Last night before I gave a talk in Woods Hole, I got to chat for a very few minutes with David “Paddy” Patterson who heads up the Encyclopedia of Life project. I’d heard a bit about it, and I\ve been meaning to learn a whole lot more. From my narrow point of view, it’s fascinating as an attempt to make itself useful by saying yes to everything. Each species gets its own unique identifier, and if scientists don’t agree on where the species boundaries are, anything that a scientist might want to point at as a species gets its own ID; that way the argument can continue but at least each disputant can point to exactly what she’s talking about. Likewise, it incorporates multiple taxonomies so even if two people disagree about how to organizes the branches of the bush, they can still each use the EoL, and they can still talk with one another without getting lost in the brambles.

In some ways, it’s trying to do the same thing as the OpenLibrary project: Make it possible to aggregate information about things when we don’t agree about what those things are. And in that regard, both of these projects are embodiments of the ontological insecurity the postmodernists were laughed at for.[Tags: eol encyclopedia_of_life openlibrary species taxonomy books everything_is_miscellaneous ]

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Ok, so I’m the 9 millionth person to see this, but try to watch this otter-based video without going “Awwwwwwww.”

[Tags: otters youtube cuteness ]

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According to TechDirt, AT&T’s announcement that it too is opening its network, just like Verizon, means it has in fact simply slapped the label “open” on its existing capabilities. Get yourself an appropriate GSM phone and an AT&T sim card, and you can use the AT&T network.

Yay! Go marketing!

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Zephyr Teachout, who was behind much of what was innovative and webby about the Howard Dean campaign, argues that Huckabee’s campaign is the webbiest of the lot. (She’s also posted a follow up.)

[Tags: zephyr_teachout huckabee politics ]

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David Pogue has posted five tips for Leopard users to entice you to buy his new Missing Manual for Leopard. One of the tips I’m finding especially useful. The search box you get when you click on Help in an application displays any menu items that match it by dropping down the menu itself and putting a big blue arrow next to the item. Yay. But that’s not the tip. Pogue points out that if you’re in Firefox or Safari, if you type in the title of a page on your Bookmarks or History menu, the blue arrow points you right at it. Cool

[Tags: os_x leopard tips david_pogue ]

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Emma Clarke was the voice of the oddly iconic “Mind the gap” announcements in the Londone Tube. On her blog, she has spoof announcements, some of which are very funny. This may have gotten her fired; the Tube says they fired her because she said using the Tube is “dreadful,” while she claims that she said it’b be dreadful for her because she would find it creepy to hear her own voice making the announcements.

Anyway, the spoofs are funny. (Thanks to Corinna di Gennaro for the link.)

[Tags: emma_clarke london tube humor humour ]

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According to a post by Wendy Davis at Just an Online Minute (citing the WSJ), the Nielsen company (not Jakob) is going to start fingerprinting content and reporting violators. Oh, yay. Yet another soulless company that prefers cash to freedom and control to art is going to protect us. [Tags: nielsen copyright copyleft drm google ]

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Here’s how the Boston Globe’s lead story opens today:

Standing on stage at a Republican debate on the Gulf Coast of Florida last week, Mitt Romney repeatedly lashed out at rival Rudy Giuliani for providing sanctuary to illegal immigrants in New York City.

Yet, the next morning, on Thursday, at least two illegal immigrants stepped out of a hulking maroon pickup truck in the driveway of Romney’s Belmont house, then proceeded to spend several hours raking leaves, clearing debris from Romney’s tennis court, and loading the refuse onto the truck.

The “yet” indicates that the Globe thinks this is a story about hypocrisy. Indeed, it goes on to say that “Throughout the campaign, Romney has spoken on the issue of illegal immigration with increasing fervor…But at his home, he paid less attention to the issue.”

Who cares? Romney spoke once to the landscaping company’s boss, although the boss disagrees about the tone of the discussion. Does the Globe really want Mitt to be demanding documentation from the guy blowing leaves off his driveway? This incident doesn’t help us decide if Mitt has any integrity. (Note: He doesn’t.) It’s merely anti-Mitt propaganda.

If there’s a story here, it’s about how deeply integrated into our society are illegal immigrants, and how shallow and despicable is the simple-minded xenophobia exploited by almost all the Republican candidates.

PS to the Globe: Last night was the first night of Chanukah, not tonight as you report. [Tags: media boston_globe mitt_romney immigration christopher_lydon ]

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Despite my confident laying of odds, Mark Zuckerberg has announced in a blog post that Facebook now is enabling us to opt out of the Beacon advertising system entirely.

That’s not perfect. It’s still not opt in. And info about your activity on third party sites is still being passed around, unencrypted; if you opt out FB ignores the info, but it’s still sent to them. Nevertheless, the announced change is enough to collect on that 100:1 bet I made.

Fortunately, I neglected to mention any stakes. Whew!

[Tags: facebook privacy marketing ]

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Erica George of the Berkman Center writes about the sense of betrayal among Live Journal’s users about its sale to a Russian company:

I know this one site, it’s fantastic. It has all the features we’re used to and the guy who runs it is totally awesome and he says he will always protect his users’ speech and… it’s Livejournal, circa 2000, or really almost anytime before Brad sold LJ to Six Apart.

Erica’s a long-time LJ’er and has plenty more to say.[Tags: live_journal lj erica_george ]

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