Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Will Finland be number one in the future? -- Comment()
Finland is currently the best country in the world based on the performance of the innovation system. But how to stay on top? This question is tackled in a new report by the Ministry of Education titled Knowledge, innovation and internalization: 'The Science and Technology Policy Council of Finland, which is chaired by the Prime Minister, adopted its new review "Knowledge, Innovation and Internationalisation" on 12 December. The review examines the development challenges facing science and technology policy in the coming years and outlines relevant policy. Special attention is paid to the rapidly internationalising innovation environment and the ensuing pressures for structural and operational change in Finland.'

Hit songs by science? -- Comment()
Computer program 'predicts hit songs': 'Record companies are to test a "juke box jury" computer program that can tell if a song is likely to top the charts. Like the guests on the TV pop show, launched in the 1960s and revived in the 1980s, the software predicts whether a tune is going to be a "hit" or a "miss". The program, called Hit Song Science, correctly forecast the success of jazz songstress Norah Jones months before she topped the US charts and won eight Grammy awards. Record company bosses were so impressed that five major labels have decided to try out HSS for themselves, New Scientist magazine reports.'

-- Comment()
t e c h n o c u l t u r e writes: "Deborah Branscum is producing some of the most incisive and thought-provoking writing on the war and related topics. She's always a good read."

-- Comment()
Iraq Blog: Hubbub Over a Headlock: "When the photos of daily life in Baghdad on an increasingly well-known Iraq-based weblog are mysteriously replaced with an image of President Bush engaged in horseplay with Saddam Hussein, speculation about the culprit runs rampant. By Michelle Delio." [Wired News]

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Geneva convention: "Donald Rumsfeld is outraged because by parading of five US PoWs, Iraq violates article 13 of the Geneva convention. What he prefers not to mention is that with the detention of 641 men in Guantanamo Bay, the USA is in violation of articles 4, 5, 13, 18, 22, 26, 28, 34, 38, 41, 70, 71, 72 and 118 of the same convention, says George Monbiot in The Guardian." [The Aardvark Speaks]

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Religion helmet simulates brain's God Center: "The experiment is based on the recent finding that some sufferers from temporal lobe epilepsy, a neurological disorder caused by chaotic electrical discharges in the temporal lobes of the brain, seem to experience devout hallucinations that bear a striking resemblance to the mystical experiences of holy figures such as St Paul and Moses." [Boing Boing Blog]

-- Comment()
Open code from Berkman: "Jon Zittrain of Harvard Law School has been doing some good work developing useful and interesting courseware, which the Berkman Center offers for free. If you're interested in helping provide feedback, check out his post to cyberprof." [Lessig Blog]

-- Comment()
Improved Trusted Blog Search Tool: "I've released an update to my 'Blogs I Read' search tool that includes support for blogrolls powered by blogrolling.com. Now you don't have to have a Radio Subscriptions file. The code wizard is now even easier. You just provide the URL of your weblog and I auto-detect if you have a RSS Subscription file or a blogroll." [The Shifted Librarian]

-- Comment()
Steven Wright: "It doesn't make a difference what temperature a room is, it's always room temperature." [Quotes of the Day]

So true. And hits a nerve. My apartment has been without central heating for most of two days, due to repairing the hot water pipes. Last night the temperature outside went to -5°C, and inside temperature was about 15°C. I sure hope they fix the heating today.

A lesson in humility -- Comment()
John Robb points to a lesson of humility: "Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends. [...] Conceivably a commander may have been professionally superior. He may have given everything of his heart and mind to meet the spiritual and physical needs of his comrades. He may have written a chapter that will glow forever in the pages of military history. Still, even such a man - if he existed - would sadly face the fact that his honors cannot hide in his memories the crosses marking the resting places of the dead. They cannot soothe the anguish of the widow or the orphan whose husband or father will not return. [...] The only attitude in which a commander may with satisfaction receive the tributes of his friends is in the humble acknowledgment that no matter how unworthy he may be, his position is the symbol of great human forces that have labored arduously and successfully for a righteous cause." [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

-- Comment()
RDF and other monkey wrenches: 'Abstraction extracts such a terrible price in return for the benefits of complexity management it bestows on the chosen few. Abstraction creates a high priest environment in which only a few can ever hope to really understand the "vision" buried in all the abstraction. In the hands of the chosen few, the abstractions are a precision tool wielded to powerful effect. In the hands of the other 94%, the tool is more like a monkey wrench. A tool that can be used for every job but is the *wrong* tool for every job.' [Serious Instructional Technology]