What is evil? Is it something in all of us, or is it limited to the most extreme criminals? These and other questions about “evil” are brought up in a NYT article, but to no avail. (In fairness, evil is relatively hard to unpack in a three-page article. You’ve got your psychiatrists on one side […]
Killer Cars
Not that this should necessarily come as news, but: The [Heart and Stroke] foundation’s first study of urban versus non-urban living shows that car-dependent Canadians are more sedentary and at increased risk of being overweight or obese. (via CBC News: “Cars killing suburban dwellers, heart foundation says” [February 10, 2004])
Posted by Ben on March 7, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/killer-cars/
From space
I’m personally not that intrigued by The Gates, but it is interesting to see them from space. (via The Morning News [February 15, 2005])
Posted by Ben on February 15, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/from-space/
random crap
More lies. The BoGlo has a quick & fluffy piece on the relevance of lie detection to modern-day struggles. On the verge of making an interesting statement, the article spends too much time bringing the presumably ignorant reader up to speed on the state of modern lie psychology (or whatever you want to call it). […]
Posted by Ben on February 13, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/random-crap/
General disorder
Nalgene, forever! Or not. Over at Grist, Umbra makes a case against Nalgene bottles. (Although the column is actually a clarification of an earlier column, so if you’re new to the Nalgene question, you may want to do a little reading.) How about Orangene? A research team at Cornell has apparently discovered a way to […]
Posted by Ben on January 26, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/general-disorder/
The Year In Cryptozoology
Just FYI. The Top Cryptozoology Stories of 2004 (via BoingBoing)
Posted by Ben on January 4, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/the-year-in-cryptozoology/
Squelch goes the permafrost
Via BBC: …Alaska is not the only region in a slump. The permafrost melt is accelerating throughout the world’s cold regions, scientists reported at the recent Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco. In addition to northern Alaska, the permafrost zone includes most other Arctic land, such as northern Canada and […]
Posted by Ben on January 2, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/squelch-goes-the-permafrost/
Top Science News of 2004
Science News has a list of the “most compelling” stories as selected by its writers; some of the articles are available free (look for the asterisks), though most aren’t. (via BoingBoing)
Posted by Ben on December 29, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/top-science-news-of-2004/
Absurd
Even hand-selected lists of headlines are going to occasionally tread into the absurdity zone, but this is particularly galling: Note the major headline and then compare it to the second item in the bulleted list. In what world are the deaths of “dozens” of tourists in any way comparable to 22,000 deaths? No one expects […]
Posted by Ben on December 27, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/absurd/
The Year In Weird
Via AFP, Yahoo! has a summary of offbeat stories from 2004. Go; read and be merry.
Posted by Ben on December 23, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/the-year-in-weird/