Gould died of cancer at his home in New York City.

It is a sad day for science. And given his failing health, I am all the more impressed with his recent publication of a mammoth 1464 page treatise on evolutionary theory.

washingtonpost.com: Famed Harvard Biologist Stephen Jay Gould Dies

" Juniper Networks said Monday that it plans to acquire rival router maker Unisphere Networks in a cash and stock deal worth roughly $740 million. "

With buy, Cisco foes will join forces - Tech News - CNET.com

""Knowledge Web" is the pet project of James Burke, an Oxford-educated historian whose fascination with technology resulted in Connections, a television series that explored the strange links between technological breakthroughs and historical events."

This guy's TV show is really good. I imagine the tool described here will be very interesting.

Help Build the Web of Knowledge

"To get an idea of the explanatory power of Novelty Theory, take a look at The Time Wave and History, a large file which shows the full sweep of the Time Wave across several million years, right up to the Omega point."

The X-files ends by predicting the end of the world in 2012. The Mayan calendar ends on the Winter Solstice 2012, at a moment of alignment between the sun and the milky way which only occurs every 25,800 years.

I did more digging and found an even cooler theory.

Drug "researcher" Terrence McKenna (who saddly appears to have passed away two years ago) developed a complex mathmatical theory of a fractal "time wave" based on the I Ching in which "novelty" becomes increasingly common in waves until 2012 at which time the world ends. This site explains the whole thing (and also has an explaination of the Mayan calendar).

The "smiley bomber" tracked by many memestreamers predicted the end of the world in 2011... Must have been a typo.

A Roar of Approaching Cataracts

"Such laws only make sense if you have no idea what you are talking about."

Common sense commentary about video piracy. Not news to any of you, but maybe a breath of fresh air if you are sick of hearing from Valenti and Rosen, or you want a quality reference for discussions.

LawMeme: Legal Bricolage for a Technological Age - The LawMeme Guide to Spider-Man and Star Wars Bootlegs

TechNetCast is making available the audio tracks for the keynote speeches given at the recent O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. As I log this URL, only four are available, but the rest of them are promised within days. (Hopefully that will include Steven Johnson ...)

The keynotes include:

Rethinking The Modern Operating System, by Richard Rashid, Microsoft.
Fixing Network Security by Hacking the Business Climate, by Bruce Schneier.
Autonomic Computing, by Robert Morris, IBM.
The Shape of Things to Come, by Tim O'Reilly.

O'Reilly Emerging Technologies 2002 [Audio]

"The symbolic red, black, white and yellow East Timorese flag was raised as the clock struck midnight, and the Democratic Republic of East Timor was officially born Monday. "

CNN.com - Nation of East Timor debuts on world stage - May 19, 2002

An encrypted video containing previously unseen footage of Osama bin Laden singling out Britain as a terrorist target has been obtained by The Sunday Times. The film includes an interview recorded after the start of the West's offensive in Afghanistan.

Those who provided the video to the newsnpaper claim it was made in March, indicating that bin Laden is still alive and plotting against the US, UK, and others.

(Free registration required; login: cypherpunks, password: cypherpunks)

New bin Laden film vows revenge

American intelligence agencies have intercepted a vague yet troubling series of communications among Al Qaeda operatives over the last few months indicating that the terrorist organization is trying to carry out an operation as big as the September 11 attacks or bigger.

CYA. No one wants to appear caught off-guard, so they leak "news" like this even though it enables little in the way of an actionable response.

Much like "Intel cuts prices, increases clock rates", this is not news precisely because it is happening all the time.

Why don't we stories like this: "The FBI has intercepted a vague yet troubling series of communications among mobsters indicating that the organization is trying to pull off a financial scam as big as Enron or bigger."

What might be news? If we were listening and watching closely, but heard nothing at all.

U.S. Intercepting Messages Hinting at a New Attack

"Bertelsmann AG will pay $8 million to Napster's creditors, allowing the company to begin its operations again with much of its senior management intact, according to sources familiar with the situation. CEO Konrad Hilbers and founder Shawn Fanning, who both resigned on Tuesday after the board of directors failed to agree on a sale, will return to their posts. "

OK, fine, napster is back... strange proceedings... There is an inside story here. They either wanted to stop paying salaries while they worked out the legal stuff or they were trying to get rid of certain board members... still a wait and see...

Napster Now Bertelsmann's Baby