What I've Been Listening To (8/18/08 - 8/22/08)

WNYC RadioLab's Robert Krulwich speaks to Columbia physics professor Brian Greene (he of string theory) about multiverse theory, the concept of infinite, and Imelda Marcos' shoes.

In infinite universes, it blows my mind (but happily, in infinite other universes, I totally get it and smarty-pants Prof. Greene is scratching his head...and in probably a handful of other universes, I am a chicken with a mustache).

[Mp3 | via Thoughtwave TV]

Like Father, Like Son

The #1 song in the US on my birthday was The Four Seasons' "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)"...the #1 song in the US on Miles' birthday was Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack."

Trust me when I say there is something incredibly awesome about this fact.

"You know I didn't even know her name/
But I was never gonna be the same"

"If that's your girl you better watch your back/
Cause she'll burn it up for me and that's a fact"

What I've Been Listening To (8/11/08 - 8/15/08)

• Maurice Franklin discusses the latest plans (aspirations) of the space elevator (via John Udell's Interviews with Innovators). More on the space elevator.
• Ted Chiang's short story "What's Expected of Us" over at Starship Sofa (mp3 | via BoingBoing)

An Augmented Reality Metaverse

This kind of stuff (and thinking) gets my brain all atwitter (and this sort of co-opted, always-on, overlay-manic, robust-yet-still-fragile augmented reality is what I liked most about Vernor Vinge's "Rainbow's End")...

Open The Future: Making The Visible Invisible

"It seems likely to me that an augmented reality world that really takes off will out of necessity be one that offers freedom of use closer to that of the Internet than of the iPhone. Top-down control technologies will certainly make a play for the space, but simply won't be the kind of global catalyst for innovation that an open augmented reality web would be. An AR world dominated by closed, controlled systems will be safe, but have a limited impact."

[via Bruce Sterling's always-great Beyond The Beyond blog at Wired]

What is this EYE ARR ESS?

I just received a great phishing email:

----------------
Internal Revenue Service <refund@i-r-s.org>

The Secure Way to Receive Your Stimulus Payment

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a Stimulus Payment. Please submit the Stimulus Payment Online Form in order to process it.

A Stimulus Payment can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.

To access the form for your Stimulus Payment, please click here ["here" links to "lynchburgpolice.org"]

Note: For security reasons, we will record your ip-address, the date and time. Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicated.

Regards,
Internal Revenue Service

Copyright 2008, Internal Revenue Service U.S.A. All rights reserved.
----------------

I assume was written by some big slobbering aliens hovering above the Earth in a little UFO...after they had received a few static-y transmissions about something called the "I R S" which may or may not be in the "U S A," but they do know that they should be courteous at the end of any letter.

@@Facebook

Since the new facebook was launched I had been having strange and annoying problems with it: I could access a direct link to a facebook page, but if I clicked any links (say, to my profile home, or an application) the page would pretend to load and then go nowhere. Reloading within the browser would be the only way to "get" to the clicked link. This was happening in the Firefox installs I had at home (Mac) and at work (Win).

It seems this was/is a pretty common problem and tied directly to the Ad Block Plus add-on. Long boring story short, I've found that if I add either of these exceptions to ADP:

@@http://www.new.facebook.com or @@|http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/*/ads/$script

...Facebook actually works.

Anyone know of a way to actually block the ads (right column) within Facebook?

Police Blotters

I forgot how awesome police blotters are:

Peabody: "At 3:50 p.m., a technician at Borash Veterinary Clinic was hit in the head by a dog and passed out. She was taken to Lahey Clinic."

Peabody: "A Keys Drive woman said her boyfriend took her curtains and one shoe from each pair at 10:22 a.m. Officers arranged for them to meet at the police station to exchange items."

Marblehead: "At 11:13 p.m., firefighters rushed to a Beacon Street property for an alarm call, then spent several hours trying to reset a sprinkler system."

Beverly: "At 12:57 a.m., police sent home people who'd been allegedly fighting at a Cabot Street Laundromat."

Salem: "A man complained to police that, the day before, his ex-wife had come to his daughter's day care, screamed at him and slapped his face."

Salem: "A Howard Street resident told police that the day before a scruffy man knocked on her door looking for 'Bob,' but no Bob was there. The man returned soon after to continue his unsuccessful search for Bob."

The Large Lexicon Collider

Some great terms/concepts associated with the Large Hadron Collider:

• Tracker Outer Barrel (the restaurant at the end of the universe?)
• The Globe of Innovation (an Orwellian office of copyright control?)
• Time Projection Chamber (a neo-meta-hyperbaric chamber?)
• ATLAS Magnet Toroid End-Cap (release the flavor!)
• Underground Experimental Cavern (morlocks!)