Friday Random Ten December 29, 2006
Posted by Jason in Memes, Music.4 comments
I decided to switch up this week’s random ten and use albums instead of songs. Here are ten random albums from my collection:
- Black Sabbath – Paranoid
- Rush – Roll the Bones
- Rush – Caress of Steel
- Rush – Moving Pictures
- The Killers – Sam’s Town
- Evanescence – Fallen
- Matchbox 20 – Mad Season
- Semisonic – Pleasure EP
- No Doubt – Return of Saturn
- Green Day – American Idiot
Friday Random Ten December 22, 2006
Posted by Jason in Memes, Music.add a comment
Okay, this one isn’t that random because Winamp kept coming up with the same bands. I hit the “next” button a few extra times. In any case, here’s what I got:
- Ozzy Osbourne – I Don’t Know
- No Doubt – The Climb
- BBC Big Band Orchestra – Mood Indigo
- Blessid Union of Souls – All Along
- Semisonic – Temptation
- Master Solos for Alto Saxophone – Andante & Bourree
- Blessid Union of Souls – Heaven
- Son Volt – Tear Stained Eye
- Rush – A Farewell to Kings
- Led Zeppelin – Babe I’m Gonna Leave You
Harry Potter seven’s title revealed December 21, 2006
Posted by Jason in Books.add a comment
Since there’s clearly nothing more important than this going on in the world, I thought I should post about it. J.K. Rowling revealed the title of the final Harry Potter book on her website today. To find the title you have to go through an annoying series of steps and solve a hangman puzzle; fortunately the UK Times Online has it for me. And the title is:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Start here for speculation on the contents.
Carnivals! December 21, 2006
Posted by Jason in Politics, Pseudoscience, Science.add a comment
Here’s some holiday reading material for you:
- Skeptics’ Circle #50, a tribute to Carl Sagan, is up at Humbug! Online
- Carnival of the Liberals #28 is up at Living the Scientific Life
On the bookshelf December 20, 2006
Posted by Jason in Books.1 comment so far
I’ve got quite a few books waiting to be read on my bookshelf. Here’s the list:
- The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker
- Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett
- 1776 by David McCullough
- Classic Readings in American Politics compiled by Pietro Nivola and David Rosenbloom
- The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins
- The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman
- The End of Faith by Sam Harris
- Endless Forms Most Beautiful by Sean Carroll
- Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins
- Genome by Matt Ridley
- 1984 by George Orwell
- The Federalist by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison
- Common Sense and Other Writings by Thomas Paine (a compilation of his essays)
- How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren
Currently I’m reading The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan. I haven’t felt very motivated to read lately so it’s moving pretty slowly. I’m pretty sure the list of un-read books will be expanding on Christmas. 
What’s on your to-read list?
Cat blogging December 18, 2006
Posted by Jason in Pets & Animals.2 comments
“What are you looking at?”
Aurora in Iowa December 18, 2006
Posted by Jason in Miscellany.add a comment
I guess I should have went out to look for the aurora after all! Check out this picture taken near Des Moines, IA.
h/t Aetiology
Not-so-free speech at MSU December 18, 2006
Posted by Jason in Politics.1 comment so far
Ed comments on a recent report by FIRE about a rather Orwellian program at MSU:
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has released a report on a program at Michigan State for handling students who engage in unapproved speech. To call it appalling would be an understatement. The problem is a program called SAC, the Student Accountability in Community seminar. Students who violate the university’s speech code in some way are forced to attend SAC, at their own expense, or they are effectively thrown out of school.
Ed has a lot more to say and says it better than I could. Go read the rest of his post.
Jason Felton is a homo sapien in his mid-20s observed to be living in west Michigan. Observations suggest that he spends way too much time on the internet reading blogs, researching family trees, and keeping track of current events in science and politics. Other interests of his include atheism, electronics, religion, and history, among many other things.
