Good 2011 ( 1/1/11 )
Apparently this is the year of metallica rabbits (or bat, turtle, the international year of the Forest [video], Chemistry [video, events], color of the year, Year of African Descendants, Year of Volunteering [video] and many many more…
See also the previous polar year (2007).
Why are people calling Word Lens the magic arrival of the future?
* On-the-fly video translations
* For your on-the-go needs
* Unplugged (no internet or phone connection required)
Just scann you phone over a letter & gets translated. Bit retro actually (newswise) already, but worth not to skip.
(more…)
If you look up ‘tea’ in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points. This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes. When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:
Orwell is one of those who seems proper for these kind of rule books, see more, for the rules.
(more…)
StumbleUpon has apparently higher trafficnumbers than Facebook.
This article calls it more social. Well..traffic doesn’t tell us directly if it is more socialable. Or as mentioned in the comments:
While this graph does show that StumbleUpon send more traffic,
I wonder what the quality of the traffic is? Do they have high bounce rates? Are there conversions?
Dutch Winter from Kasper Bak on Vimeo.
Last winter. Its now all gone, but just for those days, a shift look back. Enjoy.
The U.S. Justice Department has ordered Twitter to hand over data associated with multiple user accounts (oa. Rob Gonggrijp), in preparation for legal action related to Wikileaks. “There are many WikiLeaks supporters listed in the US Twitter subpoena,” Wikileaks stated over Twitter tonight. Complete news at BoingBoing. (also at nu.nl). Do retweets of #wikileaks now qualify? Or as noted:
Regarding Rob Gonggrijp, his blog has a nice overview of his team latest successes against computer voting (our earlier posts on this topic). Persons make a difference when they can make countries like India (1 billion pp) or Brazil (200 million pp) rethink and legislate their voting system against nontransparent voting. Respect.
For the Netherlands: Get a strong constitution-check in your law-making process (like Germany). [while we're at it, add head-counting!]
Video collage Rotterdam from Fube on Vimeo.
This is the footage for a large-scale video projection consisting of cut video parts. The collage focuses on the dynamics of the city of Rotterdam with its modern and traditional aspects. Screened at FIN Festival 2010, Citymedia (big screens at Rotterdam subway stations) and recently – at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston.
Direction: Jesper Hauwé & FUBE
Production: Jesper Hauwé & FUBE
Sarah Palin’s website literally had put despicable crosshairs on Gabrielle Giffords and 19 other congress members:
MSNBC talks to Rep. Gabrielle Gifford about the death threats, vandalism and harassments. Aired 3/25/10. “Sarah Palin has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district and when people do that, they’ve gotta realize there are consequences to that action.”
Currently a lot of people on Twitter hold Sarah Palin’s crosshairs and hate speeches culpable for the shooting in Arizona. Watch the interview with Gabrielle Gifford here
There’s no indication that the gunman who also shot down Rep. Giffords was motivated by politics. But the Giffords shooting should at the very least underscore the fact that, as Matt Yglesias says, “gun imagery and electoral politics don’t mix.” [via]
At the present it is most sensible to treat the murder and Palin’s hate message as being two separate things. Although the shooting of an elected official is necessarily political. But we need to know more before we can assess the politics. But as it seems US District Court Judge John Roll was also shot, maybe he was the target and not the Congresswoman. Still, the shooter YouTube videos are strikingly similar to the sort of pseudo-intellectual chatter regarding overbearing governmental power that has become a mainstay at American Tea Party rallies.
In case you’ve missed the news: Gabrielle Giffords, Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, Shot In The Head & more related news
Update: Glenn Back against Pelosi fear of violent talk.. time for some retrospection Glenn? (finally??)
The object of the game, for any one of these ultimately temporary social networks, is to create the illusion that it is different, permanent, invincible and too big to fail. And to be sure, Facebook has gone about as far as any of them has at creating that illusion … Further confirming that the hype and market has reached its peak, social networking competitor LinkedIn is maneuvering toward its own IPO, which it likely hopes to complete before Facebook eventually gets there and poisons the well. These companies are being valued as if they will be our permanent means for identifying ourselves.
