Liposuction

New studies on liposuction make it appear that it isn't so benign after all.

Hyperlinks in books

After our discussion this past weekend concerning the digitization of literature, I found this link from boingboing particular on point.

Science Tattoos

Carl Zimmer, science writer keep a blog where he collects tattoos that relate to science and related disciplines. He had one today that caught my attention.

Strange Bedmates: Conservative and Liberal Advocates for Judicial Activism

Join ART this weekend 10:00AM at Molly Malone's in Pleasant Ridge. The program will continue till noon with lunch and discussion afterwards.

New Deal liberals condemned the conservative activists who invalidated progressive economic regulations, and 21st Century conservatives denounce liberal activist judges for legislating from the bench on abortion, gay rights, criminal procedure, and religious liberty. Progressives on the left and libertarians on the right have recently joined forces in suits asking judges to find unconstitutional overbroad criminal laws, bans on gay marriage, and limits on gun ownership. Are there any principled legal boundaries or legitimate political checks on the abuse of Judicial Review by justices who substitute personal policy preferences for the choices made by popularly elected legislators?

UC Professor of Political Science and adjunct Professor of Law Howard Tolley Jr. earned a PhD at Columbia and a JD as a human rights fellow at the UC College of Law. He served as President of the Cincinnati ACLU and member of the state board, clerked for a judge on the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, and does fact finding/mediation in public sector labor disputes for the State Employment Relations Board. He teaches undergraduate public law courses on the U.S. legal system and Constitution as well as international law and human rights. His publications include three sole authored books and nine interactive Teaching Human Rights Online cases http://homepages.uc.edu/thro/

Amazon Kindle

Here's a follow up to our discussion at Saturday's meeting on the Amazon Kindle.

Cory Doctorow, of Boing Boing fame, points out that according to Amazon's End User License Agreement (EULA) when a person purchase a Kindle book, they are not actually purchasing a book, they are purchasing a license to read that book. Of course when it comes to marketing they change their tune a bit making it sound as if they are selling books, not just permission to read those books. Follow the link for the full write up.

10 Minute Free For All

Come out to Molly Malone's in Pleasant Ridge from 10AM to Noon tomorrow and be prepared for a variety of topics to be discussed. This is usually a very fun meeting and a good chance to inject your point of view into the discussion.

Secular Service and UC Symposium

October 18th is Secular Service Day. Seems like a good idea, and maybe next year we can organize ART to participate. I know we have a few members who have connections in non-profit organizations, so it shouldn't be too hard to find opportunities. A bit late to organize something now.

Also the 2009 Darwiniana Symposium: Darwinism, Science, Religion, and Society will be held at UC October 29-30.

Speakers include Eric Plutzer (Penn State University), George Bishop (University of Cincinnati), Patricia Pricehouse (Case Western Reserve University), Robert T. Pennock (University of Michigan), NCSE Supporter Francisco Ayala (University of California at Irvine), Jon Miller (Michigan State University), Michael Roos (University of Cincinnati), and Robert Richardson (University of Cincinnati).

See It to Believe It

One of the things you learn as a skeptic is that sometimes seeing it isn't believing it.
Our group logo was meant to symbolize this idea with an apparent figure visible even if it really isn't there. (the symbol would probably be better if we could have slightly curved the line ends in the punctuated triangle).

Anyway, I came across a great optical illusion, by way of onegoodmove.org from Phil Plaits blog on bad astronomy at:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/06/24/the-blue-and-the-green/

The color illusion is so striking, it is hard to believe.

Check it out.

Roy