a convenient truth

Tweets are not copyrightable (in the US at least), as you would expect.

Most people who use homeopathic medicines think they contain something other than water.

I'm here to report a small side effect from installing this service pack that I was not aware of until just a few days ago: Apparently, the .NET update automatically installs its own Firefox add-on that is difficult — if not dangerous — to remove, once installed.

Annoyances.org, which lists various aspects of Windows that are, well, annoying, says "this update adds to Firefox one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities present in all versions of Internet Explorer: the ability for Web sites to easily and quietly install software on your PC."

Interesting trip through lots of myths that people believe in spite of the evidence. Two interesting ones that almost everyone believes (including me until now): there is no evidence that you should drink 8 glasses of water a day, and no evidence that sugar consumption makes kids hyperactive.

More tips for introverts.

the care and feeding of introverts.

This was linked to by Kottke and deserves to be printed out on cards somewhere. Although the tone is hectoring, it's hard to argue with most of it.

Lovely blog of places that are less visited, but that have their own special charm. I've been to a few of these places, and they are indeed worth a visit. Some of the others sound wonderful.

Nuwaubians believe that the Spell of Leviathan was cast by the devil thousands of years ago to hypnotize Black people into "spiritual ignorance and racial indifference" through such media as the Bible and certain elements of popular culture.

More woo: different accounts of the same historical events are often 'assigned' different dates and locations by historians and translators, creating multiple "phantom copies" of these events; these "phantom copies" are often misdated by centuries or even millennia and end up incorporated into conventional chronology

apparently you can jump into parallel universes in a quest for self-actualisation. apparently.

apparently there's a huge mirror in space. i think?

Aieeee even more nutjobbery.

Utter, utter religious lunacy.

Really quite an important result. Every time someone who is mentally ill harms someone there is a call for the mentally ill to be representatively detained - something that's demonstrable harmful to them. It looks like it wouldn't do any good at all.

filthy munging of twisted and django to provide an IRC Bot.

Python and RabbitMQ

making a silk purse from a sow's ear

The World's Only Nuclear Powered Educational Toy

Run Python from Javascript or vice-versa

According to Accelerating Future, this is actually a really useful book.

Printing directly to desktop printers from a web application, via a helper application.

I've dabbled with microformats but found them brittle, tricky to implement well, invasive and frankly not really fit for purpose. This proposal from Ian Hickson for HTML 5 is much more like what I'd hoped to have seen from microformats. If this, or something similar, gets blessed then it'll be a real boon.

Getting shiny new pulseaudio stuff working in jaunty

Interesting recent stats on gold farming

Amusing how many journalists slag off Wikipedia, but then use it for their own research