Hpecker

-vudhfijn

In Mathematical Applications of Political Science, University of Minnesota political scientist William Riker describes a worrisome voting paradox that unfolded in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1956. At issue was a bill calling for federal aid for school construction; an amendment was proposed that would have offered this aid only to states whose schools were integrated. The House was divided into three interest groups:

• Republicans opposed federal aid in general but supported integration. They would have preferred no bill at all but favored the amended bill to the original.
• Northern Democrats wanted the amended bill but would accept the original bill rather than have no bill at all.
• Southern Democrats, whose schools were segregated, favored the original bill but would prefer to have no bill rather than accept the amendment.

Clearly the original bill would have passed, as the Democrats as a group preferred it to having no bill at all. But, following procedure, the House voted first on whether to accept the amendment, and here the Republicans and the northern Democrats combined to support it, since both preferred the amended bill to the original bill. The second vote addressed whether to accept the now-amended bill, and now the Republicans and the southern Democrats united to kill it, since both preferred no bill to the amended bill.

So the original bill was popular, and the proposed amendment was popular, but combining them led to the bill’s defeat. “As if it were not enough that the choice may depend on the voting order, this fact can be used to twist the outcome of the legislative process,” Riker writes. “It may be possible to create a voting paradox such that no action is taken by the legislature even though a proposed bill would have passed prior to the creation of the paradox. A legislator could introduce an amendment to create such a paradox, and if the voting order were just right, the amended proposal would then be defeated.”

Pennsylvania dentist Lytle S. Adams had a bright idea in 1942: Since Japanese cities were largely built of paper, bamboo, and other flammable materials, they could be disrupted effectively with fire. And a novel way to spread fire in public buildings would be to release bats bearing incendiary devices. Rigged bats dropped over an industrial city would roost in the buildings as living time bombs, and the resulting fires would spread chaos over a wide area.

Surprisingly, the government liked the idea, and it set about designing a bomblike canister in which a thousand bats could be dropped from an altitude of 5,000 feet. At 1,000 feet the container would open, releasing the bats over a wide area. Ten bombers carrying 100 canisters each could unleash a million intelligent bombs over the industrial cities of Osaka Bay.

Preliminary tests were encouraging, even setting a New Mexico air base accidentally ablaze, but the project evolved too slowly and was eventually eclipsed by the atom bomb. In a way that’s a shame: “Think of thousands of fires breaking out simultaneously over a circle of 40 miles in diameter for every bomb dropped,” Adams had said. “Japan could have been devastated, yet with small loss of life.”

If a flock of birds disperses gradually, at what point does it cease to be a flock?

“There is at the moment a pipe on my desk,” wrote MIT philosopher Richard Cartwright in 1987. “Its stem has been removed, but it remains a pipe for all that; otherwise no pipe could survive a thorough cleaning.”

But he also owned a two-volume set of John McTaggart’s The Nature of Existence, one volume of which was in Cambridge and the other in Boston. Do those two volumes still make one thing? If so, is there a “thing” composed of the Eiffel Tower and the Old North Church? Why not?

(From Cartwright’s Philosophical Essays.)

theic
n. one addicted to immoderate tea-drinking

"My speedometer is broke, but the tachometer works just fine. I made a graph so I could still tell how fast I was going."

via Kurt Whtie

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Fuck that racist Fox News trash.

howstuffworks:m1ssred:

chemical reaction

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WOW! We hit 6k already. I'm beginning the process of removing the top ad and replacing it. I didn't realize how fast this'd happen, so I'm a little behind. BUT, we should have it down very shortly. This is really exciting.

If you want a sense of what it means for the company, here's a comic Michael wrote.

Last day for Christmas shipping. Thanks for another wonderful year entertaining all you geeks.

Asshole of the Day, December 12, 2013: Jean Boyd

by TeaPartyCat (Follow @TeaPartyCat)

Are there any circumstances where it would be OK to let a teen whose negligence led to the death of 4 people off without any prison time? Well, Judge Jean Boyd says yes— she gave a drunk driver probation instead of the prison sentence the prosecution wanted because the defendant was raised rich and spoiled. Really:

A Texas judge agreed with defense attorneys’ claims that a 16-year-old who killed four people while driving drunk had been given whatever he wanted by his wealthy parents and had never learned to accept responsibility for his actions.

