Crystal Castles Slide Show from 8/6 Fox Theater Oakland

As Usual TDS is the only media outlet to put all the pieces together succinctly - "Lost in Race" clipisode:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Lost in Race
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Is Technology depleting Creativity & The Edge Annual Question

I was having a conversation with a psych friend of my Mother's on the occasion of her 92nd birthday (my Mother's, not the friend's). I was telling her of my current vocation, when I saw the familiar dread overtake her face and I therefore began the hopeless struggle to defend myself and my work-related activities, by explaining that interactive voice response (aka self service) systems could actually decrease the amount of time that you spend accomplishing routine tasks (i.e. balance and payment) by preventing you from having to enter a lengthy queue to wait for the increasingly valuable time of a human to intervene on your behalf. She of course, just wanted to know what she needed to press or say (or not say) to get to that ever more illusive human presence. I tried in vain to inform that the systems are only as good as the developers who implement them, but naturally, no one cared, I might as well have been a bailout recipient at that point.

Fortunately, the conversation evolved into the effect that technology has on communication, and I put forth the premise that faster, more efficient, more direct interaction (whether it's texting, internet/cellular voice, or email) could only have a positive impact on communication, because by definition, it increased the amount of information being successfully exchanged within any sampled time period. This is where the conversation got interesting, as she posited that the speed and increased influx of information and facts decreased creativity of expression because there's no time left to digest and form intellectually meaningful thoughts and ideas that lead to a higher level of expression.

This sounded to me like communication elitism, and I continued with the point that technology has brought communication parity to the masses (well, really those that can afford a device - so the "masses" in this case are delimited on the low end by the lower middle class - whatever that means) but she pressed forth stating the detriment to quality of communication, and the effect on children of "skipping" a previous cultural activity - namely reading and writing, and substituting text messages made up of word fragments, which is an assault on the language(!). Again, I spoke of the the inherent democracy of the internet, and the countless educational opportunities that it provides (given access to access) without regard to economic class...someone interrupted, and the conversation became stale. But the thought carried with me - is technology enhancing creativity, or stifling it? By degree, it could be one or the other, or both in different contexts, of course, and who knows what studies will come to inflate one position over the other. I suppose it's important to know what the effect of the rabbit hole may be as you're falling down it, even if your fall is inevitable.

That's why my interest was piqued when I saw this article in Newsweek posing the question of whether the internet changes the way we think, which is the annual question at The Edge. The last paragraph of the article talks George Dyson's premise that is basically the same as the idea that my Mother's friend was expressing, the idea that technology is altering creativity by "removing or ignoring unnecessary information to reveal the shape of knowledge hidden within" thereby resulting in "Creativity by destruction rather than assembly"...

Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists on Global Warming with Chris Matthews

Here's a video from today's Hardball show with the articulate and irrefutable Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Definitely worth watching.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

How Stuff Works

Found this site sponsored by Discovery Channel while studying for a certification exam. It...uh...shows you how stuff...works.... Checkitout.

RealClimate Blog - 6 steps to verify CO2 is the problem

This post from 2007 breaks the science into 6 easy to digest yet comprehensive corollaries that indicate why increasing CO2 is a major problem. From the The RealClimate Blog, a blog about climate science by climate scientists. I found this in an excellent article on Climategate by Sharon Begley in the Dec. 14th issue of Newsweek.

Also, and perhaps even more worth reading is the Power Failure article in the same issue which is an excerpt of the book Storms of my Grandchildren by renowned climate scientist, astronomer, and physicist James Hansen of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and Columbia University.

Acid Test - NRDC Movie w/ Sigourney Weaver

Watch this movie, it's only 20 minutes long, and is worth watching just to hear Sigourney's dulcet tones, and inimitable style - oh, and there's also some real science in it too, that could mean the difference between life as we know it, and something very different.

National Coalition of Reason (COR)

The mission of the United Coalition of Reason is to raise the visibility and sense of unity among local groups in the community of reason, to create a national dialogue on the role of nontheists in American society, and to improve the way that nontheists are perceived by average Americans.

Richard Dawkins Website

All things Dawkins, including his new book "The Greatest Show on Earth - The Evidence for Evolution", and other science-related and atheist-positive material for the thinking human of the modern epoch.

Understanding Evolution - UC Berkeley Website

"Your one-stop source for information on evolution" - Lesson plans, various topics; history, evidence, how it works, etc.

Evolution on pbs.org

A collection of videos, tools for teachers and students, and various topics from Darwin to religion; and the complete NOVA documentary "Judgement Day" which is based on the landmark 2004 court case "Kitzmiller v. Dover School District", in which the teaching of Intelligent Design was shot down by a Federal Judge.

The Scripture Project

Scripture Project Mission
Steve Wells, creator of the Skeptics Annotated Bible, Qur’an, and Book of Mormon has generously donated the full contents of his website to the Reason Project. Using this as a foundation, we intend to make the Scripture Project the best source for scriptural criticism on the Internet.

Keith Olberman's Special Comment on Healthcare Reform

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

OpenSecrets | Lawmakers Get One-Two Punch of Money From Health Industry Special Interests - Capital Eye

OpenSecrets |

Lawmakers Get One-Two Punch of Money From Health Industry Special Interests - Capital Eye

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A World Without Nuclear Weapons - globalzero.org

You'll find Queen Noor, and the rest of the thinking world at http://www.globalzero.org checkitout.

No Country for Sick Men - Article from Newsweek

Excellent and quick article from the producer of two Frontline pieces on Universal HC in other rich democracies, how we kill 22k people / year by denying them the right to healthcare, and the moral issue that it indeed is; how the rest of the world is baffled by our approach and lack of understanding of the moral issues...just read it already.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/215290

http://www.iparticipate.org/

Mass of Pacific Plastic Trash Morass More Massive than Ever Expected

Imagine if the fish dumped aerosolized plastic into our oxygen supply...

More Dogma Gone Missing for those Of the Mindful Orientation

Sam Harris, who was on Bill Maher last week, is the cofounder of this fantastic project and website. I pray that you'll check it out and join the list, volunteer, or just read the stuff.

http://www.reasonproject.org/