Filed by Bil at 3:29 pm under Fightin' Words, Politics
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Over time, I’ve learned to be pragmatic when talking to others about politics. I myself have some incredibly strong opinions, but I know plenty of my good friends & favorite family members have very different opinions, and rather than ruin relationships with petty arguments, I tend to just avoid the subject entirely.

Occasionally, though, I feel the need to blurt something out. This is one of those times.
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Filed by Bil at 7:25 pm under Fightin' Words, Love, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion, The Science
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I read a New York Times Opinion article recently about our human tendency to anthropomorphize machines and assign the badge “Artificial Intelligence” to robots that simply aren’t intelligent. (I suspect he’s referring to articles like this one.) The opinion article is a great read, but it’s kinda long and it seems to conclude in a different place than it starts out, so if I were a high school English teacher, I’d give the essay a B.

At its core, this piece is a warning to us humans not to infuse our technological advancements with religious or philosophical ideologies. And I must say, I completely agree with that statement. My favorite point the author makes is this:

In fact, the nuts and bolts of A.I. research can often be more usefully interpreted without the concept of A.I. at all. For example, I.B.M. scientists recently unveiled a “question answering” machine that is designed to play the TV quiz show “Jeopardy.” Suppose I.B.M. had dispensed with the theatrics, declared it had done Google one better and come up with a new phrase-based search engine. This framing of exactly the same technology would have gained I.B.M.’s team as much (deserved) recognition as the claim of an artificial intelligence, but would also have educated the public about how such a technology might actually be used most effectively.

It punctuates exactly what he’s trying to state before going on to make grander observations about religious wars and the concept of personhood.

However, it did get me thinking – not so much about personhood or religion, but about the meaning of intelligence.
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Filed by Bil at 3:49 pm under Fightin' Words, Politics, Social Issues
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I swear we’re not seeking out educational links, so this is the last one for now.

Pretty much the best news I’ve heard in a long time:

Obama Wants ‘No Child Left Behind’ Law Overhauled

That’s right. The No Child Left Behind law is being expelled.

Filed by Bil at 2:59 pm under Fightin' Words, Love, Politics, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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It appears that Lance was blogging about education at the same time I was last night, only his was finished a little while before mine, so if anyone was too distracted by Pink Floyd, please take a moment and also read up on what Lance has to say.

Now that you’ve read that post and have returned here, I wanted to give a quick shout-out to Elephant & Worm, an educational theatre company that “brings kids together with professional actors, artists, and writers to take original stories written by children and turn them into plays, movies, and songs!” Fellow Dream Theatre Company member Judith Lesser is heavily involved in this company, and you know if someone from Dream Theatre is involved, it must be great!

Kudos to all involved in education at all ages, because education should never stop. Never ever.

Filed by Bil at 12:21 am under Fightin' Words, Politics, Shameless Plugs, The Arts, The Media
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Education reform has been a very popular notion for a very long time.

Jeff Jarvis, author of one of my favorite blogs, BuzzMachine, recently posted an article titled TEDxNYed: This is bullshit – it is a rant about, among other things, the state of our educational system, and it’s a fairly brilliant comparison to the state of journalism. In one sweeping, somewhat angry blog post, he wrote three of the most fabulous things I’ve read in a blog all year:

1) Just as journalists must become more curator than creator, so must educators.
2) I’ll give the same advice to the academy that I give to news media: Do what you do best and link to the rest.
3) We must stop looking at education as a product – in which we turn out every student giving the same answer – to a process, in which every student looks for new answers. Life is a beta.

He starts the post out by acknowledging the irony of him up on a virtual soapbox, dictating that we ought not be dictated to, so I’m going to take him up on what I perceive to be an invitation to respectfully disagree (even if just to a small degree).
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Filed by Trevor at 2:05 pm under Fightin' Words, Politics
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This is an impulse post if there ever was one, and if you haven’t watched the video on Bil’s earlier one, do so now.

I spend a fair bit of time worrying about the state of things, especially as world leaders gather more and more power into their claws with the deft use of fear and intimidation. Thus, the video below gives me hope — a sign that there are some politicians yet that still have the grapes to stand up for themselves and the sovereignty of their nation. Plus it’s kind of funny.

Some background info first, though, as best as I understand things. Herman van Rompuy recently was unilaterally appointed “President of Europe”, an office I found to be little disturbing, but the appointment fitting enough as Belgium was one of the founding members of the EU. And now, what someone who knows far more than I has to say on the subject:

Filed by Bil at 10:20 pm under Fightin' Words, Homophobia, Politics, The Media
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Well this is just incredible:

For 5 days, 5 Journalists will only source news from Twitter and Facebook to test quality of news.

This is bound to be a fascinating little experiment, and I am eager to read the results.

>> Update: you can follow the journalists here.

Speaking of breaking news via Twitter, I’ve been sitting at my computer for like half an hour now just watching the real-time tweet feed come in on the Prop 8 trial in California. For all of you on Twitter, just search #prop8 (or click this link) and sit still for ten seconds. You’ll see. They won’t stop coming.
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Filed by Bil at 1:25 pm under Damn Hippies, Love, Social Issues
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This World AIDS Day, I called in sick to the office. I don’t have AIDS, I just happen to be under the weather.

While I can’t do much about the syndrome itself, seeing as how I am not a research scientist, I can at least raise awareness and encourage prevention education.

Here’s how I do that:

Please read this article on World Aids Day 2009 from NPR’s news blog, The Two-Way. The article contains a brilliant summation of the current world AIDS situation from UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe.

If you’re too lazy to read the article, I’ll reprint the summation here, with some parts in bold (courtesy of me, because I like them):

On this World AIDS Day we are filled with both hope and concern.

Hope because significant progress has been made towards universal access. New HIV infections have dropped. Fewer children are born with HIV. And more than 4 million people are on treatment.

Concern because 28 years into the epidemic the virus continues to make inroads into new populations; stigma and discrimination continue to undermine efforts to turn back the epidemic. The violation of human rights of people living with HIV, women and girls, men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers must end.
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Filed by Bil at 10:12 pm under Politics
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More Americans Believe In UFOs Than Oppose A Public Option

What’s it gonna be, GOP? More NASA funding, or a public option for health care? Gotta give us one.

Filed by Bil at 10:54 pm under Damn Hippies, Fightin' Words, GOP, Politics
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http://benonymous.tumblr.com/post/198803171/divorce

Please, everybody go and read this blog post. It is a divorce of right and left proposed by the right, and a supremely clever response from the left. I’m enamored with the reply, it sums up just about everything about the strife we find ourselves with these days, and while it stands firm, it is not a mean-spirited reply. The wink comes with open arms; or, the open arms come with a wink. One of the two.

While you’re at it, check out the rest of the blog. This is one interesting mind.