A longer and more ruminative post later, but in all my discussions here in Brazil the thing that comes through most clearly is of a country in a convincing and continuing economic break-out. A transition... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 3:59 pm
Jim Rogers' CNBC interview today is a classic of its kind. A combative and voluble Rogers goes after the Fed in a major way, arguing that our aversion to recessions, willingness to bail out banks, and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 3:52 pm
For anyone who missed it this weekend, the 60 Minutes profile of Carl Icahn was interesting stuff. Check it here. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 3:22 pm
One of the most appalling and fascinating aspects of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro here in Brazil are the so-called "favelas". The Brazilian equivalent of a shanty town, these have generally... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 3:14 pm
It's all happening! Just, a bit late. From my predictions: 1. (a) If Microsoft does not buy AOL, Yahoo will, and failing that, AOL will go public, but the IPO will receive a lukewarm review.... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:55 pm
metalman writes "Wired has a story on a proposal by House Democrats to 'establish a national commission — similar to the 9/11 Commission... to find out — and publish — what exactly the nation's spies were up to during their five-year warrantless, domestic surveillance program.' The draft bill would also preserve the requirement of court orders and remove 'retroactive immunity for telecom companies.' (We've discussed various government wiretaps, phone companies, and privacy violations before.) But it seems unlikely that such an alternative on phone immunity would pass both the House and Senate, let alone survive a Presidential veto."
Japan is investigating a possible defect in Apple Inc.'s iPod after one of the popular digital music players reportedly shot out sparks while recharging, a government official said... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:39 am
According to the AFP, the simplicity of obtaining SMS loans in Sweden is increasingly luring youths into debt. "The first (SMS) loan was given in the middle of March 2006," said Janne Aakerlund, a spokesman... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:17 am
Technology company IBM Corp. said Wednesday it purchased security software company Encentuate Inc. to expand its product offerings. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:07 am
NEW YORK, March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of the successful U.S. release, MTV Networks International, Paramount Digital Entertainment, both part of Viacom Inc. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Gwen Schoen, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Mar. 12--Make month of meals in a day Short on time? This class will take some time, but will save you plenty in the long run. This Saturday, Sierra College in Rocklin is offering a class called Freezer Cooking, A Month Of Meals. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Anne Krishnan, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Mar. 12--Q: When I renewed my Norton virus protection last spring, I opted for the Norton 360. Immediately, I began having problems with slowdowns, and I was unable to run two programs simultaneously. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
Text of press release in English by Paris-based media freedom organization Reporters Sans Frontieres on 12 March Reporters Without Borders will launch the first International Online Free Expression Day on 12 March, when it will also organize its second "24-hour online demo against internet censorship," urging internet users to come and demonstrate on its website, www.rsf.org. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Yonat Shimron, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Mar. 12--At a talk on aging at Community United Church of Christ recently, the host prefaced her introduction by saying that the event was not political and that the discussion would pertain solely to the issues. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c85678) has announced the addition of "Africa - Convergence, IP Networks, WiMAX" to their offering. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Maria Baran, Belleville News-Democrat, Ill. Mar. 12--ALTON -- A household of people have been charged in connection with torturing a pregnant woman by beating, burning and shooting her with a BB gun in the weeks leading up to her Jan. 31 bludgeoning death. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
D-Link, the end-to-end networking solutions provider for consumer and business, is the leader in Draft 802.11n Wi-Fi product shipments worldwide, showing significant growth in Q4 2007 and surpassing nearest competitors Linksys and Belkin, according to leading analyst firm In-Stat. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, the parent company of Brazilian airlines GOL Transportes Aereos and VRG Linhas Aereas, has announced an interline agreement between VRG and Taiwan's China Airlines. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
If you look at my Facebook page you might think that I’m still in Miami, although I returned from that trip two weeks ago. I simply forgot to change my location status back to New York City. The... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:41 am
