Ricci follow-up + swallowing & Tran$former$

Note: Magnanimous Monday will be moved to Tuesday this week as I ran out of time and I am a lame excuse for a citizen of Earth.

The latest thing lighting up the Twitter feeds in Blacksburg, Virginia is the Iran Society’s next protest scheduled for tonight at 8:00 P.M.

In Iran, the election oversight body conducted a partial recount, declaring the results putting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad back in power valid. Of course, this will never satisfy the Iranian people who are convinced that they were robbed of their votes. FTA:

State television reported that the Guardian Council presented the conclusion in a letter to the Interior Minister following a recount of a what was described as a randomly selected 10 percent of the almost 40 million ballots cast June 12.

The “meticulous and comprehensive examination” revealed only “slight irregularities that are common to any election and needless of attention,” Guardian Council head Ahmed Jannati said in a letter, according to the state TV channel IRIB.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi claims he, not incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was the rightful winner and has called for a new election, something the government has repeatedly said it will not do. “From today on, the file on the presidential election has been closed,” Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei said on state-run Press TV.

I believe scheduled activities are a symbolic release of balloons and a candelight vigil.

Speaking of balloons, Up is at the Lyric and I’ve heard nothing but good things, so I’ll probably be heading there after the protest.
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Story Tracking: Ricci vs. DeStefano

One of my most discussed posts was my analysis of the Ricci v. DeStefano court case that many conservatives were using as ammunition against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. My position was that the denial of promotions was legal under the Civil Rights Act as multiple choice tests inherently disfavor minorities. Today, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, decided that the plaintiffs were unfairly denied the promotions, going against what Sotomayor ruled as an appeals court judge. FTA:

On Monday’s ruling, Justice Anthony Kennedy said, “Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer’s reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions.” He was joined in the majority by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters “understandably attract this court’s sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them.”

Justices Souter, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg’s dissent, which she read aloud in court Monday. Speaking dismissively of the majority opinion, she predicted the court’s ruling “will not have staying power.”

"You kids will see! America will never move past its need to be really sensitive about race. Never!"

All right…I’m convinced.

Maybe I simply like the Supreme Court too much. But I suspect that I’ve just been hearing arguments about it for weeks now and this is the final factor that makes me abandon my defense for the original decision. Race was a blatant and solitary decision for the denial of promotions based on the test. More importantly, people who worked hard and played by the rules got completely shafted and to hurt them in the name of diversity undermines what diversity stands for. For the most part, it makes me sad that many of the people who were arguing the point seemed to attack with many vitriolic attitudes against diversity, but that doesn’t mean that they were wrong in this case. I was wrong. I agree with Kennedy.

But I understand Sotomayor’s and Ginsburg’s opinions. And I don’t think it makes Sotomayor any less qualified to sit on the bench as a Supreme Court justice. Here’s hoping.

Further reading:

New Haven Independent article on Latinos siding with the white firefighters

Accurate prediction of Kennedy’s role in the decision

Full court opinions

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In other news…

Mothers-to-be or women who want to be mothers should swallow according to some Dutch researchers and the Journal of Reproductive Immunology.

“While any exposure to a partner’s semen during sexual activity appears to decrease a woman’s chances for the various immunological disorders that can occur during pregnancy, immunological tolerance could be most quickly established through oral introduction and gastrointestinal absorption of semen.”

I could not make this up. Gastrointestinal absorption of semen. I know. For the man in your life, this news should not be hard to swallow. Sorry.

According to a group of Dutch researchers, “exposure to semen provides protection against developing preeclampsia.” That’s from a paper with the catchy title, “Immune Maladaptation in the Etiology of Preeclampsia: a Review of Corroborative Epidemiologic Studies.” Or you could use the subtitle: “Semen is Your Friend.”

http://instantrimshot.com

Well, I for one, am completely convinced. Also, I believe we have found the Nobel prize winners for the next fifty years. Just sayin’.

I mean, there’s some sort of dissenting opinion that says she can’t find any real evidence supporting this, but she’s probably just some chick who doesn’t shave her legs, amirite, guys, amirite?

…Aw, man, I’ve just guaranteed myself singledom forever.
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Transformers 2 has made over $200 million over five days at the box office, putting it behind only behind Dark Knight for five-day gross. Of course, Dark Knight was one of the best franchise films ever. Transformers 2 was the equivalent of watching Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyworld come to life, stomp on its passengers and defecate loudly on their corpses — kind of entertaining, but also horrifying.

