Michael Flynn's Blog, page 93

Statz 4 Life

You Got Your Difference on the Top and Your Error on the Bottom

All of statistics explained in five minutes and fourteen seconds.

Bummer

The Iranian Situation



www.stratfor.com/weekly/20091005_two_leaks_and_deepening_iran_crisiswww.stratfor.com/weekly/20091005_two_leaks_and_deepening_iran_crisis

The Obama administration appears to have leaked to the NY Times a copy of an unreleased IAEA report stating that Iran is much more advanced in its nuclear program than the IAEA had previously thought.  (And that this was known for some time now.)

Apparently, also, the Israelis leaked to the (formerly London) Times that Prime Minister...

Assault on identity

Calling Professor Clinton

Consider the following syllogisms presented by the inimitable James Chastek: 

Whatever is, exists now
Homer is a poet
Homer exists now as a poet.

Green [like all colors:] is moving at the speed of light;
Grass is green
Grass is moving at the speed of light

John is a man
man is a concept containing all individuals
John is a concept containing all individuals

Now, note than each of these arguments are a) valid in form and b) possess true premises. Yet the conclusion is...

Alumni Week

Another Graduate Has Been Killed

A former Guantanamo detainee has reportedly been killed in a shootout between the Yemeni Army and Houthi rebels in northern Yemen. The former detainee, Fahd Saleh Suleiman al Jutayli, was captured in Pakistan after fleeing the Tora Bora Mountains in 2001. He was repatriated to his native Saudi Arabia in May 2006.

According to the Yemen Post, two other former Gitmo detainees - Yusuf al Shehri and Othman al Ghamdi – called their families to tell them Jutayli...

Be all you can be

Cleaning a Room

The Two Paths

Social Hygiene

The following from a manual on "social hygiene" from the early 1900s.

                                  

In 1900, the life expectancy of a white male was 47; so yes, 60 was a venerable old age. 

Fly me to the moon.....

News From Around the Solar System!
h/t WSJ Best of the Web

• "Mercury, Fever Have Tough Act to Follow in Game 2"--headline, Associated Press, Sept. 30
 
• "Venus Smile Celebrates National Breast Cancer Awareness Month With Free Teeth Whitening"--headline, Heraeus press release, Sept. 30
 
• "Billionaire Leaves His Fear on Earth"--headline, Edmonton Sun, Oct. 1
 
• "Man 'Caught Upskirting at Moon Festival' "--headline, Australian Associated Press, Sept. 28
 
• "Mars Returns to Philadelphia as Ele...

Iran as fast as I could

That Was Then; This is Now

• "There is a lot of good news in the latest intelligence assessment about Iran. Tehran, we are now told, halted its secret nuclear weapons program in 2003, which means that President Bush has absolutely no excuse for going to war against Iran. We are also relieved that the intelligence community is now willing to question its own assumptions and challenge the White House's fevered rhetoric. The president and his aides are apparently too worried about getting caught ...

Is Are Children Learning?

We Are Making Progress

Obviously, we need only spend a little bit more money per pupil on education, and those test scores will start to climb. 

www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2009/10/01/chart-of-the-day/

(Yes, I know.  But, still....)

Calling Larry Niven

Organlegging: Setting the Stage

The editors of Nature (the magazine, not the world) are concerned that we may not get to harvest all the organs we need because doctors don't declare people dead quickly enough.  The fools!  They sometimes wait to make sure. 

www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7264/full/461570a.html

Mark Shea comments:Culture of Death types, eager to get in there and start harvesting before the juices start to congeal are suddenly as puzzled as Torture Apologists about the...