Assorted Links of Curiosity 12.16.10

Another busy day for the BrothersFiasco.  Without much introduction, here is another installment of Assorted for your viewing pleasure.

How long will it take Republicans to demoralize their base?

Traditionally, movement conservatives send Republicans to Congress in great waves to clean everything up and create a glorious new Morning in America, and then about 10 minutes into the new Congress, all the Republicans are divvying up the pork-barrel money with as much gusto as Tammany Hall fat cats in a Thomas Nast cartoon, and no one really cares, because that’s just how things are done. The mainstream political press is too cynical about the entire concept of governance to get outraged and the partisan press is there to get Republicans elected, not punish them for sucking at the public teat.

But there are indications that that’s changing.

Hey, I wasn’t alive for this so I had no idea it ever happened. The day Niagara Falls ran dry: Newly-discovered photos show the moment the iconic waterfall came to a standstill

YESSSS! An expert panel convened by President Barack Obama advised vigilance and self-regulation as scientists seeks ways to create new organisms that could spark useful innovations in clean energy, pollution control and medicine.

Data visualization and all things related continued its ascent this year with projects popping up all over the place. Some were good, and a lot were not so good.

Diane Ravitch Is Making a Number of Interesting Claims

Crimes on the Book of Faces (subtitle: Criminals can be REALLY REALLY STUPID)

No, you didn’t read it wrong. WikiLeaks inspires sanitary pad ad in Pakistan

‘The sea gave her back’: Wonder in Israel as ancient Roman statue buried for centuries is uncovered by powerful winter storm

Does Economic Inequality Cause Crises?

I know, it seems like this one should be getting a little more play, right? Doctors Claim HIV-Positive Man Cured by Stem Cell Transplant

Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system

Image of the Day: A Map of Facebook’s World – A Facebook intern named Paul Butler has created a fascinating piece: a map of the world based only on Facebook friendships. There aren’t any lines here from anything but Facebook accounts and their links to friends in other cities.

Why do we let this creepy company called Google spy on our emails?

Free The Military Of Its Bigots – “It would seem to me that the military would be better served by ridding itself of its ignorant bigots than its gays and lesbians.  And the same could be said of the bigots in Congress opposed to the repeal of DADT.  Yes, that would mean you John McCain.”

The Secret Secret – “If you cannot decipher and interpret letters and symbols, you cannot read. If you cannot access letters and symbols, you also cannot read.”

 

Enjoy, friends.  There’s a lot there to get those gears a turnin’.

Farewell Internet Freedom. It Has Been Fun.

On 02 December 2010, The Washington Times published an editorial entitled Wave Good to Internet Freedom where they discuss the FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski‘s plan to add the internet to industries that the FCC regulates.  In the draft circulated Genachowski says he will “preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet.”

Gulp.

With a straight face, Mr. Genachowski suggested that government red tape will increase the “freedom” of online services that have flourished because bureaucratic busybodies have been blocked from tinkering with the Web. Ordinarily, it would be appropriate at this point to supply an example from the proposed regulations illustrating the problem. Mr. Genachowski‘s draft document has over 550 footnotes and is stamped “non-public, for internal use only” to ensure nobody outside the agency sees it until the rules are approved in a scheduled Dec. 21 vote. So much for “openness.”

The Washington Times seems to laugh wholeheartedly at this notion.

With a straight face, Mr. Genachowski suggested that government red tape will increase the “freedom” of online services that have flourished because bureaucratic busybodies have been blocked from tinkering with the Web. Ordinarily, it would be appropriate at this point to supply an example from the proposed regulations illustrating the problem. Mr. Genachowski‘s draft document has over 550 footnotes and is stamped “non-public, for internal use only” to ensure nobody outside the agency sees it until the rules are approved in a scheduled Dec. 21 vote. So much for “openness.”

Luckily a bi-partisan majority has shot down previous FCC attempts at any bill that would change a hands-off policy of the internet.

The next day, completely unrelated, Senators Scott Brown (R-Mass), John Ensign (R-Nev.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) introduced a bill Thursday trying to stop limit accountability and transparency by making it illegal to publish the names of military or intelligence community informants.  The three war hawks are accusing Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks brilliance of impeding the “war” effort by leaking documents detailing the troubling secrecy that is American diplomacy.

“Our sources are bravely risking their lives when they stand up against the tyranny of al Qaeda, the Taliban and murderous regimes, and I simply will not stand idly by as they become death targets because of Julian Assange,”

As of today, nobody has become a death target, except Julian Assange.

Attorney General Eric Holder recently pledged to close gaps in the law that allow sites like WikiLeaks to continue to operate.
The Securing Human Intelligence and Enforcing Lawful Dissemination Act (SHIELD) would give the government the flexibility to pursue Assange for allegedly outing confidential U.S. informants. Brown said the law would prevent anyone from compromising national security in a similar manner, while Lieberman said its passage was essential to restore the international diplomatic community’s faith in the U.S.

Apparently restoring the international diplomatic community’s faith in the U.S. means to cover up the daily shenanigans of what really is taking place.  It is one thing for Hillary Clinton to ask about the President of Argentina and it is another to cover up Arab nations urging the U.S. to launch a first strike on Iran and the Chinese government’s  involvement  in computer hacking.

“Our foreign representatives, allies and intelligence sources must have the clear assurance that their lives will not be endangered by those with opposing agendas, whether they are Americans or not, and our government must make it clear that revealing the identities of these individuals will not be tolerated,” Lieberman said.

Liberman says that lives will not be endangered by those with opposing agendas.  What about our freedoms, Joe?

Assorted Links of Curiosity 12.02

Another batch of links for your curious minds:

• Is the Universe a Holographic Reality?
• Why Are You Here? A New Theory May Hold the Missing Piece
• Straight from Harry Potter… CNN Reports on a ‘Space-time cloak’
• Don’t act like you haven’t wondered this yourself:  What would happen if I drilled a tunnel through the center of the Earth and jumped into it?
• How to Buck Up the Science Ladies, an easy way to boost women’s scores in physics
• Can Eliminating Roads Eliminate Traffic?
• What If Solar Were Subsidized Like Oil? Finally, a useful graphic about fossil fuel versus solar subsidies.
• RCA Airnergy promises usable power generated from Wi-Fi signals. Possible?
• Google’s Flaw, A crime against knowledge.