So, without further ado, here are the five regular expressions that I have found the most useful for day-to-day web programming tasks.

5 Regular Expressions Every Web Programmer Should Know - I’m Mike

What we've learned in software so far is that you can build things out of junk, but that finding out what to build and how to best design it takes creativity - that is, lots of tries, working with the folks who will use the stuff in the end, and perfecting the best attempt. It's too bad building software isn't like building bridges. It's more like writing novels - maybe like writing science fiction.

Lessons From the Science of Nothing At All

Sick burn.

debate

Cassini Photos of Enceladus

This essay makes the underlying assumption that scientific information is an economic commodity, and that scientific journals are a medium for its dissemination and exchange. While this exchange system differs from a conventional market in many senses, including the nature of payments, it shares the goal of transferring the commodity (knowledge) from its producers (scientists) to its consumers (other scientists, administrators, physicians, patients, and funding agencies). The function of this system has major consequences. Idealists may be offended that research be compared to widgets, but realists will acknowledge that journals generate revenue; publications are critical in drug development and marketing and to attract venture capital; and publishing defines successful scientific careers. Economic modeling of science may yield important insights.

Why Current Publication Practices May Distort Science

Life is more varied near the equator. But making sense of that has confounded biologists for 200 years.

The Trouble with Biodiversity

After forty years of making a living using words in every medium, print or electronic, except greeting cards, Roy Blount Jr. still can’t get over his ABCs. In Alphabet Juice, he celebrates the juju, the sonic and kinetic energies of letters and their combinations. Blount does not prescribe proper English. The franchise he claims is “over the counter” and concentrates more on questions such as these: Did you know that both mammal and matter derive from baby talk? Have you noticed how wince makes you wince?

Three and a half centuries ago, Sir Thomas Blount produced Blount’s Glossographia, the first dictionary to explore derivations of English words. This Blount’s Glossographia takes that pursuit to other levels. It rejects the standard linguistic notion that the connection between words and their meanings is “arbitrary.” Even the word arbitrary is shown to be no more arbitrary, at its roots, than go-to guy or crackerjack. From sources as venerable as the OED (in which Blount finds an inconsistency, at whisk) and as fresh as Urbandictionary.com (to which Blount has contributed the number-one definition of “alligator arm”), and especially from the author’s own wide-ranging experience, Alphabet Juice derives an organic take on language that is unlike, and more fun than, any other.

The Washington Post has a review.

Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, ... With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory

The question that comes to my mind whenever I catch a glimpse of aggregate consumption is always the same: How can it last?

Fear of fallowing: The specter of a no-growth world

Sorry I don't know how to link dynamic picture detail so you'll have to follow the link, but Obama 313, McCain 158, Toss-up 67 is a big ol' can of electoral whup-ass.

RealClearPolitics - Electoral Map

All U.S. agencies with counterterrorism programs that collect or "mine" personal data -- such as phone records or Web sites visited -- should be required to evaluate the programs' effectiveness, lawfulness, and impacts on privacy. A framework is offered that agencies can use to evaluate such information-based programs, both classified and unclassified. The book urges Congress to re-examine existing privacy law to assess how privacy can be protected in current and future programs and recommends that any individuals harmed by violations of privacy be given a meaningful form of redress. Two specific technologies are examined: data mining and behavioral surveillance. Regarding data mining, the book concludes that although these methods have been useful in the private sector for spotting consumer fraud, they are less helpful for counterterrorism because so little is known about what patterns indicate terrorist activity. Regarding behavioral surveillance in a counterterrorist context, the book concludes that although research and development on certain aspects of this topic are warranted, there is no scientific consensus on whether these techniques are ready for operational use at all in counterterrorism.

Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists: A Framework for Program Assessment