September 2007
<< August 2007 | October 2007 >>
a "phony" soldier back from Iraq -
ArmyDude [via MLite]
what could derail the Chinese economy? -
Economist
a godwit flies 11500km non-stop, from Alaska to New Zealand -
NatGeo [via ProRev]
US soldiers murder innocent Iraqis to improve "kill ratios" -
NYT
there are better biofuels than ethanol -
Economist
Macquarie University goes with Google mail -
CompWorld
on the heritability and malleability of IQ -
Cosma
analysing health products advertised in spam -
PLOS"It was not easy to get approval from university administrators for a project that could include ordering products from unknown and unverified sources, and which could lead to illegal trade of substances, or costs associated with items for the enhancement of sexual function."
medical racial profiling considered harmful -
PLOS -
PLOS2 -
PLOS3"crude socio-political categories of race and ethnicity are only useful as descriptive markers of the potential for racial/ethnic discrimination and of structural factors that influence exposure to health risks, access to health care, and inclusion in health research"
the story of a middle-class Iraqi family -
Prospect [via AntiWar]
completely arbitrary banning of films by Australia's OFLC -
Comstock
the dark side of Punjab's Green Revolution -
Economist"Nearly one-third of Punjabi farmers were unaware that pesticides come with instructions for use. Half of the farmers ignored these instructions. Three-quarters put empty pesticide containers to domestic uses."
translating Scandinavian literature into French -
SwedishBookReview [via CR]but why is this article in English?!
how much the US gives to Israel -
CSMsince 1973, Israel has cost the United States about $1.6 trillion
a Cory Doctorow story about a world where Google does law enforcement -
Radar
taking 72 refugees is too much for Australia -
SMHthe government is keeping them locked up while it tries to find more charitable countries - Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the United States, Canada and New Zealand are all candidates
a conservative American discovers Swabia -
Deneen [via CT]
solid debunking of DDT smear campaign against Rachel Carson -
AaronS [via CT]
16,000 hyphens go in latest Shorter Oxford -
BBC
racial discrimination brings protest to US town -
Guardian
eyewitness reports of Blackwater massacre -
Independent [via RW]
Saudi Arabia prepares to break the dollar currency peg -
SMH
Gaza is effectively a giant concentration camp -
EI
baby formula companies set up fake grass-roots organisations -
PRwatch [via ProRev]
some readings in economics -
Cosma
feel-good polar bear plays with husky story -
Play [via /.]
the US government is monitoring what airline passengers read -
Wired [via /.]
now Howard screws up the invasion of the Northern Territory -
RtoSthe costs have blown out from "tens of millions" to over a billion dollars
an evaluation of "econophysics" -
Cosma"Physicists began obsessing over the stock market when everyone began obsessing over the stock market; it's just that their obsession took the form of papers rather than day-trading."
background on Belgium's identity crisis -
CT -
Economist
melting permafrost provides new income source for Siberians -
SMH"Vatagin pays between $10 and $190 for a kilogram of mammoth bones."
Catholic Church starts booting Amnesty groups from Northern Ireland schools -
Guardian [via SideS]over Amnesty's policy that rape and incest victims should be entitled to abortions
studying morality -
Edge [via Far]
Japanese housewives hooked on currency speculation -
SMH
ultra-conservative Sydney Anglicans fail to win converts -
SMHbut admit that raising money is more important
IBM joins OpenOffice.org -
ConsortiumInfo [via OSWALD]"contributions will include 35 dedicated programmers as well as editing, accessibility, and other code that it has developed"
Darwin under siege from cane toads -
SMH
Hindu fanatics oppose ship canal between India and Sri Lanka -
BBC"Protesters say the project will destroy a bridge they believe was built by Hindu God Ram and his army of monkeys."
