Monthly Archives: March 2008

Obama Girl (or, I watch Slate V so you don’t have to)

Posted on March 31, 2008 by Dave Gottlieb

Slate V runs this “MediaCurves” analysis of the latest “Obama Girl” video, “Stop the Attacks” (which asks Hillary to drop out of the primary contest). The Slate video reproduces the (entire) Obama Girl video, and overlays a graph of focus … Continue reading →

Posted in Political | 2 Comments

Nietszche personally insulted me

Posted on March 31, 2008 by Dave Gottlieb

“Cold grey eyes know the value of nothing.”

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Finished: Animal Liberation, The Amber Spyglass

Posted on March 31, 2008 by Dave Gottlieb

I finished Animal Liberation and The Amber Spyglass over my school break. (I also read a somewhat trashy sci-fi horror book, “Infected.” I’ve read some really excellent new and new-to-me sci-fi over the past few months, but also some real … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Law, Books | Leave a comment

They told you not to reply

Posted on March 19, 2008 by Dave Gottlieb

DoNotReply.com hosts a blog about email that gets carelessly sent to addresses @donotreply.com. Lots of private, secret information gets to them this way. The post about DHS is probably the single best, but of course it’s the cumulative effect of … Continue reading →

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Bookblogging

Posted on March 19, 2008 by Dave Gottlieb

I read a fair number of books. Far more than average, far fewer than many people I know. I think maybe part of the reason I don’t do as much as I’d like is it feels evanescent to me; once … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | 4 Comments

Am I an intelligence?

Posted on March 13, 2008 by Dave Gottlieb

Based on this insightful /. comment, I’m not sure I could pass a Turing test. (Sidenote: you may not know that a computer has arguably passed a Turing test variant in music — a live, musically educated audience couldn’t distinguish … Continue reading →

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Hate speech laws and hate movements

Posted on March 11, 2008 by Dave Gottlieb

Remarkably, pre-Hitler Germany had laws very much like the Canadian anti-hate law. Moreover, those laws were enforced with some vigour. During the fifteen years before Hitler came to power, there were more than two hundred prosecutions based on anti-semitic speech. … Continue reading →

Posted in Law | 2 Comments

Revisionism on RPGs

Posted on March 11, 2008 by Dave Gottlieb

It’s a truism about Slate that they’ll publish anything if it’s contrarian enough. Yesterday they ran a contrarian take on the recently deceased Gary Gygax, now being celebrated in the press as forefather of a purportedly dominant modern geek culture. … Continue reading →

Posted in Games | 1 Comment

Sample equal employment opportunity notice:

Posted on March 10, 2008 by Dave Gottlieb

“We are a very discriminating employer.”

Posted in Law | Leave a comment

Gender gap in science

Posted on March 10, 2008 by Dave Gottlieb

Strong article by Christina Hoff Summers about the gender gap in science research. Obviously I don’t have a lot of inside knowledge of the subject, but I found the facts presented eye-opening and the reports of the worst proposed solutions … Continue reading →

Posted in science, sexism | Leave a comment