Government admits that global warming is a fact and that it is caused by humans

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Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | US accepts Earth is warming in bid to avert clash In a massive u-turn over global warming a government statement says: “We know the surface of the Earth is warmer and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem” Perhaps David Holcberg (the guy that the Ayn Randis booted out for saying that people shouldn’t donate to tsunami victims) will be the last person on Earth to deny it. That is until someone creates an ‘Intelligent Design’ version.

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What would Lincoln do?

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$40 million is about to be unleashed by lobby groups to influence the makeup of the Supreme Court and therefore the very social fabric of the US. The choice is not between a Democrat or a Republican but between a conservative or liberal, this is something far more partisan and corrupting. Conservatives are people who think that the moral fabric of the nation was better in the past, liberals think that it was worse. This measure of right and left has not changed in hundreds of years, whereas specific policies have. That would suggest that ideology rather than policy is a better measure of conservativism rather than liberalism. Thinking that things were better and more moral in the past is not something that has a fixed point in time, there have always been conservatives who thought it was better in the old days, there were many conservatives who opposed Lincoln…

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sodarace race

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Soda constructor just gets better and better. The latest version allows for AI programs to send models via xml, race them and capture results via xml, mutate and race again. So Far AI evolved walkers have beaten some of the classic human generated variants.link » tags: [evolution] [games] posted via Wists: permamark

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Live 8 Blog

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If anyone would like to have the domain live8blog.com to put to good use for live 8, email me and I'll give it to whoever has the best plan.link » tags: [live8] posted via Wists: permamark

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My life in bookmarks.

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Am putting together a list of events in my life as a series of visual bookmarks – and also to get a better understanding on what features one might need to be able to do this properly.link » tags: [dgblog] posted via Wists: permamark

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Analyzing what Bono wore to court

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Looking at the picture on the left, its clear that even mega stars still have to dress like lawyers when in court, even if they aren't the defendant. Bono is sporting a sharkskin-like rock star suit and for someone who has not been seen without sunglasses since 1982 he tones down the effect, with a pair that actually cover a minority of his face and are somewhat translucent. An outfit that conveys the idea to the judge: 'you know all the leather and stuff is just a costume, I normally relax in a 2-piece, I'm really one of you. I may be a rebel, but I respect the law'. Conveys to everyone else: 'I'm not a square, you know, look at my suit, its shiny, I look a bit like Robert Palmer, I'll wear what I want, like when I modified my school uniform and my Mum grounded me.' What's…

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The impossible logic of copyright in the digital age

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One of the problems that I have with the current Supreme Court ruling over file sharing is the assumption that this stuff can be legislated absolutely. As media is reduced to an atomic state of bits, it starts to show quantum-like uncertainty, is it a thing like an LP or a transmission like a song on the radio, a particle or a wave? Hidden within the Supreme Court ruling is the other side of the coin: Just as people have created software that allows people to share things they don’t own, with copy protected digital media nobody owns anything. Everything you buy is actually rented. Why is it legal to develop software which necessarily prevents ownership of something you buy? At the moment I buy albums in flea markets for 10c a song, read books that I bought in the UK in the US and can read all the books…

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Microsoft builds future corporate strategy around Photoshop plug-in…

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… OK not quite, but this news below does seem like a parody from the Onion: Microsoft confirms RSS plans: “As previously reported, Microsoft is also proposing extensions to the RSS specification that will add support for ordered lists. That would enable, for example, e-commerce sites to more easily publish things such as a constantly updated feed of best-selling products.” Do they mean extensions to the RSS spec, or an RSS module? Since what is being described can be done with a module, it would be crazy to change the spec. And if all Microsoft is doing is writing an RSS module, then Jeez, their PR machine needs to understand that this is not a big deal. You can already publish things such as a constantly updated feed of best selling products in RSS, the problem is not with the standard but the aggregators – no aggregator will display metadata…

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Crap ads no. 38, the Volvo XC90

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This ad for a V8 engined Volvo which does less than 20 miles per gallon featured alongside a Reuters story with the headline "Oil touches $60, U.S. demand steams ahead – in V8 Volvos perhaps. Volvo's moronic advertising goes one step further, the strapline is 'it's the best V8 for the planet', a bit like a low tar cigarette describing itself as the best for your lungs. At Moreover, someone once sent in a screenshot of a tourist website for Northern Ireland with a robot fed news headline saying 'Iron bar gang beats up overseas visitors'. Thinking of collecting examples of this kind of advertising juxtaposition which occurs on the web because content and ads are matched without human approval. link » tags: [environment] posted via Wists: permamark

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