Bruce Sterling picks his top Ten Technologies That Deserve to Die:
Some technologies, however, are so blatantly obnoxious that the human race would rejoice if they were obliterated. A wise society would honor its young technical innovators for services rendered in annihilating obsolete technologies that are the dangerous hangovers of previous, less advanced generations.
A nice piece in the NYT about Michael Everson, a Dublin-based typographer who has been instrumental in getting most of the lesser-known writing systems into Unicode.
This looks like fun! From the same site, demonstrating triboluminescence using wintergreen-flavored candy.
So Blogger now has a spelling checker… I shall resist it’s attempts to change British spellings into American ones though! (and it wants to change “Blogger” to “Blocker” — heh!)
Actually, I do use American spellings when programming, much to the disgust of some of my colleagues. For me, consistency trumps nationalistic pride; if a library function uses “color” it’s confusing to start using “colour” in variable names. American English is to computer programming as French is to cooking and Italian to music. To a Briton it’s strange, but undeniable, that British English is no longer canonical but a dialect of International (i.e. American) English.
As several respected organisations draw criticism for putting profit before public service, Simon St. Laurent wonders why good institutions go bad.
New ultrasound scanning equipment shows babies smiling, blinking and crying in the womb, as early as 26 weeks after conception. The new techniques also clearly show limb movements at eight weeks, the foetus leaping, turning and “jumping” at 11-12 weeks, intricate movement of fingers at 15 weeks and yawning at 20 weeks.
Perhaps the babies are smiling in relief that at 26 weeks old, they are all of 2 weeks beyond the age at which they can be legally aborted in the UK.
Read any British tabloid, and you would think that the British middle classes are suffering almost third-world depravation. It seems that Rich is the new Poor:
Nearly half of those earning more than £35,000 a year said they couldn’t afford items they considered “essential”, such as luxury cars, cosmetic surgery and state-of-the-art homeware…This emphasis on the tribulations of the middle classes not only validates the preoccupation of wealthy people with their own financial circumstances, but crowds out sympathy for those who are genuinely struggling.”
The Register: According to an online divorce service, half of all divorce petitions it processed are due to Internet adultery and cybersex behaviour.
— a statistic which is surely a bit self-selected.