Assorted Links
- The shame of college sports. Great article by Taylor Branch.
- Retraction watch
- protein folding problem solved by on-line gamers
- Edward Jay Epstein review of two books about the 2001 anthrax attacks
Thanks to Dave Lull and Justin Owings.
September 19th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Dear God, so of three suspects, two were driven to their deaths and a third had to be handed a huge sum in compensation for FBI actions. Add this yarn to Waco and I am left wondering whether Federal government agencies have carte blanche to misbehave.
September 19th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
“I am left wondering whether Federal government agencies have carte blanche to misbehave.”
Soverign Immunity. a.k.a The King is above the law.
Thus it always was. Thus it always will be.
September 19th, 2011 at 5:16 pm
That protein thing is hilarious.
“Well, we have a computationally intractable problem.”
“Obviously, the solution is to give it to regular people to solve.”
And then it works.
“Hi, I’d like to buy the ‘human’ peripheral for my computer. I bought some software it was a pre-req for without realizing…”
September 20th, 2011 at 9:13 am
Somehow, that protein-folding article reminded me of that case in 2005, whereby someone discovered that it’s trivially easy to open those fancy, expensive Kryptonite bike locks:
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/09/64987
You can pick the locks without any special training, using just a plastic pen cap. Or, you could do it, before the company re-designed the locks.
September 20th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
I Heard the Sirens Scream is about 9/11 and the anthrax attacks. I’ve only heard the NPR interview with her, but she seems generally reasonable, and believes that Al Qaeda was behind the anthrax.
September 20th, 2011 at 4:07 pm
I Heard the Sirens Scream is by Laurie Garrett. Her most famous book is The Coming Plague (1995). Which hasn’t yet come.
September 20th, 2011 at 8:48 pm
I don’t know why you insist on continuing to wallow in ignorance along with E. J. Epstein with respect to the anthrax investigation when I have posted here on your past posts about the guy at anthraxinvestigation.com… he’s spent the last 10 years of his life doing almost nothing but follow every single detail of this case and makes it unambiguously clear that the FBI got the right man on this one. He also specifically debunks Epstein’s crackpot nonsense…
September 22nd, 2011 at 10:06 am
Interesting point about Laurie Garrett. Did she say anything about when she expected a new plague?
September 23rd, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Nancy, I forget the details of her prediction.