- Josh at Fire and Knowledge has been posting some quotes from one of my, um, favorite books that I've never read:
We live in a world where it is as unthinkable to walk five miles to visit a friend as it was once unthinkable to speak across the distance through a wire.
Coincidentally, I did finally get a copy of this recently. Part of my delay was caused by Fawcett's cruel, destined-to-go-out-of-print price of $19 for a slim paperback. (I bought it used, and yes I'm too lazy to go to the library.)
- Science Blogs is a new "blog portal" hosted by the people who bring you the relatively new Seed Magazine. (Thanks to prosthesis for the pointer.)
- Michael Zimmer has been on top of Google's controversies over the past several months with lots of great posts. From a recent Q&A post:
In light of the China situation, do you think the shift in “principles” is merely a tipping point for a public that has been waiting for a clear-cut reason to be anti-Google?
I don’t think the general public has been looking for a reason to become “anti-Google.” From my perspective (and supported by Pew’s research), the typical web user (erroneously) feels Google is a neutral tool that inherently delivers the “best” and most useful search results. Few considered the fact that search engines could have biases or be political. I do think, however, that the China incident was an event that finally did bring these issues to light. The potential biases in how search engines operate has now come to the forefront of people’s minds. For those who already were concerned about the “politics of search engines,” the China incident was merely the latest manifestation.
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