It is commonly agreed that the destruction of the ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt was one of the most devastating losses of knowledge in all of civilization. Today, however, the digital information that drives our world and powers our economy is in many ways more susceptible to loss than the papyrus and parchment at Alexandria.

An estimated 44 percent of Web sites that existed in 1998 vanished without a trace within just one year. The average life span of a Web site is only 44 to 75 days.
...
Changing file and hardware formats, or computer viruses and hard-drive crashes, can render years of creativity inaccessible.

By contrast, the Library of Congress has in its care millions of printed works, some on stone or animal skin that have survived for centuries. The challenges underlying digital preservation led Congress in 2000 to appropriate $100 million for the Library of Congress to lead the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, a growing partnership of 67 organizations charged with preserving and making accessible "born digital" information for current and future generations.

Some of the crucial programs funded by NDIIPP include the archiving of important Web sites such as those covering federal elections and Hurricane Katrina; public health, geospatial and map data; public television and foreign news broadcasts; and other vital born-digital content.

Unfortunately, the program is threatened. In February, Congress passed and the president signed legislation rescinding $47 million of the program's approved funding. This jeopardizes an additional $37 million in matching, non-federal funds that partners would contribute as in-kind donations.

Well, i guess they needed that money to not buy body armor or adequate medical care for the soldiers.

Jim Barksdale and Francine Berman - Saving Our Digital Heritage - washingtonpost.com

The most effective way to find and destroy a land mine is to step on it.

This has bad results, of course, if you're a human. But not so much if you're a robot and have as many legs as a centipede sticking out from your body. That's why Mark Tilden, a robotics physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, built something like that. At the Yuma Test Grounds in Arizona, the autonomous robot, 5 feet long and modeled on a stick-insect, strutted out for a live-fire test and worked beautifully, he says. Every time it found a mine, blew it up and lost a limb, it picked itself up and readjusted to move forward on its remaining legs, continuing to clear a path through the minefield.

Finally it was down to one leg. Still, it pulled itself forward. Tilden was ecstatic. The machine was working splendidly.

The human in command of the exercise, however -- an Army colonel -- blew a fuse.

The colonel ordered the test stopped.

Why? asked Tilden. What's wrong?

The colonel just could not stand the pathos of watching the burned, scarred and crippled machine drag itself forward on its last leg.

This test, he charged, was inhumane.

Interesting article...

Bots on The Ground - washingtonpost.com

Jenny started her research by crafting a pong controller made from a bra. Touching the left breast made the pong paddle go left and the right breast made the paddle go right. I then found out about a phenomenon called gamer widowhood where men essentially abandoned their wives to play video games night and day. I wanted to create a type of video game play that would center around a couple's intimacy and where two people would touch each other in order to play the game

very cool

Intimate Game Controllers

New "pawn shop" laws are springing up across the United States that will make selling your used CDs at the local record shop something akin to getting arrested. No, you won't spend any time in jail, but you'll certainly feel like a criminal once the local record shop makes copies of all of your identifying information and even collects your fingerprints. Such is the state of affairs in Florida, which now has the dubious distinction of being so anal about the sale of used music CDs that record shops there are starting to get out of the business of dealing with used content because they don't want to pay a $10,000 bond for the "right" to treat their customers like criminals.

How outrageous is that!

Fuckers.

-k

Record shops: Used CDs? Ihre papieren, bitte!

This truely is an amazing place. These pictures cannot do it justice, but perhaps its a taste... (Yes we took these.)

[ Man, you're making me want to go back... what a great place... -k]

Pictures from Banff so far...

When the committees began to inquire into the firings of the U.S. attorneys, the official said, Congress had a right to know that the firings were part of an ambitious effort to install administration loyalists throughout the department. The official spoke on the condition that neither his position nor agency be identified, because he feared retaliation from his superiors and the White House for disclosing aspects of the program.

Referring to the firings of the U.S. attorneys and the broader plan targeting other Justice employees, the senior official said, "You cannot separate one from the other. They were one and part of the same plan by the White House."

Murray Waas once again showing why he may be the best political reporter in all of Washington (his only competition coming from Sy Hersh).

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Secret Order By Gonzales Delegated Extraordinary Powers To Aides (04/30/07)

This 40 story tall tower just outside Seville, Spain is actually a new solar thermal power plant. Operated by Sol�car Energ�a, the facility uses 600 mirrors on the ground to tightly focus the sun's rays on water pipes at the top of the tower. The heat converts the water into steam that drive turbines to generate electricity. It's the photo of the reflected solar rays hitting the tower that really impresses me though.

It really is gorgeous...

Boing Boing: Solar power plant looks heavenly

There's good news for those of us who were dismayed at the cancellation of "Dead Like Me." The dark comedy about the trials and tribulations of a group of grim reapers may come back to life -- briefly, at least.

"Dead Like Me," the popular Showtime television series starring Mandy Patinkin and Ellen Muth, is returning as a made-for-DVD movie. MGM told Moviehole.com that Stephen Herek ("The Mighty Ducks") will direct the new film. There's no word yet on who’ll be starring in the film -- but hopefully they'll revive the original cast.

Um, woot? I can't tell if this is going to be a good thing or not...

But here's hoping.

Science fiction news from SyFy Portal: Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Doctor Who, and more

Matt was working as a contractor for a branch of the government. He made the mistake of being interested in the hobby of paper target shooting at about the same time as the VA Tech shootings and talking to someone about this hobby at work. Keep in mind he wasn’t even talking about those shootings, in fact he was discussing how he wanted a gun which would make it difficult to kill someone.

He was promptly fired and not allowed back to work because people were scared of him.

To top it all off, he was later visited by police detectives for making a comic about his experience, because it was a “borderline terroristic threat.” (Is “terroristic” even a word? Did they get that from the Colbert report?)

Wow. Welcome to the new america.

Diesel Sweeties Newsblog » Blog Archive » Webcomics = Terrorism? Whaa?

Decius wrote:
I like this... Not quite sure where MemeStreams is though.

Assuming the map wraps around at the edges like it should, I'd say we're a little dot on the far right hand side almost touching the edge, due East of del.icio.us, in the Sea Of Memes. The Blogipeligo lies to the southeast, offering fertile seas for fishing and trawling. The forgotten, undersea lands of Usenet, offered back to us by the powerful wizard Google, as well as proximity to the the IRC Isles and the sprawling confederacy of Wikipedia provide resources and expertise, though the confusing winds and maze-like interconnected channels can often result in many days lost at sea, drifting from isle to isle in search of an exit.

Some of us (cough*acidus*cough) have been known to conduct raids into the Straits of Web 2.0 while others have long since been lost, roaming the northern islands of WoW and EQ after becoming disoriented in the frigid and chartless wastes of the NOOB Sea.

:)

RE: xkcd - Map of online communities