] Computerised lamp posts look like being the basis of the
] biggest data network ever, as the world's traffic
] monitors set about controlling cars with wireless.

This is a longer article than most on the register, and there's a fair bit of info in it. This is the kind of network we've been wanting for years, allowing wireless internet damn near everywhere. And the concept of integrating wireless into cars, allowing inter-vehicle communication is something i've been dreaming of for at least 5 years. Coupled with a GPS, this makes automatic accident and traffic avoidance pretty trivial, allowing us to use for cars the same kinds of anti-congestion algorithms we use for packets on a network, re-routing around trouble spots.

Some negatives to go with those blue sky positives, and we'll probly see these first -- real time, all the time, monitoring of your vehicle parameters... no more speeding, no more creeping through stop signs, or squeezing on the yellow. Boring, monotonous, transporation, utilitarian only. One could biew this as a boon to public transporation, since cars will be less fun to drive.

As the article says, eventually we'll get to cars that drive themselves, automatically finding the fastest and safest route from point-to-point, but there's a lot of technical and social hurdles there.

thoughts?

The Register

] The EU has asked the WTO for permission to impose
] sanctions on U.S. goods to punish it for failing to
] repeal anti-dumping rules declared illegal by the WTO.

but, we're AMERICA! We can do whatever we want. Fuck the UN, fuck NATO, fuck the EU (except england, cuz tony & co. hooked us up in iraq) and fuck the WTO, too.

this can't be good for us.

CNN.com - EU seeks sanctions against U.S. - Jan. 15, 2004

huh. supersolid is an odd name for something that's actually barely solid, even at near absolute zero, but there could be some interesting physics here.

Glimpse of a new type of matter: Frozen helium has been turned into a solid that behaves like a superfluid.

electronic (as in the genre) music label offers music, non-drm'd mp3s, for download via Bleep - looks like $1.35 per track, and $10 or less per record.

Perhaps this is a genre where this can work... interesting experiment if nothing else.

BLEEP - Digital Downloads from Warp Records

] President Bush beckoned the nation "forward into the
] universe" on Wednesday, outlining a costly new effort to
] return Americans to the moon as early as 2015 and use it
] as a waystation to Mars and beyond.

i'm really interested in what people think about this... progressive commitment or poltical opportunism? I tend to take the latter view, personally, though i have trouble being *too* unhappy with anything that funds basic science.

second question, will such a proposal even *begin* to get through congress? i think it's unlikely, which solidifies my belief that it's a political move, so W can say "I *wanted* to fund science... but that mean 'ol congress wouldn't let me!"

a more relevant question, to me is : is the moon even a useful place for a permanent base? are there useful raw materials there? feasible means of energy generation? is using it as a launch venue sensible given its substantial (though admittedly less than earth's) gravity well?

Guys like Robert Zubrin (who is, admittedly, zealous, sometimes to the point of unreasonable) makes good arguments that the moon is pretty pointless, and there's not a lot of reason to put people there, other than nationalism, pride, and other forms of self-fellatio. Could we make more progress by devoting those resources (or even a fraction of them) towards other projects, like a space elevator (and the attendant advances in nanoscience that would be widely beneficial)?

Given how limited the budgets usually are for basic science, it's important to make sure we spend the money we do get on the most promising projects, not planetwide publicity stunts.

ABCNEWS.com : Bush Outlines Plan for 2015 Moon Landing

] Women around the world are being told they can now have
] an orgasm at the touch of a button.

Heh... no pun intended, i'm sure...

Seriously though, sounds great... anything that helps people lead more satisfying sex lives is ok with me. And this sounds a lot less intrusive (not to mention cheaper) than the frickin Orgasmatron spinal cord implant thing.

The only downside is those pesky wires.

Orgasms 'at the touch of a button'

] We would achieve this balance by issuing what I will call
] Import Certificates...

well, i'm no economist, but this seems logical to me. Fully recognizing that logic may be misleading when it comes to macroeconomics, are there any economists in the Memestreams community?

At the very least, i'm glad this stuff is getting some media attention, because it seems (again, me != econ professional) that buying more than you sell is a bad plan in the long term.

Buffet: America's growing trade deficit is selling the nation out from under us.

] At issue are "double session" CDs that include two
] versions of each song on a disc, formatted for playback
] on different kinds of devices.

i.e. normal cd audio for the CD players, and DRM'd WMA files for the computer.

] Music publishers and songwriters, who are entitled to
] payments of a few cents for every copy of a song sold,
] contend that since these double-format discs hold two
] copies of songs, they should be paid for both copies.

hahahahahahahahahahahahah! ha! what a silly mess to be in.

Rights issue dogs CD protection | CNET News.com

] [Britain]'s worst mass murderer Harold Shipman has
] hanged himself with a noose of bed sheets in his prison
] cell, never having said what drove him to kill at least
] 215 of his patients.

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

Sweet!

optics.org - News - Lasers turn cheese into art (December 2003)