Hey, Another Linkdump!

What, have you been out Banana Grassing tonight?

Thor frightens away burglar. He was out banana grassing. Thor, not the burglar.

The MegaPenny Project, helping you visualize very large numbers.

My friend Lou Anders has been nominated for the 2008 Philip K. Dick Award! Congrats Lou!

Wired speculates about Kindle 2.0. Which reinforces my desire to wait and see. I would love a Kindle in its current state, but an improved one would be even cooler.

Speaking of e-books, Fictionwise offers a reason why DRM is a really stupid business model. In short, people bought these books, expecting to be able to read them whenever they wanted, but now a "provider" is turning off its servers, making the books it provided impossible to read. I won't buy an e-book that has DRM on it. I'd rather pirate it and send my money directly to the author than deal with DRM. Note: I like Fictionwise, and don't blame them for this problem. And Kindle reads text files and other formats which are what I'd likely be using on it.

Another note: I don't consider tagging the file to be DRM, as long as the personal info in the file isn't something that could be dangerous if the file got out accidentally. An account number and/or e-mail address is totally acceptable. In my view, DRM (Digital Rights Management) is software that attempts to control my use of the file and, as a result, often makes it unusable.

Modern kids are being denied self-reliance based on the assumption that today's world is more dangerous than when we adults were children, and that all children are stupid. At least the cops agreed with the parents on this one.

Another reason speed cameras are useless for real law enforcement.

Hope in the ongoing battle against AIDS?

Depressingly, this picture decribes the world peace situation about as well as anything.