Danny Yee >> Pathologically Polymathic (blog)

May 2006

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killing by white landowner sparks anger in Kenya - CSM
sounds like a case for Matigari
400 million people depend on the Yangtze River - Guardian
the Maori in Australia - HH
together, top versions of Vista and Office might cost US$1130 - Engadget [via RW]
most people will pay much less, for versions that are crippled in some way
DVD players and the copyright war on consumers - Business [via Link]
Shinto: The Way Home [review]
no business actually uses game theory - Fast [via RW]
China to ban smoking for Olympics - Guardian
anti-smoking campaigns may have been running for some time - I was surprised by how little smoking there was when I was in Beijing last year
90% of Australians support R-rated games, but... - Age [via EFA]
pre-quake photos of Bantul - TrekEarth
Loach's "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" wins top Cannes prize - BBC [via RW]
Cambridge Uni's library has a "lowbrow and populist" depository - Independent [via CR]
the US's incarceration and murder rates compared to the OECD - CT
"content has filed for divorce from advertising" - AnneZ [via TB]
an interesting sounding pair of movies about Iwo Jima - Guardian
with the East African drought comes famine - Guardian
horrifying details of Haditha massacre - WP
death toll from Yogyakarta earthquake reaches 2000 - Guardian - Jakarta
"The quake also triggered heightened activity in the region's deadly Mount Merapi volcano"
David Attenborough on climate change - Times [via JQ]
adventures changing money in Cairo - Billmon
the rhythm method kills more embryos than condoms+abortion would - NewSci [via Majik]
"If you're concerned about embryonic death, you've got to be consistent here and give up the rhythm method."
trainee Methodists barred from UK under anti-terror law - Times [via AW]
apparently the rule is only meant to apply to Islamic students
Bush endorses Blair, who "begged off" - Alert
"I have stress! You have stress! Not resolved!" - Lang
an ordinary encounter on a Hong Kong bus makes the big time
(reminiscent of Queneau's Exercises in Style)
Extinction: How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago [review]
the history of "the butler did it" - Straight [via Irregular]
Serbia is the latest country to lose a coastline - Tele [via AntiWar]
"Bolivia still maintains a 'navy' of river boats and a clutch of admirals, despite losing its coastline to Chile in 1884"
water restrictions in southeast England - CSM
no "natural" high ground in women's health issues - Pandagon [via Majik]
Vista will implement hardware DRM in monitors - PCworld
sounds like Linux users aren't going to be able to watch Blu-ray/HD-DVD movies
since when was "sheer tenacity" a business plan? - Register
Ballmer's plan to beat Google
$1 million boondoggle to produce ads against suicide bombing - Kos
Samsung to ship computers with flash instead of hard disk - Register
Allbritton argues that Iran is supplying the Sunni insurgents - B2I
also, there are probably different factions within the Iranian military
40 people walk past dying climber on Everest - ABC
devolution and modern Scotland - Economist
online fraud is a way of life for some Nigerians - Fortune
on German humour - Guardian
comparative genomics and eukaryote evolution - Science [via Aetiology]
India's stock markets lose over 20% - AJ [via RW]
air power in Afghanistan: "dead people everywhere" - Guardian
stories of terrible plane flights - SMH
for women, sex really is mind-blowing - Guardian
a look at the Saudi stock market - Kos
Finland wins Eurovision Song Contest - AJ
some Sunni insurgents are ready to embrace the US - Guardian
"if the Americans hit the Iranians, and by God's will this day will come very soon, then the Americans will give a medal to anyone who kills a Shia militiaman."
a NYT sentence with an embedding depth of 12 - Lang
a satirical film starring Jacques Chirac - Guardian
a South African view of Palestine - Guardian
the 25 sexiest novels ever written - Playboy [via CR]
Lady Chatterley's Lover and The Magus??
no climate scientists in "New Zealand Climate Science Coalition" - Deltoid
and not much clue, either
against a national ID card for Australia - Australian [via EFA]
Ngugi wa Thiong'o - Matigari [review]
after independence, seeking truth and justice
Baghdad ER makes a grueling documentary - Independent [via AntiWar]
an interview with Dubravka Ugresic - CR
"long tail" evidence: use of out-of-print books - O'Reilly [via RW]
security in Basra has collapsed - Informed [2nd item]
FX collapse as US investors pull money from risky countries - Tele [vi RW]
Reykjavik has three hydrogen powered buses - FuelCellWorks
but they cost four times as much as ordinary diesel buses
Israeli-Palestinian couples separated by Israeli law - Guardian
Irish priests interfere with air traffic control - Guardian [via Majik]
Italian Colonialism in Eritrea, 1882-1941 [review]
nice graphics of Chinese economic and demographic data - china-profile
Merapi is on the verge of an eruption - SMH
I climbed Merapi back in 1994
in the US, Fox News viewers are in a world of their own - OpEd [via SideS]
