have its impact," he said, according to Pink News..."
Read more

Watch a Home-Schooler Mom Go Through a Science Museum and Destroy Evolution

She claims that liberals and scientists are covering up evidence of the existence of dragons.
...  Read more

What I Have to Teach My Black Child That a White Parent Would Never Have to Worry About

I shouldn’t have to train my boy to live his life to deflect the danger of other people’s warped perceptions of him.
...  Read more

5 Absurd, Deeply Racist Things Rudy Giuliani Said This Week

Giuliani will not stop spouting off offensively about Ferguson.
...  Read more

Why one Walmart worker is on strike

Victoria Alvarez explains why she and other Walmart workers nationwide are striking today, despite Walmart's attempts at silencing them.
...  Read more

Dan Dennett: Responding to Pastor Rick Warren

Philosopher Dan Dennett calls for religion -- all religion -- to be taught in schools, so we can understand its nature as a natural phenomenon. Then he takes on The Purpose-Driven Life, disputing its claim that, to be moral, one must deny evolution.

http://youtu.be/DTepA-WV_oE

Expiring on Netflix 12/1/2014: Reds

This Oscar-winning epic follows American communist journalist John Reed, his lover Louise Bryant and their allies after the Bolshevik Revolution.

http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/898443?trkid=13641790

There Is No Tech Worker Shortage And If There Is It's The Tech Companies' Fault

You may have noticed that the big tech companies are agitating for an expansion of the H1B visa system whereby foreigners with certain tech skills can...  Read more

AT&T backtracks on fiber claims, says it won’t really halt 100-city plan | Ars Technica

...So in AT&T's more detailed response yesterday (four days after the FCC's requested response date of November 21), the company contradicts Stephenson's statement and claims that it was simply misinterpreted...

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/11/att-backtracks-on-fiber-claims-says-it-wont-really-halt-100-city-plan/#p3

10 Ways to Deal With Your Right-Wing Relatives Over the Holidays

Holidays are stressful enough without having to listen to Uncle Bernie's bigoted rants.
...  Read more

Millionaire Chinese businessman bulldozes run down huts in village where he grew up and builds luxury flats for residents instead... for free.

Read more

Walmart Workers Leave Food Donation Bin Outside Home of Walmart Heiress

"Walmart owner Alice Walton: We don’t want charity. We want decent pay. Love, Walmart workers."
Read more

WikiLeaks founder: Google works for US State Department

Reported in Russian news media Tass... Read more

New study finds that DNA can survive a flight through space and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere and still pass on genetic information.

These results indicate that life and organic molecules could potentially spread between planetary bodies through meteor impacts.
Read more

The Power of Blue and Green in Hollywood

How much of what you see on the screen is real?
Read more

Go See This

Most infographics don't add that much. But this one is very helpful in understanding some broad outlines about the Wilson grand jury. PBS Newshour has... Read more

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/newly-released-witness-testimony-tell-us-michael-brown-shooting/

Pete Seeger: Ode to Joy

Better than TV...
http://youtu.be/8HOIyqXIc8Q

Explosions, Evacuations and Death: The Incredible Risks of Transporting Crude Oil Via Train

Local residents and government officials are often unaware of the potential dangers.
...  Read more

Talking Turkey: A Holiday Guide For Responding To Your Uncle Who Loves Fox News

I don’t recommend starting a fight over the dinner table, but sometimes the followers of the Religious Right are determined to stir things up.
... Read more

So true today...

Letter from President Harry S. Truman to Senator Joseph McCarthy...  Read more
(Ted Cruz, anyone?)

My dear Senator:

I read your telegram of February eleventh from Reno, Nevada with a great deal of interest and this is the first time in my experience, and I was ten years in the Senate, that I ever heard of a Senator trying to discredit his own Government before the world. You know that isn't done by honest public officials. Your telegram is not only not true and an insolent approach to a situation that should have been worked out between man and man but it shows conclusively that you are not even fit to have a hand in the operation of the Government of the United States.

I am very sure that the people of Wisconsin are extremely sorry that they are represented by a person who has as little sense of responsibility as you have.

Sincerely yours, 

HST 

Neil Young on the Johnny Cash Show (Full Length Appearance)

Better than TV...
http://youtu.be/UpCwD7_sVz4

Here Is Everything That’s Wrong With Chuck Schumer’s Obamacare Comments

 Senator Schumer said Obamacare was a political miscalculation because it benefited a population that is less likely to vote and ...  Read more

RWW News: Jones: Net Neutrality Will Destroy Us

Just to keep us alert to the extremists among us, fear-mongering to the public...
http://youtu.be/tNcFYQoNYi4

DIY Smartphone Magnet Mount Update

http://youtu.be/xBhfphUFcM8

Pete Seeger - "Forever Young"

Better than TV...
http://youtu.be/Ezyd40kJFq0

90th Birhtday Concert by Pete Seeger

Better than TV...
http://youtu.be/Ha1vhK1S1ao

With Election Over, First Order Of Business Is $450B In Corporate Tax Breaks

The election is over. Congress is back in Washington. The first order of business after the election is to give big tax breaks to the corporations – $...  Read more

