Links for 2008-05-22

• Amputee Gets a Shot at the Olympics (Technology Review)
  Hugh Herr explains the scientific evidence behind the decision.
• Enter, the Cybrids (NYT)
  This week, a complex and controversial piece of legislation began to make its way through the British parliament.
• The emerging supremacy of artificial legs (William Saletan - Slate Magazine)
  Go, Oscar, go. We're all rooting for you to cross that finish line in Beijing. Just one note of caution: Don't win.
• Good God? (Peter Singer - Guardian)
  Religious people are still unable to provide a satisfying answer to the age-old question of why God allows suffering.
• Anthropic Breakthrough (Robin Hanson - Overcoming Bias)
  If the universe is extremely large, with effective physics and cosmological conditions varying widely from place to place, how can we predict the conditions we should expect to see?
• Can the Singularity Save Us From Ourselves? (Al Fin)
  Humans are only evolved primates--monkeys and apes--with a limited conceptual vocabulary. We are easily impressed by our technological accomplishments.
• On becoming vegan: five good reasons (David Orban's Blog)
  A few days ago I've become a vegan. Vegans are those who do not eat meat like vegetarians, and also eschew animal products, like milk, cheese, eggs. When I tell people they laugh. I laugh as well, since I am a jovial person. But I am pretty serious.
• Birth cry of a supernova (Bad Astronomy Blog)
  Very, very cool news today: for the first time in history, astronomers have unambiguously observed the exact moment when a star explodes.