UK Intelligence staff cheated on their Iraq Report:

The UK intelligence document released on Monday was designed to help win over sceptics by detailing Saddam Hussein's efforts to hide weapons of mass destruction. But it emerged that some of the document was copied from three different articles, including one written by a postgraduate student. Excerpts from a paper relating to the build-up to the 1991 Gulf War by Californian student Ibrahim al-Marashi were used in the intelligence document. The paper was published in the Middle East Review of International Affairs.

The funny thing about this, to me, is that just two days ago I stumbled onto some kind of strange forum discussion in the student union. The subject was plagiarism. They were trying to get the message out to students that that kind of cheating is very serious and unacceptable. At the time, I thought it was silly. But now I wonder if perhaps the UK intelligence community could benefit from an open discussion academic standards, grading policies, having pride in your work, etc.

My friend Chris Taylor wrote today on his weblog, Synthetic Morpheme:

Linux starts to look more like Windows, Windows starts to look more like Macintosh, Macintosh starts to look more like a lollypop and yet is the software that runs on these systems actually getting better? Here's the point of view of an admittedly non-technical reporter who points out the divide that separates techies from users [The Washington Post]

I'd like to throw in my two cents to this issue (as I seldom do)... I read an article a while back that gave the "whole product" perspective to computer design. Microsoft products have a "whole product" superiority right now because they are the most wide-spread. People work more efficiently when they don't have to be re-trained on new systems, and when they can easily exchange document and project files with each other. But this superiority is tenuous. Apple may outflank Microsoft by having a well designed machines which run MS office software and offer an asthetic outer package. The appearance is part of the whole product. But I think Linux is catching up by leaps and bounds. You can run it on virtually any hardware. It runs astronomically better than Windows. And the interface is starting to look a little more familiar to Windows-ites. But to me, the most amazing achievement of Linux is that it is now easier to install and set up than Windows! How did that happen? Everything on my machine was automatically set up and configured during my Red Hat install. It works, and it is stable. I've gone through six Windows re-installs and three Red Hat migrations without losing a scrap of data from my Linux partition. It is true that to run Linux you need a bit more know-how. But I'd like to point out that The amount of knowledge you need to use Linux today is much less than what you would have needed to use DOS twenty years ago. In real terms, Linux is no longer "hard to use." Its just "harder" to use than Windows by a small amount.

I just noticed a banner ad on my weblog for Friendfinder. It consisted of a series of drop-downs and radio buttons that had been checked in a pattern which spelled out "Looking for a [beautiful] [girl] in [California] for [sex]." You have to appreciate honest advertising.

When Erin and I moved to Edmonton, there wasn't enough room in the car for our TV. So we use the TV tuner card on the computer. One of the truly modern (maybe post-modern?) aspects of this arrangement is that we now have a TV which is capable of crashing. Our TV viewing experience also has enhanced commericial interruptions via popup windows. What a time to be alive.

Great. An invisibility cloak. Only in Japan. I hear they're now working on a Truth Lasso and an Orc repellent.

Ah, groups of busybody Christian lawyers with apparently very little to do: do you love them as much as I do? "Biology Prof's Evolution Requirement Prompts Justice Dept. Inquiry". The professor posted on his website that "students wanting a letter of recommendation for postgraduate studies [must] 'truthfully and forthrightly affirm a scientific answer' to the question of how the human species originated." From the article:

Mr. Spradling [the complaining student] said that given the professor's position, there was "no way" he would have enrolled in Dr. Dini's class or asked him for a recommendation to medical school. "That would be denying my faith as a Christian," said Mr. Spradling, a junior raised in Lubbock who plans to study prosthetics and orthotics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. "They've taken prayer out of schools and the Ten Commandments out of courtrooms, so I thought I had an opportunity to make a difference."