Pete Seeger - This Land is Your Land

Better than TV...
http://youtu.be/HE4H0k8TDgw

Pete Seeger/Arlo Guthrie - You gotta walk that lonesome valley

Better than TV...
http://youtu.be/BcbqCssiBUc

How To Talk To Your Climate Denier Uncle This Thanksgiving

A simple comment about the weather can erupt into a rant about "Climategate," "pauses," and the polar vortex. Here are the key ...  Read more

How To Convince Your Right-Wing Uncle To Act On Climate Change This Thanksgiving

Uncle Richard knows climate change is real, but doesn't want to act. Here's how you can talk to him about it without ruining ...  Read more

Pete Seeger on "The Johnny Cash Show" complete and uncut

Better than TV...
http://youtu.be/ADtAU43MM14

Moses and the American Constitution

If Texas wants biblical characters and states’ rights in textbooks, publishers are happy to deliver.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/11/texas_board_of_education_hearings_moses_and_states_rights_in_social_studies.1.html

TIL: 10 years ago, a single Jon Stewart interview was the central reason that the CNN show "Crossfire" was cancelled.

Read more

http://youtu.be/aFQFB5YpDZE

In a fiery opinion, Federal Judge Overturns Mississippi’s Ban On Same-Sex Marriage

In a fiery opinion, Judge Carlton Reeves outlines the historic link between racial injustice and anti-gay discrimination.The ...  Read more

The best Thanksgiving prayer you’ll read is this one—by an atheist - Quartz

"...Today we take the time to pause and acknowledge this special season of harvest and its traditions of sharing with those less fortunate..."

http://qz.com/302636/the-best-thanksgiving-prayer-youll-read-is-this-one-by-an-atheist/

"Pope Francis condemned priests and laity who turn their parishes into a 'business'

...by charging for things such as baptisms, blessings and Mass intentions -- calling it a scandal that's hard to forgive."
Read more

Paul Ryan's Flabbergasting Hypocrisy

Ryan's secret machinations to install a right-wing political hack at the Congressional Budget Office shock even the jaded.
...  Read more

Paul Krugman: Deluded New Majority in Congress Insists We're Living in an Ayn Rand Novel

Why years of failed economic policy may get even worse.
...  Read more

Swearing an Oath on the Bible

http://youtu.be/nsGuApf86Gs

TIL that when the CEO of the Sesame Street Workshop was asked if Bert and Ernie are gay

...He replied, "They are not gay, they are not straight, they are puppets. They don’t exist below the waist."Read more

School Swindle: N.Y. Board Makes Private Education Its Top Priority

The East Ramapo Central School District in New York has failed in its first duty: to provide the best education possible to the children in its care.
... Read more

A hidden agenda behind Iran's nuclear talks?

Could it be that the West wants Iran to help solve wider regional issues than just nuclear proliferation?  Read more

Nation’s Largest Food Bank Reduces Portions, Turns Away Needy After Massive Food Stamp Cuts

Food stamp cuts in 2013 erased about 56 million meals' worth of benefit payments to New York City's hungry, driving demand for ...  Read more

How To Talk To Your Tea Party Uncle About Obamacare This Thanksgiving

Read this before you get trapped in a debate about premium costs or Jonathan Gruber.The post How To Talk To Your Tea Party ...  Read more

Borrow free e-books from your library with OverDrive and 3M Cloud Library

"...Public libraries, centuries-long suppliers of physical books on loan, have in recent years also started lending out digital books for their patrons to read on their computers and mobile devices..."

http://www.macworld.com/article/2851914/borrow-free-e-books-from-your-library-with-overdrive-and-3m-cloud-library.html#tk.rss_all

GOP Floats Everything But Impeachment To Stop Obama On Immigration

Republicans have promised that Congress will act to counter President Barack Obama's sweeping executive actions on immigration and deportations. But t... Read more

Escape from Duggarville: How playing the good Christian housewife almost killed me

"Whenever I talk about my escape from the Quiverfull movement, Christians immediately dismiss my experience..."

http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=173592

Atheists and Secular Humanists are protected by the First Amendment regardless of whether their belief systems are “religions” or not

"...the touchstone of the Establishment Clause was ‘the principle that the First Amendment mandates government neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion.’[McCreary County v. ACLU], 545 U.S. 844, 860 (2005) (emphasis added)..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/11/19/atheists-and-secular-humanists-are-protected-by-the-constitution-regardless-of-whether-their-belief-systems-should-be-considered-religions-or-not/

Howard Kurtz: Why No Media Coverage Of GOP-Issued Benghazi Report?

During Fox News' "Mediabuzz," there was a discussion about Friday's document dump of the House Intelligence Committee's two year investigation into Be...  Read more

Emails Reveal How GOP Consultants Secretly Gerrymandered Florida

Last summer, a Florida judge ruled that the state's legislature illegally redrew congressional districts in 2012 to benefit Republicans. In his ruling... Read more