tisiwoota

1. Wikileaks: How to Leak a Secret and Not Get Caught.
The creators of the site are thought to include political activists and open-source software engineers, though they are keeping their identities secret. Their goal is to ensure that whistle-blowers and journalists are not thrown into jail for emailing sensitive documents.

2. This wesome Robotic Toy Dino That Learns. Really, it’s awesome sounding.

3. Disclosure of government data mining could become US law. Thank you, Democratic Congress.

4. Amnesiacs struggle to imagine future events. Huh, so it’s not just about forgetting the past.

5. Does Subsidizing Women’s Education Matter More than Reducing Poverty? A provocative argument.

1. Top Ten Methods to Access Blocked Websites. Useful if you’re traveling to, say, China.

2. Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. Fun to look at, and quite thorough.

3. More “Non-Lethal” Weapons Being Developed. Forcefields that stun people at checkpoints whose facial scans don’t match, “piezoelectric” stun guns that shoot darts containing an electric charge, a plasma raygun that causes temporary paralysis, and a weapon that shoots a heat beam. After seeing how lethal “non-lethal” Taser technology turned out, don’t you feel so safe and protected these will be used on the public someday too?

4. Tracked in America: A History of US Govt Surveillance. The ACLU has put together a website telling the stories of 25 people who have been tracked by the US govt in various times from WWI to today.

5. Whole Foods CEO Takes $1 Salary for This Year.

I went to the first conference several years back, and it was fantastic. Since network TV won’t be covering it, I thought I would do my bit to publicize it here:

Check out the site, where you can:

# Watch video streams of the main events, musical performances, keynote speakers, including Bill Moyers, Geena Davis, Danny Glover, Al Green’s Gospel Choir, FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Johnathan Adelstein, Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!, Congressman Ed Markey and others

# Listen to downloadable audio of the hundreds of panels and workshops

The event runs today through Sunday the 14th.

Oh and you can find blog accounts of the conference on technorati here and youtube videos of speakers here

Or half-week. Whatev.

1. Sustainable Sciences Institute.
…Today Harris runs the Sustainable Sciences Institute in San Francisco, a nonprofit she began with the money awarded through her McArthur prize. The Institute teaches scientists what she calls “knowledge-based” technology transfer. So for DNA amplification, instead of $100 for silica particles, she teaches scientists in the developing world to begin with “a 20-pound bag of ceramic dust for $5 at the hobby store,” and thermocycling based on ice, Bunsen burners, and somebody holding a thermometer. A device that costs $10,000 in even its most rudimentary form in the developed world is suddenly within reach of scientists whose entire programs would otherwise be impossible…

2. The Internets Weigh Two Ounces. (By estimating how much energy is used each day to run it).

3. Milk Wrecks the Cardiovascular Benefits of Tea. And possibly antioxidant benefits too?

4. Tech Companies Harness Wisdom of Crowds Through Prediction Markets. They rely on it to guide their own internal managements decisions…

5. NYC Develops a Next-Generation Playground. The new designs have broader purposes than promoting “mere” physical activities (the article takes a rather disparaging tone about this goal), and will instead focus on features with potential to foster social interaction and fantasty play. “Play is not optional for kids; play is how children learn to build community, how they learn to work with other people, it’s how they learn to kind of engage their sense of creativity.” I think this is fantastic– though I rather wish they could both introduce these new socially-interactive designs AND bring back those daredevil monkey bars of yore…

1. 419 Scams Move to Craigslist. Not just scam emails anymore…

2. P2P Meets Social Networking. Tribler helps you share files and bandwidth with friends. (Old news, but I hadn’t heard of it).

3. Project Censored’s Top 25 Stories Ignored by mainstream media in 2006

4. Emotion-aware teaching software tracks student attention. “The system keeps track of students’ attention by measuring physical signs of emotion. It then varies the speed and content of a lesson based on an assessment of their level of interest.”

5. China Media Battle Hints at Shift on Intellectual Property. So here’s the tipping point– China’s businesses discover that IP a useful tool for competition.

backstory: I am putting together a panel discussion.

a chronological rendition of events:

–> in October, I set a date in January to have these people, A and B, come speak. I confirm this by sending out an email entitled, “Mark your calendars: Jan 27th”

–> A month later, I write A and B to figure out air travel reservations for Jan 27th.

–> Mr. A writes back saying he didn’t realize we had set a “firm” date yet, and that he has a massive book project he’ll be finishing up then.

–> after more communication, we set on a new panel date of Feb 15th.

–> I send an email to C, this person from another organization, to see if he can come join the Feb 15th panel.

–> After many weeks, C writes back saying that Feb 15th won’t work but he’d be delighted to come on another date.

–> I suggest March 1 to C, with the caveat that I’ll have to check with A and B.

–> I write to A and B to check.

–> C writes back saying March 1 is perfect.

–> A writes back saying that March 1 conflicts with B’s organization’s annual meeting.

–> I write back to A and B, saying we’ll stick with Feb 15th.

–> I write to C asking if he’d be willing to present by himself on March 1.

–> B writes back correcting A, saying that B’s organization’s annual meeting is the week after.

–> I write again to A and B, asking again if March 1 will work.

–> C writes back saying he’d be happy to speak by himself March 1, asking “This would be part of what type of event?” (um, you speaking by yourself, wasn’t that clear??)

–> B confirms that March 1 would be fine.

And now I’m waiting to hear back from A.

All this for a three-member panel. How on earth do people schedule entire conferences?!?