LinkedIn has this nice little project that creates a map of you connections on LinkedIn. Here is mine. You can see that the Researchers (Blue) is pretty tightly linked to one another. Next comes the Biotech/Medical executives (Green).
They really don’t tell you what each group should be. Some of the connections are a little odd or hard to categorize but most of them seem to fit in easily defined groups. Looks kind of nice.
Official Details of the 4G LTE Upgrade Process for the Motorola Xoom
[Via Daring Fireball]
Droid Life:
As expected, the upgrade will be free to everyone and will be available approximately 90 days after launch, so we’re looking at May before this thing will be cooking up those 4G speeds. And as we were told by Motorola at CES, you will have to send in your device and will be without it for 6 days while they upgrade the hardware and software.
Come on. They’re just making this up, right?
[More]
So, instead of waiting until they could sell and upgraded version, and also waiting until Flash was available, they sell a 0.8 version and expect people to send it back in 3 months for a week or so.
They have enough problems with this. If I wanted a Xoom, why not wait 90 days until I can get it with 4G? Assuming 4G is really available where I live.
This does not sound like a user-friendly way to run a company. Why would people buy a Xoom in the first place, instead of an iPad? The Xoom is more expensive, has many fewer apps and is not fa fully realized mobile device.
HarperCollins to libraries: we will nuke your ebooks after 26 checkouts
[Via Boing Boing]
LibraryGoblin sez, “HarperCollins has decided to change their agreement with e-book distributor OverDrive. They forced OverDrive, which is a main e-book distributor for libraries, to agree to terms so that HarperCollins e-books will only be licensed for checkout 26 times. Librarians have blown up over this, calling for a boycott of HarperCollins, breaking the DRM on e-books–basically doing anything to let HarperCollins and other publishers know they consider this abuse.”
I’ve talked to a lot of librarians about why they buy DRM books for their collections, and they generally emphasize that buying ebooks with DRM works pretty well, generates few complaints, and gets the books their patrons want on the devices their patrons use. And it’s absolutely true: on the whole, DRM ebooks, like DRM movies and DRM games work pretty well.
But they fail really badly. No matter how crappy a library’s relationship with a print publisher might be, the publisher couldn’t force them to destroy the books in their collections after 26 checkouts. DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it’s a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day.
[More]
Any digital form of a book with such onerous rights management should be boycotted. How would you feel if an ebook disappeared after being opened 26 times?
I’m waiting for the time when every book is rented and if we want to reread it we have to pay again. We never again own the book.
Digital publishing i all about the publishers controlling who can read a book. First they’ll get the libraries, Then they’ll go after used books.
by AlexPro
Pulling it Together: Forget Math and Science, Teach Civics (Or why we need to bring back School House Rock) – Kaiser Family Foundation
[Via Kaiser Family Foundation]
I am seldom surprised by our poll findings, but this month’s tracking poll produced a doozy. Twenty-two percent of the American people think the Affordable Care Act has been repealed, and another 26 percent aren’t sure. Those are surprisingly large numbers even with the 52 percent who still know it is the law of the land.
How could a repeal “vote” in the House — however dramatic but still, only symbolic — be misunderstood as an actual repeal by so many Americans?
[More]
Amazing that over 20% think it has already been repealed. Like the blogger said, they need to watch more Schoolhouse Rock. “I’m just a bill. Yes, I’m only a bill. And I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill.”
Not surprisingly, the major emotion felt about healthcare reform is confusion.
I am one of those weird people who looks at the details (yeah, I read the instructions first also).
30% of those calling themselves Republicans think it has been repealed, to only 12% of the Democrats. 70% of those with a college education knew it is still the law of the land while only 44 % of those who did not attend college knew.
This is not due to being totally ignorant of what is going on. In the same poll, only 14% said they knew nothing at all about Republican efforts to repeal the health reform law.
The rest of the poll has some interesting numbers. 30% want to expand healthcare reform and only 20% want to get rid of it entirely. 35% call themselves conservative and 23% call themselves liberals.
61% do not want to cut off funding, with most believing that using the budget process to stop a law is just not the way the government should work.
