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Report - The Emergence of the Progressive Blogosphere: "Emergence of the Progressive Blogosphere:
A New Force in American Politics"


Design Observer: writings about design & culture: The Darwinian iPod: "In 1802, the English philosopher William Paley, in a kind of predecessor to ID [Inteligent Design], famously used the case of coming across a rock and a watch in a field. Unlike the rock, the watch consists of the complex interplay of a number of moving parts, each of which is required to make it function. “The inference is inevitable,” said Paley. “The watch must have a maker.” He then extrapolated this into the realm of nature, where any complex organism — an eye, for example — could not have evolved and must have been designed. There are echoes of this today in ID, and the lessons are clear: Whenever scientists stumble across something they cannot explain, the supposition is that it must be the supernatural at work, the guiding hand of the Designer.

As many observers have pointed out, however, Intelligent Design is often neither that intelligent, nor that well-designed. Take humans for example. Why do we have superfluous, but potentially deadly vestiges like the appendix or wisdom teeth? Why does birth proceed dangerously through the too-small aperture of the pelvic bones? And as an aging soccer player, I’ve got some gripes for the Design Department about the form-factor and durability of ankles and knees. As a product, humans would be a mixed-bag at best. Our components quit, break rather easily, or are often faulty from the get-go. Recalls are all-too common, the 1-800 customer-complaint lines always busy."


BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Competition: "The haughtily named Chartered Institute of Journalists issues a hissy fit over news organizations encouraging citizens to gather news, saying that such efforts are “totally unacceptable and border on the irresponsible.”

How ridiculous. I’d say that the CIJ’s attitude is journalistically offensive. We journalists should believe that more information, more news, more coverage, more knowledge are all good things for journalism and for society."