Whoever produced this deserves a MacArthur genius grant. Watch it all the way through, unless you start to hyperventilate.

Contrary to popular belief, I am not responsible for this, although it is uncannily similar to what I would've produced. I give high props to whoever put this together.

ATL you're next!

Nashville's Gas Crisis: Inside the Metro Bunker? - Nashville Scene

Customs and Border Patrol agents can grab your laptop, BlackBerry, or external hard drive without needing so much as a reason, but a new bill introduced last week to Congress would at least put some limits on how border searches could be done.

Was there ever an explanation given other than "security" as to why they are seizing these items?

New bill would tighten rules for DHS border laptop searches

Cars aren't iPods or washing machines. They are both highly complex machines and the enablers of a way of life that for many is synonymous with freedom and opportunity -- not just in the U.S., but increasingly in rising nations such as China, India and Russia.

Engineering and tooling to produce a new vehicle takes three to five years -- and that's without adding the challenge of major new technology. Most car buyers won't accept "beta" technology in the vehicles they and their families depend on every day. Many senior industry executives -- including those at Japanese companies -- have vivid memories of the backlash against the quality problems that resulted when Detroit rushed smaller cars and new engines into the market after the gas-price shocks of the 1970s. The lesson learned: Technological change is best done incrementally.

This is part of a broader expose that the WSJ is doing about green tech and business, all of which I have not read yet but am looking forward to doing so.

I think that these 2 paragraphs give very short shrift to the underlying problem with the automotive industry. Product development lifecycle is just too damn slow. Where is the innovation? It needs to be right here.

Most other products have experienced tremendous gains in this kind of investment. I mean, the software industry alone has benefited exponentially from gains in lifecycle management. It's not a fair comparison, but it is proof that things can get a lot better.

Yes, it's expensive and time consuming to create the manufacturing tools and systems to create a new product in this industry, but incrementalizing your way isn't going to rescue Detroit. There's loads of things like new materials, new construction and fabrication techniques, and new shared tooling. That's not even to mention process improvements like faster iteration of testing and less focus on marketing test groups. Throw away the waterfall method and you might be surprised at much more efficient you can get. Who knows, that might even result in production cost savings giving you a better margin or a cheaper car for the consumer.

Why the Gasoline Engine Isn't Going Away Any Time Soon - WSJ.com

A set of technical standards being developed behind closed doors by a United Nations agency that would potentially curb users’ ability to remain anonymous on the Internet has privacy advocates and technologists alarmed, according to a Friday report. The standards are proposed by the Chinese government and the US National Security Agency is also part of the IP Traceback drafting group, named Q6/17. Headed up the by the UN’s International Telecommunication Union, the group is due to meet next week to work on the proposal, though the meeting will be closed to the media and public, the report suggests.

I've been groping around this for awhile, but it just hit me like a ton of bricks last week. Data is the Singularity. That is to say, that every "problem" we have as a society can be solved by more and more accessible data.

Disease control and eradication? Data.
Economic stability and growth? Data.
Safer and healthier food? Data.
More effective medications? Data.
Weather and environmental stability? Data.
Health and well being? Data.

You already see it. Informatics against large and complex data sets are yielding unprecedented gains in understanding, development, and refactoring. With the net now ubiquitous (ahem, telecom infrastructure investment notwithstanding), and people conditioned to contributing content to it, the cost of acquiring data is next to zero and moving closer all the time. Aggregating data is still a tricky thing, but that is getting cheaper and easier all the time as well. Put those two things together and you have the ability to divine incalculable knowledge for the benefit of society.

The price? Loss of anonymity, privacy, and the rising potential for abuse. But what do you want? To be omni-prescient or obscure?

Data is the new Singularity | Internet anonymity endangered by UN agency project

You choose the store. We provide the plan!

Each week you will receive a brand new plan AND a complete, aisle-by-aisle grocery list.

I thought this was an interesting service. My sister-in-law raves about it.

e-Mealz - A Meal Planning Resource for Busy Moms and Frugal Family Cooks

Nonetheless, a company was set up by Kramer to bring the IXI to a commercial release, but it slipped into the public domain in 1988 when the firm failed to raise the �60,000 needed to renew international patents.

Timing is everything!

iPod roots traced back to 1970s UK

Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, has announced that it will impose a monthly cap of 250 GB on its customers' Internet usage.

This has been mentioned a lot but the real deal here is that Comcast is holding this cap in place as an extortion to the FCC and the incoming administration. They'll want tax incentives, increases to their monopoly standing, less regulatory oversight, and higher prices in an effort to increase profits without actually providing agreed upon service or upgrades to service. This is the game that the telecom industry has been playing for 50+ years, to the detriment of US economic development, education, health care, and productivity.

Essentially, it's monopoly business that controls a key element of core infrastructure holding the American people hostage. "Increase my profits and I'll give you more bandwidth." This is NOT the "market" deciding.

Comcast Caps Highlight Lack of Broadband Competition

John McCain is definitely winning the cougar vote now, on top of the Jamie-Lynn Spears vote.

"Don't underestimate the POWER of the Dark Side!"

We’re Sorry, But Palin Baby Daddy Levi Johnston Is Sex on Skates

The new theory reported today in New Scientist has been laid out in an online paper entitled "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" by Lisi, who completed his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1999 at the University of California, San Diego.

Hmm... E8 the answer to everything? Sounds like the plot to The Last Mimzy.

Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything

Federal ballistics experts are testing to determine if a gun that was lost last year by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's former bodyguard and recently recovered from a violent convicted felon was used in other crimes.

Could this be the literal smoking gun in this case?

Feds testing gun for crime use