"And then, the black guy without the teeth is STUPID. And BOOM! And then one of the Transformers says 'pussy.' And BOOM! Ahahahahaha!"

Critics and people who actually recognize the idea that movies can be both fun and not-retarded are puzzled. But then again, I contributed to that box office total even after word of mouth. I think it was a combination of two elements that are making Michael Bay rich: optimism and timing.

The last movie with ties to a memorable franchise was Terminator: Salvation which came on the heels of Star Trek, which people probably went to see multiple times, thus wiping them of their money. That was a solid four weeks saving up for the new special effects feature. So the timing of Transformers 2 worked in its favor (Terminator was cannibalized by Wolverine).

Secondly, if there were others like me out there, optimism ultimately brought us out of the woodwork to make this blithering mess second to Dark Knight. We’d heard the naysayers. We figured critics were being critics and frowning upon any movie that is based upon a toy line. My moment of realization came during the slow motion explosions in the desert watching Megan Fox mouth words at Shia LaBeouf’s burned scrawny form….this movie was genuinely bad.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. Fun. But, on principle, it kind of hurts me that I contributed to Michael Bay’s latest jet equipped with missiles and breast implants.

Still, when you look at the all-time best five-day openers, you don’t find very many positively rated movies:

1. The Dark Knight
awesome
2. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
target demographic: six-year-olds and crystal meth addicts
3. Revenge of the Sith
critically crushed under the weight of first two movies and Hayden Christensen
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
incoherent mess
5. Spiderman 3
UGH!
6. Spiderman 2
meh
7. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
George Lucas’ revenge on cinema
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Pretty good
9. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Best Harry Potter movie to date
10. The Matrix Reloaded
can’t really defend the obnoxiously long fighting scenes and the cave orgy

So the moral of the story is:

Our taste is pretty bad.

Up tonight.

Iran Society at Virginia Tech protests

Sorry for being late with the post. I’ve been in a battle with the ugliest summer sinus infection ever. It looks kind of like this, I imagine:

And it’s eating my head from the inside out. Luckily, She-Who-Cannot-Yet-Be-Nicknamed gave me some drugs and I was able to function well enough to play Settlers and remember I had to blog. I also bought some nasal spray to eradicate the little bugger.

This should be legit, right?

The Iranian drama continues, even while the government makes its efforts to silence protesters. Here at Virginia Tech, the Iran Society got together to set up a Green Revolution of their own. I, feeling like the walking dead, was able to shoot and edit a video of their protest:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

I think I’m one of many who has been inspired and impressed by the resilience of the Iranian people. I think most of them realize that this will be a long struggle, but one worth fighting. It was a relatively small group of maybe 70 people, but several people honked in support of the cause and they were devoted to voicing their opinions. It’s one of the best stories I’ve covered at the CT.

In other news, continuing our coverage of Australian men and how they seem to have the best lives ever, Australian men seem to prefer food to sex.

SENSORY OVERLOAD!

Seeing as how that above scenario is probably less likely than winning the lottery, given the choice, I think I would also pick food. Food does not place conditions on its enjoyment. Food does not criticize, or whine, or nag, or want to stick around longer than it is welcome. Food is your friend.

Worry not, ladies. I’m still willing to give other natural instincts their fair shake. But I am taking applicants who can recreate the above photo.

And now for your edition of Daily WTF.

Meet Brooke Greenberg and her sister Carly, on the right. Carly is 13 years old.

Brooke, on the left, is 16.

FTA:

Brooke hasn’t aged in the conventional sense. Dr. Richard Walker of the University of South Florida College of Medicine, in Tampa, says Brooke’s body is not developing as a coordinated unit, but as independent parts that are out of sync. She has never been diagnosed with any known genetic syndrome or chromosomal abnormality that would help explain why.

…In her first six years, Brooke went through a series of medical emergencies from which she recovered, often without explanation. She survived surgery for seven perforated stomach ulcers. She suffered a brain seizure followed by what was diagnosed as a stroke that weeks later left no apparent damage.

At 4, she fell into a lethargy that caused her to sleep for 14 days. Then, doctors diagnosed a brain tumor, and the Greenbergs bought a casket for her.

//

“We were preparing for our child to die,” Howard Greenberg said. “We were saying goodbye. And, then, we got a call that there was some change; that Brooke had opened her eyes and she was fine. There was no tumor. She overcomes every obstacle that is thrown her way.”

