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Rationality and the Ability to Properly Weigh Evidence


Increasebrainpower.com
Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© sumanthkapoor.blogspot.com
Among the signs of rationality in one's thinking, the ability to properly weigh evidence is perhaps one of the most important. But how good are we at deciding what constitutes evidence and how do we determine how convincing each piece of it should be? We may not be as rational as we like to think we are at assessing evidence.

To begin with, there are those who are too easily led to believe what they want and who take almost anything as valid evidence for that belief. On the other hand, some research shows that most people are too conservative in assigning weight to a piece of evidence. In general it is found that we remain less convinced than the evidence warrants. Or, to put it another way, humans may be more skeptical than they should be.
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Brick Wall

Zimmerman to Trayvon's parents: 'I am sorry for the loss of your son'

Mike Schneider and Curt Anderson
The Associated Press
Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:15 UTC
trayvon mother
© Associated Press/John Raoux
Sybrina Fulton, left, mother of Trayvon Martin and attorney Benjamin Crump, arrive at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center for a bond hearing for George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with murdering Trayvon Martin, Friday, April 20, 2012, in Sanford, Fla. Zimmerman's attorney is asking the Seminole County judge to let Zimmerman post bail at the hearing Friday
As George Zimmerman has bail set at $150K, he speaks to parents of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teen he shot Feb. 26.

A routine bail hearing for George Zimmerman took a surprising turn into remorse and explanation Friday when the neighborhood watch volunteer got on the witness stand and told Trayvon Martin's parents: "I am sorry for the loss of your son."

"I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am. I did not know if he was armed or not," Zimmerman said, marking the first time he has spoken publicly about the Feb. 26 shooting of the unarmed black 17-year-old.

The hearing wrapped up with a judge ruling Zimmerman can be released from jail on $150,000 bail while he awaits trial on second-degree murder charges. Zimmerman, who has been in jail for more than a week, could be out within days and may be allowed to live outside Florida for his own safety once arrangements are made to monitor him electronically.
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Cut

Iran to cut oil to "whole Europe", claims to have alternative buyers


trent.az
Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:17 UTC
Rostam Ghasemi

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi
Iran will cut oil export to all European countries if they do not lift sanctions on Tehran after the next round of talks in Baghdad, country's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said on Thursday, Mehr reported.

After nuclear negotiations in Istanbul on April 14, which was described as positive, Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) are scheduled to meet again in Baghdad on May 23.

Qasemi said the Oil Ministry has "officially" cut crude exports to Britain and France, however, he added a stop of Iran's oil export to refiners in Greece, Spain, and Germany is not "official". He added that Greece is paying a large sum of its oil debts to Iran.

The minister went on to say that the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed new contracts with some customers so that if oil export to Europe is halted completely Iran will have alternative buyers.
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HAL9000

Freedom Attack! FBI Seizes Riseup Email Network Server


Democracy Now!
Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:57 UTC
The FBI has seized a computer server at a New York facility shared by the internet organizations Riseup Networks and May First/People Link. The server was operated by the European Counter Network and ran a program called Mixmaster, which routes emails through anonymous servers in a network. The server also ran a number of mailing lists and websites for political groups. Jamie McClelland of May First said: "The server seizure is not only an attack against us, but an attack against all users of the Internet who depend on anonymous communication." The server was seized as part of an FBI investigation into the bomb threats against the University of Pittsburgh.
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Light Saber

Tens of thousands protest military's rule in Egypt

Aya Batrawy
The Associated Press
Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:42 UTC
Cairo rally
© The Associated Press/Nasser Nasser
Egyptian protesters attend Friday prayers during a rally in Tahrir square, Cairo, Egypt, Friday, April 20, 2012. Tens of thousands of protesters packed Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square on Friday in the biggest demonstration in months against the ruling military, aimed at stepping up pressure on the generals to hand over power to civilians and bar ex-regime members from running in upcoming presidential elections
Tens of thousands of protesters packed Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square on Friday in the biggest demonstration in months against the ruling military, aimed at stepping up pressure on the generals to hand over power to civilians and bar ex-regime members from running in upcoming presidential elections.

Islamists and liberals turned out together in force for the protest to show the widespread anger at the military over the country's political chaos ahead of the first presidential elections since the fall of Hosni Mubarak more than a year ago. The confusion has raised suspicions the generals ruling since Mubarak's ouster are manipulating the process to preserve their power, ensure the victory of a pro-military candidate and prevent reform.

"Down with military rule," protesters in Tahrir chanted, and banners draped around the sprawling plaza denounced candidates seen as "feloul," or "remnants" from Mubarak's regime.

Liberals and youth groups called for all factions to agree on an antimilitary "revolution" candidate in the presidential vote, but the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists - who have their own ambitions in the race - refused to sign on.
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Bad Guys

'Never Again' is an Empty Slogan

Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon
Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:13 UTC
targetting iran
The United States must resolve that 'never again' is not just an 'empty slogan', said U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday, in a statement marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. Yet, I am left bewildered, what does president Obama refers to? Is 'never again' a universal message pointing at genocides in general or did he refer to Jewish suffering only? With 1,455,590 dead Iraqis due to an Anglo American criminal war, it seems as if the USA is actually complicit in an actual genocide.

