This is a gallery of different images of human social networks.

Gallery of network images

] This weeks illustration was originally slated for the
] cover of this months Popular Science Magazine but it got
] bumped to the interior... too bad... would have loved to
] have seen it in full on cover goodness. DARPA (R&D of
] Defense department, if you didn't already know that) is
] putting together a race of autonomous (robotic) vehicles
] that runs from LA to Las Vegas. Completely remote, no one
] at the wheel. They are recruiting people (these guys are
] serious robot geeks who build and tinker with this stuff
] as a hobby and obsession) to build their own vehicles to
] participate in the race. The vehicles range from
] motorcycles to HumVees. The point of this story is to
] illustrate DARPA's interest in this technology, and that
] they hope to have autonomous vehicles waging war by 2015.
] Mark Pauline eat your heart out. ;-)

Some very interesting images and thoughts here. Its really stupid that this website doesn't offer article specific links instead of one link that changes every week. This might be gone when you see it.

Image of the week: DARPA Terminators

Wow. This is interesting. "Persian" rugs made during wars in Afghanistan, and you can buy them! Some of them have very overt themes and wouldn't really work well as a rug in one's house.

However, the best ones are subtle.... At first glance you see the standard assortment of symetrical patterns and color typically found on a "persian" rug. The sort of thing that anyone in America might have under the table in his dining room, or the couch in the living room. But if you look closely, if you really pay attention to the detail, you notice that in with all the other shapes and patterns in the rug are little tanks and AK-47s.

Have you ever closely examined such a rug in someone's home? Looked carefully at what the shapes are supposed to symbolize? I haven't. I've had rugs like this around my entire life and I don't think I've ever paid them careful attention. You could probably have such a thing in a common area in your house and no one would ever notice.

warrug.com! Afghan War Rugs

] The movement of American factory jobs and white-collar
] work to other countries is part of a positive
] transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over
] time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation,
] the Bush administration said yesterday.
]
]...
]
] "Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international
] trade," said N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush's
] Council of Economic Advisors, which prepared the report.
] "More things are tradable than were tradable in the past.
] And that's a good thing."

An interesting mishmash... Bush supports offshoring. Bush makes dramatic prediction about jobs in 2004. The neat thing is we'll know if his prediction was right or wrong by the time we go to the polls, so keep that number in your head if you wish to assess the credibility of his economic plan.

John Kerry offers a sarcastic reply. If you are going to be the dem candidate please cut the crap and start demonstrating clues.

Then we end with a blurb on social security. Guess whose going to be running the country in 2036 when the debt is at its worst?

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Bush report: Sending jobs overseas helps U.S.

] The Pentagon (news - web sites) won't use an Internet
] voting system for overseas U.S. citizens this fall
] because of concerns about its security, an official said
] Thursday.

First Georgia backs down on evolution, and now this. Its nice to win a few, but of course neither the GA Superintendent nor the Pentagon are really diametrically opposed to us on these issues.

Yahoo! News - Pentagon Cancels Internet Voting System

] By day, Palestinian laborers tend to row after row of
] greenhouses that produce some of the highest quality
] fruit and vegetables in Israel. By night, Palestinian
] militants lob mortars into the settlements and snipe at
] Israeli cars along the road leading in and out of the
] communities.
]
] There are constant reminders of this bizarre
] relationship, based on mutual economic dependence and
] unrelieved hostility.
]
] On Tuesday, young men played volleyball in the sand at
] the Jewish seminary here, where a Palestinian attacker
] carried out a suicidal rampage in March 2002, killing
] five students before he was killed himself.
]
] Overhead, Israeli warplanes roared through the sky on
] their daily training runs along the coast.

A brief glimpse into the peculiar life in a Gaza settlement.

Possible Plan to Evacuate Dismays Gaza Settlers

] The global usage of 2 word phrases has increased with
] 3.36 percent from 29.22 percent to 32.58 percent since
] April 2003. The use of 1 word phrase has decreased with
] 5.74 percent from 24.76 percent to 19.02 percent.

Internet users are become more sophisticated in their use of search technology.

OneStat.com - Web users become more sophisticated

LAME! They are only giving free itunes in bottles, not cans, and the place were I usually buy bottles, my office, has at least a month's supply of bottles that aren't part of the promotion. By the time they get Pepsi in that is actually part of the promotion it will be over. Despite the fact that I drink at least two Pepsis a day I'll have to seriously alter how I buy them if I'm going to get any itunes.

Apple - Pepsi

Marie and I have recently gotten into watching this show called
"Good Eats" on the Food Network. The host, Alton Brown, offers a
lot of interesting recipes on a geek tip. For example, in one
episode he asks some materials people at GaTech about the
properties of various casserole dishes.

A recent episode called "The Pouch Principle" offered a dish that
is easy to make, takes about 30 minutes total to prepare, and
offers a great deal of potential variety. Anything from asian noodle
dishes to hearty meat and potatoes stuff. It sounds perfect for
preparing food after work when you're tired but you want something
good.

Good Eats Pouches

Click on these various links. I had a conversation about building something like this at a 2600 meeting once. Unfortunately it doesn't look as easy to deploy as we had hoped. The idea is to be able to deploy these things rapidly so humans don't end up getting in trouble for creating the "art." In any event, this should be faster the spraying by hand.

Hektor.ch - Graffiti Robot