Ten trivial (i.e non-work-related) items

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Global warming, says Freeman Dyson, “has become a party line”, promoted by experts crippled by a conventional wisdom they have created for themselves... more

Warning signs for the 21st Century via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
Flickr user Arenamontanus has a great collection of 21st century warning signs that would make the world a much better place.
Stunning!

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Britain cannot forever bury all its waste, nor is it able to recycle what it cannot bury. Why not just burn it?... more

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The Wolfram search engine will allow people to make use of science on a daily basis, just as Google has made billions of people reference librarians... more

Robot Babies in Smithsonian via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz
Smithsonian published a fascinating article about “robot babies”, examining several research efforts to build machines that have good social skills.
A “must read” – and the related posts.

When Google Ads go bad via Phil Bradley's weblog by philipbradley
It's often quite instructive to look at the adverts that Google pops onto pages. As a web author it gives you a very quick feel for what Google thinks your page is about, and they're useful when you're hunting around looking for the information that you need. However, sometimes they do get it fantastically wrong.
Please read it!

Lord of the Rings considered as a D&D game -- webcomic via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
The DM of the Rings is a webcomic that retells The Lord of the Rings as a D&D campaign played by a group of impatient, juvenile (and hilarious) gamers.

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The idea that religion is destined to die out is itself a confession of faith. No evidence will persuade secular believers they are on the wrong side of history... more

Navigation/geometry textbook based on Alice in Wonderland via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow In 1961, a Cambridge don who'd taught navigation to cadets in WWII published an homage to Alice in Wonderland that used the book to illustrate concepts in navigation and geometry. The book, Navigation with Alice, was illustrated with fantastic replicas of the original Tenniel illustrations, recast to accompany the lessons (Anne Scarisbrick, the illustrator, was only 16 when she drew them!).
Alice's Many Adventures - Part the Second (Thanks, Erik!)

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate on 22 December
Awful modernist art can be easily ignored. But disagreeable architecture – concrete façades on a human-repelling scale – is much harder to avoid... more

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