Obama's comments followed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's Holocaust Memorial Day address at Yad Vashem where he stated that Israel's "enemies tried to bury the Jewish future but our future was born again in the land of our forefathers, here we built a base, and a new beginning of freedom, and hope and action."

Netanyahu, as usual, was almost correct. The 'Jewish future' was indeed born again after the holocaust just to introduce total misery, racism, expansionism, oppression, death and carnage to the entire Middle East. The so-called 'Jewish State' has managed, in just a few decades, to locate itself as the primary threat to world peace. With the Jewish State and its lobbies pushing for a war against Iran, there is little room for doubt- Israel is driven by a suicidal inclination in the spirit of Biblical Samson. Yet, being a nuclear super power, Israel's potential self-inflicted tragedy may as well put an end to the world, as we know it.
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Cow

Practical Solutions! Portuguese Tired of Austerity, Government Encourages Return to the Land


RTE News
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 06:40 UTC
Disillusioned by the unfulfilled promise of the cities and feeling stifled
farm
© RTE
Joana Mendes at her father's farm in Marco de Canaveses, northern Portugal
by tough austerity measures aimed at coping with an economic downturn, some Portuguese are opting out and returning to the land.

Jose Diogo, who spent two years in Lisbon working as a technical advisor at a meat company, was one who fled at the beginning of Portugal's debt crisis in 2009, and has no regrets.

"I lived in Lisbon and decided to go back home to the interior to grab the opportunity of exploring the land my father owned," Mr Diogo said on the porch at his stone farm house, looking out over apple orchards and grazing fields for his 30 cows.

Far from discouraging people like Mr Diogo, the government is trying to get others to follow in his footsteps.
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Smoking

Fascist persecution of smokers is beginning to stink more than a pub's worth of used ashtrays

Steve Doughty
Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 16 Apr 2012 06:52 UTC
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The Government may not like smoking, but - like drinking - it remains perfectly legal. For how much longer though?
There are two ways to damage yourself: the ways which are condoned by the Government and the ways which are not.

These two categories do not necessarily align with the laws of the land, but the law is a flexible instrument these days, enforced only where the authorities concerned choose to enforce it.

So if you want to harm your health by taking illegal drugs, be pleased to go ahead. If heroin is your poison, Whitehall ministries have in recent years established needle exchanges to help you with the required equipment and shooting galleries which have provided junkies with the finest ingredients to feed their habit.

You can claim state sickness benefits on the grounds that you are incapacitated because of your drug addiction, and around 50,000 people do so. This is not merely tolerance of harmful and criminal behaviour, it is rewarding it.

Alcohol is bit trickier, because a lot of voters don't like the way town and city centres have become theme parks for loutishness and violence at the weekends. The chosen response of Coalition ministers is to propose increasing the price of the cheapest alcohol - something that will punish the law-abiding poor but do nothing to curb the riotous Friday-night crowds in the stand-up drinking barns.
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Pharoah

Contemptible: Bahrain Grand Prix to go ahead despite regime forces beating protester to death on eve of race

Paul Weaver & Peter Beaumont
The Guardian
Sat, 21 Apr 2012 06:10 UTC
Image
© Mazen Mahdi/EPA
Bahrain security forces fire teargas at protesters during clashes near the site where the body of Salah Abbas was found.
Formula One race subject to mounting global outcry after discovery of body of protester allegedly abducted from village by military

Bahrain's Formula One grand prix will go ahead despite a growing international outcry about the staging of the race in the Gulf state that intensified on Saturdayfollowing the discovery of the body of a protester allegedly abducted from a village by security forces.

According to the opposition party Wefaq, the body of 36-year-old Salah Abbas Habib Musa, a father of five, was found on a rooftop in the Shia village of Shakhoura the day before the race.

With dozens of armoured personnel carriers guarding the main route to the circuit, the decision by F1 and the Sunni minority royal family to push ahead with the event - partly to help convince the world of Bahrain's return to normality - appeared to be degenerating into a human rights and PR catastrophe.

Comment: To understand the mentality of the organizers of Formula One races, see also:

Tyrants of Formula One racing: Hitler supporter billionaire Bernie Ecclestone and Fascist Scion Max Mosley

Formula One's fascism fetish should not surprise anyone

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Red Flag

French law prohibits premature publication of exit poll results: If breached, election could be annulled


France24
Sat, 21 Apr 2012 05:47 UTC
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Has Sarko got one last trick up his sleeve on polling day?
A row over the publication of exit polls is threatening to mar the run up to the French presidential elections.

With less than 24 hours before France goes to the polls in the first round of voting, authorities have issued threats of legal action against anyone who intends to flout a ban on the publication of exit polls.

In France, exit polls - which are taken as an accurate reflection of the election result - are available shortly after 6pm when voting stations close in small towns and villages across the country.

But under current rules, French media are barred from publishing the surveys or even partial results until 8pm, the time when voting stations in big cities like Paris and Marseille officially shut.

If there is a widespread breach of the ban, France could even face the possibility of the elections being annulled as candidates have the right to call for a revote if they feel electors have been unduly swayed by the leaks.
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