Worth bearing in mind

Is America actually in a state of war?

Bin Laden was a self-mythologized figure of no historic standing until George W. Bush designated him America's equal by defining 9/11 as an act of war to be met with war, instead of a crime to be met with criminal justice. But this over-reaction, so satisfying at the time to the wounded American psyche, turned into the war for which the other party simply did not show up. Which is, of course, why we are blasting a substitute Iraq to smithereens.

With great power comes great responsibility

Supreme Court to weigh DNA in capital case

One of the issues facing the Supreme Court this year is the question of whether or not death row inmates have the right to a new trial based on DNA evidence which was not available at the time of their conviction.

Since 1989, DNA technology has been used to exonerate 172 convicted felons in 31 states, including 14 people who had initially been sentenced to death.

...

[Paul] House, 44, has been on Tennessee's death row for 20 years, convicted of murdering Carolyn Muncey, a young mother who lived near him in rural Luttrell, about 25 miles north of Knoxville, in 1985. No one saw the crime happen, and House maintains he did not do it.

...

The prosecution found semen on the victim, and experts suggested at the time that it came from House, but new DNA evidence showed it was from Muncey's husband.

...

"I am convinced we are faced with a real-life murder mystery, an authentic 'who-done-it' where the wrong man may be executed," Judge Ronald Lee Gilman wrote.

Defense attorneys are often criticized for going out of their way (in rare cases bending or even breaking the rules) to get their clients out of trouble. Although defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, the consensus is that most defendants wouldn't be on trial if they weren't guilty. This belief implies an underlying trust in the competence and virtue of the police and prosecuting attorney.

Unfortunately prosecutors, like defense attorneys, are only human and thus capable of making mistakes. Both have a personal interest in winning their cases, and a small percentage of each may, at one time or another, be tempted to bend or even break the rules to make this happen. I'm not saying the system can be perfected, but perfection should be the goal. If we feel outrage each time an accused celebrity buys his innocence with a high-profile defense attorney, then we should feel equal or even greater outrage each time a wrongly-condemned man is ultimately proven innocent.

Better ten guilty men go free than one innocent be punished.
- Thomas Jefferson

Previous posts on capital punishment:
Voting their conscience
Values a la carte

Keywords:

• execution

Whose responsibility is freedom?

Google Gagged, but There's Hope

Google said its decision to launch a sanitized version of its famed search engine using China's ".cn" suffix was aimed at reaching China's massive internet audience. It defended the move as a trade-off.

The new site, launched on Wednesday, omits independent websites from searches about human rights, Tibet and other topics sensitive to Beijing. Instead users are directed only to websites espousing the government's views on such issues.

One prominent human rights advocate, U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, said it was "astounding" that Google, whose company motto is 'Don't Be Evil,' would cooperate with such censorship "just to make a buck."

"Many Chinese have suffered imprisonment and torture in the service of truth — and now Google is collaborating with their persecutors," said Smith, who has called for legal sanctions against U.S. technology companies that aid Chinese web censorship.

Amnesty International said such cooperation clearly curtailed freedom of expression and information, calling Google's policy "short-sighted."

It is true that Google and other corporations could choose to take the high road and refuse to help the Chinese government censor its people. But that would be completely above and beyond the call of duty for an enterprise that was created to develop technology and make a profit.

Cure the disease, not the symptoms.

More Stephen Colbert

Interviewed by Nathan Rabin

AVC: You're saying appearances are more important than objective truth?

SC: Absolutely. The whole idea of authority—authoritarian is fine for some people, like people who say "Listen to me, and just don't question, and do what I say, and everything will be fine"—the sort of thing we really started to respond to so well after 9/11. 'Cause we wanted someone to be daddy, to take decisions away from us. I really have a sense of [America's current leaders] doing bad things in our name to protect us, and that was okay. We weren't thrilled with Bush because we thought he was a good guy at that point, we were thrilled with him because we thought that he probably had hired people who would fuck up our enemies, regardless of how they had to do it. That was for us a very good thing, and I can't argue with the validity of that feeling.

