Archive for May, 2011
Get Lamp: A Documentary About Adventures in Text
May 29th, 2011Via: Get Lamp: Trailer: Film: In the early years of the microcomputer, a special kind of game was being played. With limited sound, simple graphics, and tiny amounts of computing power, the first games on home computers would hardly raise an eyebrow in the modern era of photorealism and surround sound. In a world of […]
Lockheed Network Hit by Major Disruption
May 29th, 2011Via: Reuters: Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon’s No. 1 supplier, is experiencing a major disruption to its computer systems that could be related to a problem with network security, a defense official and two sources familiar with the issue said on Thursday. Lockheed, the biggest provider of information technology to the U.S. government, is grappling with […]
Facebook Hires Former Bush Aides as Washington Lobbyists
May 28th, 2011Via: Los Angeles Times: Facebook just made two more friends in D.C. It’s hiring two aides of former President George W. Bush as lobbyists. Joel Kaplan, previously deputy chief of staff in the Bush White House, is joining Facebook as vice president of U.S. public policy, a new position in which he will oversee the […]
Presidential Signature for Patriot Act Extension Carried Out by Robot
May 28th, 2011I couldn’t make it up if I tried.
Skylon Spaceplane Finally Gets Approval
May 28th, 2011Via: Discovery News: After 30 years of development, the UK and European space agencies have given the go-ahead for the Skylon Spaceplane. The Skylon, which is being developed at the UK’s Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines Ltd., is an unpiloted and reusable spacecraft that can launch into low-Earth orbit after taking off from a conventional runway. Looking […]
Top Lobbying Banks Got Biggest Bailouts
May 28th, 2011Mmm hmm. Via: Reuters: The more aggressively a bank lobbied before the financial crisis, the worse its loans performed during the economic downturn — and the more bailout dollars it received, according to a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research this week. The report, titled “A Fistful of Dollars: Lobbying and the […]
Terrorist ‘Pre-Crime’ Detector Field Tested in United States
May 28th, 2011This is the most hilariously unworkable Magic 8 Ball boondoggle that I’ve ever heard about. In the annals of grant swindling, this one has to take the cake. Via: Nature: Planning a sojourn in the northeastern United States? You could soon be taking part in a novel security programme that can supposedly ‘sense’ whether you […]
Dangerous Debris, Evidence, Left in Abandoned Detroit Police Crime Lab
May 28th, 2011Via: Detroit Free Press: Thousands of rounds of live ammunition, sealed evidence kits and case files — some containing Social Security numbers of rape and assault victims — lay amid rubble in a crime lab abandoned by Detroit police two years ago. The Free Press discovered the ruins this week. Judicial experts expressed shock that […]
Is Berlin the Ultimate Urban Pig Growing Area?
May 27th, 2011Why not embrace the bounty and designate areas for the raising and slaughter of pigs for local consumption? This sounds like more of a blessing than a problem to me. Update: Radioactive Boars on the Rise in Germany Reader DP sends cautionary information about wild pigs in Germany. Via: AP: Almost a quarter century after […]
Priest in Archdiocese of Pope’s Adviser On Pedophilia Scandals Arrested on Pedophilia and Drug Charges
May 27th, 2011Via: Time: The latest sex-abuse case to rock the Catholic Church is unfolding in the archdiocese of an influential Italian Cardinal who has been working with Pope Benedict XVI on reforms to respond to prior scandals of pedophile priests. Father Riccardo Seppia, a 51-year-old parish priest in the village of Sastri Ponente, near Genoa, was […]