There's a post on the YouTube blog that's titled YouTube Everywhere. In it, YouTube announces additions to it's API that allow you to interact with YouTube from almost anywhere. YouTube has always been... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:30 am
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - YouTube, Google Inc's popular video sharing site, is giving away tools that let Web developers tap the underlying database functions of YouTube, in effect allowing Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:28 am
A recurring theme on Gotham Gal's blog (my wife for those of you new to this blog) is the occasional frustrations of a woman who has given up the intellectual fruits of a full time job for the responsibility... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:19 am
YouTube's announcement tonight wasn't higher quality videos (yet), but a set of new APIs and expanded features. YouTube now describes itself as "an open, general purpose, video services platform, available... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:13 am
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's LG Electronics said on Wednesday it plans to buy 32-inch and 52-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) panels from Japan's Sharp Corp in order to satisfy... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:12 am
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poles should not be allowed to vote online because the Internet attracts people who watch "pornography while sipping a bottle of beer", a former prime minister told his... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:43 am
Here's my latest InformationWeek column: "17 Tips For Getting Bloggers To Write About You." It's a checklist of the stuff that keeps me -- and many other bloggers -- from posting about sites. There are companies and causes out there spending their time and money trying to get people to talk about them online, while shooting themselves in the foot by not having permalinks (duh), by resizing your browser window (duh), or by having "linking policies" that seek to set out the circumstances under which you can link to them.
Have a link. Seriously: if you want bloggers to link to you, you need to have something linkable. Your upcoming TV show, protest march, product or soccer tournament is literally unbloggable unless you put it on the Web somewhere first.
Have a permanent link. Don't just change the front page of your site every time a new speaker for your speaker-series in announced. A blogger who links to the front page of your site today in a post about the upcoming address by Philo T Farnsworth, wants that link to stay good for in the future, and not point to the upcoming address by Paris Hilton when you change it next week. Put up a separate, permanently linkable page for everything you want to get blogged.
Have a link for everything. Don't have a single page with ten items on it. Blogging a link to the top of your fifty-screen-long page with a blurb about something halfway down generates 200 e-mails from readers who can't find the referenced item.
Use real links. Don't have links with expiring session-keys that are no good if someone revisits the URL later. If a blogger can't send the URL to a friend or put it on the Web, then that blogger can't send people to go look at your stuff. Likewise, avoid the giant, 800-character gobbledegook URLs filled with junky alphabet-soup GUIDs -- if it can't be pasted into IRC without linebreaking, there's some group of compulsive communicators who'll be unable to get to it.
Graduates have created a virtual world based on a computerised version of their campus in which they can study, share information and socialise. The 3D version of the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:33 am
Vietnam is preparing to launch its first satellite, hoping to improve the country's telecommunications to keep pace with its rapid economic development, officials said Wednesday. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:32 am
Moko, a bottlenose dolphin in New Zealand who likes to swim with the locals, rescued a pair of pygmy sperm whales that were stranded and dying on a sandbar.
"They kept getting disorientated and stranding again," said Smith, who was among the rescuers. "They obviously couldn't find their way back past (the sandbar) to the sea."
Along came Moko, who approached the whales and led them 200 meters (yards) along the beach and through a channel out to the open sea.
"Moko just came flying through the water and pushed in between us and the whales," Juanita Symes, another rescuer, told The Associated Press. "She got them to head toward the hill, where the channel is. It was an amazing experience. The best day of my life."
Instructables's Bluebomb modded the slot-screwdriver head on this Leatherman tool to turn it into a sysadmin's punchdown tool to help with network wiring jobs.
Something that I always have at my side, is my Leatherman Wave. It has all kinds of tools that can help out at a moments notice except for one, a punchdown tool! As a system admin, sometimes I have the need to terminate a keystone jack or punchdown block and I don't have room in my pocket to carry a real punchdown tool with me everywhere I go. Now with this quick mod, I can! Everyone that has a Wave knows about the "large screwdriver" aka "pry-bar." I never understood it's true meaning since you already have four different screwdrivers to choose from. Now you can ditch that and have a nice useful punchdown tool.
