Rotundus.com

Here's a brief quote from a Huffington Post article entitled Koch Brothers, Grover Norquist Split On Ethanol Subsidies:

We oppose ethanol subsidies because they distort economic signals about price and demand and create inefficiencies that divert resources from productive activities to politically favored ones. We have also opposed subsidies for natural gas vehicles and other biofuels for these same reasons... Still, our company now produces and blends ethanol, because while we would prefer that there be no government mandates or subsidies, once such laws are in place we will comply with them. We will not place our company or our employees at a competitive disadvantage in the mixed-market economy in which we compete.

The same applies to those locations in which government at higher levels have spent stimulus funding - localized benefits and globalized costs change the picture. In the presence of distorted incentives, the best course of action may change.

If this is peaceful, how does violence look?

Most demonstrations probably are "mostly peaceful". How much should you concentrate on the outliers?

Antidepressants: The Emperor's New Drugs?

"To answer these questions, my colleagues and I used the Freedom of Information Act to get the data that the drug companies had sent to the FDA in the process of getting their medications approved. What we found was even more shocking that what our 1998 study had shown. The difference between drug and placebo was even smaller in the data sent to the FDA than it was in the published literature. More than half of the clinical trials sponsored by the pharmaceutical companies showed no significant difference at all between drug and placebo. What they did find was differences in side effects, like nausea and sexual dysfunction, produced by antidepressants"

The genderless child

Some followup comments to this story: "... But I thought we were supposed to believe that sexual identity is not a choice, but rather an innate condition, that, in the words of Lady Gaga, “I was born this way.” So it is a choice after all?"

Global warming lull down to China's coal growth

Basically the argument is that there are short-term reductions in temperature to sulphur particles. A short quote from the article: "... an older gentleman asked me 'why should I believe in this climate change - I was watching Fox News and they said the Earth's temperature hasn't changed in 10 years and has actually gone down'. At that stage I wasn't paying much attention to climate change - I'd returned to working on oil markets - so I went back and checked the data and found that was just about right." I'm a little disturbed by this. Here's-why-temporary-cooling-means-long-term-warming shouldn't transform each-of-the-last-years-was-the-hottest-recorded to there's-been-some-cooling-over-the-last-decade.

Microsoft’s Android Shakedown

The problems of software patents... reduced innovation. Other than problems in which there's too much overhead for startups to file patents, you get problems like these "Android has roughly 10 million lines of code. Auditing 10 million lines of code for compliance with 18,000 patents is an impossible task—especially because the meaning of a patent’s claims are often not clear until after they have been litigated." (and that 18,000 figure is just Microsoft's patent collection)

Scientific Literacy Does Not Increase Concern Over Climate Change; Now Go Shout About It

"A new study by the Cultural Cognition Project, a team headed up by Yale law professor Dan Kahan, shows that people who are more science- and math-literate tend to be more skeptical about the consequences of climate change. Increased scientific literacy also leads to higher polarization on climate-change issues" - and if you're looking for some shouting...

The New York Times has had a few somewhat unusual articles in the past few weeks on the topic of homosexuality. Consider one entitled Living the Good Lie / Therapists Who Help People Stay in the Closet. Here it talks of the APA's report which concluded that homosexuality was normal. What else was in that report though?

... it also offered a nuanced view of religious gay people who did not want to come out. The A.P.A. considered the kind of identity therapy proposed by Throckmorton and Yarhouse to be a viable option. ... The difference between sexual orientation and sexual identity was microscopically parsed. “Acceptance of same-sex sexual attractions and sexual orientation may not mean the formation of an L.G.B. sexual-orientation identity,” the report stated. “Alternate identities may develop instead.” It further stated that acting on same-sex attractions might not be a fulfilling solution for everyone. “

The article also gets into what some of this could lead to. All told, it's worth a read I think.

The Sun Is the Best Optometrist

"In this case, the rapid increase in nearsightedness appears to be due to a characteristic of modern life: more and more time spent indoors under artificial lights."

Japan scientist synthesizes meat from human feces

I think that I'll pass on eating these

Bank of Canada unveils new 'secure' polymer bank notes

"$10: The Canadian train — represents Canada’s great technical feat of linking its eastern and western frontiers by what was, at the time, the longest railway ever built."

Will and Kate take cooking class in Montreal

Life imitates Food Network? "'It’s a bit of a souffle-off,' Prince William yelled out at Charest. 'If you could rise to the occasion, that would be great!'"

‘Hot-saucing’ couple to pay damages to their kids

"A couple in Norrtälje, north of Stockholm, was sentenced to pay damages to their kids after forcing them to swallow Tabasco sauce as punishment for telling lies." - that's in addition to other penalties

Spain: Speed Camera Gives Ticket for Driving Too Slow

'Drivers who pass a photo radar location frequently drop their speed far below the legal limit to be absolutely certain no citation will come in the mail weeks later. In response, officials in Valencia, Spain have begun issuing photo tickets to drivers who are moving "too slow."' - in theory the speed limit is a maximum under ideal conditions. Wondering how effectively something like this could be challenged in the courts.