Det finns många bloggar som jag skulle vilja nominera till bästa politiska blogg 2008, t ex alla bloggar som man kan läsa på denna sida. Men den blogg som jag tycker har gett en ny dimension till den svenska bloggosfären 2008 är Mark Klambergs blogg. Innan Klamberg bestod den intressanta delen av den svenska bloggosfären av åsiktsmaskiner och personer som kan hitta fel i de resonemang som makten använder. Dessa bloggar är förankrade i folkdjup, populism eller ideologi.

Men med Klamberg så fick makten en tryckare rakt på, han slår dem nämligen på deras eget game, lagstiftningen. Jag är visserligen inte jurist, men mitt intryck är att Klamberg gräver djupt och är väl förberedd med en juridisk-politisk kompetens som är ny för den svenska bloggosfären. När andra bloggare briljerar och visar upp sig med snabba jabbar så går Klamberg på grundlig knock, genom att granska varje ord, varje formulering och varje remissvar och förarbete. Kritik från Klamberg är tung kritik.

Mark Klamberg

Blogg som kommenterar underrättelserätt, aktuella händelser, doktrin inom folkrätt och internationell politik

Läs mer: Mark Klamberg

I både DN och Aftonbladet idag kan man läsa rubriken "Selen bromsar HIV". Och det blev ju rätt när jag läste det första gången som "Selén bromsar HIV", dvs grundämnet Selen. Men några timmar sedan läste jag det som"Sélen bromsar HIV". Och då lät det som om det var ett barnbilbälte eller något...

Commandos were not only surprised to find the devices in the terrorists' rucksacks, but that they used the internet to look beyond local Indian media for information, watching the global reaction in real-time as well.

Läs mer: BlackBerry: Mumbai Terrorists Watch World React With Horror Using BlackBerrys

But the best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever. Dream of making a good home for all Mumbaikars, not just the denizens of $500-a-night hotel rooms. Dream not just of Bollywood stars like Aishwarya Rai or Shah Rukh Khan, but of clean running water, humane mass transit, better toilets, a responsive government. Make a killing not in God’s name but in the stock market, and then turn up the forbidden music and dance; work hard and party harder.

Läs mer: Op-Ed Contributor - What They Hate About Mumbai - NYTimes.com

Som jag bloggat om tidigare (Teori: Autism & Schizofreni motpoler i kamp mellan könens gener)
så har ett nytt teroribygge kommit som menar att en del mentalsjukdomar och mentala tillstånd är mosatsliknande, och beror på en dragkamp mellan manligt och kvinnligt. I Edge magazine ställer man upp följande tabell:

Mental disorders can be located along a dimension of mentalism (aka 'theory-ofmind,' 'folk-psychology' or 'people skills') defined as our evolved ability to comprehend others' actions and behaviour in purely mental terms (such as intention, belief, desire, emotion etc.). Autistics, notoriously, are poor where mentalistic skills like inferring intention or understanding false belief are concerned. ASDs therefore belong on the hypo-mentalistic side of the continuum. However, what we would now term psychotic spectrum disorders (PSDs) can be typified as hyper-mentalistic: paranoid schizophrenics, for example, symptomatically over-interpret intention

Läs mer: Edge: THE IMPRINTED BRAIN THEORY By Christopher Badcock

Barack Obamas dotter Malia kommer att göra sina läxor vid Abraham Lincolns skrivbord. Barack Obama själv påpekade att detta var bordet som Lincoln signerade Getysburgtalet, men det är det tydligen inte, utan det är där han skrev på den proklamation som gav frihet till slavarna i konfederationen (sydstaterna, ungefär).

Och där vid detta skrivbord kommer nu en lite mörkhyad flicka sitta och göra sina läxor. Det är svårt att inte bli rörd.

Obama, who is known to be an avid reader of Lincoln history, said his daughter told him "I'm going to sit at that desk, because I'm thinking that will inspire big thoughts." During the interview, Obama described the desk as being the spot where Lincoln signed the Gettysburg Address. While there is a copy of the address on display in that room, it actually was the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves that Lincoln signed there.