But that has been extended to the idea that authoritarian is better than authority. Because authoritarian means there's only one authority, and that authority has got to be the President, has got to be the government, and has got to be his allies. What the right-wing in the United States tries to do is undermine the press. They call the press "liberal," they call the press "biased," not necessarily because it is or because they have problems with the facts of the left—or even because of the bias for the left, because it's hard not to be biased in some way, everyone is always going to enter their editorial opinion—but because a press that has validity is a press that has authority. And as soon as there's any authority to what the press says, you question the authority of the government—it's like the existence of another authority. So that's another part of truthiness. Truthiness is "What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true." It's not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There's not only an emotional quality, but there's a selfish quality.

Adult diaper sales soar in China

The problem arises from the need to sell twice as many tickets as there are train seats to accommodate the crush of travelers. Those without seats must find some place -- any place -- to put themselves, including in overhead racks, between cars, and in the usually stinking toilets.

Hmmm. Maybe we don't need to worry about China becoming a world superpower quite yet.

Crick, Francis. Discovered double helical structure of DNA, 1953*

LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug?

Last year's Congressional hearings (!) on steroid use in baseball have renewed the controversy over the use of performance-enhancing drugs by professional athletes.

It has been suggested that Barry Bonds should have an asterisk next to his name in the record books.

Well, what about other professionals who use performance-enhancing drugs? Should they have an asterisk next to their accomplishments?

In his presentation, artist Alex Grey noted that Nobel-prize-winner Francis Crick, discoverer of the double helical structure of DNA, also told friends he received inspiration for his ideas from LSD, according to news reports.

Both LSD and steroids are illegal, so let's put that argument aside for the moment and focus on the issue of fairness.

When I'm on LSD and hearing something that's pure rhythm, it takes me to another world and into anther brain state where I've stopped thinking and started knowing," said Herbert who intervened to ban drug testing of technologists at Cisco Systems.

Many companies require their employees to pass drug tests, but this is about reliability, not performance. One might argue that we don't want to stifle creativity in any way, lest we miss out on the next great technological breakthrough. If that line of reasoning applies to mental achievement, then why not to athletic achievement as well?

Today's athletes are bigger, stronger, and faster than they have ever been. Much of that is due to improved nutrition, health care, and training. But it is also due to various individual performance-enhancing technologies.

Pitchers routinely undergo Tommy John surgery, in which a tendon is removed from a patient's hamstring and implanted in the elbow, making it stronger and more durable. As Bill Simmons would argue, how is this different from using performance-enhancing drugs?

Also relevant to this discussion is the question of whether prosthetics provide an unfair advantage to disabled athletes.

The list of potential inequities between athletes is endless. Where do you draw the line? As we continue to learn more about the mechanics of our bodies (and minds), that question will become increasingly difficult to answer.

You have ten seconds to comply

Note to self: cancel trip to South Korea

The South Korean government has robot fever, and they're about to unleash a whole army -- literally -- of the mechanized creatures on their public. According to The Korea Times, the country will see the rollout of police and military robots within the next five years, thanks to a newly approved $33.9 million spending appropriation. Patrol bots will guard the streets at night, and even chase criminals, while horse-shaped combat bots will augment the country's fighting force. In both cases, the bots will communicate via Korea's vast mobile network.

Robot Cops to Patrol Korean Streets

Read This Sign

Sorry for the crappy camera-phone quality of this photo. I wanted to end the week on a humorous note. This sign is at an intersection just down the street from my office. I guess the natives were getting restless....

It's not easy being green

Frog Extinctions Linked to Global Warming
By 2050 Warming to Doom Million Species, Study Says

We can all debate until we're blue in the face what causes global warming or if it's even real. But I seem to recall learning in grade school that frogs are a harbinger of climate change, so I think this warrants some attention.

Wait, what city am I in?

