Today marks the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, the man who really kicked off the science of evolutionary biology. You can learn more about international Darwin day, and hold a party. I’d love to, but I don’t have the time right now. What are you doing for Darwin day?

Sinclair Davidson has an excellent post up on Catallaxy (disclaimer: I am an occasional contributor there), wherein he extracts key quotes from an article in The Economist. A sample money quote is below:

Keynesianism has conquered the hearts and minds of politicians and ordinary people alike because it provides a theoretical justification for irresponsible behaviour. Medical science has established that one or two glasses of wine per day are good for your long-term health, but no doctor would recommend a recovering alcoholic to follow this prescription. Unfortunately, Keynesian economists do exactly this. They tell politicians, who are addicted to spending our money, that government expenditures are good. And they tell consumers, who are affected by severe spending problems, that consuming is good, while saving is bad. In medicine, such behaviour would get you expelled from the medical profession; in economics, it gives you a job in Washington.

I am once again proud and happy to be a supporter of the EFF. They commissioned this NSA Spying Cartoon / Mural to be painted live during an event.

Note that the music, by Skandalo Publico, falls under a Creative Commons License.

Slashdot | GoDaddy VP Caught Bidding Against Customers

A GoDaddy Vice President has been caught bidding against customers in their own domain name auctions.

I had been pretty happy with GoDaddy, despite their annoyingly busy web site, as my domain name registrar. I’ve even recommended them to other people. Now they go on the list of companies I refuse to do business with, including but not limited to Citgo, AT&T, and Wal-Mart. I’d like to refuse to do business with Comcast, but they have me over a barrel in terms of alternative choices, natural monopoly and all that.

This sort of personal boycott follows from my realization that money has supplanted voting in our capitalist society (and I have no quarrel with capitalism), and that both with politicians and with corporations, it’s important to vote with your dollars. In the case of Citgo, the two are combined.

From the ever-amusing Indexed: Bail us out, nerds.

Unfortunately, Anti-Intellectualism has been on the rise for about a decade, led by our Misunderestimated President.