“There are no outdoor sports as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship.”
—Ai Weiwei
Source: Bit of News Daily Digest 🍃
About That Brain-Freezing Cryonics Story in the New York Times | MIT Technology Review
TL;DR: there are big gaps in the promise that we could re-animate or upload a frozen brain.
It is this purposeful conflation of what is theoretically conceivable with what is ever practically possible that exploits people’s vulnerability.
Source: About That Brain-Freezing Cryonics Story in the New York Times | MIT Technology Review
Important Win for Fair Use in ‘Dancing Baby’ Lawsuit | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Have I mentioned recently that I love the EFF? Because I do.
Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that copyright holders like Universal must consider fair use before trying to remove content from the Internet.
It also rejected Universal’s claim that a victim of takedown abuse cannot vindicate her rights if she cannot show actual monetary loss.
“Today’s ruling sends a strong message that copyright law does not authorize thoughtless censorship of lawful speech,” said EFF Legal Director Corynne McSherry. “We’re pleased that the court re
Source: Important Win for Fair Use in ‘Dancing Baby’ Lawsuit | Electronic Frontier Foundation
37 rental cars – 2 days – 185,000 miles – FlyerTalk Forums
This clever member of the noteworthy travel-hacking forum FlyerTalk has posted about his recent trip to Funchal (Madeira, Portugal). TL;DR: He successfully exploited this promotion to earn 185,000 “miles”!
Interestingly, I once visited there, albeit under different circumstances.
Two weeks before my trip, Avis Funchal called me. A man explained that there had been an error in the system, and that 18 bookings had been created in my name.
I told him that there must indeed be an error, because it’s supposed to be 37. After typing a bit at his computer, he told me that this was nonsense, and that he would combine all the rentals into one. I explained about the promotion and that I would really appreciate 37 individual rentals.
He seemed to understand, but ended the conversation by saying “you will pay for this”, so it was unclear if he was onboard with it or not.
Source: 37 rental cars – 2 days – 185,000 miles – FlyerTalk Forums
Scientists have discovered why running makes you happy – The Washington Post
TL;DR: Leptin is a hormone that affects satiety and dopamine release. Researchers broke this pathway in mice and they ran a lot more because they didn’t get the dopamine from running.
In an experiment with mice, researchers compared normal mice to those that were genetically engineered to lack a leptin-sensitive protein called STAT3 that relays the leptin signal to release the reward chemical dopamine.
…the genetically engineered mice ran an extraordinary amount, nearly twice as much as the normal mice…
The new study supports previous research in humans that showed that low leptin levels are associated with exercise addiction and fast marathon times.
Source: Scientists have discovered why running makes you happy – The Washington Post
Dark corners of Unicode / fuzzy notepad
Unicode (that thing that gives us Emoji) is actually very complex… which kind of makes sense when you realize it’s trying to be the system to represent all of human written language. 😉
here is a collection of curiosities I’ve encountered in dealing with Unicode that you generally only find out about through experience. Enjoy.
Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear, Dune
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
– Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear, Dune
The Power of Power Cycling – Growthalytics
PRO TIP: If you’re having problems with a thing, try turning it off and back on.
An electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, and a software engineer are riding in a car on their way to a conference. The car’s brakes fail on a hill; but luckily the engineers are able to pull the car to the side without anyone getting hurt.
The electrical engineer says: “The problem might be in the electrical system. I will start by checking the fuse box.”
The mechanical engineer says: “The problem might be in the hydraulics. l will start by checking the fluid levels”
The software engineer says: “Why don’t we all get out of the car and get back in and see if that fixes the problem”
A Salute To Solo Programmers
TL;DR: There are still some great, lean, focused pieces of software written by individual humans.
Photo: Dominic Alves, Flickr
Parkinson’s Law tells us that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. Applied to software, this means that applications tend to bloatware, obese programs whose complexity makes them nearly impossible to debug and maintain.
Once upon a time, we were awestruck by the “solo climber”, the programmer who could single-handedly write a magnum opus on a barebones machine such as the Apple ][ with its 64 kilobytes of memory (yes, kilo — not mega, let alone gigabytes), and 8-bit processor running at 1MHz (again, mega not giga).
Source: A Salute To Solo Programmers by Jean-Louis Gassée
Twitter has killed Politwoops, which kept an eye on politicians’ deleted tweets in 30 countries
Hm. Interesting conundrum. Should politicians’ tweets be subject to more scrutiny?
$TWTR defends elected officials’ right to delete… but I think we all know the Internet never forgets. Twitter is covering their bases here, since they need politicians (and everyone who’s anyone) using their service if they want to survive.
I see this as being closely related to the excellent site NewsDiffs.org—in that Politwoops was also keeping track of that which has been said, even if it’s later altered.
Twitter says:
Imagine how nerve-wracking – terrifying, even – tweeting would be if it was immutable and irrevocable? No one user is more deserving of that ability than another. Indeed, deleting a tweet is an expression of the user’s voice.
Open State Foundation director Arjan El Fassed says:
What elected politicians publicly say is a matter of public record. Even when tweets are deleted, it’s part of parliamentary history. These tweets were once posted and later deleted. What politicians say in public should be available to anyone. This is not about typos but it is a unique insight on how messages from elected politicians can change without notice.
Source: Twitter has killed Politwoops, which kept an eye on politicians