links for 2009-05-10

Nice set of webicons.

Texas can leave the USA but only by dividing into 5 separate states.

"Why have we heard this line from our Governor, last elected with a 39 percent plurality? Why would he expose himself to ridicule from all but the most extreme in a state where only 41 percent of recently Gallup-surveyed voters are willing to self-identify as members of his party?"

"President Obama on Thursday accepted the resignation of Louis Caldera, the director of the White House Military Office, and released a photo showing Air Force One as it flew over the Statue of Liberty in New York City, a photo op that caused wide-spread panic on April 27. The White House also released an internal review concerning the flight. " It's still a pretty cool photo.

"The fastest imaging system ever devised has been demonstrated by researchers reporting in the journal Nature. Their camera's "shutter speed" is just a half a billionth of a second, and it can capture over six million images in a second continuously." Tell me that's not cool.

"Let's get real. No one owns it. No one company, no one specialty, no one individual has all the answers to address the fundamental changes taking place. The changes are too sweeping, too fast moving, too complex for anyone to talk in absolutes. We're still in the early stages of a media disruption that affects marketing communications in ways yet be fully understood." Indeed.

"Stop and think for a moment about any one startup that has had such an impact on other startups. There aren’t many, and there really hasn’t been one for a while. I suppose you could throw Facebook in there, and before that obviously Google. But really, there aren’t too many companies in general that are changing the ways others do things, the way Twitter is right now." Why is Twitter so important to the startup world?

"That said, your normally web-savvy team just made one of the most boneheaded moves done by a major news website since the dawn of the Internet." New York Times when merging the International Herald Tribune and the NYT did this: "They killed the IHT and erased the archives." Can you say stupid not just to Google but the world as a whole losing all that information?

Okay this was just awesome.

Make your email inbox turn into inbox zero.

"Pakistan's government is lifting a curfew in the Swat valley to allow residents to escape an intense battle between the army and Taleban militants. The curfew has trapped tens of thousands of people attempting to flee the violence."

"A 7-year-old boy died Saturday and a 30-year-old family friend was in serious condition after authorities said they were shot by a married couple who thought the off-roaders were trespassing on their property." One of those problems that happen when even responsible people own guns.

"Georgetown University spokeswoman Julie Green Bataille: In coordinating the logistical arrangements for yesterday’s event, Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage."

"These large Democratic Party contributors are different. They all signed a letter demanding the existing system be scrapped, and that citizen funded elections replace it."

You obviously are on the internet so why haven't you seen this stuff?

The original essay on electronic voting machines.

"They're voting on paper again; smart country." Get rid of electronic voting machines.

"And some lawmakers predicted that Congress would save the extra engine as insurance against further delays in the fighter program (Joint Strike Fighter), just as it did when President George W. Bush tried three times to kill it."

Most interesting part of the whole article is here: "Phone companies have sold enough wireless devices to cover almost 90 percent of the American population, according to wireless industry association CTIA."

The new Kindle.

"Jacob Zuma, leader of the African National Congress, has been sworn in as South Africa's new president."

"A joint US-Afghan inquiry has confirmed that a number of civilians were killed in recent fighting and US air strikes in the western province of Farah."

Have no fear a nurse is on the case.

Oh man it's funny.

"Fernando Lugo, the former priest who is now the country’s president, shocked the nation last month by admitting to fathering one child — and possibly more — before the Vatican had returned him to layman status. He had run a campaign focused on ethics, morality and transparency — attributes he associated with the church — so Mr. Lugo’s admission that he was not quite the innocent servant of Scripture he seemed has devastated and disillusioned many here, some of whom are calling for his resignation." Not good for this country which had just started on it's path to true democracy.

That's pretty neat.

FiveThirtyEight joins Twitter for realz.

"Free by itself is no longer enough to guarantee much of anything." Good point.

"Value = benefit/price." Raise your value by providing more benefit.

"In a YouTube video posted today, Polansky said that during his crew's mission to the International Space Station, scheduled for June, he plans to both issue Twitter updates and take questions from YouTube users — questions that he will answer live from space." That's cool.

Link your Facebook profile with your immediate family members.

I looked at it, not too bad if you have a windows machine.

Boba Fett at the Lilac Festival.