BREAKING SURF
| Technorati Takes Pulse of Political Bloggery |
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BREAKING SURF
Eyetrack: What Users Look at on Web Pages
Anyone who runs or designs Web sites, particularly media sites, will need to read through the results of this study by the Poynter Institute, a journalism school. The study tracked the eye movements of 46 volunteers while they browsed through real and mock news and multimedia Web sites. Among the major findings: people first look at the upper-left corner of a Web page; smaller type encourages more focused reading; and the first couple of words in headlines are the most attention-grabbing. The study investigated numerous phenomena; we don't really have room to do it justice. Read the summary for an overview and join in the discussion on the Web site. We should note that the researchers are quick to point out that this is just a preliminary study of people specifically in online-savvy San Francisco and the results may not extrapolate to a larger, more general population. Even with this caveat, this is important data about what people do when they visit an informational Web site. Don't miss it.http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm
X Prize Project Seeks Launch Volunteers
No, you don't get to ride the rockets. To briefly rehash: the Ansari X Prize project promises $10 million to the first privately funded team to make two suborbital space flights within a span of two weeks. A couple of contestants are preparing to win the prize and their launch attempts are expected to draw large crowds. The Ansari X Prize needs help managing the events. It's looking for volunteers to help with ticketing, crowd control, hospitality, and other functions. SpaceShipOne plans to launch Sept. 29 and Oct. 13 at Mojave, Calif. Fill in the Web form to volunteer - that is, if slots aren't already filled up by the time you read this.http://xprize.org/volunteer.php
How to Cheat at Internet Chess
The online chess cognoscenti hang out at the Internet Chess Club (ICC). This popular chess server has more than 30,000 members, including some of the best players in the world. At one time, the ICC was free, but as it grew popular it started charging a membership fee. There's nothing wrong with that, but despite being a commercial operation and hosting a serious chess-rating system, the ICC server has an appalling lack of security. Three crypto researchers have deconstructed the proprietary communication protocols of the ICC client and server. The broken protocols, in a flawed design that apparently relies on security by obscurity, let cheaters manipulate game clocks and, worse, sniff confidential information such as credit-card numbers when other players submit them to the server. In a technical paper titled "How to Cheat at Chess", the researchers explain their findings and suggest fixes. This is of great interest to fans of online chess and crypto/security types.ICC: http://www.chessclub.com/
"How to Cheat at Chess": http://eprint.iacr.org/2004/203/
The Genesis solar-wind-collection mission crashed on re-entering Earth's atmosphere after its parachute failed to deploy. NASA seems to think its scientists can still do good science with the broken but not destroyed pieces of the capsule, which hit the ground at a relatively slow 311 km/h. Meanwhile, an inquiry is looking into why the parachute failed. The Genesis Web site has many details about the mission itself, and is also providing updates on the analysis of the broken capsule. You can watch the video of the tumbling capsule, NASA's Sept. 10 media conference about the mission, and several other Genesis videos on JPL's multimedia page.
Genesis: http://www.genesismission.org/
JPL: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/index.cfm
China Investigates Pebble-Bed Reactor Technology
China may go nuclear in a whole new way. The country's growing demand for energy is one reason the price of oil is rising, and China is looking at a new nuclear technology: pebble-bed reactors (PBRs). These reactors employ an entirely different design than the nuclear reactors we are familiar with in the West, although the concept has origins in the Manhattan Project. PBRs are notable for their inherent safety. The pebbles are the fuel source, small spheres made of graphite, silicon, and a small quantity of uranium. A bed of these pebbles is bathed in gaseous helium. The nuclear reaction heats the helium which then drives a turbine. Since PBRs don't use water or fuel rods, they lack most of the complicated engineering that fails in the movies, at Three Mile Island, or at Chernobyl. The Chinese want to build at least 300 PBRs, which are simple enough to construct in almost assembly-line fashion. Read the Wired article first; the others supplement, but can't replace it. Who knows, the "N" in NIMBY might someday stand for "nuclear". How the PBR Works: https://www.pbmr.com/2_about_the_pbmr/2_3how_it_works.htmWired: http://wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/china.html
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor
PBR Technology: http://www.eskom.co.za/nuclear_energy/pebble_bed/pebble_bed.html
NAC: http://www.nacworldwide.com/Links/Pebble-Bed-Reactor.htm
Does Wikipedia Lack Credibility?