Every January the program I'm working on has a meeting in Marina del Rey, CA. Today the crew of CSI:Miami is here filming a beach volleyball scene with Kerri Walsh and Misty May. One of my colleagues pointed out that this beach faces east, so I guess that makes it a good stand-in for Miami Beach.


During a break we walked across the street to watch them film. I was surprised that they didn't really try to close off the beach at all. When they were ready to film a scene someone would yell, "Quiet on the set!" and they would just go. In the scene I watched, Kerri and Misty are playing volleyball when all of a sudden they seem to notice something (a dead body?) and walk over to look. Some guy runs over and says something to them. I couldn't really hear what they were saying. Anyway it doesn't make sense that they would all of a sudden notice a dead body on the beach so I probably misunderstood what was happening completely.

I'm sorry I didn't take better pictures, but I felt shy about getting too close while they were filming. Also I didn't want to feel like some obnoxious paparazzo. If I had taken better pictures, they might look something like this. Now it looks like they are filming some close-up action sequences (I'm watching from my hotel room balcony). There is a tight group of about twenty spectators huddled next to the court. Every thirty seconds or so, Misty and Kerri simulate a play as the fake crowd cheers. The magic of Hollywood!

New Google Robot Will Cook Hamburgers

Gates Opens CES With Scorn

"I hear they're coming out with a robot that will cook hamburgers, too. Let's spread that rumor — there's nothing they can't do," Gates said in jest.

Finally! I have been waiting for this and I will pay handsomely for a hamburger-cooking robot. Google you have done it again!

Newlyweds

Quirky prenup deal doesn't save marriage

SANFORD, Fla. --Sally Erickson and Renzie Davidson thought they had the secret to marital bliss. But the eccentric list of demands outlined in their prenuptial agreement, including mandatory backrubs and a $5 nagging fee, still couldn't save their marriage.

Now Erickson is suing Davidson for fraud, alleging he divorced her in secret more than two years ago, according to Seminole County court records.

Before exchanging vows in 2001, the couple agreed to a quirky prenuptial agreement. Erickson promised to cook breakfast at least four times a week, and, in return, "Renzie will not wake Sally up on her 'off days,'" according to the document.

The agreement also required Davidson to rub Erickson's back three times a week for five minutes. If Erickson used a certain expletive, she would be sentenced to one hour of yard work. And Davidson was to pay $5 each time he complained, nagged or made "a fuss about Sally's expenditures."

Despite their carefully laid plans, Davidson, 62, decided to call it quits 3 1/2 months into the marriage. Erickson, 61, acknowledged she was served notice of the divorce suit, but she said in court pleadings that Davidson later told her he had dropped the suit.

Erickson said Davidson secretly went to court and got a default judgment against her. Documents show Davidson was granted an uncontested divorce in February 2003 without Erickson ever appearing in court. She claims she didn't know about the divorce until recently.

Davidson has not contested Erickson's claim.

Boy if these two can't make it, what chance do any of us have?

1 + 3 < 2

Heisman Finalists	Yards	TD	TO
1 Reggie Bush	177	1	1
2 Vince Young	467	3	0
3 Matt Leinart	365	1	1

Vince Young papered over any blocking mistakes with a performance that's been immediately and rightly hailed as one of the greatest ever: 200 yards and three touchdowns on the ground, 267 yards through the air. Young is a freakish Frankenstein of a quarterback who combines the best attributes of Michael Vick, John Elway, and long-striding former University of Arkansas QB Matt Jones. He's slippery, with a rocket arm (and vastly underrated accuracy) and a loping gait that doesn't seem particularly fast until he beats defenders to the edge time and again.

- Don't Mess With Texas

Don't tell him I said this

Whose idea was it to put this guy in front of a camera?

Unfair Advantage?

Born to Run

Frasure-the-runner saw the fruits of his labors as Frasure-the-prosthetist from up close that day: he was on the track next to Pistorius when his patient-turned-protégé thundered past him on his way to shattering the American's world record. "I should have waited until next year to make his legs," Frasure said wryly, with a wan smile.

