It Feels Soooo Good (our network is growing)!

It's really nice to know that you are not alone. Perhaps this is the biggest blessing that the internet has yet produced - take this article from a comrade in arms, whose feed I subscribe to:

How Can You Tell When David Kirby Is Lying...?

More Web Stuff

Here are a couple of new websites that are either useful or worth checking out. The first two are courtesy of Nathan - one of my web gurus. The third is just something I stumbled upon, but is... interesting:



http://quotably.com/

Quotably allows you to follow Twitter users without being logged into a Twitter account. It also allows you to follow the conversations as they occur. To follow me just go to Quotably and type in "zmmiller"

http://tinyurl.com/

Tinyurl is useful for texting or posting links that are sometimes quite huge in terms of character length - especially useful for Twitterers.

http://www.heyokamagazine.com/

I still haven't figured out what to think about this webzine, but perhaps some of you can help and provide some feedback.

Peaceandlove.

Newsmap

Here is an interesting application/website that I came across:

Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator. Treemaps are traditionally space-constrained visualizations of information. Newsmap's objective takes that goal a step further and provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe.
Newsmap does not pretend to replace the googlenews aggregator. Its objective is to simply demonstrate visually the relationships between data and the unseen patterns in news media. It is not thought to display an unbiased view of the news; on the contrary, it is thought to ironically accentuate the bias of it.
I thought this was really cool, so I thought I'd share - here's the link:

Newsmap

TED

Each day I receive about 100 articles to read through my heavy use of the Google Alerts feature of my gmail account, which allows me to capture any electronically published material (news papers, news wires, blogs, scientific journals, magazines, etc) on topics that relate to the key words that I have set up and am constantly tweaking. This allows me stay on top of the areas of science, politics, literature, culture, etc. that I am interested in. I open all of the articles in Firefox tabs, read some of them immediately (the ones with catchy headlines), then tag those and the others to my del.icio.us account (the unread ones tagged for later reading). Recently I got an article that was linked to the TED site and for some reason (probably too much time on my hands) I decided to see what this was all about. I'm really glad that I did.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out in 1984 (long before the internet) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes - a tall order, as you can probably imagine.

This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 100 talks from TED's archives are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted. Here's the link:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/list

I have watched quite a few and found them all to be pretty amazing. You owe it to yourself to check this out - at least take a couple of minutes to scroll through the list of speakers that have talks in the archive. You may not recognize all of the names but then again, how may astrophysicists, molecular biologists, anthropologists, etc. ever get to be household names? Anyway, it is all free of course and TED's mission is worthy of supporting - it is after all what the architects of the internet had in mind in the beginning: the free sharing of ideas and information for the betterment of humanity. Sounds pretty good to me.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

I just got done watching this documentary, which I found very interesting - so I thought that I'd share it with you. I found the views of the co-founder of Green Peace particularly telling. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Video: The Great Global Warming Swindle

The Power of Nightmares

This is kind of mind-blowing and I would definitely call this a "MUST SEE." In order to save some time, I lifted the following description of this video trilogy from Wikipedia. Each part runs about 59 minutes and plays via flash media player. As always, your comments are not only welcome but sought after.

The Power of Nightmares, subtitled The Rise of the Politics of Fear, is a BBC series of documentary films, written and produced by Adam Curtis.

This documentary argues that during the 20th Century politicians lost the power to inspire the masses, and that the optimistic visions and ideologies they had offered were perceived to have failed. The film asserts that politicians consequently sought a new role that would restore their power and authority. Curtis, who also narrates the series, declares in the film's introduction that “Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us: from nightmares”. To illustrate this Curtis compares the rise of the American neoconservatives and radical Islamists, believing that both are closely connected; that some popular beliefs about these groups are inaccurate; and that both movements have benefited from exaggerating the scale of the terrorist threat.

The Power of Nightmares was first broadcast on BBC Two in three hour-long parts on consecutive Wednesday evenings in the autumn of 2004. The series was rebroadcast in late January 2005 on three consecutive nights, with the final part updated to reflect the Law Lords ruling from the previous December that detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial is illegal.

Although the series has not been shown on U.S. television, its three episodes were shown in succession on 26 February 2005 as part of the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, USA. After the film, Curtis made a public appearance and led a discussion in which he expressed pessimism about an eventual American TV airing or DVD release. It has, however, played in some small independent theaters.

Curtis has also stated: "Something extraordinary has happened to American TV since September 11. A head of the leading networks who had better remain nameless said to me that there was no way they could show it. He said, 'Who are you to say this?' and then he added, 'We would get slaughtered if we put this out.' When I was in New York I took a DVD to the head of documentaries at HBO. I still haven't heard from him."

The BBC's The Power of Nightmares (part 1 of 3)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1002626006461047517

The BBC's The Power of Nightmares (part 2 of 3)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7930933565201168

The BBC's The Power of Nightmares (part 3 of 3)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8732625326538179377

Worldometers

OK, so I know this endless tweaking is annoying, but I'm trying to create something that is not only archival, but also enjoyable and useful as well. To that end, I have decided to add one last link (at least for now) to the links sidebar. This site can be found at http://www.worldometers.info/ and gives real-time world statistical data that are regularly recalibrated. It provides some good food for thought and I feel that it is in keeping with most of the recurring themes of these pages. Enjoy! I promise to actually write something for my next entry and several ideas/issues are marinating - thanks again for all the support.

The Mix is in the Message

I've decided to add a new link to the sidebar here. It is a news site that I visit often and find to be very helpful. Hopefully, some or all of you will check it out - it does not buy into all that liberal vs. conservative bullshit and actually presents "news", what a concept. Here is a brief description of AlterNet:

AlterNet is an award-winning news magazine and online community that creates original journalism and amplifies the best of dozens of other independent media sources. AlterNet's aim is to inspire citizen action and advocacy on the environment, human rights and civil liberties, social justice, media, and health care issues. Its editorial mix underscores a commitment to fairness, equity and global stewardship, and making connections across generational, ethnic and issue lines. AlterNet serves as a reliable filter, keeping hundreds of thousands of people well-informed and engaged, helping them cope with a culture of information overload and resist the constant commercial media onslaught. AlterNet's aim is to stimulate, motivate, and engage.

To check it out visit: http://www.alternet.org/

Maps of War

Here is a website with some really interesting flash animations. The following link will play one of several available on the site. The animation lasts about 45 seconds (no sound) and has a sliding time line below it to show the approximate year. As you watch it, notice the number of times that Israel and Iraq are conquered and reconquered - especially at the end of the animation when it replays the entire sequence at high speed. It kind of puts the prospects for peace in the middle east in a new perspective - not a very optimistic one. Enjoy!

http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf

AQ Test

Take The AQ Test:

(from Wired Magazine)

Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, however, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger's report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives.

Click on the following link to take the test:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

By the way, I scored a 31.

Cartograms

A cartogram, which is sometimes referred to as an isodemographic map, presents numeric information while maintaining some degree of geographic accuracy. For example, here is a map of the world: (click on each image to view a larger version)Here is a cartogram of the world, which uses each country's GDP to reflect disparity in wealth:Here is a cartogram reflecting child/infant mortality rates:Here is a cartogram reflecting relative energy consumption:Finally, here is a cartogram reflecting HIV infection rates:Notice anything?