links for 2009-07-01

"It was in medical school that he conceived the idea of becoming a great sex researcher. Doctors knew nothing of human sexuality except what Alfred Kinsey was recording in the 1940s and early ’50s, about a decade before Masters and Johnson got started. But the Kinsey Report was mainly hearsay — interviews with patients. William Masters didn’t want to talk; he wanted to watch, measure, film, touch. … But I would wager that for every myth they debunked, they introduced another, equally damaging." Interesting.

"Whenever I hear about a “new” novelist, they turn out to be in their 30s. Why is that? It seems like you hear about new musicians and actors and other creative people in when they are in their 20s."

"This rocket is headed for the Moon. Pictured above, a huge Altas V rocket roared off the launch pad last week to start NASA's first missions to Earth's Moon in 10 years. The rocket is carrying two robotic spacecraft. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is scheduled to orbit and better map the Moon, search for buried and hidden ice, and return many high resolution images. Some images will be below one-meter in resolution and include images of historic Apollo landing sites. Exploratory data and images should allow a more informed choice of possible future astronaut landing sites. The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is scheduled to monitor the controlled impact of the rocket's upper stage into a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon's south pole. This impact, which should occur in about three months, might be visible on Earth through small telescopes."

"Fifty-three percent of women and nearly half of all men report having used a vibrator, according to two new national surveys from Indiana University recently published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine."

Basically real time search is a hard problem because it's hard to verify and create authority.

"Israeli drones unlawfully killed at least 29 Palestinian civilians during the Gaza conflict six months ago, the rights group Human Rights Watch says."

"The US has imposed sanctions on an Iranian firm accused of helping North Korea with its nuclear programme. The US Treasury says Hong Kong Electronics moved millions of dollars to two North Korean companies linked to Pyongyang's nuclear programme."

"The US Justice Department is seeking the names of more than 50,000 US customers with Swiss accounts as part of a lawsuit against UBS." No longer will the Swiss bank account be known as the refugee of those cheating on their taxes.

"Does Twitter dumb us down or simply reveal our innate goofiness?" I say the latter.

"Used in yards, farms and parks throughout the world, Roundup has long been a top-selling weed killer. But now researchers have found that one of Roundup’s inert ingredients can kill human cells, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells." Oops?

"A remarkably well-preserved fossil of a dinosaur has been analysed by scientists writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. They describe how the fossil's soft tissues were spared from decay by fine sediments that formed a mineral cast. Tests have shown that the fossil still holds cell-like structures – but their constituent proteins have decayed. The team says the cellular structure of the dinosaur's skin was similar to that of dinosaurs' modern-day descendants. "

"That would challenge the most efficient facilities built by Google (GOOG), which has an average PUE of 1.16 for its six company-built data centers, with one facility currently running at a PUE of 1.12." Yahoo's new center will run at PUE 1.1, pretty impressive.

"A federal advisory panel voted narrowly on Tuesday to recommend a ban on Percocet and Vicodin, two of the most popular prescription painkillers in the world, because of their effects on the liver. The two drugs combine a narcotic with acetaminophen, the ingredient found in popular over-the-counter products like Tylenol and Excedrin. High doses of acetaminophen are a leading cause of liver damage, and the panel noted that patients who take Percocet and Vicodin for long periods often need higher and higher doses to achieve the same effect." But what will House pop?

"Health insurance is supposed to offer protection — both medically and financially. But as it turns out, an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured. And so, even as Washington tries to cover the tens of millions of Americans without medical insurance, many health policy experts say simply giving everyone an insurance card will not be enough to fix what is wrong with the system. Too many other people already have coverage so meager that a medical crisis means financial calamity.

One of them is Lawrence Yurdin, a 64-year-old computer security specialist. Although the brochure on his Aetna policy seemed to indicate it covered up to $150,000 a year in hospital care, the fine print excluded nearly all of the treatment he received at an Austin, Tex., hospital."

"The move reverses a 2008 ruling by the Bush administration and effectively ends a seesaw political battle between automakers and environmental regulators that began in Sacramento eight years ago when the California Legislature first took up the issue." California can set it's own standards for cars and light trucks.

"A United Nations inquiry into the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is to begin. It is headed by Chile's ambassador to the UN, Heraldo Munoz, and includes a former Indonesian attorney general and a former senior Irish police officer. " Hopefully something good will come from this.

"Same-sex behavior is a nearly universal phenomenon in the animal kingdom, common across species, from worms to frogs to birds, concludes a new review of existing research." Just saying.

"The official, Paul Gammill, said the Department of Education was taking a closer look at how universities carried out the privacy law, known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (Ferpa), in the wake of a series of articles published recently in The Columbus Dispatch that found the law was often misused by college athletic departments seeking to withhold documents from public scrutiny that could be damaging or embarrassing. The reports also found wide disparities in the types of information that universities released."

Texas public sex offender search.