So she sentenced him to 10 years on probation, setting aside prosecutors’ request for a 20-year prison term after the teen pleaded guilty last week to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury.

…

The teen’s attorneys never denied that Couch was driving the pickup or that he’d been drinking underage, but they argued that his parents should be held responsible for their son’s actions because of the way they’d raised him.

…

Boyd ordered the teen to undergo therapy at a long-term, in-patient facility, and his father offered to pay more than $450,000 a year for therapy at a rehabilitation center in southern California.

And if that weren’t outrageous enough, DailyKos posted that Judge Boyd didn’t show the same mercy for a young, not-rich black kid:

Judge Jean didn’t concern herself with rehabilitation and well-being when it was a 14-year old black kid who punched a guy who fell down and died. 10 years. H/t Ivycompton.

Before today “affluenza” was a joke, a punchline, but thanks to this Judge Jean Boyd, it’s now out there as a legitimate defense for spoiled rich people to be exempt from the law. Way to go, Judge!

It is Judge Jean Boyd’s first time as Asshole of the Day, but she’s not the first judge to win the title for letting a defendant off too lightly for no good reason— that honor belongs to Judge Todd Baugh, who let a 54-year-old statutory rapist off with 31 days in jail because the girl “seemed older” to the judge.

Full story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/11/texas-teen-kills-four-in-drunken-crash-but-gets-probation-after-parents-wealth-blamed/

Thank you all so much. I'm sitting in an airport with a dying battery, but seriously, I have not felt so unstressed in a long time. More on this later, promise!

Read Drew's blog: The Worst Things For Sale.

Work in Progress Bars by Viktor Hertz / posted by ianbrooks.me


Work in Progress Bars by Viktor Hertz / posted by ianbrooks.me


Work in Progress Bars by Viktor Hertz / posted by ianbrooks.me


Work in Progress Bars by Viktor Hertz / posted by ianbrooks.me


Work in Progress Bars by Viktor Hertz / posted by ianbrooks.me


Work in Progress Bars by Viktor Hertz / posted by ianbrooks.me


Work in Progress Bars by Viktor Hertz / posted by ianbrooks.me


Work in Progress Bars by Viktor Hertz / posted by ianbrooks.me

ianbrooks:

Work in Progress Bars by Viktor Hertz

Artist: Behance / Website / Twitter

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The Year In Emojis

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Books make perfect holiday gifts. They always fit, they’re easy to wrap, and they’re more fun to open than a gift card. (They also last much longer than a fruit basket.) Plus we make it really, really easy for you to find the right one. 

If you don’t see the right gift above, browse through our gift guides by category. And if you’re still looking, please direct your attention over to Personal Penguin, where you can tell us a little about your intended recipient and get a personalized list of perfect presents. 

Easy as pie books. (Pie’s not actually anywhere near this easy.)

raisin the roof

Asshole of the Day, December 10, 2013: John McCain

by TeaPartyCat (Follow @TeaPartyCat)

At Nelson Mandela’s memorial service today, President Obama and Raul Castro shook hands. They didn’t see each other out, but Obama was greeting every one of the dignitaries. He made no special effort for Castro. Some people might call it good manners, but not John McCain:

But McCain said Obama should not have extended his hand to Castro.

"Of course not," the senator said when asked. "Why should you shake hands with somebody who’s keeping Americans in prison? I mean, what’s the point?"

"Neville Chamberlain shook hands with Hitler," he said, referring to the British prime minister’s infamous handshake with the German dictator as Britain was negotiating Germany’s takeover of the Sudentenland. The agreement paved the way for the spread of Germany’s military across Europe.

To hear John McCain tell it, President Obama, with one handshake, just gave away southern Florida and most of the Caribbean to Cuba, which will in a few years lead to World War.

But maybe, Senator McCain, the President was just being polite at someone else’s party. No one loves a guest who comes and picks a fight with another guest, especially at a funeral. And since you’re smart enough to know the difference, even if you choose not to, well, that means you’re the one without the manners.

It is John McCain’s first time being named Asshole of the Day.

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/12/10/mccain-compares-obama-castro-handshake-to-chamberlain-hitler/

Here’s a satirical take on the conservative freakout over the Castro handshake I posted this afternoon:

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