How credible are Internet sources? If you've spent any time online, you should know to take most any information with some serious grains of salt. It's usually easy to determine who you need to take with an extra dose of skepticism, but what do you do with sites that appear authoritative, such as the collective Wikipedia? Wikipedia is a wiki - i.e. a public collaborative effort - encyclopedia. Its strength is that anyone can add or edit articles, but that is also its weakness. Ideally, participants will weed out any mistaken or deliberately false information that finds its way into entries. In practice, that happens only slowly, if at all. Recently, Ed Felton salted Wikipedia with deliberate errors to see how quickly the community would fix them. In over a week, no one bothered to correct the misinformation. Some folks quibble with the experiment, and you can find a provocative discussion at Slashdot as well as some criticisms on Felton's own site. We think we'll stick with paid encyclopedias for now (well, except for the above article...).Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/articles/04/09/05/1339219.shtml
Felton: http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000674.html
On Jan. 18, 2001 the Onion published an amusing article that mocked the political agenda of President-elect George W. Bush. Three years later, Dan Chak has taken that article and hyperlinked its once-satirical phrases to various sources of factual citation. Chak shows that the satire meant as humor was eerily on-target and predicted a good chunk of what would happen under the inbound Bush administration. Political satire becoming reality - you've got to worry when that happens, no matter what side of the political aisle you're on.
http://chak.org/pages/onion/bush_nightmare.html
Virtual Worlds Create $75 Million in Real-Life Trade Annually
Players in virtual-world sims/games sell or buy virtual artifacts - everything from magic wands to virtual real estate - for real-world cash. Edward Castronova, a researcher of virtual worlds (see NSD 10.21 for more on him), has come up with an estimate that global sales of such virtual items account for $75 million in trade. He offers his methods and data at his Web page. The implications concern both the companies that run such games and the broader culture at large. Game companies, which generally disapprove of sales outside their respective worlds, must consider real-world taxation and liability - after all, it seems like they are producing goods with real-world value. The rest of us need to pay attention because many people have made livings out of similar although more tangible goods. When you break it down, is the sale of accumulated virtual goods really any different from the sale of farmed melons or wood carvings?NSD 10.21: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v10/nsd.10.21.html#BS5
Castronova: http://mypage.iu.edu/~castro/home.html
Obvious News Flash: Annoying Ads Really Work
We assume that our readers are savvy enough to block or ignore spam and pop-up ads. Sadly, a certain section of humanity is relatively clueless about these matters, not to mention about NSD, and some folks actually buy the penis enlargement nostrums, pain pills, and spyware these annoying ads tout. Given the volume of people one can reach online for almost no cost, the unfortunate fact is that even miniscule response rates turn a profit. Wired provides figures that show just how successful these ads can be. According to the Wired piece, pop-up ads have five to ten times the response rates of simple banner ads. The story meanders a bit, but does give some attributed numbers on just how much spam and pop-up advertising there is out there, and who thinks you can be forced to view it.http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,64807,00.html
Locus has a group photo of the latest Hugo Award winners, so take a look if you want to see what an award-winning SF writer looks like. The best novel this year was "Paladin of Souls" by perennial favorite, Lois McMaster Bujold. Vernor Vinge and Michael Swanwick won Best Novella and Best Novelette categories respectively, while another perennial fave, Neil Gaiman, won Best Short Story. "Lord of the Rings" material managed to capture two categories. You can find links to the text of many of the nominated works at the Noreascon site - there's lots of great reading to be had.
