links for 2009-03-25

"The United States says it has received assurances from North Korea that two American journalists who were detained there last week will be treated well." Somewhat good news, though how much I trust it is something else.

" Gordon Brown will repeat calls for greater fiscal stimulus and more financial regulation on a visit to the US as part of a pre-G20 summit tour. The UK leader's strategies for reviving the economy appear to have been broadly backed by US President Barack Obama." For once we are in agreement.

"Edison promoted the light bulb as a substitute for gas lamps, but it was dismissed as uneconomic and impractical. Sound familiar?" Good point.

Portia De Rossi "Apologizes" for gay marriage. Oh it's funny go and laugh a little.

"The House of Representatives passed legislation today that creates a privacy official for each division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). If established by law, these new positions would be responsible for ensuring privacy laws and regulations are followed by DHS." About time.

"More than a million people in Darfur will go without food rations by May unless new aid agencies are deployed, a joint Sudanese-UN assessment says." Are you still doing something about Darfur?

BBC's summation of the press conference.

"Christians shouldn’t feel entitled to anything. We live in a larger marketplace — if you will — and we need to compete to have our voice expressed and heard. Maybe it’s my upbringing in San Francisco and living the past 12 years in Seattle, but while at times it’s tiresome, I enjoy living in a culture and context where the culture isn’t dominated by the christianese subculture. Being a follower of Christ isn’t part of the cultural expectation but a choice that one must live out." Wish I had thought of that.

"Indeed, if you try to come up with a single prominent victim of the credit squeeze on Main Street — as opposed to victims of the recession — you will have a hard time." Specifically in reference to the credit crisis of course people losing jobs or having hours cut back.

"The über-lesson for presidents? You can’t be too honest in describing big problems, too bold in offering big solutions, too humble in dealing with big missteps, too forward in re-telling your story or too gutsy in speaking the previously unspeakable." What lesson do you bring to the table?

What's your way to ignore people?

"The reforms aim to provide flexible credit terms for countries with strong economic policies which could be at risk in the current economic climate."

"Vermont's Senate just voted overwhelmingly to convert their civil unions law into a civil marriage law. The tally was by an astonishing 26 – 4 margin, easily outside the range of the governor's veto, were he to go there (it's not clear yet whether he will). The House is now considering the bill and is expected to pass it. If the bill becomes law, Vermont would be the first state to legalize marriage equality by legislative action, the best route in my view." Damn.

That's little too close to reality.

"Summary: A USA Today/Gallup poll question about who was to blame for the AIG bonuses left out the Bush administration as a suggested response, despite the administration's decision to give AIG billions in aid without requiring that the company withhold the bonuses." Inaccurate polls aren't worth anything.

"This is a technology that has already seen a proof-of-concept demonstration. In 1999, researchers from Berkley and Harvard inserted electrodes into the brains of anesthetized cats that monitored the activity of 177 neurons located in the lateral geniculate nucleus, a key visual processing center. Using a computer to process the signals from the brain, the researchers were able to reconstruct different test images places in front of the cat’s eyes, albeit at a low resolution. While some people see this work as a possible pathway to give sight to the blind, by feeding images into the lateral geniculate nucleus instead of extracting them, it would require (as demonstrated on Dollhouse invasive brain surgery that would carry commensurate risk." That's just beyond cool.

"The White House is open for questions." Obama himself will answer questions from the public.

Point by point of Obama's latest press conference.

"Brands like Starbucks, Taco Bell, and McDonalds are powerful. But Yelp and services like it on a mobile phone have the power to disrupt the scale advantages of these national brands and allow the Javanitis, Kay'n Daves, and Father's Offices of the world compete." Indeed.

"It’s never been clear to me why reports like this are reported as fact. NPD doesn’t have some sort of magic access to Apple’s sales numbers, and Apple does not release monthly sales data. My understanding is that everyone who believes these numbers from NPD will be pleasantly surprised next month when Apple releases its actual sales figures for the current quarter." Yet another example of people who don't understand the difference between facts and speculation.

"Of course the first setting is going to produce the worst results, but by choosing the right words you can keep a feeling of high quality no matter what the user chooses." Really good point.

More coupons to switch to buy digital converter boxers.

More CSS3 features become standard.

Oh things we do for our overlord Google.

"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin faced bipartisan criticism and an angry protest back home after deciding to reject federal stimulus funds. That might be why her Lieutenant Governor is now saying she didn't decide anything." Oops.

So how do you piss off people in this era?