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Google's Browser Project...And Ours...

So, rumor has it that Google is working on a browser and/or other software to challenge Microsoft. And, what's more, this may be based on Mozilla.... interesting.... If true, the folks at Google should get in touch with me... without disclosing too much (yet), we are working on a project (with SRI, for DARPA) to build a Java-based fully-semantic open-sourced PIM that grafts Mozilla onto my company's Semantic Applications Platform. The result is an integrated cross-platform OWL-ontology-based PIM suite...Basically it's "Semantic Mozilla" and will set the stage for Mozilla to become the platform for the Semantic Web. Public open-source release date is set for summer 2005, but it's already working now in the lab. You won't believe how cool it is...working on this feels like NCSA and the early days of Mosaic... to be continued....

Kryptonite U-Locks Easily Picked -- Using Ballpoint Pen!

This meme is spreading rapidly across the Net. Someone figured out that the latest Kryptonite U-Locks can be picked in under 30 seconds, using an ordinary ballpoint pen! Yikes. Bikers beware.

Babies Process Sound Differently in Each Ear

New research shows that babies process language better in their right ears, and music better in their left ears. Previously it was known that the brain processes sound differently in each hemisphere; this new research shows that the differences extend all the way to ears. Interesting.

N. Korea Suddenly Conducts First Open-Air Nuke Test?

On Thursday a mushroom cloud of approx. 2.5 miles in diameter was detected in a remote region of North Korea, near the border of China. This corresponds to the expected diameter of a 10 kiloton bomb. Strangely, the US media has not reported this event widely. It has been reported that the US intelligence community is still trying to figure out whether or not the blast was nuclear. I find that doubtful as we have satellites that can easily detect the signature of a nuclear blast anywhere in the world. If North Korea has the Bomb, we are in big trouble.

From a Reader: TV News: A Mirror Reflecting the World It Covers or Making It A Better Place in Which to Live One Story at a Time?

This article was submitted to Minding the Planet by a reader, James Clayton Napier, the author. It's an interesting inside commentary on how TV News works (or doesn't work, as the case may be) -- NS

“Images can either imprison or liberate us.” –Roberto Assagioli

Feature stories are vanishing from TV news broadcasts. The public speaker, television feature reporter, and movie maker are storytellers. While there is an underlying structure to what the person in each venue does, a structure the audience is often unaware of, there seems to be a trend these days away from content (a central focus) and a movement toward the shock value of an experience—what is said, what is heard, what is seen.

The adrenalin response becomes, in this context, more important than the cognitive ability to process (think about) what one is experiencing.