Locus: http://www.locusmag.com/2004/News/09_HugoAwardsWinners.html
Noreascon: http://www.noreascon.org/hugos/nominees.html
Japan Tries to Curb the Wild Net
There's growing fear in Japan that corporations and government are trying to curb the opinionated zest and freedom of Japanese netsurfers. So far, the signs are subtle, but ominous. Among them is an outpouring of stories about the irresponsibility or illegality of Net activities. The arrest of Isamu Aneko, a research associate at the University of Tokyo who invented a file-sharing application called Winny, on charges of assisting in copyright violation has sent shock waves through Japan's online community. Winny is popular in Japan and, ironically, even Japanese police forces use it, reports the Japan Times. With no Japanese equivalent of the Electronic Frontier Foundation to help defend him, Aneko may become an example that Japanese authorities will use to scare others. Authorities are also making a fuss over the often anonymous posting of names of children accused of high-profile murders. The conventional media in Japan are even less receptive to bulletin boards and blogs than their North American counterparts and fear their growing influence. The increasing popularity of the Net in Japan - 60% of Japanese use it and its popularity is spreading rapidly in older cohorts - may help explain the rising interest in controlling it.http://ojr.org/japan/internet/1093543502.php
An idle conversation between graphic designer Andrei Herasimchuk and one of the folks from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) led to thoughts about what a new brand could look like for the important organization. Herasimchuk takes us through his thought process as he comes up with a new logo, with detours along the way to pay homage to famous corporate-logo designer Paul Rand. You may or may not like Herasimchuk's design, but any aficionado of visual art will appreciate the discussion that follows his post; many professional graphic designers comment on his work. This is an excellent discussion of a concrete logo proposal, and it sheds light on what graphic designers think of when they do their stuff.
http://www.designbyfire.com/000146.html
Imagine a legion of the undead, each mindlessly, and at a speed uncharacteristic for zombies, typing and mailing out spam to haunt your helpless mailbox. That's not really what happens when zombies send spam, but it's a good image. Contemplate it for a moment.... Actually, zombies are computers - generally, the machines of oblivious home users - that hackers have infected and control as a horde to blast out spam to the world. With enough machines under control, a hacker can even escape the notice of ISPs to which the zombies connect. USA Today quotes the going rate for a network of such covertly controlled computers. In the spam underground, you can rent 20,000 zombie computers for $2,000 to $3,000. Mailing lists are cheaper; a CD of addresses (most not valid, probably) goes for as little as $5. We wonder what the going price is for a real zombie....
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2004-09-08-zombieprice_x.htm
While the full-size Steve Jobs recuperates following surgery, a GI Joe doll - er, action figure dressed in miniature black turtleneck and blue jeans continues to travel the world. Danny La and Pam Phillips thought up the Mini iLeader project as both an homage and a send-up. The doll - er, action figure and a digital camera spend up to a week with a loving Mac user, who takes photos of the doll, posts the pics online, then sends the package on to the next loving Mac user on the list. So far the plastic impersonator has been to Canada, the UK, Italy, and Ecuador as well as many places in the US over the course of 18 months. It has met many Barbie dolls and has been chased from the Microsoft campus by security. Jobs himself was asked if he'd like to look after his alter ego, but he declined. Currently, the Mini iLeader is in Massachusetts. The rules of participation are simple - no insertion in body orifices or other maltreatment, please. Wired has more.
Wired: http://wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,64796,00.html
Mini iLeader: http://homepage.mac.com/pronaholic2/dmp/
If you read Slashdot regularly, you know that Slashdotters can have strong political opinions, which lean mostly to the libertarian and often anarchic. Many of the technical discussions on Slashdot degrade into political flamefests aimed at a predictable subset of entities (Microsoft, government, the patent system). Given this state of affairs, it's surprising that Slashdot did not create a category for political discussion until now. This week, Slashdot unveiled its political section with the tagline "Politics for Nerds. Your Vote Matters." You'd expect the quintessentially geeky site would mostly cover the politics of technology, but this is not the case at all. Already, the stories and debates have moved on to the same sort of political flamage you can find in any two-bit online forum.
