Sent from Steve's iPad...
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Article: Pharyngula
science is never about absolute certainty, and the absence of black & white binary results is not evidence against it; you don't get to choose what you want to believe, but instead only accept provisionally a result; and when you've got a positive result, the proper response is not to claim that you've proved something, but instead to focus more tightly, scrutinize more strictly, and test, test, test ever more deeply
(Sent from Flipboard)
(Sent from Flipboard)
Sent from Steve's iPad...
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Glenn Gould - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Glenn Gould - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "'The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.'"
98.6 Trades Metabolic Cost For Fungal Protection: Scientific American Podcast
98.6 Trades Metabolic Cost For Fungal Protection: Scientific American Podcast: "A mathematical model finds that a temperature of about 98.6 F is high enough to ward off the majority of fungal infections, but still low enough to only require a manageable level of food intake
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Friday, December 24, 2010
Richard Dawkins | A shameful Thought for the Day | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Richard Dawkins | A shameful Thought for the Day | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Adam (who never existed) bequeathed his "sin" in his bodily semen (charming notion) to all of humanity. That sin, with which every newborn baby is hideously stained (another charming notion), was so terrible that it could be forgiven only through the blood sacrifice of a scapegoat. But no ordinary scapegoat would do. The sin of humanity was so great that the only adequate sacrificial victim was God himself.
That's right. The creator of the universe, sublime inventor of mathematics, of relativistic space-time, of quarks and quanta, of life itself, Almighty God, who reads our every thought and hears our every prayer, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God couldn't think of a better way to forgive us than to have himself tortured and executed. For heaven's sake, if he wanted to forgive us, why didn't he just forgive us? Who, after all, needed to be impressed by the blood and the agony? Nobody but himself.
Adam (who never existed) bequeathed his "sin" in his bodily semen (charming notion) to all of humanity. That sin, with which every newborn baby is hideously stained (another charming notion), was so terrible that it could be forgiven only through the blood sacrifice of a scapegoat. But no ordinary scapegoat would do. The sin of humanity was so great that the only adequate sacrificial victim was God himself.
That's right. The creator of the universe, sublime inventor of mathematics, of relativistic space-time, of quarks and quanta, of life itself, Almighty God, who reads our every thought and hears our every prayer, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God couldn't think of a better way to forgive us than to have himself tortured and executed. For heaven's sake, if he wanted to forgive us, why didn't he just forgive us? Who, after all, needed to be impressed by the blood and the agony? Nobody but himself.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
The Perils Of Elderly Sex | None | St. Albert's Place On The Web
The Perils Of Elderly Sex | None | St. Albert's Place On The Web: "On hearing that her elderly grandfather had died, Jenny went straight to visit her grandmother.
When she asked how her grandpa had died, her grandma explained, not holding back anything of course, 'He had a heart attack during sex, Sunday morning!'
Horrified, Jenny suggested that sex at the age of 94 was surely asking for trouble!
'Oh no,' her grandma replied. 'We had sex every Sunday morning in time with the church bells!'
She paused to wipe away a tear and said, 'If it wasn't for that darn Ice Cream Truck, he'd still be alive!'"
When she asked how her grandpa had died, her grandma explained, not holding back anything of course, 'He had a heart attack during sex, Sunday morning!'
Horrified, Jenny suggested that sex at the age of 94 was surely asking for trouble!
'Oh no,' her grandma replied. 'We had sex every Sunday morning in time with the church bells!'
She paused to wipe away a tear and said, 'If it wasn't for that darn Ice Cream Truck, he'd still be alive!'"
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
No loss. No loss at all. : Pharyngula
No loss. No loss at all. : Pharyngula: "The second big mistake is that the fraud of the Catholic hospital charade stands exposed. This was an incredibly revealing statement:
St. Joseph's does not receive direct funding from the church, but in addition to losing its Catholic endorsement, the 697-bed hospital will no longer be able to celebrate Mass and must remove the Blessed Sacrament from its chapel.
