Links
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Tuesday rapid fire
I suppose it’s Wednesday
- Chris Nolan has some good thoughts on the Cindy Sheehan business, dubbing her the Terry Shiavo of the left. This whole matter has gotten sordid faster than I thought it would. On the whole Nolan does fine media criticism.
- A well written (for the genre) analysis of Google Search mechanisms.
- An interesting post on making the word contextual via applied technology (my phrase not theirs) at DefenseTech.
- “the law of averages catches people at the worst times, and survival favors the protected.” and more insight, particularly about IEDs from Michael Yon. The photography is particularly good.
- Articles such as “Officials: Inmates used cell phones to coordinate riots” and many others like tend to confirm the Global Guerillas blog notion of disruption and Open Source warfare
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Friday rapid fire
- A super sonic blaster in Los Angeles (and Iraq)
- Cool military gear
- Practical and unsubsidized solar power
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Wednesday Rapid Fire
- From Yglesias
…The article claims that “In Israel, American Jewish men are considered nerds,” which seems reasonable. To this Jewish American man, Israelis seem like goyim. The older Ashkenazis, often born abroad, still have some connection to the tradition, but your average Israeli makes a mockery of Jewishness. The idea of a Jewish fireman or a Jewish sailing instructor is ridiculous, and everyone knows it. Of course to many American Jews the very outlandishness of the notion that you could not only have an entire army filled with Jews but that it could actually win wars is much of the appeal of the Zionist enterprise. Still, not the sort of thing real Jews do. One wonders how they find enough non-nearsighted fighter pilots.
- Sand Bullets in Israel – which is conveniently close to many deserts.
- .Net DNS component – and only six months after I wrote my own. This one looks better than mine though.
- Sortable Lists via CSS and Javascript
- This editorial from the Middle East Times discusses the possibility of the West closing the door to immigrants and visitors (which is probably what will happen if current trends continue) and this one from the Belgravia Dispatch deals with similar matters. I think history will eventually judge the current European assimilation problems as a failure of the welfare state. I was going to do a longer post on nationality and self-identified moral class but I think that will have to wait.
- From Yglesias
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Thursday rapid fire
- Reveal Microsoft product keys – could be quite handy, from LifeHacker
- Create a VodCast – kind of cool I suppose.
- Jury Nullification – from The Agitator
- Wireless Jammers – inevitable I suppose
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Friday Rapid Fire
Since I’m stuck on a JavaScript bug, I’ll post some thoughts and links
- Good Idea – In your cell phone address book, type ICE (in case of emergency) in front of someone’s name so paramedics can know who to contact. HT: Marginal Revolution
- uncertainty – I’m not sure that this (and it’s natural conclusion) is a good idea, though I do support the sentiment, I think.
- Backstoke of the West – Star Wars translated into Chinese, then back into English, perhaps Engrish would be a better word.
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Saturday Rapid Fire
- How to make your own Google Earth Movies
- Build your own personal 17′ windmilll/Turbine
- An office Trebuchet
- As if on cue, LifeHacker has a digital photo roundup.
- Tour de France meets Google Earth
- The future economics of Poker
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Thursday Rapid Fire
The rapid fire is almost a daily feature now.
- Belkin I-Pod Microphone
- 142 arrested in antiterrorism sweep – Why isn’t this bigger news? It happened in a major US ally (Italy) and is a staggering number for a Western country
- Pet Robot Housekeeper – or something like that from Japan
- Rove Free Zone – Thoughts from the left coast on the Wilson – Plame affair
- Annan urges U.N. expansion, reform – It’s hard to believe that was actually said out loud. And what’s been happening to the Oil For Food probe anyway? That’s been in a black hole for two months.
- Quote of the Day – “When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.” Marquis de la Grange
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Wednesday Rapid Fire
- The DefenseTech “Iraq Dairy” blog is quite good.
- Thoughts on Roomba – I still need to get one.
- The long awaited car computer is almost here
- Global warming and it’s effect on celebrity reasoning.
- Southern English
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Thursday round up
I realize I stole the “rapid-fire” notion from Defense Tech.
- < $800 Swarmable Robots – this could be the start of something wonderful, especially in agriculture and environmental cleanup. It has Linux, Bluetooth, the works. HT: Make Blog
- Roomba API – on a similar note this could be an actually workable version of the above. I still need to get a Roomba. Or else resort to vacuuming.
- The Counter Terrorism Blog – seems fairly interesting.
- The Aristocrats is coming out soon (HT the Agitator)
- Neighbors Subdue Man Stabbing Woman on NW Street
The first neighbor sprinted when he heard the screams of a woman being slashed on his Northwest Washington street. He jumped on a knife-wielding man, and the two fell to the ground, wrestling furiously in a spreading pool of the victim’s blood.
Soon, a second neighbor joined the fight, followed by three more. The assailant kept slipping from their grip and attacking the woman until they overpowered him and held him for police Tuesday night.
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Wednesday Rapid Fire
- Yahoo News with Yahoo Maps – I’ll give Google 5 days to do this too. HT: Make
- Google Maps with Transparencies – HT: Make
- A glut of flat screen technology – which would be cool.
- Google Maps Walking Distance
- New MS Money
- Mencken
“All the extravagance and incompetence of our present Government is due, in the main, to lawyers, and, in part at least, to good ones. They are responsible for nine-tenths of the useless and vicious laws that now clutter the statute-books, and for all the evils that go with the vain attempt to enforce them. Every Federal judge is a lawyer. So are most Congressmen. Every invasion of the plain rights of the citizens has a lawyer behind it. If all lawyers were hanged tomorrow, and their bones sold to a mah jong factory, we’d be freer and safer, and our taxes would be reduced by almost a half.”
- Tom G Palmer has some nice words about Admiral Stockdale, clearly the classiest guy to run for national office in quite some time.
- Yet another review of Freakonomics, this time by James Q Wilson, the authors are on the Charlie Rose program tonight. Money quote
“…quoting someone whose name I have forgotten: social scientists should never try to predict the future; they have trouble enough predicting the past.”