Links for 22-09-2006
The question of content, galactic catastrophism, Chavez beats the devil, blowing up stars…
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“Good job, Boing Boing. Once again you get it wrong. Then again, maybe Nueros is paying for the blog entry.” Ouch – heavy snark at reBang, plus Doctorow response and reBang reply in comments. Some interesting points on both sides.
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The Grauniad catches up to the YouTube / copyright question.
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After all Redmond’s whinging about piracy, you’d think it obvious that saving money this way would be lead to greater losses in the end. Could explain the pricing structure, eh?
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“Galactic catastrophism — the idea that certain kinds of cosmic events can destroy life on a periodic basis and prevent the emergence of technological civilizations — comes in a number of variants.” Good stuff at Centauri Dreams.
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“Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tore into his U.S. counterpart and his U.N. hosts Wednesday, likening President Bush to the devil and telling the General Assembly that its system is “worthless.”" The guy’s got some balls, if nothing else.
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“Don Swaim, host of the long-running CBS Radio show, Book Beat, has interviewed a butt-load of authors. Many of these uncut interviews are available online.” SF Signal rounds ‘em up.
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“It is not as easy as you would think. Models of supernovae have failed to reproduce these explosions–until recently.” Link via SF Signal (cheers John!)
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“The Virgin boss said he would commit all profits from his travel firms, such as airline Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains, over the next 10 years.” There are few capitalists I respect, but Branson is one of them.
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“So, to make RSS much easier to understand, in Oprah speak, RSS stands for: I’m “Ready for Some Stories”.” Tried explaining RSS to non-geeks? Let this post do the work for you instead.
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“A supernova more than twice as bright as others of its type has been observed, suggesting it arose from a star that managed to grow more massive than theoretically predicted.” There goes the cosmology rulebook again…
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“Brown dwarfs are clearly commonplace in the galaxy, but we know all too little about them.” But we sure are finding a lot of them at the moment.
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“New images from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter will confirm for many that the features are natural, while no doubt offering tantalizing “clues” to others of an ancient intelligent civilization at work.”
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“…an intelligent wheelchair that relies on an omnidirectional camera for a view of its surroundings, avoids collisions with people and obstacles, and knows when something is wrong with the chair’s occupant.”
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“Founded last year, the nonprofit Open Prosthetics Project applies the ethical and intellectual property foundation of open-source software to the task of building better artificial limbs.” Great example of open source altruism.
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“A garment [...] can now become a highly complex interactive electronic device, or a biochemical machine responsive to subtle triggers like sensuality, affection and sensation.” Philips’ designers have been watching Buck Rogers reruns.
Tags: links
September 22nd, 2006 at 5:02 pm
I think Chavez should win the award for Best Dramatic Performance by a Communist Leader.
We could call the awards ceremony the “Commeez”……..
Although the speech might have been a bit over the top, I have to agree with most of what he said. Bush’s government has been acting in a very dictatorial manner.
September 22nd, 2006 at 5:19 pm
I’m with you on that; Chavez is no angel, but he’s come out and said (in superlative hyperbole) what half the planet already thinks. That round of applause was unbelievably telling. Poor America. I hope the nation realises that Bush is, as Chavez said, the greatest enemy to everything they hold dear. The man is a vacuous frat-boy weasel acting as a front-man for a crew of very cunning and ruthless sociopaths.
September 22nd, 2006 at 7:10 pm
It’s a shame that most people still have that “better dead than red” mentality in the U.S. I realize that a Communist government is not perfect, but the concept of actually treating everyone equally and providing everyone with the basics in order to live is one that any humanitarian should support!
The mainstream media in the States has really aided Bush by painting anyone who disagrees with what his administration does as an extremist left wing atheist with no morals. Oh, I should say a COMMUNIST (or terrorist sympathizer) extremist left wing atheist with no morals.