In other words, the Catholic church has benefited from the association with an actual house of healing, while providing nothing but magic crackers and the recommendation of local priests."
St. Joseph's does not receive direct funding from the church, but in addition to losing its Catholic endorsement, the 697-bed hospital will no longer be able to celebrate Mass and must remove the Blessed Sacrament from its chapel.
In other words, the Catholic church has benefited from the association with an actual house of healing, while providing nothing but magic crackers and the recommendation of local priests."
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Two Dreams, One Dead - Swampland - TIME.com
Two Dreams, One Dead - Swampland - TIME.com: "He's a bitter man now, who can barely tolerate the fact that he lost to Barack Obama. But he lost for an obvious reason: his campaign proved him to be puerile and feckless, a politician who panicked when the heat was on during the financial collapse, a trigger-happy gambler who chose an incompetent for his vice president. He has made quite a show ever since of demonstrating his petulance and lack of grace."
Referees' quotes – 2010 - 2010 - Environmental Microbiology - Wiley Online Library
Referees' quotes – 2010 - 2010 - Environmental Microbiology - Wiley Online Library
I agreed to review this Ms whilst answering e-mails in the golden glow of a balmy evening on the terrace of our holiday hotel on Lake Como. Back in the harsh light of reality in Belfast I realize that it's just on the limit of my comfort zone and that it would probably have been better not to have volunteered.
•
I suppose that I should be happy that I don't have to spend a lot of time reviewing this dreadful paper; however I am depressed that people are performing such bad science.
•
The presentation is of a standard that I would reject from an undergraduate student. Take Table 1: none of the data has units or an explanation. Negative controls gave a positive signal, but there is no explanation of why and how this was dealt with; just that it was different.
I agreed to review this Ms whilst answering e-mails in the golden glow of a balmy evening on the terrace of our holiday hotel on Lake Como. Back in the harsh light of reality in Belfast I realize that it's just on the limit of my comfort zone and that it would probably have been better not to have volunteered.
•
I suppose that I should be happy that I don't have to spend a lot of time reviewing this dreadful paper; however I am depressed that people are performing such bad science.
•
The presentation is of a standard that I would reject from an undergraduate student. Take Table 1: none of the data has units or an explanation. Negative controls gave a positive signal, but there is no explanation of why and how this was dealt with; just that it was different.
Former Yahoo Engineers Shed Light On Why Delicious And Other Acquisitions Failed
Former Yahoo Engineers Shed Light On Why Delicious And Other Acquisitions Failed: ". As Chad Dickerson, former Yahoo developer evangelist and the current CTO of Etsy comments, “In my experience, entrepreneurs moving into Yahoo! often got stuck doing PowerPoints about “strategy” instead of writing code and shipping products.”
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Mapping America — Census Bureau 2005-9 American Community Survey - NYTimes.com
Mapping America — Census Bureau 2005-9 American Community Survey - NYTimes.com: "Mapping America: Every City, Every Block
Browse local data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, based on samples from 2005 to 2009. Because these figures are based on samples, they are subject to a margin of error, particularly in places with a low population, and are best regarded as estimates"
Browse local data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, based on samples from 2005 to 2009. Because these figures are based on samples, they are subject to a margin of error, particularly in places with a low population, and are best regarded as estimates"
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Top 10 Culture of Tech Stories of 2010
Top 10 Culture of Tech Stories of 2010
unleashing of the Stuxnet virus.
As the story played out, a number of eye-widening facts came to light. The virus was made by a highest-level digital team over a prolonged period. It was aimed solely at supervisory control and data acquisition systems, used only on large industrial machinery. Further, it was aimed directly at particular frequency converter drives from specific vendors. Those vendors exist only in Finland and Iran. It was designed, in fact, to change motor speed on, among other things, uranium processing facilities in Iran
unleashing of the Stuxnet virus.
