First of all, XKCD is one of the best geek web comics ever. How many comics have jokes about math and hand drawn maps of the Internet?

This retort to the widely covered issues with verison's understanding of how basic math works is amusing as hell.

xckd's take on Verizon Math

The Federal Trade Commission yesterday said that companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships.

In a staff opinion issued yesterday, the consumer protection agency weighed in for the first time on the practice. Though no accurate figures exist on how much money advertisers spend on such marketing, it is quickly becoming a preferred method for reaching consumers who are skeptical of other forms of advertising.

They want to put a stop to this kind of thing:

The group cited a 2002 Wall Street Journal article on a marketing campaign by Sony Ericsson Mobile for its T68i mobile phone and digital camera. The initiative, called "Fake Tourist," involved placing 60 actors posing as tourists at attractions in New York and Seattle to demonstrate the camera phone. The actors asked passersby to take their photo, which demonstrated the camera phone's capabilities, but the actors did not identify themselves as representatives for Sony Ericsson.

None of this will be necessary anyway once Industrial Memetics finishes development of it's Top Secret MemeRay. For the right price, we will make targeted demographics in a given DMA have an uncontrollable need for your product. In it's current state, all we can do is create distortions of logic that result in polarizing political views... But we will get past that hurdle!

...testing...testing...testing...LISTENTOTHEHIPHOPANDDRINKTHEDAMNSPRITE...testing...testing...testing...

FTC Moves to Unmask Word-of-Mouth Marketing - washingtonpost.com

"I'm a data guy. What I know about is how to analyze big, complicated data sets."

In 2000, he pondered who had the most interesting, most complex data sets and decided "it had to be the biology people."

Biologists are awash in DNA code. Last year alone, the Broad Institute sequenced nearly 70 billion bases of DNA, or 23 human genomes’ worth. Researchers are mining that trove to learn how humans evolved, which mutations cause cancer, and which genes respond to a given drug.

Since biology has become an information science, said Eric S. Lander, a mathematician-turned-geneticist who directs the Broad Institute, "the premium now is on being able to interpret the data." That is why quantitative-minded geeks from mathematics, physics and computer science have flocked to biology.

A Cold War Cryptologist Takes a Crack at Deciphering DNA’s Deep Secrets

Sex sells.

"It's a kind of blog that has turned into a crime-fighting resource."

"Every waking minute he’s on that computer," said his mother.

"I have a low opinion of men in general," he said.

The group's collaboration with “Dateline” has been lucrative. ... NBC [is] paying the group roughly $70,000 for each hour of television produced. Six new episodes are planned for the first half of 2007.

I am reminded of this quote:

You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you want to sell it!

Cha-ching!

We are a mere step away from live-televised, ad-supported street-level drug busts, filmed Candid Camera style, with a goofy sidekick popping out of nowhere to exclaim, with hands on cheeks in mock shock, "Oops!" as the sucker is handcuffed and deposited into the back of the police cruiser. The show could be called "Live Raid", or simply "Busted". Think of it as Room Raiders meets Cops meets Deal or No Deal.

You could also do a riff on Elimidate, wherein four women are paired with a convicted offender, then simply let the cameras roll! (With a uniformed bust crew in tow, of course. Can't be too cautious ...) The twist here is that three of the women are confederates, and paid professional actors; the fourth woman is in the dark, and so she is the real contestant on the show. The viewer's challenge is to identify the contestant among the women before she learns the true identity of her 'date' and ruins the party. The actors' challenge is for each to be eliminated in turn, so that in the last stage, the contestant "wins"; but in doing so, they should not prematurely reveal themselves to the audience as confederates.

You could also do a "suspense" version where the viewers are "in" on the conspiracy, and the question is whether the contestant will learn the truth before the date is done.

For safety and insurance reasons, of course, you might want to just use an actor for the male role, too.

