The co-founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales is giving students fair warning: they should do their homework before Wednesday when the site will go dark, along with other sites, in protest of anti-piracy legislation under consideration in Congress.
Facebook post by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia.
Jimmy Wales announced that Wikipedia would blackout for 24 hours in SOPA protest on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, we reported Google launched a search function — Google, plus Your World — which incorporates information from Google+ into your regular web searches. Almost immediately after Google began automatically rolling out this feature, there was criticism. The Electronic Privacy Information Center is saying it may file a letter of complaint to the Federal Trade Commission because, although the new search function allows users to opt out of having personal information show up in their results, it doens’t give users the ability to “opt out of having their information found through Google search” by others.
Google provides users with the option to show or not to show personal results in searches.
Google Search, Plus Your World example.
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Should We Be Concerned About Google‘s New ’Search, Plus Your World’?
This is so cool, via Theo Spark : The Carl Vinson ‘s Wikipedia page is here . And at ESPN, ” Producer chronicles a typical 24 hours aboard the USS Carl Vinson .”
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24 Hours on an Aircraft Carrier — USS Carl Vinson
Via Ghost of a Flea , ” Ziggy Stardust: Life On Mars? ” I like this clip, but check the link as well. At Wikipedia as well, ” Life on Mars? ”
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More Bowie
Hey, HBO’s been showing it pretty regularly if you’ve missed it: “‘ George Harrison: Living in the Material World’ .” And Wikipedia has the background on this video: “In 2004, George Harrison was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ was played in tribute by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Ferrone and Dhani Harrison, along with fellow inductee Prince.”
Link:
Scorsese’s George Harrison Documentary Was on Again Last Night…
A body is found burned at home. Investigators cannot find the source of what started the fire, except…the body itself. Such is the most recent case — there have actually been many reported over the last 300 years — of an Irish man who was burned to death. After a year of investigation, forensic analysts couldn’t find an alternative source of the fire. Conclusion: he spontaneously combusted. BBC has more: Michael Faherty, 76, died at his home at Clareview Park, Ballybane, Galway on 22 December 2010. Forensic experts found a fire in the fireplace of the sitting room where the badly burnt body was found had not been the cause of the blaze that killed Mr Faherty. The court was told that no trace of an accelerant had been found and there had been nothing to suggest foul play. The court heard Mr Faherty had been found lying on his back with his head closest to an open fireplace. The fire had been confined to the sitting room. The only damage was to the body, which was totally burnt, the ceiling above him and the floor underneath him. “This fire was thoroughly investigated and I’m left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation,” he said. One of the curious trademarks of cases labeled spontaneous combustion is that much of the surrounding area is left untouched by the fire — it seems to only be contained to the body and things it was immediately touching. But can a body really spontaneously combust? This is a popular question on the web. There is a Wikipedia post on spontaneous human combustion and “How Stuff Works” by Discovery has written on the topic, along with several other sites. Charles Dickens even wrote a novel – Bleak House — on the premise that excessive intake of alcohol could result in spontaneous combustion. And there are also a slew of YouTube videos on “SHC”; the Discovery Channel investigated the issue in a five-part series. Here’s a description of one case where it is hypothesized the victim built up static electricity while working out and walking across the carpet created a spark that ignighted him: Or how about this one from a special on Spike? The host of the show notes, “Mainstream science says it couldn’t happen. But mainstream science, has been wrong before”: The Wikipedia article records that not everyone dies if they are spontaneously ignited — it’s not always an engulfing flame. One such case was of Debbie Clark in 1985 who recounted the event: “It was me. I was lighting up the driveway every couple of steps. As we got into the garden I thought it was funny at that point. I was walking around in circles saying: ‘look at this, mum, look!’ She started screaming and my brother came to the door and started screaming and shouting ‘Have you never heard of spontaneous human combustion?’” Her mother, Dianne Clark, responded: “I screamed at her to get her shoes off and it [the flashes] kept going so I hassled her through and got her into the bath. I thought that the bath is wired to earth. It was a blue light you know what they call electric blue. She thought it was fun, she was laughing.” According to “How Stuff Works”, many theories exist as to how spontaneous human combustion could occur: One of the most popular proposes that the fire is sparked when methane (a flammable gas produced when plants decompose) builds up in the intestines and is ignited by enzymes (proteins in the body that act as catalysts to induce and speed up chemical reactions). Yet most victims of spontaneous human combustion suffer greater damage to the outside of their body than to their internal organs, which seems to go against this theory. Other theories speculate that the fire begins as a result of a buildup of static electricity inside the body or from an external geomagnetic force exerted on the body. A self-proclaimed expert on spontaneous human combustion, Larry Arnold, has suggested that the phenomenon is the work of a new subatomic particle called a pyroton, which he says interacts with cells to create a mini-explosion. But no scientific evidence proves the existence of this particle. But, scientific skeptics say there has to be a source of the combustion aside from the body. BBC reported pathologist Mike Green as saying that this source, such as a lighter or cigarette, was probably just too badly burned to be found. [H/T Gawker ]
Original post:
Irish Man Dies of Spontaneous Combustion?
I’ve got some real musical connoisseurs reading this blog. At last night’s video, commenter Harkin writes : Ack – find the original with Elliot Randall. We loves Skunk Baxter but he butchers the solos on this. Hey, your wish is my command: That’s a raw clip. Here’s studio: And the song’s Wikipedia entry has this : Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has reportedly said that Elliott Randall’s guitar solo on “Reelin’ In the Years” is his favorite solo of all time. I can dig it.
