Via Atrios I came across this article by Pam Martens. She worked for over two decades on Wall Street but has since turned into a watchdog, exposing its wrongdoings with her insider’s perspective and knowledge. [Read more…]
Canada is one of the ‘Five Eyes’ group of English speaking countries that formed a pact following World War II to share their spying information, the others being the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. This arrangement enables these governments to skirt the letter of the law that some countries have that prevent spying on their own citizens, since each country can spy on others and then share the information. [Read more…]
The conventional view is that dogs chase cats, not the other way around. I have only had dogs as companions so have never experienced what the dynamic is between members of these two species if they live together.
But from reader Norm I received this video that indicates that in homes that have both dogs and cats, the cats seemed to be quite mean to the dogs and the latter, even big German Shepherds, were quite intimidated by them. [Read more…]
A British judge has dumbfounded legal experts by ordering Thomas S. Monson, the current president of the Mormon Church, to appear in court on March 14 and prove the factual statements that his religion makes. [Read more…]
While writing my post reviewing the film 20 Feet From Stardom about the anonymous backup singers to the famous singers, I recalled that I used to think that for someone with limited musical ability like myself but yet thought that it would be fun to perform, the role of backup singer seemed ideal. It seemed like all it required was the ability to sway and clap while occasionally singing something. A cushy gig, it looked like. [Read more…]
There is something quite alluring about lists, especially if they are lists of things that one cares about. Sites that specialize in ‘listicles’ (articles that are lists of things) are sometimes accused of using them as click bait and I must say it is a successful strategy at least some of the time for me. [Read more…]
Apparently it is a tradition for the US president to give an interview to a television network just before the Superb Owl game each year and this year the interviewer was Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly. I did not watch it, of course, because O’Reilly is a waste of time, a blowhard who tries to pretend that he is a serious journalist. [Read more…]
We are always warned that a statistical correlation should not be used to infer causation because either the causal relationship can go either way or both effects may be due to a third cause. The only way to truly determine the direction of causality is to design experiments that are specifically meant to tease it out. But sometimes we can be fooled by multiple, seemingly independent correlations that strongly suggest causality. A recent study of vitamin D deficiency and health illustrates this danger. [Read more…]