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Nov
15th
Sat
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Alan Rusbridger reflects on the legacies of Hugo Young following the publication of the legendary columnist's papers

On July 21 1997, Tony Blair, Hugo Young and I met for tea in the garden of Number 10. The prime minister was reasonably assiduous in talking things over with columnists and editors and on this…
Nov
14th
Fri
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Capitalism and Credit

paulson-and-bernankeThere was a time, a few weeks ago, when I thought Hank Paulson was the right man for the job of rescuing the economy. Now I don’t think so. Which leads me to worry about who Obama will put…
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Five scientists argue the case for the world's most invaluable species

Fungi
‘It keeps the trees alive, recycles waste and helps us’
Professor Lynne Boddy of the Cardiff School of Biosciences

Fungi have a bad reputation, usually being thought of as poisoners,…
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What This Country Needs is a Chief Technology Officer
I’ve read in a few places recently that president-elect Obama plans to appoint a Chief Technology Officer for America, perhaps as a cabinet-level position. This is one of those brilliant…
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OCLC and the Great Library Scandal

A couple of months ago I was doing some research into various sources of book data, and one of the things I was interested in was seeing if it was possible to hook into local library data….
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Sniffing out the future in Morogoro, Tanzania If you’re looking for evidence of human shortsightedness, you might start with landmines. Popular as an inexpensive tool of warfare, landmines now render land uninhabitable and unusable in 45…
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3 launches 'Facebook phone'

Hmmm.

let me just say I like 3; they’re a truly innovative telco, abel to take the pricing and application openness risks the larger incumbents are unwilling (such as pay-to-receive offnet…
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Simon Jenkins: Officialdom cannot hammer straight the crooked timber of mankind

Surprise, surprise. How we all hate the nanny state - until nanny takes a day off. Then we want nannies galore. We want nannies with whips, nannies with locks, keys and public inquiries….
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Nick Davies: The modern media never lets fact get in the way of a good story

When the Jersey police this week confessed that - contrary to so many ghoulish news stories - they have, in truth, no evidence of children being murdered and buried in an old children’s home…
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Apps for Democracy

apps4dem.png

Vivek Kundra, the District of Columbia’s CTO, isn’t just talking about transparent government and participative democracy, he’s working hard to make DC’s massive data stores transparent…
Nov
13th
Thu
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Forget the bailout, start over: the New American Bank Initiative The bailout of the US financial system isn’t working. The government’s rescue plan has fundamental flaws, including incentives that favor the failed firms, not the country as a whole. New ideas are…
Nov
12th
Wed
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Google flu tracking
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Google.org’s Flu Trends is a fascinating attempt to map emergent trends based on their insight into geo-based search terms (tickly coughs, “wher can I get headache medicine”).

Larry…
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I’m not sure why, but Idiocracy is a film I just keep remembering snippets of
Nov
10th
Mon
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Gary Younge: Obama's army of supporters must maintain their level of activism

Steve Thompson is heading home. Over the last year he has travelled the country volunteering for President-elect Barack Obama. Thompson, 68, volunteered for Obama in Maryland, Texas,…
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NYTImes - How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power

A nice piece, The Media Equation in the NYTimes, examines the Obama campaign’s highly effective use of social networking to power their campaign.

Its a lot more optimistic than the …