links for 2009-04-08

"We try so hard to protect ourselves from lawsuits that we bring on lawsuits. We forget that we are human beings dealing with other human beings. And what human beings want more than anything is empathy — to be cared for and treated with respect." Not much in the way of hard evidence, mostly anecdotal evidence at best.

"More perspectives is the most important thing of all. News and information content is becoming much richer and better. And that is Rupert problem at the end of the day. It's not that he can't compete with Google. It's that he can't compete with us." I have to agree.

Wired on fixing the electricity grid.

"Arctic ice reached a larger maximum area this winter than in the last few years, scientists say, but the long-term trend still shows it declining."

Another drag and drop method.

More rants about Google is right and the AP and other papers are just plain wrong.

"And if you think that through starting from first principles rather than from an existing business view, there are opportunities. But I'll leave it to others to figure out what they may be." Shorter version, I'll complain but I don't have solution, do you?

Umm no.

"The good souls at the Center for the Study of Complex Systems at the University of Michigan have come up with a fantastically suggestive way of seeing the relationships between "money and government."" Very cool.

Takeaway: spend more on creative advertising.

"The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the $15 billion program begun by the Bush administration in 2003, cut the AIDS death toll in its African target countries by more than 10 percent, but did not prevent new cases, according to a new study."

Just go with Hulu people.

The value in the network is the value in the transactions conducted in the network.

"Summary: Since President Obama's inauguration, Rush Limbaugh has made numerous baseless and ominous claims warning of what will happen if the United States adopts either Obama's policies or those pushed by other progressives, often while invoking fears of rising socialism, communism, and tyranny." And you wonder why I think Rush is crazy?

"This isn't change we can believe in. This is change for the worse." I agree.

""In response to Sweden's recent introduction of new laws (discussed here recently) implementing the European IPRED directive, a new Swedish Web site has been launched allowing users to check if their IP address is currently under investigation. The site also allows users to subscribe for email updates alerting them if their IP address comes under investigation in the future, or to report IP addresses known to be under investigation." That's fun.

"This idled capacity, like baseball players after a winter off, takes time to bring back into robust use. So even if the recession miraculously ended tomorrow, economists estimate that at least three years would pass before full employment returned and output rose enough for the economy to operate at full throttle."

Just read, and you will know Google right, Newspapers/AP wrong.

"At OpenX we recently completed a large-scale deployment of one of our server farms to Amazon EC2. Here are some lessons learned from that experience." Really interesting, I totally need to try this out at some point.

Australia really, you guys are going to build the fiber to the house network?

Solve the text overflow problem with jQuery.

"Why, an emotionless robot who assesses impossible probabilities instantaneously in his head and denies love and friendship. It's a caricature I run into all the time — I've lost count of the number of emails I've received informing me that True Scientists™ do not get angry about anything, and therefore everything I say is invalid." Scientists are just as human as you and I and we get angry and frustrated the same as anyone else.

"Scientists have pinpointed a genetic mutation which may trigger up to 70% of cases of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer." Instead let's keep profiting from a resource that we know we will eventually use up and just make lots of money in the here and now.

Taking on anti-vaxxers.

Warner Music still mindlessly sends out pointless DMCA takedown notices.

"Scientists have pinpointed a genetic mutation which may trigger up to 70% of cases of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer." Cool.

"The US now claims about 21 percent of global energy and uses about three times as much per capita as the EU. We must ask ourselves the hard question of whether this profligate consumption is necessary, or sustainable. America’s energy transition to nonfossil energies promises to be a long, arduous process. To speed it up and ease the pain, we must, paradoxically, slow down, and begin consuming less of everything." Important to remember.

Talking about prejudice towards atheists.

"A judge has overturned Alaska Senator Ted Stevens's conviction for corruption because of mistakes made by prosecutors during his trial." The Justice dept. messed up and a prosecutor is investigating the team that conducted the trial for possible criminal charges.

The bare minimum to check before you launch.

A Twittevolution.

Taking on creationism.

"Summary: On his Fox News show, Sean Hannity falsely claimed that President Obama "seemingly apologiz[ed] for our engagement in the war on terror" when Obama said "[t]he United States is not … at war with Islam." In fact, in those same remarks, Obama also stated that "Iraq, Turkey, and the United States face a common threat from terrorism" and that "we are committed to a more focused effort to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda."" Don't you love selective hearing.

Too cool.

Just in case.

"The D.C. Council voted today to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, on the same day that Vermont became the fourth state to legalize same-sex unions."

Google responds to the AP and so right are they.

"The police department that Jiverly Wong, the Binghamton gunman, apparently blamed for some of his troubles said on Tuesday that it had had only two interactions with Mr. Wong, two days apart more than a decade ago."

Let's get this straight, Google right, WSJ wrong, AP wrong again, everybody else you aren't living or trying to run a business in the internet age. Ignoring the problem or blaming or suing isn't a solution.

"Chimpanzees enter into "deals" whereby they exchange meat for sex, according to researchers."

The worst part is the sheer idea that somehow every or even most kids that you raise will become Christian. That and I thought you were supposed to look upon kids as blessings, not part of basically a holy war.

"As Mr. Sun entered the cemetery in Jinan, a city about 230 miles south of Beijing, he said, four or five men attacked him and beat him severely. He is now in a Jinan hospital with three broken ribs and injuries to his spine, head, back, arms and legs, according to China Human Rights Defenders, a Hong Kong-based group. The group said the attack on Mr. Sun was part of a concerted effort by the Chinese government to head off any efforts to memorialize the deaths of hundreds of Tiananmen Square protesters on June 4, the 20th anniversary of the government’s crackdown."

The graphics going along with this poll are pretty bad.

"Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earns 11% more than President Dmitry Medvedev, statements released as part of an anti-corruption drive show" Whose the real power in Russia, Putin.

"Vermont will become the fourth state to allow gay marriage, and the first to do so by a legislative vote and not a court ruling."

"Beatles fans are finally getting something they’ve been demanding for at least the last decade: sonically upgraded reissues of the group’s original British albums, in stereo and mono."

This is a pretty cool commercial.

Don't you love the ridiculousness?

" A man who died during the G20 protest was pushed to the ground by a police officer, video footage has shown. Ian Tomlinson, 47, collapsed from a heart attack during protests outside the Bank of England last Wednesday. Newsagent Mr Tomlinson, who was not protesting, is seen receiving a two-handed push from a police officer. " Wow.

Asking permission for things freely provided is a waste of time.