That’s freakin’ amazing, man. The child, er teenager, is a miracle.

It doesn’t seem as if she has a 16-year old’s cognitive ability. But how weird would that be? Being a teenager in a baby’s body — maybe being nonverbal. I mean…I actually think it’d be kind of cool. You’d never have to work. People pick you up and play airplane with you. Oh, and girls love babies.

The family seems like they’re nice and taking it all in stride. With a strong family environment, what more does Brooke need?

Though all that crap about finding immortality is just that. Humans are meant to expire. Be glad that the girl is happy and has a loving family. That’s enough purpose, if you ask me.
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So I’m going to start doing something where I track what is getting my blog the most hits. For a while there it was, unfortunately, abortion, because of a political cartoon I linked when Notre Dame protesters came out against Obama.

But, recently, the search responsible for the most hits is…Taylor Swift.

Purty...

Okay, but…why Taylor all of a sudden? The only time I’ve used her picture in a post was in January. Someone please tell me why Taylor Swift and Phil the Pill have become inextricably linked…

Yeah, I know, that statement is loaded with wishful thinking.

Picture of the Day

Inspired by a conversation I recently had on a car ride:

Quote of the Day

“The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.” – Douglas Adams

Guestblog: Iran, Social Media, and the Green Revolution

So I am in no state to update for the last 24-hour cycle. So we have back-to-back guestblogs today. Here’s Sparky with his take on the alleged Iranian revolution.

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Iran is experiencing a revolution via Twitter.

Yeah, I said it.

Let’s back up a bit.  The Islamic Republic of Iran, itself a product of revolution, is an incredibly interesting country.  Persia has pretty much been around since the beginning of civilization, in several forms.  The Shah rose to power in 1925, overthrowing the Qajar dynasty.  His son took power in 1941.  He was friendly to the US and western civilization, and undertook modernizing the country’s infrastructure. He also made plenty of  enemies in Iran.  The present Islamic Republic officially took form on April 1, 1979, and Ayatollah Khomeini became Iran’s Supreme Leader.

Although a Republic in name, Iran has been a theocratic nation since 1979.  The government holds elections, but the Supreme Leader retains ultimate control over the country and the government.  The winners of the elections are often simply reflections of the Supreme Leader’s own opinions.

So, what does this all have to do with Twitter?  Fast forward to 2009.  Iran holds Presidential elections pitting the incumbent conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against reformist challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi.  Despite polling and widespread predictions indicating Mousavi would win, Ahmadinejad is declared the winner with over 60% of the vote.  The information released is full of holes including vote tallies showing some precincts returning over 100% of registered voters.  And, it seems, Iranians aren’t going to take it.  Despite government attempts to crack down on internet and the media, Iranians are organizing themselves and notifying the rest of the world about the true situation on the ground – brutal beatings, invasions of student dormitories, and hundreds of missing persons.  And they’re doing it via Twitter, Flickr, Youtube.  At a peak yesterday (16th), there were over 200,000 tweets per hour about Iran.  Two hundred thousand tweets per hour.  Using hashtags like #iranelection and #gr88 (standing for Green Revolution in the Persian year 1388), brave protesters in Iran keep the world abreast of their progress in championing democracy.  Reports pegged the peaceful silent protests today on the 17th at over 500,000 strong, with an even greater turnout expected tomorrow (June 18th).

Meanwhile, Iran’s government tries to convince the world that everyone loves Ahmadinejad:

As this uprising continues to gain momentum and shake up the hard-line theocratic regime in Iran, you can bet it won’t be major media networks giving the world up-to-the-minute reports.  It’ll be the citizen journalists and activists making this all happen.  And that, in my opinion, is absolutely incredible.

— Sparky is an economics major at Virginia Tech. He’s also really knowledgable about web 2.0 and that trendy Internet stuff.

Feeding America + Iran protests and Uub

Blog topic status: Dry.

Maybe I should consider an essay or editorial for later today. But until then, it’s Magnanimous Monday.

Today’s Magnanimous Monday has a corporate sponsor: Microsoft.

