New Zulund

Developed from radar images taken by the shuttle Endeavour 5 years ago, here is a Quicktime movie of a virtual fly-by of New Zealand

Software patents: EU Commission called upon to start legislation from scratch

Good news for real this time:
"61 EU members of parliament from 13 countries lead by the Polish ex-prime minister Jerzy Buzek are demanding that the legislative process on the controversial directive on the patentability of "computer-implemented inventions" begin again from scratch."

The Salvador Option

Well, good news. The yanks are pulling up their socks and getting back into the banana republic game. Central American style death squads, now with a twist of Arabic! Please note the Newsweek byline. This article is appearing in a well respected news journal. Actually it's a "web exclusive" but close.

Colombia rejects 'kidnap' charge

The BBC is carrying more coverage of the alleged kidnapping in Venezuala of a Colombian FARC rebel by Colombian security forces without the knowledge of the Venezualan government. I wonder if there will be any fallout from this.

Paper Apologizes for Civil Rights Coverage

"It has come to the editor's attention that the Herald-Leader neglected to cover the civil rights movement," the clarification read. "We regret the omission."

Free Culture vs. Big Media: Lawrence Lessig leads the charge to retake the public domain

Will you please listen to Reason?

Wired News: An Obscene Waste of Energy

Perhaps the FCC has outlived it's usefullness.

We do stuff.

No they don't. But they don't do it in an amusing way.

India Uncut

A picture of hell, and no kerosene

Six Apart buys LJ - official

I knew there was a reason I don't like Movable Type. I mean, Live Journal? Ew.

Year of Wonders

Thanks Neil! You're right, those are some awesome nature photos.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Answering Dean Esmay on ID in Science Classrooms

Just in case you want someone to explain why it's a bad idea to allow the teaching of "Intelligent Design" in science classrooms. Aside from the fact that 99.9% of their criticisms of evolutionary theory are either misleading or completely incorrect I mean.

The Command Line In 2004

Neal Stephenson - In The Beginning Was The Command Line. The annotated version.

Hertford, home of the Holy Grail

A very interesting report on someone who the Vatican is ready to apologize to: the Grand Master of the Knights Templar.

Blog Plasma & MusicPlasma

John Battelle proposes a blog version of MusicPlasma. Which is a seriously cool tool. And needs to be combined with that AllMusic thing I could have sworn I linked to but apparently didn't. (Click on "exlpore by ..." in the left column and then move your mouse over the spidery image at the top of the new page)