As it happens, several significant new books ... could settle the debate right now -- if people take the trouble to read them.

Most public debates in the US seem to fall into this category.

Those looking for some facts to go along with their "rich people will destroy our future" hypothesis could do worse then to look at this information (and they typically do). The reality that we've accepted a several degree temperature increase over the next 100 years regardless of who is counting, coupled with recent revelations about bifurcations in the equilibrium states of oceanic systems. The worst case realistic scenario is in fact rather troubling. Not "we're all going to die" troubling, but certainly "England is no longer really a hospitable place to live" troubling.

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

] Pushed by their government, Chinese firms are shunning
] technological protocols invented abroad and developing
] their own.
]
] They want Chinese-made video discs to run on
] Chinese-invented players. They want Chinese consumers
] linking up with China-developed mobile gadgets.

A very interesting strategy. If Chinese people have Chinese electronics that only communicate using Chinese protocols then incompatibility will limit their exposure to "corrupt" western culture.

CNEWS - Tech News: China seeks to develop its own technology standards

] Essentially, Mac browsers (including Safari, Mozilla, and
] Firefox) are all designed to launch the Help Viewer
] program when the help: protocol is invoked in a web link.
] Unfortunately, the Help Viewer program, in turn, is able
] to run scripts. What this means is that a malicious user
] can set up a page with an automatic redirect that runs a
] dangerous script. More details for the tech-minded can be
] found on this MacNN thread. And if you want a terrifying
] (but harmless) example of this, go to
] http://bronosky.com/pub/AppleScript.htm. It will launch
] Terminal and run a harmless du command

mamamusings: serious os x 10.3 security problem

Archaeologists have found what they believe to be the site of the Library of Alexandria, often described as the world's first major seat of learning.

Library of Alexandria discovered

] "We are on the cusp of perfection of extreme evil -- an
] evil whose possibility spreads well beyond weapons of
] mass destruction," Joy warned recently in Wired magazine.

Bill Joy makes the Weekly World News! Preparing to put tongue firmly into side of cheek. Ahem..

Just for the public record... I still think Bill Joy is wrong, but I do feel there is reason for concern. I will continue to help the process along. Long live "The Man" who oppresses me, long live "The Machine" who oppresses us all; At least until I see a major difference between the two. The worst the machines have done to me has been to make me wait on hold for a very long time, then hang up one me, forcing me to put my trust and time in the hands of the machines again. Man has done much worse to us all at one point or another. The definition of insanity being to do the same thing over and over again while expecting different results, the problem may very well be with Man and not the Machines.. We program them to do the same thing over and over, hence making them insane. Then, we get surprised when our errors come back at us with effects multiplied 10 fold.

The Grey Goo. Really. Just remember how much The Grey Goo loves us. Take your left hand and salute your computer, say "sig bit!" Then take your right hand, salute your TV and say, "sig band!" Then after you have done that a few times, repeat "my god can beat up your god" 50 times while bowing at high speed.

And most importantly, after that, if you find anyone who can't take a good joke in the face of total destruction (distraction?), beat them up.

Yahoo! Top Stories - Super-Robots Will Wipe Out Mankind!

This is a command line UNIX utility that orders pizza.

Pizza Party - Command Line Pizza ordering program

This Meme is currently on the 3rd page of Google results for "abu ghraib prison photos".

This whole prison photo situation makes me sick.

[U: For the record, I don't think Rumsfeld should resign or anything like that. We are in the middle of a war. This situation appears to have been addressed before the public heard about it as is. ]

The Abu Ghraib Prison Photos

DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS
DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS
DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS
DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS

DomoKun Developers Video [WMV]

] NANOG actively works to produce sessions and seminars to
] help foster security on the Internet. All sessions are
] taped and converted to streaming media for all to use for
] their personal education. Slides are available for each
] session as well. Over time, this effort has generated a
] valuable online tutorial for engineers and others seeking
] to learn more about running a more secure network.

Wow. Nanog has developed an awesome collection of security presentations for previous conference.

NANOG Security Curriculum

] "These people don't tune into today's radio channels
] which are aimed at a young audience. Our service allows
] them to discover their own music," Ashcroft said.
]
] Consumers can tailor the music stream by pressing a
] button on their phone to indicate they like or dislike a
] song.
]
] "It's self-learning. The channel will adapt over time,"
] Ashcroft said, adding wireless carriers are expected to
] charge a monthly fee of between 10 to 15 euros for the
] service.
]
] Sony's service, for which it has no name yet, will work
] on advanced multimedia handsets running on the Symbian
] software system, available on phones from Nokia, Siemens
] AG, Sony Ericsson, Sendo and others.

Interesting. This was being worked on at MongoMusic back in 2000 at time of assimilation. Sony and Nokia were even the primary investors for its last round of funding. If I'm reading between the lines correctly, this means someone really does not want (or was unable) to work with Microsoft. They already put out the capitol to develop the technology they speak of here once before. Mongo's secret sauce was based on the "Sounds Like" technology, but MongoRadio did have a direct feedback mechanism for its playlist generation. MS re-implemented everything done at Mongo (it was all *nix based), and the radio player seems to exist in the Music section of MSN as "Radio Plus", however I can't use it. It requires MS as a platform.

What existed in 2000 fits the description made here. I wonder if the technology continued to be developed independently, if it would have gotten more use. I wonder if the company could have survived. Hrm..

Sony to deliver collaborative filtered music over cellphones.