That poor victimized Christian youth! The next thing you know, physics professors will be requiring students to accept wave-particle duality! That's crazy! The photoelectric effect and the double-slit experiment? It don't make no folksy anecdotal sense to me, so it ain't true! Okay, all picking on hillbillies aside, does this article reveal a Bernard Goldberg or Ann Coulter-style liberal media bias? You'll notice that I changed the story's headline from the one the Times gave it, which was "Professor's Snub of Creationism Prompts U.S. Inquiry". It wasn't "Professor's Championing of Common Biological Knowledge Prompts Justice Dept. Witch-Hunt". It was a "snub". Those ivory-tower tyrants are at it again, and the whole of the United States is inquiring into the matter. Promptly. And I don't necessarily see where the professor is requiring students to personally believe in evolutionary theory. As mentioned above, the article quotes his website as saying that students wanting a letter of recommendation "'truthfully and forthrightly affirm a scientific answer' to the question of how the human species originated." Right. So when someone who knows nothing about biology (like a new student) asks them how life on earth got to where it is today, they should be able to answer, honestly and without hesitation, by describing the best and most widely and professionally accepted, validated and supported model, which has become known in its shortest description as evolution. This is what I would require of my graduating students as well. If I were certifying an M.D. in immunology and bacteriology, and I asked him what causes disease, I would prefer he not answer, "Evil spirits." If he wants to personally and privately belief that evil spirits cause disease, great. When confronted with a sick person, however, I would need him to be able to diagnose and treat them based on the current understanding of germ theory. And, in an official capacity, not mention anything about evil spirits to the patient. Mr. Spradling might also have some issues when it comes time to study prosthetics and orthotics, as he plans to do. If God had wanted those people to have a complete set of arms and legs, he would have made them that way. Does the New York Times reporter betray a liberal bias?

Space: I've seen a few inevitable articles floating around suggesting that the NASA manned space program has outlived its usefulness. Authors question the value and cost-effectiveness of space research, and ask "how many lives are we willing to risk for this program?" Well I don't know how many lives "we" are willing to risk, but the astronauts in the program seem to think the cause worthy enough that they choose to risk their own lives for it. The New York Times yesterday pointed out that if the US continues falling behind in funding for space research, China will soon be the dominant power in space. The conclusion is clear: There will be space exploration. There will probably be manned bases on the moon and elsewhere. If the US doesn't do it, it will be done by some other country. Perhaps the public has developed a sense of complacency following such a long-held dominance in space. I think, if nothing else, it would be an injury to national pride if one day we all woke up to the realization that someone else in the world is forging ahead in space while we are all sitting at home getting fat. Bush is proposing more funding for NASA. We will go further into space. The Space Elevator will take us there.

Biblical prophesy trying to come true? From Reuters: Infertile lioness tries to adopt antelope:

NAIROBI (Reuters) - An infertile lioness with a strong maternal instinct has tried to adopt a baby antelope, only to watch it die like six others she has snatched. The lioness grabbed the new-born impala calf from its mother in Kenya's Samburu national reserve on Saturday, but instead of eating it, began licking its coat like one of her own. "We thought it was just a normal kill, but when it got hold of the impala we realised it wasn't going to eat it up, we realised it was an adoption again," said George Oluoch, manager of Larsens Camp, a tourist site in the reserve. He said the baby impala was found dead on Sunday -- apparently having died from a combination of stress, exhaustion and lack of its mother's milk. The lioness, named Kamuniak or "blessed one" by wardens, is a loner who appears to snatch antelopes because she cannot have young of her own. Each attempt has been short-lived, despite her efforts to nurture the calves, in some cases even allowing their natural mothers to feed them. One of Kamuniak's antelopes was eaten by a male lion, another died, while others have managed to escape back to their natural mothers or were taken away by game wardens.

I lost track of where I found this image.

There's a Fark photoshop contest going on. The subject is "what would happen if Jack Chick sold out to corporations?" (instead of writing his usual extreme right-wing religious tracts). I was inspired by the entries, and so I made my own modified Chick tract, exploring what might happen if Chick made educational propaganda. You can view my tract here. It's all about aliasing and digital signal processing, so I'm sure everyone will just love it.