links for 2009-11-22

"The problem: Many of those atheists used the time not to ask a question, but to tell everyone about their views of religion. For example, they felt the need to comment on things Wilson argued in the movie. There was no question posed to me or Chad — it was just long, rambling, word vomit. Or they told stories about their encounters with religious people who made really bad arguments in favor of God’s existence. If it happened once, I could just chalk it up to a self-righteous person who just enjoys the sound of his own voice. Unfortunately, it happened several times. And it was annoying as hell: to the (mostly Christian) audience, to me, to Jeremy, and (I’m sure) many of the other atheists who came to watch."

"The deal would allow Google to digitize and sell books at prices set by a new book registry, a collective rights group similar to the music industry's ASCAP and BMI. Civil liberties organizations have pointed out that the agreement leaves Google in a position to amass at least as much in-depth information about users' reading habits as libraries. For that reason, groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have said the settlement should have terms obligating Google to protect users' privacy — such as provisions requiring the deletion of loggin information. Instead, the amended pact merely says that Google won't share private information with the registry without "valid legal process.""

"Scientists have shown off an effect not unlike that of the "phasers" in the show Star Trek – but it only works on tiny worms called nematodes. They used a special molecule that, when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light, changes its shape. When the worms were fed this molecule and then exposed to UV light, they exhibited paralysis. But when the worms were again exposed to visible light, they regained their ability to move." Not so much a phaser as a trained reaction.

"A federal judge in Atlanta on Wednesday declined to grant AT&T a temporary restraining order that would force Verizon to stop showing the ads." No surprise.

"A Florida court has ordered tobacco giant Philip Morris to pay out $300m (£180m) in damages to a former smoker. The judge awarded $56.6m for medical expenses and $244m in punitive damages."

"Throughout my test, the prototype behaves admirably. At its current state of development, the Volt is an extremely refined vehicle." The Volt nine months before launch.

"The scientific establishment is likely to support the CRU. Despite continuing uncertainties in some areas of climate science, they say officially that their overall confidence that humans are warming the climate is now more than 90%. One leading figure told me unofficially that confidence was now at 99%. But the email controversy may prove an uncomfortable moment in the careers of some researchers in the spotlight and will undoubtedly provoke demands for renewed scrutiny of the CRU's influential work. These demands may surface in the US Senate, where climate change sceptics and their allies are holding up the energy and climate bill which President Obama needs before he can sign a legally-binding agreement over cutting emissions."

"Hundreds of private e-mail messages and documents hacked from a computer server at a British university are causing a stir among global warming skeptics, who say they show that climate scientists conspired to overstate the case for a human influence on climate change. The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument. However, the documents will undoubtedly raise questions about the quality of research on some specific questions and the actions of some scientists."

"China’s military is close to fielding the world’s first anti-ship ballistic missile, according to U.S. Navy intelligence. The missile, with a range of almost 900 miles (1,500 kilometers), would be fired from mobile, land-based launchers and is “specifically designed to defeat U.S. carrier strike groups,” the Office of Naval Intelligence reported."

"Democrats in the US Senate say they have now secured the votes they need to begin a full debate on a bill designed to overhaul healthcare provision. Two Democratic senators whose support had been in doubt say they will now back the move, assuring the party the 60 votes needed to pass the measure."

"The changes — requested by Google, the designer of the Chrome browser, Mozilla, the creator of Firefox, and Opera — aim to ensure that Microsoft does not unfairly influence the decision, said Hakon Wium Lie, the chief technology officer of Opera, based in Oslo." The best way would to display them in a random order.

"A Justice Department subpoena requesting all available information on all visitors to an independent news site is raising serious privacy concerns, and questions about how much information the US government is storing about its citizens' news reading habits. Privacy watchdog Electronic Frontier Foundation has released an extensive report on a "bogus" attempt by a US attorney in Indiana to get Indymedia.us, an independent left-leaning news site, to hand over all the data it had about all the users who visited the site on a particular day. Further adding to civil libertarians' and privacy watchdogs' concerns is the fact that the Justice Department ordered Indymedia to keep silent about the request."

"Few universities make required reports to the government about the financial conflicts of their researchers, and even when such conflicts are reported, university administrators rarely require those researchers to eliminate or reduce these conflicts, government investigators found."

Video showing the recession county by county.

"Unless you've just arrived in 2009 on a time machine, you know that smoking isn't good for you. Did you know, that smoking isn't good for your computer, either? It's true, at least according to Apple. Two readers in different parts of the country claim that their Applecare warranties were voided due to secondhand smoke. Both readers appealed their cases up to the office of God Steve Jobs himself. Both lost."

"As detailed in Too Big to Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System — and Themselves, Morgan Stanley received a $9 billion investment from Mitsubishi UFJ in the fall of 2008 that kept the firm from collapsing. The payment was supposed to be wired electronically, but because it needed to be made on an emergency basis on a holiday, Mitsubishi cut a physical check, perhaps the largest ever written."

"Long-term, there’s no denying that Google is steering toward a future where typical users have no “primary” computer, but instead where every computer is just a terminal to Web-based software running on servers across the Internet. But there’s an opportunity today for secondary computers that offer just a subset of the functionality of Mac OS X and Windows, especially if they don’t just do less, but (like the iPhone) do less really well."

"We are doing this early, almost a year before Google Chrome OS will be ready for users, because we are eager to engage with open source developers. There are many of you who share our passion for creating a new model of computing. Chromium OS makes it possible for any interested developer to contribute code, ideas and designs to help shape the future of personal computing." Google Chrome OS is sorta announced.

"It is often said when developing interfaces that you need to fail fast, and iterate often. When creating a UI, you will make mistakes. Just keep moving forward, and remember to keep your UI out of the way."