LOLscience, via Pharyngula
Blinded by Science
More Creeping Stasification
A Cold War chill is descending on academia, according to Wired:
FBI Calls on Universities to Guard Against Spies
By Kim Zetter November 07, 2007 | 3:43:23 PMCategories: SurveillanceThe FBI’s relationship with university students and academics has never been one of wine and roses — see the agency’s covert campaign to discredit Albert Einstein. Therefore, it might be a bit surprising to know that some university presidents are now embracing the agency and are perhaps even willing to become its eyes and ears on campus.
The National Security Higher Education Advisory Board, launched in 2005, consists of 20 university presidents around the country who are working with the FBI on matters of campus security and counter-terrorism to identify threats to students and staff. But the board is also being asked to guard against campus spies who might be out to steal not-yet-secret secrets. According to this report from NPR, the presidents are being advised to think like “Cold War-riors” and be mindful of professors and students who may not be on campus for purposes of learning but, instead, for spying, stealing research and recruiting people who are sympathetic to an anti-U.S. cause.
Speaking this week at Penn State University, FBI Director Robert Mueller told an audience that universities need to guard against spies who are out to acquire bits and pieces of technology and research and said he’s worried that “pre-classified and pre-patented” technologies could fall into the wrong hands.
“Pre-classified and pre-patented” technology – WTF? Does that mean they’re giving patents to things that haven’t even beeninvented yet, just in case they are? The mind boggles.
It’s sad to see universities succumbing so easily to becoming government enforcement agents, but it’s not very surprising – academic, economic and defence interests often co-incide: many universities’ science departments wouldn’t exist at all without defence funding and there are revolving doors between private military technology companies, government and academia. There’s profit to be made from technology and many are doing very nicely out iof it, thanks. There’s no such thing as a free exchange of ideas in a corporate state. Ideas are worth money.
The joke is the US government warning universities against foreign spies, while it’s the government that’s mostly doing the spying.
Comment of the Day: On James Watson’s latest embarassment
James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA shows that being a good scientist does not mean you cannot be an idiot by saying that “people who have to deal with black employees” just know they aren’t as intelligent as white folk and going on to the usual pseudoscientific nonsense on difference in intelligence between races and all that.
Over at James Nicoll’s Livejournal, commenter vito_excalibur imagines the boot on the other foot:
Regarding his groundbreaking new study, respected New England researcher Dr. Alec Dote commented, “I couldn’t believe it either. After decades – no, centuries – of firm widespread belief that white men were simply the top of the evolutionary pinnacle, this study unearthed the fact that most – perhaps all – of the apparent discrepancy in achievement is actually due to white men benefiting from, taking advantage of, taking credit for the work of, and occasionally simply killing and taking the property of, women and other minorities. Why, this very study was made possible by the tragically underpaid work of my female graduate students, and do you think they’re getting their names on this publication? Over my dead body!”
Dr. Dote added, “This study is expected to have a terrible effect on the psychological well-being of old white men, on whom our economy used to popularly be thought to depend. I myself am so shaken that I almost shut up for a second the other day.”
The study concludes on a note of hope, however: although the evidence that old white men are more intelligent, emotionally stable, just, or wise than the rest of the world has been thoroughly discredited, Dr. Dote suggests as a hypothesis for future research that the fact that this imposture has lasted for so long is evidence that old white men are, at least, the most cunning people in the world.
Linky Linky
“YO! MS Raps!” Remember when 45 whole k of memory was like woah, dude? Happy days. Here’s a very silly rapping Microsoft training video for the MS-Dos 5.0 upgrade.
“Gimme 5.0!” Watch it and cringe.
McDonald’s Worker Wins Hoax Strip-Search Suit
US produce is being left to rot in the fields because of the right-wing immigration backlash. Prison labour is being used to make up the shortfall. Expect price rises and shortages.
Guidebook issued for Muslims in space Which way is Mecca when there’s no compass?
Even a cuckoo clock needs love…
Thinking about a kitchen update? You can keep your Corian and your hand-hewn granite: this interactive LED-loaded worktop is what I want in my kitchen.
Are you against the Iraq War? Hate Bushco? Nonviolent protestor? Hoping you’re going to escape to Canada if it all goes to shit? Well, think again:
FBI Puts Antiwar Protesters on Criminal Database; Canada Uses It To Ban Protesters From Entry
“The FBI’s placing of peace activists on an international criminal database is blatant political intimidation of US citizens opposed to Bush administration policies,” says Colonel Wright, who was also Deputy US Ambassador in four countries. “The Canadian government should certainly not accept this FBI database”
Awwwww. A stray 6-week-old calico kitten accidentally traveled from New Jersey to New Hampshire in a spare-tire compartment.
US corporations are getting into international diplomacy, via lobby group Business for Diplomatic Action :
“Our mission is to enlist the U.S. business community in actions to improve the standing of America in the world with the goal of once again, seeing America admired as a global leader and respected as a courier of progress and prosperity for all people.”
What’s their solution for the US’ dire international diplomatic position? Kick out Bush perhaps, stop being such gungho assholes maybe, possibly change the system? Of course not, don’t be silly. It’s not what they do that’s the problem, it’s how we perceive it… so they’re going to rebrand America. Yes, seriously. They’ve got a real job on their hands.
Double awww: “Mom, is that you? Orphaned kitten is nursed by local dog ”
Wahahahahahaha. AP has the lowdown on the greedy, hypocritical life of slimy evangelist Oral Roberts and his spawn, whose fundy ‘university’ is being sued for wrongful dismissal.
Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts’ university, or else he would be “called home.”
Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.
Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors’ expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter’s senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.
She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as “underage males.”
What kind of parent names a kid Oral, anyway? You’ve got to wonder.
UPDATE: For perplexed UKians, Sara Robinson has a good overview of the Robertses, Oral and offspring, here.
Europe Against Fundies
Of course Europe isn’t against novelty pants – but it made you look. didn’t it? Actually, the Council of Europe is directly challenging creeping creationism:
PARIS Council of Europe to vote on creationism next week
(Reuters) – Europe’s main human rights body will vote next week on a resolution opposing the teaching of creationist and intelligent design views in school science classes.
The Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly will debate a resolution saying attacks on the theory of evolution were rooted “in forms of religious extremism” and amounted to a dangerous assault on science and human rights.
The resolution, on the agenda for October 4, says European schools should “resist presentation of creationist ideas in any discipline other than religion.” It describes the “intelligent design” argument as an updated version of creationism.
Anne Brasseur, an Assembly member from Luxembourg who updated an earlier draft resolution, said the vote was due in June but was postponed because some members felt the original text amounted to an attack on religious belief.
Only minor changes have been made to the initial draft.
You can contact your MEP to voice your support for the resolution here.