200 killed in Nigerian pipeline explosion - SMH
Internet access in Australian public libaries - ALIA
"Filtering of public library internet services is not the way to deliver a high quality and safe service. Filtering software has been shown to block legitimate content while not guaranteeing that illegal or inappropriate sites will be blocked."
viruses and the tree of life - CZ [via RW]
the mysterious financial network behind IKEA - Economist
owned by the world's largest "charity", registered in the Netherlands and legally devoted to "innovation in the field of architectural and interior design"...
white men down mine, news; blackfellas lost at sea, nada - Crikey
the slippery slope: gay marriage and machine sex - Faf [via Majik]
flash mob discount shopping in China - CSM
test your knowledge of etymology - etymologic [via Barista]
I'm scoring 15/20 so far
.xxx rejected again - SMH
Chinese graduates face job shortage - Guardian
"three out of five university leavers are expected to join the ranks of the unemployed"
200,000 assault rifles for Iraq go missing - Mirror [via Informed]
speaking out against a military option in Iran - TP
a quarter of Iraqi children suffer from malnutrition - IRIN
"the problem is particularly dire in the south"
Bush versus Nixon in the polls - TMW [via Billmon]
would you rather be goofy or dead? - Tele [via RW]
new spacesuit armour makes US troops look like aliens
the Australian budget: the rich get richer - SMH
"$120 a week to people on incomes of $150,000, but just $7 a week to the lowest income earners and almost $10 to those on average incomes"
photos of zooplankton - Wired [via RW]
taking risks in Baghdad: the Iraq Stock Market - B2I
improve energy infrastructure efficiency, then provide tax incentives - MSpeak
intolerance of homosexuality in Eastern Europe - Guardian
French farmer lives on top of 22 tons of high explosive - Tele [via MLite]
an interview with Dr Doom - ABC
"each one of your listeners should buy one US Treasury bond and frame it - put it on the wall so they can show their grandchildren how the US dollar and how US dollar bonds became worthless as a result of monetary inflation"
the Ashio copper mine and early Japanese environmentalism - Far - UNU
an anti-ethical investment fund - Slate [via Delt]
run by right-wing ideologues as a platform for anti-environmental lobbying
how Tolkien's work on the OED influenced him - Guardian [via RW]
UK helicopter downed in Iraq - Tele [via AntiWar]
the Windows XP Home license agreement in plain English - LinuxAdv [via RW]
I'll take this anyday
who owns your computer? - Schneier
I picture a future where you'll find out every morning how the war over your computer went overnight...
problems with compensation for the Herero - HH
should German money go to Namibia, communal organisations, or individuals?
the cliches and euphemisms of book reviewers - Times [via CR]
and yes, I've used some of those
Iraqi women before and after "liberation" - womanIwas [via RW]
only 12% of Japanese support changing constitution's anti-war clause - JapTimes [via AntiWar]
obit for Canadian sailor who was part of Dunkirk rescue - Guardian
the effects of overpriced Sydney housing - SMH
The Gamelan Digul and the Prison Camp Musician Who Built It [review]
the new White House press secretary is a raving creationist - Panda
Teresa discovers eggcorns - MLite
"[A]s the priest preyed over the elements on the alter, they were altared into the real presents of the devine."
rich, middle-aged, whites are sicker in the US than in England - Economist
Bush tries playing cricket in Pakistan - SMH
just a pity he wasn't hit by a 160km/hr Shoaib Akhtar bouncer...
the US dollar is on the way down - CSM
as an Australian exporter, this is not good news for me personally
Google has failed to make inroads in South Korea - Seattle - WMW
cockpit self-lock failure on $300 millon F-22 - CP [via AntiWar]
there may be hope for Darfur negotiations yet - D2 [via CT]
63% of US 18-24 year olds can't find Iraq on map of Middle East - NatGeo [via AW]
would conscripting them all and sending them to Iran help?
Cole's devastating counterattack on Hitchens - Informed
criticism of baby learning video fad - Guardian
there's no evidence that they are beneficial, and some evidence that they are harmful
report on BBC bias in Israel/Palestine reporting - Guardian
(I think the BBC's anti-Palestinian bias is often blatant)
divorce on the rise in Zanzibar, but child support lags - IRIN [via HH]
full transcript of Colbert Whitehouse speech - myspace
some "misspellings" are now normal - Guardian [via RW]
I've got a few of the examples they give "wrong" myself
Pramoedya Ananta Toer has died - CR roundup
see also my review of his masterwork, the Buru Quartet
getting infected with hookworm to cure asthma - Kuro5hin
"the locals would often get fairly aggressive, wondering what the hell a white guy was doing walking around barefoot in their toilets"
Bolivia and Venezuela take a position in Peruvian elections - Yahoo [via AntiWar]
on Soviet bloc jokes - Prospect [via Barista]

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Pathologically Polymathic (blog) << Danny Yee