links for 2009-10-18

"Dorsey’s new venture is called the Square iPhone Payment System, his new company is Self Edge NYC, and the service’s site will likely be located at SquareUp.com. The service provides a white dongle for your iPhone or iPod Touch that lets you pay without a credit card." Pretty awesome idea.

"One particular area of interest to me was the HTML5 <video> tag. The aim of this tag was to provide native video support using a single codec across all browsers without the need for third party plugins like Flash. While the dream of a universal codec appears unlikely, one clever project has surfaced that uses the <video> tag for browsers that support it and falls back on traditional video options for those that don't." Using the HTML5 video tag in emails.

"n its assaults on a Democratic health care overhaul bill, the insurance industry uses facts selectively and mixes accurate assertions with misleading spin and an embrace of worst-case scenarios."

"Lying in the wheelbarrow is the body of Dorothy, a chimpanzee who died suddenly of natural causes; the people in the scene are preparing to bury her. Behind the fence is a quiet gathering of her friends." Chimps mourning in much the main sense as we humans.

"West African states have imposed an arms embargo on Guinea over the mass shooting of opposition supporters." Something I guess.

"The winners of a quiz organised by Somali Islamists have been given weapons and ammunition as prizes. Prizes included AK-47 assault rifles, hand grenades and an anti-tank mine."