perspectives on the lancet death toll

the lancet recently published their figures for deaths caused by the invasion of iraq, causing some controversy.
some information on that here, here and here.


one other perspective caught my interest, over on d-squared digest;

Everyone knows that the standard unit of geography is "an area the size of Wales" (except for military purposes, where for some reason it is "an area the size of France"). Back in the dim days of history when the first Lancet survey came out, Marc Mulholland wrote something which got me to thinking that perhaps a similar standard unit for civil wars ought to be "the worst year in Northern Ireland".

not getting it

mel gibson has now blamed the jews for causing him to drunkenly blame the jews for all the wars in the world.

i'm not sure the rehab helped...

chinese soldiers murder children

captured on video by a climber a kilometre away.
(footage from ProTV)

the video proves the chinese government are lying about the incident.
beijing now claims the soldiers were attacked before opening fire, having already attempted to silence the witnesses.

BNP terrorists

did they really get caught with "a record haul" of chemicals used in making home-made bombs?
and if so, then why isn't it all over the news yet?
it doesnt get mentioned anwywhere on the BBC or channel four websites(except once, on the channel four forum), and i have yet to see a national paper carrying it.

story can be found here and here.

is it indicative of an understanding among the news sources of britain that nobody wants to hear about white bombers?
is it representative of general racist sentiment in the united kingdom, supported by the media desire to pander to it?

certainly looks like it.
i'd be glad to hear otherwise, but so far the only explanation i've heard someone suggest, that there may be a DA notice regarding the case, doesnt seem likely to me.

i say email every newspaper/channel and ask them what's going on.
maybe even the local MP.

stealth marketing

In stealth-marketing parlance, this is what is known as "roach baiting," but I prefer to call it "the least I can do."

world of warcraft gets the southpark treatment

found via plasticbag, and viewable here.

word of today!

HEURISTICS

wiki says:

In psychology, heuristics are simple, efficient rules of thumb hard-coded by evolutionary processes which have been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to judgments and solve problems, typically when facing complex problems or incomplete information. These rules work well under most circumstances, but in certain cases lead to systematic cognitive biases.

For instance, people may tend to perceive more expensive beers as tasting better than inexpensive ones. This finding holds true even when prices and brands are switched; putting the high price on the normally relatively inexpensive brand is enough to lead experimental participants to perceive that beer as tasting better than the beer that is normally relatively expensive. One might call this "price implies quality" bias.

and wrightwayconsulting.org say some more:

Researchers have been studying the way the brain functions in making decisions for half a century. This research reveals that people use unconscious routines to cope with the complexity inherent in most decisions. These routines, rules of thumb or simplifying strategies, known as heuristics, direct our judgment and serve us well in most situations. However, sometimes they lead to serious errors resulting from unchecked biases, misperceptions or irrational anomalies in our thinking. These errors in judgment easily go unchecked because they are hardwired into our thinking process – we fail to recognize them even as we walk right into them.
Common heuristics, biases and judgment traps [can be found in the full text].

(WARNING : link leads to document download)

there's a bit more information here, but you will have to register.
(they do have a five day trial.)

see that limbo for unbaptised babies thing?

well, it wasnt true.

The evidence suggests Benedict XVI never believed in limbo anyway. But in the evangelisation zones of Africa and Asia, the Pope - an authority on all things Islamic - is aware Muslims believe the souls of stillborn babies go straight to heaven.
Looking to spread the faith in countries with high infant mortality, now is a good time to make it clear the stillborn babies of Christian mothers go to heaven, too.

hide the sex pest: the republicans get caught doing a vatican

"I am not going to resign", he told Mr Limbaugh."I have done nothing wrong and for me to resign would just play into the hands of our opponents."

mark foley commenting on his attempts to secure a picture of a sixteen year old boy via email while a member of the house of representatives in washington.

others see things differently.
a few others.
a fair few others.
some, predictably, blame the kid.
(if you want to you can hear matt drudge calling the kid a 'beast' and a 'predator'.)

you can see the text of some of foley's conversations over on wikipedia.