Here’s a nice story about a woman striking back at identity theft. She was robbed of $9,000 in 3 days (with even more long term grief) by a sleazoid who got financial information by breaking into her mail — and then she spotted the thief (recognized from a security camera photo) and got her arrested after chasing her on foot. A happy ending!

Happy, that is, until you learn the conclusion of the court trial. The thief was given probation. She’d perpetrated her crimes while on probation, so this seems like a particularly futile sentence.

It’s not an entirely pleasant prospect. Read the article for some common-sense suggestions at the end on how to avoid identity theft in the first place.

(via De Rerum Natura)

Most people who are planning to attend YearlyKos in Chicago are planning to do so because of all the politicians and wonks wandering around. Now there’s a better reason to go: The Field Museum is going to have an exhibit you won’t want to miss — Darwin!

Can you imagine how peeved I am that I can’t go now?

We all knew him as Mr Wizard, of course. He was a great no-nonsense science teacher who influenced a whole generation of kids — he taught us that science was a very down-to-earth process that worked. He didn’t have a lot of flash and pizazz, and the production values on his show were downright cheap, and he never seemed to get carried away; he was the exact opposite of the televangelists, who were all gaudy extravagance and no results.

True nerds loved Mr Wizard. Being undemonstrative nerds meant we never said it. We’ll miss you, Mr Wizard.

I really don’t give a damn about Paris Hilton, but doesn’t this just break your heart?

Friends said that she was not eating or sleeping in jail, and that she had been crying a lot. Some reports suggested that this was because she had not been allowed to wax or use moisturiser.

For Ms Hilton, here’s a little song to cheer her up.

Sad news for us all: Steve Gilliard has died.

The DefCon Blog has announced a horrific event tonight: Lawrence Krauss — he’s the good guy — is going to be on Fox, with Ken Ham and Bill O’Reilly.

Sweet jebus.

The only reason I’d be curious to see that spectacle is to find out which side O’Reilly chooses to suck up to; my bet would be that he’ll try to set himself up as superior to both.

Fortunately, I am privileged to miss it. Skatje and I are going to attend the 7:00 showing of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which promises to be the kind of flamboyantly ridiculous goofy story that won’t leave me gagging and nauseous.

(via Phil)

Well, “we” meaning my fellow residents of rural communities. I suspect most of the people reading this are members of the urban elite, so you won’t really care that today is the day when urban populations were predicted to exceed rural populations. That is, for the first time in the history of the world, a majority of human beings live in cities rather than in the countryside.

Now I don’t want to hear any sneering from you glossy depilated metrosexuals about us barefoot hayseeds reeking of eau de porc. We’re the ones with the low-traffic, low-stress, low-cost lifestyle and the fresh local foods who can still see the stars at night. And since there are now more of you than there are of us, I guess that means today is the day we have been promoted to the rarefied elite, and you’re the common majority.

That simple and charming organization, The Friends of Charles Darwin, has just signed their thousandth member. Good for them, but still, that’s pathetic — I hope it takes less than a decade to sign up another thousand. Go ahead and join if you haven’t already, it’s painless, I promise.

I was sent a link to this editorial by the science-fiction writer, Ben Bova. I like part of the sentiment, where he’s arguing that it’s worth the effort to try and change the world, but a substantial part of it bugs me.

The most prescient — and chilling — of all the science fiction stories ever written, though, is “The Marching Morons,” by Cyril M. Kornbluth, first published in 1951. It should be required reading in every school on Earth.

The point that Kornbluth makes is simple, and scary: dumbbells have more children than geniuses. In “The Marching Morons” he carries that idea to its extreme, but logical, conclusion.

Kornbluth tells of a future world that is overrun with dummies: men and women who don’t know anything beyond their own shallow personal interests. They don’t know how their society works, or who is running it. All they care about is their personal — and immediate — gratification.

I detest “The Marching Morons.”

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