An anonymous reader notes a Time.com profile of Princeton University music theorist Dmitri Tymoczko, who has applied some string-theory math to the study of music and found that all possible chordal music can be represented in a higher-dimensional space. His research was published last year in Science — it was the first paper on music theory they ever ran. The paper and background material, including movies, can be viewed at Tymoczko's site.
Larry Lessig found himself on a panel with Andrew Keen, whose "Cult of the Amateur" excoriates the Internet for breeding sloppiness and errors, so Larry went through a list of the errors Keen made in his book. First off, Keen's description of Lessig as someone who "laud[s] the appropriation of intellectual property." Lessig pointed out the many times that he'd decried this, and asked Keen to cite a single instance in which he'd done what Keen alleged. Keen sat silent.
Then, when Keen got home, he blogged (!) about the incident saying that he'd crowd-sourced the question to his blog-readers who'd affirmed that, indeed, Lessig had done what he'd said. Though, of course, no references were forthcoming.
I asked Keen if he had ever read anything I had written. He said he had. I asked him to name one instance where I had ever "laud[ed] the appropriation of intellectual property." He sat silently. I pressed. He had no answer. He could name no instance of my "laud[ing] the appropriation of intellectual property" because that's not my schtick. Indeed, as I repeatedly insisted in Free Culture (see pages 10, 18, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 139, 255), what others call "piracy" I was emphatically not writing to defend. Indeed, I criticized it as "wrong."
Now whether mine is a sensible view or not, or a view consistent with the Free Culture Movement or not, is an argument had on this page many times. But the Keen-relevant point is that my claim was a claim about a fact. He alleges I "laud the appropriation of intellectual property." I claim I do not. That's a true/false claim. And so in the tradition of the professional truth-seeker, so threatened, Keen believes, by the wisdom-of-the-crowds Internet, one would think that the disagreement would be resolved by someone actually reading something, or at least providing some citation. No doubt it was unfair to call Keen out on stage. He didn't come with his notes. Why would I expect him to be able to identify anything in my work at all? But after the conference, perhaps. Maybe then Keen could defend the assertion that I flatly denied.
And indeed, he now has -- but the interesting (self-parody point) is how.
In a blog post, Keen again charges me with lauding the appropriation of intellectual property. But what's the source for his renewed charge? Did Keen go back to the books? Or back to his notes? Does he offer a quote, or a passage to exemplify this defining feature of my work?
No. The truth of this matter for Keen is resolved by asking a bunch of people at the conference whether in fact I "laud the appropriation of intellectual property." They said I did. And that resolves it for Keen.
A 5,200 year old piece of pottery from Iran has been discovered to embody the oldest known animation in the world -- a wild goat eating vegetation:
The wild goat motif can be seen on Iranian pottery dating back to the 4th millennium BCE, as well as jewellery pieces especially among Cassite tribes of ancient Luristan. However, the oldest wild goat representation in Iran was discovered in Negaran Valley in Sardast region, 37 kilometers from Nahok village near Saravan back in 1999. The engraved painting of wild goat is part of an important collection of lithoglyphs dating back to 8000 BCE.
However, wild goat representation with a tree is associated with Murkum, a mother goddess who was worshipped by all the Indo-Iranian women of the Haramosh valley in modern Pakistan, which culturally had closer ties with Indus and subsequently the Burnt City civilisations, than Mesopotamia, which could had influenced the ancient potter who made this unique piece.
RateMyCop.com -- a site where the general public can comment on police officers -- has been shut down by its hosting company, GoDaddy. The company claims his site had been engaged in "suspicious activity." Various police departments and organizations have spoken out against RateMyCop, arguing that it would reveal the identities of undercovers (undercovers are not listed on RateMyCop) or put police in danger by revealing their addresses and personal information (personal information and addresses are not given on RateMyCop), or that it would be used to grind axes against cops (RateMyCop has a facility for police rebuttal).