In an effort to get Internet Explorer usage up, Microsoft is taking a page from the Bill Gates handbook of restoring your reputation and donating “8 meals” to food banks for every download of Internet Explorer 8 made between now and August 8, 2008. Here’s the fine print:

Only complete downloads of Windows^® Internet Explorer^® 8 through browserforthebetter.com from June 8, 2009 through August 8, 2009 qualify for the charitable donation to Feeding America^®. Microsoft^® is donating $1.15 per download to Feeding America^® up to a maximum of $1,000,000. Meals are used for illustrative purposes only. Meal conversion is effective until June 30th, 2010.

Feeding America’s mission is to feed America’s hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger. For more information, please contact Feeding America at 35 E. Wacker, Suite 2000, Chicago, IL 60601 or visit www.feedingamerica.org

…Okay, so the fine print actually makes Microsoft look like a bunch of douchegas. They cut it off at $1 million? Really? Listen, if you don’t like Internet Explorer, you can donate at least $1.15 or a can of beans to Feeding America and do as much good without downloading their shitty, shitty browser. But if you’re going to get IE8 anyway, you might as well get the suits behind the PCs to shell out a buck-fifteen.

Of course, the real reason IE8 is going to lose to Firefox 3.1, is that you can't make furry fanart with the IE logo.

More on Feeding America, the true focus on today’s Magnanimous Monday.

Feeding America is the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity.  Our mission is to feed America’s hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger.

Each year, the Feeding America network provides food assistance to more than 25 million low-income people facing hunger in the United States, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.

Our network of more than 200 food banks serves all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.The Feeding America network secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually.

The Feeding America network supports approximately 63,000 local charitable agencies that distribute food directly to Americans in need. Those agencies operate more than 70,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs, Kids Cafes and BackPack Programs.

Learn more about your local Feeding America network member food bank.

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News Follow-Up

The Ayatollah Khamenei has ordered the Guardian Council to look into charges of election fraud. Whether or not this will lead to a fair tally of the votes or a new election remains to be say. But, I must say that I am impressed by the reformists in Iran..they are really putting the screws to the establishment. Pictures of protests from Boston.com:

On Monday, June 15, 2009, Iranian opposition demonstrators protest in support of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, in Tehran. Opposition supporters defied a ban to stage a mass rally in Tehran in protest at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's landslide election win, as Iran faced a growing international backlash over the validity of the election and the subsequent crackdown on opposition protests. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)

A backer of Mir Hossein Mousavi helps evacuate an injured riot-police officer during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. (OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images)

A supporter of defeated presidential candidate Mousavi is beaten by government security men as fellow supporters come to his aid during riots in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 14, 2009. (AP Photo)

Protest is a good thing, but the violence is unsettling. I hope the movement becomes more diplomatic and less people get hurt as a result of the push for change. Though I acknowledge that sometimes you’ve got to take to the streets. Best of luck, Iran.

Oh, and speaking of protests…

Protests in the United States are considered “low-level terrorism.”

Quoted from Josh Richman and Lisa Vorderbrueggen’s blog:

Antiterrorism training materials used by the Department of Defense teach that public protests should be regarded as “low-level terrorism,” according to a letter of complaint sent to the department by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

Web-based instruction — the department asks the following: “Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorist activity?” To answer correctly, the examinee must select “protests.” The ACLU wants that changed immediately, and it wants corrective information sent to all Department of Defense employees who received the training.The ACLU letter notes that this is particularly disturbing in light of the long-term pattern of government treating lawful dissent as terrorism. In the Bay Area, my colleagues and I reported exactly this in 2003, as the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center fed local police agencies information on protests, with catastrophic results. Two years after that, it was the California National Guard.

I guess I’m surprised not only that the government hasn’t yet learned its lesson about equating the exercise of our cherished constitutional rights with terrorism, but also that it’s so incredibly obvious in doing so.

So how long before we have to be rioting?

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She blinded me with Science…

Scientists have finally added the 112th element to the periodic table, a decade after its synthesis. The element is called Ununbium and is currently causing someone to rewrite the lyric to the periodic table song.

Wait, a second…Uub?

Some chemist out there is a Dragonball fan...

In other news, further research that breastfeeding your kid is good for it.

Breastfed babies seem more likely to do well at high school and to go on to attend college than infants raised on a bottle, according to a new U.S. study.Professors Joseph Sabia from the American University and Daniel Rees from the University of Colorado Denver based their research on 126 children from 59 families, comparing siblings who were breastfed as infants to others who were not.

By comparing siblings, the study was able to account for the influence of a variety of difficult-to-measure factors such as maternal intelligence and the quality of the home environment.

