Danny Yee >> Pathologically Polymathic (blog)

October 2009

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Birth of the Chess Queen [my review]
powerful women and chess in medieval Europe
UK War on Drugs: why employ experts if you don't want their advice? - Independent
Zola's novels are more dangerous than video games - SMH [via @GeordieGuy]
Philip Roth on the future of the novel - Guardian - YouTube
a cult, limited to "maybe more people than now read Latin poetry"
The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon - YouTube [via @zeldman]
an interview with neurobiologist Lesley Rogers - Science [via Jesana Stone]
I got to play with the new Kindle, thanks to @seancarmody - Amazon
an impressive device, but not open enough for me - at a minimum I'd need to be able to get PDFs on and off it without involving Amazon or proprietary software
parody of a museum exhibition: Lord It's the Samurai - AA [via Frog in a Well]
the Wilderness Society is a charity, but Aid/Watch isn't? - Crikey
traditional Geocities design, done in CSS - CSS Zen [via @zeldman]
a fishtank has a much smaller eco-footprint than a dog - Stuff [via /.]
Vietnam: A Natural History [my review]
biogeography, flora and fauna, and conservation
hard to avoid McDonalds in the US; easy in Iceland - Strange Maps - Yahoo
the BBC bowdlerizes Humpty Dumpty - ABC [via @NewtonMark]
the original score to 4'33" has been lost - Wiki
they're really going to shut-down Geocities - ArchiveTeam
you'd think advertising would cover the costs of running it, maybe read-only
Brooksley Born tried to regulate derivatives - PBS [video]
how children lost the freedom to roam - DailyMail [via @epacris71]
American enterprise in Afghanistan in the 1950s - BBC [via Chapati]
starlings on Otmoor - YouTube [via @epacris71]
Citibank raises many credit card rates to 30% - BusinessInsider
turning empty airplane seats into economy class "beds" - SMH
I'd pay $150 extra for this on a long-haul flight, for sure
Hungary creates ombudsman for future generations - IdentityCampaigning [via @miriamlyons]
and "any Ecuadorian citizen now has the right to bring a lawsuit on behalf of nature"
economic terrorism: destroying Palestinian olive trees - Economist
electric cars are really coming, at least in Europe - Economist
Australian classification board wants to censor iPhone apps?! - ITnews [via @NewtonMark]
Q.E.D. Beauty in Mathematical Proof [my review]
feminism has brought us a long way since 1963! - NAA [via @seancarmody]
will Australia's National Broadband Network increase Internet costs? - BS [via @stilherrian]
population growth is not the the problem - Monbiot [via @marklauer]
"It's time we had the guts to name the problem. It's not sex; it's money. It's not the poor; it's the rich."
gearing in the name of God - SMH
Sydney's Anglicans lose $160 million; Archbishop won't own up to greed
blood sample from leech used to identify criminal - ABC [via Link]
for-profit education has not been a success - CT
and the idea that a university is just like any other business is just wrong
push or pull for asylum seekers coming to Australia? - Crikey [via @seancarmody]
better regulation of UK mortgages - Telegraph
but "125pc mortgages" still aren't banned
Detroit's contribution to Allied victory in WWII - Life [via @stilgherrian]
the geography of US job gains/losses - Tips [animation]
six vowels in a row? - Euouae
there are a million empty homes in the UK - Guardian
there are credit cards in the US with 80% interest rates! - SanDiego
one way to get people to use the stairs instead of the escalator - YouTube
pink baby clothes and gender construction - ModernMama
is the financial sector a cancer on the real economy? - HuffingtonPost
translator Natasha Wimmer discusses Roberto Bolano - CAtranslation [audio]
Japan to 1600: A Social and Economic History [my review]
Australia Post won't sell Nabokov, Nin, or Foucault?! - Crikey
hundreds of other "mainstream shops" sell them without any problems
T-Mobile Sidekick users lose their personal data - SFgate
an illustration of the danger of having information locked in a proprietary system
Trafigura should be deregistered, its assets confiscated, and its directors prosecuted - Guardian
the restoration of the Baphuon temple at Angkor - CambodiaOnline
(I've just been to a talk by architect Pascal Royere on this.)
it is possible to obfuscate Python if you try - Python
how Japan's health care funding works - PBS
"cash waiting on the sidelines" is a bad argument for equities - StubbornMule
the Australian government is still propping up the RMBS market - News
desperately trying to stop a house price crash
no-money-down mortgages back in the UK?! - Bloomberg
artificially sustaining debt levels and house prices can only last so long
Nepalese Maoists disapprove of Nobel Prize going to Mueller - EconomicTimes [via CR]
NSW Computer Crime unit recommends using a Linux liveCD for banking - ITnews [via Link]
FBI director won't bank online - PCWorld [via /.]
an interview with Brian Kernighan - ComputerWorld [via /.]
you don't know who Herta Müller is? - CompleteReview
is the US dollar really going to implode? - GEA
"Somewhere, something is going to blow sky high, but from where I sit, it's as likely to be in the Yen, the Swiss Franc, the British Pound, or something no one is watching at all"
a floating house for New Orleans - SFgate
the metro proposal for Sydney is just stupid - EcoTransit
Iceland is still whaling?! - Telegraph
it seems like a bad time to annoy the rest of the world...
is California a failed state? - Guardian
the war on cancer is not going well - Fortune
(this is from 2004, but not much has changed)
a history of English marriage (book review) - Telegraph
Forestry Tasmania has gone feral - SMH
90+% of Australians support abortion, 57% on demand - SMH
the complexity of the US mortgage system: MERS v Kansas - CalculatedRisk
an authorised sequel to the Winnie-the-Pooh books - Guardian
writers of the No - Bartleby and Co. [my review]
in Detroit, some families can't afford to bury the dead - CNN
and the county's budget to bury unclaimed bodies has run out
"we are certainly in a deflationary state" - GlobeMail
I've just ordered a $151 computer
Foxconn RS-233 case+PSU + Foxconn 45CS motherboard w/CPU + Kingston 1GB memory
questions for Nestle - PhDparenting
UK cottage comes with two nuclear power plants - RentedSpaces [via Patrick]
Interdisciplinary Initiative to Reduce Pan-European Cormorant-Fisheries Conflicts - INTERCAFE
Mahmoud Darwish's poetry - Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? [my review]
typhoon Ketsana hammers Philippines, Vietnam - MSNBC
Vatican says only 2%-5% of Catholic clergy sexually abuse children - Guardian
and most of them are teenagers, so it's not so bad (!!!)
how should savings be taxed? - AusTreasury [via @JaneHadfield]
photos of the world's oldest organisms - RachelSussman [via @epacris71]

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Pathologically Polymathic (blog) << Danny Yee