Furl http://www.furl.net/ http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.furl.net/member/justinowings.rss Furl archive. Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:19:09 GMT http://www.furl.net/item/36514772/forward http://www.furl.net/item/36514772 Big surprise: exercise can prolong your life. I wonder if there are similar studies out there on anaerobic exercise. Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:42:17 GMT Health The work tracked 500 older runners for more than 20 years, comparing them to a similar group of non-runners. All were in their 50s at the start of the study. Nineteen years into the study, 34% of the non-runners had died compared to only 15% of the runners. 3 http://www.furl.net/item/36072802/forward http://www.furl.net/item/36072802 I like how Doctorow frames the situation here. As the recording industry works harder and harder to police filesharing, the filesharing protocols get more and more sophisticated, making it that much harder for them to be effectively policed. In other words, its the recording industry that is sticking the nails in their own coffins! We know how this will end! Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:44:59 GMT Entertainment government freedom A decade of intransigence and stubborness has bred a killer strain of antibiotic-resistant filesharing technology that grows more and more difficult to police by the year. The sheet music publishers didn't get to control the destiny of the record companies, who couldn't control the broadcasters, who couldn't control the cable operators, who couldn't control the VCR makers. 4 http://www.furl.net/item/36072154/forward http://www.furl.net/item/36072154 Pretty solid write-up about the kid who hacked Media-Defender and has done a lot to protect file-sharing. I can't help but wonder how much money and productivity that has been absolutely squandered trying to stop the inevitable: which is the spread of ideas and information. Furthermore, we can only imagine had that wealth been used in efforts to find new methods of making money on ideas *and* sharing them. IP is dead. Long-live PIracy. Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:20:19 GMT Entertainment government freedom "In the beginning, I had no motivation against Monkey Defenders," Ethan tells me. "It wasn't like, 'I want to hack those bastards.' But then I found something, and the good nature in me said, These guys are not right. I'm going to destroy them." And so he set out to do just that: a teenager, operating on a dated computer, taking on—when his schedule allowed—one of the entertainment world's best technological defenses against downloading. The U.S. movie industry estimates that it loses more than $2 billion a year to file sharers; the record industry, another $3.7 billion. "Piracy," intoned Dan Glickman, the head of the Motion Picture Association of America trade group, to Congress in late 2006, "is the greatest obstacle the film industry currently faces." Instead of figuring out whether there is a way to make online distribution work—to profit from downloading—the industry has obsessed for years with battling it. Yet it took only a few months for Ethan to expose just how quixotic that fight has become. 5 http://www.furl.net/item/35247565/forward http://www.furl.net/item/35247565 This is bad -- and its only getting worse. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:13:24 GMT bizarre crime Now comes word that rising precious metal prices for platinum and palladium have compelled thieves to remove catalytic converters from parked cars using battery-powered saws, sometimes in broad daylight, in order to get a little extra walking-around money. Marty Boyer's carefully maintained sport utility vehicle growled more like a dragster than a 2001 Honda Passport when he turned the key. "The second I turned it over, and it sounded like a tank and a Harley, I knew exactly what had occurred," said Boyer, 33. A half-dozen office colleagues had told him about that roar after their own catalytic converters were stolen, a crime that has been rising rapidly across the country from riverside parking lots in Cincinnati to highways along the California coast. Catalytic converters are said to contain up to a quarter of an ounce of platinum. At a spot price of almost $2,000 per ounce, you can understand how the math might work out. 3 http://www.furl.net/item/35224656/forward http://www.furl.net/item/35224656 Just found the chart fascinating -- look how much land is owned by the Feds in the west! Geez! Is it any wonder why real estate in California is so expensive? Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:38:34 GMT government 5 http://www.furl.net/item/34894592/forward http://www.furl.net/item/34894592 Good news is that the Supreme Court is upholding the Constitution *for once*. It's absurd that four justices dissented, and the quoted bit below is just inane -- as if the Constitution's purpose was anything BUT limiting government. Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:45:22 GMT government freedom regulation In a dissent he summarized from the bench, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the majority ''would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons.'' He said such evidence ''is nowhere to be found.'' 5 http://www.furl.net/item/34589951/forward http://www.furl.net/item/34589951 Written in 2006, this is a solid op-ed about how American culture is now absurdly risk-averse. I see this in my personal life with friends/family who are overly cautious with their newborns. I also see it with kids who all wear their helmets on their bikes (We *never* did as kids -- didn't even own them despite being told we should wear them). And the underlying meme of it all is freedom. How can you embrace freedom without also embracing risk? Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:16:14 GMT law responsibility But the diving-board dilemma is not just a legal matter; it's a cultural one. We Americans have become so risk averse when it comes to our children that we now see unacceptable dangers from even the most routine activities. We have created peanut-butter-free school zones, "soft" baseballs, army figures without guns, parks without seesaws, and full body armor for bike riding. 4 http://www.furl.net/item/34566799/forward http://www.furl.net/item/34566799 Wow ... go science! Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:34:18 GMT Science Technology bizarre He means bugs. To be more precise: the genetic alteration of bugs – very, very small ones – so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as woodchips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil. Unbelievably, this is not science fiction. Mr Pal holds up a small beaker of bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us. Not that Mr Pal is willing to risk it just yet. He gives it a month before the first vehicle is filled up on what he calls “renewable petroleum”. After that, he grins, “it’s a brave new world”. 3 http://www.furl.net/item/34325685/forward http://www.furl.net/item/34325685 Some good, albeit basic advice on how to find success in life: combine two or more top quartile abilities. Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:25:08 GMT wisdom For every person who studies something specific, such as the law or medicine, and actually ended up in that sort of career, I think there are five who let chance pick their careers. That works out more often than you’d think, but you can’t recommend it as a career strategy. Instead, I recommend a general formula for success. Allow me to explain. If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths: 1. Become the best at one specific thing. 2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things. 4 http://www.furl.net/item/33899168/forward http://www.furl.net/item/33899168 This is great news -- and Patri's reasoning is pretty undeniable. Thu, 22 May 2008 18:01:57 GMT Technology government freedom "My dad and grandfather were happy arguing their ideas and were happy influencing people through the world of ideas," Friedman said. "I see a real need for people to go out and do something and show by example." True to his libertarian leanings, Friedman looks at the situation in market terms: the institute's modular spar platforms, he argues, would allow for the creation of far cheaper new countries out on the high-seas, driving innovation. "Government is an industry with a really high barrier to entry," he said. "You basically need to win an election or a revolution to try a new one. That's a ridiculous barrier to entry. And it's got enormous customer lock-in. People complain about their cellphone plans that are like two years, but think of the effort that it takes to change your citizenship." 5