As the story played out, a number of eye-widening facts came to light. The virus was made by a highest-level digital team over a prolonged period. It was aimed solely at supervisory control and data acquisition systems, used only on large industrial machinery. Further, it was aimed directly at particular frequency converter drives from specific vendors. Those vendors exist only in Finland and Iran. It was designed, in fact, to change motor speed on, among other things, uranium processing facilities in Iran
Stephen Colebourne's Weblog
Stephen Colebourne's Weblog: "The precise details of the FOU are confidential at the behest of Sun, however in summary they state (rather absurdly) that the tested code cannot be run on a PC in an enclosed environment. Thus, you could run a tested version of Harmony on your PC providing it is running on your desktop. But if you pick the machine up and place it in an enclosed cabinet, such as inside an X-Ray machine, or an shopping mall information kiosk, then you would be breaking the FOU clause.
Sounds absurd? Well it is yes.
But remember, Sun didn't need something sensible. They just needed something, anything, to stop Harmony."
Sounds absurd? Well it is yes.
But remember, Sun didn't need something sensible. They just needed something, anything, to stop Harmony."
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Breaking News on EFF Victory: Appeals Court Holds that Email Privacy Protected by Fourth Amendment | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Breaking News on EFF Victory: Appeals Court Holds that Email Privacy Protected by Fourth Amendment | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Given the fundamental similarities between email and traditional forms of communication [like postal mail and telephone calls], it would defy common sense to afford emails lesser Fourth Amendment protection.... It follows that email requires strong protection under the Fourth Amendment; otherwise the Fourth Amendment would prove an ineffective guardian of private communication, an essential purpose it has long been recognized to serve
Given the fundamental similarities between email and traditional forms of communication [like postal mail and telephone calls], it would defy common sense to afford emails lesser Fourth Amendment protection.... It follows that email requires strong protection under the Fourth Amendment; otherwise the Fourth Amendment would prove an ineffective guardian of private communication, an essential purpose it has long been recognized to serve
Sunday, December 12, 2010
ASTRONASTY: Half the world's population is infected by cats!
ASTRONASTY: Half the world's population is infected by cats!: "2 to 3 billion people, about half the world's population, have a brain parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, which causes a disease called toxoplasmosis. A vaccine is being developed and is showing great potential thus far.
The parasite's main host are cats, but infects many warm blooded animals. Cats get it from ingestion of infected meat, contamination of food infected with (or direct ingestion of) cat feces, or passed down from mother to unborn offspring. Humans in contact with cats often get infected via slip ups in sanitation at home, or even a cat's unclean claws scratching its owner.
There are some interesting behavior changes that are caused by the disease. Infected rats are less afraid of cats. They also, when infected, are attracted to cat urine. Correlations between infected humans and their changed behavior are (taken from wikipedia)
*Decreased novelty seeking behaviour
* Slower reactions
* Lower rule-consciousness and greater jealousy (in men)
* Promiscuity and greater conscientiousness (in women)
What's interesting here is that the promiscuity in women and jealousy in men actually assists the spread of the parasite through it's effects on our social behavior.
- Sent using Google Toolbar"
The parasite's main host are cats, but infects many warm blooded animals. Cats get it from ingestion of infected meat, contamination of food infected with (or direct ingestion of) cat feces, or passed down from mother to unborn offspring. Humans in contact with cats often get infected via slip ups in sanitation at home, or even a cat's unclean claws scratching its owner.
There are some interesting behavior changes that are caused by the disease. Infected rats are less afraid of cats. They also, when infected, are attracted to cat urine. Correlations between infected humans and their changed behavior are (taken from wikipedia)
*Decreased novelty seeking behaviour
* Slower reactions
* Lower rule-consciousness and greater jealousy (in men)
* Promiscuity and greater conscientiousness (in women)
What's interesting here is that the promiscuity in women and jealousy in men actually assists the spread of the parasite through it's effects on our social behavior.
- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Saturday, December 11, 2010
My Way News - New microchip card for US purchases in Europe
My Way News - New microchip card for US purchases in Europe: "If you've traveled to Europe recently, you may have had the frustrating experience of being unable to use a U.S.-issued credit card for automated transactions, like renting a bike from a stand on the street, paying for highway tolls or buying a train ticket from an unmanned kiosk. A new prepaid smart card from Travelex solves that problem by utilizing the microchip and PIN technology that is standard in credit cards in Europe, but not here.
The new Cash Passport card can be bought in either euros or pounds from Travelex retail stores.
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The new Cash Passport card can be bought in either euros or pounds from Travelex retail stores.
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Changes in Tax Codes Versus Changes in the Value of the Dollar: The Arithmetic of Competitiveness | Beat the Press
Changes in Tax Codes Versus Changes in the Value of the Dollar: The Arithmetic of Competitiveness | Beat the Press: "Corporate profits are equal to about 16 percent of the value of output in the corporate sector. Businesses pay roughly a third of their profits in taxes, which means that taxes are equal to about 5 percent of the value of output. If taxes were reduced by 20 percent, a very large tax cut, then this would reduce the cost of doing business in the United States by 1 percent relative to foreign countries.
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Friday, December 10, 2010
SlideShare Outage Will Be Due To Global Warming | SlideShare Blog
SlideShare Outage Will Be Due To Global Warming | SlideShare Blog: "SlideShare Under Maintenance
Wednesday, December 8th
8:00pm PST – 10:30pm PST
A mere 12 hours after discovering fire, man and his laptop mastered PowerPoint and has been posting to SlideShare ever since. And throughout its long history, SlideShare was always available to share ideas. Unfortunately, due to global warming we foresee an unexpected outage.
The climate crisis will spur a spontaneous mass migration of Emperor penguins leading them straight to our secret server farm in Antarctica. They will swarm down upon the servers for heat and shelter on Wednesday, December 8th, at 8PM PST.
- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Wednesday, December 8th
8:00pm PST – 10:30pm PST
A mere 12 hours after discovering fire, man and his laptop mastered PowerPoint and has been posting to SlideShare ever since. And throughout its long history, SlideShare was always available to share ideas. Unfortunately, due to global warming we foresee an unexpected outage.
The climate crisis will spur a spontaneous mass migration of Emperor penguins leading them straight to our secret server farm in Antarctica. They will swarm down upon the servers for heat and shelter on Wednesday, December 8th, at 8PM PST.
- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Apple to tap Intel's graphics for future MacBooks | Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News
Apple to tap Intel's graphics for future MacBooks | Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News: "Apple has decided to use Intel's upcoming Sandy Bridge processors in its MacBook line, a transition that will occur in 2011, squeezing out Nvidia's graphics processors in at least some models of the popular laptops, sources have told CNET.
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Monday, December 06, 2010
Chart of the day: U.S. taxes | Analysis & Opinion |
Chart of the day: U.S. taxes | Analysis & Opinion |: "The main things to note:
* Federal taxes are the lowest in 60 years, which gives you a pretty good idea of why America’s long-term debt ratios are a big problem. If the taxes reverted to somewhere near their historical mean, the problem would be solved at a stroke.
* Income taxes, in particular, both personal and corporate, are low and falling. That trend is not sustainable.
* Employment taxes, by contrast—the regressive bit of the fiscal structure—are bearing a large and increasing share of the brunt. Any time that somebody starts complaining about how the poor don’t pay income tax, point them to this chart. Income taxes are just one part of the pie, and everybody with a job pays employment taxes.
* There aren’t any wealth taxes, but the closest thing we’ve got—estate and gift taxes—have shrunk to zero, after contributing a non-negligible amount to the public fisc in earlier decades.
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* Federal taxes are the lowest in 60 years, which gives you a pretty good idea of why America’s long-term debt ratios are a big problem. If the taxes reverted to somewhere near their historical mean, the problem would be solved at a stroke.
