Hey look, Ars Technica has an article about an actual study of the effect of filesharing on music industry profits done by some economists. Isn't that neat? (courtesy of greyhame)

EDIT: Even more nifty is the study itself (PDF).

(courtesy of joedecker)

Clinical trials with a vaccine used as a treatment for kidney cancer are having extremely promising results. I wish they'd come up with a better term for this type of treatment. It doesn't prevent cancer, it simply causes the immune system to treat cancerous cells as foreign invaders and eradicate them (it uses the same mechanism, ( Read more... )

via brewergnome, Olbermann on the death of habeas corpus

brontoproximo posted this series of Warning Signs of the Future. I really like the "Self-Evolving System" one myself, and might opt to see if I can find some way of turning one or more of these into stickers I could put on my car (or my bike, the "Motivation Hazard" one at least would be accurate ;P).

Since wsmith shared this with me last night, I will now share it with you, my gentle readers. Having finally come out of the closet, George Takei proceeds to chop it into kindling and light it on fire to roast William Shatner. Hi-fucking-larious ( Read more... )

I've been watching a Gay Rights meme running around for a while. The idea is nice, but the chain-letteresque "if you don't post this you are teh homophobe!!!111eleventy-one!" part of it squicked me to the point where I opted not to join in. If you haven't figured by now out that I am in favor of queer rights, you probably don't know me well enough ( Read more... )

Jihadistan: nickname for a large chunk of land stretching from well inside Pakistan almost to the border of Iran, comprised of territory that Pakistan recently gave up to Taliban allies and the part of Afghanistan they've retaken over the past year.

Oh, you didn't know about Jihadistan? You didn't hear about Pakistan's peace accord with jihadist ( Read more... )

If you get this, you're a geek (SFW, for the poor bastards working on the weekend or if you don't see this til Monday)

(Note: you still might be a geek if you don't get it. It's a postive-proof, not a negative-proof. Erm. Is there a better way to express that?)

Science meets WoW: MMOs can make for the social (and because I love you here's a PDF of the paper itself, which reads like listening to one part of my brain talk about another part of my brain - an odd but not unpleasant sensation)

And this year's winner of the Leeeroooy Jeeeenkins award goes to this guy, whose rant (complete with flash animation ( Read more... )

I found something that just might help me get rid of my backlog of books: BookMooch. Granted, I'd then have a strong temptation to get *more* books, but at least I can't end up with more than I already have this way. . .