Artisinal

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Robert Winston: Why do we believe in God?:

When Bouchard and his team compared the answers to these and other personality questions, they found strong statistical evidence that identical and non-identical twins tended to answer differently. If one identical twin showed evidence of religious thinking or behaviour, it was much more likely that his or her twin would answer similarly.
Non-identical twins, as might be expected (they are, after all, related), showed some similarities of thinking, but not nearly to the same degree. Crucially, the degree of religiosity was not strongly related to the environment in which the twin was brought up. Even if one identical twin had been brought up in an atheist family and the other in a religious Catholic household, they would still tend to show the same kind of religious feelings, or lack of them.

The piece has a lot of other interesting bits of innate spirituality proven through science.

One-Fifth of Human Genes Have Been Patented, Study Reveals:
A new study shows that 20 percent of human genes have been patented in the United States, primarily by private firms and universities.

Magnus-Opus:

Warning: All of the melodies contained within the Magnus-Opus series
are protected by copyright. You may inadvertently be in breach of
international copyright law by using a telecommunications device
(telephone, mobile telephone, modem and other internet devices)
to transmit and perform one of the Magnus-Opus melody series.

Don’t worry too much, they’re happy to sell you a license.

Check out the correspondence page to see how the work requirements in Australia are different from ours. (Author must be a “Qualified person”?)

The New Yorker: Your table is ready:

The maître d’ did not look happy. And so we were asked, in Japanese, to remove our clothes, in separate dressing cabins, and don simple white robes with Japanese writing on the back that, we soon found out, translated as “We were late. We didn’t respect the time of others.” Babette’s feet were bound. I was forced to wear shoes that were two sizes too small. The point being, tardiness is not accepted at Masa. (Nor, frankly, should it be.)

It’s been a while since we did a Super-link entry. I don’t think the reason is any mystery.

• That little endlessly fun web-thingy can be manipulated here.
• I’ve had these in the post queue for so long I’m not sure anyone in the world has not seen them, but if you have not, you should. These are some movie trailer remixes floating around that are just great. The Shining by Nora Ephron, West Side Zombie Story, and Titanic, which I think was actually just a leaked trailer from the studio given how fractured the plot theming was on that movie.
• Behold Chaos: the worst reviewed movie of the year
• “Captain Rob” made a replica viking ship out of popsicle sticks. And she’s yar. (Bungie geeks take note of the name) The boat plans to come by Savannah, GA and other US destinations in Spring 2007
• The CIA’s Free online Wine class.
• House of Cosbys is a cautionary cartoon about human cloning, watching Michael Keaton movies, and Intellectual property law. Cosby, by the way recently won the fight for web rights to Fat Albert.
• Web Searching takes it personal: Google’s slant, Yahoo’s slant.
• Upcoming.org looks like it would be really great for people far more social than I am. Plus, I would like to put an end to that badly designed evites site.
• German sushi rolling machine.

Haaave a good weekend Rudy.

monochrom’s massive Multiplayer Thumb-Wrestling

The New Front page for Piratenews.net is finished.

Letters from Jennie…:

Praise God that He does work all things together for our good! He brought several wonderful friends into my life who led me out of my cynicism and finally helped me to see that I had been completely duped by Christian feminism. By the time I came back around to a biblical worldview, I had met my future husband and had moved back home with my parents. I quit my job before I was married and have never looked back. In fact, I constantly thank God for getting me out of that mire and putting me in my place! My lifework now is my home, husband and children, and I glorify God for the beauty of His perfect design for the family.

Why, oh why can’t we go back to the English Renaissance of the 12th century when women were treated as equals in the marketplace?

Full text reprinted below the break
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Nobel Intent: Was there a bioterror attack on DC?:

But what if there was a bioterror attack and no-one noticed? That might not be so far fetched, if some news reports are to be believed. It turns out that, following the recent anti-war protest in the US capital, six different bioweapon sensors located across the city all tested positive for F. tularensis, the bacteria responsible for tularemia. Worryingly, it took several days between finding a positive result and the CDC being notified. […] The government claims that nothing happened, and that no-one got sick, but Salon is reporting that numerous participants in the anti-war demo have come down with illnesses that resemble tularemia.

Telegraph | News | Unicef bombs the Smurfs in fund-raising campaign for ex-child soldiers:

The people of Belgium have been left reeling by the first adult-only episode of the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters’ village is annihilated by warplanes. The short but chilling film is the work of Unicef, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and is to be broadcast on national television next week as a campaign advertisement.

Derivative works not only are more efficient in terms of creation costs, they are more efficient in delivering messages.

The advertising agency behind the campaign, Publicis, decided the best way to convey the impact of war on children was to tap into the earliest, happiest memories of Belgian television viewers. They chose the Smurfs, who first appeared in a Belgian comic in 1958.

DVDs have ruined a lot of shows we loved as kids as we see that they actually are pretty bad shows. My roommate John ruined Silverhawks for me forever. But the reason I was so disappointed is that I had these memories of what it was from my formative years.
Despite the fact that the Smurfs are a Hipster favorite for conspiracy theories about satanism, Communism, Biological categorization, and reproductive health in a society containing one woman and one girl they do still have an idillic aura for many people.