Clipmarks | Djiezes's 'usa' clips

Partisan Gaps Over Evolution and Atheism

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:45:21 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: Source:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/108226/Republicans-Democrats-Differ-Creationism.aspx

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Partisan Gaps Over Evolution and Estimates on Atheism

A Gallup survey out this week reveals a wide partisan gap in perceptions of evolution. Specifically, 60% of Republicans say humans were created in their present form by God 10,000 years ago, a belief shared by only 40% of independents and 38% of Democrats.

In other words, it's very easy for citizens to convert climate change, stem cell research, or evolution into just one more wedge issue like abortion, taxes, or gun control that help define what it means to be a Republican or Democrat. The political packaging of science for electoral gain is the unfortunate outcome of a lot of different forces, with both Republican and Democratic leaders to blame.

the proportion of Americans who believe that evolution has occurred with God playing no part has edged up slightly over the past 15 years to roughly 14%.

Tags: evolution, religion, atheism, usa, politics, poll, gallup, survey, god, stats

A Visionary Among the Charlatans (Stanislaw Lem on Philip K. Dick)

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:01:59 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: Lem about the state of American science fiction circa 1975 with an extended appreciation of Dick

Clip Source: www.depauw.edu

Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans

Stanislaw Lem

Science Fiction Studies

# 5 = Volume 2, Part 1 = March 1975

ABSTRACT

Dick has as a rule taken over a rubble of building materials from the run-of-the-mill American professionals of SF, frequently adding a true gleam of originality to worn-out concepts, and erecting with such materials constructions truly his own.

If Dick’s writings are neither of uniform quality nor fully realized, still it is only by brute force that they can be jammed into that pulp of materials, destitute of intellectual value and original structure, which makes up SF.

Yet his bizarre blending of hallucinogenic and palingenetic techniques have not won him many admirers outside the ghetto walls, since outsiders are repelled by the shoddiness of the props he has adopted from the inventory of SF.

Tags: scifi, dick, lem, philip k dick, stanislaw lem, literature, sf, history, usa, journal

The Electric Sheep Screen-Saver: A Case Study in Aesthetic Evolution (paper)

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:29:29 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: Thanks to Kore7's comment on invictus' clip, I discovered there's a working linux version now.

2 minutes later, I found this paper on the Electric Sheep Project and simply had to share it.

Clip Source: draves.org

The Electric Sheep Screen-Saver: A Case Study in Aesthetic Evolution

Scott Draves

Spotworks, San Francisco CA, USA

Electric Sheep is a distributed screen-saver that harnesses idle computers into a render farm with the purpose of animating and evolving artificial life-forms known as sheep. The votes of the users form the basis for the fitness function for a genetic algorithm on a space of fractal animations. Users also may design sheep by hand for inclusion in the gene pool. This paper describes the system and its algorithms, and reports statistics from 11 weeks of operation. The data indicate that Electric Sheep functions more as an amplifier of its human collaborators' creativity rather than as a traditional genetic algorithm that optimizes a fitness function.

Full paper as PDF (c) Springer-Verlag

Electric Sheep Home Page

Tags: pdf, paper, sheep, electric sheep, screensaver, free, evolution, art

Average American Consumer Spending Tree

Mon, 05 May 2008 18:10:07 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: zoomable!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

All of Inflation’s Little Parts

Clip Source: infosthetics.com

[link: nytimes.com]

an interactive infographic treemap representing how much the average American citizen spends on 84,000 products in about 200 categories, including fast food, car insurance, rent, electricity, garbage collection & so on. larger shapes make up a larger part of spending. individual shapes can be selected & the treemap can be zoomed in & out.

Tags: visualization, us, usa, spending, economy, economics

The Paranoid Style in American Science

Sat, 03 May 2008 11:37:47 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: www.slate.com

The Paranoid Style in American Science

This is the first installment of a three-part series on radical skepticism and the rise of conspiratorial thinking about science.

Science
entries

1 2 3

Like the recent crop of global-warming skeptics, AIDS denialists, and biotech activists, Berlinski uses doubt as a weapon against the academy—he's more concerned with what we don't know than what we do. He uses uncertainty to challenge the scientific consensus; he points to the evidence that isn't there and seeks out the things that can't be proved. In its extreme and ideological form, this contrarian approach to science can turn into a form of paranoia—a state of permanent suspicion and outrage.

