Just when I didn’t need anything else to procrastinate with the Mozilla folks release Firefox 1.5. As usual I’ll break it in on my desktop at work which is a relatively low use machine before putting it on my laptop and other home machines.
The release notes are here and a comprehensive listing of new features and bug fixes is here.
Via Laurence.
You were warned.
Welcome to Olduvai George!
Via Pharyngula.
It won’t be a surpise to the average scifi reader that someone has developed a networked “hug suit.” Tim Worstall is, though, amazed by what is unsaid :
They manage to get all the way through the report without mentioning what it’ll actually be used for. How long before the first spam email asking whether you have such a suit? And would you like to be squeezed by that 18 year old Ukrainian girl you can watch on the webcam?
Perhaps Oprah will take an in depth look at how this might impact pron addiction on tomorrow’s show. (I’ll update the link on Thursday after the show runs)
And, yes, it does seem like a good investment opportunity…the mind simply boggles at the possible variations and add-ons. Of course, there is no reason that this has to be a one way thing either.
Here is what USAID does:
USAID works in agriculture, democracy & governance, economic growth, the environment, education, health, global partnerships, and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries to provide a better future for all.
Here’s the qualifications of the new USAID director deputy assistant administrator:
More significant to the administration, perhaps, is the fact that Bonicelli is dean of academic affairs at tiny Patrick Henry College in rural Virginia. The fundamentalist institution’s motto is “For Christ and Liberty.” It requires that all of its 300 students sign a 10-part “statement of faith” declaring, among other things, that they believe “Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, is God come in the flesh;” that “Jesus Christ literally rose bodily from the dead”; and that hell is a place where “all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity.”
Faculty members, too, must sign a pledge stating they share a generally literalist belief in the Bible. Revealingly, only biology and theology teachers are required to hold a literal view specifically of the Bible’s six-day creation story. Bonicelli has stated, “I think the most important thing is our academic excellence, [and the fact that we] combine it with a serious statement about our faith and values … I believe in six literal days, but I remain open to someone persuading me otherwise.”
This is certainly consistent with this view of bush and is a perfectly good reason to toss out both bushies and government as we know it. It is simply too risky to have so powerful an institution susceptible to occupancy by bushies or, for that matter, the other 535 534(click through).
Via Columbia Libertarians.
Update: Kip noted in a comment that bonicelli was not appointed director. I fixed that. Kip also points out that bonicelli has a more extensive resume than implied above. You can read more here but I’m still not impressed.