This week, we’ve got both net neutrality and the Patriot Act under fire, plus an airline sacrificing goats. Those go together seamlessly.
More on:
Justice Department says no to net neutrality here.
Federal Court rules Patriot Act statute unconstitutional here.
No peaches for the Treasurer here.
Southwest Airlines fashion police here.
Airline sacrifices goat here.
Today’s post doesn’t have any audio. Sorry. Too much stuff to do. But — I do have some tech news you would probably like to know about. Am I right? Am I right?
It’s called Groovle. Based in Ontario, Groovle allows you to create a custom Google homepage (provided that you like to use a basic Google search page without widgets).
Groovle has a bunch of custom pages they have already designed, with images ranging from planets to half-naked celebrities. You can also upload your own image and create a homepage with a photo of your choice. I’m surprised it took so long for someone to come up with a way to create custom homepages for people who don’t know how to make custom Google search engines.
We all know about the largely reported stories this week: The GAO’s less than stellar assessment of the situation in Iraq, Nawaz Sharif’s impending return to General Mr. Musharraf’s Pakistan, and - gasp! - Burning Man’s premature burning. We even got nonstop obsession with Miss Teen South Carolina (who, by the way, is of course milking it for all she can).
But chances are you missed these stories: the first reporter is allowed inside the Terrorist Screening Center, dogs hunt down pirated DVDs, and graffiti for the blind.
More on:
NPR story on the Terrorist Screening Center here.
DVD-sniffing dogs here.
Braille Graffiti project (with video) here.
(audio clip from Dr. Strangelove)
If U.S. troops want to play a video game in which they convert or kill non-Christians, they’ll just have to get it themselves.
After pressure from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, the Department of Defense has shut down an evangelical group’s plan to send free copies of its video game to American soldiers serving in Iraq.
“Left Behind: Eternal Forces” is a PC-based role-playing game, in which your mission is to convert non-believers and kill the Antichrist’s army. The group planning to send the game overseas, Operation Straight Up, is an evangelical entertainment group whose leaders include champion kickboxer Jonathan Spinks and actor Stephen Baldwin.
More on:
“Left Behind: Eternal Forces” here.
Operation Straight UP here.
Max Blumenthal breaks the story here.
Department of Defense cancels the plan here.
Military Religious Freedom Foundation here.
Today wraps up the three-day convention known as DARPATECH. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects) is a research arm of the Pentagon, charged with the most far-out research ideas for improving military technology. DARPA helped create the earliest version of the Internet, thirty-five years ago.
Some of DARPA’s projects are patently utilitarian, such as a net that catches rocket-propelled grenades, brain-controlled prosthetics, and a device that can translate spoken languages.
But then there are the weird projects. Like lizard robots. Or cyborg moths. Oh, and don’t forget pig feces.
More on:
DARPA here.
DARPATECH official website here.
Live blogging of DARPATECH here.
Slate Magazine review of DARPATECH here.
Brain-operated prosthetics here.
Pig feces research here.
Luke’s Binoculars here.
