21 Jun 2004
Stonehenge study tells pagans and historians it's good to talk

This is a problem that we heathens don't really share with the rest of the "pagan" community: many of us hold degrees in, and more than a few teach, relevant disciplines at major universities.

More understanding among all sides in the great Stonehenge debate might be made if the world was shown images of how the site is experienced by visitors today rather than only its imagined past, suggests new research sponsored by the ESRC. This research is published today as a part of Social Science Week. But the project admits this would undermine the very potent and almost universal need for Stonehenge to remain 'essentially preserved', shrouded in mystery, and the ancient guardian of a hidden past.

(link) [Science Blog - Science News Stories]

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Torrentocracy = RSS + Bit Torrent + Your TV

A fascinating way to combine technologies, such that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Torrentocracy is the combination of RSS, Bit Torrent and your Television. It's written as a plugin for MythTV (the homebrew Linux PVR project). This means you can not only easily find out about new torrents from various enclosure enabled blogs, but you can also start the torrent download process with the click of your TV remote control. Are RSS aggregators which support torrent downloads the next greatest thing since web browsers? What is the significance of hooking this directly to your TV?

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Iran cracks down on summer dress

A tale of Islam, the "religion of peace", cooking it's women. I can only hope that these unamed "observers" are right.

...most observers say the crackdown would be counter-productive in a country where two-thirds of the people are under 30 and women play an important role in society.

Iranian women are warned they will be punished if they flout strict Islamic dress codes during the hot summer months.

(link) [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Don't Peek!

I think I'll try another airline next time I fly ...

A Northwest Airlines flight that was headed to Rapid City, South Dakota, landed a few miles off course at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and passengers had to wait in the plane for more than three hours while their crew was interrogated.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Push to spread GM crops in Africa

Do you believe these guys?

The US Department of Agriculture says the conference aims to combat prejudice about biotechnology.

The "prejudice" in question is that against being unable to replant your seed next season without making a big patent royalty payment to some multinational agribiz.

Which proves to my mind that African farmers have more sense than their North American cousins...

A US-backed conference on GM crops begins in West Africa but many governments there remain suspicious.

(link) [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Wi-Fi farming expected to catch on

Maybe I'm becoming a Luddite, but I can't see the all the positives in this that the authors do. This takes the "hi touch" out of "hi tech", Megatrends notwithstanding.

We've talked about putting up wireless pasture cams, to watch for coyotes, and applying other hi tech measures to our operations. But ultimately, it's gotta come down to a human judgement, and technology can only extend ones reach so far.

This is somewhat the same lesson the American military is learning - you can obliterate a lot of things by remote control from the air, but wars are ultimately won on the ground, by the combat infantryman.

Farms of the not-too-distant future could be managed through wireless computer networks that allow farmers to sit in their pickups with a laptop and drive tractors, monitor soil moisture and even feed the hogs remotely.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link