* Income taxes, in particular, both personal and corporate, are low and falling. That trend is not sustainable.
* Employment taxes, by contrast—the regressive bit of the fiscal structure—are bearing a large and increasing share of the brunt. Any time that somebody starts complaining about how the poor don’t pay income tax, point them to this chart. Income taxes are just one part of the pie, and everybody with a job pays employment taxes.
* There aren’t any wealth taxes, but the closest thing we’ve got—estate and gift taxes—have shrunk to zero, after contributing a non-negligible amount to the public fisc in earlier decades.
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Sunday, December 05, 2010
The Big Economic Story, and Why Obama Isn’t Telling It | CommonDreams.org
The Big Economic Story, and Why Obama Isn’t Telling It | CommonDreams.org: "Quiz: What's responsible for the lousy economy most Americans continue to wallow in?
A. Big government, bureaucrats, and the cultural and intellectual elites who back them.
B. Big business, Wall Street, and the powerful and privileged who represent them.
These are the two competing stories Americans are telling one another.
Yes, I know: It's more complicated than this. In reality, the lousy economy is due to insufficient demand - the result of the nation's almost unprecedented concentration of income at the top.
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A. Big government, bureaucrats, and the cultural and intellectual elites who back them.
B. Big business, Wall Street, and the powerful and privileged who represent them.
These are the two competing stories Americans are telling one another.
Yes, I know: It's more complicated than this. In reality, the lousy economy is due to insufficient demand - the result of the nation's almost unprecedented concentration of income at the top.
- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Terry Pratchett and the ubiquity of negligent chance : Pharyngula
Terry Pratchett and the ubiquity of negligent chance : Pharyngula: "I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I'm sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged on to a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature's wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that's when I first learned about evil. It is built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
What the Kinect sensor actually does…
What the Kinect sensor actually does…: "Basically the Kinect appears to be a 640×480 30fps second video camera that knows the *depth* of every single pixel in the frame. It does this by projecting a 3×3 checkerboard pattern with an infrared (?) laser over the scene and using a detector that establishes the reflected intensity (more likely parallax – see comments) of the light for each pixel in the detector.
Friday, December 03, 2010
24 Hours of Hardcore Punk | MetaFilter
24 Hours of Hardcore Punk | MetaFilter: "24 Hours of Hardcore Punk
December 3, 2010 2:23 PM RSS feed for this thread Subscribe
The second edition of Steven Blush's American Hardcore: A Tribal History has just been published by Feral House. Additionally, Steven has posted 911 mp3s of hardcore punk as a soundtrack for your reading.
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December 3, 2010 2:23 PM RSS feed for this thread Subscribe
The second edition of Steven Blush's American Hardcore: A Tribal History has just been published by Feral House. Additionally, Steven has posted 911 mp3s of hardcore punk as a soundtrack for your reading.
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John Scalzi - An Experiment in Accurate But Misleading Movie Descriptions - Filmcritic.com Feature
John Scalzi - An Experiment in Accurate But Misleading Movie Descriptions - Filmcritic.com Feature: "There's a famous television listing for The Wizard of Oz, written by newspaperman Rick Polito, which goes like this: 'Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.'
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Drew Carey (DrewFromTV) on Twitter
Drew Carey (DrewFromTV) on Twitter: "88-55 3rd quarter. This game is about as tight as LeBron's mother's vagina.
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
US Has Lost All Moral High Ground On Internet Censorship | Techdirt
US Has Lost All Moral High Ground On Internet Censorship | Techdirt
excellent blog post by law professor Derek Bambauer, he makes this point after highlighting the numerous concerns over Homeland Security's domain name seizures:
The U.S. government is grabbing domain names to prevent users from reaching content it views as illegal. Not content that has been adjudicated illegal, as far as we know -- content that is alleged to be illegal. To content owners, and probably to ICE, it looks only natural that we’d prevent people from reaching information they view as stolen, or counterfeit. But it’s natural to China to censor human rights sites. Or Wikileaks, for that matter....
