American innovation offers a solution to our broadband problem. It's time for Congress, the FCC and the White House to stop protecting the corporate dinosaurs and start exploring alternatives that will foster a genuine free market in high-speed Internet services.

Aside from some unnecessary sniping at Bush, this is a solid article about why you can't have nice things.

Salon.com Technology | Free American broadband!

In keeping with this trend, Colbert's name is scattered all over the set -- in the background in two places, on a plasma screen in front of him, twice on his desk and moving in a red ticker across the ground, plus his desk is in the shape of a giant "C." During the opening credits, an eagle flies around his head, and words flash across the screen: "POWERFUL," "COURAGEOUS," "EXCEPTIONAL," and also "DOMINEERING," "RELENTLESS," "GRIPPY." Yes, you read that right: Grippy. Soon, Colbert tells us about his own personal brand of no-nonsense, hard-hitting ... well, nonsense. Somewhere out there, Bill O'Reilly is fidgeting and twitching like the villain whose voodoo doll just took a thumb tack to the forehead.

In a nice play on O'Reilly's "No-Spin Zone" foolishness, Colbert wants us to know that even though his name is all over the place, the show isn't all about him. "No, this program is dedicated to you, the heroes!" he bellows. "And who are the heroes? The people who watch this show -- average, hardworking Americans. You're not the elites, you're not the country club crowd. I know for a fact that my country club would never let you in. But you get it! And you come from a long line of it-getters!"

Immediately, Colbert has his finger on the throbbing pulse of right-wing punditry, the dexterity with which they pander to the working class without getting any mud on their Italian wing-tip loafers. "On this show, your voice will be heard," Colbert reassures us, "in the form of my voice."

Which brings us to "tonight's word": truthiness. "Now I'm sure some of the word police, the 'Wordinistas' over at Webster's, are gonna say, 'Hey, that's not a word.'" But Colbert goes on to explain, "I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart. And that's exactly what's pulling our country apart today. We are divided between those who think with their head, and those who know with their heart." Next to Colbert, a bullet point flashes "No Thinking." With the glorification of ignorance at its peak, this little rant couldn't feel any more timely. It's soothing, somehow, to witness Colbert tackling the profound absurdity of the times with such unbridled glee.

It was pretty amazing last night.

[ Awesome. Except that it's making me want to get cable again... -k]

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | All-spin zone

This guide is part of the Machine Identification Code Technology project. It explains how to read the date, time, and printer serial number from forensic tracking codes in a Xerox DocuColor color laser printout.

Kudos, EFF.

EFF: DocuColor Tracking Dot Decoding Guide

Nearly exact self-similar fractal forms occur do in nature, but I'd never seen such a beautiful and perfect example until, some time after moving to Switzerland, I came across a chou Romanesco like the one above in a grocery store. This is so visually stunning an object that on first encounter it's hard to imagine you're looking at a garden vegetable rather than an alien artefact created with molecular nanotechnology.

Coolest vegetable ever.

[ Seriously. That's fucking awesome. -k]

Fractal Food

Usage Note: Decimate originally referred to the killing of every tenth person, a punishment used in the Roman army for mutinous legions. Today this meaning is commonly extended to include the killing of any large proportion of a group. Sixty-six percent of the Usage Panel accepts this extension in the sentence The Jewish population of Germany was decimated by the war, even though it is common knowledge that the number of Jews killed was much greater than a tenth of the original population. However, when the meaning is further extended to include large-scale destruction other than killing, as in The supply of fresh produce was decimated by the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, only 26 percent of the Panel accepts the usage.

I finally got sick of wondering how acceptable it is to use "decimate" in various contexts. Like most, I use it pretty wantonly, to mean "massive devastation", but in the back of my mind, it bugged me. Henceforth I'll try to stick to the Panel recommendation and not use it in reference to destruction of inanimate items.

Dictionary.com/decimate

Fucking awesome. Check out the root page to see a whole bunch of other cool silicon microscopy art.

-k

Molecular Expressions: The Silicon Zoo - Thor, God of Thunder (Darkfield)

[ *This* should be televised. Fuck monster garage, american chopper and the whole Ty-Pennington-TLC-look-at-us-make-stuff genre.

I want backstory on all the teams and their vehicles. I want to watch them work and watch them fail and get information as to how and why they did in either case.

Looking forward to it.]

DARPA Grand Challenge 2005

I came here today because I believe that American democracy is in grave danger. It is no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse . I know that I am not the only one who feels that something has gone basically and badly wrong in the way America's fabled "marketplace of ideas" now functions.

How many of you, I wonder, have heard a friend or a family member in the last few years remark that it's almost as if America has entered "an alternate universe"?

[ Al gets a gold star. -k]

Al Gore at Media Conference

Recorded sound has played an important role in the cultural, social, and political life of the United States. Recognizing this, and concerned about the preservation of and long-term access to the national sound heritage, the U.S. Congress enacted the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-474). This law directed the National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB), under the aegis of the Library of Congress (LC), to conduct a study and issue a report on the current state of sound-recording archiving, preservation, and restoration activities and to recommend standards for access to preserved-sound recordings by researchers, educators, and other interested parties.

[ A study regarding the preservation of various audio, including discussions of copyright problems among others. Blogged for future reference. -k]

CLIR Reports

[ To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories.

Except Utah, which she does not fancy. ]

Declaration of Revocation� by John Cleese