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I have mixed feelings about the Assange situation - he must answer to the charges in Sweden, and his supporters should not (and, by and large, have not) turn to apologies for rape/sexual assault, or seek to mitigate the seriousness of the charges.

On the other hand, to suggest that his flight to the Ecuadoran embassy is purely to avoid charges in Sweden, and that his fears of extradition are paranoid, seems false. I read a good article looking at his legal situation which seemed to think the extradition fears were unfounded, and I feel that this article answers it well.

Predictably, the shooting of Sikhs at prayer garners less attention than the shooting of ‘normal’ Americans at the movies.

Good article about the use of the word ‘bigot’, particularly as a response to being accused of bigotry.

Good article about the Daily Mail’s attempts to reignite the tedious and dangerous MMR ‘debate’. Includes a wonderful summary of the evidence.

When people say they can smell a storm coming, they’re right. Weather patterns produce distinctive odors that sensitive noses sniff out. This year’s peculiar weather patterns—such as drought in the Midwest and a “super derecho” of thunderstormsearlier this summer—are no exception. In fact, as the rains return after a dryspell, many of these odors are stronger than ever. So, what are the scents of a summer storm? 

Good summary of why the ‘personal choice’ argument for alt-med fails.

So while people have a right to choose how to treat their medical ailments, this also implies an informed consent. People get sucked into alternative medicine for many different reasons; they might think that it is somehow more natural, or think that it actually works a lot better than conventional medicine. Without good sources for information, it’s so much easier to buy into that in the first place. Even if you call that a personal choice, it’s still one made for the wrong reasons.

Something like this, if it were generally useful, would speed up research immensely.

The idea is to check the validity of claims made on websites. It’s limited by language processing and the small size of fact-checking databases, but it’s a very cool idea.

The proportion of Oxford undergrads coming from private education (and hence, usually, wealth) is hugely disproportionate when compared to the general public. I don’t believe this is down to any bias or prejudice on the part of Oxford itself; it’s a combination of factors, and this news may hopefully help mitigate one of them.

Oxford still need to reach out more to state schools, especially those in areas of low uptake (e.g. my home of Greater Manchester), and present an accessible public image. Working with state schools to enable them to adequately prepare students for Oxbridge is also essential.

“The risk of using one of these systems is that any aircraft shot down will cause collateral damage to residential areas surrounding the Olympic stadium,” says Mr Goodlad.

“However this should be balanced against the potential consequences of not shooting down a potential threat, such as an aircraft crashing into the 80,000-capacity stadium.”

To rephrase: dropping the plane on a bunch of poor local residents is better than letting it kill a few wealthy athletes.

Wolfram on Higgs. Worth reading if you’re curious about the science and history of this week’s discovery.

Second Pharyngula repost of the night. Perhaps it’s obvious, but I found it a nice summary nonetheless. Divides atheists very broadly into the scientific, the philosophical, the political, and the humanist.

I’d put myself somewhere between scientific and philosophical. I simply don’t engage in activism or as part of the movement; I just think about stuff now and then.