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Encore, ‘Reelin’ in the Years’: Steely Dan with Elliott Randall
**Written by Doug Powers This is almost as funny as the time MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer referred to Jesse Jackson as “Reverend Al Sharpton” (I heard Contessa had to boycott BP for three weeks before Jesse would forgive her). This time around, Brewer was questioning Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks on the debt issue and attempted to discredit his qualifications for arguing the topic by asking condescendingly, “Do you have a degree in economics?” You’ve probably already guessed what the answer is: You can tell by the look on her face the question wasn’t out of mere curiosity, but an attempted intellectual smackdown that ended up going hilariously awry. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air adds … Brooks actually has three degrees: political science, economics, and law. As a lawyer, Brooks would have been experienced enough not to make Brewer’s mistake in a cross-examination, which is to ask a question without first knowing the answer. Not only that, but Brewer was being flat-out rude as well as foolish; MSNBC invited Brooks to appear to get his perspective on the issues. If their hosts respond by belittling them (whether it backfires or not), what does that say about MSNBC, its management, and the kind of invitations they make? Since Brewer made an issue out of having an economics degree before engaging in economics debates, she must have a doctorate in the subject herself, right? Not exactly. According to her Wikipedia entry, Brewer has a baccalaureate in broadcast journalism (magna cum laude). Apparently they didn’t teach interviewing skills at Syracuse, or logic either, as a requisite for the degree. The economy we’re witnessing was designed in part by people with degrees in economics — many of whom are now scurrying back behind the protective walls of academia — so being in possession of an economics degree obviously doesn’t automatically equate to solutions that make sense in the real world. But in this case, Rep. Brooks put his degree to excellent use. **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Debt Debate Question Fail of the Day
If you’re going to introduce a piece of legislation to ban something, you might want to be able to define what it is… The Anniston Star reports : A bill introduced Tuesday in the Alabama Senate would ban the use of Islamic law in Alabama courts. The bill’s sponsor said the measure was designed to protect future generations from erosion of the Constitution. One Birmingham area Muslim leader said the move was an effort to “demonize Islam and Muslims.” But no one — not even Sen. Gerald Allen , who sponsored the bill — can point to examples of Muslims trying to have Islamic law recognized in Alabama courts. The bill manages to describe Islamic law thusly: “a form of religious law derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: The divine revelations set forth in the Qur’an and the example set by the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.” However, State Sen. Allen not so much : Allen could not readily define Shariah in an interview Thursday. “I don’t have my file in front of me,” he said. “I wish I could answer you better.” Salon notes (as does The Anniston Star) that text from the legislation is lifted directly from Wikipedia: Making the Alabama story even richer, the Anniston Star also discovered that the text of Allen’s anti-sharia bill is lifted directly from Wikipedia. The bill (and Wikipedia) defines sharia as “a form of religious law derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: The divine revelations set forth in the Qur’an and the example set by the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.” The Anniston Star followed up with the Senator’s staff on that point: Allen said the wording was drafted by Legislative staff. A source on the staff at the Legislature confirmed that the definition was in fact pulled from Wikipedia. I think that violates some of the E4 principles (review: Enlightenment, Education, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship ).
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Alabama Lawmaker Who Wants to Ban Islamic Law…Can’t Quite Define Islamic Law
It’s a cultural thing, no doubt. At New York Times , ” Super Bowl Ads Mine Decades of Americana “: The advertising bowl that took place inside Super Bowl XLV on Sunday offered a wild — and somewhat welcome — ride through six decades of popular culture. Thankfully, many viewers had probably fastened their seat belts before tuning in to Fox, considering that almost half the companies that bought commercial time in the game had something to do with the auto industry, among them nine car brands from A (Audi) to V (Volkswagen), along with Bridgestone, CarMax and Cars.com. The traffic jam may be another sign of the postrecession recovery on Madison Avenue, but it made for occasional difficulty in distinguishing the Elantras from the Optimas. It would also have been difficult to figure out most of the 60-plus commercials without a working knowledge of Americana or, at least, access during the game to Wikipedia (if not WikiLeaks). The spots dished up a dizzying — and at times ditzy — mélange of celebrity star turns, movie references, homages to television shows, snippets of songs and even hat-tips to other spots. To fully appreciate the commercials, it helped to be at least passingly familiar with “Almost Famous,” “Back to the Future,” Roseanne Barr, Busby Berkeley, Justin Bieber, Adrien Brody, David Bowie, Diddy, the “Dogs Playing Poker” paintings, Howdy Doody, early video games, Thomas Edison and Eminem (who turned up in two spots, for Chrysler and Lipton Brisk). Also, Facebook, geeks, “Glee,” Jimi Hendrix, Faith Hill, home-improvement TV series, Timothy Hutton, Janis Joplin, Kenny G, “Lassie,” Richard Lewis, nerds, “1984” (the novel) and “1984” (the Apple commercial from the 1984 Super Bowl). Plus, Joan Rivers, silent movies, the Snickers spot from the 2010 Super Bowl, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, spy movies, “Star Wars,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “Tiny Dancer,” “The Twilight Zone,” western movies, the “Where’s the beef?” commercial for Wendy’s and yuppies. Whew. That is a big barrel of borrowed interest, to use the marketing term for wooing consumers by filling ads with familiar elements. The Super Bowl sponsors last year did it, too, rolling out proven draws like Kiss, “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and Betty White, but they were pikers compared with the advertisers and agencies that raided the national memory banks on Sunday. RTWT.
Excerpt from:
Advertisers Raided the National Memory Banks on Super Bowl Sunday