Do high-tech prosthetic legs provide an unfair advantage to disabled athletes? I believe so. In a roundabout way, this is similar to my argument about not trampling on one group's rights to protect another's. But it's not that simple.

Ultimately the real question is not one of science but of humanity and of fairness: should Oscar be allowed to run even if he gains some measure of advantage as a sprinter from his misfortune as a human being? And how does that advantage—if there is one—compare with the good fortune of a Carl Lewis or a Michael Johnson, members of what Gailey calls "the lucky sperm club" of athletes literally built to run because of their unnaturally long legs?

The only thing we have to fear

Good read: Lawbreaker in Chief

Follow up: Go Back to Afghanistan, Hussy!

Come on General, you've lost men, I've lost men, but you - you, you can't do this! What, what if they don't even want the sheik, have you considered that? What if what they really want is for us to herd our children into stadiums like we're doing? And put soldiers on the street and have Americans looking over their shoulders? Bend the law, shred the Constitution just a little bit? Because if we torture him, General, we do that and everything we have fought, and bled, and died for is over. And they've won. They've already won!

- Denzel Washington as Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard, The Siege, 1998

If I were the last dog on Earth

Katrina aftermath includes puppy boom

Officials say more than 6,000 pets were saved after Katrina came ashore Aug. 29, and many of them were relocated to homes elsewhere in the country. An unknown number drowned in the floodwaters or died later of injuries.

But thousands of animals remain, running loose in neighborhoods where fences were flattened and many owners are gone....

Workers have yet to see a spike in cat births, but there's no doubt about what dogs have been doing since the hurricane, said Tara High, executive director of the nonprofit group.

Tough Name

Decody Fagg, FSU WR

At least he's not a tight end.

MVP

If you replaced [Tom Brady] with someone like Jake Delhomme or Drew Bledsoe, the Patriots would have been 1-7 after eight games. I'm telling you. He held them together when they were banged-up and ready to roll over. And in a similar situation, sure, maybe Manning would have held the Colts together … but the fact remains, only six teams have a legitimate chance to win the Super Bowl (Indy, New England, Cincy, Denver, Chicago and Seattle) and only one of those six teams is in that position because of one guy and one guy alone. Not only did Brady hold the fort when the injuries kept piling up, he raised his game to another level and pretty much carried them for two straight months. Now that's an MVP.

- Bill Simmons

Good Question

'Scrubs' stays an inventive operation

Among the countless perversities and mysteries of TV, the slighting of ''Scrubs" has been notable. Why hasn't this sly sitcom been an Emmy magnet during its four seasons? How come viewers haven't made it a Nielsen hit, or at least a cult sensation that gets fetish pieces in Entertainment Weekly? Why does NBC shuffle it around the schedule every year like a dung-puck, withholding season five until a gap happened to open up in the Tuesday lineup?

I love this show, and I wonder why nobody else watches it (at least not enough Nielsen viewers). When I heard NBC promote it's new Thursday lineup, touting My Name is Earl and The Office as TV's most inventive comedies, I had to wonder. Both of those shows are funny, I agree, and Earl is pretty original. But The Office is a remake of a British sitcom! The pilot episode, at least, used the same script word-for-word. How does that qualify as inventive?

Anyway I digress. Everyone should be watching Scrubs. Unless you're not watching TV at all. That's okay too.

Note #1: And no one (including me) will be watching the premier tonight during the Orange Bowl. Nice programming, NBC. Are you deliberately setting up Scrubs to fail?

Note #2: How obsolete are Nielsen ratings anyway? I actually have no idea how that works nowadays. I will record Scrubs and watch it later. Does Nielsen account for timeshifting?

Flutie Flakes!

Doug Flutie drop-kicks an extra point for the first time in the NFL since 1941.


Tim Dwight runs a "post route." It's hard to see but he actually knocks snow off the goal posts =)