Yet social media is itself as temporary as any social gathering, nightclub or party. It’s the people that matter, not the venue. So when the trend leaders of one social niche or another decide the place everyone is socializing has lost its luster or, more important, its exclusivity, they move on to the next one, taking their followers with them. (Facebook’s successor will no doubt provide an easy “migration utility” through which you can bring all your so-called friends with you, if you even want to.)
For those who don’t seem to see the pleasures of life or need something more than just relativation. Or just want to get most out of life.
1000 Awesome Things.
Attitude
Awareness
Authenticity
Working with a team of physicists, Dr. Deborah Rhodes developed a new tool for tumor detection that’s 3 times as effective as traditional mammograms for women with dense breast tissue. The life-saving implications are stunning. So why haven’t we heard of it? Rhodes shares the story behind the tool’s creation, and the web of politics and economics that keep it from mainstream use.
Detail, does this chart make sense to you?
All we need to do know, is the coming of the video about the other internet stereo types. More Wikistuff.
Hoe neem je wraak op de slechte telefoonservice van een bedrijf?
Het bezoekje bij Mobistar van Neveneffecten in de nieuwe woestijnvisprductie, Basta
Rol ochtendblad ‘extreem kwalijk’. Met een, aantoonbaar, bij mekaar gelogen artikel lijkt de Telegraaf bewust een foute rol te willen spelen om Gongrijp te laten uitleveren. Gongrijps advocaat, mr Jurjen Pen, stelt dat de wilde beschuldigingen in De Telegraaf de Amerikaanse justitie van dienst kunnen zijn bij het opstarten van een uitleveringsprocedure. De Amerikaanse autoriteiten proberen de mensen rond WikiLeaks aan te klagen als spionage-complot. Een dergelijk complot is strafbaar, het louter openbaren van geheime overheidsdocumenten niet.
Gongrijp is er even stil.
Dit lijkt op een georganiseerde campagne.’ (..) De man die al jaren alarmbellen doet afgaan over de macht en methoden van overheden lijkt terecht te zijn gekomen in zijn eigen nachtmerrie. Normaal kan hij overal de humor van in zien. Nu even niet. ‘De mate waarin realiteit en fantasie door elkaar heen lopen wordt nu wel heel snel Kafka.’
Ondertussen zwendelt dePers, welke bijna verkocht werd aan de telegraaf, net zo hard mee. Is dit een poging om wikileaks cables waarde in discrediet te brengen door wan-informatie? Zo geloofwaardig is het toch niet?
[meer wikileaks]
John Underkoffler points to the future of UI
So in the years ahead, China will have lots of patents—far more than the U.S. You can’t fault China; it is simply taking a page from Silicon Valley’s playbook. Its leaders have figured out how the American patent system works and how to master it.
This is a battle we can’t win. The Chinese economy will be littered with millions of stumbling blocks for foreign business. These companies will have to offer up their intellectual property in exchange for Chinese intellectual property—in the same way that IBM and Microsoft trade patents. Or they will have to pay license fees to enter the Chinese market. And China may challenge the U.S. globally with its new patents as it plans to do with 4G.
It’s best to disarm before it is too late. That means reforming the patent system. We really don’t need software patents, and we really don’t need patents in other technologies that evolve rapidly.
Read full article @ Techcrunch.com
Also an interesting read @ Turning more patents into profits (Chinadaily.com.cn)
The “Barassi Line”, as proposed by Professor Ian Turner in 1978. The red line divides the regions where Australian rules football (in yellow) and rugby football (in green) were the most popular football codes.
“This map has always interested me because there is no other major cultural divide in Australia, and as far as I know no historical reason for the differences between NSW & QLD and the rest of Australia,” says Andrew Simon Goard, who sent in this map, found here on Wikipedia.
Aan de voet van ‘De Hoge Hill’, de hoogste duintop van Domburg, liggen onze in 2013 herbouwde luxe vakantieappartementen ‘The Hill’ en de 'The Hilltop'.
Meer informatie leest u hier!
Bits of Freedom is the Dutch digital rights organization, focusing on privacy and communications freedom in the digital age.
Bits of Freedom strives to influence legislation and self-regulation, on a national and a European level.
Bits of Freedom is one of the founders and a member of European Digital Rights (EDRi).
