Very cool... I'm excited by all the activity in privateer spaceflight.

SPACE.com -- EXCLUSIVE: Bigelow Orbital Module Launched into Space

"SENS has many unsupported claims and is certainly not scientifically proven. I personally would be surprised if de Grey is correct in the majority of his claims. However, I don't think Estep et al. have proved that SENS is false; that would require more research. In some cases, SENS makes claims that run parallel to existing research (while being more sensational). Future investigation into those areas will almost certainly illuminate the controversy. Until that time, people like Estep et al. are free to doubt SENS. I share many of those doubts, but it would be overstating the case to assert that Estep et al. have proved their point."

[ Seems disingenuous. Essentially, Myhrvold, speaking for the judges, is saying that the submissions failed to successfully argue that SENS doesn't deserve learned debate and careful study because no one has yet done careful study.

The challenge, as I understand it, was explicitly to present a case for dismissing the concepts of SENS. I think that's pretty silly to begin with, but given that, it's contradictory to ask people to write dismissively, and then tell them they haven't taken the concepts seriously enough.

Anyway, I've read de Grey and I put his work largely in the category of religion. It sounds wonderful and makes you feel good, but it stresses the limits of reason to accept as true.

Nonetheless, people must put their money where their mouth is, so to speak. If the proposals are so patently absurd, then demonstrate them as such. Do the science. -k]

Technology Review: Is Defeating Aging Only a Dream?

Ah the power of wikis.

This page, which arguably ought to at least be a link to a page on the US Civil War, says only "kkk". Yep.

May be reverted by the time you see this... I'll post an image somewhere.

Civil war - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Interesting...

I know some of y'all MSers will be at Blackhat. I expect a report :)

-k

invisiblethings: Introducing Blue Pill

...paradoxically, the closer we get to systems that achieve a reasonable score in keeping evildoers out, the more vulnerable we are to attack from those evildoers who bypass our filters.

So when the Attorney General of a US State speaks of requiring MySpace to achieve giant strides, it's worth suggesting that he's not only being unreasonable; he may even be making things worse.

The simple argument is that if parents think MySpace is a safe place to leave their children alone, they are likely to leave them far more vulnerable to the predators who do break in, than if they recognise the reality of the situation.

That reality is that predators will break in. The way to deal with it is to supervise and monitor, so that people know they are being watched - exactly the same way you stop fights in the school playground. It's not rocket science.

Hear hear.

MySpace case opens security can of worms [printer-friendly] | The Register

So practice your Steve Perry impression, cut the sleeves off all of your t-shirts and head on down to the Alamo for an evening of heart-melting ballads, fist-pumping rock, and Travis County's premier Journey cover band!

Fucking awesommmeeeee!

Steve Perry is one of my heros. NO ONE pulls off air-mic better. So so rad.

-k

Austinist: Don’t Stop Believing: The Journey Sing-along

[ Not bad. Keller seems honest and genuine here and, as he says, I haven't really seen the backlash that was so worrisome to the administration. If that constitutes tacit approval, then so be it. I think people are too lazy to really care anymore, but the situation is what it is. -k]

Letter From Bill Keller on The Times's Banking Records Report - New York Times

According to three senior London doctors a 15-year-old girl was struck by lightning while using her mobile phone in a park during a storm.
...
"This rare phenomenon is a public health issue, and education is necessary to highlight the risk," authors Swinda Esprit, Prasad Kothari and Ram Dhillon wrote.

[ Color me extremely skeptical. I mean, I'm not saying it's impossible that the cell phone made the strike a teeny bit more likely, but it's far fetched to imply that it was a major contributor. I think the girl would've been struck anyway. I thought "don't stand in open spaces, particularly elevated ones, during a thunderstorm" was clear enough, personally. -k]

The Daily Telegraph | Mobiles 'kill when struck by lightning'

Edward Tufte's new book, Beautiful Evidence, is now available. The table of contents and introduction are shown below.
The book is 214 pages, full color, and clothbound. Orders are shipped within one day.

This is his most beautiful book yet, but just as packed with essential information as the other three books for application developers, graphic artists, executives and anyone seeking to communicate through graphics.

I just got mine in the mail, so they're shipping now. Highly recommended, if only as a coffee table book, but worthy of lengthy study.

[ I just bought The Visual Display of Quantitative Information and am about half way through it. Stunningly great. It's given me great focus. I always hated powerpoint and Project (and their ilk, it's not a microsoft-ism in particular) but i could never quite put a finger on what was so bad about them. I get it now. I think his others will be on the way soon. -k ]

Edward Tufte: Books - Beautiful Evidence

A list of names around twin reflecting pools linked to a vast underground museum — a remarkable banality after two years of intense thinking — is a disservice to the events of 9/11 and the victims whom the memorial honors. Yet this comes as no surprise. The gutting of the memorial is only the latest step in a decision-making process that has virtually scorned the potential of architecture to address the magnitude of what happened on that day.

The site remains so politically and emotionally charged that every sane proposal has unraveled.

[ I emphasized the keywords I most agree with. It's truly repugnant how fouled up this project has become. Another failure of vision to add to the U.S's long list. -k]

The Ground Zero Memorial, Revised but Not Improved - New York Times