It's a family affair
Posted: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 3:03 PM by Will Femia
When Laura Snarked Condi (Kausfiles is maddening for its lack of permalinks. Here's a link to the nearest entry. Scroll up.) - Having heard the full Barbara Boxer quote I think the question of whether she was attacking Condi Rice for being unmarried and childless is a red herring to distract from criticism of the war, but the fact that it has blown up the way it has is an indication that the country is itching to have this fight. The Times had a story on the cover this morning about how 51% of women in the U.S. are living without a spouse. Add to that the stat that married people are now in the minority in America. Add to that the debates over gay marriage and gay adoption and the questions of what it means to be a family. And then add on top of that consider the record number of women in Congress and the likelihood that a Hillary Clinton campaign will make some use of her role as mother. I blame the media and pandering politicians for degrading the subject into an over-simplified judgment about morals and values but if we look beyond that damaging and divisive rhetoric we find that this country's culture is changing and its citizens want to talk about what it means to have family experience and how that experience should be valued.
Speaking of American trends, "Americans conducted 6.7 billion searches online in December." I feel like that is indicative of something but I'm not sure what. It seems like a lot. Are we an especially inquisitive people?
The Science Blogging Anthology is now for sale. It contains highlights of the best science blogging in 2006. I don't hate this idea. I like books and I like reading from books, but I have to wonder what the Web futurists think of digital media taking a step backward to dead trees. And science blogs no less!
Real-world Halo suit for military use
Islam-watching bloggers are alarmed (though not surprised) at a three part British documentary on UK mosques that are regarded as "moderate." This is Part 1. See the related video list for parts two and three.
The Found Bin is a massive lost & found database. Or at least, it could be once people start using it. One thing I'd like to know is how they clean up the list once things are found or just old.
The Inscrutable 8-Ball Revealed - They perform an autopsy on the toy. The part about the blue fluid is pretty disturbing.
Dream home brings a big tax hike - I think about this every time I see those Makeover shows turn a small house into a McMansion. I also wonder about the huge energy costs of those houses and how the neighbors feel about seeing the structure rise next to them - particularly in lower income urban areas where everyone has a small house on what looks like an 8th of an acre. I don't begrudge anyone the help of those shows and I reckon Ty Pennington could win the presidency if he ran. I just wonder what it's like when the cameras go home. The idea of offering some kind of tax break on houses renovated by charities is probably not a bad idea.
Speaking of building houses, "Engineers are racing to unveil the world’s first robot capable of building a house at the touch of a button." The article doesn't really mention helping the poor or developing nations but that seems pretty obvious to me. The mention of fewer architectural restraints is interesting.
Speaking of constructing objects at the touch of a button, I've read this described as a 3-D printer. Though the description of how it works is completely different, it reminds me of this nanofactory animation I clicked not too long ago.
A Worth 1000-style photoshop contest in which celebrities' faces are mixed together. Actually, I really like the news part of this site and always wondered if we could pull off something similar here at MSNBC.com. Do enough people out there know how to do Photoshop caricatures (I don't) that we'd get enough submissions?
Barry Ritholtz shares a map of the U.S. on which each state's economic output is analogized to another country's GDP. Somehow I don't think the people of Kansas would appreciate being compared to Malaysia (no offense Alex) but it's still interesting.
What could possibly go wrong with strapping a woman into a giant sling shot an winding it up with an ATV*? Whatever it is, it doesn't happen in this clip. I can't decide if this is safer or more dangerous than vertical bungee jumping. It looks like the fall wouldn't be as far, but the velocity is really impressive.
(*Water cooler bet: Am I the only one who grew up calling these things quadrunners?)
History in the making: Unsigned band reaches UK top 40 - Could this happen in the United States? Headphones NOTE: I clicked to their MySpace page to hear what they sound like and the song that plays first has some pretty distinct curses.
Speaking of the tastes of the crowd, what Digg doesn't like.
Speaking of identifying features of the crowd, the above link called to mind a recent click, "Digg is for kids, Reddit is for grown ups." Leaving the specific evaluation aside, the idea of identifying a community's character is interesting, particularly as an increasing number of people rely on these communities to sort their news.
Speaking of watching how people perceive online communities, given the number of people actively using MySpace and Facebook, there's a lot riding on whether those services are perceived as "for kids" and whether another social network (like LinkedIn) can capitalize by casting itself as the social site for adults.
A science fair video of a hexafluoride demonstration has been floating around for the last few days. The gas is heavier than air so in a lot of ways it behaves kind of like water. I didn't think the video was flashy enough for Clicked until I saw this longer version that includes someone breathing it and talking. Though I wouldn't have guessed it, it makes total sense that it has the opposite effect as breathing helium (which is lighter than air).