The study, published in the Journal of Human Capital, found that an additional month of breastfeeding was associated with an increase in high school grade point averages of 0.019 points and an increase in the probability of college attendance of 0.014.

Additional specious research also shows that that babies who don’t get breastfed have an increased risk of turning out like this:

That’s all the news I have for today. I guess today was productive for the blog after all.

Quote of the Day

“It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government. But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer. Neither is resignation. Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment” – Elie Wiesel

Parlay: Return Saberi, Free the Pirates

Blacksburg spring is making its welcome return. Yesterday was a nice day for picking up litter during the Big Event. Lesson learned: Smoking and drinking, bad for your health, worse for town cleanup volunteers who have to sift through cigarette butts and cut their fingers on broken bottles. Douchebags.
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A story I’m following with interest: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi should be allowed to offer a defense during an appeal on spying charges.

Saberi is a freelance reporter living in Iran for the past 6 years. She was working on a book about Iranian culture and planning to return to the U.S.

…Really? This is something the president has to ask the judiciary to do? Listen, I’m all for countries deciding how to run themselves, but you can’t just detain other countries’ citizens, give them a 15-minute trial, and sentence them without the right to a defense. Not and expect to be recognized as a modern power with whom the rest of the international community wants to play.

I firmly believe that journalist should have the right to witness and report on international experiences. Ahmadinejad is actually making a shrewd political ploy this time and I’m on his side, for once. He wants to be seen as a reformist to win re-election…reformists want the U.S. and Iran to have less hostile relations. Well, we have no business establishing diplomatic ties with a country that won’t respect basic human rights or the principle of journalistic freedom. Clinton and Obama should pressure them hard to give Saberi a fair trial and release her immediately if and when they find no real evidence that she was working with U.S. intelligence services. And that should be a major negotiation point with us if and when we come to a table to talk with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Come on. We got Captain Phillips back. We can get Saberi back. Make this a good month for American icons abroad.

While we’re at it, let’s keep Hossein Derakhshan in mind too. He’s a blogger who’s go on record opposing U.S. military intervention in Iran who, regardless, has been held in Iranian custody since Novermber 2008.

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In other news, the United States still sucks at making the world think we don’t support torturers.

US President Barack Obama’s decision not to prosecute CIA agents who used torture tactics is a violation of international law, a UN expert says.

The UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, says the US is bound under the UN Convention against Torture to prosecute those who engage in it…

…Human rights groups have criticised President Obama’s decision to protect CIA interrogators, saying charges were necessary to prevent future abuses and hold people accountable.

President Obama banned the use of the controversial interrogation techniques in his first week in office.

Come on, Barack. I realize you’re afraid of being accused of being “soft” on national security or some other stupid conservative bullshit designed to make you lose your appeal with the mainstream, but justice is justice. Do your best to be fair to people who we determined were “only following orders,” but the buck has to stop somewhere. Jail time for some is the least you can do to make up for torture. We’ve refused to prosecute Bush, Cheney, or Rumsfeld…who gets held accountable for something you yourself said is illegal under international law? Do you know what the meaning of illegal is? I was under the impression that it meant that it has consequences – BAD ones.

Not Ba-rock, man. (Another episode of Ba-ROCK or NOT coming up next week or so).

Moving along, four people involved with The Pirate Bay have been sentenced to a year in prison and a combined damages package of about $3.65 million dollars.

Aw, bullshit, man.

What is this even supposed to do? Discourage people from torrenting? Get real. You shouldn’t be able to imprison someone because other people do illegal things on their website. That would be like imprisoning Tom from Myspace for faciliating child molestation. When are authorities going to wake up and realize that online distribution, including torrents and P2P, are the new direction for the market for media?

Aw, man. You guys sure fucked up when you didn't nip the VCRs in the bud. You'd best make up for it by going after Torrenters!

It looks like they’re appealing or hiding out. Stay out of trouble, guys. PhilthePill shows solidarity.

Er, what’s this about a MacOSX Botnet? How do I protect my hyper-expensive computer from it?

And finally, you’d better hope these ants don’t give women any ideas.

"Well, bitch, if that's the way it's going to be, screw you and your stupid ant colony, I'm going to go hit up some Queen Bees at the 19th Hole."

I haven’t forgotten about  my quest to gauge the Mexican drug cartels’ threat…I’ll look into it next week.

Here’s a picture of a giant rubber duck.