Mr. Random

Department of Justice Threatens the Internet

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:17:14 -0800

Department of Justice Threatens the Internet:

Secret State Demands News Organization’s Web Logs, Gets Slapped Down

The Vatican joins the search for alien life - Telegraph

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:57:07 -0800

The Vatican joins the search for alien life - Telegraph

Animated story of how Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter on LSD (via...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:38:48 -0800

Animated story of how Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter on LSD (via http://twitter.com/kirstinbutler)

Bruce Mau Design: INCOMPLETE MANIFESTO FOR GROWTH. Good stuff!

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:10:35 -0800

Bruce Mau Design: INCOMPLETE MANIFESTO FOR GROWTH. Good stuff!

2012: The End Of The World? | Information Is Beautiful

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:09:29 -0800

2012: The End Of The World? | Information Is Beautiful:

Large infographic debunking the 2012 mythos hype.

Post Tech - Chat with Michael Geist on secret copyright rules

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:22:33 -0800

Post Tech - Chat with Michael Geist on secret copyright rules:

“Michael Geist, an Internet law professor at the University of Ottawa, thinks there is so much wrong with trade negotiations on anti-counterfeiting. The least of which is that the dozens of countries participating in anti-counterfeiting talks have been secretly meeting for two years around the world to hash out details on Internet copyright rules. As reported last week, no one outside the meetings have been able to hear the discussions and the public isn’t able to weigh in.”

"Our response to Y2K is remembered as an overreaction—and there’s probably a good case to be..."

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:16:25 -0800

“Our response to Y2K is remembered as an overreaction—and there’s probably a good case to be made that some of what we spent wasn’t necessary. But that’s not the only way to look at Y2K. The computer bug reshaped the tech industry, and the rest of corporate America, in lasting ways. Y2K helped bring tech managers to greater prominence within their organizations, and it arguably sparked the boom in tech outsourcing.”

- Apocalypse Then: a two-part series on the lessons of Y2K. (1) - By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine

Everything you want to know about the scary, secret copyright treaty - Boing Boing

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:15:55 -0800

Everything you want to know about the scary, secret copyright treaty - Boing Boing:

“Here’s a 20-minute, must-see lecture on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement — the secret copyright treaty currently being negotiated, which stands to fatally wound all user-generated content sites from mailing lists to YouTube; which stands to criminalize kids for noncommercial file-sharing; which stands to put your internet connection in jeopardy if anyone in your house is accused of infringement, and much, much more.”

Today is Exploding Whale Day! « Shafe Shifter

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:50:30 -0800

Today is Exploding Whale Day! « Shafe Shifter

2012: Carnival of Bunkum | h+ Magazine

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:49:01 -0800

2012: Carnival of Bunkum | h+ Magazine:

“But the worst of the 2012 bandwagon, epitomized by Pinchbeck’s lectures and writings, is the blithe cultural arrogance and staggering anthropological ignorance evident in the movement’s appropriation of Mayan beliefs and history. In a discussion hosted by Pinchbeck’s online magazine Reality Sandwich, the cultural theorist Erik Davis puts his finger on the minstrelsy implicit in the ventriloquization, by white, first-world New Agers, of the Maya. “[I]t seems to me that there is very little concrete sense of what ‘the Mayans’ (whoever that grand abstraction represents) thought about what would happen in the human world on 2012,” he writes. “To my mind it is kinda disrespectful to the Mayans to force them into our own narrative.””

Allison Kilkenny: Catholic Church Threatens To Stop Feeding Homeless Over Gay Marriage

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:48:02 -0800

Allison Kilkenny: Catholic Church Threatens To Stop Feeding Homeless Over Gay Marriage:

This article is referring to Washington DC Archdiocese.

Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:05:35 -0800

Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.

Cody Brown - A Public Can Talk To Itself: Why The Future of News is Actually Pretty Clear

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:33:25 -0700

Cody Brown - A Public Can Talk To Itself: Why The Future of News is Actually Pretty Clear

"Building microscopic critters via genetic tinkering was confined to the world’s most..."

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:10:53 -0700

“Building microscopic critters via genetic tinkering was confined to the world’s most sophisticated laboratories a generation ago. But with more powerful computers and cheaper equipment, it is within reach of students at high schools, community colleges and universities, hundreds of whom are competing this year to create the coolest new organism on the planet.”

- Nation & World | Competitors strive to create new life-forms | Seattle Times Newspaper

America’s (newest) largest solar plant set to go live in...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:28:53 -0700

America’s (newest) largest solar plant set to go live in Florida

Happy Wonder Woman Day! - Wonder Woman - io9

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:36:57 -0700

Happy Wonder Woman Day! - Wonder Woman - io9

A coming new obsession: how to handle a smaller print-book business – The Shatzkin Files

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:35:14 -0700

A coming new obsession: how to handle a smaller print-book business – The Shatzkin Files

Crazy Or Brilliant? Plan To Build Giant Floating Airport Off...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:05:01 -0700

Crazy Or Brilliant? Plan To Build Giant Floating Airport Off California Coast » INFRASTRUCTURIST

"Business representatives from a South Korean company were in town Friday negotiating to buy the..."

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:18:29 -0700

“Business representatives from a South Korean company were in town Friday negotiating to buy the Hynix plant in west Eugene. Uni-Chem wants to turn the former computer chip facility into a solar technology manufacturing plant.”

- Uni-Chem delegation in Eugene negotiating to buy Hynix plant - Breaking News, Local News, Local Weather, Local Sports

Memory and forgetting in the digital age - opinion - 24 October 2009 - New Scientist

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:11:51 -0700

Memory and forgetting in the digital age - opinion - 24 October 2009 - New Scientist