http://politics.slashdot.org/
The new Campaign Radar 2004 site presents automated analysis of US Presidential political content of blogs. The site produces daily summaries of top links, key phrases, and relevant excerpts that record the ebb and flow of discussion of issues in politically oriented weblogs. It also provides graphs that indicate the frequencies of posts on specific topics and specific candidates. BlogPulse, which hosts the new page, is a weblog analysis site that belongs to Intelliseek, a marketing intelligence firm. Political junkies will just eat this up.
http://politics.blogpulse.com/
Friendster, that hip, happenin' social-networking place, has fired an employee for having the audacity to comment on Friendster in three of her blog posts. Joyce Park, who posted the entries in her Troutgirl blog, says that all the information she wrote is publicly available, and claims that Friendster neither had any policy concerning employee blogging nor gave her any warning before slipping her the pink. Friendster hired Park to convert its Web platform from Java J2EE to PHP in order to speed up response. Park discussed her work at Troutgirl, and called the old Friendster interface "pokey". Park's initial posting simply asked for user input. Park says she has no recourse to contest her termination. Friendster won't comment, but actions like these are inevitable on the march from private innovation to corporate concern. Kudos to CNET for the subhead: "With Friendster like this, who needs enemies?"
Troutgirl: http://troutgirl.com/blog/index.php
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-5331835.html
Internet2 Zips to New Speed Record
Internet2 set a new data-transfer speed record: 6.63 GB per second. Nearly 860 GB of data moved from Geneva to Pasadena, Calif. in 17 minutes. For the scientists, this rate of data transfer allows collaborative analysis in nearly real-time regardless of displacement. We suspect that the RIAA and MPAA may have an altogether different take. Caltech has a press release and InternetNews covered the accomplishment.Caltech: http://pr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR12577.html
InternetNews: http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3403161
ONLINE CULTURE
Technorati Takes Pulse of Political Bloggery
Sifting through blogs to detect trends or, even more difficult, to find particularly perspicacious perceptions is no easy task. For one thing, there are lots of blogs. For another, bloggers sometimes take more time than you have to digest events and write about them. To help summarize the blogosphere's opinions toward the current US Presidential campaign, Technorati, a blog index and search engine site we've looked at in the past, has come up with Election Watch 2004. The page reveals graphically and dynamically which stories and authors are having the biggest impact among the movers and shakers in the blogosphere. Wired's revealing story on Election Watch 2004 also identifies other phenomena emerging from the blogging community, but none of it is all that surprising. Bloggers approach news as more of a conversation than a lecture, and correct and modify stories in ways conventional media can't match. Bloggers also pay more attention to important stories that mainstream journalism downplays or ignores. With any luck, the blogosphere will drive more mainstream channels to seek out and cover undiscovered, unappreciated newsy jewels. Mainstream media could use a swift kick in the ass - maybe they'll go back to journalism one of these days.Technorati Politics: http://politics.technorati.com/
Wired: http://wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,64791,00.html
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In the Shadow of No Towers
Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason
The Dark: New Ghost Stories
A Mathematician at the Ballpark: Odds and Probabilities for Baseball FansSURFING SITES
Echo Company is a true story of modern war. A bloody ambush in Ramadi, Iraq on Apr. 6, 2004 left 12 Marines dead. Philadelphia Inquirer photographer David Swanson, embedded in that unit, witnessed the attack. This multimedia presentation of the events before, during, and after the ambush portrays the fear, the pain, and the sorrow of survivors and families. Swanson and Joe Galloway, of "We Were Soldiers" fame, narrate. Visitors can view slide shows of Swanson's photographs, watch RealPlayer clips of the battle, read profiles of the Marines, browse a timeline of events, and listen to audio clips of the Marines' family members. The site also offers an extensive list of related links, including the Web site of Echo Company, Second Battalion, Fourth Marines. No matter how you feel about the war in Iraq, it behooves you to see and understand the reality of men who carry the burden of combat and the price they and theirs pay. Semper Fi.http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/echo_company/
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) entered World War II as the world's third largest navy and certainly its best trained. Equipped with state-of-the-art warships, the IJN boasted a strong warrior ethic and its ships typically spent nine months a year exercising at sea to hone its war-fighting skills. Japanese night-fighting, naval aviation, and torpedoes were second to none, as the US Navy found out to its detriment in the first years of war in the Pacific. Ed Low's admiration for the IJN's skill and technology shows in his beautiful and detailed 3-D models of two of the IJN's best ship classes. His computer-generated images of the destroyer Akizuki and the cruiser Tone (of Midway fame) include multiple views of the hull, bridge, weapons, and many other features, all exquisitely rendered to the last detail. Low's site includes the technical details on how the models were constructed and references to other sites and sources of information on IJN ship graphics.
