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| "You will learn who your daddy is, that's for sure, but mostly, Ann, you will just shut the fuck up."
-Henry Rollins |
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BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Bosnia unveils Bruce Lee bronze |
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| Topic: Miscellaneous |
2:11 pm EST, Nov 28, 2005 |
Lee was chosen by organisers as a symbol of the fight against ethnic divisions. "We will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats," said Veselin Gatalo of the youth group Urban Movement Mostar. "But one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee."
If it hadn't come the BBC, i'd be certain this was a joke. I'm not saying bruce lee can't be a symbol or anything, but you've gotta admit the above quote it pretty funny. BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Bosnia unveils Bruce Lee bronze |
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PBS: Google's Secret Plans For All That Dark Fiber? |
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| Topic: Technology |
11:43 am EST, Nov 28, 2005 |
The probable answer lies in one of Google's underground parking garages in Mountain View. There, in a secret area off-limits even to regular GoogleFolk, is a shipping container. But it isn't just any shipping container. This shipping container is a prototype data center. Google hired a pair of very bright industrial designers to figure out how to cram the greatest number of CPUs, the most storage, memory and power support into a 20- or 40-foot box. We're talking about 5000 Opteron processors and 3.5 petabytes of disk storage that can be dropped-off overnight by a tractor-trailer rig. The idea is to plant one of these puppies anywhere Google owns access to fiber, basically turning the entire Internet into a giant processing and storage grid. While Google could put these containers anywhere, it makes the most sense to place them at Internet peering points, of which there are about 300 worldwide. Two years ago Google had one data center. Today they are reported to have 64. Two years from now, they will have 300-plus. The advantage to having so many data centers goes beyond simple redundancy and fault tolerance. They get Google closer to users, reducing latency. They offer inter-datacenter communication and load-balancing using that no-longer-dark fiber Google owns. But most especially, they offer super-high bandwidth connections at all peering ISPs at little or no incremental cost to Google. Where some other outfit might put a router, Google is putting an entire data center, and the results are profound. Take Internet TV as an example..... Huh. Interesting, Cringley. Interesting. PBS: Google's Secret Plans For All That Dark Fiber? |
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Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | Scientists, be on guard ... ET might be a malicious hacker |
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| Topic: Computer Security |
11:38 am EST, Nov 28, 2005 |
He believes scientists searching the heavens for signals from extra-terrestrial civilisations are putting Earth's security at risk, by distributing the jumble of signals they receive to computers all over the world.
Now why didn't I think of that! [ This concept has been found in sci-fi for as long as there have been networks of computers. Vernor Vinge, in particular, comes back to the concept of manipulating plantary data netwoks in many books (including the pre-cyberspace-era True Names, which is considered a very important work by many very smart people). I don't think we have much to worry about. Not because I don't think it can be done... surely digital computers wouldn't be beyond an advanced race, but becuase I think they'd have to be nearby. Latency to other star systems is a bitch. I suppose it's not impossible that some race is broadcasting a cleverly mutating virus targeted at digital systems, but I kinda doubt it. -k] Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | Scientists, be on guard ... ET might be a malicious hacker |
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CBS News | A Topsy-Turvy Christmas | November 9, 2005 11:00:06 |
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| Topic: Miscellaneous |
3:14 pm EST, Nov 25, 2005 |
(CBS) The latest in Christmas trees by be the start of a new craze — or it may just drive Santa crazy. A Chicago man has come up an item that could turn the holiday on its head: pre-lit fake firs that are upside-down, resting on what is usually the point at the top.