"German unemployment rose in June, official figures have shown, but the increase was smaller than expected. The number of people out of work reached 3.495 million on a seasonally adjusted basis, a rise of 31,000 on May's number, official figures showed."

"The most complete terrain map of the Earth's surface has been published. The data, comprising 1.3 million images, come from a collaboration between the US space agency Nasa and the Japanese trade ministry." So cool.

"A plague of tree-killing beetles which swept across British Columbia is threatening to spread east, to the US. The mountain pine beetle has killed more than half of all lodge pole pine in the province and is now active in neighbouring Alberta." It could next kill jack pines in the US.

"He applied for a personalized license plate reading NO GODS. Take a wild guess what happened… Rejected. Why? It was deemed inappropriate." I totally want one.

I love where he goes against what he said within a sentence of himself.

I totally agree it doesn't make any sense.

"In an interview with Alan Carlin, co-author of an internal EPA document that the agency allegedly — in Steve Doocy's words — "hushed up," Fox & Friends advanced the document's false claim that, as Doocy put it, "for the last 11 years, temperatures had been dropping."" Oh Fox and Friends logic is so hard.

I know business that are using Win98 and 95.

"You're still not satisfied with this arrangement? I thought you were the one who wanted school prayer in the first place! Oh, I see… you only want school prayer in the manner of your religion. Well, I'm sorry to say that not everyone believes in your religion, and we can't have school prayers for every possible religion! That would be ridiculous! Why don't you just pray silently to your own god while everyone else is reciting the school prayer?"

"On Tuesday, Mr. Zelaya’s newfound relevance took him to one of the world’s biggest stages, at the lectern of the United Nations General Assembly, where he portrayed himself as the victim of a vicious, power-hungry elite that refused to share power with his country’s many poor. A one-page resolution — sponsored by countries often at loggerheads, including the United States and Venezuela — passed by acclamation after sustained applause in the 192-member body."

"It had planned — and put money aside — for a steady march of retirees over time. But instead, tens of thousands of blue-collar workers, most in their 40s and 50s, are all becoming eligible for retirement benefits now, as the company rapidly downsizes." GM's pension fund is being used to pay early retired workers, and they aren't able to put money back.

"So while Washington's reaction has been strong and swift, when it comes to statements, its actions have so far been measured. This is a signal that Washington is not keen to use its clout to help Mr Zelaya return to power, shying away from any action that could be seen as interventionism in a region where the US has a long, complex history. The reaction is also in line with the promise President Obama made to Latin America at the Organization of American States summit in April, not to dictate US policy on the continent anymore but to be an equal partner. "

"The Obama administration introduced online tools on Tuesday that will track and analyze the more than $70 billion a year that the federal government spends on information technology." Cool, now roll this out to all other money spent by the government.

"The eurozone's annual rate of inflation turned negative in June for the first time since the single currency was introduced in 1999."

"China has agreed to give Zimbabwe a loan of $950m (£573m) to help it revive its battered economy, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said."

"In which countries – apart from the United States – do terrestrial radio stations NOT pay performers for their songs? Iran, China, North Korea and Rwanda. Artists and their record labels are calling on members of Congress to bring the US into line with the rest of the world – and with satellite, internet and cable radio stations – by passing the Performance Rights Act."

"Do you have eyes behind your back? If not get some."

"Twitter is a top 30 site overall in the US for the first time per data for last week. The site was #31 in the UK last week & #43 in Canada." Super impressive Twitter.

"A former C.I.A. station chief has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman in Algeria and could face up to life in prison if convicted, the Justice Department said on Tuesday."

"IE users can suck it." I must agree.

"The PHP development team is proud to announce the immediate release of PHP 5.3.0. This release is a major improvement in the 5.X series, which includes a large number of new features and bug fixes."

What Gruber said.

"Conservatives in the media have criticized President Obama's condemnation of the Honduran president's ouster, asserting that Obama is taking the same side as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the leadership in Cuba. However, the European Union has also condemned the ouster." And the UN and well every other country on the face of the earth.

"President Barack Obama's party secured a critical 60-member majority in the US Senate, after the last undecided seat was awarded to a Democrat. The Minnesota Supreme Court confirmed that Al Franken had narrowly won November's poll in the state. "

Email directly to flickr and twitter or send from a photo to twitter.

"A truly limited government—a government strictly limited to the protection of the individual rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church." My issue is that there has not ever been such a true capitalistic state as it's a scary prospect with good reasons. Also the "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" can mean whatever the government want them to mean. Last point "pursuit of happiness" originally meant economic well being not whatever you may think.

UA Profiler is a community-driven project for gathering browser performance characteristics (parallel connections, caching, etc.).

"Minnesota's Supreme Court unanimously denied Republican Senator Norm Coleman's appeal today, ruling that Democrat Al Franken is the winner of November's Senate race. This ruling (see PDF) upholds the decision of lower courts in Minnesota, and states that Franken officially won the race by 312 votes – 0.011%."