DRM moribund. Nearly five years ago, I wrote about digital rights management as a (negative) business diagnostic. It always creates user disvalue, so your only analytical task is to figure out whose business model is in the process of failing. Now it seems that the RIAA finally gets it, too. Now perhaps they can spend some time figuring out how they are going to build something that will actually add value. Not that I was feeling bad about it to begin with, but I regard this as final vindication for all of the so-clever DRM business plans that I've consigned to the circular file or bit bucket over the years.
A wart on Jupiter. How cool is this? An amateur Aussie astronomer noticed a new black spot on Jupiter over the weekend, which may have been caused by a meteor or comet impact (like Shoemaker-Levy in 1994) that escaped other's notice. More discussion here. Observations and analysis still coming in. Update: Confirmed.
Construction workers and mechanics have always known this. But now some scientists think they've proved it: Expletives reduce pain. The English researcher says: ""I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear." Having pulled a back muscle during a volunteer trail build project this weekend, I should be cussing the proverbial blue streak, but unfortunately the positive effects seem to be transient.
Not Photoshop. From the Pink Tentacle blog, Japanese rice paddy art. Apparently by planting rice with variously colored foliage. Some of these should show up on Google Earth. Coords, anyone? And in case you need some recon capability to check it out, here's the Blackbird flying again, sort of. Awesome job!
