Most Interesting Thing You've Read This Past Week

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Howdy! Welcome to the our weekly open thread on interesting reads! This is where to post links to those great things that made you say "Ah!" when you read them, so the rest of us can read them too!

So what is the most interesting thing you've read in the past week?

It can be anything - a book, a news article, a blog post, a recipe, a cartoon, anything goes...

And please - if there's a link, link it; if it's a recipe post it. :D

 

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I have 3 this week, 2 serious, 1 OMG you gotta be kiddin'...

poligirl's picture

first an awesome indictment of the GOP and Science:

Scientists hate the GOP for a reason

next a really brutal and deservedly scathing critique of ZDT:

7 ways “Zero Dark Thirty” excuses torture

and and omg you've got to be kidding me:

Fox "News" Claims that Algebra Classes Are a Conspiracy of Liberal Indoctrination

 

 

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The Kennedy children criticize the Warren Commission

geomoo's picture

This was a huge surprise to me.  They also said that Robert Kennedy, although he publicly supported the Warren Commission, thought the work was sloppy and was convinced that there was more than one gunman.  Actually, this pissed me off more than anything, all the damage that has been done, creating the meme of conspiracy as a brand of craziness, effectively keeping thoughtful people from investigating the possible manipulations of the USG lest they be branded as crazy and lose all voice.  How long will it be before a very serious person can be honest about the sloppy, inconclusive work of the 9/11 Commission?  Answer--long enough for it not to matter anymore.

Along similar lines, Lance Armstrong is going to admit doping.  I've known it for years, ever since I heard an interview with a woman who used to work for him.  Of course, she was trashed.  Now that he's been caught fair and square, Lance wants to acknowledge so that he can continue being a hero.

I'm not even close to expressing my frustration over these thing.  But, yes, that was

 

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After the death of Aaron Swartz,

Glinda's picture

 so many people have come forward in loving tribute and sad remorse of losing him.

h/t to Aigeanta for posting the link to #PDFTribute to Aaron.
 

The explanation:

The untimely death of 26-year-old Internet folk hero Aaron Swartz has inspired a movement: Academics, researchers, and activists are releasing their copyrighted work online, for free. It's a fitting tribute to the copyright reform and Internet freedom activist, and it's catching on fast.

 

Participants are using the #PDFtribute hashtag when linking to their work.  Those links are aggregated here and here. As Michah Allen, who posted a Reddit comment that partially inspired the idea, noted in a blog post, the tribute is directly inspired by Swartz's open access advocacy.

I've been clicking on many links there and it is overwhelming.

Here's one of the latest:
 

An Elegy for Aaron
 

This post is in honor of Aaron Swartz. I had long considered posting my book as open access but had hesitated in doing so, even though I have long been an enthusiast about OLPC and Creative Commons.  Aaron’s tragic death prompted my urgent reconsideration and offering.

 

For me, it is the pictures of Aaron, the goodness and sweetness of a young man working for just, equal society through open access, that are especially haunting.

There are so many moving vignettes; I cannot write as eloquently, but was particularly touched by these:

The heartbreaking, beautiful post by Quinn Norton, “My Aaron Swartz, whom I loved,” and her plea, “Make the world that wouldn’t have killed him, please.”

“We’re going to miss your brilliant mind, your righteous heart and your sensitive soul.” Chris Hayes

Cory Doctorow’s “My obit for Aaron Swartz.”

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Greg Lemond

nemesis's picture

was dragged through the mud and lost his line at Trek for not making nice with Lance.  He said Lance told him he doped.  Career ruined, and Lance has 100 million dollars.  Lance isn't qualified to wipe Lemond's ass.

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Yeah, it's been painful to watch the Lance saga

geomoo's picture

If people had wanted to know, they could have known.  And to watch him become more and more of a legend.  Tough to watch.  Yet another thing that makes me look like a negative nancy, hating on Lance, one of the biggest frauds of our generation.  Well, let me retract.  He didn't commit war crimes or prevent the country from electing the sensible liberal they wanted under false pretense.  But his legacy is still shameful..

He's going to confess on Oprah.  Were you ever at a revival meeting?  If there's anything more welcome than a good man, it's a sinner like the rest of us.  Don't expect me to shout hallelujah at Lance until I hear some real remorse.

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Very interesting

geomoo's picture

I had not seen that aspect of things before.  It is pretty shocking how many people are convinced this was murder even though Swartz had acknowledged coping with depression.  The most upsetting aspect to me is that there is damn good reason to be suspicious.  When reality is actively distorted and powerful forces devote a lot of energy to keeping people ignorant, you get this sort of dysfunctional society wherein people try to cope with their feelings of helplessness and inability to find the truth by reaching out in all sorts of directions, from embracing everything the government says as truth to believing the government is behind every horrible event to all sorts of combinations in between.

The take-away from me is what it means for the future that our culture is so fractured and paranoid.

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