BBC News - Are Olympic missiles just for show? →

“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.

Stephen Wolfram Blog : A Moment for Particle Physics: The End of a 40-Year Story? →

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

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This game looks awesome. Robot gentlemen hunt humans across a dynamic, open British countryside.

(via Sir, You Are Being Hunted | BIG ROBOT)

A taxonomy of atheism →

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. 

"You are an atheist — take pride in what you do believe, not what you deny. And also learn to appreciate that the opposition hasn’t arrived at their conclusions in a vacuum. There are actually deeper reasons that they so fervently endorse supernatural authorities, and they aren’t always accounted for by stupidity."

I enjoyed this. From the fiery PZ Myers, no less.

Why are you an atheist? – Pharyngula

Everything is the Death of Freedom →

Look at the arguments against the Civil Rights Act in 1964. If the government can force us to serve black people… they can force us to do anything. It destroys religious freedom! It will turn American into a communist country! Guess what? They’re now making the exact same argument against the same protections for gay people.

Why are believers ignorant about atheists? →

A good discussion of meaning from the perspective of an atheist.

The most crucial point: Saying that life and morality and reason and virtue and emotions such as grief are physical processes - this is not the same as saying they are illusions.

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Evolution rocks.

(via bird and moon)

Intent! It’s Fucking Magic! →

See, the great thing about [good intent] is that it protects anything a privileged asshole says! So it fits in line completely with that glorious sense of entitlement that privilege tends to confer, basically, the idea that you can say anything you want and should never have accountability for what you say!

I try to recognise the privilege I have and to avoid actions which harm or marginalise others. It’s something I’ll never be done figuring out and will never stop fucking up. This article is worth reading.

The relative dangers of drugs: What the science says

thomaskleppesto:

Photo by OLYIA G

Humans indulge in activities that alter both the content and the experience of their own consciousness. Drugs are a means for achieving a number of particular, often recreational, changes in conscious experience. However, drugs are also a large contributor to, and facilitator of, human suffering and health problems. The best health advice anyone can give to most people most of the time regarding recreational drug use is this: “Do not use drugs”. Many people however, including me, do not find this advice particularly attractive, or even sensible. Assuming that a person wants to enjoy the mind-altering effects of psychoactive substances, two questions follows: which drugs are dangerous to use? And, more importantly - how can one know which drugs are more dangerous than others? The answer to both questions, of course, can be found through the illuminating lens of the scientific method.  

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Great article about David Nutt’s work on drugs.

"Don't let your expectations poison a perfectly good reality." →

Good review of the reviews of Brave.

…this is not sexism. This is telling a story with two female main characters.

What’s sad is that it’s even remarkable.

NHS among developed world's most efficient health systems, says study →

I don’t think I need to comment further.

The Surprising Truths About Income Inequality in America →

“The view that regulation is bad for business is almost universally held,” he says. “But in every country where you find prosperity, you find massive amounts of regulation. Show me a libertarian paradise where nobody pays any taxes and nobody follows rules and everybody lives like a king! Show me one!”

Don’t mention the war? →

… when we see the three serpents of militarism, nationalism and hatred of difference we should never be afraid to call them out, loudly, by name, and remind ourselves and other people, even more loudly still, of exactly what they have made happen in the past.

We should never, in this sense, be afraid to mention the war. We should say, listen: you’ve heard all this before - but let me tell you again just what happened in the garden the last time someone let the snakes out. It is exactly the kind of lesson that history is supposed to be there to teach us.

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“Because people are familiar with alcohol’s typical users, not just psychos cherry-picked by the media, these events are properly viewed as extremely rare mental-health cases.”

(via Legal Drug Linked to More Cannibalism than Bath Salts)