Unfortunately for the startup, the company it chose for hosting is known to be quick to censor its customers. In January of last year, GoDaddy took down entire computer security website -- delisting it from DNS -- to get a single, archived mailing list post off the web.
On that occasion, at least, it gave the site's owner 60 seconds notice. GoDaddy notified Seto by posting its "Oops!" message to his public website.
"You put on my website for me to call you, when you have my phone number?," says Sesto.
Singapore Airlines said its third Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial jet, arrived in the city ahead of its deployment on the carrier's service to London. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:06 am
TOKYO (Reuters) - One of Apple Inc's popular iPod nano media players gave off sparks while being recharged in Japan in January, Japan's trade ministry said, prompting a safety... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:49 am
Scientists have exposed a killer microbe's Achilles heel in a move that may restore penicillin to the front line in the superbug war. Researchers led by a team from the Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:47 am
Endeavour astronauts inspected the space shuttle's heat shield Wednesday, while NASA puzzled over a mysterious piece of debris that may have struck the shuttle's nose just after launch. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:37 am
Elizabeth sez, "In the 1960s, my husband's dad taught him to program computers with a Bell Labs Science Kit called the CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation (CARDIAC). My husband was so nostalgic for his first 'cardboard computer,' that a couple of years ago I tracked down a guy who still sells the kits - manufactured in the '60s but still brand new and unopened - and bought my husband a new CARDIAC for Christmas. Today, I just found out that the owner of Comspace, the lone remaining dealer of original Bell Labs Science kits (they also have lots of other cool stuff besides the CARDIAC) will be closing his business at the end of this month and is selling off his inventory. You can read more about the Bell Science Labs kits at the URL above. That page also contains a link to the Comspace site, where you can order the kits. (Note, though, that some things listed on the Bell Labs page are no longer available. Contact Phillip Dixon at Comspace for the current product/price list.) He's also offering 5% discounts to anyone who buys 20 or more kits. (Please note - I have no connection to or interest in Comspace. I just think this is a really, really cool sale of vintage-but-brand-new geeky stuff.)"
My dad taught me to program with these in the mid-1970s as well -- it was incredibly engrossing.
Link
(Thanks, Elizabeth!)
By KARIN KAPSIDELIS Paul Tukey's conversion came on the lawn and garden aisle. He'd gone to stock up on turf builder for his landscaping business when he noticed a little girl in diapers building sandcastles from the contents of a broken bag of pesticide. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Lazaridis, Mihalis Aleksandropoulou, Victoria; Hanssen, Jan Erik; Dye, Christian; Eleftheriadis, Kostantinos; Katsivela, Eleftheria ABSTRACT A detailed analysis of indoor/outdoor physicochemical aerosol properties has been performed. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
Every effort must be made to save a north-east rare breeds farm and visitor attraction, the chairman of a conservation charity has said. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
First Minister Alex Salmond vowed last night to use every lever at the Scottish Government's disposal to ensure a long and profitable future for the country's farming sector. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By JAMIE C RUFF A $5.3 million project to extend water and sewer lines west along a 2 1/2-mile stretch of U.S. 60 will further open up Powhatan County to economic development. Most of U.S. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
German conservationists said a warm winter has left hundreds of baby seals dying of cold and starvation in the Baltic Sea. A spokeswoman for the World Wildlife Federation said 300 to 400 ringed seal pups have died this winter in the Baltic Sea north of Germany, Deutsche Welle reported. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Joe Orso, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Mar. 12--A church-state conflict that flared up last week in Holmen, Wis., was not the impetus for a lecture about the separation of church and state at Viterbo University tonight. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