http://www.ijn.dreamhost.com/index.html
Peter Rabbit, Anti-Tank Infantry
"But oh! That Peter was a naughty rabbit!" Follow the adventures of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit as he and his cousin Benjamin Bunny gear themselves for battle against Mr. McGregor's Tiger Mk. II tank. Illustrated with Potter-style illustrations, this online version of a short 1980s-era pamphlet takes the classic children's story to a whole new level, and introduces a new generation of kiddies to the tactics and tribulations of infantry anti-tank tactics. Knocking out a Tiger with a hand-held rocket launcher was no mean feat, and Peter and Benjamin have their own share of perils getting the job done. Of course, the price of freedom is high; Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail - who don't disable any armored vehicles - get fresh veggies to eat while Peter gets sent to bed without any supper. Old Mrs. Rabbit was one strict mother. Please allow us our pedantry as we point out that the alleged Tiger is drawn as a Soviet T-34, that "Panzer tank" is redundant, and that a Bazooka is not the same thing as a Panzerfaust.http://www.metrowargamers.com/articles/Peter/peter_intro.htm
The Most Beautiful Color Combos
Colorcell is an online color experiment. Users create combinations of four colors, called cells, that other users then vote on as they indicate their favorites. Upon creation, newly born cells share the virtual Livingspace with the cells of other users. Each day, visitors select up to three favorites and the site awards selections with fitnesspoints. Cells chosen often enough rank higher; cells that aren't, weaken and eventually die. You can review dead cells on the Cemetery page. You can view successful cells by rank, or not, or in the Hall of Fame. The fun bits here are each cell's vital statistics and the weekly average color - the trend definitely leans to a subdued gray-green, although we think we detect a possible preference for bluish tints early in the year and reddish tints later.http://colorcell.uneven.org/index2.php
We're all familiar with the descriptive phrase "a bird's-eye view". At Animal Vegetable Video, you'll also become familiar with a buffalo's-eye view and an armadillo's-eye view. Video artist Sam Easterson mounts cameras on various animals and plants and films the world from the vantage point of his helpers. Easterson provides many short samples - make sure you put your cursor over all the colored squares - including a sheep, the video from which we could swear shows a herd of sheep who, with one curious exception, are running scared from the nerd sheep with the camcorder on its head. (N.B. Don't view the tumbleweed video if you get motion sickness.) This could be as close as you'll ever get to some of these creatures in a natural setting. It's great to watch, but we can't help wondering how you get a wolf to pack a camera.
http://anivegvideo.com/
At one point or another, just about everyone has a gripe about TV news. Drag yourself away from the tube, if you can, long enough to ponder points made by novelist/media critic Daniel Price on his Abused by the News site. Price writes about disinformation and the business of news. His NewsFAQ is good for starters. "The real slant in our news is a slant towards profit," he observes. "Unfortunately, the networks have chosen to fight over the same few eyeballs, which is why we're consistently hit with the same crap from every channel." His most recent column, "Census Working Overtime", expresses skepticism over public opinion polls. "Your Child Is at Risk!" is sharp satire on sensationalism. "Paula Zahn Nude" consists of 13 suggestions that will "help CNN in its mission to gain viewers, cut expenses, and lose integrity fast." Price suggests funnier experts, faster news tickers, and consumption of cats on the air. If you write sitcoms for a living, you might pick up some funny ideas here. If you produce news for network TV, you'll want to visit for a reality check.