Iceland pulls its soldier out of Iraq -
IcelandReview [via JWalk]
Belgium prepares for an ugly partition -
Guardian
Australian spends $22 million scaring parents -
Age -
SMH [via EFA]
Tearoom Trade and the ethics of sociological fieldwork -
HigerEd [via CT]"The distinction between the sociologist's field notes and the blackmailer's dossier was not exactly drawn with a bright line, in this case."
"silent data corruption" with CERN-sized datasets -
KernTrap [via /.] -
CERN1 -
CERN2 [PDFs]
homeopathy as a case study in pathological science -
ArsTechnica [via /.]
SCO files for bankruptcy protection -
Register
evidence that Bush/Blair/etc now responsible for over a million deaths -
UKopinion [via Deltoid]
Japan cuts down on air-conditioning -
WSJ"Some Japanese men still can't fathom the idea of working without a suit and tie, and have decided to stick it out in the heat."
fair use is worth $4.5 trillion to the US economy -
CCIA [via /.]
the first grandmaster from sub-Saharan Africa -
ChessBase [via Accra]
religious antiquarian makes a killing -
Times [via CR]
reforming privacy law in Australia -
AusIT [via EFA]
Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper -
Nation
the JPEG compression algorithm -
AMS [via RW]
myths about Tibet -
Swans
goats sacrificed to a Boeing 757 -
ABC
how 9 billion dollars in cash went missing in Iraq -
VanityFair [via ProRev]
want to win an sf novel award? want to win them
all? -
MLite
Jewish neo-Nazis in Israel?! -
SMH
making an atom-accurate silicon-crystal kilogram -
Wired
fighting light-pollution -
NYer [via /.] -
IDA
a "100% chance of being killed or kidnapped" is an improvement?! -
Smirking
Osama bin Laden offers a 2.5% flat tax -
Yglesias [via CT]but maybe that's a tax on wealth rather than income...
APEC police out of control -
SMHthey're only supposed to beat up young anarchists, not middle-aged accountants
the Dutch start work on a huge offshore wind-farm -
GlobeMail [via ProRev]
maybe John Howard really is going down -
PosseComitatus [via Barista]and most of the parliamentary Liberal party may go with him
Riverbend escapes Iraq, to exile in Syria -
BaghdadBurning [via Barista]"I said goodbye to the ghosts of the framed pictures that once hung on the walls, because the pictures have long since been taken down and stored away- but I knew just what hung where."
a psychological study of authoritarianism -
The Authoritarians [full text, via Cosma]presented like this, it seems almost like a clinical pathology
Kerala is increasingly dependent on migrant remittances -
IHT
OPEC, APEC, does George Bush know the difference? -
SMH
the US bribes shopkeepers in Iraq's "Potemkin market" -
WP
using Amazon S3 to backup servers -
WebPro [via Link]$0.15/GB/month isn't so bad
meerkat photos -
Tele [via DPR]
Sicilians are no longer so keen to emigrate to the United States -
IHT
doctors who say sorry face fewer malpractice suits -
InsuranceJ [via /.]
now Nestle is trying to sell chocolate as a health food -
SMHI'm a chocolate addict myself, but this is ridiculous
UK DNA database has 4 million names and 500,000 are wrong -
Tele
a history of the International Date Line -
vgent [via Far]
nearly half potential German conscripts rejected as overweight -
Independent
near-autistic geeks better at responding to large-scale humanitarian needs? -
Wired
a review of
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy -
Weiss [via AntiWar] -
Amazon
graphing products and factors of production -
SciNews [via RW]
Aus government tries to buy reelection with advertising binge -
SMH
the gap between medieval scholars and popular enthusiasts -
Chron [via RW]"if fantasy buffs are willing to put in the time to learn Elvish, it is not too far-fetched to think they might actually be looking for someone to teach them Old English"
advice to US soldiers in Iraq, from 1943 -
NPR [via Chicago UP]
is Belgium in danger of disintegrating? -
CTthe English-language news seems to have been silent about this
<< August 2007 | October 2007 >>