The partner companies involved in a multimillion-pound regeneration project aimed at breathing new life into one of Aberdeen's most deprived areas met yesterday to discuss the scheme. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Evitt, Mark NO MORE DEAD BATTERIES The word "extreme" isn't usually associated with battery chargers, but the new Xtreme Charge Marine will turn a few heads. It charges any type of 12-volt lead acid battery, and does so with flair. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By de Vera, Enrique Rene I. INTRODUCTION "What I discovered was that ethanol might completely replace petroleum in [the United States]. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
AOL, the company that introduced millions of people to the Internet, has tried to reinvent itself many times. The latest effort, like those before it, does not seem to be going well. On Tuesday, Jeffrey... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 7:35 am
The video game maker says a 'Grand Theft Auto' update should help it steer out of a first-quarter spinout. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 7:00 am
The company says the Air Force treated it unfairly in deciding to go with a plane from Northrop and Airbus. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 7:00 am
jerryasher recommends Paul Krugman's blog at the NYTimes, where he introduces a paper he wrote, The Theory of Interstellar Trade, with tongue very much in cheek. Some packrat academician was kind enough to send him a scan, because "back then academics did their work with typewriters, abacuses, and stone axes." Abstract: This paper extends interplanetary trade theory to an interstellar setting. It is chiefly concerned with the following question: how should interest rates on goods in transit be computed when the goods travel at close to the speed of light? This is a problem because the time taken in transit will appear less to an observer traveling with the goods than to a stationary observer. A solution is derived from economic theory, and two useless but true theorems are proved... This paper, then, is a serious analysis of a ridiculous subject, which is of course the opposite of what is usual in economics."
Print publications are migrating to the Internet, but it seems lighting is migrating to the printing press. General Electric just announced that it may have found the holy grail for lighting devices: A... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 5:35 am
Japan is investigating a possible defect in Apple Inc.'s iPod after one of the popular digital music players reportedly shot out sparks while recharging, a government official said Wednesday. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 5:07 am
proudhawk writes "A blog posting in p2pnet today catches MPAA boss Dan Glickman at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas crowing about Hollywood's profitable year: 'Today, we stand on a new mountaintop, and I have to say: I like the view... We had about 5 percent growth in both the domestic and worldwide box office, all-time highs on both fronts reminding us once again that good stories well told always find a place in our hearts, our lives and our local theaters.' What ever happened to the ravages of online piracy?"
Dan Phiffer found this image on a message board (picture credit to Adam Nieman and the Science Photo Library), and by his calculations, he says it's accurate.
Left: All the water in the world (1.4087 billion cubic kilometres of it) including sea water, ice, lakes, rivers, ground water, clouds, etc.
Right: All the air in the atmosphere (5140 trillion tonnes of it) gathered into a ball at sea-level density. Shown on the same scale as the Earth.
coondoggie writes "Earlier this week the FAA mandated upgrades and updates to aircraft voice and data recorders within the US. The goal of the updates: to assist future investigations with 'more and better data' from accidents and incidents. The 'mandate means manufacturers such as Honeywell and L-3 Communications as well as operators of airplanes and helicopters with 10 or more seats, must employ voice recorders, also known as black boxes, that capture the last two hours of cockpit audio instead of the current 15 to 30 minutes. The new rules also require an independent backup power source for the voice recorders to allow continued recording for nine to 11 minutes if all aircraft power sources are lost or interrupted. Voice recorders also must use solid state technology instead of magnetic tape, which is vulnerable to damage and loss of reliability.'"
In step toward personalized online medical information, Aetna plans to announce Wednesday a new service that draws upon a patients own medical history to help answer questions about symptoms and treatments... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Mar 2008 | 1:35 am
Wired.com columnist and security expert Bruce Schneier argues that a world without secrets would only give more power to the powerful. Award-winning science fiction author David Brin defends his thesis that a "transparent society" is the best way to even the odds.
Don't look now, but there's a giant wall of snow descending upon you at 80 mph. Learn how to survive a life-threatening avalanche by following these tips.
