Monthly Archives: September 2005

War on Terror Considered

September 18, 2005 – 11:45 pm
Last week Mark Danner wrote an essay for the New York Times assessing the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the consequent “war on terror.” Although no fan of the way the Administration has handled things, Danner’s sober analysis is not the same ilk as the tripe one hears from the President’s most vocal [...]
By filosofo | Posted in bin Laden, Mideast, September 11, Terrorism | Please write a comment

Firefox Under Fire

September 16, 2005 – 3:54 pm
George Ou at ZDNet suggests that the Firefox “honeymoon” is over. Now that Firefox has become the first viable contender to Microsoft Internet Explorer in years, its popularity has brought with it some unwanted attention. Last week’s premature disclosure of a zero-day Firefox exploit came a few weeks after a zero-day exploit for Internet Explorer [...]
By filosofo | Posted in Computers, Firefox, Internet, Internet Explorer, Web development | Please write a comment

Man Charged with Static Walking

September 16, 2005 – 3:21 pm
Shockingly weird. Victorian authorities believe a man built up at least 30,000 volts of static electricity in his jacket simply by walking around the western Victorian city of Warrnambool yesterday. The man left a trail of scorch marks and molten plastic behind him. It was yesterday afternoon when Frank Clewer [...]
By filosofo | Posted in Science | 2 comments

New York Times Restricts Access to Columnists

September 16, 2005 – 3:11 pm
The marquee columnists for The New York Times’ Op-Ed page - including Thomas L. Friedman, Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich - generate lots of interest and discussion online. Now, the paper is hoping they’ll also generate something else: cash. Beginning Monday, the Times will begin charging $49.95 a year to people who don’t get the paper [...]
By filosofo | Posted in Internet, Media, Newspapers, New York Times | 2 comments

BU Third-Fittest University

September 15, 2005 – 5:17 pm
As part of Men’s Fitness’ first annual collegiate survey, the magazine ranked Boston University the third-fittest student body nationwide in their October issue after surveying more than 650 schools. BU came in behind only Brigham Young University, the country’s fittest campus, and the University of California-Santa Barbara, whose state-of-the-art Recreation Center (RecCen) opened in 1995. I’m surprised, [...]
By filosofo | Posted in Boston, Education, Fitness, Running | 1 comment

Armchair Archeology

September 15, 2005 – 8:21 am
Using satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth, an Italian computer programmer has stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa. Luca Mori was studying maps of the region around his town of Sorbolo, near Parma, when he noticed a prominent, oval, shaded form more than 500 metres long. It was the meander of [...]
By filosofo | Posted in Archeology, Google, Internet, Italy, Science | 3 comments