Danny's Pathologically Polymathic: February 2005

John Gilmore is not happy about secret security laws - PostGazette [via /.]

apparently a secret law requires ID to be shown before flying in the US

Orhan Pamuk in trouble for speaking out on the Armenian genocide - Guardian

experiences with Finnish - Crikey

I'm back - had a great two weeks away

it may take me a while to select the best hundred or so of the 1600 photos I took...

Jamie Honan was guest blogging

Return of the Prodigal BonesEmail This Entry - Corante - Loom

Hobbit bones returned, but has DNA been contaminated?

Benjamin Disraeli wrote 16 novels - schoolnet [The Little Professor]

Seems to have reflected his outlook.

Debunking betting markets as election predictors - Quiggan - CT

Display usual volatilty to breaking news. Also efficient markets hypothesis.

Jazzed up Physics - Physics 2000 [slash]

Horribly patronising, but informative

Strength through pessimism. - El Reg

LOCKSS to keep data safe. Winston Smith updated the only copy of history.

Antarctica and climate change - El Reg

2004 Koufax Award Winners - Wampum

Astronomers find star-less galaxy - BBC

'Pack ice' suggests frozen sea on Mars - New Scientist

LandSat-7 Compositing HOWTO - Mapping Hacks

Zero intelligence trading closely mimics stock market - New Scientist

Microsoft IsNot patent application - El Reg

Also discussion on Slashdot

As Gonzo in Life as in His Work - Opinion Journal

Tom Wolfe on Hunter S. Thompson

Human 'dental chaos' linked to evolution of cooking - New Scientist

Iranian Bloggers Imprisoned - RSF [Quiggan]

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator - CCLE [Slashdot]

Savant for a day

Literary Blog - dervala [Barista]

America's worst race riot - Financial Times [Crooked Timber]

Online fraud could dent economies - El Reg

RSA Security Conference

Danny here: I'm in Whitianga, on the Coromandel Peninsula

We've had a great five days so far, with glorious weather. Camilla has been conferencing, so I've taken the car and gone off by myself - I did an overnight walk to the Pinnacles and today I've just driven to Coromandel Town and done a couple of short walks near there.

Spiegel English Language Page - Spiegel

Commemoration of WW II Dresden bombing

Altered HIV Attacks Mice Tumors - Wired [slashdot]

Blog of a bespoke savile row tailor, London - English Cut

Adverblogging, nicely done. Strangely informative

Business Casual - Geek Etiquette [Haddock]

Subtle rules of workplace clothing

DansData - Aus hardware reviews and articles - DansData

Dan back after moving house. LGA775 is about motherboard form factors.

Death of a Playwright - Guardian

Arthus Miller dies at 89

Opera calls MS on interoperability. - El Reg

Quiggan's critique of the WA canal proposal - quiggan

Back of the envelope reality check

Short roundup of open source push in Latin America - EL Reg

Web techniques behind google mapping - jgwebber [/.]

Thailand: what GDP figures don't measure - IHT

Amazonian tree ants can control their descent when they fall - New Scientist

debtors in Pakistan are selling their kidneys - Guardian

Iraq and the American Civil War - Intervention [via AntiWar]

an Islamic Iraq would have cricket but no chess - Independent [via AntiWar]

An Economist's Tale - CT - Amazon - UK

how blinkered World Bank ideologues nearly created a famine in Sierra Leone

do lobsters feel pain when cooked? - Guardian

evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr has died - Nature

the only book I have reviewed is The Evolutionary Synthesis

are there such things as "phrasal prepositions"? - Lang

Geoffrey Pullum versus the Chicago Manual of Style: "things have been discovered about English grammar in the last hundred years"

sharing as a modality of economic production - Economist - YaleLaw [PDF]

do camera lenses need protective filters? - LL

Mike Johnston says no, emphatically

cane toads advance on Darwin - Register

but over-enthusiastic locals have been killing native giant frogs

Japanese panel worries that young people don't speak proper - Guardian

was the UK Hercules downed by multiple SA-18 missiles? - Australian [via AntiWar]

a profile of Al-Sayid Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani - MSNBC [via Informed]

Israel seizes more land on the West Bank - WP

Juan Cole versus Jonah Goldberg - Informed

hardly a fair match-up!

medical care in Abu Ghraib - Time [via AntiWar]

Togo's dictator dies: any chance for real change? - HH

there are serious problems with the US patent system - IEEE [via Link]

Brazil sets the pace with free software - Reuters [via OSWALD]

"the first nation requiring all software programs developed by taxpayer funds to be licensed as open-source"

how open are Microsoft's Office formats? - MSmonitor [via OSWALD]

new thinking about bird brains - IHT [via ProRev]

"an international group of avian experts is issuing what amounts to a manifesto"

a first-hand account from Guantanamo Bay - Guardian

words fail me: by the standards of evidence used to hold this guy, everyone involved with Guantanamo Bay could be executed for war crimes

a brutal return to absolute monarchy in Nepal - Guardian

caught between Maoist rebels and feudal Hindu monarchy

an Israeli prosecutor at the Hague tribunal - Haaretz [via HH]

tales of the numinous in a South Indian village - The Legends of Khasak [review]

the star-nosed mole is among the world's fastest eaters - Eureka [via JWZ]

The Cuddly Menace - BitFurnace [via JWZ]

Orthodox Jews are three times as likely to jaywalk - New Scientist [via JWalk]

according to a study in "Transportation Research Part F (vol 7, p 395)"

a study of CD-R/DVD-R reliability - NIST [700k PDF, via /.]

"Samples containing phthalo-cyanine performed better than other dye types. In particular, phthalocyanine combined with a gold-silver alloy as a reflective layer was consistently more stable than all other types of CD-R media."

Sey Hersh: "We've been taken over by a cult" - CP [via ProRev]

"Let's all forget this word 'insurgency'. It's one of the most misleading words of all."

my Google referrals are down to 15% of normal

this blog is about the only page with normal traffic, since it never gets much from search engines

(a hint that I should keep blogging but give up writing?)

the US defense budget for 2006 is $420 billion without Iraq or Afghanistan - Reuters

seven UK soldiers face murder charges over Iraq killings - Guardian

understanding terror networks - FPRI [via CT]

a look at 400 anti-US terrorists and their backgrounds

debating the Koran with Al-Qaeda members - CSM

the science of male pregnancy - RYT [via Bifurcated]

this is a hoax - a pretty elaborate one!

postcards from Russia - BBC [via Bifurcated]

I wish the BBC would put up larger images

UK authors want a cut of secondhand sales; charities are opposed - Times [via Moor]

"Oxfam has become the largest retailer of second-hand books in Europe"

early election returns from Iraq - NYT [via AntiWar]

looks like the United Iraqi Alliance will have a clear majority

Bush's triumphalist march of folly continues - Guardian

a guide to sleeping in airports - SIA [via JWalk]

the iPod is popular with Microsoft employees - Wired

progress on discrimination in property sales in Israel - HH

it's not just Israeli Arabs who face barriers

rethinking nuclear power - Wired

"The more seriously you take the idea of global warming, the more seriously you have to take nuclear power"

Gaza ceasefire looks like falling apart already - Guardian

a brief history of the US attack on democracy in Iran - FFF [via AntiWar]

a royal coup in Nepal - Guardian - Economist

finally some rain in Sydney's water supply catchment! - BOM

that's the Wollondilly, Coxs, and Nattai rivers

the Babu is addicted to buying books - Kit

I have a bit of a problem in this area myself...