Thursday, September 30, 2004

You Go Girls. We already outlive them; now we're going to outrun them. Just picture this: Scientists at Oxford University tracking improvements in running times for the 100 meter sprint say women athletes are on a trajectory to overtake men by the 2156 Olympics. One of the factors that held us back was lack of participation/training until recently, making for a relatively small pool of female runners. Here's an example of opportunity literally unleashing physical potential. [And if you think drug use is fueling the accelerated improvement, well, you could argue it's equal opportunity there too...] [Girl In the Locker Room!] 9:43:25 PM    comment []

Study: Consumers take cyberattacks lightly. More than a third of those surveyed said they had a greater chance of being struck by lightning than of being hit by malicious code. [CNET News.com] 8:17:37 PM    comment []

Dave: CBS: Bush's Top Ten Flip-Flops. ! [Scripting News] From the site: "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories."(May 29, 2003) "I recognize we didn't find the stockpiles [of weapons] we all thought were there." (Sept. 9, 2004) President Bush And: Read Part Two of our series: John Kerry's Top Ten Flip-Flops 6:01:09 AM    comment []

Judge Strikes Down Section of Patriot Act Allowing Secret Subpoenas of Internet Data. A federal judge ruled that the provision broadly violated the Constitution by giving federal authorities unchecked powers to obtain private information. By By JULIA PRESTON. [The New York Times > Technology] 5:55:07 AM    comment []

Diebold Rep Now Runs Elections. A former sales rep for Diebold Election Systems becomes a county election official in California. She sold the state millions of dollars worth of untested machines, which led to a scandal. Critics are asking, 'What's wrong with this picture?' By Kim Zetter. [Wired News] 5:47:17 AM    comment []

Souveillance by citizens and artists. New York City Bill of Rights Defense Campaign is launching the Surveillance Camera Project to raise awareness about the proliferation of video surveillance technology in New York City, to encourage public discussion about the concerns raised by lack of regulation in that matter and to advocate for a legislation that would protect privacy and First Amendment rights. The project offers training on spotting and mapping the cameras and invites volunteers to help develop a complete map of the locations of all video surveillance cameras that look out into public spaces. Via Glowlab. A Gathering of the Tribes magazine is looking for submissions for an issue dedicated to the evolving Sousveillance art movement. [Smart Mobs] 5:46:59 AM    comment []

Carrying Iraq on Your Back. There are 281 Million Americans Annual household (family) income in the US: $42,090 Average working individual's income in the US: $21,239 Economic Census, Housing and Household Economic Data, Sep 2003 Cost of War in Iraq to date: $137 billion The National Priorities Project Cost of Iraq War Per Week: $1B USA Today article abstracting CBO and GAO numbers How much does a billion dollars weigh? 1,000 lb (In $20 bills) 200 lb in 100 bills Factmonster: How much does a million dollars weigh? At the current rate of spending, the Iraq war will have spent $1B for every American man, woman, and child, on February 16, 2007 if it has not been "downsized" or concluded. Look around you on the train in the morning, or ... [Learning The Lessons of Nixon -- emphasis added] 5:46:26 AM    comment []

Forget Star Chemistry. How About the Film's?. The magazine Chemical and Engineering News has started publishing movie reviews that focus on the accuracy of the science in the latest Hollywood releases. By By RANDY KENNEDY. [The New York Times > Science] 5:46:17 AM    comment []

Phil G muses about: Reading the news considered harmful. I've been without Internet, email, or telephone (brought the phone; forgot the charger) for two weeks here in Greece and therefore have missed out on the news.  Checking today from Santorini it appears that absolutely nothing actually new has been reported.  Hurricanes and typhoons have struck various places that get hurricanes and typhoons every year.  People who have hated each other for a long time continue to skirmish.   Politicians have given speeches and interviews where all questions are answered vaguely and blandly.  I've long thought that it is much better to invest time in books and magazine articles rather than the newspaper and every time that I'm away from the news this belief is deepened.  Yet most people can't resist reading the newspaper in the morning or clicking the "News" icon in the Google toolbar.  Could this be a source of economic and intellectual stagnation? A very creative and productive friend says "I've found that if I read the New York Times in the morning I won't get any serious work accomplished for the rest of the day."  His theory is that because the information in the newspaper is scattered, without supporting background information or sustained argument, the result is a disrupted and scattered focus in the reader's mind. Thoughts and experiences?  Anyone else noticed a correlation between refraining from catching up on the news and getting real work done? [Philip Greenspun Weblog] 5:46:17 AM    comment []

Bush Team Prepares Net Assault. The Bush campaign is setting up an extensive war room to monitor Thursday's debate with John Kerry. The plan? Pounce on Kerry misstatements or exaggerations and send responses to thousands of partisan websites through a live feed. By Louise Witt. [Wired News] 5:40:03 AM    comment []

New York Times: Al Gore's advice for Kerry: Don't underestimate Bush, and by the way, he never fulfilled promises he made in the 2000 debate and is too dangerous to re-elect. [Salon.com] 5:26:37 AM    comment []

EFF p2p copyright guide. The EFF's Fred von Lohmann has written a copyright guide no p2p developer - or anyone who's seriously interested in the p2p wars, for that matter - should be without. [PDF link] It's solid gold and includes 10 general steps to ponder if you want to, "reduce the chance that your project will be an easy, inviting target for copyright owners; and (2) minimize the chances that your case will become the next legal precedent that content owners can use to threaten future innovators". 1. Make and store no copies. 2. Your two options: total control or total anarchy. 3. Better to sell stand-alone software products than on-going services. 4. What are your substantial noninfringing uses? 5. Don't promote infringing uses. 6. Disaggregate functions. 7. Don't make your money from the infringing activities of your users. 8. Give up the EULA. 9. No direct customer support. 10. Be open source. (Continued at p2pnet.net) [unmediated] 5:26:25 AM    comment []