Every country in the world believes that some material on the Net qualifies inherently for censorship. It's obvious! In this respect, we're no different from China. So, we should give up pretensions of American exceptionalism for information controls -- for us, it's IP; for Saudi Arabia, it's porn; for France, it's hate speech. Only the quality of the legal process differentiates censors. And with these seizures, I think there's much to worry us in the (lack of) process...
This nicely summarizes the point that I've tried to make. When people claim that taking down entire websites (even ones that have plenty of legitimate content) through the US government seizing it isn't censorship because "it's copyright infringement," it sounds like the stories you hear from people in China who see absolutely nothing wrong with the Great Firewall there, noting that the government is just protecting them from "dangerous information." Both cases are about censorship, however. Same with France and Saudi Arabia. They're all situations where the government has decided that certain types of content should be blocked because it is -- in some way -- harmful. And those who agree that it is harmful say it's not censorship because it's "helpful." But that's simply not true. It's censorship, plain and simple.
excellent blog post by law professor Derek Bambauer, he makes this point after highlighting the numerous concerns over Homeland Security's domain name seizures:
The U.S. government is grabbing domain names to prevent users from reaching content it views as illegal. Not content that has been adjudicated illegal, as far as we know -- content that is alleged to be illegal. To content owners, and probably to ICE, it looks only natural that we’d prevent people from reaching information they view as stolen, or counterfeit. But it’s natural to China to censor human rights sites. Or Wikileaks, for that matter....
Every country in the world believes that some material on the Net qualifies inherently for censorship. It's obvious! In this respect, we're no different from China. So, we should give up pretensions of American exceptionalism for information controls -- for us, it's IP; for Saudi Arabia, it's porn; for France, it's hate speech. Only the quality of the legal process differentiates censors. And with these seizures, I think there's much to worry us in the (lack of) process...
This nicely summarizes the point that I've tried to make. When people claim that taking down entire websites (even ones that have plenty of legitimate content) through the US government seizing it isn't censorship because "it's copyright infringement," it sounds like the stories you hear from people in China who see absolutely nothing wrong with the Great Firewall there, noting that the government is just protecting them from "dangerous information." Both cases are about censorship, however. Same with France and Saudi Arabia. They're all situations where the government has decided that certain types of content should be blocked because it is -- in some way -- harmful. And those who agree that it is harmful say it's not censorship because it's "helpful." But that's simply not true. It's censorship, plain and simple.
Say What? Top Five IT Quotes of the Week - InternetNews.com
Say What? Top Five IT Quotes of the Week - InternetNews.com
SAP executive board member Vishal Sikka discussed one retail application in which 460 billion point of sale records were queried in less than a minute on 10 32-core blade servers costing $530,000. Sikka called in-memory technology a "once-in-a-generation technology shift."
SAP's announcement that it has begun shipping its High-Performance Analytic Appliance (HANA) software. The first application is based on the company's BusinessObjects business intelligence software. (eCRM Guide)
SAP executive board member Vishal Sikka discussed one retail application in which 460 billion point of sale records were queried in less than a minute on 10 32-core blade servers costing $530,000. Sikka called in-memory technology a "once-in-a-generation technology shift."
SAP's announcement that it has begun shipping its High-Performance Analytic Appliance (HANA) software. The first application is based on the company's BusinessObjects business intelligence software. (eCRM Guide)
CBC News - Canada - CBC shows anti-U.S. 'melodrama': WikiLeaks
CBC News - Canada - CBC shows anti-U.S. 'melodrama': WikiLeaks
U.S. diplomats in Ottawa wrote to Washington that the CBC pushes "insidious negative popular stereotyping" with "anti-American melodrama" in its entertainment TV programs, according to documents released by the website WikiLeaks.
In a cable dated Jan. 1, 2008, an unnamed U.S. diplomat writes that the CBC has "long gone to great pains to highlight the distinction between Canadians and Americans in its programming, generally at our expense."