Web Site Hunts Pedophiles, and TV Goes Along

"This is a major step forward to keep these predators off the Internet," McDonnell said. "We want to be a leader with legislation to protect kids."

Here's how the plan would work: After the state obtained a predator's e-mail addresses, officials would turn them over to MySpace. The company, using new software, would then block anyone using that e-mail address from entering the site.

Did somebody say new software? It's Sarb-Ox all over again.

"We are certainly going to put public safety ahead of these civil liberties concerns," said McDonnell.

"Public safety" is code for "business opportunity" and political "self preservation".

Dare anyone ask why there is suddenly such urgency?

Shouldn't we have a registry for terrorist e-mail addresses? I mean, no one wants a child talking to a predator, but EVERYONE is at risk when terrorists go Friending.

Virginia Proposal Aims to Keep Sex Offenders Off Networking Sites

All my life since has been a learning experience. Now I want to pass on five lessons I have learned during 10 years as secretary general of the United Nations that I believe the community of nations needs to learn as it confronts the challenges of the 21st century.

These seem true but obvious, although history has borne out the cost of learning these lessons one at a time (and time and time, again).

Kofi Annan - What I've Learned

Decius just pointed out that MemeStreams turned five years old recently, and none of us remembered to say anything about it...

MemeStreams was first openned to the public on December 5th, 2001, so December 5th, 2006 was MemeStreams' 5th birthday. I'm sorry I didn't think of this until now. We're certainly not the media moguls that we thought we'd be when we started this thing, but its kept our attention and interest for a long time mostly because of all of the other people who hang out here who have interesting things to say and contribute. We thank all of you for being a part of it. Here's to another interesting 5 years!

We should have waited two days to go live with the site.. We could have made tasteless jokes about the day living in infamy.

However, according to Wikipedia, we do have some things we can use for bad jokes:

1848 - California Gold Rush: In a message before the U.S. Congress, US President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.

1933 - Prohibition ends: Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the 18th Amendment which had outlawed alcohol in the United States).

1945 - Flight 19 is lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

Walt Disney was also born..

MemeStreams 5th Birthday

Oh boy...

Any social-networking site must take "effective measures" to remove any Web page that's "associated" with a sex offender.

Because "social-networking site" isn't defined, it could encompass MemeStreams.

"This constitutionally dubious proposal is being made apparently mostly based on fear or political considerations rather than on the facts," said EFF's Bankston.

In other words, Sen. McCain would like to welcome you to the social wedge issue for the 2008 election: Internet Predators.

Calling this "Constitutionally dubious" is the understatement of the year. However, anyone who raises their voice in opposition to this will be branded as a pedophile sympathizer, so you can rest assured that this will roll through Congress like a hot knife through butter. The inevitable result will be a Constitutional challenge and a lot of really pissed off people on the Internet, as every independent blogger, and every small website like this one, will be forced to comply with federal regulations that were designed with multi-million dollar companies in mind. Of course, thats impossible, but unlike Clinton, Bush will not forgo enforcement pending the outcome of the challenge, resulting in what will basically amount to a fundamental threat to the future of online discourse.

As the 2008 election season unfolds this thing will be winding its way through the federal appeals process, with a literal 5 alarm fire burning online as site after site shuts down out of fear of liability that some user might have committed statutory rape while in high school 30 years ago. Conservative pundits will be handed a constant stream of angry commentary from Internet users and quotations from civil liberties attorneys like Bankston to hold up before the masses while saying things like "these liberals want to defend child molestors, this is what you get if you vote for a Democrat!"

But, there is one thing they're not counting on. This isn't 1995. Today, all of the smart, well educated, powerful people in this country use online discussion systems. Obviously, the Republicans haven't figured out where their money is coming from. If they really decide to carpet bomb the Internet they may be in for a surprise. Would you donate money to the guy who killed your favorite website?

The cure to online predators: Stop online discussion. Brilliant!