[ That looks fucking stupid. Not as stupid as the "Early Show" glued-on-smile brigade, but stupid nonetheless. I want to know where my genetically engineered Firefly+Fir tree is, dammit. The one that glows itself via bioluminescence via a protein added to the water? *That's* fucking cool. I hang brain on the upside down tree. Stupid dark ages technology. -k ] CBS News | A Topsy-Turvy Christmas | November 9, 2005 11:00:06 |
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| Topic: Arts |
10:50 am EST, Nov 25, 2005 |
Very cool generative, fractal, rule-based and algorythmic web art. [ His earlier (?) work is also available at complexification.net, as well as some prints you can purchase. Personally, I really wish he offered a print of "substrate". I think it's wonderful to look at. -k] Levitated |
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Scenes From A Bush Thanksgiving / Dubya pouts, Cheney scowls, no one brings pie -- and why is Rove looking at Barb that way? |
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| Topic: Current Events |
10:30 am EST, Nov 25, 2005 |
Ah yes, it is that time again. The smell of roasting turkey and cigar smoke and Polo cologne, perfume like florid gasoline. Copious forced laughter that sounds like geese mating in a broom closet. It is Thanksgiving dinner at the Bush White House, where the guests mingle as though their genitals were being squeezed by manic elves, as if they were all coated in vanilla pudding being licked off by Pat Robertson. Which, truth be told, some of them seem to enjoy. A lot. [ Wow. I'm not too mature to enjoy crass mocking from time to time, so that part was entertaining, but the last paragraph is where the meat is. Thanks be given indeed. -k] Scenes From A Bush Thanksgiving / Dubya pouts, Cheney scowls, no one brings pie -- and why is Rove looking at Barb that way? |
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Hawaii Finds New Exportable Resource: Ocean Water |
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| Topic: Miscellaneous |
10:20 am EST, Nov 25, 2005 |
For decades, tourists have paid thousands of dollars for the chance to surf, snorkel and splash in the crystalline waters here. Now they're paying $5.50 a bottle to drink it. In perhaps the most bizarre consequence of a failed municipal electricity experiment, a small Japanese company, the Koyo USA Corporation, has begun bottling desalinated water pumped from 2,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean and marketing it to Japanese consumers as the purest, most nutritious beverage on earth. Those companies claim deeper seawater contains more nutrients and fewer pollutants than surface water. Kona's water, according to Koyo's chief operating officer, Kozo Kayama, is better because its source is deeper and older. "The water you're drinking is older than Jesus," Mr. Kayama said of Koyo's Mahalo water.
[ Wait, I'm confused. Older than the story of the Lord Jesus Christ's life and resurrection or older than Jesus was when he died (for our sins, etc)? Those are very different numbers, after all, and I don't drink any water that hasn't aged for at *least* one thousand years. I guess it could be said, though, that the majority of the water on earth is probably hundreds of thousands or millions of years old. Unless something caused it to break down into H2 and O, it could have gone through the cycle of evaporation and rain countless times. How does one guage the oldness of water? How... oh nevermind, I'm done. Silly snake oil vendors. -k] Hawaii Finds New Exportable Resource: Ocean Water |
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City Crime Rankings by Population Group |
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| Topic: Society |
8:39 pm EST, Nov 24, 2005 |
Atlanta is the seventh most dangerous city overall. It is the fourth most dangerous among the 208 cities of its size (100-500k). [ Hm, that may be atlanta's official population, but it's misleading due to the way the city is structured. There's no way Amherst, MA is an apples-to-apples comparison with Atlanta. And if the overall rankings are based on "crimes per capita" on a total of < 500,000, i think that's an inflated number too. I'm not saying this is a utopia, but I truly question the methodology here. I'd have to be convinced. -k] City Crime Rankings by Population Group |
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Internet Daily: Craigslist plans to make news |
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| Topic: Miscellaneous |
5:35 pm EST, Nov 23, 2005 |
Newmark said his news project will involve Web technology to let readers decide which news stories are the most important. At least one Web site is already working this field. Digg.com invites readers to submit stories to be posted on its Web site. "Once a story receives enough (votes) from (the site's visitors) it will be promoted to the front page," the site explains.
What a great idea! [ Ugh. That sucks. Sorry bro. -k] Internet Daily: Craigslist plans to make news |
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