Have been so flat out that I haven't even checked email for 2 weeks. However, Tom, I am finally about to write back to you! (Not MySpace Tom, my RL friend Tom)
Yahoo News: "Potentially habitable planet found" (mmm...just in time?)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_sc/habitable_planet
CHINAdaily: A push-flavoured FOI will go into effect on 1 May 2008. My partner is working on this (along with perhaps six hundred thousand other people):
http://www.chinadaily.cn/china/2007-04/24/content_858745.htm
More news soon!
I haven't posted on Slashdot for years, but today I found myself posting re Cheating Via The Internet At College. Probably because it's the middle of the night where most of the Slashdotters live, I was able to post relatively early and be the first one to vote that the anonymous professor's blog is a stealth promo for a site (SoF, I won't promote it here) that's also a joke. So I guess I'm worrying about "realness" too (see my first post).
The original posting was called to the slashdotters' attention by Keith Dawson, another old friend from Boston.
A long moment of silence for Oriana Fallaci. Gratitude for her work (whether or not I agreed with her specific project). For her life. For her honesty in both.
I will read the tributes later but now I am going to go offline and speak some truth to power. *smiles while weeping*
]]>Salon readers have taken to arguing about whether letters to Cary Tennis are fiction. (Requires subscription or watching an advert for a one-day pass.)
And the lonelygirl15 discussion was only the latest of many such "does this child with cancer really exist" maelstroms. (My favourite video commentary on LG15 - the "modern YouTube auteur" one linked from my Video area - is good regardless of Bree's degree of realness. I feel myself edging towards a point about "art" here, but I'll save it for the next post.)
And yesterday I bought some Tupperware on eBay and the buyer referenced three different names (one for the ID, one for the bank account, one for the PO box)...and in other arenas recently I've found myself eavesdropping on people obsessing about what is "real". My philosophical friends (e.g. David) must be enjoying this even more than I am.
Today's public link: Danah Boyd on "Facebook's Privacy Trainwreck"