Avatar Video Review

The same guy who reviewed The Phantom Menace awhile back puts his sights on Avatar:

Be sure to watch part 2.

Keynes Vs. Hayek

The Chess Master and the Computer

What does this tell us about the future of computer-human interfacing?

In 2005, the online chess-playing site Playchess.com hosted what it called a “freestyle” chess tournament in which anyone could compete in teams with other players or computers.

…Lured by the substantial prize money, several groups of strong grandmasters working with several computers at the same time [...]

‘Haiti’s Avoidable Death Tool’

The always-insightful Walter Williams comments on Haiti; and the political climate that made this earthquake so disastrous.

Some expect Haiti’s 7.0 earthquake death toll to reach over 200,000 lives. Why the high death toll? Northern California’s 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was more violent, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, resulting in 63 deaths and 3,757 injuries.

The 1906 [...]

Free Speech Upheld

I wasn’t overly exited about the election of Brown, I have no delusion that republicans are vastly superior to democrats in developing and maintaining a free society.

But I am very, very happy about this:

In a stunning reversal of the nation’s federal campaign finance laws, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Thursday that free-speech rights permit groups [...]

“I Have a Dream” Speech

Prediction is a Fickle Mistress

I have often been skeptical of people who claim they can predict and understand something as complex as what some economists call ‘the market’; and I’m even more suspicious of politician’s predictions:

This graph should speak for itself.

Some people will try to use this information to say the stimulus and recovery plans are [...]

“Real Life Spider-Man”

Found this at Noodlefood:

Yeah, he’s kinda like Spider-Man; but I think he looks more like a certain crusades era assassin we all know and love.

A Glorious Dawn

This odd little video has been floating around the internet for awhile, thought I’d share it. It’s a weird way to give tribute to Carl Sagan, but it grows on you:

Dolphins as “Non-Human Persons”

Scientists say dolphins should be treated as non-human persons:

(PhysOrg.com) — Scientists studying dolphin behavior have suggested they could be the most intelligent creatures on Earth after humans, saying the size of their brains in relation to body size is larger than that of our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, and their behaviors suggest complex intelligence. One [...]