Thursday, July 14, 2005

Three deadly parasites share common genes: scientists (Xinhua). African sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, in case you're wondering. See also Gene Maps May Help Drug Hunt for Parasites (WashPost). 9:48:45 PM    comment []

How far will Europe go to stop terror?. One week after 7/7, European governments wrestle with the balance between security and privacy. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories] 6:40:35 PM    comment []

It's "us", not "them".. Dave Birch writing in the Guardian says that the "mental model of Big Brother is curiously old-fashioned",however "if technology continues to evolve along current lines,then Big Brother will end up being far more powerful than Orwell envisaged(in the sense that we will have far less individual privacy).In a world of matchbox-sized MPeg4 camcorders and cameraphones,of always-on broadband and RFID,your next-door neighbours will be the nemesis of privacy.Thus it is interesting to note the police appeal for photos,video and cameraphone media in the wake of the terrorist outrage.It could be these,rather than CCTV,that contain the key clue to the identity of the bombers: confirmation that Big Brother is "us", not "them".A terrific word for all of this,invented by Steve Mann,a professor at the University of Toronto, is "sousveillance".The reason sousveillance is such a concern is that it is not under control and there are no transparently obvious ways it could be brought under control". The age of sousveillance [Smart Mobs] 6:40:30 PM    comment []

Merlin Mann of 43 Folders interview Merlin Mann was recently interviewed by Wired News about the book Getting Things Done and his weblog, 43 Folders. He posted his complete answers on his blog. My writing partner, Danny O’Brien likes to say that geeks are the canaries in the coalmine for the problems that will eventually affect most “normal” people. For example, geeks had spam before most normal people had ever even heard of AOL. Additionally, the problems of overload and attention deficit that seem to be spreading so rapidly these days have been staples in the geek world since time immemorial. Most geeks would rather die than be bored for five minutes, and that kind of disposition can lead to some odd works habits and some very intriguing problems. Link Daniel Schorr: Maintaining focus on Rove and Iraq war data In this NPR commentary, Daniel Schorr urges listeners to remember that the issue at the heart of the Karl Rove / Valerie Plame / Matt Cooper controversy isn't a leak. This is about a war, and how an entire country was misled into supporting it. Link [bOing bOing] 6:27:39 AM    comment []

With New Clue to How SARS Kills, Scientists Work on Treatment. Scientists may have solved the riddle of why the SARS virus causes such a deadly pneumonia. By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL. [NYT > Science] 6:24:47 AM    comment []

Web Could Unclog Patent Backlog. A New York law professor believes the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office could trim its backlog of cases -- and make better decisions, to boot -- by letting experts review applications online. By Daniel Terdiman. [Wired News] 6:22:19 AM    comment []