The cable then warns that an increasing number of CBC television programs such as The Border, Intelligence and even Little Mosque on the Prairie "offer Canadian viewers their fill of nefarious American officials carrying out equally nefarious deeds in Canada while Canadian officials either oppose them or fall trying."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/12/01/wikileaks-cbc.html#ixzz174uflJhU
U.S. diplomats in Ottawa wrote to Washington that the CBC pushes "insidious negative popular stereotyping" with "anti-American melodrama" in its entertainment TV programs, according to documents released by the website WikiLeaks.
In a cable dated Jan. 1, 2008, an unnamed U.S. diplomat writes that the CBC has "long gone to great pains to highlight the distinction between Canadians and Americans in its programming, generally at our expense."
The cable then warns that an increasing number of CBC television programs such as The Border, Intelligence and even Little Mosque on the Prairie "offer Canadian viewers their fill of nefarious American officials carrying out equally nefarious deeds in Canada while Canadian officials either oppose them or fall trying."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/12/01/wikileaks-cbc.html#ixzz174uflJhU
Thursday, December 02, 2010
The Unintended Humor in Wikileaks Criticism
The Unintended Humor in Wikileaks Criticism: "So by informing the people of oppressive regimes like Saudi Arabia and Yemen about the dirty things their governments do in collusion with the U.S., Wikileaks undermines efforts by the U.S. government to — ahem! — promote democracy, open government, and open and free societies in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
The Daily Star - Politics - US spy flights over Lebanon searched for 'terrorists' - cable
The Daily Star - Politics - US spy flights over Lebanon searched for 'terrorists' - cable: "The United States has been operating secret spy flights over Lebanese territory in a bid to locate “terrorists,” according to the latest batch of intercepted diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Cable Viewer
Cable Viewer: "He commented that the Saudis always want to 'fight the Iranians to the last American,' but that now it is time for them to get into the game.
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
GSA picks Google over Microsoft for major cloud contract - Microsoft furious, attacks Google | TechEye
GSA picks Google over Microsoft for major cloud contract - Microsoft furious, attacks Google | TechEye: "“You have to meet the height requirement to ride in the enterprise,” he added, suggesting that Google is still a child in the business sector.
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus | Science/AAAS
A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus | Science/AAAS: "A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Hungarian Lisp developer walks away with Google AI contest | ZDNet
Hungarian Lisp developer walks away with Google AI contest | ZDNet: "Think Lisp is a dead language? Not according to Gábor Melis, who was just crowned the winner of the PlanetWars Google AI challenge. His bot “bocsimacko” dominated a field of over 4600 contestants, but was one of only 33 programmed in Lisp.
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- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Is 'Quadroid' the new 'Wintel'? - Computerworld
Is 'Quadroid' the new 'Wintel'? - Computerworld
Quadroid is a term that refers to the Qualcomm chips used inside smartphones running the Android mobile operating system. The term, recently coined in a report by the PRTM consultancy, could catch on, largely because Qualcomm provides 77% of the chips in Google's Android phones. And the Quadroid alliance is expected to grow.
Quadroid is a term that refers to the Qualcomm chips used inside smartphones running the Android mobile operating system. The term, recently coined in a report by the PRTM consultancy, could catch on, largely because Qualcomm provides 77% of the chips in Google's Android phones. And the Quadroid alliance is expected to grow.
Official Google Blog: Being bad to your customers is bad for business
Official Google Blog: Being bad to your customers is bad for business: "We know that people will keep trying: attempts to game Google’s ranking, like the ones mentioned in the article, go on 24 hours a day, every single day. That’s why we cannot reveal the details of our solution—the underlying signals, data sources, and how we combined them to improve our rankings—beyond what we’ve already said. We can say with reasonable confidence that being bad to customers is bad for business on Google. And we will continue to work hard towards a better search.
Posted by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow"
Posted by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow"
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
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