URLs du Jour

2006-04-21

  • The headline says it all:
    Bill Gates makes cryptic remark on Internet rights to China's Hu
    … causing numerous geeks to wonder what algorithm and key length Gates used. (Link via CEI Open Market.)

  • Speaking of geek news, huge story here. Boldly go, babe.

  • Dan Henninger writes negatively about the blogosphere:
    Not surprisingly, a new vocabulary has emerged from clinical psychology to describe generalized patterns of behavior on the virtual continent. As described by psychologist John Suler, there's dissociative anonymity (You don't know me); solipsistic introjection (It's all in my head); and dissociative imagination (It's just a game). This is all known as digital identity, and it sounds perfectly plausible to me.

    A libertarian would say, quite correctly, that most of this is their problem, so who cares? But there is one more personality trait common to the blogosphere that, like crabgrass, may be spreading to touch and cover everything. It's called disinhibition. Briefly, disinhibition is what the world would look like if everyone behaved like Jerry Lewis or Paris Hilton or we all lived in South Park.

    Anyone who happens to notice any untoward dissociative anonymity, solipsistic introjection, dissociative imagination, or especially disinhibition around here should feel free to let me know as soon as possible. I'm probably not introspective enough to notice myself.

    Also, you should check out Randy Barnett's response at the Volokh Conspiracy.

  • And Janice Brown has a nominee for Official New Hampshire State Monster: the Lakawaka, safely offshore, haunting up the Isles of Shoals. She apparently glows in the dark. The monster, that is, not Janice.