August 2007
Culture of fear: flight grounded because... →
An American Airlines flight was delayed Tuesday night because a passenger expressed concern about some Iraqi passengers speaking Arabic. The flight was headed from San Diego to O’Hare. It turns out, the Iraqi men were in California to train Marines preparing for Iraq. (via Lupa).
twitter/britt:britt: Warren’s on fire today: http://tinyurl.com/33e36h http://tinyurl.com/37hyhy
britt: Warren’s on fire today: http://tinyurl.com/33e36h http://tinyurl.com/37hyhy (via Twitter / britt)
How voters are susceptible to politicians who can... →
The New Republic has an article called “Death Grip: How Political Psychology Explains Bush’s Ghastly Success.” It reports on the research of psychologists Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynsk, who believe “a fear of our own mortality guides many of our political choices without our ever realizing it.”
Their first experiment was published in 1989. To...
New biopic on Joy Division, Ian Curtis: Control →
Out mid-October: a biopic on Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division, shot in luscious black and white by renowned photographer and music video director Anton Corbijn. Pulling in some great reviews, and looks awesome. Hope the film lives up to the tease and does not induce PTSD (Promising-Trailer-Syndrome-of-Disappointment), because the trailer sure is lovely. Link to website with trailer,...
Science Fiction Writers Of America: Enemies Of Art... →
I’m not a member of SFWA, neither being American nor recognised as a science fiction writer by its membership requirements. Nor, I think, would I want to be. The calibre of its executive officers has been questioned before, when an ex-VP called those who put their work on the internet scabs. The current VP appears to have outdone that, according to Cory:
The Science Fiction and Fantasy...
"Mother: Dress Code Unfairly Targets... →
The mother of a student who was suspended for violating her school system’s dress code says the rules unfairly target religion, WRTV in Indianapolis reported. Tracy Prochnow said Highland High School in Indiana suspended her daughter, Brittany Brown, on Monday because the junior wore a Christian-themed T-shirt. Monday was the fourth time Brittany violated the code, which the city’s...
Not An Art Piece, No →
First someone torches the big faux-Wicker Man ahead of schedule, which reportedly led to hippies wailing “but it’s not his time!” And now, I’ve got to say, they’re not having a good time, out there in the arseweevil-riddled sands of Black Rock City:
A Burning Man participant was found dead this morning, hanging from the inside of a two-story high tent, according to Mark Pirtle, special agent in...
Mother Teresa: Celebrity Atheist →
Christopher Hitchens is wanking over her bones as we speak:
“Where is my faith?” she wrote. “Even deep down? there is nothing but emptiness and darkness… If there be God ? please forgive me.”
Eight years later, she was still looking to reclaim her lost faith.
“Such deep longing for God? Repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal,” she said.
As her fame increased, her faith refused to...
Wake n' Bacon →
“The EU is a smashing success. They have formed a consortium of economies and...”
– Me January 23 2004
“Robert Scoble is often over his head when he starts wading into the deep end of...”
– /Message
scplugin: Documents & files →
Finder plugin for subversion == awesome
Australian Porn Filter Cracked →
The headline is all you need to know:
Teen cracks AU$84 million porn filter in 30 minutes
(AU$84 million is $69.5 million U.S.; that’s real money.)
Remember that the issue isn’t that one smart kid can circumvent the censorship software, it’s that one smart kid — maybe this one, maybe another one — can write a piece of shareware that allows everyone to circumvent...
uncov / Like You Didn't See This Coming (facebook) →
Facebook announced the other day that they’re going to let advertisers target their users based on personal information, and they’re working on a system that will predict what a user wants before they want it.
UNCOV is my new favorite tech blog.
Infringing Viacom claims copyright infringement →
Christopher Knight made three commercials as part of his campaign to run for a seat on the Rockingham County Board of Education. He posted them on YouTube. Viacom’s VH1 ran one of the commercials on its show Web Junk 2.0, without seeking Knight’s permission. Knight then posted the Web Junk 2.0 segment on YouTube.
