Tuesdays don’t require lead-ins.

• How The Onion tackles tech
• Bio-inspired construction leads us closer to transparent aluminum
• Phone Companies Refuse to Provide Data on Spy Program
• “He had refused to drop the camera which could be used as a weapon.” – Good luck with that one. Link has video.
• AT&T threatens to take its ball and go home over Connecticut TV rules – Someone pushes back on state video franchising, even if only on a technicality. The big fella’s really don’t want to talk about the nuts and bolts of this legislation, as then people will see what they are losing so that ‘video service providers’ can serve a select marketing group.

Maybe more later, I’m pretty busy.

Today’s Vocab Word: Flatulence

I didn’t want to do this, but they made me.

• Colbert writes Dowd’s column.
• Men should ejaculate more. As if there needed to be a legitimate reason
• Mmmm, Ritalin nachos.
• This 2 part series from DKos is an interesting thought experiment: Part 1, Part 2.
• TPM Muckraker is awesome. Plenty to read there.
• Radiohead’s Warm Glow – An analysis of the ‘donation’ model of the band Radiohead’s most recent release
• FCC lifts AT&T pricing restrictions – While this doesn’t affect consumers directly, it could prove to be extremely detrimental to smaller, local phone and internet providers by allowing AT&T to increase backbone access rates. One more deregulation in the name of consolidation…er, I mean, competition.

More later.

Today’s Vocab Words: revanchism, femtocells

It’s back. And just in time for you to read it. Aren’t you glad? You are now!

• And then there were 4 – Turned out how I expected, although I underestimated Mr. Hayek’s percentage. Here’s John Deeth’s take.
• Riverboat era ending – While I’m not big on casino’s in general, I did have an appreciation for the riverboats [I was a passenger on the Casino Belle at one point, couldn’t gamble (14) but it was still worth the trip]. I wish they had stayed with the ‘it has to move on the water’ clause instead of legalizing land-based gambling by increments.
• The Press-Citizen says “business is set to grow” in Iowa City. A day later, it says “business is booming” in Iowa City. How’s that for a prediction! I wonder what tomorrow will bring…
• In the same vein as above, the local realtors [with an assist by the P-C] are claiming “The Local Market Is Strong“, but the commentors [rightfully] didn’t buy it. I had the same feeling as most just from the headline, but I didn’t put the ‘largest advertisor’ together until reading iowahawkeye‘s comment.
• Complete Internet Census taken. Watch for the shoutout to the xkcd webcomic for the mapping algorithm.
• Microblogging? Google owns some now.
• Tin whiskers? New one on me.
• Bit-Torrent assisted streaming video is on the horizon.
• “It is not a cost overrun. It is an additional contract requirement.”
• King Corn – Just got my hands on a copy and will be viewing it this evening, may try to provide it on PATV.

Today’s Vocab word(s): deep linking

I have a bit of an Ars-fest this morning:

• Lack of media diversity ownership slammed on the eve of more consolidation
• The AudioFile: Understanding MP3 compression
• Growing nanotubes on microprocessors could lead to cooling breakthrough
• FCC permits well-connected lobbyists to skirt anti-lobbying rules
• ‘Not Proven’
• AT&T U-Verse sidesteps town politics, coming to Illinois in 2008 – This came up in my researching of SF554 here in Iowa.

You like the list look? I do.

Post anything you’d like listed in the comments. I’m phoning this one in today.

Today’s Vocab Word: veridical

Morning.

• Opponents see few benefits in I.C. utility franchises – Need to look into this some more…might have to use Infovision, they have all the council meetings online.
• Violations found at U of I Hospitals – Surprised at this one.
• Study: file-sharing leads to “chart churn,” helps indie acts
• Follow up: AT&T vows to use Terms of Service for good, not censorship
• UK can now demand data decryption on penalty of jail time – this is a pretty important ruling, watch for something similar being discussed in the US.
• Verizon, Copper, Fiber, and the Truth – a slashdot linkfest and discussion on Verizon cutting the copper upon installation of FiOS
• Driverless truck lurches out of lab

*****FOR THE IOWA CITIANS WHO READ THIS BLOG*****

Don’t have a clue on the upcoming City Council At-large primary? Don’t know the candidates or what they are offering? Then take a look at the City Channel’s video voter project, an unbiased service to the community to educate the public as to the persons running and the policies they advocate, utilizing equal time streaming video segments. I really must commend those at the City Channel for putting this wonderful resource together.

***** AND NOW BACK TO OUR NORMAL ODDNESS *****

• Pulsejets down under
• A comet loses its tail
• Congress blinds DHS’s space-borne eye of Sauron, postpones domestic spy plan
• Another follow up: Blackwater Hearings Ain’t no Superbad – A Wired correspondent’s take on the hearings yesterday. A good quote:
  

  What I found especially telling, given the consistently weak grasp of the issues, was that multiple representatives opened their remarks by talking about how Blackwater contractors protected them while on visits to Iraq. They often meant this as a compliment to the firm, and also a way of establishing their credentials on the issue. But it usually backfired, revealing a lack of simple curiosity. It showed that they’ve known about the massive use of contractors for years – they just didn’t bother to ask any questions, even when the issue was in their faces.

• All hail Tweety:

I’ll probably find more. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments.

…lose a finger? Some robot enthusiasts made a “Mumblety-Peg” automatron:

Fascinating what people do in their spare time.

Via Engadget

In Dusty Archives, a Theory of Affluence, an article in the NY Times has some interesting thoughts on the history of the industrial revolution:

Generation after generation, the rich had more surviving children than the poor, his research showed. That meant there must have been constant downward social mobility as the poor failed to reproduce themselves and the progeny of the rich took over their occupations. “The modern population of the English is largely descended from the economic upper classes of the Middle Ages,” he concluded.

It is fascinating to me that we still do not have a true handle on how we got where we are, and by extension, what it has/is costing us. For, what are we really?

Found via Slashdot

Via Slashdot, an article from Psychology Today that portends to explain why most suicide bombers are Muslim, beautiful people have more daughters, humans are naturally polygamous, sexual harassment isn’t sexist, and blonds are more attractive.

Vocab word: fecundity

It has interesting conclusions. To me it looks to be of sound logic, but that still doesn’t quell the mental resistance we have socially installed to allow for ‘correctness’. The everlasting battle of feelings and the cold process of explanation.

Pretty sweet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6752795.stm