http://www.abusedbythenews.com/
If you're one of the roughly 22% of American adults who smoke cigarettes, this site is for you. Bob Quits is all about Bob's one-month journey from smoker to quitter, helped by the sponsoring American Legacy Foundation (ALF). Visitors can follow his progress day by day with Bob's video journal and can read about the people and circumstances that encouraged Bob to drop his 18-year-old habit. The site is slick, so slick that we suspected Bob was the creation of a marketing scheme - but what marketing guru would use the name "Christiaan" for a fictional wife? One important element to note is that Bob had help that many people who try to quit smoking don't have. With the assistance of ALF, Bob drew up an action plan and identified his psychological, physical, and emotional dependencies on cigarettes. He then countered these dependencies with new, healthier alternatives. While we can't guarantee that this site will incite anyone to quit smoking, it certainly will provide food for thought. You won't find holier-than-thou rhetoric that many former smokers specialize in. You will find a candid look at an average American as he prepares for the fight of his life.
http://www.bobquits.com/
Race and Survival in the Movies
If you've ever watched an old episode of "Star Trek" and tried to identify the crew member doomed to be eaten by an alien then this site is for you. The Unfair Racial Cliche Alert has a theory and plenty of examples to show that any non-Caucasian character in a Hollywood horror or SF movie has only a slim chance of making it through to the final credits. The site is happy to log exceptions to the rule and does note that the cliche is slowly peeling away, particularly in independent movies and in flicks made by Wes Craven and John Carpenter. Incredibly, Arnold Schwarzenegger has never appeared in a single film in which a minority actor survived. As argued at the site, this cliche is bad movie-making as well as unfair in the extreme.http://www.feoamante.com/Movies/racial.html
A Dose of the Bizarre in Comics and Animation
For complete and utter creative insanity look no further than Craig Robinson's Flip Flop Flyin'. Here you'll find countless animations, illustrations, and writings Robinson conjures. Check out his popular Minipops illustrations, which feature miniscule celebrity impressions, or Billy's Page, which features Robinson's pet spaniel's musings. There are so many unusual bits on this site that we couldn't begin to list them all. You'll have to visit the site for yourself to discover Robinson's wild imagination. While you may not find all of the site amusing, you'll likely find something to tickle your funny bone or at the very least make you go "Huh?"http://www.flipflopflyin.com/
Earn a Bachelor of Spam from the University of Nigeria
There's a legitimate University of Nigeria, but we've found a fictitious one online that spoofs the infamous, not-always-Nigerian 419 spam fraud. And a fine piece of fakery it is! This false U of N offers a slick brochure to prospective students. It notes a special seminar with the prince of Nigeria on how to transfer $30 million to the US or any other country without a trace. The Admissions and Courses Offered pages are fine parody. In History and World Events 400, for example, you'll learn how, years ago, Americans started a project to enrichen the Nigerian economy - it was called Arpanet. Fishing 100 teaches the skills and techniques of bait and switch. Teach a man to fish.... The testimonials of purported grads are great. To wit: "I make so much money that I tape my $100 bills together and use them as a roll of toilet paper." Most readers will quickly realize this site pokes fun at gullibility rather than at Nigeria - although the real university can't be pleased.http://www.universityofnigeria.com/
Play with the Electoral College
A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the US Presidency, and 270 to Win just happens to be the name of this interactive site. You get a map of US states identified by abbreviation and electoral votes, and you get to play with prospective results. If the chips fall the way they did in the 2000 election, it'll be four more years of President Bush, but with a greater margin of victory, since states' electoral voting power has shifted in the last four years. The site also offers a choice little quiz about the Electoral College. You'll be astounded and amazed by what you don't know.http://www.270towin.com/
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Addictive Tetris/Pinball/Puzzle-like Game
In Puzzle Ball, all you do is use the space bar to spring balls into a tub of water. If you create a string of balls of the same color, they turn to bubbles. Clear all balls before they reach the top of the water, and you advance a level. Try to stop. We found the game two places. We love the sounds, and the stuffed animals.Puzzle Ball 1: http://www.balask.com/onlinegames/puzzleball/
Puzzle Ball 2: http://www16.brinkster.com/losoft/teddypower/puzzleBall.htm
How to Build a Flapping Paper Airplane
Yes, it actually flaps its wings. Now, if only we could implant the brain of a fly into this design.... Why, think of it, Pinky - we could take over the world!http://homepage.mac.com/keithgreenstein/Flapper/PhotoAlbum41.html
The London News Review has a neatly diagrammed flow chart that helps you make the moral decision about whether to rip/download that song or not.