Tags: science, denialism, us, usa, skepticism, uncertainty, ideology

American Views of Religious Groups and Atheists

Sat, 03 May 2008 11:30:31 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: I find it remarkable that atheists are viewed almost as badly upon as Scientologists.

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

American Views of Religious Groups and Atheists

Gallup has released a survey measuring Americans views on various religious groups

Tags: religion, atheism, scientology, survey, gallup, us, usa, stats, society

Who is winning the global nanorace?

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:41:10 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: www.nature.com

Who is winning the global nanorace?

researchers in the United States publish many more papers on nanoscience and nanotechnology than researchers from any other country

As with patents and publications, the US leads the way in public spending on nanotechnology

The relatively high level of public funding for nanotechnology in Europe does, however, have an advantage in that it gives the public — in the form of consumers, pressure groups, regulatory agencies, and both European and national funding agencies — some influence in setting priorities for nanotechnology research.

research into environmental, health and safety issues will not be overlooked

Europe's position in the 'global nanorace' is promising, but much will depend on its ability to provide an adequate framework for the social and economic exploitation of the potential that nanotechnology offers

Tags: nanotechnology, science, funding, europe, usa, future, economy government, industry

Follow the Oil Money - Linking Oil Money & US Presidential Candidates

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:48:39 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: See: http://oilmoney.priceofoil.org/federalRaceGraph.php

Clip Source: oilmoney.priceofoil.org

Clip Source: infosthetics.com

a network visualization of the funding relationships between oil companies & current US president candidates.

in the "relationship view", the more money a politician has accepted from the oil industry, the bigger their picture is on the map. the more money they have accepted from an individual company, the thicker the line will be that connects them. elected officials & companies are positioned by their relationships, those that are close together tend to have similar patterns of giving and receiving. in the "table view", politicians are ranked by their total dollar amount received, together with the companies that donated them.

Tags: visualization, politics, money, business, oil, industry, president, usa

Your Brain on Politics

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 12:32:22 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

This Is Your Brain on Politics

Multimedia

Slide Show

This Is Your Brain on Politics

we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to watch the brains of a group of swing voters as they responded to the leading presidential candidates.

The two areas in the brain associated with anxiety and disgust — the amygdala and the insula — were especially active when men viewed “Republican.”

Tags: brain, politics, usa, us, elections, mri, fmri, vote

Fair Use Worth More to Economy Than Copyright

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:09:23 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: informationweek.com

Fair Use Worth More to Economy Than Copyright, CCIA Says

Fair use exceptions to U.S. copyright laws account for more than $4.5 trillion in annual revenue for the United States, according to the Computer and Communications Industry Association.

Clip Source: www.ccianet.org

companies benefiting from limitations on copyright-holders’ exclusive rights, such as “fair use” – generate substantial revenue, employ millions of workers, and, in 2006, represented one-sixth of total U.S. GDP.

“As the United States economy becomes increasingly knowledge-based, the concept of fair use can no longer be discussed and legislated in the abstract. It is the very foundation of the digital age and a cornerstone of our economy,” said Ed Black

Click here to download the study.

Clip Source: informationweek.com

The fair use economy's "value added" is thus almost 70% larger than that of the copyright industries.

"Copyright was created as a functional tool to promote creativity, innovation, and economic activity," said Black. "It should be measured by that standard

Tags: copyright, fair use, ip, intellectual property, innovation, law, economy, usa, internet, knowledge

On the Psychology of Believing News Reports

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 09:30:25 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: www.mindhacks.com

Infowar: strike early, strike often:

The Washington Post has a timely article about the psychology of believing news reports, even when they've been retracted - suggesting that if false information is presented early, it is more likely to be believed, while subsequent attempts to correct the information may, in fact, strengthen the false impression.

Negating a statement seems just to emphasise the initial point. The additional correction seems to get lost amid the noise.

One particularly pertinent study [pdf] not mentioned in the article, looked at the effect of retractions of false news reports made during the 2003 Iraq War on American, German and Australian participants.

The study found that the American participants' belief in the truth of an initial news report was not affected by knowledge of its subsequent retraction.

