Danny's Pathologically Polymathic: January 2009

Israeli government report reveals extent of illegal West Bank construction

most built without, or contrary to, permits, and many on land stolen from Palestinians

a dengue outbreak in northern Queensland - Australian

(with a history of dengue in modern Australia)

Australian house prices need to halve to become affordable - NewGeography - Demographia [PDF]

and Sydney prices have to drop by 60% to return the median price/media wage ratio to its long-term average

with the UNHCR in Chad - NYer

appalling stories out of Gaza - Time

A Natural History of Conifers [review]

covering evolution, systematics, biogeography, ecology, conservation

the risks of rice-farming in Senegal - IHT

Censoring Culture: Contemporary Threats to Free Expression [review]

BBC won't air charity appeal for Gaza - Guardian

doing so might compromise the BBC's blatant bias

deflation 101 - Podbean

the Milky Way Transit Authority - Arbesman

studying women's sexuality - IHT

Norway: it isn't easy being green - Economist

Salam Pax is back in Baghdad - Guardian [via RW]

Dalrymple on the danger facing Pakistan - NYROB

albino body parts are in demand in East Africa - Economist

saving the UK banks may risk a sovereign debt crisis - FT

"Iceland’s government had to let the country’s three main banks go into administration because it [could not] bail out financial institutions with balance sheets amounting to 600-700% of annual GDP. Any attempt to commit further government resources would have precipitated a sovereign default."

censorship and moral outrage in Australia in 2008: a top 20 list - ThinkOfTheChildren

Aus government to trial mandatory food filtering - Whirlpool

how Microsoft is using the government to attack Google - Wired [via /.]

the world has a glut of unsold cars - Guardian

Madoff's effect on Minnesota - CNN

teenagers charged for sharing nude photographs of themselves - MSNBC

if Madoff were poor and black... - Womanist [via Majik]

...he'd only need to steal $100 to get 15 years in prison

the world's first robot gamelan - Lemurbots

the forgotten verses from "This Land is Your Land" - Kos

on the sanctity of donuts - Pandagon

California may stop food and rent support to blind and disabled - Kos

there are 1.5 million injured Palestinians in Gaza, but no civilians - EI

obituary for John Mortimer, defender of civil liberties and creator of Rumpole - IHT

US public libraries boom in popularity - WSJ [via ProRev]

Keen criticises Bernanke on the Great Depression - DebtDeflation

Windschuttle owns up to being "10 to 15 percent ignorant" - Deltoid

Israel bombs the UN refugee headquarters - EI

incompetence or malice? in this case I suspect malice, as Israel has never been a fan of UNRWA

how to write better spam - McSweeneys

now the Internet Watch Foundation is blocking the Wayback Archive - Register

Enhancing Child Safety + Online Technologies - Harvard

turns out the Internet isn't such a big threat to children

Bernanke on "Policy Responses to the Financial Crisis" - LSE [video and transcript]

Bush really does take orders from Olmert - Informed

The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 - Iron Kingdom [review]

is Norway trying to stop Iceland joining the EU? - IceRev

the danger of groupthink by economists - NYT

how far Microsoft will go to stop Linux in schools - BoycottNovell [via /.]

the ghosts of Central Bankers past - Economist

"Zionists made me forget my Arabic": a Pakistani father's dialogue with his son - Dawn [via Chapati]

Quadrant and Windschuttle regularly publish pseudo-science - Deltoid

so their being hoaxed hardly seems that notable

"Israel is Committing War Crimes" - WSJ [via Kos]

corrupt researchers bribed by big pharma - NYROB

$4 billion handout for Australia's coal industry - SMH

with no requirement that it be used for reducing emissions!

Iceland's economy will contract as finances are stabilised - Economist

"Iceland's real GDP is forecast to contract by an eye-watering 12% in 2009"

Bank of England interest rates at lowest since 1694 - SMH

why stock brokers are useless - LastGoodIdea

how to cite toilet graffitti and alien mind transmissions - PMLA

atheist bus ads knocked back in Australia - SMH

no water + sewage in streeets -> epidemic danger - Hz

Vietnam mandates use of Linux in government - VietNet [via /.]

but is this just an attempt to get better pricing from Microsoft?

atheist bus ads in London - Guardian

the BBC's anti-Palestinian bias is clear - EI

I don't know how they get away with being so blatant about it - are journalists deliberately overdoing it to undermine management instructions?

4 million cubic metres of coal ash have spilled into the Tennessee River - Huff [via Kos]

chaos and desperation in a Gaza hospital - WP

private investors are pulling out of foreign investments - USAtoday

white phosphorus used against Gaza - Times

the economics of Christmas and gift-giving - SMH

Israel stops Red Cross team entering Gaza - M+C

Penguin returns to roots: keeping books cheaper than a packet of cigarettes - Age [via CR]

The Turnpike Road System in England 1663-1840 [review]

Lydie Salvayre's monologue novel - The Lecture [review]

a diary from Gaza - Independent

fighting to stop old-growth logging in Tasmania - Australian

hard evidence that virginity pledges don't work - Effect

"Five years after taking the pledge: 82% of pledgers denied ever having taken the pledge; pledgers and matched non-pledgers did not differ in rates of premarital sex, sexually transmitted disease, and oral and anal sex behaviors"

Ilan Pappe on Israel's self-righteous propaganda - EI

Vinnies only likes Catholic volunteers - SMH

hand-repairing a microprocessor chip - CSM

Aboriginal Art [review]

brief descriptions and analysis of 200 works, with photographs

walk writeups from two and four years ago - Corang Peak - Barrington Tops