For those of you who haven't had it yet, Earf Hour is/was tonight at 2030 so turn on ALL OF YOUR LIGHTS. All of them. And then go celebrate Human Achievement. Don't worry about your carbon footprint from using all your lights. I have it on good authority that quite a few North Korean families are offsetting our carbon dioxide emissions. It's like Earf Hour there 24/7. BTW, all those eco nuts burning their candles during their hour of no power Actually Contribute To Greater Carbon Dioxide Emissions.

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Posted by: CDR M at 06:03 PM | Comments (1166)
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I was happily surprised when last week's chess thread brought out some pretty good comments, and not all of them derisive. Accordingly, this is an attempt to gauge whether that was a one-off novelty, or is indicative or a larger demand. I mean, we're all nerds, right? At least I suspect most of us morons are, in one way or another, so let's get our nerd on.

I'll going to get the ball rolling by start by embarrassing the shit out of moron commenter GolfBoy by pimping his chess book that he apparently wrote by accident. In last Sunday's book thread, he let the cat out of the bag:

With the recent postings about Bobby Fischer's games, I feel moved (so to speak) to confess that I am another Moron Author. A few years ago I accidentally wrote the book "Practical Chess Exercises." It is a training resource for serious tournament players. In defiance of all reason and good taste, it has been a top selling chess book on Amazon for nearly 5 years. Please - I beg you - stop buying it! Every time I discover a royalty check in my mailbox I cringe with shame and humiliation.

So, take his advice: Don't buy the book. And if you don't want to buy his book, this is the link you don't want to click on:

http://tinyurl.com/6nyth7n

It's a tactical exercise book and we all could probably improve our tactical skills. I know I could.

And for your Sat. nite craziness, here's a wild, wild game between Judit 'Big Mama' Polgar and Nigel 'Slap My Ass And Call Me Sally' Short:

I need to acquaint myself with these sorts of modern classics. I started out in chess a few years before the Fischer era and so I really only am familiar with the old classics, such as Alekhine-Yates, Botvinnik-Capablanca, Morphy-pretty much everyone else, etc. I don't know too much about what's gone on (at least on the chess theory level) since about 1975 or so.

Any chess tips for this thread may be sent to me at

OregonMuse
and then the at sign
followed by yahoo
and then dot
com

Having a weekly chess thread may turn out to be a complete flop. The demand might be low. Also, the Head Ewok may not want his smart military blog turned into a forum for the pursuit of sundry personal hobby horses.

We'll see.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 04:09 PM | Comments (310)
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Recent typical MSM story on how cavemen conservatives distrust science. (Fire burn!)

Fewer than 35 percent of conservatives say they have a "great deal" of trust in the scientific community now

The unspoken assumption in the article is that there is something wrong with those who don't have a great deal of trust in the scientific community... Uhhh, might I point out this story from this week?

During a decade as head of global cancer research at Amgen, C. Glenn Begley identified 53 "landmark" publications - papers in top journals, from reputable labs - for his team to reproduce. Begley sought to double-check the findings before trying to build on them for drug development.

Result: 47 of the 53 could not be replicated.

I've wondered why we keep hearing of new medical studies that reverse the findings of previous studies. Maybe it's because of the massive level of hackwork that passes itself off for science nowadays! Note that Begley has to earn his money. If his experiments can't be reproduced Amgen can't turn them into life-saving medicine. Which is how Amgen Earns The Big Bucks. The hacks Begley looked into may have only wanted to get their names in a big name journal.

A few more quotes from the article. This stuff truly shocks me.

As we tried to reproduce these papers we became convinced you can't take anything at face value.

...

The failure to win "the war on cancer" has been blamed on many factors, ... But recently a new culprit has emerged: too many basic scientific discoveries... are wrong.

...

Begley's experience echoes a report from scientists at Bayer AG last year. Neither group of researchers alleges fraud, nor would they identify the research they had tried to replicate.

Of 47 cancer projects at Bayer during 2011, less than one-quarter could reproduce previously reported findings, despite the efforts of three or four scientists working full time for up to a year.

...

But they and others fear the phenomenon is the product of a skewed system of incentives that has academics cutting corners to further their careers.

"It drives people in industry crazy. Why are we seeing a collapse of the pharma and biotech industries? One possibility is that academia is not providing accurate findings,"

I wonder if the all the govt. money has bad influence. Private money expects high standards. Govt money just wants to be spent.

Dr Ray Stantz (a Ghostbuster): Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didn't have to produce anything! You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've *worked* in the private sector. They expect *results*.

Some authors required the Amgen scientists sign a confidentiality agreement barring them from disclosing data at odds with the original findings. "The world will never know" which 47 studies - many of them highly cited - are apparently wrong, Begley said.

...

Begley met ... with the lead scientist of one of the problematic studies.

"We went through the paper line by line, figure by figure," said Begley. "I explained that we re-did their experiment 50 times and never got their result. He said they'd done it six times and got this result once, but put it in the paper because it made the best story. It's very disillusioning."

_{^{Also, I tweet at @ComradeArthur}}

Posted by: Open Blogger at 03:12 PM | Comments (305)
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...same as the old. Music video under the fold. Hat tip to Gerard Van der Leun over at American Digest. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 01:30 PM | Comments (402)
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After he wins. In January. He should talk at length about about how things will get worse for a short while before they get better. He needs to emphasize that all the belt-tightening that has to be done because of the Obama administration will necessarily hurt for a while, but that in the long run, the country will be better for it.

