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Said the letter, signed by more than 100 professors: “Digitization is not a panacea. . . . We risk an irreversible slide that will mark the period 1995-2015 as the onset of Widener’s undoing as the world’s greatest university research library.’’ [Spasms of change?]
links for 2010-05-21
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"I'm not interested in minimal genomes or a universal chassis for synthetic biology because I think the diversity of living organisms that already exists is too valuable to ignore." [via @jamesking]
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"Drugs will finally be p2p, and governments and drug lords alike will find out what it’s like to be media companies and counterfeiters in a world of lossless copying and 100Mb pipes."
links for 2010-05-20
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"Americas bats are an essential part of a healthy environment. Nevertheless, many bat species are in alarming decline, largely because of unwarranted human fear and persecution and the loss of natural roosts."
links for 2010-05-19
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Excellent comments from readers. Says it all. [Yeah, considering leveling up to FCP.]
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"Between this, Popular Science+, and Schooloscope, you can see a little of our philosophy about product invention. Work in the popular market, and be inventive, beautiful. Respect the materials. I believe with Michel Thomas we’ve taken what’s best about the experience and made a hybrid with what’s best about the iPhone. We’re best when we partner with people who are just working out what they want to do, and we can discover together."
Culture as Augmented Reality?
I was listening to Wade Davis' Long Now talk about the wisdom of ancient cultures. Like all Long Now talks, it got me thinking. One thing that Wade said that stuck out was that other cultures are not failed attempts at being us, but other interpretations of what it means to be human.
He did mention one thing that rubbed me a bit the wrong way. When mentioning Amazonian indians who have a hallucinogen that is made from two parts from two plants, he cited the usual disbelief from our culture of how this came about. He did mention that the indians reply that the plants speak to them. But I feel he failed to say that these indians are as scientific and explorative and systematic about their world as we are and that what was figured out generations ago is now part of how they interact with nature – the plants indeed do speak to them.
He also mentioned Songlines, the songs indigenous Australians sing when traversing the outback. The songlines are an interesting mix of information and culture used to navigate the world.
That got me thinking: Are songlines a form of augmented reality? Indeed, thinking about how the plants "talk" to Amazonian indians, might culture, our encoding of information and norms and etiquette and stories, just be an augmentation over the world, and augmented reality?
By the way, the rest of the talk was mind-blowingly awesome. Listen to it.
Image from StormyDog
links for 2010-05-14
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"Monaco's achievement has not gone unnoticed. Over the past half-century many people have tried to ape its success. Most of these stabs at nationhood have been frivolous and some crackpot. But a handful have been serious, and a few aspiring Poo-Bahs have won some autonomy for their fledgling states, albeit briefly. With the number of real countries increasing—30 have sprung to life since 1990 alone—some people think one of these “micronations” could eventually be accepted as a legitimate state."
links for 2010-05-13
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"What that person will inherit is a patchwork of products that are social in one way or another but don’t fit together to form a coherent experience. Google needs to articulate how peoples’ identities and their relationships figure into its core mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”"
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Social Fundraising
links for 2010-05-12
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"Is it possible to make money by being happily hopeful about very serious things and visualising information with smiling faces? I reckon so."
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"The agency wants to know if the industry has the technology to create a system for monitoring high-volume wireless, text, and data usage, instead of sending customers massive bills for unintentional usage."
You bet they do.
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"These plugs for labor-saving devices, often unintentionally hilarious, got us wondering. Are any of them actually useful? At 3 a.m., bleary and weary of watching poker tournaments and reruns, we decided to find out. We called 1-800-IMA-SCKR and ordered some frequently advertised gadgets. Then we tested them, in the clear and rational light of day. Here is what we found."
links for 2010-05-03
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Maps of potentially redrawn New England.
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"It might seem like this process is long over, but history suggests otherwise. Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket tried to secede from Massachusetts in 1977. Killington, Vt., tried to defect to New Hampshire in 2004. And just last month, Maine Representative Henry Joy renewed his long-running attempt to split Maine into two parts. Here are five New England states that might have been–and, for all we know, might still be."
links for 2010-04-30
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"“This is my favorite protocol for extracting DNA — mostly because it seems like a magic trick,’’ said Mackenzie Cowell, an amateur scientist who was leading a hands-on workshop to show that, with simple kitchen equipment and procedures, anyone can begin to examine his or her genetic material."
Go, Mac!
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"In order to make a rubber tree's roots grow in the right direction – say, over a river – the Khasis use betel nut trunks, sliced down the middle and hollowed out, to create root-guidance systems. The thin, tender roots of the rubber tree, prevented from fanning out by the betel nut trunks, grow straight out. When they reach the other side of the river, they're allowed to take root in the soil. Given enough time, a sturdy, living bridge is produced."