links for 2009-10-15

"Could astronomers accidentally blind Earth-observing satellites? That seems to be the worry of the US air force, which restricts the use of lasers pointed at the sky to help focus telescopes. But some astronomers warn they will miss key observations under the rules, which have tightened in recent years. About half to two-thirds of the objects astronomers seek to observe have off-limits periods, or closures, in a given night, the report adds. These periods last a few seconds to a few minutes each. But it is not clear how sensitive the satellites' optics are, or how likely a given laser is to directly hit a satellite's optics, since details on some US Department of Defense satellites are not publicly released. The air force simply takes astronomers' proposed laser-assisted observations and tells them when to turn the lasers off after crunching its own data on satellite orbits."

"Here's a little story to show just how thoroughly Google's long-awaited chatting tool, called Google Wave, can kill your mood to chat: The other day, I was "waving" with Zach Frechette, the editor of GOOD magazine. Naturally, we were talking about the new site's merits and flaws. As we went back and forth, I had a tiny epiphany. I wanted to tell Zach that I thought Wave would have a much tougher time catching on than Twitter, because it was asking so much more of its users. The trouble is, everything you type into Wave is transmitted live, in real time—every keystroke was getting sent to Zach just as I hit it. This made me too self-conscious to get my thoughts across." I agree.

"Overall, Branas's study found that people who carried guns were 4.5 times as likely to be shot and 4.2 times as likely to get killed compared with unarmed citizens. When the team looked at shootings in which victims had a chance to defend themselves, their odds of getting shot were even higher."

"The Arctic Ocean could be largely ice-free and open to shipping during the summer in as little as ten years' time, a top polar specialist has said."

"Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and 29 of his colleagues have sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid supporting a public option."

"U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said today there will be a "public option" in whatever health insurance reform bill comes out of Congress."

"A man put to death in 2004 for killing his three children was "a monster," and suggestions that he may have been innocent are anti-death penalty propaganda, Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday. Forensic scientists have called into question arson evidence used to convict Willingham, who maintained his innocence until his death. John Jackson, the Navarro County prosecutor who argued the case, still believes Willingham is guilty, but acknowledges it would have been hard to win a death sentence without the arson finding." The New Yorker did a piece on this and it was pretty clear that Willingham was wrongly executed.

"As many commentators have noted, the Nobel Prize appears to have been motivated in part by anti-Bush sentiment, which makes Hannity’s suggestion particularly absurd. After all, George W. Bush engaged in the torture of detainees, waged an unprovoked and illegal war, and brought about the largest protests in history against U.S. policies — hardly behavior that is fitting for a Nobel Peace Prize."

"Stupid is a condition. Ignorance is a choice."

"The package, which Mr Kerry co-authored with Senator Richard Lugar, triples non-military aid to Pakistan to an annual outlay of $1.5bn for five years. The Kerry-Lugar bill set several conditions for the aid to Pakistan. Under the bill, the secretary of state will have to certify periodically that Pakistan is working to dismantle the illegal nuclear proliferation networks. The US also has to certify that Pakistan is no longer supporting militant groups. The aid money will be spent on various development projects."

"That would give the Kerry-Graham bill a fighting chance, especially if an additional vote or two — possibly John McCain's — can also be picked up as a result of the nuclear energy compromise. Of course, that's assuming that no liberals would rebel against the new provisions, but the opposition to both offshore drilling and nuclear energy seems to be fairly soft in the liberal caucus. I would not place money on the climate bill passing this year, but the odds would seem to be a lot better with the drilling compromise in place."

"The Wall Street Journal article Why Email No Longer Rules is making the rounds online. Fast Company provided a fast response, highlighting the technical shortcomings of trying to replace email with Facebook and Twitter (where do the attachments go?). Email Service Guide points out that Facebook and Twitter are ineffective for one-off communications. With Google Wave on the horizon, we'll probably have to go through the whole charade yet again." Nothing to add but WSJ is wrong.

"US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told the BBC that Russia now recognises the threat posed by Iran. Wrapping up a European tour in Moscow, Mrs Clinton said Russian leaders had in private said they were ready to act if Tehran did not meet its obligations. But Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, on a visit to China, said it was too early to talk about sanctions on Iran. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that threats of sanctions were counter-productive."