And here is the really important stuff. 70% of all responders think not enough attention is being paid to jobs. And everyone thinks that there are several things more important than repealing healthcare – the economy, budget deficits, immigration, energy policy, taxes.
Yet, to hear the media and politicians talk about it, repealing healthcare is one of the biggest concerns in politics. Who is living in the fantasy world?
by adamsofen
Genomic analysis shows humans evolved with few sweeping changes
[Via Ars Technica]
Humans and chimpanzees split around five million years ago. Ever since then, we (and they) have changed a bit to adapt to the different environments we invaded and created, and the “classic selective sweep” model was widely thought to account for these changes at the molecular level. In this scenario, a new, strongly beneficial mutation increases in frequency so rapidly that it “sweeps” away all other variants at that gene and nearby sites.
Yet it is difficult to detect the evidence of such sweeps in genomic data. After analyzing 179 human genomes, an international team of researchers have concluded that these sweeps were much rarer than previously thought, and were therefore probably not a huge influence on human adaptation over the past 250,000 years. Their work is reported in Science.
[More]
Science creates models to explain the natural world. Often those models do not have all the data needed to sustain them. So we do more research.
In this case, further research indicates that the model is not correct and a new model will have to be constructed. New data often does that – reduces a model to rubble.
But the next model will be a better representation of the world around us. It may not be perfect and may be destroyed in its turn but each iteration makes the next model better.
This post says it well:
This is the scientific method at its best. The classic sweep model seemed consistent with the available data until the recent technological advances allowed the sequencing of many human genomes. The authors used this new information to reveal the inadequacies of the current model, and note that new tests must be devised to detect the actual genetic mechanisms that drove human adaptation. They suggest that Genome Wide Association studies should be immensely useful in this regard.
WI Assembly GOP Passes Walker Budget In Surprise Vote — Dems Chant “Shame!” | TPMDC
[Via Talking Points Memo]
The Wisconsin State Assembly has just passed Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, including its controversial provisions to eliminate almost all collective bargaining rights for public employee unions as well as many other provisions to weaken union organizing.
After much buildup in the 61-hour debate — of Republicans wanting things to be over, and Democrats railing against Republicans who they said would cut off debate — at about 1 AM Speaker Pro Tempore Bill Kramer (R) announced that he would hear a voice vote for a roll call on final passage. Immediately, the majority Republicans shouted their ayes, and the Democrats were booing, as they tried to be recognized to demand a separate motion to cut off debate.
Then Kramer called the vote. Within seconds, the digital vote system on the wall announced 51 ayes and 17 nays, and voting was suddenly closed. With a total of 96 members, that got to a majority for the bill but left 28 members who hadn’t had a chance yet to vote.
At that point, the Democrats got up, chanting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and similar exclamations, as the Republicans filed out of the room.
[More]
Four of the nays were actually Republican votes, so only 13 Democrats even had a chance to vote. Twenty-five Democrats were not even allowed to vote.
There were consistently 36-38 nays on every vote during the day. 58-38 was pretty standard. Interestingly, the vote to suspend the rules passed 57-5 but there is no listing of the recorded vote. Is that the supposed voice vote?
Even when the Republicans are assured a win, they have to disenfranchise the other side. It may have even been illegal. I can see why this could get ugly soon, with legislators booing and throwing things.
This is what representative government is becoming. Those with power abuse it and those without get very, very angry.
The beating of Senator Sumner on the floor of the Senate is a reminder of what can happen when things get ugly. As seen then, little effective government gets accomplished when passions run that high.
The really amazing thing about this bill is not only the union-busting aspect but the sell-off of state assets. The bill states that they can be sold without bidding for any price the state determines. And in a nice Orwellian twist, any price the state determines is, by definition, in the best interests of the state.
So, they could sell their power plants to business interests, say Koch Industries, for $100 and it would be okay. Of course, they would be really stupid to do that, as the public might see that as unethical. But it would not be illegal.
This is what we get when the bandits are leading the stupid.
SpreadingScience
Sustainable Path Foundation Idea Club
