Protest and free speech

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking at George Washington University; her speech condemned governments that arrest protesters and don’t allow free speech.  During her presentation, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern stood in the aisle and turned his back on her in silent protest; he was dragged from the room by her security staff.

(There may be a more detailed backstory with some justification; I haven't found it yet.)

Found at Metafilter, where there is a long discussion thread.

Re Assange and Wikileaks

The image comes from BoingBoing, which cites a U.S. Department of State Press Statement addressing UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day, which the U.S. will host...

The theme for next year’s commemoration will be 21^st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals’ right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.

Also of interest is a lot of material in a lengthy Guardian column, which has essentially been live-blogging events in the case, including the following:

The US diplomatic cables reveal some startling facts: the US asked its diplomats to steal personal human material and information from UN officials and human rights groups, including DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, credit card numbers, internet passwords and ID photos, in violation of international treaties.

The law Mr Assange continues to violate is the Espionage Act of 1917. That law makes it a felony for an unauthorised person to possess or transmit "information relating to the national defence which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation".

Speaking to the media scrum Jemima Khan said she did not know Julian Assange. She said she was offering support for him because of her backing for freedom on speech.

The Ku Klux Klan website directs users to a site called Christian Concepts. It takes Visa and MasterCard donations for users willing to state that they are "white and not of racially mixed descent. I am not married to a non-white. I do not date non-whites nor do I have non-white dependents. I believe in the ideals of western Christian civilisation and profess my belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God."

Julian Assange is currently leading Time's online readers poll [for Man of the Year].

The two Swedish women who accuse WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of sexual misconduct were at first not seeking to bring charges against him. They just wanted to track him down and persuade him to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases, according to several people in contact with his entourage at the time.

More information here.

Bicyclist killed in a collision

But there's a twist to the story...

The bicyclist who was killed in a collision with a truck in downtown Minneapolis this week had stolen the bike a couple of hours earlier, police said Wednesday...

At the time he was hit, Berry had with him a backpack that contained bolt cutters, Garcia said.

Berry and a Quicksilver Express Courier delivery truck were southbound on 1st Avenue when the truck turned right, striking the cyclist while he was in a designated bike lane on the right side of the road, police said.

Berry's criminal history in Minnesota includes convictions stretching back to 1996 for burglary, domestic abuse, drunken driving, disorderly conduct and assault.

I was going to add a wry comment re karma, but have read that the term should not be used too lightly.

Iron-y ??

Via Reddit.

"Read Ayn Rand" written using GPS

Nick Newcomen did a road trip over 30 days that covered stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. First, he identified on a map the route he would need to drive to spell out the message. He put a GPS device in his car to trace the route he would follow...

Newcomen, unlike previous GPS artists, actually traveled the lines he traced on the map. He used a GPS logger (Qstarz BT-Q1000X) to “ink” the message. Starting his trip in Marshall, Texas, he turned on the device when he wanted to write a letter and turned off the device between letters. The recorded GPS data was loaded into Google Earth to produce the image above.

A big hat tip to Chris at Cynical-C for pointing out that "he used Interstates, GPS and the internet which were all government funded projects..."

"You are responsible for spills"

Via Dead Dog.

Exhibit at the New Orleans Aquarium

Via.

Environmental safety exemptions were granted for the BP rig

NPR is reporting tonight that methane ice crystals are obstructing the hole in the top of the concrete dome.  Further down in the report is this bit of irony...

A group of BP executives were on board the Deepwater Horizon rig celebrating the project's safety record, according to the transcripts. Meanwhile, far below, the rig was being converted from an exploration well to a production well...

Up on the rig, the first thing workers noticed was the sea water in the drill column suddenly shooting back at them, rocketing 240 feet in the air, he said. Then, gas surfaced. Then oil...

According to one interview transcript, a gas cloud covered the rig, causing giant engines on the drill floor to run too fast and explode. The engines blew off the rig and set "everything on fire," the account said...

The BP executives were injured but survived, according to one account. Nine rig crew on the rig floor and two engineers died.

Re the exemptions granted for this project, see this press release.

“14.3 Impacts on Proposed Activities - The site-specific environmental conditions have been taken into account for the proposed activities and no impacts are expected as a result of these conditions.”

“14.2.3.2 Wetlands - An accidental oil spill from the proposed activities could cause impacts to wetlands. However, due to the distance to shore (48 miles) and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected.” (p. 45)

“14.2.2.1 Essential Fish Habitat - …In the event of an unanticipated blowout resulting in an oil spill, it is unlikely to have an impact based on the industry wide standards for using proven equipment and technology for such responses, implementation of BP's Regional Oil Spill Response Plan which address available equipment and removal of the oil spill.”

Photo credit.

Distinguishing sarcasm from irony

Two researchers have examined at what age children are able to distinguish sarcasm from irony:

Glenwright and Pexman presented five- to six-year-olds and nine- to ten-year-olds with puppet show scenarios that ended with one of the characters making a critical remark. This remark could be literal, aimed at a person or situation, or it could non-literal, again aimed either at a person (i.e. sarcastic) or situation (i.e. ironic). To illustrate: two puppets are playing on a trampoline, one falls on his face. 'Great trampoline tricks,' the other character says, sarcastically. Contrast this with two puppets playing on a saggy trampoline with little bounce. One of them says 'great trampoline', an ironic remark.

Their finding is that nine- to ten-year-olds can tell the difference, although they can't yet explicitly explain it. Four- to five-year-olds, by contrast, understand that sarcasm and irony are non-literal forms of language, but they can't tell the difference between the two.

TYWKIWDBI has an "irony" category which now has 33 entries.  It wouldn't surprise me if I've miscategorized an incident or two over the years.

Addendum:  This might also be helpful:

Few words cause as much confusion or are used incorrectly as often as "ironic." Not that it's hard to understand why - the definition is not simple: "a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning ... the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning."

"In 1969, Susie moved from Ithaca to California, where she met her husband-to-be, who, ironically, also came from upstate New York." Seventy-eight percent of the panel's members agreed that this was an incorrect use of the word.

How "ironic" came to be defined as "coincidence" is anybody's guess, but for our purposes, we like to refer to the following quote from the 1994 film Reality Bites. When Ethan Hawke's character is asked to define "ironic," he says, "It's when the actual meaning is the complete opposite of the literal meaning."

More at the link.  I consider this a better set of defining characteristics than the person/thing dichotomy.

"...in honor of Saint Anthony, the patron saint of animals"

Here's the full caption, from Boston.com's The Big Picture:

A man rides a horse through embers and flames of a bonfire in San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2010, in honor of Saint Anthony, the patron saint of animals. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

My irony meter just went through the roof.

Via Reddit.  Click to enlarge the photo.