"It’s all worth a read, but once again it’s hard to listen to AT&T’s argument’s for net neutrality when it concludes the letter by saying it’s against changes in policy in the first place. Still, AT&T does raise some interesting points, and it’s likely we’ll be hearing similar debates as the line between telecommunication services and Internet services continues to blur. For now though, the FCC doesn’t seem to buying the net neutrality angle." Both are in the wrong.

"You see Elisa, despite the fact that seemingly everywhere I turn in San Francisco I see another one of your new ads on a bus shelter somewhere, the message rings hollow. It's doublespeak. It's inauthentic." Yahoo and their sense of freedom on Flickr.

"While the study shows that companies investing in top-of-the-range telepresence and telephony systems get the most return, even organizations deploying just basic collaborative tools (like IM and web conferencing) reap a return on collaborative investment of over two times. The study suggests this is because teams using collaborative tools can benefit from a network effect — the more users on a network, the more value is realized from it." My current workplace needs to use more collaborative tools.

"According to the report, every person in Finland (a little over 5 million people, according to a 2009 estimate) will have the right of access to a 1Mb broadband connection starting in July. And they may ultimately gain the right to a 100Mb broadband connection." Can you say awesome.

"Our Louisville KY web design team created this quick reference guide to expedite our WordPress theme development, and we found it so useful that we would like to share it with you." Awesome tool.

"US President Barack Obama may announce a substantial surge in US troops to Afghanistan, the BBC has been told." I'm not surprised.

"Proposed last week by Republican Sens. David Vitter of Louisiana and Bob Bennett of Utah, the amendment would exclude illegal immigrants from the population count used to allocate congressional seats after the 2010 Census. It also would require the Census to ask people whether they are citizens. Since the first Census in 1790, the bureau has routinely asked in various surveys whether people are native-born or foreign-born, but it has never asked about legal status." Have to admit that does make sense.

"History remembers Benito Mussolini as a founder member of the original Axis of Evil, the Italian dictator who ruled his country with fear and forged a disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany. But a previously unknown area of Il Duce's CV has come to light: his brief career as a British agent."

"In more than a decade of lobbying for this law, its supporters have never shown that state officials are letting people get away with murder, or lesser crimes of violence, when the victims belong to historically oppressed groups. Instead they have presented the legislation as a litmus test of antipathy toward violent bigots and sympathy for their victims. Given this framing, it’s surprising the law’s opponents managed to resist it for so long, when all they had on their side was the Constitution and basic principles of justice." One of the many reasons Reason stands out as an excellent magazine.

"The cultural elitism that tinges culinary localism is by no means inherent. Still, it’s hard to say that it’s not there. And however ingrained it may be, such exclusivity is hardly a precondition for community cohesion. Theoretically, this persistent exclusivity could change, but for now it seems as if the locavore movement might very well be alienating many American consumers who might otherwise be willing to think about, and act upon, the agricultural problems that weigh so heavily upon us."

"By attacking Malkin's politics with an assault on women of every political persuasion, and then indicating a desire to see her physically harmed, it suggests that Keith Olbermann only likes women if they agree with him. And if they don't? They're obviously just stupid Valley girls who deserve a good beating." Sexism needs to be called out no matter who does it.

"Ralph Lauren's clothing company fired the model whose body looked emaciated in a touched-up ad because she weighed too much, the woman told the Daily News Tuesday. Filippa Hamilton – whose hips appeared slimmer than her head in the recent altered ad – said her contract was terminated in April because she was too heavy." Seriously?

"This morning we’ve been having a heated discussion at the Hack a Day offices (read: legion of doom) over Dyson’s new offering, a “bladeless fan”. At first this seemed extremely exciting, but how is the air being moved? We were hoping for a device operating via ionic wind but that’s simply not the case. Some of us think the bladeless claim is an outright lie, others understand it from a marketing stance, but we all agree: a fan with blades is still moving the air."

"I've never legit gotten to break a story before, but I just found out that some news I've known for 24 hours is now public: Princeton will have a gender-neutral housing option starting in this spring's housing lottery for the 2010-11 school year." Very cool.