Green Scissors

 I am posting this for one reason and one reason only.

When people Google "Infected Canadian Ducks" I want them to find this site.

I will now proceed to giggle continuously for the rest of the day. 

Infected Canadian ducks unlikley to have H5N1 virus (Reuters) -

Reuters - Canada has discovered a strain of H5 avian flu in 33 wild migratory ducks but it is unlikely to be the killer H5N1 strain which has spread from Southeast Asia to Europe, a top health official said on Monday.

(Via Yahoo! Top Stories)

When life begins to mimic the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, beware.  Having said that, this looks like a really remarkable technology.  Only in its infancy it still hold a world of promise.  I would imagine that there will be myriad other applications for this technology.

CMU develops a prototype in-mouth "babelfish" -

It kind of freaks us out that the interACT program (International Center for Advanced Communication Technologies), a joint venture of Carnegie Mellon and the University of Karlsruhe, unveiled a system consisting of 11 electrodes that detect mouth muscle movements, translates that to a spoken language, and then re-translates that into other languages. But what really freaks us out about the interACT “babelfish” prototypes they’re developing, more than the in-mouth/throat electrode translation system they’ve theorized, were the “translation goggles” that lipread other languages and subtitle your field of vision with translated text, or focused-sound translation “beams” that can make a room of internationals like a wireless, computerized session of the UN. The system and its underlying concepts are still far from perfect, but for as much as we whine about not living in the future ideal as much as we wished we were, this is a pretty decent start.

(Via Engadget)

Since I know you all care deeply, I thought I’d let you know that Bash.org is back in business.  At the moment the RSS feeds don’t seem to be parsing correctly but I will keep at it.

Hope everyone weathered the time change ok.  I always find that a day full of football induced napping helps me adjust

Great article at Slate about the Intelligent Design debate currently taking place in Pennsylvania. 

"There is an elephant in the roomful of scientists who are trying to explain the development of life," wrote Michael Behe, a professor of biochemistry, in his 1996 book Darwin’s Black Box. The elephant was ubiquitous evidence of "intelligent design" in nature. Darwinian evolutionists, Behe argued, were unable to explain life’s origins and its emerging complexity because they couldn’t see the elephant.

Behe has the same problem, but worse. Last week in a Pennsylvania courtroom, he testified in defense of a school board’s requirement that biology teachers mention ID. (For Hanna Rosin’s reports from the trial, click here.) Behe offered a number of interesting criticisms of Darwinism. But it’s impossible to focus on any of these criticisms, because they were so completely overshadowed by the brontosaurus in the room: ID’s sophomoric emptiness.

 The comparison is made to a Monty Python skit which the author quotes.  You can see that in the full article, but Behe offers up some pretty ridiculous stuff himself.  It would be hilarious if he weren’t serious.

 Q: Please describe the mechanism that intelligent design proposes for how complex biological structures arose.
A: Well, the word "mechanism" can be used in many ways. … When I was referring to intelligent design, I meant that we can perceive that in the process by which a complex biological structure arose, we can infer that intelligence was involved. …
Q: What is the mechanism that intelligent design proposes?
A: And I wonder, could—am I permitted to know what I replied to your question the first time?
Q: I don’t think I got a reply, so I’m asking you. You’ve made this claim here (reading): "Intelligent design theory focuses exclusively on the proposed mechanism of how complex biological structures arose." And I want to know, what is the mechanism that intelligent design proposes for how complex biological structures arose?
A: Again, it does not propose a mechanism in the sense of a step-by-step description of how those structures arose. But it can infer that in the mechanism, in the process by which these structures arose, an intelligent cause was involved.

 Does this qualify as good luck or bad luck?  Or both?

Police: Woman Used Stolen Card in Lottery (AP) - AP - A woman bought a winning lottery ticket worth $1 million with a stolen credit card and could wind up with nothing if convicted, police said.

(Via Yahoo! Top Stories)

 Ok, this is simply dumb.  Telling kids that they can be suspended for having a blog is very much in line with telling kids that they can’t have sex.  Wouldn’t it be a much better use of everyone’s time to educate children on the dangers of online information and how to write without revealing their identities?  I dunno, maybe this would even make for a good course in English or Journalism.  But threatening kids is the best way to get them to do something.

School orders students to remove blogs -

The Associated Press reported about a high school in Sparta that ordered its students to remove their online diaries from the Internet, citing a threat from cyberpredators.

[via the Boston Globe]

The school’s principal told the school population in an assembly earlier this month to remove any personal journals they might have or risk suspension.

ficials said students aren’t being silenced but rather told that they cannot post online writings about school or their personal lives. The Associated Press found no postings by users who mentioned the school. Profiles posted by other users include photos and detailed personal information on topics such as musical tastes, body measurements and sexual history.

Kurt Opsahl of the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which champions the rights of bloggers, said there have been several attempts by private institutions elsewhere to restrict or censor students’ Internet postings.

is the first time we’ve heard of such an overreaction," he said. "It would be better if they taught students what they should and shouldn’t do online rather than take away the primary communication tool of their generation."

A spokeswoman of the school said parents of students who enroll in the schools sign contracts governing student behavior, including responsible Internet use.

That could dilute the students’ free speech claims somewhat, acknowledged Ed Barocas, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

(Via Unmediated)

 Let’s see.  You’re wildly unqualified for the position.  Your nomination has caused the entire political spectrum to scratch its head and call "bullshit" on the President.

Yeah, withdrawing your name might make sense. 

Miers withdraws nomination (Reuters) -

Reuters - President George W. Bush’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, White House counsel Harriet Miers, abruptly withdrew from consideration on Thursday after mounting criticism from the right and the left about her credentials for the lifetime job.

(Via Yahoo! Top Stories)

 This caught my eye today.  The goverment is going to be pretty happy with this.  Their own nationwide cellphone and push to talk network free from other intrusions.

US DoD buying Sprint Nextel’s iDEN network -

Moto must be stoked on this one: after Sprint was slated to wipe Nextel’s iDEN network from the face of the planet, PCS Intel has it that the United States Department of Defense will come in and scoop up the infrastructure outright for a national encrypted iDEN network for government communications — one separate from civilian cellphone networks. For those of you still worried about your service and/or Push-To-Talk, have no fear, we understand Sprint intends to roll out dual-mode CDMA/iDEN handsets for use in the years during the changeover, and they’ve already got limited support for Sprint PCS Ready Link (their CDMA PTT service). So yes, it looks like iDEN will live to see another day — but eventually you’ll just have to be on the government payroll to use it.

[Thanks, CoreyTheGent]

(Via Engadget)

Every day I hit the web to read my comics.  So today I got around to adding links to my favorites.  You can see them all in the Web Comic links.