Daily Archives: 3/24/2005

How to tune your BS-o-meter

My BS-o-meter was tripped today while I was reading this article on Media Matters. One of the doctors appointed by the Florida court to examine Terri Schiavo, Dr. William Hammesfahr, was repeatedly referred to as a “Nobel prize nominee”.

Sigh.

Apparently he got “nominated” because his Congressmen sent the Nobel committee a letter saying he should get the Nobel prize. But, of course, you don’t get nominated by just having anyone send a letter to the committee. You have to follow the rules.. And in particular, the Nobel committee prefers to keep details of those who are nominated secret.

Information about the nominations, investigations, and opinions concerning the award is kept secret for fifty years.

When you see someone claim that they are a Nobel prize nominee, they are full of it.

Read the rest of the Media Matters article for more of the poor reporting that outlets like Fox are pushing.

FIRST Competition, Silicon Valley Regional this weekend

For those of you interested in robotics, this weekend is a veritable feast. In addition to the previously mentioned Robogames, this weekend is the Silicon Valley Regional FIRST Competition at San Jose State. It’s free, and sounds like fun. You can look at the agenda here. If you aren’t in the San Jose area, you could try looking at this list of 2005 Regional Events.

Brainwagon Radio: Scrappy Update, The Schiavo Case, and Barry Bonds…

Using my Dell PDA to record podcasts while on the way to work is strangely addicting. Here’s another one that features an update on my cat Scrappy and his recovery from his fisticuffs with another cat, my thoughts on the Schiavo case, and my disgust with Barry Bonds. Barry, you’ll get no huzzahs from me this year.

Oh, here is a picture of Scrappy rolling around on the ground in our front yard this morning. The sunlight apparently feels good to his recovering body…
Happy Scrappy!