Think what you will; it’s hard to dislike an article that includes a chart with the title “Slugs and snails v sugar and spice”. Really. The article in the Economist looks at studies examining the differences between boys and girls, men and women, monkeys and monkeyettes. Some interesting, marginally inconclusive findings, all encompassed (mostly) by […]
Rundown, Briefly
TV-B-Gone. Can anything this delightful be legal? (via Cool Tools) Too Real. Schizophrenics are apparently not fooled by optical illusions that trick non-schizophrenics. Curious. Oh, that makes it better. “We didn’t actually hover an Osprey over a mosque.” A while ago, Bell & Boeing put out an ad for a type of aircraft (an Osprey) […]
Posted by Ben on May 26, 2006
https://www.swordbilled.com/rundown-briefly/
Meet the Skeptics
“Hi, my name is Dr. Johnny Valdez, and I think global warming is bunk!” “Oh, and did I mention the six-figure donation my organization got from a prominent, ahem, petroleum utilization corporation?” Not too far from the truth, aside from the total lack of details. Here are some actual details, courtesy of Environmental Defense.
Posted by Ben on November 19, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/meet-the-skeptics/
What can I do?
Via the Waterboro Public Library, I stumbled across a blog called, appropriately enough, So what can I do? The site explores ways to enact social change. A lot of them, in fact. A lot of the tips seem to be the ‘easy’ sorts of things of which I’m endlessly suspicious—I tend to be skeptical of […]
Posted by Ben on June 6, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/what-can-i-do/
Let me tell you about my great enormous backlog of links
Going all the way back to mid-February, WorldPress Review carried an interesting story about the US Military’s recruitment schemes, both historical and contemporary. And did you hear about the starquake? Oh. You did. Well, did you hear that women are “less likely to get quality heart attack care,” or that cancer-stricken rats live longer if […]
Posted by Ben on April 14, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/let-me-tell-you-about-my-great-enormous-backlog-of-links/
Strange and Good
Rasterbate this. Using the wonders of modern technology, the Rasterbator takes any image you feed it and turns it into a massive, massive poster that you can print out on your standard printer. To date, it’s rasterized enough images to cover 2.39% of Vatican City. (via WFMU’s Beware of the Blog) Build your own. Read […]
Posted by Ben on April 2, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/strange-and-good/
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/
A success story!
A success story, but not the right kind of success story. This one’s a story of successful lobbying by Syngenta, which apparently learned the lessons of bad publicity. Faced with a potential ban on an herbicide it produces (what herbicide is used on 2/3 of corn in the U.S. and 90% of sugarcane), Syngenta spent […]
Posted by Ben on November 20, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/a-success-story/
Jon Stewart on American Perspectives
Posted by Ben on November 12, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/jon-stewart-on-american-perspectives/