There is an excellent interview with Trey Parker and Matt stone in Reason Magazine. Read the whole thing. This quote has been going around the Internet to much joy:

Reason: When it looked like Comedy Central wasn’t going to rerun the Mary episode, people were still able to download it illegally online. Did you see that as a victory for free speech, or did you think, “My God, these people are stealing our intellectual property”?

Stone: We’re always in favor of people downloading. Always.

Reason: Why?

Stone: It’s how a lot of people see the show. And it’s never hurt us. We’ve done nothing but been successful with the show. How could you ever get mad about somebody who wants to see your stuff?

Parker: We worked really hard making that show, and the reason you do it is because you want people to see it.

The article also goes into their personal political philosophy. Which shouldn't surprise anyone, leans way more libertarian than left..

Parker: To some degree, South Park has a simple formula that came from the very first episode [“The Spirit of Christmas,” which featured Jesus and Santa fighting over who owned the holiday]. There was Jesus on this side and there was Santa on this side, there’s Christianity here and there’s Christmas commercialism here, and they’re duking it out. And there are these four boys in the middle going, “Dude, chill out.” It’s really what Team America is as well: taking an extremist on this side and an extremist on that side. Michael Moore being an extremist is just as bad, you know, as Donald Rumsfeld. It’s like they’re the same person. It takes a fourth-grade kid to go, “You both remind me of each other.” The show is saying that there is a middle ground, that most of us actually live in this middle ground, and that all you extremists are the ones who have the microphones because you’re the most interesting to listen to, but actually this group isn’t evil, that group isn’t evil, and there’s something to be worked out here.

Reason: Each of you at various points have called yourself libertarian. Is that an apt description?

Parker: People started throwing that word around to describe us right around the second or third season. They would sit us down and go, “So are you libertarian?” And I would always say, “I don’t know, am I? You’ve seen my stuff.”

I still don’t really know the answer to that question. I think I am, though.

Stone: I think it is an apt description for me personally, and that has probably seeped into the show. But we never set out to do a libertarian show.

Reason: When you say libertarian, what do you mean?

Stone: I had Birkenstocks in high school. I was that guy. And I was sure that those people on the other side of the political spectrum were trying to control my life. And then I went to Boulder and got rid of my Birkenstocks immediately, because everyone else had them and I realized that these people over here want to control my life too. I guess that defines my political philosophy. If anybody’s telling me what I should do, then you’ve got to really convince me that it’s worth doing.

Reason Magazine - South Park Libertarians

Owners of $600 smartphones can rejoice in last week's ruling by the Library of Congress exempting cell phone unlocking from the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. So can environmentalists and business travelers.

I had asked for this rule on behalf of Robert Pinkerton, an individual who traveled frequently for business, and The Wireless Alliance, an organization that refurbishes, resells and recycles handsets. Pinkerton found that phone locking prevented him from using his handset when traveling. The Wireless Alliance found that the restrictions interfered in its efforts to keep phones in circulation and out of landfills.

But prepaid wireless purveyor TracFone called me this week to explain how the ruling I fought for will hurt poor people's ability to afford cell phone service. Which one of us is right?

TracFone's subsidy of these phones is so large that everyone in this gray-market resale chain can make a couple of dollars a handset, and the end customer still gets a discount. As a result, TracFone is losing millions of dollars, as it fails to reap the intended economic benefit of its subsidy. The company actually tries to reduce the number of handsets on the shelf at major retailers to prevent mass purchases for arbitrage.

The company's lawyers say the new DMCA exemption will rob them of a tool to crack down on the resellers, who they call criminals.

But my view is that TracFone was an unintended beneficiary of the DMCA and is now an unintended victim of the exemption. While prepaid is an interesting and perhaps socially beneficial business model, there are other values at stake, too. Customers should have the right to alter or modify devices that they own. Consumers and the environment generally benefit from competition and innovation enabled by phone unlocking.

Wired News: Cell Phones Freed! Poor Suffer?