Nice to see people respond to some of the outrages they see

“A Reminder That Every Life Matters”: A Rare Moment of News Media Decency
[Via Mike the Mad Biologist]

Sometimes, as decrepit as our traditional media corporations are, they suffer from an outbreak of human decency. Kudos to the St. Petersburg Times for this obituary about a hit-and-run victim. Here’s why they ran it:

Shortly after the St. Petersburg Times announced Mr. Smith’s death on its website, a reader posted a comment stating the following: A man who is working as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack at the age of 48 is surely better off dead.

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Being able to post anonymously has some important positive aspects but some people take that as a call to simply be inhuman. Nice to see a newspaper use this as an opportunity to make sure everyone understands what decent human behavior is.

The article demonstrates how everybody has a story and has important impacts on all that they come in contact with. It is a nice demonstration of the power the media has when it puts it mind to it.

I would only hope that when I die, there is as amazing an article written about me. The end of this one makes a nice epitaph:

They will toast the memory of a solitary man who knew his likes and lived within his means, a man who could be counted upon.

Laughing on a Saturday

Airplane, minus all the jokes
[Via Boing Boing]

Airplane: A Melodrama. More like this at electronicsunset.org. Of course, many have pointed out that Airplane without the lulz is Zero Hour, the movie upon which Airplane is said to have been based.

(Submitterated by RoloD, thanks also apelad)[More]

It is still great, even as a melodrama. If you want to see how the guys took Zero Hour and made Airplane, here is the comparison. It is simply amazing how they took lines word for word and twisted them into genius. Just reading the lines with a different tone of voice changes bad melodrama into comedy gold:

What Bob Herbert said!

by Just Add Light

Op-Ed Columnist: Policy at Its Worst
[Via NYT > Opinion]

We can go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and threaten to blow Iran off the face of the planet. We can conduct a nonstop campaign of drone and helicopter attacks in Pakistan and run a network of secret prisons around the world. We are the mightiest nation mankind has ever seen.

But we can’t seem to build a railroad tunnel to carry commuters between New Jersey and New York. The United States is not just losing its capacity to do great things. It’s losing its soul. It’s speeding down an increasingly rubble-strewn path to a region where being second rate is good enough.

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Instead of forcefully providing infrastructure work that can employ millions nationwide, we see things like this – an extremely short-sighted political decision that hurts many.

We are tearing up paved roads instead of replacing them.

The American Society of Civil Engineers give the infrastructure of the US an overall score of D. Popular Science had a whole series about how bad things are and some high tech approaches to fixing them. These would all create a lot of jobs, jobs that simply may not be available with government spending.

Their solutions would cost money – money we would have if we had not been so good at warfare and so bad at governing.

I look forward to a day when we are again good at both, but practice the latter while resting the former.

A third of the claims need work

Fraudulent Claims Surface in Gulf Coast
[Via Discovery News - Top Stories]

Many victims of the BP oil spill are submitting fake claims for compensation, hurting those in legitimate need.

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A third of the claims do not have the data to back them up. This diverts resources from those that really need it. I hope they ca clear these out quickly so those that really need the money get it.

The bacteria that caused the Black Death identifed, maybe

by adonofrio

Black Death Blamed on Bacteria
[Via Discovery News - Top Stories]

The bacteria wiped out a third of Europe’s population in the Middle Ages.

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Nice proof that Yersinia pestis actually did cause the Black Death. There was strong circumstantial evidence before. DNA evidence is always good. except when it isn’t.

This has been a tricky question, with some groups finding the bacterial DNA in the skeletons and other groups being unable to. Perhaps this one will hold out better.