June 30, 2008
April 21, 2008
Netherlands bicyclists
OK, one last post on Dutch velocipedal culture, because another reader reminded me of what may its most remarkable convention: no helmets! This one is really perplexing. Obviously, the only people who should wear a bicycle helmet are those who (i) use their heads for thinking or (ii) wish to appear as though they do; many Dutch people meet one...
Netherlands bicycles II
I received a lot of interesting mail in response to my speculations about the Dutch and their bicycles. Some important points, though the writers do not all agree with each other: A. Commuting and errands are done at a leisurely pace over fairly short distances; that, with the flatness of the country really does make a good bike (in the...
April 04, 2008
March 17, 2008
March 14, 2008
March 05, 2008
ICANN do anything
The Treasury Department pulls the plug on the websites of a British travel agent who sells trips to Cuba to Europeans.
February 28, 2008
This may cause a little discomfort
Obama is right to propose federal spending on electronic medical records.
February 24, 2008
February 20, 2008
January 31, 2008
Fair winds and foul
A merchant ship sets off with a working kitesail, while Congress cuts US fusion funding.
June 16, 2007
February 21, 2007
Cyberflaming
Coincidentally with the latest salvo in the, um, conversation between Mark and Glenn Reynolds, the NYT published this essay discerning and discussing a tendency for people using email and chat to be much more careless of how they come across than they would be in person. Goleman describes a so-called "online disinhibition effect" attributed by a psychologist he cites to...
January 14, 2007
The MSM and science: your cell phone will kill you!
With the appearance of the Apple iPhone the radiation alarmists are getting another hearing. Today my local paper ran a story that we can use as a template for how not to do science journalism, and how not to think about risks. The conjecture about cell phones is that because they are two-way radios, and because radio waves can hurt...
September 28, 2006
June 07, 2006
How to lose money and freedom in the same grab
Internet neutrality is the biggest crisis with the smallest headlines of the decade. The physical internet has been a common carrier since its inception, until the FCC threw it to phone and cable companies as a gift. It needs to be taken back, and Lawrence Lessig and Robert McChesney explain why. If you don't want to think this stuff through...
March 30, 2006
What won't they think of next?
A portable computer/camera combination can read emotions from facial expressions and gestures in real time.
March 09, 2006
Sex, science, and the Bush Administration
Yes, the Bush Administration is holding up approval of a vaccine against the Human Papilloma Virus because the Christian Right thinks threatening girls with cancer is a good way to keep them virgins.
January 21, 2006
Technology Alert
The decision by Nikon to close out its entire line of film camera and equipment, and more recently Konica-Minolta's exit from cameras entirely, raises an issue not covered by any of the MSM reporting. As is well, though not widely, known, babies were invented by George Eastman in 1894 to create a market for his Kodak cameras, which up to...
January 16, 2006
Lead and PVC
Lead, which is every bit as bad as Mark says it is in your body, is still the standard stabilizer for PVC (polyvinyl chloride), especially in electric cable insulation, though alternatives with somewhat inferior properties are entering the market. I hope Mark doesn't throw away all his power cords, or his computer will stop and he won't be able to...
January 15, 2006
It's back!
CNN.com - Stardust capsule lands in Utah - Jan 15, 2006On the ground, safe and sound, and so cheap: only $200m: a manned shuttle mission averages six times that, doesn't get anything like as far out, and the risk of death to astronauts has been one in fifty on each mission anyway....
January 09, 2006
Awesome
So let's everyone cross fingers for the success of this amazing piece of science: After 3 Billion Miles, Craft Returns Sunday Bearing Cosmic Dust Older Than the Sun - New York Times This little project is fascinating, brilliant, and cheap. It's the kind of thing we could do a lot of if we could let go, perhaps for about a...
November 21, 2005
More on the Analog Hole
Michael Malkin, a CS grad student at Stanford, informs me that media files can be "watermarked" with a DRM code that will survive being played into an analog signal unless it is subjected to some degree of degradation. This would mean the copies, even if made by the real-time kludge I described in my earlier post will have protection that...
More bad news for Sony
The Texas AG is filing suit against Sony. "Don't mess with Texas' PC's", he says. This is a chapter in the continued nightmare of the DRM-protected CD's....
November 19, 2005
Sony DRM meltdown
We need a new, short pithy word for "unbelievable! no, it's really, completely unbelievable!" I'm tired of saying the phrase and others like it, but it seems lately I have to every time I look at a newspaper. UNOIRCU? Unwarkoo...maybe workable... The latest repeated stimulus for the sentiment is not from Washington, but from the world of music, art,...