He needs to rely heavily upon precedent. It took Ronald Reagan a little over two years to turn things around. Things got worse before they got better. He needs to make this a theme and keep driving the message home. That way, people will know what to expect, and the losses in 2014 might be minimized somewhat.

He needs to glue himself to Reagan. Every time someone mentions Romney and the economy, people need to think of what Reagan did.

If he is going to replicate something similar to the Regan Economic Miracle, things will be tough for a while. People need to keep that in mind.

Any other ideas? If not, open thread.

Follow me on Twitter.

Posted by: rdbrewer at 11:17 AM | Comments (457)
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The Bay State got a black eye last Fall when it was reported that certain people, let's call them "deadbeats", were abusing the Massachusetts Electronic Benefits Transfer card, which we will refer to as "welfare".

A Team 5 Investigation found more than $2.3 million in Massachusetts welfare money, meant to help the needy buy food, pay their rent and clothe their children, has been spent in locations outside the state in a three-month period, including pricey vacation destinations like Hawaii, Las Vegas, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

In response to learning that deadbeats were abusing the welfare system, the Commonwealth did what you'd expect it to do: it formed a commission to study the problem. That commission released its report and recommendations this week.

Strip clubs, tattoo parlors, nail salons, gun shops and casinos would be banned from accepting taxpayer-funded EBT cards under a blue-ribbon panel’s report slated to be unveiled today — but Republicans warn the so-called reforms will hardly put a dent in rampant abuse of the taxpayer-funded system.

“The report is woefully inadequate to address any of the problems we were charged with addressing,” said state Rep. Shaunna O’Connell (R-Taunton), who originally called for the commission’s creation.

“It’s probably the least reform we could do and say that something got done. (emphasis added)

Wonderful. The boning of the Masssachusetts taxpayer continues apace.

If you're wondering why O'Connell is so down on the reforms, here's your answer:

Republicans argued the reforms donÂ’t get to the root of the problem, because EBT card recipients can still use their cards at ATMs to access cash, which is then nearly impossible to trace.

That's right, a Massachusetts EBT card doesn't have to be used For The Children™ at all. It's a direct cash payment.

I honestly don't know why they're bothering to put any restrictions on where the cards can or can't be used if they're going to allow the deadbeats to make welfare ATM withdrawals.

Also keep in mind that a Venn diagram of the deadbeats and people the Democrats say would be disenfranchised by a voter i.d. requirement basically looks like this: O

Anyone who thinks people whose occupation consists of sucking money out of the taxpayers won't beat down the doors to get the photo i.d. needed to vote themselves a paycheck is delusional.

Which brings up an interesting idea. Why not put a photo on the EBT card?

Deval and his gang would like to crack down, they really would. But thereÂ’s no money, donÂ’t you know.

Like two years ago, when the Democrats said they couldn’t afford to run a check on every welfare recipient to see if they were in the country legally — not at the outrageous cost of $7 per illegal.

This time the state considered photo IDs for the EBT cards. It was the same old story: “The Department did not have adequate staff to process the necessary volume of photo IDs, and did not find that photos were a deterrent for fraud.”

You just can't make this stuff up, folks.

Posted by: andy at 07:41 AM | Comments (425)
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In the Spiritual Capital in the State of Doom, Subway faces reality when the voters will not.

Minimum-wage increases*, on top of other business-killing expenses, have forced San Francisco Subways to stop offering 5-dollar subs, aside from their nasty ass-flavored Tuna.

Which, come to think of it, is probably their best seller.

* (10.24/hour, in case you were wondering.)

UPDATE: Spelling fixed because logprof is smarter than me. Or I'm dumber than logprof. I've heard it both ways.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:01 AM | Comments (187)
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Remember to celebrate Human Achievement Hour tonight at 8:30pm.

Posted by: andy at 02:52 AM | Comments (282)
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Good luck to all you morons who chipped in a few bucks for tonight's Mega Millions jackpot. If I win, I think I'll purchase a big chunk of land and establish an AoS HQ approved survival compound. Y'all are invited of course.

Of course, if you win, be wary of Early Retirement.

The authors trace the effect to negative behavioral changes associated with early retirement and conclude that “32.4% of the causal retirement effect can be directly attributed to smoking and excessive alcohol consumption.”

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Posted by: CDR M at 05:57 PM | Comments (910)
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Tyler Clementi was that Rutgers kid who killed himself. The media went wild, pretty much lynching the guy accused of "bullying" him.

This New Yorker article is pretty fair and extremely thorough. Maybe too thorough -- it's a long read, but if you read the first three pages you'll probably figure, as I did, "might as well finish it."

The facts demonstrate that Dharun Ravi, the supposed "bully," did in fact commit a crime. That crime? Invasion of privacy in the Third degree.

Wait, no, that's not right, he was never actually able to do that. Tyler Clementi realized that Ravi's computer's webcam was on, so he pulled the plug on the computer.

So Dharun Ravi is guilty of attempted third degree criminal invasion.

Pretty severe charge, eh?

Yeah. Well, because he was overcharged (they added witness tampering!) and of course the hate crimes, he faces a possibility of fifteen to thirty years in prison.

This really wasn't a "hate crime." It was an asshole crime, and it would never have even been a crime if a depressive loner hadn't killed himself.

Dharan Ravi was charged with criminal invasion of privacy (third degree! attempted!) and "bias intimidation," but really they're convicted him of having a roommate who killed himself.

Anyway, Adam Carolla goes off on it, especially media bias, and the media's need for "titillating" stories in which we're all racists and homophobes.

Great rant.

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Posted by: Ace at 04:07 PM | Comments (185)
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