links for 2009-09-09

  • "Al-Qaeda is likely to try again to use aircraft to attack the West, Whitehall officials have told the BBC." I have the sneaky suspicion this the whole only looking backwards and forwards.
  • "The Iranian authorities on Monday and Tuesday raided offices connected to two senior opposition leaders in Tehran, arresting their top aides and seizing documents, Iranian news agencies and the leaders’ Web sites reported."
  • "Built with typographic standards in mind, Baseline makes it easy to develop a website with a pleasing grid and good typography. Baseline starts with several files to reset the browser’s default behavior, build a basic typographic layout — including style for HTML forms and new HTML 5 elements — and build a simple grid system. Baseline was born to be a quick way to prototype a website and grew up to become a full typographic framework for the web using “real” baseline grid as it’s foundation." The forms styling seems a little weird to me.
  • "A female Sudanese journalist, jailed for a month after being convicted of "dressing indecently" by wearing trousers, has been freed after one day. Lubna Ahmed Hussein was sent to prison after refusing to pay a fine of about $200 (£122), saying she did not want to "give the verdict any legitimacy". Mohedinne Titawi, of the Sudanese Union of Journalists, said the union had paid the fine to secure her release. Ms Hussein, in her 30s, had faced a penalty of up to 40 lashes. International rights groups criticised the trial from the start, with the UN on Tuesday saying the charges against her breached international law."
  • "Signs You're in a Class with Non-geeks" It's funny.
    (tags: humor geek)
  • "Extra university places should be funded as a way out of recession and unemployment, says the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. An annual international report comparing education systems says economies and individuals continue to benefit from higher qualifications. "The benefits clearly outweigh the costs in every country," says report author, Andreas Schleicher. " I agree higher education is the key to raising people's economic status.
  • "Chinese government officials signed an agreement on Tuesday with First Solar, an American solar developer, for a 2,000-megawatt photovoltaic farm to be built in the Mongolian desert." Do conservatives dislike green energy because China is leading the wave in it?
  • "I've always loved the John and Yoko photo. The original was transgressive, powerful, emotional in its reversal of gender roles — her clothed, him naked. It says so much about the vulnerability that comes with truly loving someone, and about forging an egalitarian relationship in a fucked-up world. The re-interpreted version isn't profound. It's just porny. Something we've seen a thousand times before." Agreed.
  • "Did Obama change his back-to-school speech in response to pressure from conservatives? One exercise in the accompanying lesson plan was reworded. Schools were not required to use the lesson plan, whether or not they chose to have children watch the broadcast, and that exercise was one of eight suggested activities" The wording that changed was bad.
  • "Nasa needs its annual $18bn budget boosted by $3bn if astronauts are to conduct meaningful missions like trips to the Moon and beyond, a panel warns. The panel, convened by the White House to review human spaceflight plans, has delivered its summary findings. It says the spaceship and rocket programmes being developed to replace the shuttle are not presently viable. The group has given President Barack Obama a series of options to help him shape the US space agency's future. But the panel, led by retired aerospace executive Norm Augustine, says only a funding increase can truly get Nasa back on track." Unfortunate but expected.
  • "Fox News personalities, including O'Reilly Factor guest-host Laura Ingraham, have attacked President Obama for appointing "czars" — a term the channel uses to refer to any White House official tasked to advise the president on a specific issue, regardless of whether the position is subject to Senate confirmation — with Fox News host Gretchen Carlson singling out the appointment of a "border czar" for criticism. However, during the Bush administration, Fox's Bill O'Reilly called for the appointment of an "immigration czar," as well as a "charity czar" and a "disaster relief victims family czar.""
  • "The US has moved to freeze the assets of two North Korean companies in an effort to enforce sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear development. The General Bureau of Atomic Energy and the Korea Tangun Trading Corp were both deemed to be supporting North Korea's nuclear and missiles programme. North Korea says it is in the final stages of uranium enrichment, bringing it closer to making a nuclear weapon."
  • " With the clock ticking on a year-end deadline, President Obama is pressing ahead with a top-to-bottom review of America’s nuclear weapons to see how much the arsenal can shrink, as his negotiators are racing to wrap up a major new strategic arms control treaty with Russia. The last time the Pentagon reviewed its nuclear posture, in 2001, it concluded that the American military could get by with 1,700 to 2,200 nuclear warheads at the ready, a level the Bush administration found comfortable even as it demurred over a binding treaty with Russia."
  • Biologist go on a first date.
  • "Thrown, dropped, mutilated, and ground-up alive. This is the disturbing reality faced by hundreds of thousands of chicks each day at the world's largest egg-laying breed hatchery Hy-Line International in Spencer, Iowa."
  • "A Best Buy employee recently posted screenshots of what he claims is part of a training program about Windows 7. The screenshots show some Windows vs. Linux comparisons. You probably know where this is going."
  • "Since we’re less than a week away from the third installation of the
    TechCrunch50 conference, which I partner on with Mike Arrington of
    Time 100 fame, I thought I would take a moment to discuss the best
    practices for running a booth or table at a trade show or conference.
    These points are general and are intended to apply to everything from
    a 50-person SIG (special interest group), where you’re given a generic
    folding table, to a custom-built booth at a trade show like CES, held
    in the Las Vegas Convention Center." Really good list.
  • "The world will suffer another financial crisis, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan has told the BBC. He added that he had predicted the crash would come as a reaction to a long period of prosperity." Never would have thought.
  • Computer design is quite often merely bad design done on a computer."

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