Yesterday, YouTube pulled the clip, at the request of Viacom, which...
Black Market-brand Skateboard Deck Looks like a... →
It’s not an officially-licensed product, but if Nintendo has any brains at all they’ll see this Wii-inspired skateboard deck from Black Market for the compliment it is.
Wii Skateboard Asks For Purchase (Not Lawsuit) [Kotaku]
Torture school subjects children to lethal... →
Mother Jones has a long, chilling feature on The Judge Rotenberg Education Center, a private radical behavior-modification school based in Canton, Mass. The school is run by a rogue behaviorist who uses discredited “punishment” techniques — electroshock — on children as young as nine to change their personalities. Matthew Israel, the school’s $400,000/year executive...
AppleTV Flash Mashup →
Larry Lessig on "Lucasfilm's Phantom... →
This Op-Ed got published in the WaPo back in July, but I’ve been busy! Below is an excerpt:
In May, Lucasfilm announced plans to enable fans of the “Star Wars” series to “remix” “Star Wars” video clips with their own creative work. Using an innovative Internet platform called Eyespot, these (re)creators can select video clips or other content and then...
twitter/britt: The power just went out at the coffee shop where I am working. Buh.
Shacked-up couples share housework better than... →
A study by sociologists from George Mason University and North Carolina State University concludes that unmarried couples that live together divide housework more evenly than married couples.
According to Davis, the key finding of the study is that it suggests the institution of marriage changes the division of labor. Couples with an egalitarian view on gender—seeing men and women as...
Rotund super heroes...mostly →
Not all risk is created equal →
A camper who chases a grizzly but won’t risk unprotected sex. A sky diver afraid to stand up to the boss. New research shows that not all risk is created equal and people show a mixture of both risky and non-risky behaviors.
twitter/britt: Programming language I am using at work today: English.
Giles Bowkett: ActiveResource: A Rails Scalability... →
twitter/britt: Thinking about what to do for Labor Day…if anything.
Water-propelled jetpack patented →
I’m sure I’m not the only one in the room who’s always wanted a jetpack. But they’re dangerous things; not only due to the risk of flying out of control and doing yourself a serious injury, but to the potential of the engine exploding while strapped to your back. A new patent for a water-propelled jetpack removes the latter risk, leaving you at the mercy of nothing but your own piloting skills …...
twitter/britt: Why do I never get to go to Germany for work?
Anti-open-science hypocrites infringe copyright →
Prism — an astroturf organization established by science publishers to discredit free open access journals — has been caught using a bunch of infringing Getty images on its front page. Prism advocates against open copyright for science journals, preferring to lock up scientific knowledge with a maximal version of copyright that limits scientific endeavor to those parties who can pay...
Spherical tree-house →
Free Spirit Spheres build lovely, spherical wooden treehouses that you enter via a suspension bridge. The photo-gallery documents the construction and installation of “Eryn,” a five-windowed spherical tree-dwelling with an electric kitchen, sleeping area, and living area.
Link
(Thanks, MarkM!)
The Gapminder World 2006, beta →
BBC News | Africa | Children high on sewage →
They are manufacturing “Jenkem”, a disgusting, noxious mixture made from fermented sewage.
[…]
“It lasts about an hour”, says one user, 16-year-old Luke Mpande, who prefers Jenkem to other substances.
“With glue, I just hear voices in my head. But with Jenkem, I see visions. I see my mother who is dead and I forget about the problems in my life.”
...
Stupidest Terrorist Overreaction Yet? →
What? Are the police taking stupid pills?
Two people who sprinkled flour in a parking lot to mark a trail for their offbeat running club inadvertently caused a bioterrorism scare and now face a felony charge.
The competition is fierce, but I think this is a winner.
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twitter/britt: plowing through boring tasks
