According to Rixstep, FBI agents landed in Reykjavík without prior notification in an attempt to investigate WikiLeaks operations in the country, but Home Secretary Ögmundur Jónasson found out about the visit and forced them to leave the country, with the Icelandic government then issuing a formal protest to US authorities, according to Islandsbloggen.
In this 2010 TED talk, Michael Shermer indicates that we have evolved to be pattern-seeking creatures because it is often more dangerous to suspend belief than to acknowledge that a pattern (e.g., a predator) exists. It's a video full of good ideas. What I found most interesting, though was Shermer's discussion of an experiment run by Jennifer Witson of UT Austin. Using a patternless printout, she found that those who were more likely to find patterns were those who felt less certain and out of control. Great follow-up example at minute 7: Baseball players are more superstitious when batting (where the best only succeed 3 out of 10 times), whereas they are not superstitious when fielding (where they are 95% successful). At min 8, Shermer explained that those who believe in ESP tend to see more patterns that didn't actually exist. What comes to mind is that conservatives tend to be more control oriented, and more likely to embrace and lunge at patterns that don't actually exist. At min 9: Drugs that reduce psychotic behavior (seeing patterns that don't exist) leads to more euphoria and creativity. Delightful illustration that we have hyped up face-recognition software (min 13). A companion doctrine to patternicity is agenticity, recognizing agents who don't actually exist. Sherman points out that agenticity explains many conspiracy theories (min 15). Hilarious ending. Shermer's discussion continues at this recent post at Huffpo, which includes his "baloney detection kit."
Matt Taibbi and Bill Moyers discuss the still-increasing power of banks.
Bill Maher points out that several prominent conservative pundits are getting rich by duping their followers. On the same show, Bill had serious discussion about transparency in elections and the need to invest in very young children (0-3).
My relationship with the Boy Scouts of America was not the most pleasant. I was an oddity, to be sure. I think I was at one time the only—only—second class scout to be a patrol leader. Second class. For those who may not have been through the quasi-military organization, the…