Blogless

No blog today, probably no blog tomorrow. Too much to catch up on.

Instead... puppies!

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/4

It's time to play catch-up on my Google Reader Shared Items.

Technology:

• Cell phones and other portable electronics may not need batteries soonish. This is super, super cool.

Computers and the Internets:

• I think this "friend connect" thing is neat. I haven't decided for sure yet, though.
• A Windows download lets you search your photos by filters like "snow" or "yellow." I wish someone would make something like this for online books and such. It'd let you find a page of an electronic book the same way you remember/scan for a page in a print (text)book.

Politics:

• Prop 8: The Musical showed up in several blogs I read yesterday. It's good stuff.
• In 1975, Australia found out that giving a ceremonial appointee actual power and assuming he'll never use it is a really bad check-and-balance system. Since then, although they haven't yet succeeded in getting the Queen out of their constitution, they've been moving progressively toward doing so. Now Canada is learning the same lesson. I'm just excited because, as a Son of the American Revolution, there's a drive in the back of my mind that makes it exciting possibly finally drive the English monarchy completely out of North America. Come on, Canadians! You can do it!
• 538's still going strong. His analysis of the swing Senators is very interesting, at least to political wonks like me.
• Bill Richardson has officially been nominated as Secretary of Commerce. I thought that was already decided, but apparently it wasn't official yet.

Science:

• An alien comet may have entered the solar system. Neat.
• Physicists cannot be trusted.
• Holy crap, it might be possible to break up hurricanes using supersonic jets. This is just unbelievably awesome. I can't wait until they try it.\
  

As always, comment about these or anything else below.

12/3/2008ish

No blog today. Or is there??

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/2

Another day, another couple dozen shared Google Reader items. Here are my favorites.

The Internets:

• Microsoft's Live image search now lets you find images similar to other images. That's potentially quite useful.
• A new browser-based OS is on the way. I like. I think we're at the point that computers could be ubiquitous; you should have a computer or three in your kitchen for checking recipes, for example, and one by your window for things like identifying birds in your feeder. Super-light-weight OSes (geared toward super-low-power computers) are a big step in that direction.
  
• Apple now recommends that Mac users install antivirus software. I have to congratulate Apple. That means they're finally getting popular enough that people bother writing viruses for them. It's sad that they can't claim that they're more secure anymore just because nobody bothered to write viruses before, but that's the price of popularity.

Education?:

• A calculus teacher in San Diego is selling ads on quizzes and tests. I applaud his effort in busting a door open that could lead to more money for me.

Politics:

• Unless otherwise noted, everything on Change.gov is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Ie, you can repost or otherwise use anything from there as long as you say that you got it from Change.gov. Even commercially, if you want. That is cool.
• Fox News's website warned today that Hillary supporters might not go for Obama in last month's election. I love the poll.

Those are the highlights from today. As always, comment below.

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/1

I'm going to try to get back up to daily (or more) posts, at least 'til Newtonmas or so. So, without further ado, here are today's shared Google Reader items.

Life:

• Lifehacker has a guide to pronouncing names correctly. If you're bad at this, read it now. I'll personally be using the other links in that article, about how to find out a name you've forgotten and how to remember names in the first place.

The Internets:

• In case you didn't see it, Cartoon Network Rick Roll'd the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Good stuff. In case you haven't been exposed to it, "Rick Rolling" is the internet meme of sending a link to the Rick Astley video "Never Gonna Give You Up" and telling the recipient it's something else, like a movie trailer.
• The FCC is considering a plan to provide free wireless internet for the US. I hope this works out.
• Woot, Chrome's about to get extensions. I love its stability and javascript speed. Making it extensible would keep me permanently off Firefox (except for work, where I need Firefox for some things, and even IE for a few things. Grrrr).

Biology:

• A diet of fat, sugar, and cholesterol may increase the risk of ALzheimer's. I had something witty to say about this, but I can't remember what it was.
• This quote from Creationist Ray Comfort is dumbfoundingly idiotic. It's even more moronic than his banana argument, in which he merely didn't understand that bananas had been selected by humans. This new one is just... wow.
  
• Geologists are finding evidence that the early Earth cooled long before we used to think it did. That makes some things make more sense; chemical evolution would have more time to ramp up from simple chemistry to life. But, darnit, it means we can't say "Life showed up on Earth just about at the moment that it was possible for it to do so" as an argument for why finding water on another planet would be super, super awesome.