Den italienska lagstiftningen har tidigare skärpts så att mer och mer på Internet ska falla under samma regler som publikationer i tryck. En domare har nu fällt en bloggare för att ha gett ut en "hemlig tidning" (stampa clandestina, som kom in som term i lagstiftningen 2001). Bloggen använder nämligen rubriker.
Vi får väl se om detta bara gäller taggen H1, och om italienska bloggare i så fall måste gå vidare på att bara använda rubrikerna H2-H6, men det är ju fullt möjligt att dessa också faller under lagen. Det är också möjligt att den italienska domarens utslag ändras i högre instans.

Noterar den sjätte jorgenmodin.net.

A further twist to this tale took place in 2001, with the realisation that existing laws were inadequate to deal with the internet. Instead of liberalising, the Italian Government sought to bring the internet into the same framework as traditional print media. Law 62, passed in March 2001, introduces the concept of "stampa clandestina" to the internet.

...

The story begins back in May, when a judge in Modica (in Sicily) found local historian and author Carlo Ruta guilty of the crime of "stampa clandestina" – or publishing a "clandestine" newspaper – in respect of his blog. The judge ruled that since the blog had a headline, that made it an online newspaper, and brought it within the law’s remit.

Läs mer: How an Italian judge made the internet illegal • The Register

Summary: Use File -> Unmount Volume menu option in the Gnome file manager

Today I needed to get a print job done and I brought a memory stick to the print shop. Rather embarassing, one of the files were not on the stick when they checked. I though this very strange, but went home to put in on there.

When first copying the files, I noticed on my Ubuntu 8.04 laptop,  that there was no way to "safely remove" the memory stick as there is on Windows. I was happy to see this and though that Linux put the files safely on the stick in the instance you copied them. Wrong.

Coming home, and checking the contents of the memory stick, I realised that an entire folder was missing, that I knew for certain I had put there. It turns out that there is a menu option in the Gnome file manager, called "Unmount Volume". This time around I used this, and the files were there as I arrived at the print shop a second time.

This all means that the usability of USB memory sticks on Linux (at least with the Gnome file manager on Ubuntu 8.04) is worse than on Windows. Windows warns you if you yank out a stick without safely removing it first.

Two days ahead of the EU-Russia summit, Mr Putin said he would scrap a planned pipeline that would carry Gazprom gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany if Europe didn't show enough commitment. His remarks suggest the pipeline might be too expensive for Gazprom to build, especially since the price of gas is set to drop significantly.

Läs mer: EUobserver

Summary: Use Firestarter

I have been using a 3G modem and needed to hook up one more computer to it. In Windows XP you can use Internet Connection Sharing that will e.g. share the Internet connection out via the Ethernet port. In this way the Windows machine connects to the Internet via a 3G modem (or Wi-Fi) and the other machine is connected via an Ethernet cable and the Windows computer takes care of giving the other computer a private IP number and transparently routes the traffic from that computer to and from the Internet. It is very handy. You can have several computers behind the Windows machine as well. However the Windows connection to 3G kept crashing and I knew my Linux 3G connection is super stable.

So how do I go about routing the other way around, i.e. to use the Linux computer to connect to the Internet and then take care of dishing out the Internet to the Windows computer (or any number of computers)? The easiest route (pun intended) I found was to download and install a firewall called Firestarter on Linux. Firestarter has a big shiny button for doing Internet connection sharing.

Well, it's actually a normal sized check box...

If you want your Linux machine to dish out dynamic private IP numbers (or several) on the private network, you also need to install a local DHCP server on the Linux machine. It will be automatically detected by Firestarter.

Om Ubuntu Linux 8.04 I installed Firestarter like this:

sudo apt-get install firestarter

and then the dhcp server (I did this one from synaptic, the GUI to apt-get). It was very easy.

What if I told you that you could be totally lazy and irresponsible, and still accomplish just as much? What if you could slack off, loiter, and essentially do nothing and get more done than the average person. It’s a bit of an art, but you can master this skill with s

Läs mer: The Lazy Man’s Guide to Getting Things Done | Zen Habits

Det påstår i alla fall World Economic Forum. Den sista tiden har det dykt upp artiklar om att World Economic Forum rankar Kanadas banksystem som det sundaste i världen. Var ligger då Sverige? På plats nummer två visar det sig. Här är topp 20, USA och Storbritannien ligger för övrigt mellan plats 40 och 50:

1. Kanada

2. Sverige

3. Luxemburg

4. Australien

5. Danmark

6. Nederländerna

7. Belgien

8. Nya Zeeland

9. Irland

10. Malta

11. Hong Kong

12. Finland

13. Singapore

14. Norge

15. Sydafrika

16. Schweiz

17. Namibia

18. Chile

19. Frankrike

20. Spanien

"Canada has the world's soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets."