http://www.lnreview.co.uk/music/should_i_rip_this.html
What is the Higgs Boson, and Why Do We Want to Find It?
In 1993, the UK Science Minister, William Waldegrave, challenged physicists to produce a one-page answer to that question. Here are the five winning attempts.http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs.htm
9/11 Caused 353 Extra Traffic Deaths
A quick statistical analysis reveals that because more people chose to drive over flying after 9/11 there were 353 more traffic deaths on US roads than expected without the tragedy.http://www.ubilibertas.com/archives/000150.php
Americans, register to vote, then take the Votergasm pledge. Beyond your votes, you have choices to make: pledge to withhold sex from non-voters or, more generously, pledge to have sex with voters on election night. "I will vote. I will get laid. I will love America". Indeed.
http://www.votergasm.org/
Axis of Eve: Political Pantie Flash
Probably the most interesting people in New York City during the Republican convention were women of the Axis of Eve, who flashed protest panties and the occasional protest boob. Axis of Eve has their screed, Fleshbot has links to pics and videos. Can you spot the cop with the video camera?Axis of Eve: http://www.axisofeve.org/index.php
Fleshbot: http://www.fleshbot.com/archives/rnc-panty-flash-photos-020692.php
Harness the power of a star for your orgasmic enjoyment. Sometimes, it takes that much. You get an hour of pleasure for seven hours of sunlight but, on the other hand, you won't run out of juice for several billion years.
http://www.blowfish.com/catalog/toys/alt_vibrators.html
Dealing with the Death Star's Trash
Frankly, while drawing up plans for such a monstrous killing machine, the Death Star designers skimped a bit when it came to designing the garbage-disposal system.http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2002/01/10deathstar.html
This is a one-note joke, but a good one. Go ahead and set up an e-mail account with an address like these beauties and you, too, can have minutes of fun annoying pesky telemarketers.
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/27MichaelWard.html
Bjork's Performance of "Oceania" at Olympic Opening
One of the highlights of this year's Olympic opening ceremonies was Bjork's rendition of "Oceania". Bjork.it (in Italian) has video of that performance. Bjork's official Bjork.com site has the made-for-MTV video.Bjork.it: http://www.bjork.it/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=108
Bjork.com: http://www.bjork.com/grapewire/?id=481;year=2004;year=2004
Photos of Athens Photographers
Photographers photographed photographers at the Olympics. These shots show more cameras than photographers, many with penis envy-inducing lenses.http://www.pbase.com/vthian/athens_olympics_2004
Mazes for the Invisible Cursor
For the deft-wristed, here's a series of mazes, with invisible cursors, to test your ability to control your mouse. Don't open this site at work! To really test your skills, try this after a glass or two of single malt. A world-class time waster.http://madnesstemple.com/invisibility/
SOFTWARE
New Google Toolbar Feature: Browse by Name
A new feature of the Google Toolbar should be familiar to anybody who's used Google's I'm Feeling Lucky button. In order to save time, type into the Google Toolbar just the name of the resource you're looking for and Google will take you there immediately. This works reasonably well, even for somewhat obscure URLs. For example, type in "ford explorer" and your browser will load the Ford Web site with the long, unobvious URL specific to that vehicle. That's all there really is to it.http://toolbar.google.com/