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 Saturday, August 3, 2002
The Chronicle of Higher Education: 'Politics of Control' Leads a Law Student to Challenge Digital-Copyright Act. There are a few specific examples that make it all fit together. Certainly, this filtering is an example of control, someone getting between you and where you want to go. You want to read about breast cancer, N2H2 says that that's pornography, and so they won't let you. [Tomalak's Realm]
Without transparency for researchers to investigate the databases behind such things as pornography screeners we are left with the question - Sed quis custodiet ipsas custodes. Who watches the watchers? Who polices the police? 9:02:00 AM 
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A Wi-Fi road trip. Glenn at 80211b News notes this story:
And the Award for Wi-Fi Geek Cred for 2002 Goes to...: Four guys. Two cars. A cell phone. Some laptops. And Wi-Fi. Man, they beat me to it: I've been contemplating this idea for a year, and I should have just done it. En route to a conference, these four gentleman used a combination of off-the-shelf, easy-to-configure hardware and a variety of relatively straightforward software to create a two-car mobile Wi-Fi network with a cell uplink. [80211b News]
[Mac Net Journal]
Just as an adaptive network routes around damage to solve problems, so do humans. This is a cool idea that only early adoptors will find but could eventually find its way into the mainstream. Much better than CB ;-) 8:48:33 AM
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Katherine Harris in the News. From the Sideshow: Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush back in the news. I cannot believe that the Florida legislators who established the requirement that candidates for one office resign the other ever imagined that a governor would then reappoint the resignee as "acting" in their old job. The Sideshow August 2002 Archive Katherine Harris Steps Down TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Katherine Harris resigned Thursday as Florida secretary of state and made the move retroactive to July 15, saying she had... [Semi-Daily Journal]
Never underestimate the ability of humans to find adaptive solutions to problems. I recently watched part of the Paul Newman movie Blaze where he played Earl Long, the govenor of Louisiana. Long was prevented from running for another term as governor. So, he came up with the idea of running as Lt. Governor on a ticket with a crony for governor. After election, the crony would retier and Long would become governor again. 8:44:16 AM
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Emergency vehicle alert cuts car stereos [New Scientist]
A nice idea, although it would only work if everyone listened to one of a few radio stations. But I do love the English government response to the request for a test license - 'There's no point in allowing these tests, because we know what the results will be'. 8:32:46 AM
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Ask MacSlash: Molecular Visualization [MacSlash: A daily dose of Macintosh News and Discussion]
Stereo visualization using glasses on Mac OSX would be awesome but, since I am one of the few that can see 3D stereograms in cross-eyed and straight configurations, I can manage. (i.e. straight requires looking far away and focusing close. It is good if the stereogram is within 2 feet,a s when reading a journal. If it is displayed on a screen and I am far away, cross-eyed works, although it can reverse back-to-front the spatial orientations, depending on the picture. Isn't 3-D processing in the brain wonderful?) 8:22:37 AM
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UCLA AIDS Institute scientists show antiretroviral drugs can eradicate AIDS epidemic. UCLA AIDS Institute researchers have predicted that widespread use of antiretroviral drugs can eventually stop the HIV epidemic in its tracks [^] even in African nations where a high percentage of people are infected. The Lancet Infectious Diseases reports the findings in its August edition. [EurekAlert - Medicine & Health]
But I do not see anything about cost. Unless they are very cheap and very available, these drugs will not be effective. It is great to run simulations but what happens in the real world can be so different. This study says that risky sexual behaviour can have a large deleterious effect. So, drugs will not work on their own and changing behaviour will be very hard. 8:15:41 AM
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Markets Explained. Forwarded via Tim Hiltabiddle via an unknown source, apparently initiating somewhere in Juniper Networks, here's a map of the unfolding scandals. (Click on the snippet below to see the entire illustration.)
[JOHO the Blog]
Some social networks are more 'entertaining' than others. 8:07:41 AM
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The limits of particle physics models
For over three decades, a single theoretical model has described all experimental results in particle physics. It is called the Standard Model and is one of the most successful models of modern physics. (Actually, there was a modification to allow neutrinos to have mass but that doesn't affect the rest of the model.)
However, there are now tests so precise that the validity of the Standard Model is being called into question. An experimental result announced earlier this week by the "muon (g-2)" collaboration is consistent with physics beyond the standard model but does not yet prove anything conclusively.
Many of the popular theories of particle physics such as supersymmetric theories and string theories go beyond the Standard Model but they have no way of being tested yet. The result presented earlier this week places tight constraints on what sort of new models might be correct. However, if something beyond the Standard Model is required, these experiments do not indicate what sort of theory will fit the bill.
Perhaps surprisingly, the greatest uncertainty at the moment is in the theoretical models. The calculations are extremely hard to do and rely on some experimentally determined parameters. Although the theoretical models agree with each other, there is still quite a spread of uncertainty in them. As more experiments are done, parameters can be tightened and calculations improved.
The particular quantity of interest in these measurements is called the muon g-2 value. It is essentially a measurement of the magnetic strength of the muon (which is like an overgrown electron). The first theories of the electron and muon indicated that g=2 exactly but better theories modified the value to something slightly larger. The difference from 2 is now measured to better than one part per million. [David Harris' Science News]
Okay, this is not biotech but if there are some cracks in the Standard Model, it means that physics is not at an end, as some have proposed. There are still incredible things to examine in the natural world. I think we are on the brink of some very amazing discoveries in many areas of science (Of course, in hindsight, you could say that about ANY period of time in history, particularly the last 2 centuries ;-) 7:46:11 AM
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Turkey Abolishes Death Penalty. Turkey's parliament abolished the death penalty and legalized education and broadcasts in Kurdish today, moves aimed at improving the country's chances for joining the European Union. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: International] Wow. I have spent lots of time in Turkey, particularly during the Gulf War, and given my experience both of these actions are unexpected. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
We lived in Turkey when I was quite young. It is a very interesting country and one that has tried to walk a difficult path the last century. These developments indicate that it is continuing to take move towards an important objective. 7:42:51 AM
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The Onion: "Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over". [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
Published January 18, 2001. Maybe it was funny at one time ;-) But after the last 2 years, it has lost some of its satirical edge. 7:25:28 AM
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Got my info for Unemployment the other day. I can now submit claims online. I'll let you know how well that works but I have gotten a couple of useful leads. Now I need to get my list of people to conatct and I'll be started. 7:22:50 AM
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Spent most of yesterday on my son's birthday. In the afternoon, there was a group event for employees, past and present, of Immunex/Amgen that came together fairly spontaneously. We call it First Friday and plan to do it every month. When Immunex was small, there would be a group of us every Friday at the Mark Tobey, a pub just down the street. You never knew who would be there but there usually were a few. It will be a great way for us to tain conatcts and see what people are doing.
It was a beautiful, sunny day in Seattle, with Ranier out and the Navy in port for SeaFair. It was a lot of fun and I even got some more leads. Networking can be such fun. 7:17:45 AM
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