Feb
23
2009

URLs du Jour

2009-02-23

  • I suppose it was only a matter of time, but congressional Republicans, tired of Democrats having a monopoly on stupid proposals so far this year, decided to come up with one of their own:
    Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.
    At the Technology Liberation Front, Adam Thierer has a link-filled article demonstrating why such proposals are invasive, abusive, and ineffective in fighting the ostensible target, child pornographers.

  • Cracked has a funny take on 5 Ways People Are Trying to Save the World (That Don't Work). My only regret is they stopped at five. The language is soft-R. I laughed at this one, which is part of their look at antibacterial soap:
    Nature is a funny thing. Not "knock-knock joke" funny, but "horrifying death preceded by agonizing suffering" funny. The thing about biology is that while it is really easy to kill a lot of something, it's a lot harder to kill all of something. And the survivors tend to be a lot tougher and pissed off.
    Cracked also liveblogged the Oscars:
    They had Daniel Craig presenting with Sarah Jessica Parker? That's a little bit of a lopsided duo. You have James Bond up there looking like he's made out of tuxedos and tans, and then there's Parker who looks like somebody microwaved Barbara Streisand.
    The power went out at Pun Salad Manor somewhere between Best Director and Best Actress. Nature is a funny thing.