links for 2009-11-28

"That said, there is no denying that right now, Twitter, the brand, is the winning channel for this new type of news consumption. It’s the Walter Cronkite for real-time information. And when the next major event happens, an increasing number of us will be huddled around our computer screens, watching." In here Twitter reported accurate details of the accident before CNN gathered from the police accident report.

"The law would create an online, publicly accessible database of all women who have sought or had an abortion, Carpentier reports. The database would omit names and addresses but would include answers to a 37-question survey stating women's race, age, education level, county of residence, whether they are a state employee and their method of insurance for the procedure, as well as the number of previous pregnancies, births, miscarriages and abortions. In addition, the survey asks the length of pregnancy and whether birth control was being used at the time of conception. The survey results would be reported to the Oklahoma Department of Health. The health department employees would then "aggregate the data into a searchable, sortable database and make it available to 'researchers' online," Carpentier writes." Essentially making the person publicly identifiable.

"A common programming problem: identify the URLs in an arbitrary string of text, where by “arbitrary” let’s agree we mean something unstructured such as an email message or a tweet. I offer a solution, in the form of the following regex pattern:"

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Conclusion: Kindle penetration is already three-fifths of the way to the crucial tipping point, where kicking out your publisher generates more royalties." Crazy.

"Why is this a good idea? The Turner-Brown proposal is a modern version of an idea originally floated in 1972 by the late James Tobin, the Nobel-winning Yale economist. Tobin argued that currency speculation — money moving internationally to bet on fluctuations in exchange rates — was having a disruptive effect on the world economy. To reduce these disruptions, he called for a small tax on every exchange of currencies. Such a tax would be a trivial expense for people engaged in foreign trade or long-term investment; but it would be a major disincentive for people trying to make a fast buck (or euro, or yen) by outguessing the markets over the course of a few days or weeks. It would, as Tobin said, “throw some sand in the well-greased wheels” of speculation."

"The government of Dubai, in a blunt acknowledgment of the severity of its financial position, said on Wednesday that it had asked its banks for a six-month stay on its schedule of debt repayments. The terse statement came in the middle of negotiations between creditors and Dubai World, the corporate arm of Dubai, which has led many of its most ambitious real estate projects, but is now struggling under the burden of $59 billion in liabilities."

"Government plans to roll out e-petitions across the UK could offer people a real say in the democratic process, a conference has heard. The legislation to make e-petitions compulsory for all councils in the UK comes into force in April 2010. It could result in a national e-petition scheme and force Westminster to take more notice of people power, thinks web guru Tom Steinberg. E-petitions allow citizens to raise issues with government. It also gives them a chance to have a say in political processes. " Very cool.

"The Netherlands-based file-sharing website Mininova has removed all torrents that enabled users to download copyright-protected material. The move follows a ruling in a Netherlands district court three months ago ordering the firm to remove links to illegal content. The court said that Mininova's notice and take down policy was insufficient to keep it operating within the law."