In contrast, knowing about a retraction was likely to significantly reduce belief in the initial report for Germans and Australians.

Tags: news, media, skeptic, truth, lies, progaganda, pr, war, usa, europe

World’s Best Medical Care?

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 09:08:36 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

World’s Best Medical Care?

the disturbing truth is that this country lags well behind other advanced nations in delivering timely and effective care.

Insurance coverage. All other major industrialized nations provide universal health coverage, and most of them have comprehensive benefit packages with no cost-sharing by the patients. The United States, to its shame, has some 45 million people without health insurance and many more millions who have poor coverage.

Fairness. The United States ranks dead last on almost all measures of equity because we have the greatest disparity in the quality of care given to richer and poorer citizens.

Healthy lives.

We rank near the bottom in healthy life expectancy at age 60, and 15th among 19 countries in deaths from a wide range of illnesses that would not have been fatal if treated with timely and effective care.

our obesity epidemic is the worst in the world.

Tags: healthcare, us, usa, world, comparison, who, politics

We Are Not Free of History

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:39:23 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: hnn.us

We Are Not Free of History

But is it true? Are we a youthful people, insensitive to the past, without a powerful inheritance?

Quite aside from the burden of race conflict, which has been with us from our earliest years, we live under the oldest written constitution in the world, and we orient our public life to principles that are now two centuries old. We often refer our public problems back to the minds of men – the Founders of the Republic – who lived in the pre-industrial age, and who would have found Darwin blasphemous, Freud revolting, and Einstein mad.

Yet despite all these differences, we keep going back to the Founders, not only for patriotic celebrations, but for some kind of essential wisdom, some kind of guidance.

Why do they continue to be so relevant?

Tags: history, usa, europe, enlightenment, constitution, politics, founders

World Press Trends: Global Newspaper Circulation & Advertising

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:37:53 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: Lots and lots of hard numbers @ source. Click it

More stats:

The Belgians spend the most time with their newspapers -- 54 minutes a day -- followed by the Chinese, Finns and Brazilians, with 48 minutes each, on average.

The Japanese remain the world’s greatest newspaper buyers, with 630.9 daily sales per thousand adults. They are followed by Norway with 601.2 sales per thousand, Colombia with 587.8, Finland with 514.7 and Sweden with 466.2.

Clip Source: www.wan-press.org

World Press Trends: Global Newspaper Circulation

WAN said global newspaper sales were up +2.3 percent over the year, and had increased +9.48 percent over the past five years. Newspaper sales increased year-on-year in Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, with North America the sole continent to register a decline.

When free dailies are added to the paid newspaper circulation, global circulation increased +4.61 percent last year, and +14.76 percent over the past five years. Free dailies now account for nearly 8 percent percent of all global newspaper circulation and 31.94 percent in Europe alone.

More than 515 million people buy a newspaper every day

Average readership is estimated to be more than 1.4 billion people each day

In the European Union, paid daily newspapers saw a -0.87 percent percent drop in 2006 and a -5.63 percent drop since 2002. Combined with free dailies, circulation in the EU rose +7.56 percent over one year and +12.22 percent over five years.

Tags: press, media, newspaper, statistics, stats, europe, usa, paper, reading

World Population Becomes More Urban Than Rural

Fri, 25 May 2007 11:00:21 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: news.ncsu.edu

World Population Becomes More Urban Than Rural

Wednesday, May 23, 2007, represents a major demographic shift,

For the first time in human history, the earth’s population will be more urban than rural.

Working with United Nations estimates that predict the world will be 51.3 percent urban by 2010, the researchers projected the May 23, 2007, transition day based on the average daily rural and urban population increases from 2005 to 2010. On that day, a predicted global urban population of 3,303,992,253 will exceed that of 3,303,866,404 rural people.

In the United States, the tipping point from a majority rural to a majority urban population came early in the late 1910s

Today, 21 percent of our country is rural

rural people do not fare well relative to their urban counterparts

poverty and low education attainment are concentrated in rural areas

1.2 billion of the world’s people live on less than what a dollar a day can buy. Globally, three-fourths of these poor people live in rural areas.

Tags: city, cities, rural, urban, population, demography, world, usa, earth, society