Läs mer: Canada rated world's soundest bank system: survey | U.S. | Reuters

Spana också in World Economic Forums rapporter över varje land.

Om den osynliga handen styr marknaden, har finanskraschen då just gett oss en osynlig örfil?

and Adam Smith, who's slapping us about the face -- with his invisible hand.

Läs mer: The Financial Crisis, From A-Z - Forbes.com

Successful preliminary experiments demonstrated that the new technique can be used to bond cuts on the cornea, bladder, intestines, blood vessels or trachea. It may also be used for bonding tissues inside the body on organs such as the kidney, and even in brain surgery.

Läs mer: American Friends of Tel Aviv University: A Perfect Bond

He spoke a day after diplomats told The Associated Press that IAEA samples taken from a Syrian site bombed by Israel on suspicion it was a covert nuclear reactor contained traces of uranium combined with other elements — a finding that merits further information.

Läs mer: The Associated Press: IAEA taking Syria nuclear allegations seriously

En sak som jag funderat över är om generna mellan man och kvinna verkligen bidrar lika mycket till ett barn. Det borde rimligtvis förekomma en kamp mellan dem, och det gör det också verkar man nu komma fram till. Genom att bygga på denna hypotes finns det nu forskare som menar att mentalsjukdomar till viss del kan förklaras av denna kamp.

Ett indicium är att det finns två olika mentalsjukdomar som beror på en skada på samma ställe i generna, men där vilken av de två sjukdomarna det blir, beror på om det är moderns eller faderns DNA som blir uttryckt där:

Those with the genetic disorder called Angelman, or “happy puppet,” syndrome practically dance through the day, have difficulty communicating and are demanding of caregivers. Those born with a genetic problem known as Prader-Willi syndrome are placid, compliant and as youngsters low maintenance.

Läs mer: In a Novel Theory of Mental Disorders, Parents’ Genes Are in Competition - NYTimes.com

In short: Autism and schizophrenia represent opposite ends of a spectrum that includes most, if not all, psychiatric and developmental brain disorders. The theory has no use for psychiatry's many separate categories for disorders, and it would give genetic findings an entirely new dimension.

Läs mer: Pioneering theory on parental genes' influence on mental disorders - International Herald Tribune

A formal decision on offering a Membership Action Plan to Ukraine awaits alliance foreign ministers meeting in Brussels next month, and there is no evidence that those allies wishing to slow Ukraine's membership have altered their view. The issue will turn on domestic politics in the United States as much as in Ukraine.

Läs mer: Ukraine may finally get nod from NATO - International Herald Tribune

The deal is worth $3.5 billion, said the official, Ahmed al-Shamaa, the deputy oil minister. It is the first major oil-development deal that Iraq has made with a foreign company since the American-led invasion in 2003. It will allow CNPC, with Norinco, another Chinese company, to develop the Adhab oil field in Wasit Province, southeast of Baghdad, for 20 years, Shamaa said by telephone

Läs mer: Iraq signs $3.5 billion deal for China to develop oil field - International Herald Tribune

Enlig Googleblog så ska man nu kunna kommunicera med röst och video via sitt gmail-konto. Man behöver ladda ner en plugin till sin Webbläsare och det verkar i förstone vara inriktat på Windows och OSX.

Gmail voice and video chat will be rolled out globally over the next day or so for Macs and PCs. The first time you use this feature, you'll be prompted to download and install a small plugin. To get started, visit http://www.gmail.com/videochat or click on the "Options" menu in a Gmail chat window and choose "Add voice/video chat." Find out more on our Gmail Blog.

Läs mer: Official Google Blog: Talk face-to-face right from within Gmail

Det är oklar hur bra hjärnvävnad det blev, men i alla fall:

The tissues self-organised into four distinct zones very similar to the structure seen in human foetuses, and conducted neuro-activity such as transmitting electrical signals, the institute said.

Läs mer: Japanese researchers make brain tissues from stem cells - Yahoo! News