Sorry for the delay in posting these links, folks. I’ve been traveling, and I’m just now getting back to bloggin’. Unlike some people, I’m determined to make it through the 826 unread items in my Google Reader. How about a few links?
- Here’s a somewhat alarming Washington Post article from last week describing some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that are testing a new way of tracking users online
Although common tracking systems, known as cookies, have counted a consumer’s visits to a network of sites, the new monitoring, known as “deep-packet inspection,” enables a far wider view — every Web page visited, every e-mail sent and every search entered. Every bit of data is divided into packets — like electronic envelopes — that the system can access and analyze for content
- This Nick Kristof column on racial and gender bias provides links to a number of interesting online psychological tests.
- PhilanTopic highlights a Gates Foundation initiative aimed at involving scientists who might not normally focus on global health issues, particularly those in the developing world or in complimentary disciplines. From the Gates site:
The initiative is modeled after the grand challenges formulated more than 100 years ago by mathematician David Hilbert. His list of important unsolved problems has encouraged innovation in mathematics research ever since. Similarly, the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative aims to engage creative minds from across scientific disciplines — including those who have not traditionally taken part in global health research — to work on 14 major challenges.
- Cool World Wildlife Fund posters from around the globe.
- These famous photographs recreated in Lego make me really happy.
- EcoGeek shares the details of Dell’s Austin headquarters which is now 100% powered by renewable energy. It’s an imperfect system, as these things always are, but it’s a laudable step.
- Smitten Kitchen is my new favorite food/cooking blog. This lemon blueberry yogurt cake looks amazing (due in no small part to their expert photography…and baking).
- If you’re looking to spice up an office memo, or maybe a senior thesis, try the beard font.
That should be enough for now. Sorry to fill the links with so much random stuff, but expect more *ahem* serious blogging to follow this week.
826 is doable. Let it build up to 1500 or 1600 and then get back to me.
I’m now back to square zero, but yeah I’m sure 1500 items would have destroyed me…if I didn’t have a little thing called persistence. Did your quitter attitude show up in your aptitudes test?
No, but jackasstasticness was explicitly tested. They could only detect trace amounts, attributable to overexposure — kind of like second-hand smoking, or nuclear radiation — from 2003-2005 and, to a lesser extent, 2006-2007. Odd.