Man unveils 1,150-page Bible — written by hand — The St. John's Bible, commissioned in 1998, is the first handmade version in 500 years. Wow… (Via
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threeoutsideGhost sign — These are all over Portland. (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)
Bitcoin Isn’t the Only Cryptocurrency in Town — Currencies designed to fix perceived flaws in Bitcoin could lead to competition that makes the idea of digital “cryptocurrency” stick.
Nanosponges To Suck Up Toxins
Lab-made rat kidneys raise hopes for dialysis patients — No livers yet, sadly.
Will the Supreme Court end human gene patents after three decades? — Court considers invalidating breast cancer gene patents—and thousands of others. Yes, this.
Moore’s Law and the Origin of Life — As life has evolved, its complexity has increased exponentially, just like Moore’s law. Now geneticists have extrapolated this trend backwards and found that by this measure, life is older than the Earth itself. This is exactly the kind of thing that reinforces to me how sadly limited the imaginations of creationists and Intelligent Design proponents must be.
Justin Bieber doesn’t get to second-guess Anne Frank. Nobody does. — Wow, is this a deep and clueless arrogance on Beiber's part.
Orthodox Jew Flies In Plane Covered In Huge Plastic Bag, Possibly To Avoid Cemetery Flyover — First of all, the headline is hilariously misleading. Second of all, the story is the umpteenth example of why public decision making should not be based on religious principles, because religious principles lead to deeply irrational behavior over and over and over. While not all religious principles cause people to wrap themselves in plastic, it becomes very hard to draw the line, especially in a country like this one where irrational religious principles such as evolution denial influence education policy nationwide.
Antarctic warming a tale of two ice cores — Ice cores taken from two regions of the Antarctic give a mixed story on the impact of human-induced climate change on the icy continent. Summer ice melting on the Antarctic Peninsula is at its highest in 1000 years, report scientists in today's Nature Geoscience journal. But an analysis of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet stretching back 2000 years indicates "rapid ice loss may not be all that unusual" in that area of the continent, report another group of scientists in the same journal. That's what science does. Incorporate contradictory evidence and revise the theory. Unlike dogmatic denialism.
‘Fraidy Cat — Jim Wright is very eloquent on the existential terror that dominates conservative rhetoric and policy thinking.
QotD?: Supertramp?
4/15/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (60 minutes and 2,000 words on Original Destiny, Manifest Sin plus some WRPA)
Hours slept: 6.25 hours (interrupted by a two hour break)
Body movement: 0.0 hours (overslept)
Weight: 248.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block checking the magazine sizes of gun owners: 0
Currently reading: Jingo by Terry Pratchett