Dungeon Masters know few survive the harrowing deathtraps in Dungeons & Dragons' Tomb of Horrors. So what might real-life dungeon exploration look like? Commentary by Lore Sjöberg.
Hosting company GoDaddy simply pulls the plug on a new website that let users rate and comment on any of 140,000 uniformed police officers listed by name. Criticism-leery cops did not like it.
An anonymous reader alerts us to new material up on Wikileaks: 208 scanned pages (in one PDF) relating to the Church of Scientology and its former "Office of Special Affairs" employee (and subsequent apostate) Frank Oliver. "The documents are dated between 1986 and 1992 inclusive, when, according to the file, Frank Oliver was declared a 'suppressive person' and excommunicated. Frank Oliver should be able to verify the material and has appeared in the media before on subjects relating to the church. Starting on page 107, the document shows that at the time of writing the Church of Scientology was still actively engaged in black propaganda (especially concerning psychiatry), 'fair game' and infiltration."
Yingsel Rangzen from Students for a Free Tibet points us to a blog post about a protest against China's occupation of Tibet that took place in Lhasa, Tibet yesterday -- captured by tourists' cameras.
Snip from post:
[The Tibetan protesters] form a strong, silent, peacefull circle around the police who keep the middle of the square open. Soon they call for backup.
Undercover agents, not so difficult to recognize, film the whole happening. Especially the faces. This is one method to create fear. Suddenly there is panic. 6 or 7 monks are arrested and driven away.
Tibetans are very scared because of the stories about the prisons and tortures. In the meanwhile, big numbers of policemen arrive. They drive everybody apart. But until sunset small groups of people stay around. There are tourists, Tibetans and Tibetan resembling spies. Apparently we stick around to long because some Tibetans start to warn us to be careful about the undercoverpolice who are watching us closely.
We even get a note that says we are being followed and have to be carefull about what we say. The whole evening misty figures keep following us, even to the restaurant and the bar.
The Chinese police almost manages to give the impression that it´s just a small manifestation that they can easily control. From our Portugees friends, Miguel and Clara, who visit one of the biggest monasteries (Drepung) nearby, we learn that the Chinese approach (away from touristic eyes) is much harder.
...draw attention to the worsening human rights situation inside Tibet (...), use the Olympics spotlight to shame and embarrass the Chinese government, and show them that until Tibet is free, China will never be never be accepted as a leader on the world stage.
From what I can gather, hundreds of ethnic Tibetans gathered on Barkhor Square, an open-air market area that surrounds Jokhang Temple (a very large temple that is the heart of Lhasa's traditional quarter, generally considered to be the most important temple in Tibet). I spent time in and around this place, and saw surveillance cameras throughout the site.
Students for a Free Tibet is covering the story, and claims this is the largest protest of the Chinese occupation of Tibet to take place inside Tibet in over 50 years. (Thanks, Sam Chapin)
Sherman's doppleganger writes "The IFPI (the "European RIAA") has made a lot of noise about filtering this year, but it looks as though 2008 is instead becoming the year of the lawsuit. The IFPI has now sued an Irish ISP in an attempt to keep copyrighted content off of its network. 'The lawsuit accuses Eircom of abetting illegal downloading by allowing copyrighted material to traverse its network unimpeded. The IFPI... wants the ISP to start filtering traffic to scrub all illicitly uploaded and downloaded copyrighted material on its network.' The lawsuit comes less than a week after an Israeli court forced the nation's three biggest ISPs to block access to HttpShare.com."
