Have a safe and happy 4th

Gambling, free will, and operant conditioning

B.F. Skinner is the type of psychologist a modern, science minded person can relate to. No guilt-based Freudian mumbo jumbo from this guy. Unfortunately, some of his beliefs are a bit depressing, like the one describes late in this video, where he questions the existence of free will in humans.

His observations on gambling are fantastic- variable and infrequent reward schedules create dramatic responses in animals, including humans.

Another hard day at the H1N1 disassembly area...

What we need is more designer anti-infection wear. Shouldn't this have a Hugo Boss logo on there?

"Bobby" Jindal is the new face of the Republican party? Someone over there needs to hire a media consultant or something.



Rachel Maddow provided a good response:

Nukes vs. Massive Nukes

I've been watching old 1950's SciFi of late and I've been reminded of a term that you don't really hear anymore- the "H-Bomb". This bomb was a massive "upgrade" from previous nuclear bombs, being vastly more destructive. Many military minds thought it was ridiculous from a tactical perspective. The problem with it is the explosion is so large you can't really use it on the front line of a conventional war, because you'd wipe out your own troops. This bomb is really meant for wiping out civilians far behind battle lines.

Poking around the web I found this image of the first nuclear explosion, code named "Trinity," a project managed by J. Robert Oppenheimer. I also found out that Oppenheimer was very much opposed to building the H-bomb, or super-bomb. Los Alamos has a bit about it here.

I think J. Robert had some serious misgivings about what he'd birthed, at least he seems a little reluctant in this video. We should all be thankful the H-bomb has never been deployed.

My new favorite website

I get lots of questions from people, often technical. Quite often I don't know the answer, but I always have an answer quickly. I've been sending links to Google search results as answers to questions for a long time. Now, I can send a link to a page where the question answerer can actually watch the search get typed in.

Your answer is out there, just waiting to be discovered...

My new favorite website: http://letmegooglethatforyou.com

Thanks Ted, for sending me that link!

Colin Powel on Islamophobia

"I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say, and it is permitted to be said. Such things as 'Well you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well the correct answer is 'He is not a Muslim, he's a Christian, he's always been a Christian.' But the really right answer is 'What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?' The answer is 'No. That's not America.' Is there something wrong with some 7-year old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she can be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion he's a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo-essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in you can see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards, Purple Heart, Bronze Star, showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have a Star of David. It had a crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Karim Rashad Sultan Khan. And he was an American, he was born in New Jersey, he was 14 at the time of 9/11 and he waited until he can go serve his counrty and he gave his life."