December 2006
<< November 2006 | January 2007 >>
500 missing after Indonesian ferry disaster -
SMHBritain pays off WWII debts to Canada and the US -
BBCdissident children are tortured in camps -
Reason"Somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 teenagers are currently held in treatment programs based on the belief that adolescents must be broken (mentally, and often physically as well) before they can be fixed."
curiosities of biological nomenclature -
misaak [via Far]"As of 1993, the paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope is the type specimen for Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758."
patriarchal sects inevitably produce child-abuse -
SMHan impressive macro panorama -
DPR(click on the image to view it in full)
exploring the power consumption of household electronics -
yafla [via /.]algae as a biodiesel source -
News [via /.]Spain continues refighting the civil war -
Economistthe folly of instigating a war in Somalia -
IHTan Arab perspective on Somalia -
Non-Arabby backing Ethiopia, the US will validate Al-Qaeda crusade propaganda
For Love of Insects [review]"the grand synthesis of a veteran scientist looking back, sharing his knowledge and experience but above all his excitement and wonder at the marvels of the natural world"
several new posts, including an Iraq-war retrospective -
Billmonusing robotic deer to catch poachers -
VOA [via /.]surprisingly small shocks could kill the big accounting firms -
IHTnew work on the history of chloroplasts -
SciNowlimited stock in South Sudan bookshops -
Economist [via Kit]"Apart from three rather tattered mathematics text books, it has Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and 20 copies of Three Men in a Boat."
Europe moves to longer shopping hours -
IHTshould India pay for girl children? -
OneWorldhigh school student gets 10 years without parole for consensual oral sex -
TNGW [via ML]beware the dandelion of sexual chaos -
Pharyngula [via JWalk]and find out how squid pornography is linked to RNA Polymerase
measuring happiness -
Economist"people should work shorter hours and commute shorter distances"
a photo-essay on Japan's "love hotels" -
Wiredthe Mourides in Sengal's diaspora -
EconomistRoss Gittins on private equity and the Qantas takeover -
SMHtrying to revive small towns in the United States -
Economista short, vertical stroll in a Chinese national park -
fark [via Barista]go-ahead for 341 turbine wind farm in the Thames estuary -
BBC [via /.]a court decision may give the East African Community greater significance -
HHthe Israeli Supreme Court rules on "targeted killings" -
HHoil exporters are unbalancing the world economy more than China -
SMHRafsanjani makes a comeback in Iranian elections -
Yahoothe EU abandons plans to reform copyright levies -
InfoWorld [via OSWALD]Carribean pirate communes in the 17th century -
Faran economic analysis of US bribery of the UN security council -
Guardian"When there is a controversial vote in prospect, the premium for countries with a security council seat is even higher. US aid surges by as much as 170 per cent"
the psychology of psychopaths -
SciNews [via ProRev]"There's currently a bull market in corporate psychopaths"
the ten most dangerous toys of all time -
Radar [via /.]the selection seems a little US-centric, though
public health lessons from the 1918 flu epidemic -
WPthe square root of terrorist intent -
CQ [via Schneier]nonsensical equations for the allocation of anti-terrorism funds
national differences in production of and attitudes to waste -
Economist [via ProRev]storm risks force rewrite of US coastal house insurance -
WPa National ID card for Australians is coming -
APFthe government refuses to release either the Privacy Impact Assessment or the cost/benefit analysis
The Noodle Maker [review]dark tales of love, obsession and violence in "Open Door" China
inside a $10 digital camera -
TOPan Australian government report on public support for science -
pc.gov [via Link]one of Australia's few remaining academic publishers closes shop -
AustralianMax Dupain's son nearly arrested with camera on Bondi Beach -
News [via EFA]"Lifeguards and the police are taking the law into their own hands and they regard anyone with a camera as a potential pervert"
a legal analysis of Sauron's offer to the dwarves -
quikenIndonesia's constitutional court abolishes lese majestie -
Hokum [via Macam]Gaza refugees resettle on the Golan Heights -
YNetis it actually just about cheap housing?
only 30 out of 1000 staff at US embassy in Iraq speak Arabic -
AlertNet [via AntiWar]and only 6 speak it fluently
a surreal but provoking web comic -
Dresden Codak(largish images on what must be a slowish web server)
the mathematics of Google PageRank -
AMS [via /.]groupers and giant eels cooperate in hunts -
PLoSinterspecific cooperative hunting - with videos
not happy about Indian critics and reviewers -
DailyIndia [via CR]1% own 40% of wealth; 50% share just 1% -
GuardianMadagascar's president will probably win another term -
Guardianwhat discount rate for long-term futures? -
Economistsurely this is not a single factor: we care about events fifty years away because we care about our grandchildren, but we care about the situation three or five centuries away because we care about our species or about life
Dead Sea Scrolls lead to discovery of unhealthy latrines -
Seattle"the Essenes are one of the few ancient groups whose toiletry practices were documented"
neo-Nazis are hunting a beetle named after Hitler to extinction -
Baristasome major cosmetic companies don't allow online sales -
IHTlooking back at the Iran/contra scandal -
Nationuniversities in Australia don't teach Australian literature -
Aust [via CR]"Academics receive more funds to study Norse poems than Australian novels"
a tourist guide to Afghanistan -
Zharovwar in Sudan, Chad, and the Central African Republic -
HHand it seems the French are now fighting in the CAR
soft drinks contain more benzene than is legal in drinking water -
Effectan economist becomes a political hack -
MSpeak -
more<< November 2006 | January 2007 >>