MSTCrow5429 writes "In the latest of a long train of scandals to hit Wikipedia, the Sydney Morning Herald reports on an accusation that founder and Wikia President Jimmy Wales traded a multi-thousand dollar donation for an article re-write. Jeff Merkey, formerly of Novell, claims that Wales approached him in 2006 and said that for a fee, Wales would personally see to it that the article on Merkey, which had cast him in a negative light, would be re-written in Merkey's favor. Merkey claims that after he donated $5,000, Wales followed through on this quid pro quo. The Wikipedia edit history does indicate that Wales wiped out the article on Merkey, and then personally re-wrote it. The SMH reports that Wales has called the allegation 'nonsense.'" Merkey filed a harassment lawsuit in 2005 against a number of people and organizations, including Slashdot. Slashdot was removed from the suit on 2005-07-20. Update: 03/12 00:39 GMT by KD : Wikimedia Foundation spokesman Jay Walsh provided this official statement: "Current allegations relating to Jimmy Wales soliciting donations for the Wikimedia Foundation in order to protect or edit Wikipedia articles are completely false. The Wikimedia Foundation has never accepted nor solicited donations in order to protect or make edits to a Wikipedia article — nor has Jimmy Wales. This is a practice the Wikimedia Foundation would never condone."
Throw out your Las Vegas yellow pages. From sleek websites to community support forums, the world's oldest profession is adopting new technology as well as anyone.
eldavojohn writes "The NYTimes is running an interesting blog piece on the answers Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, & Google gave to the question: Can they show you an ad with your name on it? The results: 'Microsoft says it could use only a person's first name [which it doesn't consider personal information]. AOL and Yahoo could use a full name but only on their sites, not the other sites on which they place ads. Google isn't sure; it probably could, but it doesn't know the names of most of its users.' Now whether or not they would use this information is a different story. AOL has no plans to, Yahoo is open to it, and Microsoft has implemented a technological barrier preventing it (despite behavioral and demographic data being served to the ad companies). Although Google might use name information at some point, they don't now do so; nor do they use behavioral or demographic data."
hasu notes that scientists at the National Institute for Materials Science at Tsukuba in Japan have created a device, consisting of 17 duroquinone molecules on a gold surface, that can in theory encode 4.3 billion outcomes. The "device" does not constitute a practical computer, since it requires both a scanning tunneling microscope and operation near absolute zero. A single duroquinone is surrounded by sixteen others, and weak chemical bonds allow a pulse to the central molecule to shift all seventeen molecules in a variety of ways. Each duroquinone has four different "settings," so a single pulse can have 4^16 possible outcomes. As a demonstration the researchers docked 8 other nano-devices to their 17-molecule computer. It is unclear how well they have characterized the inputs that result in 4.3 billion different outputs. They are working on a 3D design that would have 1,024 duroquinone molecules surrounding a central one.
-1.JPG)
The wild goat motif can be seen on Iranian pottery dating back to the 4th millennium BCE, as well as jewellery pieces especially among Cassite tribes of ancient Luristan. However, the oldest wild goat representation in Iran was discovered in Negaran Valley in Sardast region, 37 kilometers from Nahok village near Saravan back in 1999. The engraved painting of wild goat is part of an important collection of lithoglyphs dating back to 8000 BCE.
Elizabeth sez, "In the 1960s, my husband's dad taught him to program computers with a Bell Labs Science Kit called the CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation (CARDIAC). My husband was so nostalgic for his first 'cardboard computer,' that a couple of years ago I tracked down a guy who still sells the kits - manufactured in the '60s but still brand new and unopened - and bought my husband a new CARDIAC for Christmas. Today, I just found out that the owner of Comspace, the lone remaining dealer of original Bell Labs Science kits (they also have lots of other cool stuff besides the CARDIAC) will be closing his business at the end of this month and is selling off his inventory. You can read more about the Bell Science Labs kits at the URL above. That page also contains a link to the Comspace site, where you can order the kits. (Note, though, that some things listed on the Bell Labs page are no longer available. Contact Phillip Dixon at Comspace for the current product/price list.) He's also offering 5% discounts to anyone who buys 20 or more kits. (Please note - I have no connection to or interest in Comspace. I just think this is a really, really cool sale of vintage-but-brand-new geeky stuff.)"
